Forbes published an article by Avik Roy about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) leading to healthcare premiums being more expensive for young Americans than they otherwise were. Avik Roy has been on CNBC slinging his bull-pucky to the Wall St. crowd, and the article has been circulating social media, scaring young-folks like myself into fearing the big-bad socialist takeover demon that is Obamacare. Like so many attacks on the ACA, this one is blatantly dishonest to anyone who knows anything about the main components about the law.
Roy's article compares barebones policies that were available pre-ACA. The coverage in any healthcare plan that would've been affordable to me pre-ACA was laughable. In the event of a legitimate health emergency, these plans would have left a millennial like myself bankrupt, regardless of if I had the insurance or not.
Compared to the exchange plans, these policies that would get me out of a legitimate health emergency without bankrupting me. The plans also include prescription coverage, preventative care, and copay plans. Roy's article is like comparing a scooter to a Mercedes-Benz and seething with righteous indignation because the big bad guv'ment made the CLK pricier than the Vespa.
In addition to the dishonesty of comparison, the article is dishonest about the actual cost to young Americans. It intentionally focuses on young americans premium costs without tabulating
a) premium support
b) state Medicaid eligibility, or
c) the costs saved on average by having 18-26 year olds on their parents' plans.
These are gigantic factors affecting the affordability of healthcare. Medicaid plans usually don't require any premium payment at all, as with parental plans. Premium support, of course, means that the government, now allegedly raising the cost of premiums, would mitigate the overall cost of the plan, up to 100% in some cases.
This isn't the only Obamacare hatchet-job that Forbes has run. Their objective, like the rest of the right-wing punditocracy dominating the core of the GOP at the moment, is to scare young people into not participating, and convince them that its against their interests. Its the only real way that the GOP can obstruct Obamacare before 2016.
Forbes shows us with this latest journalistic abortion how important media politics is. This is a continuation of the Chuck Todd media culture that doesn't feel the need to challenge weasel words, misleading statements, and outright lies that come out of politicians and other media outlets alike.