Obamacare Costs Expected to Spike for 43,000 Who Fell 'Through the Cracks'

danjoseph | January 12, 2016
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The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that insurance costs under Obamacare will spike for roughly 43,000 Americans who will lose their government subsidies intended to make their coverage more affordable. 

According to HHS, the enrollees will lose their Obamacare subsidy because they failed to file a tax return in 2014. For these individuals, the average monthly Obamacare premium will rise from $101 to $364 due to the lack of the government subsidy. 

HHS claims they sent out reminders to those who were at risk to lose their subsidies via the Obamacare website. 

“This is an issue that we’re highly sensitive to,” Kevin Counihan, the CEO in charge of the federal marketplace, told reporters last week. “We’ve enhanced our application with new reminders, new pop-ups and other ways to try to assure people what they need to do to make sure that they comply and file the right forms.” 

As we all know, people love pop-up ads. 

Many of the Americans whose premiums are set to spike actually did file their 2014 tax returns, but failed to attach a special form that would ensure that they received their Obamacare subsidy. 

“There’s definitely a lot of learning to be done,” said Elizabeth Hagan, senior policy analyst for the pro-Obamacare group Families USA. She pointed out that even professional tax preparation groups “haven’t been used to filing these forms either.”

“There are always going to be people who fall through the cracks,” she said.

The 43,000 Americans set to see their Obamacare premiums increase would appear to be evidence that the "cracks" in President Obama's health care law are pretty big.

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