My premiums shoot up almost 25% next month, so I went on the CA web site over the weekend. There were lots of choices, but the policy that was most like mine (same provider, basically same benefits) would have been the same cost as my current policy will be next month, so it doesn’t really help me. I will probably opt for a lesser plan (still good, but not primo) to get me back in line with what I’ve been paying the last 2 or 3 years.
This wasn’t a big surprise for me since I’m one of the people we all knew would get screwed by the new law-- healthy, self-insured. Like I said in the Elections Forum thread, I’m OK with having my premiums go up if this law is indeed good for the country, as a whole. We shall see…
You are right. My taxes will not go up solely because you are getting a break. I would not have even said anything if it hadn’t been you who made the aside that “None of the dire predictions made by the Obamacare haters came to pass.” The reasoned objections (ie not the kneejerk its Obama so it must be bad) have to do with a healthy distrust of the government when it says that there will be no increased cost and the money will come from savings. Those predictions (questions, objections, whatever) did not get disproved because you signed up. It will take time to see if it works like it is supposed to. I’m glad you got insurance. I think everyone should have healthcare. I am still not convinced that this will prove to be a good way to do it. And I’m really dreading when our current contract runs out and what will be on the agenda healthcare-wise. But that’s enough about my opinions. It is interesting to hear about others experiences with the matter.
I’m lucky enough to have pretty kick-ass insurance through my employer, which didn’t change in cost to me (I think I only pay something like $70 per pay check) during the whole debacle with people getting canceled and having rates raised.
I had group health through my employer, a small company, and paid for it all myself. When it ended in December I switched to an individual marketplace plan. I now have comparable coverage from the same insurer and expect to save about $2000 this year. I’m not getting any subsidy; it seems like having to compete just made my insurer offer much better pricing.
I was on my wife’s health plan, which was generally quite good, and was offered through her employer. It remained essentially unchanged after the ACA took effect–premiums may have gone up slightly but they usually do each year anyway–and we still have the same plan.
Our daughter, though, had aged out and was on an individual plan with a bit of a state subsidy . She is now on a much more inclusive plan for $360 less a month. Took two tries to sign her up for it (NY State, which has its own system). No complaints so far…
I tried, but as a disabled, I am eligible for Medicare, and ACA is quite specific on the point* - and my old insurance was withdrawn, and Blue Shield of CA wanted another $150/mo for a replacement.
So, I’m paying a small fraction of the proposed plan for Medicare with supplement to cover 100% of medical costs.
Even adding the drug bene (my 'scripts are over $500/mo) brings the whole thing in under the old Blue Shield PPO that was withdrawn.
subsidies not available if you can get Medicare parts A and B
The website continues to be broken for me, but since I’d be medicaid eligible if my state were expanding medicaid, but they aren’t, it doesn’t really matter. No insurance for me.
I tried. I thought supporting 3 people on $19k/year would make me a shoe in for a subsidy.
Apparently I make so little that I don’t qualify for a subsidy since under federal guidelines I qualify for Medicaid. On the same page, according to Ga guidelines, I don’t qualify for Medicaid, so I can’t get either. The cheapest half decent plan I can get is $220/month. When I bring home $300/week that is just more than I can afford.
I am covered under a group health plan through my employer which is not PPACA compliant. My health plan is therefore crappy.
I tried to search plans on the exchange but found I can’t buy insurance through the exchange as I am living overseas. However that same fact exempts me from the individual mandate.
The lowest cost ones are all 1.5 to 3 times more expensive than employer coverage, even with employer coverage becoming worse. Essentially, insurance was expanded to those who didn’t have it by making it worse for those who do.
It took me about six weeks to get thru the process, including the roughly ten hours I spent on hold trying to get someone to tell me why the website kept asking for things and then telling me I couldn’t enter what it asked for. My premiums a bit more than doubled, and my deductible went up 300%.
I hope proctology is covered because Obama can stick his health care plan up his ass.
It’s completely bizarre how things differ because I find the above to be completely the opposite of my experiences.
My current Humana plan is $1,266/month, health+dental, total cost (employer+employee.) I cannot find an Obamacare plan more expensive for my 3-person family (M+W in their 40s, 12yo daughter.) I find some that are close - the “Community First Premier” gold plan is about the same cost… but the benefits are better: lower max OOP, lower co-pays, greater co-insurance coverage, etc.
I put together a chart showing the differences from the comparable Obamacare plan and my current one. Right off the bat I save more than $350/month, over $4k/year. For some reason, there’s a $106 tax credit applied to the cost, meaning that my “savings” is close to $475/month.
I work for an insurance agency- we do these enrollments (probably about 350 people enrolled since December) for our clients. The website was almost unusable until late December but now seems to be reasonably if not ideally functional.
Except for one brand new company that is POS (similar to PPO), all the exchange plans are HMOs. That seems to cause the most complaints- even though we try to explain the differences before people enroll. Many PPO docs will not take HMO plans, even if they are in the network for the carrier. The other complaints are mostly related to the fact that the Nevada Healthlink (the exchange site) and the carriers did not really prepare for the large numbers of enrollments. So fixing a mistake on an application or even getting cards in a timely manner can take weeks.
We have a disabled client who makes $18,000 a year- he did not qualify for Medicaid and received a tax credit that should have made his premium $80/month. He also did his own application and accidentally checked tobacco use though he only chewed tobacco in college about 20 years ago resulting in a $261 per month tobacco premium. Add to that, Healthlink had a rash of accounts that dropped the tax credit. His was one of them. So instead of $80 a month, Healthlink contacted him and not realizing that the tax credit of the $440 had disappeared, they actually made him pay $800 plus for his first month’s premium. This was in January- we are still trying to get it straightened out (though they haven’t made him pay any more so far).
That being said- when it’s done right and there are no hitches, I’ve seen a lot of people that are really helped by this, especially folks with pre-existing conditions. I’ll be honest, ,the folks that I have seen negatively affected can probably afford to be. For example- a family with a $150,000 income that we helped on the exchange had their pre-ACA plan go from $300 a month to almost $700. The exchange made it possible to offset that: we got them a better plan then the original plan or the high cost plan for $530 a month for family of 3 (that’s with no tax credit). So yes, they did experience an increase but IMHO, they were still able to get good coverage for a reasonable price that they can afford.
People trying to integrate the provisions and costs of various plans, transitioning from pre ACA to ACA are bound to make mistakes and to be given bad advice from time to time. Overall, though, the ACA is a great step in the right direction, one the Democratic party should be proud to take credit for and which they should brag about during campaigns.
don’t let the R’s define who you are. The R’s are self-centered phobics with no plans of their own.
Prior to Obamacare, we had no insurance – COBRA coverage from a previous job would have run $1300 a month, we just could not afford it. We are not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare. It took me weeks to get signed up to Obamacare via the website … as mentioned by LVBoPeep, the site was basically unusable until December … but once I DID get us enrolled, thinks went very well indeed … our premiums are down to about $200 a month, a huge improvement, and we can afford to see a doctor and get the cheap maintenance drugs we need to stay healthy again.
The coverage we get via Humana seems roughly comparable to what we had under Blue Shield/Blue Cross. Finding in-network doctors took a bit of doing, but we’ve pretty much got it sorted out now.
Actually, I’m hoping to avoid paying the Liberty Tax by structuring my taxes to not receive a refund for 2014. I consider it my duty to not comply with unjust laws.
