"Affordable" Care Act - Yeah, Right.

Sabretooth said:
BCBS wasn't compliant?

I've been on the lowest tiered family plan since 2006. There isn't another that works for me and my family.


ETA: Oh, wait...sorry...their is one more tier. If I want to further increase my co-pay and increase other out of pocket services, my increase would only be 18.6% this year.

No matter what, my costs increase when we were told that wouldn't be the case. But you go ahead and praise King Obama for all his awesomeness. :rolleyes:
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Yes, your particular plan was likely being discontinued and so the lowest tiered plan doesn't meet the minimum requirements. But you didn't answer my question. What happened when you went on the exchange to look at other carriers? One of the benefits of the ACA is that plans have to apples to apples. So if you find a cheaper plan, there's no reason not to ditch BCBS and go with another company.

I do find it fascinating and hard to explain why costs are going down so much in Oregon but increasing by so much elsewhere? Aside from the phasing out of ultra-high deductible plans, it does seem very uneven.

I'll make a prediction, though. As they smooth out the variances in plans across the country, the next step is to smooth out those costs. And when that happens, we'll likely again see people (perhaps even you!) see their costs go down while other people (maybe me?) will see them go up. This will continue until everyone pays about the same. Then you may need to smooth things out even more based on age and income. And then finally, finally, we'll have a decent UHC system.

But again, for you, have you tried looking on the exchanges?
 
Spindrift said:
How do you know it's attributable to ACA?
Did you have an increase last year? When was the last time you didn't have an increase?

ETA: I assume by well-visits, you mean preventative care? If so, all new policies are required to cover them.
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I don't remember the last time my insurance did not increase somewhat or some coverage did not get worse.

And my employer switches plans frequently to get introductory prices from the insurance company and or broker
 
Ziggurat said:
Not everyone wants or needs an ACA-compliant plan.



Aside from the problems the exchange website has been experiencing, at this point there's basically no way to evaluate a lot of the plans because many of them haven't set their reimbursement rates yet and so doctors don't even know if they'll accept those plans. So you can buy a plan (if you're lucky enough to get the website to work), but you can't actually figure out what the plan offers because the providers are unknown.
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This is a lie. I'm in the process of buying new insurance at a considerable cost decrease here in Oregon. I went directly to the MODA website.

https://www.modahealth.com/

As Emily Cat helpfully pointed out yesterday, if you don't qualify for subsidies you don't even need to go through the exchange at all.

I shopped for a plan and gave my doctor's name and found the plan I'm going to switch to. Strangely enough, this is my current carrier but I'm going to get much cheaper gold insurance for what I'm paying for a silver plan right now.
 
A 25% increase in premiums for what appears to be a lower quality of coverage looks very bad indeed. Are there elements of the coverage that have improved ?

If the 25% increase turns out to be typical this would widen further the gap between the costs of healthcare in the U.S. (which are already twice what they are in most developed countries as measured as a % of GDP for no significant benefit in terms of outcome - old news but it bears repeating). There is something horribly broken in the U.S. healthcare model if the costs are now 2.5 times the developed world norm.
 
Sabretooth said:
...
No matter what, my costs increase when we were told that wouldn't be the case. But you go ahead and praise King Obama for all his awesomeness. :rolleyes:
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Nobody is praising "King" Obama for all his awesomeness. That's ridiculous.

And if you're serious about this -- if this isn't just a I Hate Obama mini-rant -- then you need to provide some evidence that your increase IS related to the AHCA.
 
Ziggurat said:
Not everyone wants or needs an ACA-compliant plan.
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Not everyone wants car insurance when they buy a car, either.


Newtons Bit said:
You replied to my post, wrote "you" and "your" 3 times and "Sabretooth" zero times. You may want to make yourself more clear.
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I actually initially replied to Sabretooth's (sorry about the typo) post, mirroring your statement. I took your sympathy as relating to or echoing Sabretooth's position. If that was incorrect, my apologies.


Newtons Bit said:
I can't follow your argument.
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My apologies. I was (eventually) asking you, Newtons Bit, if you make less than 4 times the poverty line, why are you not eligible for the subsidy? I realize there must be more than just the one criteria (income level) for determining who gets a subsidy and who does not. Why are you not eligible?
 
Sabretooth said:
Just got my packet for my 2014 health care.

Premiums are increasing by $1,200 for the year.

Co-Pays are also increasing. Well-visits are no longer free.

So much for "affordable". Biggest misnomer in history.


It's a pile of horse crap and Obama is big *********** liar.
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I assume this is without the subsidies so what's your increase with those calculated in?

No one ever said that the ACA would lower everyones costs.

Preventative check ups are mandated by the ACA to be free.

At best your rant is based on incomplete calculations and and misinformation.
 
Wasn't the main thrust of the ACA that it would make health care more affordable to people who couldn't afford it? Of course some prices are going to rise as your fellow man can finally step up and get needed care without being broke for the rest of their lives. There's a worse cost in letting people go uncared-for ("dying in the streets hyperbole") and using hospital ER's for basic needs.
I say that having heard "If you need medication wait until you have a seizure then go to ER" when I couldn't afford the $300 a month drug I'd been prescribed.
 
