There are those of us who are skeptical of the potential success of the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges in terms of affordability. There is one simple reason; human nature; in this case the tendency for young healthy people to forego health insurance.
If there is not a good mix of non users buying insurance, the premiums will skyrocket eventually becoming unaffordable even with federal tax credits. It’s happened before.
Lest you think I am playing Chicken Little, consider that this summer, the California exchange alone will spend $236 million on a federally financed marketing campaign, including ads on Spanish-language TV soap operas and grass-roots efforts by community groups and churches just to encourage enrollment by people who probably think they don’t need to spend money on insurance. $236 million could pay for a lot of health care instead we must spend it selling people on the idea of health insurance.
Now extrapolate those dollars for the other 49 states.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Dick, my employer just sent this out. I thought it my help some of your followers.
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—also known as Health Care Reform—to ensure all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care. Since Health Care Reform is saturating the media, we want to provide you with a few terms to help you better understand it:
“Exchange”—a health insurance marketplace where individuals and small companies can shop for health plan coverage.
“Pay or play”—employers will be required to provide health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the government.
“Cadillac tax”—an excise tax that employers will be required to pay beginning in 2018 if their medical plan costs more than $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage.
“Affordable health care”—your paycheck contributions for employer-provided health care coverage cannot be greater than 9.5% of your total household income.
“Minimum essential coverage”—the type of coverage an individual needs to have to meet the requirements under Health Care Reform. This includes eligible employer-sponsored coverage, individual market policies, Medicare, Medicaid, Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and TRICARE (Department of Defense health care program).
“Subsidy”—individuals who do not have minimum essential coverage can apply for a tax credit subsidy that they can use to pay for coverage purchased through an exchange.
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Good idea. I will use it.
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