On This Day: On a Saturday, the President listens during a conference call in the Situation Room on the Middle East negotiations, Sept. 25, 2010 (Pete Souza)
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Today (all times Eastern):
1:0: Jay Carney briefs the press
2:45: President Obama holds a call with mayors, county officials, and state legislators on the Affordable Care Act
8:15: VP Biden delivers remarks at Clinton Global Citizen Awards
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USA Today: Obama’s day: More health care
President Obama spends Wednesday maintaining his new health care push and monitoring the budget dispute that centers on the same plan.
In the afternoon, Obama holds a conference call with mayors, county officials, and state legislators, pushing the health care plan that faces a pivotal moment.
The president will urge these local officials to urge their constituents to sign up for health care exchanges that open Tuesday. These exchanges are essential to the financing of the health care plan.
More here
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Link
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ThinkProgress: New Report: For 95% Of Americans, Obamacare Will Cost Much Less Than Expected
When uninsured Americans begin enrolling in Obamacare’s new health care exchanges on Oct. 1, the overwhelming majority — 95 percent — will face health care premiums that are 16 percent lower, on average, than the government had previously projected, according to a new report released on Wednesday by the Obama administration.
In the 36 states where the federal government supports or fully runs the Health Insurance Marketplace, a 27-year old who does not qualify for tax credits will pay, on average, $163 for a plan that covers approximately 60 percent of health care expenses (a so-called bronze-level plan), while a 27-year-old with an income of $25,000 could pay $83 dollars per-month after subsidies. Individuals up to 30 years old will also have the option of buying cheaper catastrophic coverage outside of the marketplaces, though they will not qualify for subsidies. A family of four in Texas with an income of $50,000 would pay as little as “$57 per month for the lowest bronze plan after tax credits,” the report finds.
More here
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NBC: $11 a month? Obamacare super-cheap for some, feds find
Bare-bones health insurance could cost just $11 a month for a family of four in Indianapolis on the federal government’s new exchanges, which start serving customers next week.
A similar family in New Orleans might pay as little as $23 a month, although they’d have to shell out $282 for a more generous “silver” plan, the Health and Human Services Department estimates.
And, on average, people will have more than 50 different health plans to choose from if they live in states where the federal government is running the exchanges, HHS says in a report issued Wednesday.
More here
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By Japa:
There is something missing in talking about ObamaCare and I think it is relevant. I am talking about actual cost of healthcare to consumers from a different perspective. In the actual post it talks about a bronze plan, which would cover 60% of charges. Now people might think that 40% is still a lot to pay, but we need to look at the baseline.
Let’s say a person has a $10,000 hospital bill, which isn’t hard to rack up nowadays, if they are uninsured. So they owe $10,000, right. Now let’s say they have the bronze coverage which pays at 60%. So they owe $4,000, right? Wrong.
All the payers have contracts with the different facilities and, in general, those contracts will average from 40%-50% below that regular billed charge. So that $10,000 bill is now reduced to (at the higher end) $6,000. After payment of 60% the individual has a bill for $2,400, significantly less that the $4,000 they might think they would owe.
As the plan level increases, the amount due shrinks drastically.
What does all this mean? The overall cost of health care shrinks as well.
The same applies to doctor visits and a whole host of other services, including prescriptions. And this last is very important.
Because, for the noninsured, prescriptions can be too costly, they do not buy them, which actually, over time, significantly increases cost of care, as well as other things, such as lost work time, loss of productivity, reduced income, therefore reduced money going into the economy.
These are the types of things that I don’t hear being discussed a lot.
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