Health Subsidy Cuts Could Hurt the Middle Class the Most

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Jane and Abe Goren retired here five years ago to escape the higher cost of living they had abided for decades in the suburbs of New York City. They did not anticipate having to write monthly checks for health insurance that would exceed their mortgage and property taxes combined.

Ms. Goren, 62, is paying nearly $1,200 a month for coverage through the individual insurance market (her husband, 69, is on Medicare) and accumulating enough debt that her sons recently held a fund-raiser to help. For next year, her insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, has proposed raising premiums by an average of 22.9 percent, a spike it is blaming squarely on President Trump.

For months, the Trump administration has refused to say whether the federal government will keep paying billions of dollars in subsidies that lower out-of-pocket health insurance costs for nearly six million low-income customers under the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump’s hedging has created deep uncertainty in the individual insurance market, the impact of which may become clearer on Wednesday, the deadline for insurers to say whether they plan to sell next year on the federal marketplace created under the health law and to file rate requests.

North Carolina has more than 300,000 people benefiting from these “cost-sharing” subsidies, which reimburse insurers for absorbing the deductibles and co-payments of low-income customers. The Affordable Care Act requires that these customers’ out-of-pocket costs be lowered one way or another. If the federal government stops reimbursing insurers, many insurers have said they will make up for it by raising premiums.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/health-subsidy-cuts-could-hurt-the-middle-class-the-most/ar-BBCXI6h?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=edgsp

[Turbineguy]

1. No new car.

A few months ago we were thinking we would like to buy a new car. But after we started making inquiries, my work got cut off and we had to live off our savings. But every month or so I would get an email from the car dealer asking us when we were going to buy?

In the mean time this healthcare debate is going on and I'm getting scary info about cost increases. Somebody has to cough up the money for the tax cuts. Also on the news, car sales have dropped nationwide. We are apparently not alone.

In the mean time, I'm back at work and getting paid.

Last week I answered that our purchase is on hold at least until this health care thing is sorted out. And I suggested that the drop in car sales all over is related to uncertainty about health care.

People around here tell me people in the car industry tend to vote republican. If that's true, they seem to be getting their wish.