The Hidden Impact of Obamacare and the Economy.
Obamacare has delivered another sucker punch to the middle class. This time it’s sticker shock.
Now that a few people can get past the tech problems of HealthCare.gov and actually see the real cost of insurance plans available, they are finding that Affordable Care is big hit to the family budget. And when the family budget gets hit in the solar plexus, guess what happens to consumer spending and the economy.
In California, policies for about 900,000 Californians are being canceled because of Obamacare’s mandates and about 2/3rd of these do not qualify for subsidies, according to The Chicago Tribune. The result—these folks will be paying higher premiums.
In Alabama, premiums have doubled for some middle class families like Courtney Long, a stay-at-home mother of four. She told WHNT News. “It’s devastating. I started crying,” said Long. “I mean, we have worked so hard to get out of credit card debt, get ahead on the car loan, transfer our mortgage to a 15 from a 30 year mortgage… and for what?”

In Tennessee, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) issued an analysis of a White House report and found the following:

— Today, a 27-year-old man in Memphis can buy a plan for as low as $41 a month. On the exchange, the lowest state average is $119 a month — a 190 percent increase.

— Today, a 27-year-old woman in Nashville can also buy a plan for as low as $58 a month. On the exchange, the lowest-priced plan in Nashville is $114 a month — a 97 percent increase. Even with a tax subsidy, that plan is $104 a month, almost twice what she could pay today.

— Today, women in Nashville can choose from 30 insurance plans that cost less than the administration says insurance plans on the exchange will cost, even with the new tax subsidy.

— In Nashville, 105 insurance plans offered today will not be available in the exchange.
In Washington State, Obamacare will increase the underlying cost of individually purchased health insurance by 34-80 percent on average, according to Forbes. The list goes on and on and includes Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Georgia and North Carolina. But premiums are just the beginning. The deductibles are outrageous, too.

A piece in Saturday’s The New York Times tells the story of Doug and Ginger Chapman, ages 55 and 54, a middle class couple “sitting on the health care cliff.” Their annual income of around $100,000 a year makes them ineligible for a subsidy in New Hampshire (if they earned under $94,000, it would cut their costs by half). They have to replace their family insurance which includes the two of them and their two sons. The premium cost alone, not including any deductible is $1,000 a month, or 12 percent of their income.
The Real Impact of Obamacare is Yet to Come

If even a fraction of the middle class and upper middle income earners divert some of their discretionary dollars to pay for health care, it will have a significant impact on consumer spending. What will that mean for the economy? Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation’s GDP, although experts say that number is likely to decline.

The top 20 percent of income earners account for about 40 percent of all spending in the U.S. When you increase the costs of health care and the new taxes associated with Obamacare, you can hear the wallets closing.

I understand the Medicare premium is going up 10% too. Do not know if it is true or not.

Grand Theft Health!

I wouldn't call it a hidden impact. These things were all brought up before it was passed into law. But the democrats called them lies and said it would lower the costs.

If anything the law should be repealed because nothing is happening the way democrats said it would if the law passed. And Obama has been delaying and changing it as he pleases.

Kinda funny. oButtma doesn't want his name anywhere near his abortion.

...And we all know how Healthy the state of healthcare was before the Affordable Care Act...

Government needs to just stay the hell out of everyones business.

IMO, women who allow themselves to get knocked up should pay their own hospital bills.

And passing a law making it worse is helping how?

The funny thing is..... if gov't and the insurance industry would just stay out of the transaction between patient, doctor and hospital we would have affordable healthcare

When 535 elite class millionaires tell you they are going to provide 300,000,000,..... or 99.9% of the rest of the population..... something "affordable", remember it was them who gave us the IRS and too big to fail/jail banks

When was the last time the "people" were given anything that actually favored the general population by this corrupt club of corporate/banker sponsored puppets?

How big an idiot do we have to become to keep voting for our own demise by electing "their" candidates chosen for us as our only options, while the media denies, black balls and ignores those who would or could actually make a difference? When you elect money into a position of power, who pays?

After the civil war they were called "carpet baggers"..... now we call them politicians, bankers and CEOs.

In truth it's hard to blame them...... when we are the ones dumb enough to put them there.

When only 40% of the population gets out to vote anymore, it might be time to question why.......

It's hard to remain/maintain a Republic "of the people" when you can't even get enough people to vote to be considered a democracy