The Homa Files

Yesterday, the Feds reported that ObamaCare’s slacker insurance – calling 26 year olds “adult children” and adding them to mommy and daddy’s health insurance policy as “dependents” — wouldn’t actually be free after all.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

The Feds estimate: cost will be about $4 billion annually – and by law, the cost must be spread across all policy holders.

Translation: you’re paying for you neighbor’s 26 year old “adult-child”.

The source article extract is below, but first, I have to boast that HomaFiles was all over this one back in March:

Slacker insurance: Extending parents coverage to 26 year olds
https://kenhoma.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/slacker-insurance-extending-parents-coverage-to-26-year-olds/ 

At the time, we said:

OK, everybody knows that under ObamaCare insurance companies will have to allow parents to cover their “adult children” until age 26:

SEC. 2714. EXTENSION OF DEPENDENT COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 26TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENTS’ INSURANCE .
(a) In general – A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage that provides dependent coverage of children shall continue to make such coverage available for an adult child (who is not married) until the child turns 26 years of age. [Effective 6 months after enactment.]

The way the media is covering this aspect of the plan, there seems to be a presumption that this is a free-rider program — just add them to the policy and pay the same premium.

I don’t think so …

Two months later, the Feds discover what we knew then:

Excerpted from AP: Adding 26-year-olds will raise premiums 1%, May 11, 2010 

According to HH&S, letting young adults stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26 will nudge premiums nearly 1 percent higher for employer plans.

The new ObamaCare benefit will cost $3,380 for each dependent, raising premiums by 0.7 percent in 2011 for employer plans.

Some 1.2 million young adults are expected to sign up, more than half of whom would have been uninsured.

The regulation also specifies that young adults offered extended coverage through an employer cannot be charged more than other dependents, nor can they be offered a lesser set of benefits. Instead, the cost must be spread broadly.

Family coverage through the workplace now averages about $13,400 a year — counting both the shares paid by the employer and worker.

* * * * *

The situation is different for people buying their family coverage directly from an insurer, as many self-employed parents do. Unlike employers, insurers in the individual market do not have to spread the costs broadly. Parents would face an estimated additional premium of $2,360 in 2011.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/93377904_26-year-olds_will_raise_premiums_1_.html

Better health care, lower premiums, cut the deficit … yeah, right.

This entry was posted on May 12, 2010 at 7:59 am and is filed under Health Care / Medical Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.