In the six years that I have been blogging, I have never once discussed an overtly political topic.
I’ve been scared to, really.
Scared you’ll label me, loathe me, leave me. It is with great humility and trepidation I write this post, and I have to say two things first.
- If you disagree with what I’m about to say, we can still be friends. Really. I consider this actually one of the greatest lessons learned in my adulthood: that I can, in fact, be friends who people who are profoundly different from me. My, how the world expanded instantly. I have friends who differ from me in nearly all aspects of life – religious inclinations, beliefs on homosexuality, parenting, political bent. I have realized there is much to be gained in the humanity we do share, and even in our differences, as we sharpen and hone one another.
- And lastly, the elephant in the room, I am no political expert. I’m just not smart enough. I barely have time to wash all the underwear these people wear, nonetheless read up on immigration laws.
I can’t write about healthcare, I’d think. But yet, though I am not an expert, I have a relevant viewpoint. We are a single-income, upper-middle class, growing family, and because of my husband’s job situation, we have always had independent healthcare. Now, we need Obamacare.
Here is our story of what Obamacare has done for us.
I stay home with our kids, and my husband works for a small business in North Carolina. It has always been difficult for his employer to find reasonably priced options (or, recently, any options) for insurance for his less-than-fifty-employee company.
So we are on our own, and we have been for six years.
Here is a general idea of what we used to pay out-of-pocket for individual healthcare plans. I include this just so you know what we had been paying before on our own.
- 2009 – (married, one kid) $300
- 2010- (married, one kid, maternity) $600
- 2011 (married, two kids, maternity) $875
- 2012 (married, two kids, maternity) $850
- 2013 (married, two kids, maternity) $686
- 2014 (married, three kids, maternity) $850
This year, in 2015, things got interesting. The plans began shifting to become ACA-complaint plan (or, Obamacare plans.) And so, we became eligible for a subsidy. Evidently making less than $108,000 a year qualifies us. This seemed a little high for a government aid threshold, but who was I to refuse some extra $$$, right?
Our plan would have cost $1,162. However, based on our income, we were eligible for a $690 government aid subsidy.
To be honest, when I found this out, I felt a little crummy for all the mean things I had said about our President. Maybe he was right, and these Obamacare plans weren’t so bad at all? After all, we were now only paying $493 (!!!) for our family of five.
Well, it’s been a nice year, but the party is over, for two reasons.
First, our plan increased from $1100 to nearly $1600. (“Normal rising healthcare costs,” it said.)
Second, our income increased, and we lost our government subsidy. See, that government subsidy sounds wonderful, but there’s a catch. It’s based on your projected income. And if you make over that income in the year, you owe back your aid. If you have a completely fixed income, this would work fine. In our case, it backfired. In what would normally be considered wonderful news, my husband earned bonuses, and I started making good money blogging.
TOO BAD FOR US.
We now owe back our government aid. (It will be taken out of taxes.) We are *just barely* eligible for government subsidy next year, but I don’t want to accept it. What if we make more money and owe it back?
The bottom line is that this year, we will pay $1,554.74 for health insurance. A month.
Yes. Our health care costs actually increased by $1,104.75. We are supposed to come up with $1,500+ for health insurance. It is so astronomically insane I cannot even begin to worry about it.
And note, this is not a great plan ($6000 individual deductible). And no, I know what you’re thinking. There are not other plans we can use. This really is the cheapest, feasible plan. I have looked. The others have high deductibles, or no co-pays (full payment) at doctor visits.
You know, I seem to remember hearing if I liked my plan, I could keep it. I didn’t love my $800 plan, but it did the job. At least we could depend on it, and wouldn’t disappear if we made more money.
But this “old plan” is gone. Dead and buried three feet deep.
Despite what we were promised, Obamacare has made this family’s healthcare situation worse, and not better.
From my (very limited) perspective, here’s the problem.
- It de-incentivies hard work and creating income opportunities, and instead pushes people to need the federal government. Besides the fact that we are motivated, there is very little financial incentive for us to increase our income for the time being. Using an ACA-compliant plan, we are pocketing less right now (or the same) as if we were making around $30,000 less (by my rough estimate). It’s a hard spot – we’re too rich to receive aid, and too poor to pay for the plans. We are the middle class, the growing family, the small business, and we are struggling to pay for health care. Is that not exactly who Mr. President promised to help with his plan? What am I missing?
