We are so screwed

Marriage penalty in Obamacare? Yes, and it appears to be substantial.

Any married couple that earns more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level—that is $62,040—for a family of two earns too much for subsidies under Obamacare. “If you’re over 400 percent of poverty, you’re never eligible for premium” support, explains Gary Claxton, director of the Health Care Marketplace Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But if that same couple lived together unmarried, they could earn up to $45,960 each—$91,920 total—and still be eligible for subsidies through the exchanges in New York state, where insurance is comparatively expensive and the state exchange was set up in such a way as to not provide lower rates for younger people. (Subsidy eligibility is calculated using a complicated formula involving income in relation to the poverty line, family size, and the price of plans offered through a state’s marketplace.)

Nona and Aaron’s 2012 income was higher than the 400 percent mark, but not by much. In New York City, that still doesn’t take you very far for two people. If their most recent months of income are in the same range, they will get no help at all with buying insurance through the exchanges if and when they apply, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and eHealth subsidy calculators. Premiums for the two for silver-level plans came in at $9,248 for the year.

But if they applied as unmarried individuals with something like their 2012 income, one of them would get at least $3,964 in subsidies toward the purchase of a plan, or possibly even be eligible for Medicaid, thanks to their uneven individual earnings that year. And if they fall below the 400 percent threshold, which Nona says they might this year, they could get substantial subsidies as a couple that are still worth less than what they’d be eligible for as individuals. These gaps are the marriage penalty.

I guess the divorce lawyers will see a boom in business. As to the implications for gay marriage, your typical double-income/no-kids gay couple would probably be well advised to think again. Hmm…

Just who is ruining the institution of marriage, anyway?

And here’s another lovely bit of Obamacare news.

The rate structure is not based on the state of the patient’s health, it’s based on the state of the state of the patient’s wealth!

Got that? Imagine if auto insurance (or any other kind of insurance) worked that way. Or the provision of goods or services like groceries. This is like telling doctors that the fees they charge should be based on the patients’ income levels.

To call this “insurance” is the height of dishonesty.  It is redistribution of wealth, plain and simple.


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13 responses to “We are so screwed”

  1. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    There goes gay marriage all shot to hell!

  2. captain* arizona Avatar
    captain* arizona

    When conservatives stop saying their alternitive to obama care for the uninsured is don’t get sick if you can’t afford health insurance and come up with a plan for health care for all.

  3. newrouter Avatar
    newrouter

    “When conservatives stop saying their alternitive to obama care for the uninsured is don’t get sick if you can’t afford health insurance and come up with a plan for health care for all.”

    yes you are the master bater of the straw man like baracky. feel the jizz ahole

  4. Al Avatar
    Al

    Remember newrouter, when Obamacare fails it will be republicans
    fault!

  5. Veeshir Avatar

    That’s a weird right that depends on your income and/or net worth.

  6. Neil Avatar
    Neil

    Well, that’s one of the key ideas of collectivism, right? Money is not equal because some people are more equal than others. My dollars are worth less than the dollars of someone else more “deserving”.

    And the most deserving of all, of course, are those who decide which of us are deserving.

  7. Joseph Hertzlinger Avatar

    Higher education does work that way…

  8. Joseph Hertzlinger Avatar

    After reading the comment from “captain* arizona,” I’m tempted to support a program of deporting everybody who can’t spell.

  9. SteveBrooklineMA Avatar
    SteveBrooklineMA

    Doesn’t the insurance company get $1339 from all, and the poorer families get a tax credit? That’s not quite the same as charging the wealthy higher premiums.

  10. captain* arizona Avatar
    captain* arizona

    You cons seem to agree with me don’t get sick if you can’t afford it is your alrenitive! If I am wrong how will you cover people who can’t afford health insurance?

  11. captain* arizona Avatar
    captain* arizona

    hertzlinger people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones! every month 150,000 minority kids turn 18 voting age and they all hate conservatives even more then I do! you may not like who gets deported!

  12. Joseph Hertzlinger Avatar

    If a sentence ends in an exclamation point it’s true!