Without Obamacare "I'd have lost the farm," says Alabama farmer.

[Arianrhod]

Without Obamacare 'I'd have lost the farm,' says Alabama farmer

Hank Adcock of Nectar lost half his right hand in a farming accident in June – but he'll tell anybody who will listen that he would have lost a lot more if it weren't for Obamacare.

"I'd a lost the farm, I guess," said Adcock.

The farm has been in his family for three generations, and Adcock has been working it for most of his 62 years. In June, both hands got caught in a hay baler while Adcock worked alone on Straight Mountain.

The machine yanked off his right ring and pinkie fingers, along with most of the muscle and bones connecting them to his wrist. He pulled the right hand out with his left, which then got caught, crushed and cut in the machine.

Adcock estimates that it took nearly 10 minutes to free himself from the machine. Then he wrapped up his mangled right hand and drove his truck – a stick shift – to the nearest house.

"Us country folk are tough," he said.

But they aren't particularly rich, which is why the Adcocks didn't have health coverage since the late 1980s. The family couldn't afford to pay nearly $1,200 a month for a policy.

The Obamacare policy they signed up for last year cost $102 a month, and it completely covered Hank's $63,000 hospital bill. Without it, the family could have been financially ruined.

"I tell everyone I can about Obamacare, but some people don't want nothing to do with it." Adcock said.

This year, even fewer people may be open to hearing his story. Experts are predicting slower enrollment in Alabama and across the nation in 2016. Open enrollment begins on Sunday.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released estimates earlier this month that only about 1 million to 1.5 million people would gain health insurance through the marketplace this year. About 9 million gained coverage during the first two enrollment periods.

Marketplace coverage in Alabama has grown more slowly than the national average in the first two years of the program. Only 28 percent of eligible Alabamians have purchased coverage on the insurance exchange, compared to 36 percent nationwide, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The uninsured rate in Alabama has fallen from 17.7 percent to 14.5 percent since the launch of Obamacare, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In Alabama, about 160,000 people who haven't enrolled are eligible for tax credits that would offset the costs of healthcare coverage through the marketplace, according to Kaiser.

Those tax credits made it possible for the Adcocks to afford their Blue Cross health plan.
"I tell everyone I can about Obamacare, but some people don't want nothing to do with it." Adcock said.

An analysis of premium changes in 50 U.S. cities for 2016 shows that the benchmark silver plan – which is the most popular, will cost approximately 9 percent more next year in Birmingham, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But customers eligible for tax credits could end up paying much less.

"While you are seeing premiums going up in Alabama, it's pretty much on par with the average you're seeing across the country," said Cynthia Cox, associate director of the Program for Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Growth has been slower in many of the states that didn't expand Medicaid. In many cases, people who would qualify for tax credits under Obamacare may not want to get coverage because they don't trust it, said Doug Hoffman, a navigator for Enroll Alabama.

Hank Adcock was wary of Obamacare coverage when he first spoke to Hoffman. His suspicions weren't driven by politics, but by concerns about the legitimacy of the coverage.

"There are just so many con artists out there these days," he said.

Although there is still distrust in Alabama, cost is not as big an obstacle as it is in parts of Tennessee, where premiums are expected to increase by more than 38 percent.

Many states with low enrollment are experiencing bigger increases in cost than Alabama, Cox said. One of the reasons that costs aren't increasing more may be due to the participation of the state's young people. Only about 28 percent of those enrolled nationwide are young, but in Alabama, it's 32 percent.

"Despite the relatively few people enrolled, Alabama has a large number of young adults," Cox said.

Many Alabamians who already have Obamacare coverage will be shopping for new policies this year. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama – which dominates the insurance market in the state – announced that it would discontinue its only platinum plan and one of its gold offerings. The more expensive plans are less popular with consumers than bronze and silver plans, and the insurer sought hefty premium increases in the summer.

The good news for customers who are reenrolling and looking for a different plan is that shopping on the marketplace seems to save customers money, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In Alabama, customers who changed plans between 2014 and 2015 saved an average of $16 a month according to the department.

Hoffman said the state still struggles with a large number of people who fall into the "Medicaid gap." Since the state opted out of expanding Medicaid, many of its lowest-income residents who would have been covered by the program do not qualify for tax subsidies that would help them afford private insurance on the exchange. In Alabama, 185,000 people fall into the Medicaid gap.

"About half of them are working," Hoffman said.

The Adcocks could fall into that gap starting next year, with the decrease in income resulting from Hank's injury.

He and his wife Sharon will do whatever it takes to keep their income above the level required to qualify for tax credits. They are considering selling a couple cows.

"It's the best thing that ever happened to us," Adcock said. "We'll do anything to keep it."

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Thread closed. From the rules:

• Opening Posts require more than a Copy and Paste with a Link, You need to include relevant, on topic material of your own. When posting a new topic do not use the CAPS lock.