- It (along with the current tax and welfare system) penalizes traditional families. My sister noted the other day, “You know, it would be a lot easier if I got divorced and just lived with (my husband) instead. I could collect government aid, and free health care, and food stamps for being a single mom of four.” This is sad, but true. Those of us who uphold traditional family units, pay taxes, and earn money are penalized for doing so. I know that sounds like a super-bold and obnoxious thing to say, but is it not the truth? Tell me I’m wrong.
- And finally, it has limited our health care options. With our ACA-compliant plan, for example, we cannot see the allergist for my son that we loved. To see him, we would have to pay even more…that we cannot afford. We have one measly plan we can (sort of) use, when prior I would have at least 5-6 I could pick from.
I know Obamacare was supposed to help things...It sounded promising…But am I missing something?
Because it sure has not helped us.
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Thank you for sharing. You should get this article out to the news stations. Obamacare is a mess!
I fully agree with you that this isn’t what we had been promised. I’m one of the ones that is a single mom and have HAD to use the new Obamacare so my son and I can see a Dr. I’m not proud of this and as soon as I can afford to pay for our healthcare you can be sure I will do just that. I can’t stand all this. So many people said it wasn’t going to work the way we were being told it would. We can only hope things will change (for the better) once we elect a new President.
Thank you for being true, honest, and real…😘
Obamacare has made a total mess of our private healthcare, also. We keep paying more and more every year for less and less coverage. We’re having our fifth baby in late January. That means we won’t meet the deductible either this year nor next since it’s broken up like that. We are paying for all this coverage, then paying for the new baby completely out of pocket. We’ve been trying to work out payment plans and scrape together the money to pay all of these medical bills. This summer, I knew my kids had been exposed to strep throat. A week later they were all complaining of sore throats and didn’t feel well. I took them to the pediatrician and they did throat swabs on all four. We did have it, but only in one kid. Then, the bills came in. That trip cost us around $700. It’s outrageous. I really hope we can be rid of Obamacare after the next election and make some logical changes to the healthcare system that don’t involve penalizing prosperity.
The President is not the reason that the healthcare is not working as it should. Congress has done a great deal to limit and change what the national healthcare plan is offering. Now the healthcare companies are trying to pull out, claiming money loss, or are making their rates astronomically high. This should not be happening, but it is. Change your congressmen if you want true change. Everything gets blamed on the President, when it is the legislature that truly has the power.
I am also in a private healthcare plan with 2 kids, and have chosen the HSA/high deductible path with lower monthly costs. It is not great, we have had to fully pay the deductible several years unfortunately (10,000), but it has worked for us I guess.
It frustrates me though that our elected officials are sabotaging something that could help so many in our country.
Great response and very true. The insurance companies don’t get as much flack as they should for the rising costs.
The insurance company rates have to be approved by the Insurance Commission, which is a government entity. And to get the rates approved, insurance companies have to provide financials that show their expenses & profits. While insurance companies do make profits, the blame can’t fully be placed on them….that’s how Obama tried to justify screwing us over. The main issue falls on the fact that those of us that work hard to try to better ourselves are paying for so many who don’t feel they should work at all. I am definitely all for helping those who can not help themselves (elderly & truly disabled) but I an attorney who represents indigent parties and I am always shocked when I ask if they work and am told they are on disability. When I ask what their disabilities are I am told they get headaches, their back hurts, or a multitude of other minor ailments. Well, guess what…I get headaches, bad ones quite frequently. I have bone spurs on my spine, so my back hurts. A LOT. I have epidural injections into my back every 2 months to lessen the pain. If I can work through my pains, then what makes them any better than me? Yet, I am out working (providing them free legal services), buying my own healthcare (almost $500/month for single, with $1,500/year deductible & still have to pay 20% of everything), so that I buy that other person’s healthcare because they feel since they have a few pains that they shouldn’t work. They take advantage of a program that was put in place to help people who really needed it. ALL our citizens need to take responsibility for themselves & the more the government programs give away, the more people are going to find a way to make someone pay their way. We’re close, but what’s going to happen when you have over 50% of the people thinking others should take care of them??
