There are many reasons why signing up for Obamacare is a smart choice, but the biggest one is the last thing its Republican critics want to broadcast: the out-of-pocket monthly cost.

On Wednesday, the White House published the most detailed analysis yet of the cost of Obamacare coverage. The policies will cost anywhere from one-quarter to one-third less than what’s now available on the private insurance market. But that’s not what upwards of 25 millionhouseholds will end up paying each month. It’s far less. Depending on their income, the cost could drop by another one-third to two-thirds because Obamacare has tax credits—federal subsidies—for household earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line that are directly paid to insurers each month.

Image: whitehouse.gov

The subsidies and related administration will cost $19 billion in 2014, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated. About 25.7 million people could be eligible for the income-based discounts, a Families USA study found, which will lower actual coverage costs by many thousands of dollars per policy-holder.

Consider the following two examples from the Health Insurance Marketplace Premiums for 2014 issue brief released Wednesday by the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 36 mostly red states, HHS will be enrolling people via online applications at healthcare.gov because local Republicans have refused to set up state-run exchanges. For these states and their largest cities, HHS listed premiums and subsidies called a tax credit. The credits go directly to insurers monthly; they are not refunded in a lump sum after filing one’s yearly taxes.

Obamacare offers four levels of health plans, called Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. They respectively cover 60, 70, 80 and 90 percent of medical costs. It also offers a low-cost catastrophic plan for young people, but that does not get the additional subsidy.

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Posted by The NON-Conformist