Affordable Health Care Law under review by SCOTUS

[revo]

I selected a Gold Plan that costs just over $500/month with a $4,000 deductible. With the subsidy and the additional $350/month from my job, it looks like we will be paying out around $75/month. This is great news for us.

If I was able to get a health plan for my family at a cost of just $75 a month, I'd being doing handstands in the streets.

[cardboardbox]

has anyone other than ITC signed up for this yet?

[cardboardbox]

I signed my family up for one of the marketplace plans. Huge savings and better benefits overall for us, so that's nice.

did your employer pay for part of your previous plan?

[cardboardbox]

Previously I had my own (terrible) insurance and my wife and son had a plan together. Yes, her employer paid for half for her and my son was full price. Adding me to their plan would have doubled the cost, for whatever stupid reason.

We have a decent plan, I think its about 800-1000/mo for the three of us with my wife's employer paying half of that. Deductible pp is $1k, max oop is $3k, ppo, $25/visit, etc. Never had any problems with the ins not paying or otherwise giving us a hard time.

I see a plan on healthcare.gov that is $838/mo, with no deductible and $1500 oop max, but its an HMO so if I saw a specialist it would be $25+$35 the first time and $35 after that. Doesnt look like we can get a subsidy. No deductible is very nice, but not really sure if its worth switching.

I was just wondering how many actually saved a lot of money or got substantially better benefits.

[onejayhawk]

Our deductible is $1500 but the oop max is $6000. The rest is about the same as what you have. We will pay about $515/month. It would have been $900+/month for the three of us under my wife's employer's plan. The insurance I had got axed by Obamacare (YOU SAID YOU COULD KEEP YOUR PLAN! THANKS OBAMA!) because it was one of those so-crappy-it's-not-really-insurance plans. Not really sure why I even bothered to get it in the first place other than the fact it was relatively cheap.

The quote that keeps on giving.

J

[gcstomp]

I signed up in the marketplace and sent in my 1st payment. Bugs me that there is no automated way to pay my ongoing monthly yet, so I will have to physically call and charge a cc or mail a physical check every month for payment. I received no subsidies. It was not cheap. But my preexisting conditions means that prior to healthcare.gov I could not get this same coverage, so its an apples to oranges comp.

Millions of people who were denied coverage due to pre existing conditions (including the hundreds of the lamest minor issues that could get you in that class) now have available via healthcare.gov the freakin freedom of being able to get the coverage, that, you know every other person in a 1st world industrialized nation could get.

[onejayhawk]

I signed up in the marketplace and sent in my 1st payment. Bugs me that there is no automated way to pay my ongoing monthly yet, so I will have to physically call and charge a cc or mail a physical check every month for payment. I received no subsidies. It was not cheap. But my preexisting conditions means that prior to healthcare.gov I could not get this same coverage, so its an apples to oranges comp.

Millions of people who were denied coverage due to pre existing conditions (including the hundreds of the lamest minor issues that could get you in that class) now have available via healthcare.gov the freakin freedom of being able to get the coverage, that, you know every other person in a 1st world industrialized nation could get.

We had that conversation before ACA was passed. It is insufficient justification for this over arching omnibus bill.

J

[Hornsby]

We had that conversation before ACA was passed. It is insufficient justification for this over arching omnibus bill.

J

No, it's the perfect reason for this all encompassing bill. Because the Republicans blocked everything they could, simply because they're in the pockets of big business. Now, all insurance companies say that they'd take certain provisions of the ACA, including no discrimination for pre-existing conditions, if the law somehow went away. Based on their history, I'd say that they are liars.

[cardboardbox]

I signed up in the marketplace and sent in my 1st payment. Bugs me that there is no automated way to pay my ongoing monthly yet, so I will have to physically call and charge a cc or mail a physical check every month for payment. I received no subsidies. It was not cheap. But my preexisting conditions means that prior to healthcare.gov I could not get this same coverage, so its an apples to oranges comp.

Millions of people who were denied coverage due to pre existing conditions (including the hundreds of the lamest minor issues that could get you in that class) now have available via healthcare.gov the freakin freedom of being able to get the coverage, that, you know every other person in a 1st world industrialized nation could get.

I went quite a few years with no health care coverage and when I finally did get covered again, the insurance company simply said no coverage for preexisting conditions for a year and after that there were no restrictions.

[In the Corn]

Figured I would check back in and let everyone know how it's going with my new insurance.

My wife just started seeing a therapist surrounding some mental health issues. When I called the person recommended for the specialize treatment my wife needs, I asked about insurance. "We don't take it." Weekly therapy sessions...$54/session, pro-rated on a sliding scale fee. My wife still hasn't needed her prescription refilled, so I'm still waiting to see if I was misinformed or not.

