Why I'm Not Signing Up For Obamacare and You Shouldn't Either
I’m never signing up for Obamacare. As a millennial with multiple pre-existing conditions, I know Obamacare is bad for millennials and bad for anyone who will ever have a medical expense. Obamacare forces millennials to pay for other people’s health insurance, increases our health insurance and care costs, and functions like a monopoly.
Millennials are not paying for our health care. We’re paying for other people’s health care. Obamacare exchanges work by forcing lots of young healthy people to sign up for the program and pay for the expenses of older people and sick people.
Former President Bill Clinton admitted this, saying Obamacare “only works, for example, if young people show up.” He went on to say, “We’ve got to have them in the pools, because otherwise all these projected low costs cannot be held if older people with preexisting conditions are disproportionately represented in any given state.” Healthy young adults (specifically, their money) are the key to keeping Obamacare afloat. That does not sound like the foundation of a solid, sustainable plan.
As for the claim that this is simply how insurance works, and that millennials will see their money returned to them when they grow older or become sick? Chris Conover of Forbes dismantles this claim. Even worse, young people’s health care costs are set to skyrocket. We will be paying a lot more for health care. According to the Daily Caller, “A healthy 30 year old male nonsmoker will see his lowest cost insurance option increase 260%.”
Many millennials are choosing to pay the penalty that Obamacare charges for not buying health insurance, because it is cheaper than buying health care under Obamacare. According to the National Center for Public Policy Research, millennials will save hundreds by not purchasing Obamacare and accepting the penalty.
It seems the politicians who have drafted the law know this, too. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently refused to answer comedian Jon Stewart’s inquiry as to why President Obama would delay the Obamacare mandate for big business but not for Americans. That does not indicate honest government and as a millennial who wants transparent government, I am disgusted with the way in which Obamacare functions like a monopoly. The government incentivizes people to drop their plans, and instead buy plans from the Obamacare exchanges. This is because only plans purchased from the Obamacare exchange are eligible for subsidies.
This hurts health insurance companies which are not a part of the exchange, as consumers will flock to the plans which cost the least, or which are subsidized by the government. The government encourages people to purchase health insurance from some companies (namely, Blue Cross Blue Shield) over others, creating an environment of crony capitalism. Government should never choose which companies win and which ones lose. However, that is exactly what happens under Obamacare.
The Affordable Care Act is a terrible deal for millennials. It takes our money to pay for other people’s health insurance, raises health insurance costs, and does not fix the real problems with the country's health care system.
