[quote=burghMan][quote=ucodegen]
Simple answer – yes.
More complicated answer – to a large part yes, presidents can also hand their successor a ‘time bomb’ – an example that many don’t believe is actually the ACA (aka Obama Care). Note that it was passed many years before it came into force, and it came into force towards the mid-end point of Obama’s second term. The time bomb part is the ‘sponsoring’ or ‘aid’ for those whose incomes are lower than a certain threshold (which is approx the lower 30% to 40% income threshold by population count). There was never any direct ‘line-item’ in the budget. It is more of a continuing ‘entitlement’. There are approx 300 Million people in the US (including children). If there is an average financial assistance of $300/month per person below that income threshold, that ends up being $3,600 per person per year or $1.08 trillion a year on what is basically unfunded mandates. I know that I was charged nearly $1,000/month for health care – no prior, no existing problems, on a bronze plan as an individual. That also means the $300/month average assist per person is probably not far off. Insurance costs jump as you get older.
[/quote]
That math makes no sense. ACA pays 100% of insurance for only a small portion of the population. It doesn’t subsidize everybody’s insurance. Yet you counted the full cost of every person in the country when calculating the cost of assistance. If you are paying $1000/month, you can’t count yourself in the cost to the government. Fake news, easily dismissed with a basic check of the arithmetic.[/quote]
Do a little better(more accurate) math. ACA pays a sliding scale for more people than you think, not just 100% for a small group of people – and subsidies are much larger than $300/mo in most cases. I averaged the aid to a ‘per person’ approx rate(one person with full aid at $1000/month and one person without aid = 2 people with aid at $500/month, one person with full aid at $1000/month and two people without aid at $1000 a month = 3 people with aid of $333/month). NOTE: I did NOT use full cost. Did you check what the threshold on aid is? Threshold on aid ‘was’ $54,000 in California about 2 years ago. Additional dependents can increase the threshold. The amount of relief was inverse proportional to income (not a fixed amount). Aid can rise up to nearly 100% of coverage cost. I am underestimating the actual numbers.
The ACA was done with two types of government ‘aid’.. one direct to insurance companies to keep the rates low(Cost Sharing) (Have you ever had to get individual or family COBRA insurance? = more realistic cost, no company contributing/covering cost) The other based upon family income and number of dependents. The plan was to artificially keep the payments low through the money going to the insurance company as well as aid for ‘lower’ income, so that people get used to the ‘ACA’. If the full rates (which it is currently getting close to) were applied in 2010, there would have been a revolt, outcry.. etc. It was built to be similar to putting a frog in a pan with water and slowly bringing up the heat to cook it without it recognizing what is happening. This is also why the insurance rates were increasing surprising fast. In about 4 years I went from low $300/mo to just under $1000/mo.
NOTE: of more than 10.6 million people who had added coverage through the exchanges early 2019 – 87% qualified for premium subsidies, and 52% of current exchange enrollees are receiving subsidies in 2019. Subsidies are for incomes up to 250% of poverty level (SD = $24,036 – threshold = $60,090 – 2 parents, 2 children). In San Diego County, 13.8% of population is below the poverty level.
Question: What percentage of population is below 2.5 times the poverty level?
Answer: Much more than you think. Median income El Cajon=$46K, Escondido=$49K, La Mesa=$55K… Median => 50% of population above median, 50% of population below median – definition of statistical median).
