How Your Personal Finances Will Suffer Without Obamacare

• Author: Monica Jackson
• Posted: 2024-07-08

The Supreme Court holds the fate of Obamacare in its hands when it hears a challenge to the law in the spring. There is a real chance that the Court could take Obamacare away from the country if Congress does not somehow act before the Court issues its decision. This will have real effects on the bottom line of nearly every American who must pay health care costs. Here are five ways that your own personal finances will be hurt if Obamacare is taken away from you by the Supreme Court.

Your Health Insurance Premiums Would Increase

While people have seen their premiums increase since the start of the Affordable Care Act, price hikes were limited for a long time to not much more than the rate of inflation. This was a first for consumers who had become used to massive increases in their bill each year. It was not until the individual mandate was repealed that the rate of increases went higher. Most research has shown that Obamacare broadened the risk pool and kept price hikes in check. Without Obamacare, risk pools will grow more fragmented, causing your policy to go up in price. Obamacare also provided a stronger regulatory framework for health insurance policies. Without this in place, the consumer will suffer.

Moreover, if you have preexisting conditions, you can count on the price of your plan skyrocketing. Now, many more Americans would have these conditions assuming that COVID-19 would make people more difficult to insure.

Your Own Costs Would Go Up

The Affordable Care Act did away with co-pays for many different types of care. Any type of preventative care no longer required a co-pay. This included your annual physical and things such as a colonoscopy. Moreover, services such as birth control were also provided completely free of charge. All of these rules would go away completely if Obamacare is struck down. Not only would you be paying more for your premiums, but your costs out of your own pocket are also heading higher. Many people may simply not get the vital preventative care that they need if they learn that they need to pay for it.

Interest Rates Throughout the Economy Could Go Higher

Follow us closely on this one. Obamacare has actually brought the federal government deficit down by bending the cost curve. Studies have shown that it has reduced the deficit by as much as $100 billion each year. With an insolvent Medicare and the government needing to borrow more, the costs of borrowing for everyone in the country rise. Higher government debt drives up interest rates because they are competing with everyone else for available capital. For you, this means that you end up paying more on your loans. This can include your credit card bill and a variable rate mortgage.

You May End Up Retiring Later if Medicare Suffers

One of the biggest effects will be on Medicare. Obamacare brought down the rates that the government paid to healthcare providers. In other words, it bent the cost curve lower. Without that help, Medicare faces insolvency much sooner than expected. If Medicare runs out of money and the government cannot take the steps to save it, you may need to work later just to have access to the health care that your employer provides. Not being able to rely on the federal government for health care at the age of 65 means that you may not be able to retire when you want and would have to work later.

Hurting Small Business Formation

If you were thinking about leaving your current job to start a business of your own, you will lose the price advantages on your health insurance that you got from Obamacare. Being able to buy insurance on an exchange saved you money because you were able to take advantage of the state using the bargaining power of many purchasers. Now, you may be forced to buy insurance directly from the company. Invariably, this will cost you much more money. This could have a harsh effect on people who want to strike out on their own but are afraid of the increased costs of health insurance. The end result is that it could cut the rate of business formation in the U.S. This could end up harming the overall innovation in our economy as small businesses are an engine of growth.