This is affordable health insurance?

0patience

My wife opts out of her insurance, because my insurance covers her.
It costs me about $180/month for the coverage for my family.

But today, her work sent out a re-enrollment brochure, because they are changing insurance to something "more affordable".
Looking at the plans and choices, her work would cover her, but if she wanted to add me, it would be $1500/month out of her paycheck and family would be $2200/month out of her paycheck.

Fortunately, I'm covered by Indian health through the reservation and her and I are covered by my work insurance.

But it got me wondering about this Affordable Care Act thing.
How is that affordable?
There are people at her work who barely take home about $300/month because they are covering their spouse or family.
15 years ago, before the affordable Care Act, for her to cover the family, it was $380/month.
So I'm lost on how it has helped.

peter4jc

My gut feeling is that it was never supposed to work, but create enough of a crisis so that the country would accept and move to a single-payer system.

Usaf06

Exactly as Peter has said. This system was doomed to fail ultimately leading to what progressives wanted all along. Social healthcare

Amos_Umwhat

We're still on the Cobra, $850/month, because we couldn't afford the "affordable" care at $1,250 / month.  At the end of the year I'll start my social-securtiy, and between both of our social securities combined, we'll just be able to cover medical insurance.

The fact is, Bernie's taxes for Universal Care would be less out of pocket by a long shot.

The problem is complex. 
First we have insurance executives bringing home paychecks of 68 million dollars per year to do a job that their Medicare counterparts are doing for 160 thousand a year. (Brill, Time, April 2014)

Secondly we have those major insurance companies controlling "our" Congress through huge dark money donation schemes.

Thirdly we have Medicare / Medicaid fraud and abuse that are spending an incredible percentage of those funds on wasted efforts.  Either "saving" lives that are essentially over, or "treating" ailments that should have been taken care of by the individual.  Examples of the first are Alzheimers/dementia patients who are repeatedly resuscitated and shipped via ambulance ($800 minimum ride) all over the area to multiple specialists so they can continue their miserable and painful and confusing existence while spending incredible amounts of tax dollars.  An example of the second case; a family of 7 arrives at the emergency room on Sunday morning because they visited their Aunt, who has dogs, and the whole family wants to be treated immediately by the ER physician because each of them have flea bites on their ankles.  True story!  I was the triage nurse.  I showed them the bites on my legs, it was a bad year for fleas.  They started screaming discrimination and we the taxpayers paid about $1,800 each for the doctor to write them a prescription for an ointment. 

Sigh!

webmost

1. the average insurance premium has doubled
2. the average deductible has quadrupled
3. the average citizen now believes insurance is a right

Wylaff

webmost said:

1. the average insurance premium has doubled
2. the average deductible has quadrupled
3. the average citizen now believes insurance is a right

I have to argue with number 3, as you can no longer waive that right...

dirtdude

They would like you to believe you cannot opt out of insurance coverage yet that is not a fact.

0patience

I'm fortunate, because I have good coverage through work.
I can't imagine what it is like for people who are in the same boat as my wife's co-workers or young folks just starting out.

My oldest has type 1 diabetes and if it weren't for Indian health coverage, his insulin would be about $400/month. Fortunately, it covers him 100%, he just has to drive 130 miles every month to get it, which is still cheaper. 

I guess because I have good coverage, I was kind of blind to the reality of this and had concerns about the fallacy of the Affordable Care Act. Now this brings it to the terrible reality it is.

What is even stranger is that people were freaking out when they talked about repealling it. That they wouldn't be able to afford insurance if it was repealled.

avengethis

This is the sole reason my wife had to go back to work full time.  My job does not provide benefits so we have been buying our own insurance and the first year was not bad at about $450/month in premium with a $6,000 family deductible.  Well now going into the 3rd year the premium for the exact same plan is $1200/month and $14,000 deductible.  This is the most "affordable" plan that works for my family who goes to the yearly checkup and that is about it.

webmost

avengethis said:

This is the sole reason my wife had to go back to work full time.  My job does not provide benefits so we have been buying our own insurance and the first year was not bad at about $450/month in premium with a $6,000 family deductible.  Well now going into the 3rd year the premium for the exact same plan is $1200/month and $14,000 deductible.  This is the most "affordable" plan that works for my family who goes to the yearly checkup and that is about it.

That's another mortgage.

jd50ae

I retired with Medicare and Blue Cross. Never has either been a problem with coverage, payment or deductible. Blue Cross has been changed to another carrier (5 or 6 times) until we ended up with UHC. Blue Cross was far and away the best of the bunch. Co-pays have gone up and there are more of them. Scripts have gone down since we joined Express Scripts, always on time and cheaper at a 90 day supply delivered.

