As President Barack Hussein Obama’s Signature Legislation, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, continues to swirl down the ol’ porcelain receptacle, the Administration has targeted America’s young people. Obamacare was designed on the presumption that young Americans will go head over heels for the new Healthcare Exchanges, and, in turn, that will finance the plan.
Guess what? That ain’t happening, according to nydailynews.com,
Fears that insurance exchanges that are the linchpin of President Barack Obama’s federal health care overhaul wouldn’t attract the young, healthy people needed to make them financially viable are being heightened by the early results of signups in several states.
If it becomes a trend, that could lead to increases in insurance premiums and deductibles next year. Along with the paltry enrollment numbers released this week, officials in a handful of states said those who had managed to sign up were generally older people with medical problems — those with the greatest incentives to get coverage.
It’s unclear whether that will persist. Young, healthy people may be more inclined to procrastinate, especially given doubts about the law’s technically flawed online signup system. They have until Dec. 15 to sign up if they want to be covered on Jan. 1.
Insurers have warned that they need a wide range of people signing up for coverage because premiums paid by adults in the younger and healthier group, between 18 and 35, are needed to offset the cost of carrying older and sicker customers who typically generate far more in medical bills than they contribute in premiums.
The first set of enrollment data revealed that 106,000 people signed up for coverage nationwide, far short of the 500,000 initial sign-ups the Obama administration had expected. In states where officials discussed more detailed information, it also became apparent that the people who flocked to the exchanges after they opened Oct. 1 were those who were desperate for coverage.
In California, the state with the largest uninsured population, most of those who applied were older people with health problems. In Kentucky, nearly 3 of 4 enrollees were over 35. In Washington state, about 23 percent of enrollees were between 18 and 34. And in Ohio, groups helping with enrollment described many of those coming to them as older residents who lost their jobs and health coverage during the recession.
However, the administration is going to do whatever they can to force young Americans to participate in Obamacare, even those young folks who are still in college, as foxnews.com reports…
For decades, universities and colleges have offered students bare-bones policies. But because of the Affordable Care Act, those policies no longer cut it – and universities are forced to decide whether to offer significantly higher-cost plans or cancel coverage altogether.
The new rules affect a broad swath of American schools, especially the small ones.
At Bowie State University in Maryland, the cost of student health insurance policies went from roughly $100 a year to $1,800 a year.
The cancelled plan offered $5,000 worth of medical coverage to students for just $54 per semester. University administrators said an acceptable replacement under the Affordable Care Act would have cost $900 per semester, a 1,500 percent increase.
Students who need individual coverage are likely to find a better deal for themselves on the Maryland Health Connection insurance exchange, University spokeswoman Cassandra Robinson said.
In the end, the school decided to drop the policy for all of its 5,500 enrollees. Students were notified of the dropped coverage on the school’s website.
“Bowie State University has suspended offering health insurance for domestic students for the 2013-2014 academic year,” according to the school’s official website. “Due to new requirements of the Affordable Care Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2014, the cost of insurance for domestic students will increase to approximately $1800 per year.”
The sticker shock didn’t sit well with some students who spoke out against the price hike.
“You’ve haven’t done anything Obama and I am disappointed in you,” one student said. Another told Campus Reform, “We don’t have that money. We can barely afford books.”
Well, gosh, that doesn’t sound like the perception the White House has of America’s young people.
In fact, one would think that being a young American is all about promiscuity and alcoholism, according to the Obamacare Ads put out by the Obama Administration.
The first ad shows a pretty young thing, all excited and showing off the birth control pills which she received through Obamacare. At her side is a swarthy looking young man, with his shirt out and sports jacket on, trying his best to look like a young John Stamos, with an anticipatory ear-to-ear grin on his face.
The other ad involves three male college students. two of them each have the leg of the third, and are holding him above a keg while he balances himself with both hands while hollding a hose coming from the keg in his mouth.
Talk about aiming to the lowest common denominator in an advertising campaign…
Evidently, the only contact the White House has with college age and young adult Americans, has come from hanging out with the OWSers and/or watching the Jerry Springer Program.
Anyway, it certainly appears that they overestimated Obamacare’s popularity with that demographic and underestimated young Americans’ intelligence.
Or, perhaps, like the rest of us, these yutes simply don’t like being lied to.
Until He Comes,
KJ
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