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Individuals will still be forced to pay penalty for not having insurance even if no insurer is operating on exchanges

 

There are 47 counties in the United States that are projected to have no insurer participating in the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 2018, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Insurers such as Anthem and Aetna have announced this year that they are planning exits from the marketplace, which will leave some areas with no options.

The agency looked at health insurer announcements through June 9 and created a map to show which counties will have no Obamacare insurer in 2018. This map will change based on future announcements if more insurers exit.

"As many as 1,200 counties—nearly 40 percent of counties nationwide—could have only one issuer in 2018," the agency explains. "Currently, for 2018 at least 35,000 active Exchange participants live in the counties projected to be without coverage in 2018, and roughly 2.4 million Exchange participants are projected to have one issuer. It's expected that the number of consumers with no coverage choices will rise."

Despite the fact that some individuals will live in an area where there is no insurer offering coverage, they will still be bound by Obamacare's individual mandate, which requires a person to purchase health insurance or be forced to pay a penalty.

Senators Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) and Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) have introduced legislation that would protect these people from being penalized for not having insurance when there are no insurers operating on the exchanges in their area.

The Health Care Options Act of 2017 would waive the penalty in these cases and allow individuals to purchase coverage outside of the exchanges.

"This legislation would help those in Knoxville and across the country by allowing any American who receives a subsidy and has no insurance available on the exchange next year to use that subsidy to buy any state-approved insurance off of the exchange," said Sen. Alexander. "Second, the bill would waive the Affordable Care Act requirement that these Americans, who have zero insurance options with their subsidies, have to pay a penalty for not purchasing insurance."

"This legislation will help bring peace of mind between now and the beginning of next year to millions of Americans, some of the most vulnerable people in the country, who face having zero options of health insurance to purchase with their subsidy," he said.

According to Seema Varma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency is working to provide access and relief for those individuals in these counties.

"This is yet another failing report card for the Exchanges," Varma said. "The American people have fewer insurance choices and in some counties no choice at all. CMS is working with state departments of insurance and issuers to find ways to provide relief and help restore access to health care plans, but our actions are by no means a long-term solution to the problems we're seeing with the Insurance Exchanges."

 

http://freebeacon.com/issues/4...macare-insurer-2018/

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jtdavis posted:

The cost of health care insurance was getting too high for people to buy unless they were part of a group plan. And I don't want to hear no BS about a $150 a month family plan that was just fine. That ain't happened since the 1970's

Where is your link? What about your BS? Why don't you think people were happy with their insurance before Obama' s unaffordable health care act?

Last edited by giftedamateur
jtdavis posted:

Well then jt, why do you suppose people don't like obamadontcare?

I have not personally talked to anyone who had the ACA insurance that was not happy with it. One guy said, "it saved my life"(he had a liver transplant)

You know what jt? You're lying. This is one reason I don't have any respect for you. You never tell the truth about anything you want to "sell" to others. You most certainly have talked to people unhappy with it. I certainly have. It would not be possible for everyone you talk too to be happy with it. What guy that had to have a liver transplant and had to have obamadon'tcare to "save his life"? Long before obamadon'tcare I had a friend that had no money, couldn't work because of kidney disease, and had dialysis until he could get a kidney transplant. He didn't pay a dime for any of it, and that was 20 years ago. Unfortunately the kidney was rejected, after a while, and he had to go back on dialysis and died soon after. But he never paid for his medical treatment. You try to run crap by me and others when we know better. Then you get upset and start crying about being attacked, or attack someone else like you did Gifted. All because we call you on your bull.

Last edited by Bestworking
jtdavis posted:

Best, I did not lie. If I were to talk to someone who was not happy with it, I would want some numbers. Also, a lot of people get and earn a paycheck and I am not worried by that.

What numbers would you want? There are plenty of folks upset with obamadon'tcare and your response to some of them was, "what did they have before"? As if having to pay for something they can never afford to use is somehow better. And, you don't want to hear about the ones whose premiums and deductibles went up, and the ones that lost their plans and their doctors. You never answered the question WHY are people unhappy with it. We know they are, even if we believed your BS lie that you hadn't talked to them. Plenty of others have talked to them. 

When it comes to paychecks you're  worried that someone may get more than your greedy a**.

Last edited by Bestworking
jtdavis posted:

I want to know why they preferred insurance before ACA.   Lots of people make more than me and it doesn't bother me. Tell me why a fired CEO deserves a 27 million going away package. It's in the current news. Stay informed

Because he is worth it to the ones that offer it to him. You said yourself you would never turn down money even if you didn't need it, and even if it meant someone else could have a job. So sthu.

"So you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world,"

Wed October 5, 2016

Who said that jt??

jt sez "I want to know why they preferred insurance before ACA.   Lots of people make more than me and it doesn't bother me. Tell me why a fired CEO deserves a 27 million going away package. It's in the current news. Stay informed".

 

JT,

I do not agree with high pay for insurance executives either in the current state of affairs, but lying legislators have assisted with this debacle and contributed to the problem. They even passed a law in this state that prevents disclosure of what the executives are paid by BCBS, because they do not want people to know.

However, the ACA did nothing to improve healthcare for the majority. My premiums increased 50%. My copays increased, and my deductibles doubled. I lost my insurance initially because of the wording in the ACA. Obama and the insurance companies colluded to create a system where they could get premiums paid for by the government. It did not work, they lost some money and now the system is imploding. It was a poor plan to start with and has done nothing to decrease costs. As someone who works with it everyday I can tell you that for the most part is was terribly thought out and implemented.

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