Why 94%?
Who are you going to prevent from having health insurance?
Originally Posted by LexusLover
There are several reasons why the CBO projects that 94% of the citizens will be covered by 2019 instead of 100%.
1. Of the 22 million who are projected to be uninsured, 8 million are illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants do not qualify for an Obamacare policy or Medicaid in most states. (Some illegal immigrants can get Medicaid in the state of California due to an exception).
2. For the states that did not except the money from the Federal Government for the expanded state Medicaid, some people will fall into the a Medicaid Gap. (They are a family of 4 and make less than $24,000, don't qualify for an Obamacare private policy) and they make to much to qualify for their state Medicaid. For example in the state of Alabama, you have to make less than $11,000 to qualify for Medicaid, since they rejected the expanded Medicaid from the Feds. So, in the state of Alabama a family of 4 that makes less that $24,000 and more than $11,000 will not be insured in the individual market.
3. Some people will choose to not get health insurance and will pay the tax instead.
This information can be found under the section
Among the people who will remain uninsured, which is in the link below.
The ACA has two primary mechanisms for increasing insurance coverage: expanding
Medicaid eligibility to include individuals within 138% of the federal poverty level,
[43] and creating
state-based insurance exchanges where individuals and small business can buy health insurance plans—those individuals with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level will be eligible for subsidies to do so.
[38][30] The CBO originally estimated that the legislation will reduce the number of uninsured residents by 32 million, leaving 23 million uninsured residents in 2019 after the bill's provisions have all taken effect.
[121][122][123] With the elderly covered by Medicare, the CBO estimate projected that the law would raise the proportion of insured non-elderly citizens from 83% to 94%.
[121] A July 2012 CBO estimate raised the expected number of uninsured by 3 million, reflecting
the successful legal challenge to the ACA's expansion of Medicaid.
[124][125]
Among the people who will remain uninsured:
ACA drafters believed that increasing insurance coverage would not only improve quality of life but also help reduce
medical bankruptcies (currently the leading cause of bankruptcy in America
[128]) and
job lock.
[129] In addition, many believed that expanding coverage would help ensure that the cost controls successfully function; healthcare providers could more easily adapt to payment system reforms that incentivize value over quantity if their costs were partially offset—for example, hospitals having to do less
charity care or insurers having larger and more stable
risk pools to distribute costs over.
[130]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient...dable_Care_Act