K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Overlooked By ACA: Many People Paying Full Price For Insurance ‘Getting Slammed’
Paul Melquist of St. Paul, Minn., has a message for the people who wrote the Affordable Care Act: “Quit wrecking my health care.”
Teri Goodrich, of Raleigh, N.C., has the same complaint. “We’re getting slammed. We didn’t budget for this,” she said.
Millions of people have gained health insurance because of the federal health law. Millions more have seen their existing coverage improved.
But one small slice of the population — including Melquist and Goodrich — are unquestionably worse off. They are healthy people who buy their own coverage but earn too much to qualify for help paying their premiums. And the premium hikes that are being announced as enrollment looms for next year — in some states, increases topping 50 percent — will make their situations more miserable.
