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While “Capital America” is very resourceful and could make well informed decisions in an instant, the same could not be said for “Labor America”. Most individuals among “Labor America” are so busy making their livings 24/7, they have little time left to worry about their own long term interests. While organized labor would have made up for the individual resource constraints, most choose not to join. With “Alternative Facts” crowding out the truths, many are trapped into making choices that go directly against their own best interests. So what takes only one paragraph to explain for the position “Capital America” on one issue will now take 10 for “Labor America”.
Let's start with ObamaCare & the “Georgia Medicaid Expansion Gap (aka Trap)”
ObamaCare is too Expensive
Majority of “Labor America” are W2 employees for their whole life. Few ever spent any time trying to understand how their employee health coverages are funded. But that doesn’t stop many from attempting to compare their own apple to the ObamaCare orange, without looking into the details of either, hence comes the “the alternative fact” of “Unaffordably Expensive” ObamaCare. This misinformation had ruined family finance and cost people’s life after they lost their employees coverage and failed to get on to ObamaCare.
Your employee coverage is subsidised by your company. The subsidy amount is based on the plan you pick and is not related to your salary. If the monthly premium for a family of 4 is $1200 (Dental not included) and your company pays 75% of it, your cost is then a flat $300/month, whether you earn $20K, $30K, $60K or $120K a year. So it is inherently “cheap” for the $120k/year employees, but 6x more “expensive” for the $20k/year employees. But private companies can do whatever they want with their own money and fairness the least they care.
ObamaCare on the other hand is taxpayers funded and fairness is key. So you’d expect the $120K/year family to get less subsidy than that poor $30K/year family, and that is exactly how it works. Out of the $1200/month total, the $120/year family now has to pay in full, while the $30K/year family only pays $50. It is indeed 4x more expensive for that “poor” $120K/year family. The family in the middle fairs about the same with $350. Now you know who is complaining. Try it out yourself: https://www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator .
While that takes care of half of “The Other 1M”. What about the other half?
Medicaid Traps for the other half of 1 M
This is the real shocker many well intended people never realize. If you plug in $20K/year into that calculator, the family earning only $20K/year will see no subsidy and ends up paying the full $1200/month, just like the “poor” $120K/year family. That is ~$15K/year they simply could not afford.
How do we end up here? Blame it on the “Georgia Medicaid Gap” our lawmakers created for pure ideological reasons. They claim It will cost the State extra $0.3B/year in order to accept the $3.3B/year federal subsidies to cover those 0.5M poor souls, and we simply could not afford it.
Insurance losing money on ObamaCare
This one is easy. The participating insurer is required to return money to members if they make too much money in any given year. My ObamaCare insurer just refund me ~$1000 for 2019. They did the same for 2018 and probably will do it again for 2020.
ObamaCare caused rate hikes to all
Mandatory coverage of pre-existing conditions cost more, period! No one wants to find he/she lost part of the coverage for a pre-existing illness after a job change. Health care costs will increase with or without ObamaCare. ObamaCare is a band-aid solution to address the imminent affordability crisis for the 10%. Cost hiking issue is a completely different subject that could only be addressed in a way exactly like those in Europe.
Pay close attention to your candidates’ position on these issues. You have only yourself to blame if you cast the wrong vote once again.
(to be continued)
Frank Hui
2020-10-21
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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发表于 2020-10-23 06:22:44