Awesome post. Thank you for sharing!! My husband and I and our newborn, last year, went from individual private insurance that was over $1,100 for all 3 of us to less than $500 with a Christian organization, MediShare, that uses the monthly premium to pay the medical bills of other members, the way God intended us to do to take care of each other. And it is ACA compliant. Blessings!!
Wow, this is so interesting, as we live in Australia and you can choose between public health care system and private (eg at the hospital you have your own room, private doctor but you pay for it. on time surgery eg) In the public health care system it costs nothing to have a baby, even a ceasar, your scans are covered and it would be rare to have a personal midwife, but home births are very hard to do in Australia, but the doctors choose when you have things done. My family has had a lot of medical issues and we know that had we lived in the US we would be very broke. However, our power bills are 4 times as much as yours per quarter. 🙂
I live in Australia too – I’m American originally. Here’s the thing: You can control your power bills. We pay about $120/quarter for power – half of that is the service charge. My family in the US pays way more.
As an Australian/American (I’m a dual citizen) I LOVE the Australian health care system. LOVE it. There are a handful of things that aren’t covered through Medicare but even there costs are low. Our oldest daughter was born with hip displacia. In the US we would’ve been reliant on Shriner’s to fix her up. I know this, because I’m a Shriner’s baby myself. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Shriner’s and I’m so, so grateful they exist! They do amazing work! But through the government system, everyone who needs help can get it – you don’t have to know someone who can recommend you to a Shriner’s hospital. We had to pay out of pocket for her brace ($200) but everything else – all the ultrasounds, pediatric ortheopedic surgeon, etc. – were fully covered. There are problems with any health system but there are two huge reasons we won’t even consider moving back to the US: the messed up health care (which, as a previous poster said, isn’t really Obama’s fault – he wanted a socialised system and couldn’t get it) and the absolute and complete lack of gun control. As Russel Crowe said in his Oscar’s speech, God bless America, God save the Queen, and thank God for Australia.
Also, if you’ve finally started making money from your blog, what have you done differently, can you share?
Your situation is VERY similar to ours, we are family of six. My husband also works for a small company and we have had our own coverage. I had the same exact thoughts last year! I have been putting off looking into what our options are, knowing that there weren’t going to be many. I do hope you are wrong and that there are more options than keeping what we have for the insane price. Before we had a high deductible HSA and I would like to go back to that. At least if something catastrophic happened it wouldn’t cause us to go bankrupt, or at least that is my hope.
My husband works for the state (NC), and has great health insurance. To add me it would cost at least $500/month. I am a homemaker and as a state employee, my husband makes about the same as teachers…meaning it is unaffordable to add me to his plan. BUT because I’m eligible for his plan, we get NO subsidies, which would otherwise have made my insurance very affordable because of our very low income. Until I turn 30 I’ll be eligible for a catastrophic plan, but we live in the boonies and those plans have to be used in bigger cities (bigger health companies or whatever). So I’ve joined Christian Healthcare Ministries. I pay $150/month, their most expensive plan. I haven’t even had to use it yet, but from what I understand, basically my membership fees go into a pot, and when someone has medical expenses, the pot pays for it. My “personal responsibility” (like a deductible) is $500. I have a friend who has six kids and is on this plan, and she walked out of the hospital with her last baby having to pay nothing. So that’s an option to look into if you haven’t already. We honestly felt we didn’t have any other options, but ultimately we trust God to provide for our every need.
I agree, and I hope everyone who voted for Obama now see this and do something to change it in the next election.
You missed a key point though. The final result of the ACA plan is NOT what Obama created, proposed and was pushing. It’s what happened after Congress got their hands on it and SIGNIFICANTLY increase the restrictions and little intricacies of the plan, which then “forced the hand” of the insurance companies who subsequently raised their rates causing the increased rates. Please don’t be like those sheep who just blame everything on him without looking at the ACTUAL big picture — it was the stubborn Republicans who shut down our government TWICE like petulant children. Yet, despite them, our President has done WONDERS for our country and our global reputation. Education beats ignorance EVERY. TIME.
