Obamacare is also known as Universal Healthcare. Unfortunately, as of 2021, Obamacare is still very expensive without employer subsidies.
However, Obamacare is a net positive for early retirees and the underemployed. If you make less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Limit for your household, you will get tremendous Obamacare subsidies.
Obamacare For Early Retirees And The Underemployed
We appreciate our health the most when we are sick. I certainly appreciate my health now because I’ve currently got a sore throat from probably too much sailing in the Bay this past weekend. The wind regularly picks up to 25 mph and makes the temperature on the water feel like 50 degrees instead of 70-80 degrees.
The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) goes into effect October 1, 2013 if Republicans in the House fail to block the movement. Republicans will probably fail since Obamacare has already been given a thumbs up by the Supreme Court, but hold on for some potentially massive pain as I indicated in my newsletter the other week, recommending readers reduce stock positions and buy bonds when the 10-year yield was at 2.85%-2.9%.
As someone who retired 31 years before being able to receive Medicare at the age of 65, you might think I’m worried about health insurance. Health related problems is the number one reason for bankruptcies in America after all.
But I wrote a thorough post in the spring of 2013 entitled, “Cheap Health Insurance Options For The Unemployed, Self-Employed, Or Early Retiree” that goes on to explain our options: COBRA, Spousal Health Insurance, Parental Health Insurance, and AgileHealthInsurance, an easy way to get affordable term coverage for as little as $1.50/day with premiums up to 50% less than Obamacare (ACA) plans.
I’m as skeptical about the government as anyone, but now that Obamacare is going into effect, the options for heathcare are theoretically even better. For those who are seeking financial independence, who are early retirees, or who are just trying to save money to get by, let me argue why Obamacare is a net positive for America.
Healthcare For All Sounds Nice
The fundamental premise for the Affordable Care Act is that no person should suffer catastrophic financial loss or die just because he or she cannot afford healthcare. Genetic diseases and car accidents don’t discriminate between rich or poor.
Those with pre-existing medical conditions will now be able to get coverage. Young adults are able to stay on their parent’s insurance plan through their 26th birthday. Insurance companies cover preventative care such as flu shots, physicals, mammograms, and vaccines. These are all good things.
I am 100% behind health insurance for all even if it costs me more to help subsidize someone else. Unlike trying harder to make more money, it’s very difficult to try harder to fight a drunk driver who runs you off the road and breaks your legs.
The main concerns about the Affordable Care Act are several fold: 1) Rising premium costs for healthy individuals to support less healthy individuals, 2) Overcrowding and longer wait times, and 3) A distaste for the government forcing individuals to get insurance even if they don’t want insurance.
The Bright Side Of Obamacare
1) Eat More Of What We Love.
I’ve got a safety net to eat more unhealthy food I love such as steak, lemon meringue pie, chocolate fudge sundaes and cheeseburgers. I also won’t feel as bad for not working out 3-4X a week anymore. For the past 12 years since leaving NYC, I’ve been trying to stay in shape because the stress of working on Wall St. was already high enough. I needed to be in the best shape physically and mentally to do my job.
Now that I’ve got Obamacare, I can definitely let myself go more. The bonus is that maybe I get to save money on premiums because I slide into the average fitness category, or I get more of my money’s worth because I’ll be seeing the doctor more for checkups and drugs.
2) The Market Is Efficient.
People are fooling themselves if they think people who really need or want the best healthcare are going to accept overcrowding. The free market will kick in where doctors will charge more for concierge service to meet demand for better care.
My own doctor I’ve seen for 13 years started his concierge service where he provides 24/7 consultation (gives members his private mobile phone number for off hours) and weekend visitations (normally shut on the weekends) for an extra $1,500 a year.
Meanwhile, it’s better to wait to see a doctor if you have a problem than not be able to see the doctor at all for those who were once without health insurance.
3) The Government Already Controls Everything.
Paying monthly health insurance premiums when you are just trying to make ends meet is painful. I have numerous friends in the food, art and online business industries who don’t have health insurance because they are young, feel healthy, and don’t want to pay an extra $200-$300 a month since they are making less than $2,000 a month.
The problem is that it is vital for all of us to at least get disaster prevention insurance because these are the people who enter an unending cycle of poverty if something bad happens.
The Affordable Care Act offers discounted premiums for individuals making less than $28,725 a year and families of eight (!) or less who make under $99,075 a year. The government already throws us in jail if we don’t pay tax rates that are unilaterally decided by them, so we might as well pay for something that might save us from poverty.
You can choose to look at the negatives of Obamacare, or you can choose to embrace the inevitability. You’ll be much happier in the long run if you do because fighting omnipotence will only get you squashed.
NEW HEALTH EXCHANGES STARTING: BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM
Americans under 65 can now elect to buy their health insurance through health exchanges online in their state come October 1, 2013 (see healthcare.gov). Californians, for example, can get a Bronze monthly plan for $278/month, while folks in Wyoming have to pay the most at around $425/month according to the US Department of Health And Human Services. If you happen to live in Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Tennessee or Maryland, you’re paying less than $200/month on average per person. Not bad at all!
But again, if you are one of the millions of Americans who never had to pay health insurance premiums because you elected not to have health insurance, you might not necessarily be happy now that health insurance is the law. At least you’re getting something, unlike taxes which go to a black hole that funds wars and shady infrastructure projects.
