Thursday, May 04, 2017

Except for the uninsured and people on Medicare, everyone in America has Obamacare

The thing that a lot of people don't understand is that everyone who has health insurance is on "Obamacare." The ACA has three basic parts: the Medicaid expansion, an overhaul of the rules for all private health insurance, and the creation of the exchanges for the individual insurance market. Less than 10% of Americans get their health insurance through the exchange, but a lot of people talk about the exchanges as if that is all that the ACA is. An individual policy purchased through Healthcare.gov is Obamacare, but so is the insurance you get from your employer.

That's why, for example, the preexisting condition exclusion is not allowed for any policy, not just the ones purchased on the exchange. It is why your employer-provided policy does not have any lifetime caps on benefits, and why your kids can stay on your policy until they reach age 26. Many of the rules that govern that policy were created by the ACA and it will be affected by an Obamacare repeal.