Bull. I follow legislation very carefully. The plan had these changes written into it from the beginning.
I did not proofread and mean to say “now sees” and “does”
Have you considered health share plans?
That is awful. We live in New Zealand and almost everything is FREE. Adult visits to the your local GP are around $40NZD and most medicines are subsidised, around $3-10NZD. All maternity is free and hospital visits etc. Come live here!
That is such a hard spot to be in. We would likely be in a similar spot, because as a pastor, my husband is responsible for paying for our insurance through an allotment in his salary. But, considering the costs of healthcare, we opted to join a medical sharing group instead. We are members with Samaritan’s Ministries and have really loved it all over the last couple of years. I’ve had two babies, one stillborn, and plenty of visits for other things during that time. If you haven’t looked into it, you should! 😉
Samaritan Ministries. It’s what our family uses and has been a lifesaver. It’s very affordable, and works great!! All of my pregnancies have been covered 100%. We have been on it for 12 years. You can read more about it at samaritanministries.org. 🙂
Another happy Samaritan family here! We are expecting twin boys (#7 and 8), and don’t have to fret and lose sleep over how we will pay for it. It’s a huge blessing and such a joy to share with other members.
Our family’s growth and insurance costs have increased very similarly to yours, the insurance numbers eerily similar 🙂 . When insurance shopping/comparing/planning I do feel somewhat punished for maintaining a “traditional family unit,” Thank you for writing this. It is reassuring to know my impressions are shared by others.
We’re on the other end of the scale, the poor family below the poverty line struggling to keep a roof over our heads without government assistance. We can’t afford health insurance, I think the cheapest conventional plan is MORE THAN 8% OF OUR INCOME, but luckily we’re exempt from the $1,500 tax we’d be paying for not having insurance. We’re a single income family because putting my one year old in daycare would be expensive. I’m working on learning Web design, but I’d be a contractor, and you probably know the “self employed” tax rates all too well. My husband will be joining the military soon, so we have hope if we can hold out for the year it takes then to get him into basic.
I want to mention Samaritans ministries international. It’s a health care sharing ministry, so it counts as “coverage”, but it’s not subject to the same regulations as insurance, so they can require that you are a Christian with a lifestyle within certain biblical parameters. They’re also allowed to not cover pre existing conditions though, which might be a deal breaker considering your son’s severe allergies. I know they cover emergencies and midwives, but they don’t cover preventive care and I’m not sure if an emergency due to an allergic reaction would be considered part of a pre-existing condition. It’s about $500 per month for the entire family, which unfortunately is so to much for us.
When Obamacare came out, we switched to using MediShare, a Christian health sharing program. I would definitely check that out if I were you. It’s been such a blessing to our family!
http://bit.ly/1TGpcWX
Christian Care Medishare is another Christian sharing group. You can get your whole family on for about $500 a month. I love the family feel of it all! We pray for one another and support one another’s needs, and it does qualify under the laws for alternative health coverage.
http://bit.ly/1QZknt2
I have never seen your blog but I so appreciate you being bold and honest. I also agree with the first poster who said you should send this article on to a news agency. We have not yet been forced into Obamacare BUT I do know others who have. It is not sustainable as far as I can see. Many people would be better off paying for their own bills – unless catastrophic at this rate. Who wants to pay $12,000 to $15,000 PER YEAR for living a healthy life and having NO major problems – yet people are forced to – sounds like socialism!
Nah, you’re wrong there. Australia has socialised medicine. Our family’s out of pocket costs last year were under $100. If you think the American system is socialist you really need to study socialism! Obamacare is a mess because it’s the OPPOSITE of socialism – it’s propping up (and forcing people to pay into) PRIVATE health care.
We are on Obamacare and it is very expensive! The more money we make the less subsidies you get. Some of you have mentioned the “Samaritian ministry”. You cannot get on it If you have had cancer or a serious disease. So, that is not an option to a lot of people, Us included
Can I just say, duhhhhhh!!!!!! And I really don’t say this to be mean, but why can’t you people see that this is what they were trying to do all along. They WANT the people dependent on the government and they DON’T want you to better yourselves. This is their insidious way of working towards their goal, has been all along.
