21 Nov 2013 “Glaring Flaw” In Families USA Report Being Touted by Obama Administration’s Department of Health And Human Services
Many People With Insurance Cancellations Will Receive No Financial Help on the Exchanges Because Subsidies Often Stop Well Before 400% FPL
Doesn’t HHS Know This?
Washington, D.C. – The following is the statement of David Hogberg, Ph.D., senior fellow for health care policy at the National Center for Public Policy Research, on the Families USA report released today in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS is using a Families USA report to claim that “less than 1 percent of nation’s non-elderly are at risk of losing their current individual market plan and paying more for insurance” on the Obamacare exchanges.
The glaring flaw in the report is that it assumes anyone making less than 400% FPL, which is $45,960 for an individual, will receive a subsidy for the purchase of insurance on the exchanges. But, given the way the subsidy is calculated, many people under 400% FPL won’t receive any financial assistance.
For example, suppose you are a single 50-year-old living in Illinois. If you earn $41,000 annually, which is 357% FPL, chances are you don’t qualify for a subsidy. In Illinois, the subsidies stop, on average, for a 50-year-old at about $40,500. Yet the 50-year-old making $41,000 is included as someone who won’t be paying more for insurance on the exchange in the FamiliesUSA report.
The fact is the report low-balls the number of people who are losing their insurance and will not be eligible for assistance on the exchanges. An accurate analysis would likely reveal it is far more than 1%.
For more on how the insurance subsidy is calculated, see Dr. Hogberg and Sean Parnell’s National Center for Public Policy Research National Policy Analysis paper, “ObamaCare Exchanges: Just Because You Are Eligible For a Subsidy Doesn’t Mean You Will Qualify for One.”
For more data on the income-levels at which subsidies stop in the states on the federal exchange, see Hogberg and Parnell’s supplement to the above report, “Income At Which Premium Subsidies Disappear on the Federal Exchanges.”
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations, and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors.
Contributions are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.
-30-