Upchurch said:
Not everyone wants car insurance when they buy a car, either.
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I think we have a right to bitch when our insurance rates go up over $1000 in a single year.



I actually initially replied to Sabretooth's (sorry about the typo) post, mirroring your statement. I took your sympathy as relating to or echoing Sabretooth's position. If that was incorrect, my apologies.



My apologies. I was (eventually) asking you, Newtons Bit, if you make less than 4 times the poverty line, why are you not eligible for the subsidy? I realize there must be more than just the one criteria (income level) for determining who gets a subsidy and who does not. Why are you not eligible?
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Thanks.

As I understand it, subsidies kick in once the new health insurance premiums exceed x% of your income and the government will cover everything over x%. The x% varies with your income. My new health insurance premiums will be just below x%, though it's close enough that I want to go through the exchange to make sure. I'm self-employed, and thus pay both halves of payroll taxes, so it (the exchange) may calculate what I qualify for differently than the online calculators.
 
All 235,000 words of the ACA were lovingly crafted by K Street, then carefully read and approved by the entire Democratic caucus in Congress. It's the signature accomplishment of one of the top two presidents of the 21st century. I can only conclude that seeing your rates go up is the result of impertinence. How dare you, sir?
 
daredelvis said:
Sabretooth said:
Well-visits are no longer free.
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Spindrift said:
ETA: I assume by well-visits, you mean preventative care? If so, all new policies are required to cover them.
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Still haven't got an answer to this one.
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Yeah, sorry...I get one free doctor visit per year, but anything ordered by the doctor as part of the physical (certain vaccines, blood tests, etc.) that used to be free is no longer. If my doc orders a blood test, I have to pay $20.
 
Unabogie said:
This is a lie. I'm in the process of buying new insurance at a considerable cost decrease here in Oregon. I went directly to the MODA website.
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Nothing you said contradicts what I said. I didn't say that all the plans on all the exchanges were lacking providers.

As Emily Cat helpfully pointed out yesterday, if you don't qualify for subsidies you don't even need to go through the exchange at all.
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Which is one reason why the exchanges are doomed. It's an adverse selection death spiral just waiting to happen.
 
Upchurch said:
My apologies. I was (eventually) asking you, Newtons Bit, if you make less than 4 times the poverty line, why are you not eligible for the subsidy? I realize there must be more than just the one criteria (income level) for determining who gets a subsidy and who does not. Why are you not eligible?
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It's not your income that matters as far as subsidies goes, it's what the household income is. So Person A who makes just $15,000 a year doesn't qualify for a subsidy if his roommate makes $55,000. Not that the roommate is going to kick in for the health insurance, Person A probably just goes without and gets penalized on his taxes.
 
WildCat said:
It's not your income that matters as far as subsidies goes, it's what the household income is. So Person A who makes just $15,000 a year doesn't qualify for a subsidy if his roommate makes $55,000. Not that the roommate is going to kick in for the health insurance, Person A probably just goes without and gets penalized on his taxes.
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Household is a legal term for families (and similar) associations of people. The dude you share your apartment isn't part of your household unless you're married to him, or one of you is a dependent of the other.
 
WildCat said:
It's not your income that matters as far as subsidies goes, it's what the household income is. So Person A who makes just $15,000 a year doesn't qualify for a subsidy if his roommate makes $55,000. Not that the roommate is going to kick in for the health insurance, Person A probably just goes without and gets penalized on his taxes.
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Are you sure about that? Household means tax household. So unless the roommates are mother and daughter, what one makes has no bearing on the other.
 
Ziggurat said:
Nothing you said contradicts what I said. I didn't say that all the plans on all the exchanges were lacking providers.
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How typically dishonest of you.

You said:

, but you can't actually figure out what the plan offers because the providers are unknown.
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This is a lie. You can do this right now, which I've proven with a direct link to an insurer. I don't know how much clearer this could be.

Which is one reason why the exchanges are doomed. It's an adverse selection death spiral just waiting to happen.
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Which is another parroted right wing talking point. What I pointed out was that you can get the same insurance directly as you can on the exchanges by going to the insurance company websites. The exchanges are for people who need subsidies, but they all lead to the same ACA compliant policies, all of which are better than the crap insurance you could buy before the new law. There's no adverse selection involved, and I question whether or not you even understand what adverse selection means. Adverse selection is when sick people gravitate to plans which drives the cost up, pricing out healthier people. Under the new law, it doesn't matter if you're sick or not, as cost is no longer dependent on your health. And the individual mandate means that almost everyone will participate, which is the opposite of adverse selection.
 
Spindrift said:
Are you sure about that? Household means tax household. So unless the roommates are mother and daughter, what one makes has no bearing on the other.
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I have no idea what it means since I'm unable to even create an account and get that far. I'm just going by the definition of "household" I'm familiar with, if you have the ACA definition post a link to it.
 
lol, I have never heard the term "household" refer to roommates in any financial context...
 
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