Another ATPNer gets nailed by Obamacare

[OverVolt]

Umm, the ACA is a giveaway to corporations. The medicare buy in and public option were removed.

Medicare buy in/public option would have been nice...

The plan seems to have been aimed to like quintuple men's individual insurance in their 30's in the name of equality, because apparently maternity coverage is discrimination as is being old.

Two things stick out, first is that previously in the individual market for younger people the mens plans cost almost half as much as a women's plan presumably because having a baby costs like $23,000 and this is people in their 20's and 30's so the odds of that are not exactly low.

Second thing that sticks out to me is the 3:1 ratio. You cannot charge an older person more than 3x what you charge the youngest person.

This means obamacare is royally screwed if it doesn't recruit younger people. Not that young people have any money in the first place. I think that is the main part the government doesn't understand about the ACA. Why aren't young people signing up? Well between student loans and half of the people under 30 living at home, they're broke, thats why. The subsidy is crap, all the younger folks have W2 inflation. Where we went to school, had a chance at an okay job, but have a ton of student loans so we make as much as a guy making $35k/year after taxes and student loans but wouldn't qualify for a subsidy because of gross income W2 inflation etc etc.

The ones who do qualify for a subsidy probably work a bunch of part time or temp jobs instead and could never afford the deductibles, the unlucky ones, the english degrees or whatever. Its a disaster.

That said I have nothing against people who are sick its the very thing I'd hate to have happen to me and bad health can happen to anyone (or rather will happen to everyone eventually) its just the suck-up-wealth from the young scheme that irks me. We've got enough dead weight to carry as it currently stood before the ACA, like SS. Nobody under 30 is going to get nearly what we're paying into it.

 

[werepossum]

Thought I'd update this thread. We have our new insurance policy. It is Blue Cross Blue Shield, it's ACA-compliant, and it's even a couple bucks a week cheaper. Everything isn't rosy - we still had our deductible raised a thousand dollars by Obamacare, and this new plan pays a lower amount so we lost a couple local hospitals who won't take it and virtually all the doctors accept it for current patients but refuse to accept new patients with it - but overall it's about 90% better than where we were told we'd be when I started this thread.

If this is the extent of the ACA's damage for us, we can live with it as an acceptable price for insuring people who previously could not afford it or just couldn't get it. Between the $1000 increased deductible, the 20% of that the insurance wouldn't have paid, and the very slightly lower premiums, I'm out only an additional $600 or so.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - I kept all my doctors except one and still have our two major hospital chains and all but two local independent hospitals.

 

[Zaap]

"Your" entirely correct. I feel entitled to what I voluntarily selected and paid for entirely with money I earned, without the Democrat Party fucking it up all the way from D.C.

tl/dr: Dumbass.

LOL! 😀

It is true that all politicians in either party are only consistently good at two things: screwing over the people and granting themselves more power.

You certainly have my sympathy, as does everyone victimized by our crappy political class.

 

[Zebo]

I prefer to call it the Hospital, Insurance, Pharmacy and total dead beat profits act.

They are the only ones profiting from this abomination 90% are not.

I used to pay $1100 for 5 people and it was an indemnity plan. Meaning I see any doctor I want anywhere, and they'd pay 90% after submitting bills. $3000 deductible. Celtic, my insurance company stopped insuring here because of ACA and now I'm in for $1350 a mo on a HMO type plan where i cant see any doctor anywhere have to get referals, with higher everything.

There is like 34 working HC models around the world of first world countries how to get everyone insured. All cost less than half as much per capita as us and we dont even get everyone insured yet. Dems are corrupted as hell though so we'll never get a good system they just put screws on middle class for their buddies of rags and riches.

 

[SheHateMe]

I am now on a work provided insurance plan through Aetna. I had an ObamaCare plan before for $350 a month which was awesome and covered all of my needs. I thought the work insurance was going to be expensive because thats all you people complain about all day.

For $85 a month I get vision, dental, Medical (with $1,000 from my employer towards my deductible which is $2500), short term disability coverage and life insurance. If I had a kid and a husband, it would only cost me $359/m



Maybe your employer just sucks. idk.

 

[Attic]

Come on werepossum. You seriously going to ignore the best part of Obamacare?

