The Obamacare Insurance Subsidy Is a Lie, Too

Young people across the nation are getting a rude awakening about the arcane subsidy rules in Obamacare —specifically most of them will not qualify for a subsidy to pay for their Obamacare premium.
It was said over and over that anyone making less than 400 percent of the poverty level — $45,960 for a single individual — would be showered with subsidies to pay for the health care premiums mandated by Democrats. But the subsidy fairy tale, like so many other things promised about Obamacare, isn’t true either.
A young man of 25 in Nashville making $25,500 will get zero. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. The same is true across the country for a variety of ages and incomes.
It is but one of a truckload of lies told by Democrats to sell a 100-year-old program that is no longer needed, to a gullible public. The public is now beginning to see just how much “free” health care is going to cost them.
Subsidies are available for up to 400 percent of the poverty level if (they conveniently left this part out of the sales brochure) your premium exceeds a certain percentage of income. Health insurance is cheaper when you’re younger because most young people seldom ever need it or use it.
The question now is will young people, whose participation is absolutely necessary for Obamacare not to implode, buy something they don’t need with money they don’t have? Secondly, will they fork over $2,000 to $3,000 a year for something they thought would be free instead of choosing the much cheaper $95 penalty for opting out?
The smart money is on the penalty.
The subsidy lie is just one of many bedeviling this ill-conceived legislation but not at all surprising when you reconstruct the events leading up to it.
Consider the history of the legislation in its convoluted order as memory serves:
1) The senate spends more than a year crafting and ironing out health care legislation that even John Roberts couldn’t approve.
2) Ted Kennedy dies, meaning the 60 votes necessary to finish the legislation is gone and health care is dead in the water.
3) Harry Reid grabs a house bill that no one likes, is unfinished and poorly constructed. Questionable antics ensue including a 3 a.m. manager’s amendment that turns the house monster into a Frankenstein.
4) Reid gets Frankenstein out of the senate via the reconciliation process, which isn’t legal, because the legislation adds more to the deficit than the reconciliation procedure allows. During passage several taxes are tacked on that are also unconstitutional because they are originating in the senate.
5) Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House, “deems” the legislation passed without a vote.
6) During judicial review, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts essentially rewrites the bill to deem it partially constitutional but cuts off both of Frankenstein’s legs in the process by removing the really outrageous unconstitutional provisions.
Considering the history, you have to ask yourself if any sane person would take the carcass that remained and dump it on the American people as a workable program.
Democrats ignored that reality because they’ve had this program in the ideological pipeline for 100 years. Apparently no one told them that even though hardly anyone had insurance 100 years ago, things have changed and now nearly no one is uninsured. But that doesn’t matter to people driven by ideology instead of reality.
Of all the things to still be thankful for this Thanksgiving we have an extra bonus this year — even if you like your Washington Democrat, you don’t have to keep them.