BOHICA: ObamaCare to hit North Carolina the hardest | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton continues to employ the words of others to explain, that often, there are no "second acts" in American politics, especially in regards to defunding ObamaCare in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    We're less than a week away from the launch of ObamaCare. Nancy Pelosi said that we needed to pass the bill, in order to find out what's in it. As we get closer to implementation, we're finding out the gory details:

    [...] Based on a Manhattan Institute analysis of the HHS numbers, Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. Worst off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men. [...]

    40-year-olds, surprisingly, will face a similar picture. The cheapest exchange plan for the average enrollee, compared to what a 40-year-old would pay today, will cost an average of 99 percent more for men, and 62 percent for women.

    For this cohort, men fared worst in North Carolina, with rate increases of 305 percent. Women got hammered in Nebraska, where rates will increase by a national high of 237 percent. Again, Colorado and New Hampshire fared best, with 17 percent and 5-8 percent declines, respectively.

    Remember that here, we aren't conducting an exact comparison. Instead we're comparing the lowest-cost bronze plan offered to the average participant in the exchanges, to the cheapest plan offered to 40-year-olds today. This approach artificially flatters Obamacare, because the median age of an exchange participant is, in most states, below the age of 40.

    Yeah, this is gonna be - in Tony The Tiger's words - *GRRRRRRRREAT!* Our junior senator Kay Hagan (D-Greensboro) told us that we're going to really like O-Care once we look into it a little closer. Um, yeah. Paying that insurance bill already hurts. I'm really going to love paying 305 percent more. Thanks, Sock Puppet.

    And, despite what Kay Hagan and her friend Barry Obama tell you, this is not going to do a whole lot of good for the working poor:

    Although the stated objective of the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - was universal health insurance, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected in May that the number of uninsured will settle at 30 million from 2016 onwards, down from 55 million today.

    One reason is that millions of low-income Americans will be unable to get subsidized health insurance through the exchanges. If they are married to someone who has affordable single-family coverage from an employer - coverage that the worker is obligated to accept - they will not be eligible for premium subsidies on the exchanges.

    Without subsidies, low-income families will not be able to afford Obamacare. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that family plans will cost $20,000 (in after-tax dollars) a year by 2016.

    Anyone under 400 percent of the poverty line, currently $94,000 for a family of four, qualifies for a subsidy - unless a family member has employer-provided insurance.[...]

    Oh, and here's something for the folks in the McClatchy newsrooms - big cheerleaders for all things Obama - in Charlotte and Raleigh to chew on : their employer is shutting down its health plan for retirees by the end of 2014. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! How's that hope and change working out?