That’s us, pretty much, although I don’t believe we bought our health care on the exchange. Sometimes I wonder if it would just be cheaper for some to go without insurance but set aside like $25k a year for medical expenses. It’s risky but frankly the cost of health care is just getting to be untenable. People are not going to be able to afford this. You should not have to choose between medical insurance and retirement. It’s obscene.
I’ve updated my marketplace application and now I’m shopping for a plan. My projected 2026 income will be less and under the income threshold so I’m getting a bigger subsidy than 2025.
Looks like my current plan is still the best value. Better than BCBS, or UHC. I did look into Oscar a “health technology “ company it’s offering a bigger subsidy with zero deductible for medical and a smallish prescription deductible but the coverage absolutely sucks.
No deductible but Copays for any outpatient procedures are 2k, inpatient 2k a day. Caregivers are spread out and they have two tiers of coverage. Only tier 1 providers in network , coverage tier 2 is not. So why tier 2? Looks like there are zero tier 1 in my area. Thus I’d have to travel over 50 miles. Buyer beware!
Also one of its CEO’s is a Kushner, Joshua? No fucking thankyou.
I, too, live in Illinois. I’m a freelancer, and my wife doesn’t work. I’m 60 years old, and she’s 62 (important because ACA rates are tied to age).
I just signed up for a Bronze-tier (the lowest-level plans) for 2026, with a reputable insurer, via the Illinois marketplace: it’s about $22,000 a year. A Silver plan (with lower OOP and deductibles) would have been $36,000.
(FWIW, I make too much to have qualified for the expanded subsidies.)
Estimate: In Canada if you were making $130,000/year, you’d be paying about $20,000 in total taxes, Federal, Provincial and but not including CPP (which is like SSI in that you get a pension after 65) This would give you medical coverage, no co-pays, no deductible, but you’d still have to pay for prescriptions unless you had a 3rd party plan for that.
FWIW, that seems to be their MO; pointless, counterproductive partisanship.
Not only was the ACA essentially a GOP proposal, so is the dreaded cap and trade for emissions reduction. But when the Democrats take it under consideration, it’s suddenly going to be the ruination of the republic and cause you to have flat feet and extreme gas.
This “our policy is to oppose the Democrats and roll things back to 1947” drives me nuts. At least they could have some imagination and propose programs and policies of their own, instead of just being oppositional and reactionary.
Yeah, and that’s another thing we in Canada don’t have to mess around with. A few years back, I woke up in massive pain, while staying at a friend’s campground. At 7am, I had to drive to the local city to go to the ER. My only worry was finding the hospital in a city I had never visited before.
It wasn’t too busy, so I got seen right away, and they spent the day doing various tests. Total cost? Gas money to drive to the hospital. Didn’t even have to pay for parking.
Expecting people to figure out all this in-network, out-of-network BS while they’re in pain is absolute nonsense. I can’t understand why every ER in the US isn’t just one continuous riot.
Because there are just enough people who don’t have to deal with it to prevent riots. I’m not saying the US sytem is good, because it isn’t.But if my insurance covers an ER visit for a $100 copay and I have no problem finding in-network care because lots of doctors at every hospital I might go to accept my insurance and my share of the premiums is about $4000/yr * for my family , I’m probably not going to have a problem with my own personal situation. And for too many people, that means they don’t care about the system as a whole.
* I say “my share” of the premiums because my former employer pays for most of it - the total cost is about $33,000. If most people had to pay the full cost of their insurance , there probably would be riots in every ER.
That part of our system is insidious. If you think about it for a second, we still pay that. The company only cares about the total its paying for employees and a dollar they give straight to insurance companies is a dollar you could be demanding in wages. But it feels better to look at a smaller bill.
Was that prior to 2022? The No Surprises Act became active January 2022.
The fact that you need a law for that…wow. Just wow. “Good news! The boiling oil is now 100 degrees cooler!” And there was much rejoicing!
Yes, it was in 2015, I believe.
Did no surprises billing expire along with the extended subsidy threshold ?
I’ll reread the plans I’m shopping. but I think that’s not a guarantee anymore
It was a separate piece of legislation. Not part of the ACA.