It’s almost as if someone could have predicted this…

Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates has contended that the health plans “are just plain unattractive” because of their high premiums, deductibles and copays for people who don’t receive the additional subsidies.

“The value simply isn’t there for the working and middle class — unless of course you are sick,” Laszewski, a Wausau native, recently wrote in a column for Forbes magazine.

The cost still is high even if you are sick. The lowest-cost health plan in Milwaukee County — sold by Molina Healthcare — requires 30% coinsurance payments if someone is hospitalized, until the out-of-pocket maximum of $6,850 is reached.

Even for common health care expenses, the limited coverage provided by some plans sold on the marketplaces can be frustrating.

Kathryn Bruce, 28, bought the least expensive health plan this year. She pays only $15 a month, but the plan has a $5,000 deductible. When she got the flu and her doctor prescribed Tamiflu, an antiviral medication, she learned that it would cost her $400.

“I was just blown away by it,” said Bruce, who lives in Milwaukee. “They can diagnose you, which is free. But getting better is the most expensive part.”

The only way insurance works is when there are a lot of people who buy it and don’t use it. For health insurance, that means a lot of young, healthy people need to buy insurance to pay for the old, sick people who use it. But when the insurance is so expensive, it is difficult for a young, healthy person to justify it. And for the vast majority of those young people who choose to go without insurance, they will be just fine. In hindsight, it will be a good bet for them.

But Obamacare can’t tolerate such decisions. The young people who do not need health insurance NEED to pay into it so that the old people can have their bills paid. So our government will now force the young folks to pay a bunch of money for insurance they don’t need.

Of course, health insurance is always a good idea to protect yourself in the event you have a catastrophic health need, but we, as a society, could have addressed that sliver of circumstances without the monstrosity that is Obamacare.