At Napoleonville town hall, Sen. Bill Cassidy says he's on Obamacare, pays $25,000 a year

[TexasTowelie]

NAPOLEONVILLE — A crowd of about 75 people on Thursday morning didn’t protest or chant, but they did challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy's assertions on how best to replace former President Barack Obama's healthcare plan during a town hall meeting here.

While the polite group sparred a bit with Cassidy during his town hall meeting at the Assumption Parish Community Center, they appeared much more interested in finding out the answers to questions about the Affordable Care Act than protesting or staging dramatics. That was in marked contrast to hundreds of protesters Wednesday in Metairie who spoke over and cut off Cassidy throughout his stop there.

On Thursday, Cassidy used both audience members and himself as examples of those who are trapped into failing federal healthcare program. The Obamacare replacement plan he devised with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine would give states three options, he explained.

State legislatures or governors could keep Obamacare as is, turn their backs on the federal government entirely or improve on Obamacare, as Cassidy said, by creating individual health savings accounts for the poor and uninsured.

Read more: http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_b0bd68e6-f960-11e6-a622-bf98e046b5c7.html

[font color=330099]Cassidy says he pays $25,000 per year with a high deductible. Is that amount believable?[/font]

[pkdu]

1. Maybe -if he has 125 kids. nt

[VMA131Marine]

2. Well he won't get subsidies because he earns too much.

For a family plan, that's plausible. My employer sponsored family health insurance costs about $19,000/year (combined employer and employee contribution) with a high deductible.

[TexasTowelie]

5. I guess it is possible.

He has two daughters and a son. I can't find anything about the son but both daughters are young enough they would be on his plan. He probably should be able to afford the coverage since both he and his wife are doctors.

[hedda_foil]

3. Congress has their own, very good, insurance. he's lying.

[Soxfan58]

4. And don't the have it for life?

[Historic NY]

6. He has the Cadillac plan then.

[TexasTowelie]

7. I think that he has three children on his plan

and possibly one grandchild. His oldest daughter was pregnant at 17 and there was a fuss as to whether she would get an abortion.

[rickford66]

8. I don't think extra kids up the cost

Every plan I was ever on was either self or family. The family included self, spouse and any number of children. Maybe there were plans that added dependents like vehicles on auto insurance ?

[VMA131Marine]

9. Most people who get insurance through their employer will be horrified by the cost of his plan.

But, that's because most of those people have no idea what their employer's contribution is. I suspect, if they knew, they would be staggered. My employer contributes about $12k to the HDHP I get through them and I pay about half of that amount. People who need COBRA soon find out how much their insurance is subsidized by their employer. You have to compare the Obamacare rates with the employer and employee contribution in an employer group plan to get an accurate comparison. Employers get a tax break for their contribution to coverage, which they would lose if they just paid the employee that amount and told them to get insurance on their own. In addition, in that scenario, the combined value of the employer and employee contribution would be much less under current tax rules because it would become taxable income.

I would be curious to know how much the government subsidizes plans for those in Congress. Probably a lot since the plans are known to be very comprehensive.