Bruce Pardini of Modesto refers to his health insurance plan as “this plastic card in my pocket”, which costs almost $1,000 a month. It has a $6,500 annual deductible and other costly terms such as a $75 copay for physician visits.
Pardini is among the middle class voices that are disenchanted with the promises of the Affordable Care Act. With a household income of $73,000 a year, Pardini and his wife are not eligible for tax credits to lower their premiums.
What he can afford, in this period of sky-high insurance costs, is a Bronze plan with a $13,600 out-of-pocket maximum for the household and 60 percent coverage for health care bills . . .
Sally Pipes, chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, which promotes free-market policy solutions, said a better choice of health plans would persuade more young adults to buy insurance and create a healthier mix in insurance pools. “They want catastrophic coverage and that is why health savings accounts are good for them,” Pipes said.
Sen. Ted Cruz is pushing for more market-based repeal legislation and wants to let insurers offer less costly individual plans that don’t comply with the ACA. Fifty billion dollars could be spent over five years to stabilize state exchanges that have an imbalance of sicker people in their pools.
New legislation could maintain protections for people with preexisting conditions but take a different approach by giving them assistance for buying insurance, Pipes said. There are 6 million people with preexisting health conditions in the individual insurance market . . .
