3 Million Young People Would Save Money Ditching Obamacare

A new study finds that three million young Americans would save $1,000 by forgoing the Obamacare health exchanges and instead paying the government’s penalty for being uninsured.

The study, conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, concludes that Americans aged 18 to 34 without children would benefit financially by opting to pay the government’s $95 or one percent of income penalty and not sign up for the Obamacare health exchanges.

“About 3.7 million of those ages 18-34 will be at least $500 better off if they forgo insurance and pay the penalty,” says the report. “More than 3 million will be $1,000 better off if they go the same route.”

The youngest candidate running for Congress, Ron Meyer (R-VA), says many younger Americans will follow the economic incentives Obamacare has created and skip signing up for the government health exchanges altogether. 

“We put this whole law on the backs of young people in the first place and it’s just going to fall on its face,” Meyer said on Fox Business. 

Meyer says young people struggling to find work in the Obama economy are already under economic strain.

“I’ll tell you personally, when I talk to young people on college campuses and in younger communities like ones I was talking to yesterday, it resonates with them that young people are being targeted and we need an advocate in Washington,” said Meyer.

The NCPPR study says Obamacare’s architecture depends on signing up millions of younger, healthier Americans to cover the costs of older, less healthy citizens. Without their participation, says the study, “the exchanges will enter a ‘death spiral’ where only the older and sicker participate and the price of insurance premiums will increase precipitously.”