Finally, someone posting real numbers. Your monthly insurance premiums are almost exactly what ours are. I am a self employed carpenter and my wife is a stay at home mom/landscape designer. We’ve been married 15 years and just passed the $120K mark in healthcare premium expense since getting married. We just saw our plan go from $854/month to $1050/month. I know exactly what you are talking about when you say the other options aren’t really options… We’ve decided to keep our old plan and just pay for it. I looked in to Obamacare plans but our insurance salesman mentioned exactly what you found. The subsidies come with strings attached. No thanks.
I love your article but there is one point that drives me absolutely mad. It is this: health insurance is NOT healthcare. You seem to use the two interchangeably in your article. You need health care, you do not NEED health insurance. This is a fact that the Obama admin does not want you to considered.
By your description above you could waive your insurance and save almost $30,000 per year in cash, pay cash for health services, earn interest and save for retirement. Almost every doctor I have visited has given a discount for paying cash.
Health insurance, historically, was always a way to mitigate your risk of needed major health problems, but has now become a method to bilk americans out of hard earned wealth by forcing them to purchase over priced pre-paid health services. It is tragic. The cash method may not be appropriate for everyone, but in my opinion the actual risk of a critical injury or health problem has been severely overstated by those who push for obamacare type policies. They want you to fear life to promote their interests.
This is too difficult to type on my phone so I will end my treatise here, even though I have plenty more thoughts on the topic.
Please just remember this – health insurance is NOT healthcare, the only thing it is is a tool to get someone else to PAY for your healthcare.
I hate to hear what Obamacare has done for your family 🙁 My family has had the exact opposite experience, though. We’re on the other end of all this– the poor family of six that has saved thousands of dollars thanks to Obamacare. My husband works two jobs– a full time teacher at a private Christian school and a part time professor at Belmont Abbey College– so we aren’t poor on account of laziness. My children are all on medicaid and my husband receives insurance through his work. I was able to qualify for obamacare, though I could be on my husband’s work plan (the work plan doesn’t meet the obamacare standards, so it’s an option for me to sign up for obamacare), and my monthly cost (just for me!) went from over $300 (on the school insurance) down to $80 (on obamacare). And my plan is ten times better now. I know that obamacare has hurt middle-class families in general, which I hate. But before, the poor were really left in a lurch. While children and pregnant women are taken care of by the government through medicaid, poor men and non-pregnant women have to essentially be unemployed to qualify for adult medicaid (the number a few years ago in NC was that they had to make less than $500 per month). Obamacare has really, really helped people like this– the hard-working poor who couldn’t afford health insurance before without it bleeding them dry, but not poor enough to qualify for standard adult medicaid.
All that said, I am not a fan of obamacare or blue cross blue shield, and I’m hoping to sign up for Samaritan as soon as we can financially. 🙂 It will definitely be more expensive, but I’d rather spend my money there than send it to a corrupt bureaucracy.
Have you considered switching to Samaritan Ministries? They are fabulous and satisfy the health insurance requirement without being insurance. It’s need based which means no deductible starting over at the beginning of every year. Many other great reasons but I will let you look it up yourself. 🙂
Look into health care co-ops. Totally affordable!!
My wife forwarded me this article, since, in recent years, I have become more acutely aware of politics (we live in Northern VA…hard not to). This was very enlightening, but not surprising. I could try and address every comment under this well-written, concise article, but instead, I’ll pose my theory on why this is a problem – along with all the other issues we seem to be having lately. I’ll also try and be brief. It boils down to greed/power hunger & education of the public. It’s no secret that politicians will say anything to get elected, so I think most would agree with the fact that a vast many are greedy for money and power. Let’s concentrate on education. How many folks do you think can recite the gist of the first amendment off the top of their head? How many can tell you what a Kardashian has done? As a society, we’ve become “more stupider” because we’re focused on all the wrong things. If citizens would focus more on the news that mattered, they would see through the smoke screens. Until people start caring more about this country and less about who’s-dating-who, we’re on a downward slide.