Economics-wise, we are theoretically improving the fiscal health of our health care system by forcing the uninsured to pay health insurance premiums. 30 million Americans paying $200 a month equals an extra $72 billion dollars a year which can be used to cover emergency care that’s already being provided. However, who knows how much more abuse or moral health hazards will result from everybody now having more insurance.
Obamacare Needs To Get More Affordable
It’s always scary to have the government mandate and meddle in our lives, especially when it comes to our health. Their intentions may be perfectly good, but they always find a way to mess things up due to bureaucracy, greed, and red-tape.
A great example is the government regulating Wall St bonuses. By limiting the amount of bonus money that could be paid out in cash, Wall St. simply raised base salaries by 70-100%!
I’m scared of the inefficiencies of Obamacare, but I believe the free market will help blunt inevitable problems. Health insurance companies will have to compete on price and quality with these new exchanges or die.
The more competition there is, the lower the price and better the service all else being equal. If people want to pay for better access and service, then there will be options that allow people to pay more and vice versa. If competition gets too fierce, insurance companies will go out of business and new subsidies will come into play.
Just look at “Communist” China. The free markets have overwhelmingly crushed the ideology of Communism by producing the fastest number of new millionaires and billionaires in the world.
I’ve been to China over a dozen times since 1997 and I can tell you first hand the wealthy are living large. We cannot squash the desire for more, nor can we eradicate rational people. Have faith things will work out for the better.
Recommendation For All Parents
Although Obamacare is extremely expensive, life insurance is not. At the end of the day, if you don’t have good health insurance or are unhealthy in general, you increase your chances of death.
If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that life is not guaranteed. We must do everything we can to protect our children while they are still dependents.
As a result, please get life insurance. Not only should you get enough life insurance to cover your liabilities, your life insurance term should last long enough to get them through college.
The best place to get life insurance is through PolicyGenius. PolicyGenius will help you find the best plan for the lowest price tailored to your needs. PolicyGenius provides free, no-obligation quotes so you can get the best rate.
In the past, you would have to get a life insurance quote by applying to individual carriers – the process was completely opaque. Now, you can have multiple qualified life insurance carriers compete for your business after applying on PolicyGenius. It’s so much more efficient!
After eight years of owning life insurance, my wife decided to check on PolicyGenius for free to see if should could do better. Lo and behold, my wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less money. All this time, she thought she was getting the best deal with her existing carrier.
If you don’t have life insurance, please get life insurance before you need to. Life insurance gets more expensive the older you get. If you get sick, depending on the severity of your sickness, you might not be able to qualify.
If you do have life insurance, I highly recommend checking PolicyGenius to try and get a better deal. Chances are high you’re not getting the best terms.
I know I’m a little late to the game but why are you so pro something that will end up costing you much more to help subsidize those that weren’t as successful as you? It kind of is unfair to you.
Human nature to want to pitch in and help others.
What does everyone think about the fact that all premiums bought through the Exchanges have to be purchased with post-tax dollars. It seems unfair to me that if I buy health insurance through my work I get a nearly 40% discount since that money isn’t taxed but anyone forced to buy through an exchange has to use post-tax dollars.
After a certain age e.g. 62. But not for folks under that age who are unemployed or underemployed. This is our focus here. Helping these people out with more affordable care to prevent disasters.
Kind of rational for those who are young and fabulous though. Just risky and foolish.
The Affordable Care Act doesn’t apply to people whom do not reside inside the U.S. You probably have some kind of government sponsored healthcare where ever you live (or maybe V.A.
at a military base?). In any case, there won’t be any penalties applied to your tax return.
Expensive cell phones and cable plans are necessities! Health insurance – absolutely NOT a necessity! In the minds of many American that is – not in your and my mind!
I also do not understand the decisions many people make with money. Its amazing the % of there income that some low income earners spend on cable, cell and internet service!
Luckily I am exempt from this bill, because I meet some criteria because I am a Veteran (not all Veterans are exempt from this bill)
For me and my situation this bill to force me to buy health insurance would be a waste for me personally. For the past 2 years I have spent less than 30 days back in the USA, for that short amount of time I would not need health insurance.
How would you be covered? Say if you had appendicitis or some other fast onset condition. Not being insured by at least a high deductible emergency plan for those short time periods is like leaving the battery out of your smoke detector a few days a month.
There is, quite possibly, another aspect of healthcare seldom talked about. Transparent pricing. For elective procedures, prices should be quoted in full and honored, just like auto repair estimates. The US government recently published a study on healthcare pricing and found a joint replacement operation billings ranging from $6K in MS to $123K in CA. There was even a wide discrepancy across leading hospitals in major markets. Wal-Mart is going after this issue by approving in FULL, elective procedures at regional centers where they prenegotiated fees. If you choose to go to another hospital, you pay the difference.
Transparent pricing in healthcare – there is a shocking idea!
My wife had a surgery last year with a billed cost of about $12,000. It was first processed as out of network and we were billed about $6,000. I called and got it billed correctly and we were responsible for about $600.
Single payer is the way to go – lots of billing people in hospitals/insurance companies will lose their jobs – but – the cost of healthcare will drop significantly!
That is a huge spread! Guess the goal is to be the doctor charging in CA and not in MS then!