My daughter is eligible for Medical Assistance from the state. They told us they needed some income verification which makes sense. I have no problem providing that information. I called late-December to follow up and see if something was being sent. I was instructed to call the county, which I did. The person I talked with told me, "She's in the system. I will have some paperwork sent out regarding the income verification."

After waiting two weeks, I called again last week. I talked with another representative from the county and was told, "I have no idea why someone would tell you we could send you something. Everything is back up coming from MNSure. We don't even have your daughter's file yet. We will send something when her information comes to us in a batch." I asked for a timetable. The guy kinda laughed and said, "I could even guess."

In the mean time, I'm paying for my daughter's weekly therapy and her first round of prescriptions.

Very frustrating...

[onejayhawk]

Reasonable people know and understand that elimination of preexisting conditions was far from the the sole justification for this bill. People that don't get that are being willfully ignorant or talking out their ass, neither of which is sufficient grounds for making sweeping commentary about a new law.

Anyone care to argue that the following 10 items are anything but really good parts of Obamacare?


1. Goodbye doughnut hole. Medicare drug plans (Part D of Medicare) stop providing insurance to people after their claims for covered drugs hit a certain level ($2,970 in 2013), and coverage doesn't resume until spending hits another level ($4,750 in 2013). Health care reform is closing this doughnut hole in annual stages, and it will be totally closed by 2020. Savings to Medicare beneficiaries will be in the tens of billions of dollars.

2. Free Medicare preventive services. Health care reform greatly expanded the menu of free preventive services to Medicare consumers.

3. Free preventive services to all women. Health insurance plans have added eight women's health benefits because of the law, in areas including breastfeeding, contraception, domestic violence, gestational diabetes, HIV screening and counseling, sexual diseases and wellness visits. These benefits are free, meaning they involve no co-payment or co-insurance, and women don't need to meet their plan deductibles to use these free services.

4. Pre-existing conditions. Beginning in 2014, no one can be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing medical condition.

5. Premium equity. Insurers can't gouge people with pre-existing conditions by forcing them to pay unreasonably high premiums. The law also limits insurers' ability to impose age-related premium increases for private coverage.

6. End of pre-existing restrictions on children's access to health insurance. The law has ended insurance denials based on pre-existing conditions for the roughly 20 million children under age 19.

7. Adult dependent insurance coverage. Adult children up to age 26 can now continue to get health insurance on their parent's policies.

8. Insurance payout limits. The law will end lifetime limits on insurance payouts. It also has been phasing out annual coverage limits, and these will be completely outlawed for insurance plans taking effect next year.

9. Minimum medical loss ratio for insurers. Health insurers must spend at least 85 percent of their premium dollars on health care (80 percent for smaller group plans) or rebate shortfalls to consumers.

10. New consumer health coverage reports. Consumers have begun receiving a standardized report explaining their health insurance. This seemingly modest accomplishment is actually a big deal. For the first time, different health insurance plans have to present their coverage details in the same format, using the same language. Consumers can now accurately compare different health insurance plans.

It looks good in theory. How much made it into practice and at what cost?

Horns, don't tell me the Republicans opposed everything. There was never anything less then an omnibus bill.

J

[Moonlight J]

I pay $40 a session for my son's social skills therapy, which has never been covered under any version of insurance I've had. He has 5 8-class cycles throughout the year and each cycle runs $320.

[nots]

Lol, you have no idea what the actual law is, do you?

Lol, neither did the people that enacted it.
'You have to pass the bill, to find out what's in it'

[gcstomp]

el diablo you have commendable patience in trying to post fact based defense to perpetual mudslinging. I watched a Sam Harris clip, an absolutely brilliant neuroscientist who has a few clips on youtube who can verbally dissect the flaws in someones argument. He points out how it is an ultimately unsatisfying pursuit because unlike MMA where someone will tap when defeated, there exists no such mechanism to a flat earther, or religious/political loon, or those who credit feelings over science in pursuit of answers.

[onejayhawk]

el diablo you have commendable patience in trying to post fact based defense to perpetual mudslinging. I watched a Sam Harris clip, an absolutely brilliant neuroscientist who has a few clips on youtube who can verbally dissect the flaws in someones argument. He points out how it is an ultimately unsatisfying pursuit because unlike MMA where someone will tap when defeated, there exists no such mechanism to a flat earther, or religious/political loon, or those who credit feelings over science in pursuit of answers.

LOL

This forum verges on worshipful compared to some.

Lol, you have no idea what the actual law is, do you?

Do you? The point is the rule of unintended consequences. The bigger the bill, the more collateral effect. I also have no faith in the cost analysis. Our experience with the website is on par with past experience in cost projections. See eg the prescription act of the last decade.

J