Massive, unmistakable, in your face incentive to never get sick, hurt, cancer, itchy balls, whatever, don't ever get anything that would force you to use that which you've been saddled with (higher healthcare costs). Helpful too if you wouldn't mind keep paying in while never being able to afford a gd'mnd thing.

Just don't do it, don't you dare get sick.

 

[Northern Lawn]

 

[Victorian Gray]

nmhttp://www.allgov.com/news/where-is...pplicants-a-waste-of-money-131230?news=852034

 

[Darwin333]

Your like way too many Americans you feel entitled and when you don`t get what you want you vote for the party that will give you what you want..

Trust me it would be worse if a Republican was in office....

Since when was freely and willfully entering into a contract for insurance on ones own self or belongings an "entitlement", especially considering that the OP and myself have been subsidizing other peoples insurance since I was 15 (give or take a few years for the op)?

 

[Jhhnn]

If this is the extent of the ACA's damage for us, we can live with it as an acceptable price for insuring people who previously could not afford it or just couldn't get it.

Thanks for a fair & honest appraisal.

 

[Zebo]

Free for Americans too.🙂 I went up there and got free care about a month ago while on vacation. Couldnt believe it when I went to desk and asked "how much i owe you" and girls all " we dont have a way to charge you no register" I loled.

Oh and they also gave me the persciption/drugs free. Never seen a doctor that has bottles label and all. Here you have to go to a separate pharmacy.

 

[Jhhnn]

nmhttp://www.allgov.com/news/where-is...pplicants-a-waste-of-money-131230?news=852034

Tried to quote but you edited.

 

[Northern Lawn]

Free for Americans too.🙂 I went up there and got free care about a month ago while on vacation. Couldnt believe it when I went to desk and asked "how much i owe you" and girls all " we dont have a way to charge you no register" I loled.

Oh and they also gave me the persciption/drugs free. Never seen a doctor that has bottles label and all. Here you have to go to a separate pharmacy.

You're welcome.

 

[Zebo]

They got me back on gas and booz. Thats what the $5 a L gas and $65 a half gallon of whiskey pays for.

 

[Northern Lawn]

They got me back on gas and booz. Thats what the $5 a L gas and $65 a half gallon of whiskey pays for.

 

[Darwin333]

The US government already manages a health plan that covers every American 65 and over, constituting approximately half of US health spending and does it in a more efficient manner than our private sector. That would just be a starting point too, as there are a lot more savings to be had.

So my example of the US government running a health system would be... the US government running a health system. Next problem?

To be perfectly honest with you, if I thought for one second that our politicians could have a grown up conversation about universal HC and actually call in experts that wouldn't have their hand in the cookie jar to help them craft the bill, I would be all for it with a single condition. That single condition is rather easy, people that want and can afford supplemental or "additional" coverage via a private plan being able to do so.

Unfortunately we can't do the above. The Dems got to write a 2,000+ page healthcare law all by themselves and didn't require a single Republican vote to pass it. In fact they only got a single R vote in the house and he didn't cast his vote until after the bill had already received the required votes to pass. In a nutshell they had as free of a reign as possible in DC to come up with the best healthcare bill they could, up to and including UHC, and instead we got us some "Obamacare". Politicians started worrying about keeping their jobs I(you know, instead of actually DOING their jobs) when terms like "death panels" started getting thrown around. Guess what, roughly 25% of Medicare spending is spent on people in the last 6 months of their lives or "end of life care". We simply can not afford to spend unlimited amounts of resources to extend peoples lives a very trivial amount and more often than not those few months all of that money bought aren't the least bit comfortable. The fact that ANY resource must be rationed should be rather trivial knowledge to anyone that even approaches a position of being able to pass laws. We learned that there is no such thing as infinite anydamnthing in elementary school so why do we think that we can provide limitless health care, regardless of who pays for it, in the US?

End of life care is where the discussion must begin but the poor politicians don't want to be seen as throwing grandma under the bus so we can't even begin to have an intelligent discussion.

 

[ivwshane]

To be perfectly honest with you, if I thought for one second that our politicians could have a grown up conversation about universal HC and actually call in experts that wouldn't have their hand in the cookie jar to help them craft the bill, I would be all for it with a single condition. That single condition is rather easy, people that want and can afford supplemental or "additional" coverage via a private plan being able to do so.