After reading what you guys are going thru I will never complain. 

silvermouse

wife and I are both on Medicare, paid into it our whole lives. Because we are both working, and because they means test, our combined yearly cost for A and B coverage, but not medications, is $10, 280. My wife's doctor charges $1,600 a year just to accept her as a patient, "concierge" is the new method of weeding out those with limited resources. My doctor doesn't accept Medicare patients except those who were his patients before eligibility. The industry sucks.

deadman

0patience said:

My wife opts out of her insurance, because my insurance covers her.
It costs me about $180/month for the coverage for my family.

But today, her work sent out a re-enrollment brochure, because they are changing insurance to something "more affordable".
Looking at the plans and choices, her work would cover her, but if she wanted to add me, it would be $1500/month out of her paycheck and family would be $2200/month out of her paycheck.

Fortunately, I'm covered by Indian health through the reservation and her and I are covered by my work insurance.

But it got me wondering about this Affordable Care Act thing.
How is that affordable?
There are people at her work who barely take home about $300/month because they are covering their spouse or family.
15 years ago, before the affordable Care Act, for her to cover the family, it was $380/month.
So I'm lost on how it has helped.

Companies are doing this now so spouses will use their own insurance instead. Problem is not all spouses work. 

Martel

In 1998, I took some time off from college and was dropped from my parents' insurance.  I shopped around and the cheapest individual coverage I could get that actually let me see a doctor was about $380/month.

When I got a job with insurance, I paid about $180/month for myself.

When I switched jobs, it went up to about $250/month and the benefits were horrible.

I switched jobs again and the cost went down but deductible went up.  I'd gotten married at the previous job.  Then we had a kid.  All of a sudden, we're approaching $500/month in 2002 with employer coverage.

I went back to the first job I had with insurance.  Paid less, but insurance was less with a better deductible.  All along we're still paying bills from the first kid.  Then, bam, my wife gets pregnant again and we have our second in 2004.  We're racking up tens of thousands of medical debt because of her Type I and the pregnancies both having complications.  She had home health care and was on bed rest.

Ever since that job, our insurance costs have increased every year under her employers (she worked for insurance at one point.  Full-time with hardly any take-home pay) until her most recent job.  The biggest % increases happened before 2008, but they were headed up as were deductibles which just continued.  We were on high-deductible plans for a few years under one employer because we used our maximum OOP every year and they actually turned out to be less, even with $5000 or higher deductibles.  But it took us hours of work to compare what the actual costs would be. (There's one big problem in a very consumer-unfriendly market.)

Now we pay nothing.  Absolutely nothing except our deductible which is not high.  But that's because her position benefits from the union contract many of her co-workers are under, even though she doesn't qualify for the union.  It will cost more when contract time rolls around.  Still, before this, I knew the details under every employer.  For years, they swallowed larger and larger portions of the cost of insurance as it rose.  Then it hit a point they decided to pass it on to the employees.  I really don't blame the ACA.  The issue is too complicated and the trend was going in that direction.  The whole industry is messed up.  That's all I have to say about that as I sit here, comfortably insured.

I sympathize with anyone who is dealing with this system.  It is messed up.  Has been for a long time.  I don't see it getting better.

It's messed up.  

Wylaff

4 years ago my wife got pregnant right before time to pick an insurance. We select a good one at 350 a month family with only 800 OOP. It was great. I now pay 1400 a month. With 6k OOP. It costs so much to even see a doctor that I would rather suffer for 2 weeks with strep than go get an antibiotic. I agree. Sh't is broke.

Markwell

It's gotten so ridiculous that I couldn't even afford health insurance at my previous job. I was working full time at a gas station and insurance was nor offered through the company. So, I went without. Figured ok, I'm only 25 so I'll be fine. 

Became time to file my taxes the following year and I had to pay a huge penalty for not having any coverage. At what point did we become a communist society?

dirtdude

Socialist is the term you are looking for.

I was unemployed for 3 months last year and the $800/month hit from COBRA was one of those things I deemed I could do without. Did my taxes online with one of the big tax outfits and of course lack of insurance for 3 months comes up. Of the choices before me Financial Difficulties seemed the proper answer, Reason - Unemployed, Penalty Due -$0. Was expecting a big hit

Amos_Umwhat

If we're required to pay, that's a TAX.

If we're required to pay to an insurance company, and the people have NO say, which is where we are, that's taxation without representation.

Does that sound familiar to anyone?  Anymore? 

Or, have we forgotten completely where we came from?

Lord knows they're trying to erase our history right before our eyes,

Markwell

And (sadly) they'll continue to succeed as long as the majority of youths in this country become more and more detached from reality. Trust me, I can't stand most of the people my age.

webmost

Markwell said:

 At what point did we become a communist society?

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

webmost

dirtdude said:

Socialist is the term you are looking for.

Under socialism, the government buys the business via eminent domain and runs it.

Under communism, the government steals the business and runs it.

Under fascism, the government tells the owners how to run their business.


So, technically, we are fascist.