In my previous post I explained that the subsidies of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are regressive and unfair and create high marginal tax rates. What would a better approach look like? To achieve the ideal, the federal government should offer people the same tax relief for the purchase of health insurance,...
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Quite apart from the perverse economic incentives the subsidies of the Affordable Care Act create, the subsidies are completely arbitrary and unfair. For example, a $31,200-a-year family (about 133 percent of poverty) getting health insurance at work gets less than one-fourth as much help from the government, compared to a family making nearly three...
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The Affordable Care Act offers radically different subsidies to people at the same income level, depending on where they obtain their health insurance—at work, through an exchange, or through Medicaid. These subsidies are arbitrary, unfair, and even regressive. Along with the accompanying mandates, they will cause millions of employees to lose their employer plans...
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Who should get a mammogram? At what age? How frequently? What about Pap smears and prostate cancer tests and colonoscopies? Aren’t these questions experts can decide? Unfortunately, no. Any reader of daily newspapers knows that we are forever getting conflicting advice from well-meaning people. Part of the problem is that people differ in their...
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The new healthcare law promises people on Medicare annual wellness exams, mammograms, prostate cancer screenings, and other preventive services—without any co-payment or deductible. The rest of the population will also have access to a lengthy list of preventive services. Unfortunately, the law that mandated these benefits contained no provision to make sure doctors will...
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If you are a legal resident alien, you will be required to obtain the same government-mandated health coverage that US citizens must obtain. However, if you have been here for less than five years, and if your income falls below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, you will not be allowed to enroll...
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The new healthcare law creates subsidies for employer-provided insurance for retirees, but these new subsidies phase out in 2014.[1] Moreover, the subsidies go not to individuals but to employers. Indeed, one of the ironies of the new health law is that the first subsidies are going not to low-income, uninsured families, but to General...
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Suppose you’re a small-business owner, and you’re unsure how to deal with the choices you face under the new healthcare reform law. Unless you employ mainly high-income people, your best option is probably to avoid providing health insurance altogether. The reason: your employees will be able to obtain insurance that is cheaper (for them)...
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In almost every case under the Affordable Care Act, married couples will fare poorly compared to unmarried couples. The reason: subsidies in the newly created health insurance exchange will treat two singles better than a married couple. Suppose you are earning 200 percent of the federal poverty level (currently $21,660). You will be required...
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Like all other individuals, young adults will be required by federal law to purchase health insurance with the specific benefits the federal government says they must have, regardless of whether they want to pay for them and regardless of whether those benefits are useful to them. For instance, young single males will be required...
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