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Tags: health coverage | progressives
OPINION

Progressives' Obsession With Coverage Numbers Leaves Patients Behind

a prescription pad with no medical insurance written on it
(Dreamstime)

Sally Pipes By Friday, 12 January 2024 10:26 AM EST Current | Bio | Archive

Democrats have long based their critique of the U.S healthcare system on the fact that millions of Americans lack insurance.

But it's important to note that many of those folks are uninsured by choice, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And the left's approach to health policy is a big reason why.

For more than a decade, federal reforms — most notably Obamacare — have sought to systematically remove the financial barriers to coverage, whether through federal subsidies for private insurance or less stringent Medicaid eligibility requirements.

And yet, according to the Kaiser report, 25.6 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2022. The most common reason why? Affordability. Nearly two-thirds said that coverage was unaffordable.

Insurance is expensive because Democrats have made it so. Obamacare requires insurers to sell to all comers regardless of their health status or history and prevents them from charging older enrollees any more than three times what they charge younger ones. The law also mandates that all health plans cover a list of 10 "essential" health benefits, regardless of whether people want or need them.

Those regulations may be popular. But they're expensive. So insurers have responded by raising premiums and deductibles. Democrats have tried to soften the blow by offering steadily more generous premium subsidies, which are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. For now, no one has to devote more than 8.5% of their income toward insurance premiums.

But Democrats have done little to help people cover steadily rising out-of-pocket obligations. For bronze-level plans sold on Obamacare's online marketplaces, the average deductible was $7,258 this year. That's how much a patient must spend before their benefits kick in — not including the premiums they pay each month.

The Kaiser report also notes that about one in five uninsured Americans in 2022 made more than 400% percent of the federal poverty limit. In 2022, that was a household income of $111,000 for a family of four. If households earning six figures say they can't afford coverage, then it's reasonable to conclude that the "Affordable Care Act" has failed in its mission.

Perhaps the Kaiser report's most telling findings are that, among the 25.6 million Americans without insurance, one-quarter say they neither want nor need coverage. Over one-third of the uninsured population qualify for subsidies through the Obamacare exchanges. And a whopping 25% are eligible for Medicaid but haven't signed up.

In other words, a majority of uninsured Americans have access to free or heavily subsidized coverage but have declined to take advantage.

This gets to the heart of what is wrong with the left-wing, progressive approach to health policy. The obsession with lowering the uninsured rate through subsidies and regulations has created a coverage market that an astonishing number of Americans want nothing to do with, or simply can't afford to enter.

And their go-to strategy of welcoming ever-more patients into government dependency through Medicaid still doesn't appeal to a sizable share of the population.

The lesson to draw from these figures is that, what Americans want more than anything is access to quality, affordable care — not overly regulated coverage and more generous federal handouts.

Luckily, there are reforms capable of meeting the genuine demands and needs of patients.

Loosening restrictions on short-term health plans, for instance, would make available coverage options that aren't hemmed in by Obamacare's regulations, are more tailored to individual patients, and are less costly than the plans sold on the exchanges. Several states — including California and New York — have outlawed these plans.

Expanding health savings accounts, meanwhile, would give Americans a way to save their own money tax free for future medical expenses. Transforming patients from wards of their insurers to active consumers would inject competition into the healthcare market and empower them to take control of their health.

Democrats have spent enormous sums of taxpayer money and political capital enacting an agenda aimed mainly at increasing coverage rates. That agenda has demonstrably failed at its intended purpose — and led to a health system in which the needs of far too many Americans remain unmet.

Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and the Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is "False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All," (Encounter Books 2020). Follow her on Twitter @sallypipes. Read Sally Pipes' Reports — More Here.

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SallyPipes
The lesson to draw from these figures is that, what Americans want more than anything is access to quality, affordable care — not overly regulated coverage and more generous federal handouts.
health coverage, progressives
731
2024-26-12
Friday, 12 January 2024 10:26 AM
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