Affordable Healthcare?

The biggest beef that I hear about the ACA, aka Obamacare, is that premiums have gone up astronomically. But the question that no one ever asks is "What would the premiums have been before the ACA?" Well, I looked at what I was paying for group insurance through my previous job. Monthly premiums were $418, which included dental. As a store manager, I could afford this premium, but what about people at the lower end of the pay scale? A typical wage was around $10/hour. At that rate, take home pay before taxes would be approximately $1078/month. take health insurance from that and they're left with $660/month to pay rent, but groceries, put gas in the car, pay utilities and phone bills in addition to car insurance and any other expenses. It's easy to see that even for a group insurance policy, insurance wasn't affordable for many people, and they went without. If group insurance was that out of reach for lower income people, what about individually purchases insurance? When I lost my job 18 months ago I had the option of continuing my insurance through COBRA coverage, without dental, but all other coverage the same, my premium was $761/month. Of course there were plans that you could purchase for less, with almost useless coverage and high deductibles - these were the types of plans that were outlawed under ACA.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the problems that need to be fixed are pricing related, and part of that problem is that the risk isn't spread out enough. I recently had an accident with my car. Like everyone who drives a car, I have insurance. I don't have to worry about not getting my car repaired because I have coverage that I can afford. But what about low income people? All of them have car insurance as well. Why? How can they afford it? Because they don't have a choice. If you want to register your car, you have to be insured. Even if you don't have a lot of money, you figure it out because there is no other option. And because everybody who owns a car has to have insurance the risk is spread out. You may never make a claim, but you still have to pay your premiums.

There are solutions to the problems of affordability in the health care world, we don't have to solve them by ensuring that millions are uninsured and enriching the already rich.