Replies to post #86804 on Politics and Money

[arizona1]

The good, the bad the ugly or my personal enrollment process in ObamaCare

Okay, so I'm done, finished, finis with my application, choosing my coverage and hitting that scary complete button. I live in PA so no state exchanges for us.

Healthcare.gov is the only option, so that's the experience I will share.

Some quick background. My husband and I are middle aged (if your life expectancy is somewhere in the 120's.) My husband is self employed as a Realtor and our income varies greatly year to year. This has been an exceptionally good year.

We have had to buy our own private insurance since 1999. We had to give up health insurance in 2010 or 2011 (don't remember) because they raised our ungodly rates of $25,000 a year to the completely crazy, insane, unsustainable rates of $48,000. This was their way of legally dumping us. We paid the extortion of $25,000 and did without a lot so we could have it!

Thanks to the pre-existing condition emergency plan we have had coverage the past year or so at a cost of about $600.00 a month. For this we have extremely high deductibles, no prescription coverage, but since I needed 2 operations last year, we would have been bankrupt without it. Thank you ObamaCare preview plan.

So on to the good, the bad and the ugly.

The ugly----yes the website sucks badly, but whatever, lots of things we have to do in this life suck.

I signed in on day one and needless to say, it was a total bust. I tried off and on for the next week, but didn't waste much time, just waited patiently. I often got error 404 or 504 or something.

Thanks to somebody here, I read to clear your cache, use IE only, etc. So yesterday I cleared my calendar, got my husband's old computer with XP and sat with a coffee expecting to take the entire day. Half an hour later, boom.....application in and all I need to do was choose coverage. I spent the rest of the day going over plans, doing math, playing the "if this then that" game, and narrowing it down to two choices. I slept on it.

The bad----the specifics of maneuvering through. I knew this year we made way way too much for a subsidy, so I was able to skip that part, which might have been a pain if I would have had to enter all financials.

The website runs like it is working on dialup. Hit the button, wait, wait, wait....w a i t. Okay I survived dialup before, so I knew I could handle it.

Umm also lots and lots and lots of extra button hitting. Yes or no question, hit enter, wait. What the hell am I suppose to do? Oh hit the green button that says set. wait...wait... something is up, wait...wait...oh, here's the page. And so on.

Again I say...whatever. It's just not that awful of an ordeal. Not worse than bad.

I not only lived through the dialup era, but I lived through the DMV and disco of the 70's, Reagan of the 80's and "blowjobgate" of the 90's. I knew I'd survive.

Then of course you have to put up with reading through health insurance coverage. And come to peace with your God for giving these devil handmaidens money. AND deciding what the hell they mean in their double-triple hell talk.

Okay, the insurance companies are the bad and the ugly and the horror and the...never mind. Just know I worked for two different health insurance companies and I have met the devil and survived the hell fire. Wait...I digress...

The good... I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THAT NOBODY CAN RIP OUTTA MY HANDS UNTIL THOSE HANDS ARE COLD AND DEAD.

I am sure many of you will be horrified about the price I got. PLEASE remember what we were paying. To us this is affordable, at least in comparison. We also will pay full price.

I decided the best plan for my husband and myself was to get one of the most expensive plans.

We have a low deductible ($2,000 total with $7,000 max) and very low co-pays on everything. I also got a dental plan that covers check up every 6 months for free, we pay 10%--25% on everything else. We haven't had dental or eye coverage since 1995.

When figuring which plan we looked at the worst case where we would pay all maximums for the year the more expensive would be the cheaper by $5,000. Also, as another KOSack pointed out, if you're self employed look for the tax benefits. That also helped me decide on the more expensive plan. Your choice will of course be dependent on your personal needs.

Oh and every plan pretty much covers all the basics you actually need in health care. Including pediatric dental and eyecare and adult eyecare exams (even if only every 2 years, I know many people who have not seen an eye doctor in 10 years from the price.)

The differences seems to be deductibles, maximums and co pays.

Oh and my price for both heath and dental is $829.72 a month.

If anyone has questions and/or comments I am babysitting 2 of the grandbabies, and have to clean the house and cook dinner for a party tonight, so I am no ta hit and run, just might not have a bunch of time to respond.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/18/1248639/-The-good-the-bad-the-ugly-or-my-personal-enrollment-process-in-ObamaCare

[lesgetrich]

Under your public option would everyone pay the same rate?

Yes! Like we do for Medicare. This is simply letting everyone buy into Medicare! More younger healthier people buying into the program would lower costs for everyone. No insurance companies syphoning off profits. They could still sell their supplement plans and probably make just as much money not having to pay the most expensive claims.

[lesgetrich]

As an added bonus, taxes are paid, by both subsidized and un subsidized insured, so the actual cost of providing insurance subsidies is added to the unsubsidized insured tax bill

Again you're showing your ignorance of the topic. First, the people getting subsidies are paying little or no tax. By definition they are making less money or they wouldn't be getting subsidies.

Second, Obamacare is not paid for out of General tax revenue and actually reduces the deficit. If you want to know the truth, check the following link:

Wikipedia on PPACA

Among other things it states:

The 2011 comprehensive CBO estimate projected a net deficit reduction of more than $200 billion during the 2012–2021 period:[229][230] it calculated the law would result in $604 billion in total outlays offset by $813 billion in total receipts, resulting in a $210 billion net reduction in the deficit.

Also the funding sources consist of the following:

Major sources of deficit reduction include:[184] higher Medicare taxes on the wealthy; new annual fees on health insurance providers; similar fees on the healthcare industry such as manufacturers and importers of brand-name pharmaceutical drugs and certain medical devices; limits on tax deductions of medical expenses and flexible spending accounts; a new 40% excise tax on "Cadillac" insurance policies - plans with annual insurance premiums in excess of $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for a family; revenue from mandate penalty payments; a 10% federal sales tax on indoor tanning services; and spending offsets such as a reduction in Medicare reimbursements to insurers and drug companies for private Medicare Advantage policies that the Government Accountability Office and Medicare Payment Advisory Commission found to be overpaid (relative to government Medicare);[237][238] and reductions in Medicare reimbursements to hospitals that do not meet standards of efficiency and care.[

The additional fees on insurance companies, healthcare providers and drug companies will be more than offset by the additional business they receive from the newly insured. THEY GET ALL OF THEIR TAXES BACK THROUGH THE SUBSIDIES!!!! That's assuming that their products are competitive in the marketplace (your free market economy).