Middle-Class Families Confront Soaring Health Insurance Costs
- 6 years ago
Middle-Class Families Confront Soaring Health Insurance Costs
They can’t afford or don’t want to pay the high premiums.”
When the Affordable Care Act was adopted in 2010, Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, who was then the House speaker, said the law would make it easier for people to switch jobs or start their own businesses
because they would not have to worry about losing health insurance.
We are suffering now.”
Jill A. Hanken, a health lawyer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said, “People who qualify for premium tax credits are finding very affordable plans with low premiums, and those consumers are quite pleased.”
But she added: “For people who don’t qualify for tax credits, the cost of plans has truly skyrocketed.
Bill Stanford, who works for a floor-covering business in Virginia Beach, said, “Optima Health Care just raised my premium from an absurd
$1,767 a month to an obscene $2820.09 per month,” which is more than the mortgage payments on his home for a family of four.
And even though he does not need an assistant for his work as a developer of mobile apps, Ian Dixon, 38, said he might hire an employee
just so he could buy health insurance as a small business, at a cost far below what he and his family would have to pay on their own.
The Dixons would need to spend $14,400 a year for certain health care services before Optima would begin to pay.
Now, Senate Republicans have attached a provision to their $1.5 trillion tax cut
that would repeal the health law’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty.
The new plan, offered by Optima Health, has premiums of $3,158 a month — about $37,900 a year — and an annual deductible of $9,200.
They can’t afford or don’t want to pay the high premiums.”
When the Affordable Care Act was adopted in 2010, Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, who was then the House speaker, said the law would make it easier for people to switch jobs or start their own businesses
because they would not have to worry about losing health insurance.
We are suffering now.”
Jill A. Hanken, a health lawyer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said, “People who qualify for premium tax credits are finding very affordable plans with low premiums, and those consumers are quite pleased.”
But she added: “For people who don’t qualify for tax credits, the cost of plans has truly skyrocketed.
Bill Stanford, who works for a floor-covering business in Virginia Beach, said, “Optima Health Care just raised my premium from an absurd
$1,767 a month to an obscene $2820.09 per month,” which is more than the mortgage payments on his home for a family of four.
And even though he does not need an assistant for his work as a developer of mobile apps, Ian Dixon, 38, said he might hire an employee
just so he could buy health insurance as a small business, at a cost far below what he and his family would have to pay on their own.
The Dixons would need to spend $14,400 a year for certain health care services before Optima would begin to pay.
Now, Senate Republicans have attached a provision to their $1.5 trillion tax cut
that would repeal the health law’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty.
The new plan, offered by Optima Health, has premiums of $3,158 a month — about $37,900 a year — and an annual deductible of $9,200.