Spreading the Health Around by Spreading the Wealth Around

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a bad deal for millennials because it strains the middle class to provide a free service to the working and lower classes.

The ACA is unfair to the middle class that many entry-level millennials find themselves in. An individual making $15,856 a year or less is eligible for free or near free healthcare under Medicaid under the federal expansion. An individual making $40,000 could have to pay over $3,000 per year in premiums even after accounting for federal subsidies.

One way to resolve this problem is to make everyone pay. A $3,102 Bronze premium is about 7% of a millennial’s $40,000 income, for example. Making Medicaid eligible people pay 7% of their income to Medicaid would level the playing field.

Another option is to expand the subsidy credits beyond the current threshold, or to increase the dollar amounts of the existing subsidies. These measures would reduce the strain on middle-class millennials.

A public option would allow all Medicaid-like care.