One more Obamacare snafu

May 23, 2013

By Katy Grimes

There is yet one more snafu in the Obamacare health care law — paying for it.

The new federal health law, going into effect January 1, 2014, requires most Americans to carry health insurance. But this presents a challenge for the large number of “unbankable” Americans.

Most health plans accept a credit card for the first month’s premium payment and then require customers to pay monthly with a check or an electronic funds transfer from a checking account.

Those options won’t work for the “unbankables,” people who do not maintain a checking or savings account in a bank.

Kaiser Health News reports:

 For ordinary Americans deemed unbankable, those who don’t have a traditional checking or savings account, it can be hard to simply pay bills. And that is about to become a big problem for those who also lack health coverage — and for the health insurance companies trying to sell them coverage. After all, how do you sell a product to a customer who has no way to pay you?

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, one in five households in the United States, or about 51 million adults have only a tenuous relationship with a traditional bank, relying instead on check-cashing stores and money lenders.

No federal health laws including the Affordable Care Act, require health insurers to accept all forms of payment, including credit cards or the cash-loaded, pre-paid debit cards that people without bank accounts often rely on.