And to all the Aussies in the commentary – I say this as lovingly as possible – your “free” healthcare costs you a whole lot. Review your tax rates and then say it’s free. If you make $80k, you owe $17.5k.
https://www.ato.gov.au/rates/individual-income-tax-rates/
http://www.irs.com/articles/2015-federal-tax-rates-personal-exemptions-and-standard-deductions
Compared to US with a similar income, that’s nearly 60% more tax! Nothing is free people, it’s just difficult to vote out Santa Claus when the majority of people voting for him don’t know any better. Government is not the answer, an educated citizen is. Please, get involved, choose the right officials and keep them accountable!
My husband’s a CPA specialising in personal income tax so I say this as an Australian with a fair amount of knowledge on it: Our tax burden is really no greater than yours (we don’t pay a handful of taxes you pay including state income taxes) and we get a lot more for it. Not just health care but also family benefits, etc. etc. We are much better off as a family than the rest of my family who lives in the US
So glad you shared! Important for people to see the reality of how Obamacare is working.
Unfortunately, your experience seems to be the majority, but I would like to share our experience. We are below the poverty level with 4 kids while I finish up my 2-year degree to work in medical records/coding. Our children were on state insurance (free). When it came time to sign up for insurance, my husband and I ended up qualifying for free state insurance as well (which we didn’t qualify for before Obamacare passed). So we pay very little for Rx’s and no co-pay for dr visits. This has been amazing as we both have chronic conditions that need monthly dr visits and daily medications. This will all change when I graduate and start working in May, but it has been a great thing for our family while we needed it. I’m hoping that since I’ll be working in the medical field, we will be able to get good insurance. I’m not for Obamacare, but it has helped us for now. I realize we are the minority though.
I admire you, shared this on Facebook and will now follow you. Thanks for sharing.
Scary isn’t it. My 27 year old son can’t afford any plan and is just going to pay the fine. Even with the discount he still has to pay $175.00 a month and $3,000.00 before his insurance would even kick in. So essentially he ends up funding someone else’s plan.
You pay as much insurance a month as Danny makes. No kids. I am disabled. He is a Park Ranger .
But then I made more than he does now 12 years ago. Part time.
Our insurance doubled with Obama Care after the first couple of years. I get a lot less disability.
👊🏻Right there with you. We are at the very bottom of middle class and self-employed, it is all very slowly killing us.
And I don’t talk about politics for the same reason; somehow I have convinced myself that I’m not allowed an opinion since I’m not an expert.
I admire your true honesty and please know that there are many more out there in that same situation. I too have foregone doctors visits because of the amount of money it costs. It is totally unacceptable what has happened to the American people. Thank you for your blog and keep writing!
How is it the rest of the developed world has health care that doesn’t involved bankruptcy? And how is it the “ACA” is enforced by the IRS?! That sure feels like extortion. I have insurance, but I can’t afford to use it. Something stinks.
Girl I hear you…we are in the same boat. My husband & I have been marries 32 years, no kids, and our monthly health insurance Is almost double our monthly house payment !!! Neither of us are on any meds, healthy and only go to the doctor for annual exam/chek-up and yet we are paying 1,300.00 a month with 7,000.00 deductible & no choices on plans or even the doctors we would like to use if needed. I’m NO expert either…but GOD help us because Obamacare sure hasn’t !!! My story like yours 2009-375. a month to 2017-1,300. a month. We can not afford this.
Help us LORD Help !!!
L. McCann-Fort Worth Texas
Ugh! That’s horrible!
Unfortunately this was intended politics. Typically people in your income bracket don’t vote Democrat so they weren’t particularly interested in having Obamacare work for you when they wrote the bill. Just like the current GOP plan would be AWESOME for you and reduce your premiums around $10K/year it isn’t great for the poor. It’s all a political game and “we the people” are the ones getting hurt.
I too have recently have had to move to Obama care…and my life is filled with medical bills. I see my doctor every 4 weeks. My husband changed jobs for better pay. With that no kore private insurance, his new company as does yours has put us on Obama care. I am paying more for my visit then I would without insurance. I too have to change my kids pediatrician and our primary care who we have had for years. We too are paying a ridiculous amount of money monthly $1500-1600 for a middle class family. We too maKe over $100k and we are broke between paying the premium and then the copays which are in the $200-$300 minimum?????
