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Obamacare hurts marriages, gives incentive for divorce

Thursday, November 7, 2013 16:48

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(Before It's News)

TND Guest Contributor: David Raney |

Sure, everyone’s aware by this point of the many problems that Obamacare is causing. People aren’t able to sign up. The website keeps crashing. Current plans are becoming unavailable. But you would think that when Obamacare starts hurting someone’s marriage a line has been crossed.

Aaron Cassara and Nora Aronowitz have been married for four years now. After falling in love in 2008, Aaron and Nora got married just one year later.

“It was really sudden,” Nora told CBS. “It was basically because he needed health insurance, and I had a job that would give that to him.”

But the reason that they originally tied the knot is now also the reason that they may consider a divorce.

With the job market being tight, Nora has been forced to find work elsewhere. This also means that the couple must seek out new insurance opportunities.

But since Obamacare has been implemented, that means that Aaron and Nora can simply get their government health insurance, apply for their government subsidies, and call it a day, right?

Well, as many have been finding out, it’s not quite so simple. The way Obamacare is structured makes it much more economically sensible for Nora and Aaron to seek a divorce.

Due to what some are calling the marriage penalty, couples who would receive subsidies when counting their income individually can face much higher premiums when the incomes are pooled.

And Aaron and Nora fall solidly into that bracket. With their current married status they can’t receive subsidies, but by divorcing they would be considered eligible.

Thus by divorcing each other, Aaron and Nora could literally end up saving thousands of dollars.

It’s one thing when legislation undergoes a bad implementation process (to put it lightly). It’s another thing when that legislation causes people to lose a product they’re perfectly happy with. But when our legislation provides an incentive for two otherwise happily married people to seek divorce, you know you’ve got a problem.

Yet another sign that Obamacare hurts.

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David Raney writes for Watchdog.org, an online news organization that publishes articles by independent journalists covering state-specific and local government activity. The program began in September 2009, a project of Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting new media journalism.