"New Fed study says health reform can reduce financial stress"

[applegrove]

New Fed study says health reform can reduce financial stress

by Wendell Potter at the Center For Public Integrity


http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/02/24/14283/new-fed-study-says-health-reform-can-reduce-financial-stress

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One of the ways that both the Massachusetts reform law and the Affordable Care Act can benefit family finances is that they both limit the amount of money folks have to spend out of pocket if they get sick or injured. Under the Affordable Care Act, for example, the maximum out-of-pocket limit for any health plan offered on the state and federally operated health insurance exchanges is $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family.

While that’s still a lot of money for the majority American households — median household income in this country was just $51,371 in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — it still represents a significant improvement. Prior to the ACA, insurance companies were able to sell policies that had no out-of-pocket maximums. I saw policies when I was in the industry that had $50,000 annual family deductibles. Insurers can no longer market health plans with such exorbitant out-of-pocket requirements.

While the reforms enacted in Massachusetts and Washington are helping, other researchers, including Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler, professor of public health at Hunter College in New York, warn that the laws will by no means end medical bankruptcies. Woolhandler and her fellow researcher Dr. David Himmelstein, both advocates of a single-payer health care system and founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, have done significant research on medical debt. Woolhandler has expressed concern that while the ACA will reduce the number of people without insurance, it might increase the number of people who are under-insured. That’s because many people likely will enroll in plans that have relatively low premiums but high deductibles. Even with the out-of-pocket caps under the ACA, many folks will still rack up medical debt if they get seriously sick or injured.

Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve research is encouraging. “These results show that health care reform legislation has a strong effect not just on health and the use of health services, but across many measures of household well-being,” the researchers concluded.


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[democratisphere]

1. "Under the Affordable Care Act, for example, the maximum out-of-pocket limit for any health plan....

offered on the state and federally operated health insurance exchanges is $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family." Will someone please tell me how these maximum out-of-pocket expenses are AFFORDABLE for a whole lot of people and families?

[applegrove]

2. Obviously it is the most well off who pay the maximum. Also people who have specifically

choses a plan with higher out of pocket expenses.

[Fumesucker]

3. It's the poor who will be choosing the lower premium plans

You know, those with the higher out of pocket expenses.

[applegrove]

4. Right you are. I didn't sign up. I'm in Canada. I just assumed the subsidies would

mitigate monthly dues.