Straight Dope on Health Insurance Cancellations due to ACA?

[thatguyjeff]

@dracoi

I’m not sure what you mean about speculative rates. At this point in the game, there are real numbers available.

My insurance company provided me with the actual rates for the 2014 plan they’re recommending as a replacement for my discontinued plan. And I can find actual rates for 2014 plans on Washington state’s health exchange.

I was referring to what many media sources are reporting as either averages or increases in non-exchange plans, etc.

The exchange plans never existed before now. You can’t have a rate increase on a plan or coverage that never existed before. Media are also comparing what they call “equivalent” existing individual plans to newly offered exchange plans and calling those rate increases, but many aren’t truly equivalent comparisons.

The rate information that is accurate and available is variable by age, location (even within the same state) etc. The media is (generally) picking and choosing whatever rate bracket best supports the swing they put on their stories.

[fiddlesticks]

My company (a great big huge one) stopped offering PPO coverage as an option several years back, long before the ACA was passed, in favorite of the HDHPs & HSAs. I’m a healthy 30something for another year w/ no kids and the change between PPO and HDHPs hasn’t bothered me one bit. An HMO option was dropped even further back (2005ish?)…

[fiddlesticks]

@fiddlesticks

My company (a great big huge one) stopped offering PPO coverage as an option several years back, long before the ACA was passed, in favorite of the HDHPs & HSAs.

(Well, I probably should say, long before the main effects of the ACAs hit, think 2011 was the first year with no PPO coverage.)

[Ca3799]

My company changes plans almost every year. I’ve been there 15 years and have probably had 10 different insurance companies. We most bounce between two major brand names, but still it is annoying. I usually then bounce between to primary care docs for myself and two pediatrician for my kids depending on which plan my employed goes with. So not keeping our doc is a regular thing for us.

[jasg]

@jasg

Pre-ACA it was possible for anyone to purchase an inexpensive catastrophic policy.

@thatguyjeff

This is false. It was possible for anyone without a preexisting health condition to get an inexpensive catastrophic policy. There are/were some states which offered a group pool for preexisting condition sufferers. But not “anyone” had access to these.

Sorry.

As you note, I did not specify “anyone” very well. It should have been “anyone who qualified”. In my state, WA, I qualified with pre-existing conditions (no exclusions) since I was coming off COBRA and my state is a “guaranteed issue” state. Most other states were at least HIPAA guaranteed issue, so quite a few folks could qualify for HDHP if available.

[Trom]

Here’s a series of blog posts from an (IMO) intelligent, non-partisan guy who is getting completely screwed as a result of ACA.

Post 1
Post 2
Post 3

[Ferret_Herder]

His complaint is that his insurance company is dropping his plan, which is not the doing of the government.

[Trom]

@Ferret_Herder

His complaint is that his insurance company is dropping his plan, which is not the doing of the government.

Disingenuous.

To claim the changes in his insurance options is unrelated to the ACA is absurd.

[Ferret_Herder]

Nonsense, the blogger is the disingenuous one.

I fail to see how “Obama lied” to him, and how it could have been prevented short of heavy legislation or a complete switch to a single-payer system, both of which made lots of Republicans’ heads explode. Can’t have it both ways, either the insurance companies get to continue to try to fuck people over in pursuit of profits (make them stop disallowing based on pre-existing conditions and they’ll figure out something else) or we get lots more legislation which lots of people screamed over.

The strongest thing they were screaming about is stuff like socialized medicine and NHS/Canadian medicine-like systems and the like, which is what the “you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan” addressed. Not “hey, by the way, since you guys gutted a lot of the plan down to a former shell of itself, the insurance companies get leeway on how to fuck you over, and we’re hoping they won’t go there, but we aren’t allowed to stop them in certain ways.”

[barnhardt999]

@Chimera

I would expect that your SO could claim that s/he isn’t eligible through their own employer and get a subsidized plan covering the kids.

BTW, the Bronze plan I mentioned through that earlier employer was shit. For example, my diabetes test strips were essentially not covered and cost me well over $50 a box. Under my present employer’s HSA plan (for which I pay only $25 every two weeks, but put $90 (for now) in the savings part trying to build it up to the deductible), they cost me $2.06.

Chimera’s expectations are contrary to recent news coverage. Here is one Reuters article. I can’t even begin to speculate on what is true or not and I posed the question last night on IMHO and didn’t, in my humble opinion, receive an adequate response.

[Trom]

@Ferret_Herder

Nonsense, the blogger is the disingenuous one.

I fail to see how “Obama lied” to him, and how it could have been prevented short of heavy legislation or a complete switch to a single-payer system, both of which made lots of Republicans’ heads explode. Can’t have it both ways, either the insurance companies get to continue to try to fuck people over in pursuit of profits (make them stop disallowing based on pre-existing conditions and they’ll figure out something else) or we get lots more legislation which lots of people screamed over.

The strongest thing they were screaming about is stuff like socialized medicine and NHS/Canadian medicine-like systems and the like, which is what the “you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan” addressed. Not “hey, by the way, since you guys gutted a lot of the plan down to a former shell of itself, the insurance companies get leeway on how to fuck you over, and we’re hoping they won’t go there, but we aren’t allowed to stop them in certain ways.”

Did you read any of the posts? The guy isn’t a Republican and voted for Obama. He lays everything out with numbers, and he shows how he’s getting screwed.