Wow! I Could Have Bought Off Exchange

Chad Henderson lives in Flintstone, Georgia, is 21 years old, and actually bought an Obamacare plan on the exchange.

Chad is a college student and part time day care worker, but made too much money to qualify for taxpayer paid subsidies.

Without Obamacare, Henderson could have received health insurance for as little as $44.72 on eHealthInsurance.com, according to Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute.

“I can’t yet say whether Chad’s $175 premium is the lowest-cost plan available to him through the Obamacare Exchange,” Cannon said. “[I’m in the process of researching that, and it’ll probably take a few hours.] But it’s probably close.”

Washington Examiner

$175 is a bummer, especially compare to the lowest cost 2013 plan.

Young, apparently healthy (but that doesn't matter under Obamacare rules) and presumably low income (but not low enough).

And why didn't Chad buy the $44 plan?

During a congressional hearing in August, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., asked Marilyn Tavenner of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services whether President Obama's promise that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” was true.

“It is true,” Tavenner said, but added that it was true “under the assumption that your insurance is ‘true’ insurance that provides coverage.”

Tavenner claimed that insurance that was not “true” was insurance that didn’t include coverage for things like hospitalization or cancer treatment.

I have been in this business for many years and never have heard that definition of "true" insurance. Apparently Tavenner thinks the major medical plans I have sold since 1975 were not "true" insurance.

And one more thing Chad did not know.

He did not have to buy on the exchange, especially since he did not qualify for a subsidy. He could have bought OFF the exchange and had more choices and a richer network.

And no, we don't know if Fred and Barney are his neighbors.

[Update: See this post for the rest of the saga...]