Affordable Care Act Scare!

ldrosophila

I was given this survey by H&R to assess my thoughts on the Affordable Care Act. Now I will say I like the idea, but as I got down to the nitty gritty and the money involved I am scared. This survey actually calculated what I would be paying in premiums with my income (I hope it is a huge conservative estimate). The eye opener I just go frankly would make anyone who is just a hard working middle class tax payer angry :mad:

I am looking at having to pay monthly premiums of nearly $1000 a month or $10,000 a year!!!! That's almost 10% of my gross income before taxes and everything else that is taken out!

How in the holy F_cuk am I an independent contractor expected to pay that amount? There is no way. Seems that the group who will be taken advantage of the most is the middle class. I honestly dont know how we are going to do it? Personally, I'll take the tax penalty of $1000 and hope I dont get sick or pregnant.

concordancia

What are you doing for insurance now?

Acg67

Lol, who could have guessed that? Guess everyone's premiums won't be going down as promised

KatLifter

Lol, who could have guessed that? Guess everyone's premiums won't be going down as promised

This would be a good place to talk about Fear Mongering.

ldrosophila

What are you doing for insurance now?

Currently the cheapest plan with the highest deductible and out of cost expenses and no out of net work coverage. It makes up about 2% of my gross income.

Acg67

Lol, who could have guessed that? Guess everyone's premiums won't be going down as promised

This would be a good place to talk about Fear Mongering.

Do you expect your premiums to go up, down or stay the same next year? And what specifically was stated that the Affordable care act would do to premiums by the supporters of the law?

concordancia

What are you doing for insurance now?

Currently the cheapest plan with the highest deductible and out of cost expenses and no out of net work coverage. It makes up about 2% of my gross income.

Have you checked into it? If the survey was based on income, rather than coverage, it may have been wayyy off. Is this individual or for a family?

ldrosophila

Individuals who make more than $45,000 a year or a family of 4 who makes more than $92,000 will not qualify for subsidies at this time. 400% above poverty line.

ldrosophila

What are you doing for insurance now?

Currently the cheapest plan with the highest deductible and out of cost expenses and no out of net work coverage. It makes up about 2% of my gross income.

Have you checked into it? If the survey was based on income, rather than coverage, it may have been wayyy off. Is this individual or for a family?

individual

deksgrl

I am shocked that anyone thought this was going to be "affordable". Think about it.

KatLifter

I am shocked that anyone thought this was going to be "affordable". Think about it.

Actually I live in MA, we've had to have insurance for years and, though there are some flaws, overall it has lead to a higher quality of health and availability of care to residents.

ldrosophila

http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

Put on by kaiser foundation calculates if you qualify for subsidies

concordancia

One of the provisions of the act is that if your premiums would be more than 8% of your income, you are not subject to the penalty.

rassha01

I am shocked that anyone thought this was going to be "affordable". Think about it.

Agreed

ldrosophila

I am shocked that anyone thought this was going to be "affordable". Think about it.

Actually I live in MA, we've had to have insurance for years and, though there are some flaws, overall it has lead to a higher quality of health and availability of care to residents.

what does someone in the middle class pay a month in premiums? What percentage of your gross income?

KatLifter

I am shocked that anyone thought this was going to be "affordable". Think about it.

Actually I live in MA, we've had to have insurance for years and, though there are some flaws, overall it has lead to a higher quality of health and availability of care to residents.

what does someone in the middle class pay a month in premiums? What percentage of your gross income?

It depends on lots of factors, including income.
This site is where you buy insurance if you don't have it offered by your employer. Until about 6 months ago I was self-employed, so I had to buy my own and it was ~$250/month. https://www.mahealthconnector.org

fbmandy55

I am shocked that anyone thought this was going to be "affordable". Think about it.

Me too. All it does is force those who cannot afford insurance to buy it.

ldrosophila

Pulled this from the Kaiser site:

· Premiums for health insurance bought through Exchanges would vary by age. The Congressional Budget
Office estimates that the national average annual premium in an Exchange in 2016 would be $4,500-5,000
for an individual and $12,000-12,500 for a family for Bronze coverage (the lowest of the four tiers of
coverage that will be available).
· In 2012 employees paid $951 on average towards the cost of individual coverage in an employer plan and
$4,316 for a family of four.

