Reply #9: But that's already baked in

[Yo_Mama]

If you are forced to coverage on the exchanges, all but the very poor will face substantial out of pocket costs.

Using the Kaiser health-care calculator, a family of 4 with an income of 48K and an insured member age of 47 in a medium cost area would:
http://healthreform.kff.org/SubsidyCalculator.aspx

Be expected to pay $3,106 in annual premiums, with an actuarial coverage ratio of 73%, meaning that on average the family will have to cover 27% of their medical costs out of pocket.

But the annual out-of-pocket expense is limited to $6,250, not including the premium, for a total of over $9,000 in possible annual medical costs.

And don't tell me that a family of four could pay that much a couple of years running without having to file BK.

Now if this family can get coverage through their employer, they may do better, but getting coverage through their employer is contingent on the employer being able to afford to pay most of the cost. The fee charged to the family as their cost is required to be not more than 9.5%, or about $4,560. But the coverage only has to be comparable to what is offered on the exchanges, and Kaiser estimated that the actual cost would be over $15,000, so the employer would be paying over 10K. A lot of employers can't do that.

The idea that this plan was going to change things hugely for most people was never realistic. The more basic coverage that is mandated, the less actual treatment is going to be covered. If the employers can't pay for coverage, they will pay a fine and then the public would have to pick up a subsidy bill of over 12K for this family. Clearly we can't afford that.