Nearly two million Americans could be affected by what’s been termed the “family glitch” within President Obama’s healthcare law, according to a new study by the American Action Forum.
In theory, Obamacare is supposed to offer fully or partially subsidized health insurance to Americans below a certain income threshold if they do not have the option of obtaining affordable coverage through their employers. “Affordable” is defined as coverage cheaper than 9.5 percent of household income.
But under a ruling by the Internal Revenue Service, an employer is only required to offer affordable coverage to individuals.
The “glitch” arises when one or both spouses is offered individual coverage through their employers that is deemed “affordable,” but the employers either do not offer family coverage, or that coverage is not actually affordable.
Such families are not able to obtain federally subsidized insurance coverage, because one or more of the family members was offered affordable employer coverage. So they face the choice of either purchasing unaffordable coverage, or going uninsured.
“We estimate this glitch will impact 1.93 million Americans,” the study, authored by Brittany La Couture and Conor Ryan, read. “Up to 947,000 spouses and 984,000 children could be left uninsured by this conundrum. Up to 428,000 women will fall into the glitch, and 519,000 adult men.”
Should Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding expire or get altered, “An additional 2.28 million children could fall into this glitch,” the study said.
The study also predicted that the number affected by the glitch “will likely increase as the employer mandate goes into effect.”
The American Action Forum is led by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Director of the Congressional Budget Office and economic adviser to the 2008 John McCain campaign.
