One Third of Uninsured Won’t Sign Up for Obamacare
As
the White House scrambles to get people signed up for health insurance
before the March 31 deadline, many uninsured Americans say they are
still planning to take their chances and remain without coverage.
A
new study by Bankrate.com shows that about one third of uninsured
Americans are going to remain without coverage and opt to pay the
penalty.
The survey results suggest that the administration’s
outreach to uninsured people may be falling short, with more than half
of people without insurance unaware of the March 31 deadline—and even
more unaware of subsidies that could make their policies more
affordable.
Related: Obamacare May Be Failing the Uninsured
Bankrate
surveyed 3,005 people and found that 41 percent of those who were
uninsured said they plan to stay uninsured because they think that
health insurance is too costly. Meanwhile, about 70 percent said they
were unaware of subsidies available under the new law that could make
their health plans more affordable.
The study’s findings are
worrisome for the Obama administration since the key goal of the
president’s health care law was to extend access to health coverage for
the uninsured.
A separate study by the
McKinsey consulting firm
found just 27 percent of Obamacare enrollees were uninsured. That means
that the majority of those signing up for Obamacare had previous
insurance of some kind—whether they were kicked off their old policies,
or they found a better deal on the exchanges. Though not confirmed by
the White House, if accurate, that could mean the law is failing to meet
its intended goal.
Related: Gallup: Employment, Obamacare Lower Uninsured Rate
Gary
Cohen, an official for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
said the administration has not been tracking how many of the Obamacare
enrollees were previously uninsured.
Read More Here
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Eight Ways to Opt Out of Obamacare
by Dr. Susan Berry 25 Dec 2013
With
the deadline to sign up for Obamacare having come and gone, many
Americans have decided to “opt out” of President Obama’s signature
health care reform law, choosing instead to pay the $95 penalty for
sidestepping the individual mandate.
“For many Americans opting
out of Obamacare is the best decision they can make, but it's important
that they do it the right way—just refusing to buy health insurance and
not having another way to pay for catastrophic medical expenses is a
mistake,” Sean Parnell, author of the newly-released
The Self-Pay Patient,
told Breitbart News. “People who want to opt out should be looking at
alternatives to conventional health insurance, such as joining a health
care sharing ministry or purchasing a fixed benefits policy."
Parnell
also strongly advises Americans against opting out and simply paying
the “list” price for medical visits and prescription drugs without
shopping around, or by relying solely on the local hospital emergency
room for routine medical care.
“This approach leaves people who
opt out vulnerable to sky-high medical expenses at inflated ‘list’ or
‘chargemaster’ rates, and can result in an inability to obtain needed
care because of cost,” Parnell writes on his blog,
selfpaypatient.com.
Instead, Parnell recommends the following eight options for those who have opted out of ObamaCare:
1. Join a health care sharing ministry, which are voluntary, charitable membership organizations that share medical expenses among the membership.
Parnell states that
Samaritan Ministries,
Christian Healthcare Ministries, and
Christian Care Ministry are open to practicing Christians, while
Liberty HealthShare is open to those who are committed to religious liberty.
Healthcare
sharing ministries “operate entirely outside of ObamaCare’s
regulations, and typically offer benefits for about half the cost of
similar health insurance,”
says Parnell. “Members are also exempt from having to pay the tax for being uninsured.”
Read More Here
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March 21, 2014