Unfortunately we can't do the above. The Dems got to write a 2,000+ page healthcare law all by themselves and didn't require a single Republican vote to pass it. In fact they only got a single R vote in the house and he didn't cast his vote until after the bill had already received the required votes to pass. In a nutshell they had as free of a reign as possible in DC to come up with the best healthcare bill they could, up to and including UHC, and instead we got us some "Obamacare". Politicians started worrying about keeping their jobs I(you know, instead of actually DOING their jobs) when terms like "death panels" started getting thrown around. Guess what, roughly 25% of Medicare spending is spent on people in the last 6 months of their lives or "end of life care". We simply can not afford to spend unlimited amounts of resources to extend peoples lives a very trivial amount and more often than not those few months all of that money bought aren't the least bit comfortable. The fact that ANY resource must be rationed should be rather trivial knowledge to anyone that even approaches a position of being able to pass laws. We learned that there is no such thing as infinite anydamnthing in elementary school so why do we think that we can provide limitless health care, regardless of who pays for it, in the US?

End of life care is where the discussion must begin but the poor politicians don't want to be seen as throwing grandma under the bus so we can't even begin to have an intelligent discussion.

You should go to the doctor right away, apparently you are suffering from memory loss with regards to how the ACA was passed.

 

[werepossum]

I am now on a work provided insurance plan through Aetna. I had an ObamaCare plan before for $350 a month which was awesome and covered all of my needs. I thought the work insurance was going to be expensive because thats all you people complain about all day.

For $85 a month I get vision, dental, Medical (with $1,000 from my employer towards my deductible which is $2500), short term disability coverage and life insurance. If I had a kid and a husband, it would only cost me $359/m

Maybe your employer just sucks. idk.

lol For most of us, $350 per month IS expensive. As for the other, we're a very small employer; we're just not a big enough income stream to get good rates. However, our individual coverage is wholly subsidized, and we also contribute $500/year to each individual and $1,000/year per couple or family to meet our increased deductible. Plus, you know, I have to chip in and make your great policy affordable. You're welcome, by the way. 😀

Come on werepossum. You seriously going to ignore the best part of Obamacare?

Massive, unmistakable, in your face incentive to never get sick, hurt, cancer, itchy balls, whatever, don't ever get anything that would force you to use that which you've been saddled with (higher healthcare costs). Helpful too if you wouldn't mind keep paying in while never being able to afford a gd'mnd thing.

Just don't do it, don't you dare get sick.

That part didn't change that much. Last year Obamacare raised our deductible $1,000 to $3,700 which sucked, but the rest of our policy is pretty much the same. As I said, I don't consider that an unacceptable penalty if that's the extent. Someone has to pay for the uninsured, and I don't mind shouldering a bit of the burden. Also, the only hospitals we lost were minor - one I've been to long ago and the other I've never been in even professionally, and neither would be a choice I'd voluntarily make - and the only doctor I lost was my CPAP doctor that I've not seen in years. I can pretty much manage my own CPAP needs via the Internet. In fact, my insurance won't buy a CPAP machine, only rent to own, and that actually cost me more out of pocket than it would have cost me to buy via the Internet! If I do have to visit him, I'll pay cash and it will come out of my out of pocket & deductible. No biggee.

Thanks for a fair & honest appraisal.

No problem. It's actually a lot better than I feared. Not to mention a lot better than our insurance broker told us - his job is apparently to relate the same rumors we already hear through our engineering sources. lol

 

[shira]

This year Obamacare helped me out by raising my out-of-pocket by $1,000 for the exact same coverage. Next year Obamacare is helping me out by having my insurance cancelled. Thanks, Obama!

And you know that Obamacare is responsible for these changes how, exactly?

For years, my own employer has been slowly raising rates while reducing benefits. This year, the maximum OOP (for a married couple) was ALSO raised by $1000, from $5,000 to $6,000; and my yearly premium went up by $200. Last year (before Obamacare) the co-pays for prescription drugs went up 20% and premiums went up $200. And the previous year there were similar increases.

Insurance premiums have been going up year after year after year. Companies with group policies hold down premium increases by whittling away at other health benefits in the group policy. But you somehow "know" that this year's changes are caused by Obamacare.

