Opinion

Passing the Obamacare IQ exam

A column by Mike Myer, executive editor of The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING, W.Va. — It has become clear within the past couple of weeks that universities such as Harvard and Yale ought to be sending legions of recruiters to West Virginia. They are after the brightest of Americans, aren’t they?

It’s true that in terms of “book learnin’,” young West Virginians lag behind their peers in many other states. Standardized tests and other measures of education achievement tell us that.

But where it counts – life skills – Mountain State residents of all ages are at the top of the heap. Obamacare has made that apparent.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently released updated enrollment figures for Obamacare health insurance. Now, if you’ve been following the news, you know Obamacare’s architects are counting on lots of young people to enroll, paying higher premiums than are really necessary, to subsidize insurance for older people.

The bottom line is that Obamacare is a really bad deal for most young people, but a better idea for older Americans.

According to the DHHS report, West Virginia has the lowest percentage in the country of young people (17 in the 18-34 age group) signed up for Obamacare. The national average is 25 percent.

We also have the highest percentage (44 in the 55-64 age group) of older people enrolled. The national average is 31 percent.

So, at higher rates than in any other state, both our younger people and our older residents have Obamacare figured out.

It gets better…

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