4 Surprising Facts about Health Insurance that You Didn't Know

As the GOP continues to try to remove Obamacare, Congressmen make it increasingly apparent that they don't know the very basics of health insurance. We're going to look at some of the most common misconceptions in the news these days. And, we will give you the facts.

Medicaid Is Mostly Used by Children, the Elderly, and the Disabled

Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to President Trump, recently claimed that Medicaid is no longer just for the truly needy. In fact, congressional Republicans and the Trump administration have gone so far as to suggest that benefits should be linked to work. However, two-thirds of Medicaid recipients already have part-time or full-time jobs. Furthermore, only 30 percent of those covered are able-bodied adults. The disabled and aged account for 60 percent of Medicaid spending and 44 percent of enrollees are children.

22 million people will become uninsured by 2026 if the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, is repealed. House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to explain this away by saying that this number is due to people choosing "not to buy something they don't like or want." The fact of the matter is that of the 22 million people mentioned, 7 million would lose subsidized market insurance, and 15 million would lose Medicaid.

Health Insurance Companies Are Not Cheating Customers for Profit

By now, many of you have probably dismissed this article as liberal propaganda, but we really seek to expose the truth no matter what ideology it may align with. For instance, companies selling medical insurance are not making record profits as the left might have you believe. A Congressional Research Service study found that the largest insurers' profits only averaged 3.1% of revenue. Moreover, they found that profits were most closely tied to economic growth.

Expanding Health Insurance Coverage Is Expensive

Obama claimed that what made Obamacare so great was that people would get healthier over time, and the costs of expanding coverage would go down. Yet, as the major insurance expansions of 2014 took effect, costs began to climb. The increased demand for health services drove prices up more than improved health saved money. And, further research from a few decades ago shows that as health services are used more, the costs go up. The bottom line is that expanding health care is not the way to lower health care costs.