May 6, 2014

Obamacare on Mother’s Day: Higher Costs, Fewer Doctors, Less Care for Women

Sunday, May 11, is Mother’s Day. While the president pretends Obamacare is “working just fine,” women are losing coverage, losing doctors and pediatricians they trust, and paying more. Here’s what President Obama isn’t saying about how his health care law hurts women.

Women Are More Likely to Lose Employer-Sponsored Insurance

CBO estimates the president’s health care law will cause eight million people to lose the employer-sponsored coverage they have today. Women are less likely than men to be insured through their own job and more likely to be covered as a dependent. This means a woman is more vulnerable to losing her health insurance if widowed, divorced, or her spouse loses a job. Benefits experts say the health care law may actually encourage employers to drop spousal coverage to hold overall costs down. According to an August 22, 2013, article in the Wall Street Journal, the people being dropped from employer sponsored plans “tend to be women.”

The employer could also raise dependent-coverage rates to unaffordable levels. Obamacare’s mandates and taxes are driving up health care costs and making it harder for employers to offer health insurance to workers’ families. Some employers, including the University of Virginia and UPS, have already stopped offering spousal coverage because of the law.

Employer Mandate Tax Puts Women at Greater Risk

Obamacare imposes new penalties on businesses that do not offer health insurance to their workers. Starting in 2016, businesses that employ 50 or more full-time workers will be fined $2,000 per employee (after the first 30) if they do not offer insurance to their workers. Companies that offer insurance must pay a $3,000 penalty per employee whose coverage is deemed unaffordable and who receives a subsidy to buy insurance in an Obamacare exchange.

This labor market distortion creates a disincentive against business growth. A 2008 Harvard study concluded: “When the cost of benefits rises, wages fall (or rise more slowly than they would have otherwise), leaving workers to bear the cost of their benefits in the form of lower wages.” When it is not possible to reduce wages, the study authors wrote, “employment can be reduced for workers whose wages cannot be lowered, outsourcing and reliance on temp agencies may increase, and workers can be moved into part-time jobs where mandates do not apply.” Low-wage workers at highest risk are more likely to be women, high school dropouts, and minorities.

Medicare Advantage Cuts Hurt Mothers … and Grandmothers Too

On April 7, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released its final 2015 Medicare Advantage payment rates, which analysts say amount to a cut of approximately three percent. New research released last month estimates that the health care law’s mandated cuts – combined with the Obama administration’s regulatory changes – will reduce the average benefit for women who rely on MA by $1,538 per year, or 13.32 percent, when compared to pre-Obamacare rates.

Women Are Taxed More if They Get Married

One of the biggest tax hikes in the law affects the portion of payroll taxes used to fund the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. Last year, the health care law increased the Medicare HI payroll tax from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent on wages higher than $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. This amounts to $317.7 billion in new federal revenue. One tax expert called the policy a “shockingly inequitable marriage penalty.” If, for example, a single woman and a single man each earn below the individual threshold per year, neither is required to pay the health law’s additional Medicare payroll tax. If they marry, however, they could break the marriage threshold and owe thousands of dollars in additional taxes.

They Also Could Lose Any Subsidy to Buy Insurance

Because the health care law links taxpayer subsidies to federal poverty guidelines, couples may find that marriage means their health insurance will cost more. Government subsidies shrink – and so premiums grow – as income rises. For example, two singles can each make $46,680 per year (400 percent of FPL) and still qualify for government subsidies. If the two marry, and combined income hits $93,360 per year, then they lose the government subsidy. A single mother who earns $47,190 per year (300 percent of FPL) can get a subsidy to buy health insurance for herself and her child. If she decides to marry the child’s father, who earns a $46,680 per year (400 percent of FPL), then the family no longer qualifies for the subsidy help. This is true even though the mother and the father each qualified for subsidy help as singles. The family is left to carry the full weight of the law’s more expensive, government-mandated insurance.

Women Forced to Depend On a Broken Medicaid Program

Of the nearly 13 million women ages 18 to 64 who received federally funded health care in 2011, more than two-thirds were enrolled in Medicaid. But a Medicaid card does not ensure female patients access to high quality medical care. A February 2014 Merritt Hawkins survey found just 45.7 percent of doctors, in five specialties, accepted Medicaid patients. That number is down 9.7 percent since 2009, when 55.4 percent of doctors treated Medicaid patients.

Issue Tag: Health Care