My daughter recently graduated from college and found a job immediately. Her new employer offered her health insurance for $175 a month, or about $2,000 a year.
Being a good father and always looking to save money, I called her up and told her to decline the insurance that her new firm was offering. I would keep her on the family coverage I have from my health plan.
Since the cost to insure a family is the same whether it's three people or four, the additional cost to me and my company will be zero. There is no increase in premiums, yet she will now be covered by Obamacare.
Bottom line, she will save $2,000 a year for four years, or a total of $8,000. My premium stays the same. The Stroller family as a whole saves money. My daughter's company will save the employer portion of her health insurance. No one is paying, yet she gets health insurance for four years.
Who loses? Seems to me the insurance company takes the hit and will have to pass it on to all the current policyholders.
How can a system like this survive otherwise? Is this a huge scheme that shuffles premiums around and we all pay more, or have we found utopia?
In any case, it seems like it's a good idea to tell your clients, if they have children under age 26 currently paying for their own health insurance, to add these children to the clients' own health plans. A good recommendation would be for the kids to take the $175 a month from each paycheck and invest it in a good mutual fund instead.