Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law

[Ben Huh]

[spacemonkey]

Affordable Health Care. Affordable, that's the key word. As long as the fat cat for profit middle man is in the loop. Affordable probably ain't gonna happen. Just my opinion.

[Indy]

Why DO we even have a middle man? How'd that happen?

There are so many things in this country we made for-profit and I can't understand why (e.g., energy).

[spacemonkey]

[Indy]

Well clearly.

Although you wonder why Americans don't look at these other countries and say for all the taxes we pay how come they get it and we don't? That would be a lot more money in our pockets (same with employers).

Oh right that's socialism. Eek!

[spacemonkey]

[The Dude]

[Ben Huh]

I was offered employer insurance, but opted out of it since it was too expensive and covered more than I needed. I have been on private insurance since 2009 when I left the Army. It's 55k single and the website gave me the incorrect info for my subsidy - I won't get one. So if I want to keep a plan that is similar to what I have now, I can't for what I paid before. I now have to pay at least double. On top of that, my deductibles increase too. All the while, my health remains good and I am no more of a risk then I was before. A bronze plan for my age and no subsidies that I would be interested in is $280-300 and has a $3750 deductible. Yeah, no thanks. How much is my fine?

[The Dude]

you are single and make $55k and you rejected employer insurance? Seems odd. What does "cover more than I needed" mean? How do you know what you'd need (besides obviously not needing pregnancy which you don't pay for anymore).

In California, it would be about $250 or slightly less for a gold plan. No Deductible, $30/50 copays, $19 generic, $6350 OOP max. The site is under maintenance overnight so I can't really follow up much. But that's a pretty solid deal, IMO. If I remember, I'll double check tomorrow.

Your fine is $550, btw.

[The Dude]

Okay for your stats of $55k, single, in Cali I found a gold plan:

$235/mo
$0 deductible
OOP $6350





Personally, I think's not bad at all.

Bronze plans have a high $5k deductible and higher copays. $175-200
Silver plans have $2k medical deductible and copays between the two, but $225 which makes it bad vs the gold plan for $12 more a month.

Hell, the platinum is $265/mo, no deductible, with $20/40 copays and $4k OOP max and $5 generic drugs.