The US Government announced on Tuesday a plan with which it hopes to get 200,000 inhabitants of the country to get health coverage for the first time and another million people to pay less for their health insurance.
The Treasury Department made the announcement hours before US President Joe Biden participated in a White House event with former President Barack Obama (2009-2017) to celebrate the impact of the 2010 health reform, known as Obamacare.
“This is the most significant step that has been taken to improve the implementation of the law since the legislation was first introduced,” said a US official, who asked for anonymity, at a telephone press conference.
In the US there is no public health system and half of the population has access to private health insurance through their employer, while the rest either do not have coverage or purchase it through a low-cost insurance marketplace created under Obamacare.
This law now allows more than 31 million people to have access to lower-cost health coverage.
The Treasury announcement seeks to fix the so-called “family technical failure” in the Obamacare system, which affects many Americans who have their partners, children or other relatives included in their company-provided health insurance plan.
Under the current system, Americans can switch to health insurance from the Obamacare marketplace and receive financial help to purchase it if their employer requires them to spend more than 10% of their income on their health coverage.
However, this 10% is calculated by taking into account only the cost of the employee's coverage, and not the premiums needed to cover any of his or her dependents.
That “may mean that families end up spending 25% or 30% of their income” on the private health insurance they get through their work and that they still don't have access to financial aid under Obamacare, the aforementioned US official explained.
The new regulation proposed by the Treasury stipulates that if health coverage for the entire family costs more than 10% of their total household income, the dependents of the employee who provides them with that insurance will have a new option.
Those family members of the employee will be able to receive “financial aid” to purchase low-cost health insurance through the Obamacare Marketplace, the source said, which, according to White House estimates, can benefit some 200,000 people who are now uncovered and another million who will be able to access a cheaper plan.
(with information from EFE)
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