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Heeeeeeere's Obamacare!

Our company sent a paper mailing yesterday reminding us that although we could sign up on an exchange even though we have company insurance, we would lose our corporate contribution (something like half the cost). Not a better deal yet.

I can see potential for change in the future though. Companies tend to want to focus on their core competencies, and insurance is not our business. What we would not want to lose is the influence that comes from purchasing as a large group. The solution would need to be more than the company just giving us a block of cash to spend as we want, we would want some kind of larger discount that comes from there being a lot of us buying together. Will be interesting to see how this changes corporate coverage in a few years. I think it will be a good change if for no other reason that companies can focus more on what they do best.
 
This makes me sad. I have an old childhood friend who lives in Utah. His wife is not doing too well physically and they need medical insurance. He works at a major supermarket chain and they closed his store recently, so he's struggling financially.

Today his wife posted:

I want to buy 5 acres and become my own town and tell the government where to stick it. It's time to move to the mountains and live like the old west. I can't afford Obama-care and and I don't want the crap. If my family could afford insurance I would have it.
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I helpfully pointed her to some resources, but I wonder if she'll even read them? She's exactly who the law is intended to help.
 
Unabogie said:
This makes me sad. I have an old childhood friend who lives in Utah. His wife is not doing too well physically and they need medical insurance. He works at a major supermarket chain and they closed his store recently, so he's struggling financially.

Today his wife posted:



I helpfully pointed her to some resources, but I wonder if she'll even read them? She's exactly who the law is intended to help.
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How old are they? There's a lot of "young" people (like myself) who are expecting our health insurance rates to go up significantly thanks to Obamacare.
 
Newtons Bit said:
How old are they? There's a lot of "young" people (like myself) who are expecting our health insurance rates to go up significantly thanks to Obamacare.
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They are early forties, and as I said, they have no health care so no rates to rise from. Why would your rates rise? Are you on some high deductible plan? Give me some numbers.
 
Unabogie said:
They are early forties, and as I said, they have no health care so no rates to rise from. Why would your rates rise? Are you on some high deductible plan? Give me some numbers.
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If they're in their forties, it should be a wash for them.

I'm on a plan somewhere between the bronze and silver. I make just enough money to not get a subsidy. It currently costs $61/month (including dental). The estimated cheapest rates for my state are in the $160/month range.

The cheapest plans have $6,350 deductibles vs. my $5,000, however my current plan also has better coverage for other things (drugs, copays, etc). I don't know how my plan will change yet, but I do know that the insurance company no longer offers it.

So I'll be getting less coverage, and a higher deductible, for substantially more money. Yay.

That said, I'm happy that people like Travis will be able to get coverage, I just wish that it didn't cost $1,000 out of my pocket each year.
 
Newtons Bit said:
If they're in their forties, it should be a wash for them.

I'm on a plan somewhere between the bronze and silver. I make just enough money to not get a subsidy. It currently costs $61/month (including dental). The estimated cheapest rates for my state are in the $160/month range.

The cheapest plans have $6,350 deductibles vs. my $5,000, however my current plan also has better coverage for other things (drugs, copays, etc). I don't know how my plan will change yet, but I do know that the insurance company no longer offers it.

So I'll be getting less coverage, and a higher deductible, for substantially more money. Yay.

That said, I'm happy that people like Travis will be able to get coverage, I just wish that it didn't cost $1,000 out of my pocket each year.
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What state are you in? Because $61/month is way cheaper than I pay, but I'm not on a catastrophic plan. And for them, it won't be a wash, since they currently have no insurance at all and can't get any because she's already sick. So not only will their new insurance (if they don't move to the wilderness) be subsidized, but the fact that they can be insured at ALL is huge.

I can only speak to Oregon, when the exchanges here com on line, I'll be saving hundreds per month. The cheapest plan my wife can get is $316 per month. On the new exchange, that goes down to $166 but we'll get a silver plan and pay a little more. And I'm also early forties.
 
Unabogie said:
What state are you in? Because $61/month is way cheaper than I pay, but I'm not on a catastrophic plan. And for them, it won't be a wash, since they currently have no insurance at all and can't get any because she's already sick. So not only will their new insurance (if they don't move to the wilderness) be subsidized, but the fact that they can be insured at ALL is huge.

I can only speak to Oregon, when the exchanges here com on line, I'll be saving hundreds per month. The cheapest plan my wife can get is $316 per month. On the new exchange, that goes down to $166 but we'll get a silver plan and pay a little more. And I'm also early forties.
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I'm in New Mexico. I'm also a healthy 30 year old single man who doesn't smoke or drink. The underwriters do not view me as a risk.

