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Comment by Anechoic | Hacker News Reader

The article says "The Congressional Budget Office predicts that by 2019, about 24 million people will have insurance through exchanges, with four-fifths of them getting federal subsidies that average $6,400 a year per person."

The $6400 is referring to subsidies, not premium costs.

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Surely the premium costs will be higher than the subsidy, so in some sense the headline is right, although I'm not quite sure what point it's trying to make. Health care costs money. In Canada in 2009, it cost $5452 per person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada#Economics

That's for actual health care (in Canada).

This is for insurance company payoffs, not actual money spent on health care, which will be a fraction of $6400 after they take their cut.

So you are saying premiums will actually cost more than that.

Note that the $6400+ is for INSURANCE not actual health care.

So pay $300-$600 a month for an annual checkup and maybe a flu visit which they can do nothing for.

And of course for comprehensive coverage when you need major medical care (cancer treatments, surgery, etc.). Part of the health care reform forbids health insurance companies from denying you care based on pre-existing conditions, from kicking off your plan when you get sick, or from imposing lifetime benefit caps.

Unfortunately nothing in the health INSURANCE reform prevents said companies from increasing your rates to the point where you cannot afford it any more so you voluntarily drop their coverage.

So pretend all you want that it actually means you are secure and guaranteed coverage, you aren't if you cannot afford it.

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