Articles & Commentary

Articles & Commentary: "The president has spent the closing days of the health-care debate making his case to the segments of Americans who will benefit under ObamaCare. But lots of other people will be squeezed under the scheme--and not the rich folks that President Obama singles out in his stump speeches, but families who are decidedly middle class.

Health reform will leave many of them newly priced out of a transformed market for health insurance.

The hardest hit won't be those earning more than $250,000 a year--the group that he says needs to 'pay their fair share.' Rather, it's families whose combined annual income is around $100,000 who could be crushed under this plan.
Many of these middle-class families will probably opt to pay the federal fine, and go without health insurance until they get sick.

These folks will be too 'rich' to qualify for ObamaCare's subsidies, but probably too poor to easily afford the pricey insurance that the president's plan forces them to buy.

Many of these $100K families will be obliged to buy a policy costing an average of $14,700 for the mid-level, 'silver' health plan, according to the Congressional Budget Office's estimates. After income taxes, they'll be spending almost a quarter of their net income for health insurance.

How can these families make out so badly under ObamaCare? The plan does two things to refashion the market for health insurance and inadvertently stacks it against these middle-class earners."