I make $10/hr and my wife makes about $13/hr. We both have insurance from my employer and pay about $105/month, which is well under 5% of our yearly income . If I understand the information correctly according to http://liheap.ncat.org/profiles/povertytables/FY2010/popstate.htm, our income puts us at just under 300% of the Federal Poverty Line. Based on the House bill–http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/healthreform_tri_full.pdf–we will be eligible for health care credits which will keep our premiums under 10% of our salary–which is about $400/month. Am I missing something, or could my premiums be going up 400%?
One thing this computation does not account for is the $135,000 in student loans that my wife and I must pay off. I imagine that if my monthly student loan payments were accounted for, my yearly income would be much closer to the Federal Poverty Line, and clearly I’m not going to be able to afford a quadrupling of my health insurance premiums.
I’m not asking a political question or a partisan question. I don’t need to hear simplistic “Obamacare sucks” answers. I’m not a super smart person, either, so I might be missing something obvious as I’m putting these figures together. So I’m interested in real numbers. What would I reasonably expect under the House’s health care reform bill?
Thanks.
Ha! A friend pointed out my first mistake. Deductions are $105/pay period, or $210/month. Silly, me. But still, the question of what I should expect remains.
@let me steer you:
To offset the extra expense of the Wal-Mart cashier you speak of, premiums are going to be adjusted across the board. As these adjustments are made, it is very possible that my premiums will go up to a limit of 10% of my income. Is my logic flawed? If so, please explain.