RoughDiamondUK

You earn almost $100,000 a year before tax? I wish I earned half of that.

hbrittingham

I work for a very small company. I pay $1000 per month for health insurance. My husband is disabled and has several health issues that require seeing a doctor multiple times a month. If we didn't have coverage through my company and had to purchase independently, it would cost us up to $3600 per month based on some quotes we got a few years ago.

BOLO4Hagatha

I've been paying $4000 for a family of four for 6yrs now. Nothing has changed yet. Still paying that much now. Apparenlty my insurance give you a flat rate if its 3+ people on the plan. I'm still going to be paying $4000 when my eledest daughter is no longer eligible next yr.

ZenInTexas

I just did the same survey and for my family of 6 premiums would be 9,500 a year. Which is comparable to what we are paying now with a employment plan. It's actually less when you factor in the portion our employer pays. ( and we don't have that great of a plan) So how are you paying more for an individual plan?

ldrosophila

I've been paying $4000 for a family of four for 6yrs now. Nothing has changed yet. Still paying that much now. Apparenlty my insurance give you a flat rate if its 3+ people on the plan. I'm still going to be paying $4000 when my eledest daughter is no longer eligible next yr.

Wow you pay almost $50K a year in insurance alone

LuckyLeprechaun

You earn almost $100,000 a year before tax? I wish I earned half of that.

wish in one hand....

aakaakaak

Kaiser is fear mongering. You do not have to use the government plan to be covered. You can use any plan you choose, including the one you're already on. Kaiser didn't even have the decency to site their sources. Their metrics are unverifiable.

If your current insurance company is planning on bumping your coverage costs to these astronomical levels, you need to switch your coverage. Do some health insurance shopping. Maybe you can group up with other small businesses and get a group rate.

carolann_22

Pulled this from the Kaiser site:

· Premiums for health insurance bought through Exchanges would vary by age. The Congressional Budget
Office estimates that the national average annual premium in an Exchange in 2016 would be $4,500-5,000
for an individual and $12,000-12,500 for a family for Bronze coverage (the lowest of the four tiers of
coverage that will be available).
· In 2012 employees paid $951 on average towards the cost of individual coverage in an employer plan and
$4,316 for a family of four.

Right now, if I was on MY health insurance plan (I'm not, I went part time) my family health insurance plan would cost $25K a year (the company share), and I would contribute around $2000 a year.

On my husbands insurance, our share of the family plan is 12K a year, and they've already WARNED/PROMISED it is going to go up monthly by $$ AGAIN for the next two years. And it's already about 20% of his income. Which is crazy. And NOT affordable. And why I'm going back to full time next year, lol!

ldrosophila

I just did the same survey and for my family of 6 premiums would be 9,500 a year. Which is comparable to what we are paying now with a employment plan. It's actually less when you factor in the portion our employer pays. ( and we don't have that great of a plan) So how are you paying more for an individual plan?

I wonder did it include subsidies in your calculation? I thought it was a little high,and maybe it was a gross over estimate. I hope so.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/23/news/economy/obamacare-subsidies/index.html

Families USA crunched the numbers for a few different scenarios. By its estimates, a family of four earning $94,200 and purchasing a silver-level plan carrying a $12,500 annual premium will get a subsidy worth $3,550, which limits the cost of the premium to 9.5% of the family's income.

HonestOmnivore

Anything is better than how it has been. Today if you choose not to buy any insurance, even catastrophic that just costs pennies a month (say with a 50K deductible) my hospital has to treat you when you show up in our Emergency department after being hit by a hit and run driver. Poor, unemployed, impoverished generally qualify for state or federal aid (medicaid) but the uninsured middle class don't so the hospitals do what they can to collect. Some will go after your home, but most non-profits don't and they force the rest of us to pay.

Ask if my premiums are going up with Obama Care? I don't know but I can promise you they will ONLY go up without it.

If you don't want insurance that's fine - but please get a large tattoo that tells us we don't have to treat you, your child or anyone one else who just assumes nothing bad will ever happen to them. I know I sound mean, but we all want to blame big government or poor/irresponsible indigents - it's the middle-class uninsured that's breaking this system. I'll take medicare insurance any day of the week over the cost of private insurance. I'll wait a year to get a knee replaced if' it's FREE, or wait a few months for my routine mammogram. Non profit hospitals give out billions of dollars of charity care - is it magic money? No, it comes from you and me though taxes or premiums. And the billions of dollars of charity care does NOT cover all that have needs. Next time a hospital tells you about all the lives they've saved, ask them how many patients they've turned away due to lack of funds. Ask them how many terminal children only get palliative care because there's no funding for treatable disease. It's horrific that it happens here in the United States and nobody cares - we just want cheap care for ourselves, and we'll tell ourselves that "those other people deserve no treatment" or "a charity will take care of them" nope. Doesn't work that way. Getting charity care is a lottery.

