Benefits of Obamacare are Bountiful for NH

Obamacare is accomplishing what it set out to deliver!  According to an AP article a wife and husband in NH will be paying $874 a month for health insurance - about $550 less than their previous premiums for a plan that had fewer benefits. They will save $6600 a year for better health care coverage than they have today. Plus they added a stand-alone dental plan for $56 a month!  Most residents are unaware that there is a dental plan offering through the market place.

This scenario is being played out all through NH. Individuals without coverage today because they have that dreaded disease “previous condition” are finding affordable insurance through the Health Benefits Marketplace!  A recent AP report of the NH market place found that factoring in tax credits, a 27-year-old making $25,000 a year would see a premium of $145 for the mid priced plan.  But if that same hypothetical young adult used the tax credit to buy the lowest priced plan, the monthly premium drops to $94.  For a family of four making $50,000, the monthly premium for a mid priced plan would be $282 with their tax credit. If that same family of four family used its tax credit to buy the lowest priced plan, the premium would drop to $96 a month, $1 more than the national average.

The Federal Government has bent over backwards to make sure that health insurance is affordable and coverage is comprehensive.  When an individual can buy insurance for less than $100 a month that is an incredible deal. According to the US Census Bureau in an article published by New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. the share of New Hampshire's population without health insurance has grown since 2009-2010 from 11.5 percent to 14.1 percent in 2011-2012.  Obamacare will benefit 150,000 individuals and families in NH and will reach millions across the country.

The conclusion---Obamacare is working!

And it will only get better once the technical glitches are worked out.  Remember the issues when Part D of Medicare was launched?  Of course no one remembers - the problems were fixed and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands benefited. Technical issues are very short term; benefits of comprehensive health insurance are very long term. 

A prediction - in 10 years you will not be able to identify one elected individual who will admit they were opposed the Affordable Care Act.  They will claim that they were only trying to make sure that the law was the best it could be.   An old saying: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.”

Stephen Morgan

Rick Katzenberg