A (non)success story about the Affordable Care Act

[Brent]

I want to share a success story (I say that sarcastically) about the Affordable Care Act.

Before I begin, I want to state that I don't usually get involved or start political threads here. I am compelled to write this post today to inform about what has happened to me personally, a regular working person in the US. Please do not allow my thread to degenerate into flame wars or personal attacks. Please do not get it closed.

I will start of by stating I am self employed and pay for my own insurance. This has been fine for the many years I've had it. I need health insurance because I have health issues, and you never know when something major may happen. I have high blood pressure, hypertension and require two different blood/heart medications, I have a regular primary care doctor I see every few months. My insurance allowed me to have co-pay at the doctor office, and a great prescription cost. My premium was $86.88 a month.

I got a letter in the mail last week from my insurance provider. It states: "We will not offer your health coverage next year. Your 2014 plan was not an ACA compliant plan and your current coverage will end on December 31st, 2014.". It goes on to state: "We have selected a new plan for you that's similar to your current plan. Your new premium starts in January. You'll pay $254.20 each month."

That is $167 more than I was paying each month for a health insurance plan that is ACA approved that was similar to the one I had before. Suffice it to say, I cannot pay this amount each month. It is too much for me. I now have to take the task of doing some major research to find an "affordable" health plan that I am able to pay each month. I must look for what kind of coverage is offered, and compare it what I had, and see what I can find.

I will use all the resources available to me, including the marketplace. My worry is that I am not going to get the same level of coverage I had previously for the same amount of money. My worry is that I am going to have to sacrifice coverage, either high deductibles, or no co-pay, or who knows what else, to get to the level of premiums I can afford.

There is a disparity between insurance plans and premiums for me before ACA and post-ACA. The ACA has so far negatively impacted me personally.

Thank you for reading, I just wanted to share this story about a regular American worker such as myself and what the ACA has done for me.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: A success story about the Affordable Care Act

Well, thanks for the completely dishonest thread title. That's sure to provoke a reasonable discussion in which people offer you useful information.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Re: A success story about the Affordable Care Act

Gee, Brent, sounds like your insurance provider sucks.

 

[sidious618]

Re: A success story about the Affordable Care Act

Sounds like the problem was with the insurance provider and not the ACA.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Re: A (non)success story + bait & switch by OP about the ACA

Hey Brent, I've substituted a more accurate temporary title for your thread. If you'd like to revise your title to something more honest based on the actual content, please let me know.

 

[Brent]

Re: A success story about the Affordable Care Act

Gee, Brent, sounds like your insurance provider sucks.

Certainly does.

1.) I am not able to keep my previous insurance plan because it wasn't ACA compliant.

2.) The premium for a plan that would the similar to the one I had is $167 more.

3.) I did not need nor want my insurance plan and coverage and premium to change. I did not ask for this. It is a situation being forced upon me because the plan was not an ACA compliant plan.

You can understand my frustration I hope.

 

[Brent]

Re: A (non)success story + bait & switch by OP about the ACA

Hey Brent, I've substituted a more accurate temporary title for your thread. If you'd like to revise your title to something more honest based on the actual content, please let me know.

It's fine, thanks.

 

[nightwind1]

So, your insurance company fucks you over, and it's the fault of the ACA?

You really need to stop watching Faux Noise so much...

 

[Whoa Nellie]

There is a disparity between insurance plans and premiums for me before ACA and post-ACA. The ACA has so far negatively impacted me personally.

Thank you for reading, I just wanted to share this story about a regular American worker such as myself and what the ACA has done for me.

There is an old saying, "A camel is a horse made by committee." This saying sums up perfectly the ACA. You are not alone there are millions of hard working Americans in the same boat. The public can only hope that Congress forces Jonathan Gruber to testify under oath. The White House and senior Democrats can deny knowing him all they want but the money trail and paper trail are there. This is a fact checker article from the Washington Post (The newspaper that brought down the Nixon administration).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-almost-400000-from-the-obama-administration/

The American public was lied to, period.

 

[Avon]

the american healthcare system is crazy. but this is like a micro-babystep in the direction of the rest of the civilized world.

so you had to pay $167 more, thats not great. but all those people with pre-existing medical conditions can now get insurance. isn't that a good thing?

 

[Manticore]

Have you tried shopping around on your state's insurance exchange or (if they don't have one) healthcare.gov? If you're low income, there should be plenty of heavily subsidized options available that, from the sound of it, will be much better than your old plan.

 

[Amaris]

Ooh! Ooh! My turn!

John: "Due to my financial situation, I will die if I don't get insurance."

*Qualified for the ACA*

*Didn't die*

John: "Hooray!"

 

[Manticore]

Ooh! Ooh! My turn!

John: "Due to my financial situation, I will die if I don't get insurance."