Sorry - I just get really fed up. People will spend hours HOURS online trashing ANY plan to solve healthcare and hardly ANY of them have actually read this plan, or the one from ten years ago, or the Clinton plan. ANY of the plans put forward would be better than the status quo.

mylast5lbs

Recently changed from small compay to a larger company due to the fact that my annual premium (for sh$t coverage) was over 12k. It's frigging stupid.

KatLifter

Anything is better than how it has been. Today if you choose not to buy any insurance, even catastrophic that just costs pennies a month (say with a 50K deductible) my hospital has to treat you when you show up in our Emergency department after being hit by a hit and run driver. Poor, unemployed, impoverished generally qualify for state or federal aid (medicaid) but the uninsured middle class don't so the hospitals do what they can to collect. Some will go after your home, but most non-profits don't and they force the rest of us to pay.

Ask if my premiums are going up with Obama Care? I don't know but I can promise you they will ONLY go up without it.

If you don't want insurance that's fine - but please get a large tattoo that tells us we don't have to treat you, your child or anyone one else who just assumes nothing bad will ever happen to them. I know I sound mean, but we all want to blame big government or poor/irresponsible indigents - it's the middle-class uninsured that's breaking this system. I'll take medicare insurance any day of the week over the cost of private insurance. I'll wait a year to get a knee replaced if' it's FREE, or wait a few months for my routine mammogram. Non profit hospitals give out billions of dollars of charity care - is it magic money? No, it comes from you and me though taxes or premiums. And the billions of dollars of charity care does NOT cover all that have needs. Next time a hospital tells you about all the lives they've saved, ask them how many patients they've turned away due to lack of funds. Ask them how many terminal children only get palliative care because there's no funding for treatable disease. It's horrific that it happens here in the United States and nobody cares - we just want cheap care for ourselves, and we'll tell ourselves that "those other people deserve no treatment" or "a charity will take care of them" nope. Doesn't work that way. Getting charity care is a lottery.

Sorry - I just get really fed up. People will spend hours HOURS online trashing ANY plan to solve healthcare and hardly ANY of them have actually read this plan, or the one from ten years ago, or the Clinton plan. ANY of the plans put forward would be better than the status quo.

People, in general, fear what they don't know. A lot of people don't understand the system, the inherent problems, or how to go about fixing them. Taking a survey qualifies them to trash the plan they don't understand.

ahviendha

Anything is better than how it has been. Today if you choose not to buy any insurance, even catastrophic that just costs pennies a month (say with a 50K deductible) my hospital has to treat you when you show up in our Emergency department after being hit by a hit and run driver. Poor, unemployed, impoverished generally qualify for state or federal aid (medicaid) but the uninsured middle class don't so the hospitals do what they can to collect. Some will go after your home, but most non-profits don't and they force the rest of us to pay.

Ask if my premiums are going up with Obama Care? I don't know but I can promise you they will ONLY go up without it.

If you don't want insurance that's fine - but please get a large tattoo that tells us we don't have to treat you, your child or anyone one else who just assumes nothing bad will ever happen to them. I know I sound mean, but we all want to blame big government or poor/irresponsible indigents - it's the middle-class uninsured that's breaking this system. I'll take medicare insurance any day of the week over the cost of private insurance. I'll wait a year to get a knee replaced if' it's FREE, or wait a few months for my routine mammogram. Non profit hospitals give out billions of dollars of charity care - is it magic money? No, it comes from you and me though taxes or premiums. And the billions of dollars of charity care does NOT cover all that have needs. Next time a hospital tells you about all the lives they've saved, ask them how many patients they've turned away due to lack of funds. Ask them how many terminal children only get palliative care because there's no funding for treatable disease. It's horrific that it happens here in the United States and nobody cares - we just want cheap care for ourselves, and we'll tell ourselves that "those other people deserve no treatment" or "a charity will take care of them" nope. Doesn't work that way. Getting charity care is a lottery.

Sorry - I just get really fed up. People will spend hours HOURS online trashing ANY plan to solve healthcare and hardly ANY of them have actually read this plan, or the one from ten years ago, or the Clinton plan. ANY of the plans put forward would be better than the status quo.

QFT. :flowerforyou: :drinker: