PPACA Rollout

On Friday President Obama held an event to tout the benefits of ACA, specifically to a large group of women.   The New York Times is also reporting that the administration confirmed that Kathleen Sebelius, the head of the health and human services, has been trying to raise money from the private sector to promote an education and outreach program raising the awareness of the benefits of PPACA.  Congress has repeatedly refused to fund this outreach program, and that’s why Ms. Sebelius is going to the private sector.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/us/politics/obama-to-makes-new-pitch-on-health-care-law.html?ref=us

Speaking just for Kentuckians, I’m really skeptical that we’re going to see a decrease in premiums.  Just taking into account what the new policies are going to have to cover, that in and of itself will cause an increase in premiums.  For instance, maternity.  All policies (even men) will have maternity coverage. Right now, that costs about $100/mo more than a policy that doesn’t cover it.

The second factor that’s going to cause premiums to rise is the guaranteed issue aspect of the law.  When underwriting is taken away from the insurance companies, healthy individuals are going to be penalized even more than they are today because insurance companies can’t offset the amount on the older and/or sicker population.  So the older individuals more than likely have their premiums staying roughly the same, it’s the younger generation that’s going to see an increase.  The same young people that the President is targeting to enroll in this law.

I will give the President this, the individuals and families that receive a subsidy, may see a decrease in what they pay.  However, I think the insurance will still cost more.

We’re going to just have to wait and see in October when the premiums are made public just how much it will cost.