Edit: Oops. Didn't see that this was a December, 2013 thread. But my response is still valid. When I read posts such as:

That part didn't change that much. Last year Obamacare raised our deductible $1,000 to $3,700 which sucked, but the rest of our policy is pretty much the same.

I continue to ask: And how, exactly, do you know that it's Obamacare and not the underlying steady increase in the cost of health insurance that's the cause for the changes you cite?

 

[werepossum]

And you know that Obamacare is responsible for these changes how, exactly?

For years, my own employer has been slowly raising rates while reducing benefits. This year, the maximum OOP (for a married couple) was ALSO raised by $1000, from $5,000 to $6,000; and my yearly premium went up by $200. Last year (before Obamacare) the co-pays for prescription drugs went up 20% and premiums went up $200. And the previous year there were similar increases.

Insurance premiums have been going up year after year after year. Companies with group policies hold down premium increases by whittling away at other health benefits in the group policy. But you somehow "know" that this year's changes are caused by Obamacare.

Edit: Oops. Didn't see that this was a December, 2013 thread. But my response is still valid. When I read posts such as:

I continue to ask: And how, exactly, do you know that it's Obamacare and not the underlying steady increase in the cost of health insurance that's the cause for the changes you cite?

In this case, because Blue Cross Blue Shield said "Sorry, but under the ACA the minimum out of pocket is $3,700 and your plan has an out of pocket of $2,700 so to be compliant with the new law your out of pocket is being raised to $3,700." Seems pretty clear.

 

[Victorian Gray]

Tried to quote but you edited.

Sorry, I belatedly realized how old the post was that I was replying to and figured it was kind of dumb to keep it up. I plead an 'old brain'.

 

[Victorian Gray]

You're welcome.

Will you stop with the 'free' given that it isn't. Even though we all like our system (mostly) we also know that we're paying something for it through our taxes.

 

[Northern Lawn]

Will you stop with the 'free' given that it isn't. Even though we all like our system (mostly) we also know that we're paying something for it through our taxes.

When I have a fuck to give what you think, i'll let you know, in the mean time...

 

[yllus]

Thought I'd update this thread. We have our new insurance policy. It is Blue Cross Blue Shield, it's ACA-compliant, and it's even a couple bucks a week cheaper. Everything isn't rosy - we still had our deductible raised a thousand dollars by Obamacare, and this new plan pays a lower amount so we lost a couple local hospitals who won't take it and virtually all the doctors accept it for current patients but refuse to accept new patients with it - but overall it's about 90% better than where we were told we'd be when I started this thread.

If this is the extent of the ACA's damage for us, we can live with it as an acceptable price for insuring people who previously could not afford it or just couldn't get it. Between the $1000 increased deductible, the 20% of that the insurance wouldn't have paid, and the very slightly lower premiums, I'm out only an additional $600 or so.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - I kept all my doctors except one and still have our two major hospital chains and all but two local independent hospitals.

That's good news, though a little unexpected. The cost of medical insurance is surely going up for some people / organizations - you can't just add millions of people to coverage for nothing. To me the entire conversation on the ACA should have revolved around the idea of giving a little to help your fellow citizens out.

I prefer to call it the Hospital, Insurance, Pharmacy and total dead beat profits act.

They are the only ones profiting from this abomination 90% are not.

I used to pay $1100 for 5 people and it was an indemnity plan. Meaning I see any doctor I want anywhere, and they'd pay 90% after submitting bills. $3000 deductible. Celtic, my insurance company stopped insuring here because of ACA and now I'm in for $1350 a mo on a HMO type plan where i cant see any doctor anywhere have to get referals, with higher everything.

There is like 34 working HC models around the world of first world countries how to get everyone insured. All cost less than half as much per capita as us and we dont even get everyone insured yet. Dems are corrupted as hell though so we'll never get a good system they just put screws on middle class for their buddies of rags and riches.

The sheer waste of your system will force you guys to take another step towards a proper public option within the next twenty years, I imagine. As long as you don't strictly follow the Canadian model (private services are illegal here, which is idiotic) you should come out ahead.

 

[Sonikku]

Your like way too many Americans you feel entitled and when you don`t get what you want you vote for the party that will give you what you want..

Trust me it would be worse if a Republican was in office....

No it wouldn't. If Romney were president he would have repealed that bullshit. He knows hair brained healthcare reform when he sees it.