Obamacare: Some healthcare exchange enrollees don’t want to use insurance because the deductibles are too high
If we believe the numbers roughly 7-8 millions of people have used the Obamacare exchanges to sign up for healthcare plans. Many of these people had the costs of their plans reduced because they were elegible for government subsidies. (At least right now, the Federal exchange is being challenged in the courts and others may lose their subsides for not estimating their income correctly.)
There was another way that insurance companies used to bring down the price of premiums and that was to increase out of pocket expenses, deductibles, before insurance companies would start paying for some services. In some cases it can be thousands of dollars and according to One Sure Insurance many people are not using their healthcare plans because they cannot afford to pay up to the deductible level.
But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.
While high-deductible plans cover most of the costs of severe illnesses and lengthy hospital stays, protecting against catastrophic debt, those plans may compel people to forgo routine care that could prevent bigger, longer-term health issues, according to experts and research.
“They will cause some people to not get care they should get,”Katherine Hempstead, who directs research on health insurance coverage at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said of high-deductible marketplace plans. “Unfortunately, the people who are attracted to the lower premiums tend to be the ones who are going to have the most trouble coming up with all the cost-sharing if in fact they want to use their health insurance.”
These people are now paying for a product (which the government forces them to purchase) which they cannot afford to use. The burden of unaffordability (I think I just coined a new term) has simply been shifted from the premiums to the deductibles but the result is the same. This is not a step in the right direction, it is a step sideways for it renders the insurance useless in these cases.
It almost seems to me as if these people would be better off without insurance because they would have more money in their pockets to help pay for the same expenses which are not covered for several thousands of dollars anyway.
America's Watchtower 
All Americans are going to have health insurance. There will be a huge government bureaucracy to implement this program. The total cost will go down. And, if you like your present policy and if you like your current doctor, you will be able to keep them. period!
Anyone who believed that load of crap deserves what they get.
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I agree, I just wish they were not taking the rest of us down with them!
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It’s not just obamacare victims.. it’s business provided as well. This year during re upping my insurance my lowest choice for deductibles, went from 500.00 as the lowest, to 4000.00 as the lowest choice… (for myself, 12,000 for family up from 3000 for family) Even if obama was able to lower the cost of insurance for all Americans.. all his plan has done is moved the costs from premiums (even if that’s true) to deductibles. And insurance companies will not pay for anything until you’ve paid your deductible in full. Another farce of insurance companies. We’re paying them to cover costs, but we have to meet deductibles before they pay? You might as well not have insurance….
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We changed insurance policies again this year and my premiums and my deductibles both went up.
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SCAM
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That sums it up!
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We may have single payer before Obola leaves office then when Hillary takes the iath in January of 2017! She will have in place what she tried for during Bill’s first term. Also it may be safe to assume that the Ebola patients soon to be arriving from Africa will have free healthcare.
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You have to believe bringing Ebola patients over here is designed to overwhelm the system via Cloward-Piven.
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But yet, didn’t they say that any of our service men and women will be treated over there? What the hell!!! This Administration just isn’t right in the head!
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Wait until they find their rates, of course after the election. Even so, Insurance companies are getting Billions to support their rate structure.
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Isn’t it funny that the open enrollment period is later this year than it was last year and that it happens to push it back until after the election…
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