I know, Dawn. It’s very hard, isn’t it? 🙁
I am a 35 year old, single middle class women. I had better insurance that I could afford to use when I was 19 and making $9 an hour paying for my own insurance. Right now, these are my options for insurance:
Option 1) I pay $957.84 a year for insurance I can’t use because I don’t have an extra $3000 a year to pay to go to appointments myself to meet the deductible wherein after I will still be paying a large percentage of the bills until I reach a maximum out of pocket of $5200.
Option 2) I can pay the $4000+ in fines to not pay for shit insurance.
Option 3) I can pay $3500 a year for insurance with copays and deductibles for some things and still not have money to go to the doctor because all my money is going to premiums so I don’t have it for deductibles and copays.
15 years ago these “health insurance options” would have been considered catastrophic insurance plans. Now they are the only options I have to choose from.
I had to go off my anti anxiety/depression medication because I can’t afford to go to the doctor or refil my prescriptions with these options. I also had to stop going to the doctor to keep my endometriosis under control. I was going to have a partial hysterectomy but it’s to expensive now. So now I’m just in constant excruciating pain daily because I can’t afford the medication that kept in somewhat under control either.
I figure it’s cheaper to be dead than go to a doctor or hospital for anything and have told everyone in my family and circle of friends I want a do not resuscitate in place should anything bad happen to me. It’s not worth the debt to keep lov My should something happen.
Thank you for adding your insights, Mikala. I’m very sorry. 🙁
My premium has gone from $360.00 per month on my great Blue Cross plan (I was promised I could keep) prior to OC to my new quote for 2018 is $1,253.00 per month. It covers nothing $7,000 deductible, basically I pay for everything.
That’s awful, Sam!
My parents are self employed, they have an excavation business, middle class, building ponds and terraces. All of their money is tied up into machines that may or may not break at any moment, they have no liquid cash. They just got a notice that their health insurance is increasing to $2700 a month in 2019. That is insane. It increased so much when Obamacare was implemented and then by about 400 each year after. Obamacare is crap because they ask you to estimate for the year to come and show proof of that but its impossible to do so, it depends on machinery, weather, government approval and everyone paying my family for their work. They have a few more yeas before they qualify for medicaid. I don’t know what they are going to do. Should they toss the business they started in their teens and go work as door greeters at Walmart or toss them and claim disability of some sort. There are so many people around where I am from, many of them are my relatives in fact, who live off of government aid, not because they have to but because they want the freebies. So they get free aid to bum on the couch all day year after year, but my parents who are in their 60s and work everyday have to perhaps get a loan to pay for healthcare. My father has diabetes so not getting health insurance isn’t an option. I truly hate Obamacare, it seems like our health care can only work on a teeter totter system. Self employed is a way of the past now.
Exactly, I’m self employed also. We are looking at the same cost. We can’t cover it so we are going to have to risk no insurance. I can’t believe the media has been silent about these rate increases (I actually can believe it), the media is just a tool for the wealthy. My son is a doctor, Obamacare has created a situation wherein he spend about as much time doing paper work as seeing patients.
ACA is just a way of putting the burden of health care on the shoulders of the middle (working) class.
It feel good to vent.
Only 1554, wife and I pay 2500 (2018)
I can see your point on that last point. But “penalize traditional families”? Surely you realize that such inflammatory social language is out of place in discussing a health care reform. There is no “penalty” for traditional families written into the law. There is a measure of social support for those families you seem to deem less than “traditional” – I am assuming, divorced couples or kids with divorced parents fit this bill, or families involving a step-parent, or some other less than perfectly “traditional” (whose tradition?) variant of family life. It is sad that you implicitly put down these families even though they can be just as loving, vibrant and hardworking as your own. But clearly, you are of the belief that they are somehow lesser – less morally meaningful, less deserving, or simply less “real” and valid a form of family life. Well, I can tell you, growing up a tough city kid from a divorce but loving family, complete with grand-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and a larger extended family life to teach me lessons and make holidays a little warmer with their presence throughout my childhood (and adulthood!), they are not. And it is not the government’s job to reward or punish citizens for their lifestyle choice, but to address the actual needs of its citizens and functioning of the social contract. Which Obamacare, however imperfectly, indeed does.