One week after President Obama spoke to the nation about health care reform, polls are showing the speech had no effect and opinions are returned back to pre-speech levels. However, polls should not drive legislation – facts should. One can review an article from today’s Wall Street Journal, “Mandated Heath Insurance Squeezed Those in the Middle” for a real story about middle-America getting put in dangerous situations. Also in the original article are identified flaws that Massachusetts is dealing with and real eminent risks they have not yet cracked the code on:
Massachusetts has tried to prevent people from dropping private insurance for state-subsidized plans, something federal lawmakers also want to avoid. The state disqualifies people whose employers offer coverage from getting subsidies. That’s caused another group of uninsured to fall through the cracks.
Nestor Nunez, a 53-year-old driver for a private bus company, earns between $35,000 and $40,000. That would qualify him and his wife, Aymara, for a state-subsidized plan with $232 in monthly premiums, something he could afford.
But he has access to coverage through his employer. The problem is, those premiums would cost between $381 and $588 a month, more than he can pay, he says, so he goes without coverage. “The state doesn’t make me pay a penalty, so they admit I can’t afford this,” he says of the automatic waiver he gets based on his income and the premium he’d have to pay.
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