I meant that it would be a wash for the age group. The rates of younger people (like me) are going up to pay for reductions in the rates of older folks. I forget what the numbers are, but the ACA establishes a maximum difference (as a percentage) that an insurance carrier can charge its oldest members compared to its youngest.
 
Newtons Bit said:
I'm in New Mexico. I'm also a healthy 30 year old single man who doesn't smoke or drink. The underwriters do not view me as a risk.

I meant that it would be a wash for the age group. The rates of younger people (like me) are going up to pay for reductions in the rates of older folks. I forget what the numbers are, but the ACA establishes a maximum difference (as a percentage) that an insurance carrier can charge its oldest members compared to its youngest.
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The ACA limits the premiums for older persons to three times what the same policy costs a young person.

Does your existing plan have a cap on out of pocket expenses?

Bronze plans typically have a deductible of $5,000. The $6,350 figure is the cap on out of pocket expenses. Over that amount, it pays 100% of covered expenses.

If your high deductible plan is like mine, it doesn't have a cap. It also may not cover certain types medical expenses such as physical therapy or mental health treatment.
 
Kestrel said:
The ACA limits the premiums for older persons to three times what the same policy costs a young person.
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Thanks! I couldn't remember what the number was.

Does your existing plan have a cap on out of pocket expenses?
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Yea, but it's something like $2,500,000.

Bronze plans typically have a deductible of $5,000. The $6,350 figure is the cap on out of pocket expenses. Over that amount, it pays 100% of covered expenses.

If your high deductible plan is like mine, it doesn't have a cap. It also may not cover certain types medical expenses such as physical therapy or mental health treatment.
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The cheapest plan in New Mexico has a deductible of $6,350, which I think is the statutory maximum. I'm honestly not sure where my current plan is on mental health treatment or physical therapy. The website that listed all that information has since been replaced with the new ACA approved health plans and I didn't see anything in the packets explaining the difference between coverage on mental and physical therapy.

Reading through some of the aforementioned packets, they said if you think you'll get the subsidy, that you'll have to go through the exchange. I didn't know that. My income varies wildly right now as I'm self-employed and dependent upon the construction industry. I wonder if I should bail on my current plan and go through the exchange just in case.
 
Newtons Bit said:
Thanks! I couldn't remember what the number was.



Yea, but it's something like $2,500,000.



The cheapest plan in New Mexico has a deductible of $6,350, which I think is the statutory maximum. I'm honestly not sure where my current plan is on mental health treatment or physical therapy. The website that listed all that information has since been replaced with the new ACA approved health plans and I didn't see anything in the packets explaining the difference between coverage on mental and physical therapy.

Reading through some of the aforementioned packets, they said if you think you'll get the subsidy, that you'll have to go through the exchange. I didn't know that. My income varies wildly right now as I'm self-employed and dependent upon the construction industry. I wonder if I should bail on my current plan and go through the exchange just in case.
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If you do, let us know about your experience?
 
yodaluver28 said:
If I'm not mistaken, Dessi is a vegan.
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thaiboxerken said:
Exactly
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Dessi is an expert web developer and as such has made valuable contributions to the conversation about the website problems (and as another web developer, I can tell you her analysis is spot on). You, on the other hand, appear to be ignorant on such matters, as demonstrated by attacking her for being a vegan. I know that you know you're supposed to address the argument, not the arguer. You ought to apologize.
 
ravdin said:
Dessi is an expert web developer and as such has made valuable contributions to the conversation about the website problems (and as another web developer, I can tell you her analysis is spot on). You, on the other hand, appear to be ignorant on such matters, as demonstrated by attacking her for being a vegan. I know that you know you're supposed to address the argument, not the arguer. You ought to apologize.
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Speaking as both a vegan and a web developer, I think it should be noted that Ken was just ribbing her (no pun intended).
 
United Health Care just sent us a letter informing us that the OHIP plan is being discontinued as of Dec. 31st. That's the one my wife is on at $316 a month. Fortunately, since we can afford the current payment, we are thinking of upgrading our plan to a silver or better on the new exchange.

This Obamacare is just terrible, eh?
 
Checkmite said:
America under Obamacare, Day 6. Anybody been sentenced to death by death panels yet?
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The right wing blogs are missing a great talking point. The government shut down has kept the Obamacare death panels from doing their evil work. :rolleyes:
 
Unabogie said:
United Health Care just sent us a letter informing us that the OHIP plan is being discontinued as of Dec. 31st. That's the one my wife is on at $316 a month. Fortunately, since we can afford the current payment, we are thinking of upgrading our plan to a silver or better on the new exchange.

This Obamacare is just terrible, eh?
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Well, not for you old fogies :p
 
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