ObamaCare: A Cloud With No Silver Lining (Part I)

Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, ObamaCare, was only made possible by the waves of ignorant young voters who swept him and his allies into power. Now, as a “thank you” to this young voting bloc, the administration has forced legislation upon the youth of America that will virtually guarantee they will be poor, jobless and without insurance. 

Democratic fortunes have turned of late, and ObamaCare has become a rallying point for conservatives and Tea Partiers of all ages who are discontent with government overreach. In fact, 54% of the nation wants to end ObamaCare.  Despite this, there are aspects of the law which garner huge bi-partisan support and are almost universally seen as a boon to young people. Although moves to repeal or defund ObamaCare are favored by 54% of Americans, there are certain aspects of the law that are viewed very favorably

The left is trying hard to sell the entire law by pointing to a few select provisions, like those that allow children to stay on their parent’s insurance plans up until the age of 26. Previously, kids had to buy their own policy by the age of 18. This new measure was almost universally hailed as a good move that would help young people. Many conservatives regard this portion of the law as a silver lining in an otherwise very unpleasant cloud. Unfortunately, because of the numerous people who will lose coverage under ObamaCare, kids will find themselves in an awful limbo between bureaucracy and bankruptcy. 

Insurance premiums in California were boosted by 64%-146% because of expenses related to ObamaCare compliance and implementation. In fact, states, municipalities and insurance companies across the nation have all started to issue official publications in which they forecast dramatic increases in the uninsured population. Why would the uninsured population rise under ObamaCare, a piece of legislation whose entire purpose is to supposedly ensure universal coverage? 

Insurance plans are expensive, and the tsunami of regulation and bureaucratic management being ushered in by ObamaCare has increased the price of insurance plans. The government insurance plan is expensive for many Americans struggling with joblessness and underemployment. The only way they can make ends meet is to give up insurance coverage and pay the less expensive, mandated, penalty. Let me be clear, the number of people that will fall into this unfortunate situation will be enormous; increases in existing cost of insurance and the loss of employer insurance is to blame.  

On one end, people are being priced out of the insurance market because of the expenses that ObamaCare will heap onto employers and on the other end, it will cost less for individuals to pay the insurance penalty than to comply and buy an ObamaCare healthcare plan from the government. These people are experiencing the same dilemma and money crunch as businesses across the country

The cost of insuring employees has increased dramatically under ObamaCare, so many businesses are dropping insurance coverage for their workers. In many cases, it’s a matter of staying open or falling into bankruptcy! These companies figure that when the employees are kicked from insurance, they will just buy the ObamaCare insurance plan and have adequate base-coverage. But as noted earlier, many people simply can’t afford the costly government plan. ObamaCare has increased costs so much, it has hurt the very people that its proponents claimed it would protect! 

Many people are losing their employer healthcare coverage, and will be forced to pay the insurance penalty because the ObamaCare healthcare plan is just too expensive. If they had the misfortune to put their 18-26 year old kid on their employer healthcare plan right before they lost that coverage to ObamaCare, what happens to the kid? In Part II of this blog, we will unwind this bureacratic ‘Gordian Knot’ and find more cloud where everyone thought there would be some silver lining!

Part II