Have you noticed just how much has been written lately about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare?" Once the ACA is repealed, the question of course remains what will replace it.
On Insurance Claims and Issues Blog, we began taking a look at possible replacements, starting with Health Savings Accounts or HSA's on Monday, January 23, 2017.
Today we will take a look at another potential 'replacement' for health care: Catastrophic Health Insurance.
One of the points about the ACA or Obamacare that has drawn a lot of attention is that many people earning "about $30,000 to $50,000 a year" have policies currently with deductibles of $6,000 to $12,000. Removing subsidies that prop up the payment of premiums even for that much coverage may not leave much of an alternative.
Catastrophe Health Insurance, whether or not supported by subsidies, "often have deductibles of around $14,000 for family coverage." New York Times Editorial, Sunday, January 21, 2017, also accessible at https://nyti.ms/2kcTPr2. It may be that numbers in a New York Times editorial have been 'skewed' toward the result preferred by the editorial. Be that as it may, these numbers have not been offered by the persons who suggest that Catastrophic Health Insurance is an alternative to health care insurance. It remained for the New York Times Editorial Board to state them when there was no other source for them.
Catastrophic Health Insurance would demonstrably be worse, at least on average and perhaps totally, than Obamacare with higher deductibles. If the sick and injured are not seeking health care now, when their premiums are subsidized for policies even with $6,000 to $12,000 deductibles, even fewer people are likely to seek health care when their premiums are not subsidized as much or at all, for policies with $14,000 deductibles.
Indulge me with the following baseball analogy that I find apropos here. You replace a home-run hitter with another home-run hitter. You don't "replace" a home-run hitter with a utility infielder.
Or, to put it another way: If you're the Chicago Cubs, and heaven forbid Anthony Rizzo goes to say the New York Yankees or some other place for more money or for whatever reason, you don't "replace" Anthony Rizzo with an overweight guy who never played baseball above Class A, let's say, and expect people to believe you when you call the Class A guy a "replacement."
Next: More alternative health care policies and proposals. Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2017 by Dennis J. Wall. All Rights Reserved.
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