Today, the media is wrought with truths, half-truths, small fibs and blatant lies about the benefits and pitfalls of Obamacare. The massive health care reform that rolls out on October 1, 2013 was marketed by the President and his staff as the road to affordable and universal healthcare. It was to be a cure for our nation’s fiscal ails-- the remedy for reducing preventable disease. The veracity of these brash claims will soon be verified, and I expect that Obamacare will fail to meet this Administration’s lofty expectations. However, in the meantime, let’s play nice and break the Affordable Healthcare Act ice via a simple game of truths and lies.
TRUTH:The floodgates will be opened, and you can start comparing rates and shopping for insurance exchanges on October 1, 2013.
TRUTH:People who opt not to get health insurance will be charged $95 or 1% of their annual income – whichever is higher. The penalty for non-compliant individual is set to rise until it hits $695 or 2.5% of an individual’s annual income in 2016.
LIE:Obamacare provides universal healthcare for Americans. Among others, people in the lowest income brackets, or whose premiums would exceed 8% of their household income would be free to go uninsured without penalty.
TRUTH: The details of Obamacare are so primitive that even the experts disagree on the whos, whats, wheres, whens and hows. However, just fewer than 10 million people are expected to sign up for insurance via Obamacare.
TRUTH: Many experts predict that the health care reform will lead to a shortage of doctors to the tune of approximately 100,000 physicians.