*Qualified for the ACA*

*Didn't die*

John: "Hooray!"

And that alone makes it all worth it.

 

[Whoa Nellie]

the american healthcare system is crazy. but this is like a micro-babystep in the direction of the rest of the civilized world.

so you had to pay $167 more, thats not great. but all those people with pre-existing medical conditions can now get insurance. isn't that a good thing?

That was the point. He has preexisting medical conditions, now his insurance costs more.

 

[Avon]

and other people were previously uninsurable for pre-existing things. but screw the people this helps, because its costing me something, right?

also the OP has come here to moan before he's even tried looking for a more affordable plan. priorities.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

the american healthcare system is crazy. but this is like a micro-babystep in the direction of the rest of the civilized world.

so you had to pay $167 more, thats not great. but all those people with pre-existing medical conditions can now get insurance. isn't that a good thing?

That was the point. He has preexisting medical conditions, now his insurance costs more.

Whoa Nellie, reread the OP. It doesn't say that he is no longer eligible for his previous plan; it says the plan itself has been terminated. Insurance companies have been doing that since forever -- having a particular plan for a few years and then making major changes or dropping it completely, forcing everyone to find a new plan. Those new plans never (in my experience) ended up cheaper.

Yes, apparently some (many?) insurance companies are raising prices like crazy, using the ACA as an excuse. But that's not the fault of the ACA. It's the fault of the greedy companies.

Brent, sorry you're having to deal with this. Best wishes finding a plan that fits your needs!

 

[Whoa Nellie]

Even though he was happy with it, his plan was eliminated because it doesn't match ACA mandates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpa-5JdCnmo

I'm done now. I have Thanksgiving Pumpkin pies to bake.

 

[Saito S]

If the new insurance plan being offered to Brent truly is "almost the same" as before, yet it's more than double the cost, then that really sounds like its the insurance company screwing him over. Because if one plan "wasn't ACA compliant" and the new one is, yet little changed, that certainly seems like they were just taking advantage of the situation created by the ACA to hike rates, something insurance companies have been doing since forever. The ACA is just the current convenient excuse.

To say nothing of the fact that, it's worth pointing out: Brent, given the nature of insurance companies and the utterly broken, laughable inadequacy of the US healthcare system prior to the ACA, being able to have an insurance plan that covered the medical conditions and needs you describe while paying a premium of only $86.88... that was quite lucky. Many many people would have struggled in your situation to find insurance that was even remotely affordable if it needed to cover things like high blood pressure and hypertension along with the associated meds.

Frankly, it sounds like your insurance provider was being pretty good to you, and now isn't. It's certainly not true that the actual ACA regulations truly FORCED them to replace your 86.88 plan with a 254.20 plan.

What state do you live in? Some are better off than others, depending on how prudent they've been about setting up exchanges and accepting the Medicaid expansion.

It's unfortunate that this happened to you, of course. But you do have to understand that the incredibly corrupt health insurance industry (which is the real devil here, not the government) has in some cases seen an opportunity to artificially inflate their rates. However, many people who couldn't even afford insurance before (or were turned away for pre-existing conditions) now have it (there are several on this board, including J who posted a little while ago). And many others have seen rates go down.

Is the ACA perfect? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. It's got plenty of flaws and doesn't do nearly enough to address the main continuing fundamental issue of US healthcare, that being the aforementioned corruption and shady business practices of the insurance companies (which really comes back to the fact that having healthcare be a for-profit industry is a terrible idea; healthcare in the US won't ever really be fixed unless that's changed, but that will take ages if it happens at all). True universal healthcare or a single-payer option would be far superior, but the ACA is still a step in the right direction, in that so far, it has benefited more people than it has hurt.

As I said it sucks that you have to deal with this, but I definitely encourage you to explore your options. Depending on where you live, it might not even be all that difficult to find something better. Good luck!

 

[Brent]

So, your insurance company fucks you over, and it's the fault of the ACA?

You really need to stop watching Faux Noise so much...

ACA was the catalyst. The plan wasn't an ACA approved plan, and they had to drop it.

If ACA did not exist, my plan wouldn't be changing, and I'd still be paying the same for the same coverage.

 

[Brent]

the american healthcare system is crazy. but this is like a micro-babystep in the direction of the rest of the civilized world.

so you had to pay $167 more, thats not great. but all those people with pre-existing medical conditions can now get insurance. isn't that a good thing?

Good for them.

However, I cannot afford the higher premium. I can afford what I was paying previously. Therefore, I will have to find alternative coverage, and it will probably not be as good as I had it before.

Why should I be forced to sacrifice. I did not ask for this.

I love that pre-existing medical situations can get insurance, that is great, I say keep that. I also say, lower my premium and give me equal coverage to what I had before.