Obamacare success stories please

[okeydokey]

My 13 year old son, born with a heart defect, will be able to get healthcare when he is adult and off of my insurance (which he can stay on until he is 26). I am truly thankful and relieved.

 

[chobie]

Actually, it's been a few years since it started to be phased in.

As a result of this, my children are able to stay on our family insurance plan until they are 26 years old. Prior to this, they were only allowed to be on the plan as long as they were full-time college students.

Yes, I'm glad for that too. Now my children won't have to get stuck in jobs they hate just for insurance or go uninsured while working toward their educational/career goals or get married just for insurance like I did ( 24 years ago, still together -- it worked out great, but still...).

 

[LONES]

I don't think many will choose to do so. I think that idea is largely spin - most of the uninsured I know are young (mid-20s to mid-30s) and healthy, but it is still a source of stress. Everyone knows that accidents happen, and these days it seems like everyone knows someone who battled cancer or another serious/chronic issue at a young enough age that there's not much sense of "it can't happen to me". And in my state, auto insurance rates are significantly higher for those who don't have health insurance, which adds another cost of remaining uninsured on top of the ACA penalty.

I guess I'm still not understanding why young, healthy people would bother to buy insurance. If they could get away with paying a small fine, rather than premiums that are disproportionate to their need/usage.. why wouldn't they?

If you can't be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition... why not just wait until you get pregnant, or have cancer, or get in an accident... and then buy coverage at that time? I admit I don't know much about this, but that seems like a bit of a loophole.

 

[aj2hall]

I'm happy that my children's well checks are fully covered at 100%. And relieved that they can stay on our plan until they're 26

 

[kydisneyfans]

That's the thing, the Affordable Care Act, front loaded most of the popular provisions and saved the things that adversely affect large numbers of people until after the presidential elections.

Bingo. It's also not on a Congressional election year either.

 

[eliza61]

I guess I'm still not understanding why young, healthy people would bother to buy insurance. If they could get away with paying a small fine, rather than premiums that are disproportionate to their need/usage.. why wouldn't they?

If you can't be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition... why not just wait until you get pregnant, or have cancer, or get in an accident... and then buy coverage at that time? I admit I don't know much about this, but that seems like a bit of a loophole.

because when you get into an accident the coverage is not retro active usually. Case in point, my son 22 got into an accident that totaled his car. It was deemed his fault, so the even with him still on our health insurance the co pays that he was responsible for set him back to the tune of a couple of grand.

He got the bills and he saw exactly what was covered from insurance and how much it was. Believe me you, that opened his eyes.

 

[Colleen27]

I guess I'm still not understanding why young, healthy people would bother to buy insurance. If they could get away with paying a small fine, rather than premiums that are disproportionate to their need/usage.. why wouldn't they?

If you can't be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition... why not just wait until you get pregnant, or have cancer, or get in an accident... and then buy coverage at that time? I admit I don't know much about this, but that seems like a bit of a loophole.

Two reasons - first, there is a fixed open enrollment period for the subsidized exchanges. And second, newly purchased coverage isn't retroactive. So while any care from the time or purchase going forward would be covered, they would still be running the risk of incurring crippling medical debt in the event of a sudden medical emergency like a car accident, which is much more likely than cancer at that age.

 

[crisi]

Bingo. It's also not on a Congressional election year either.

Though honestly a lot of the provisions we are seeing enacted after the delay had a lot to do with states and insurance companies asking for more time to get these things set up. Even if they would have legislated it for implementation before the presidential election, it would have had a hold on it while it went through the Supreme Court, which didn't happen until right after the election.

Minnesota - one of the states that bought into the idea, has been working on setting up their exchange for years - these sorts of projects don't move from inception to live overnight.

 

[barkley]

because when you get into an accident the coverage is not retro active usually. Case in point, my son 22 got into an accident that totaled his car. It was deemed his fault, so the even with him still on our health insurance the co pays that he was responsible for set him back to the tune of a couple of grand.

He got the bills and he saw exactly what was covered from insurance and how much it was. Believe me you, that opened his eyes.

correct-and it's also not apply and "poof" you're covered. just like any other insurance plan there will be paperwork, processing time and ultimately a date your insurance takes effect.

in some cases where a catastrophic illness or injury will create ongoing long term medical expenses then the insurance purchased after the fact would be helpful, but with some the bulk of the high dollar costs occur within hours and days of the diagnosis/injury. when I was hospitalized with a stroke for less than 24 hours the costs incurred were around $12,000.00, ongoing costs minimal. when dd had a bike accident several years ago an overnight stay and surgery was over $40,000.00, again with minimal follow up expenses. in both cases the process that is currently in place for the exchanges would have had insurance in effect long after the costs occurred.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I have a question about when a spouse has to go on Medicare. There is an age gap between my husband and I. He will have to go on Medicare in 2 years. Once he retires and is on Medicare, as a part time worker, will I be able to get Obamacare with subsidies? Will my husbands retirement and social security count as income and disqualify us for any subsidies?

 

[JandJ]

I guess I'm still not understanding why young, healthy people would bother to buy insurance. If they could get away with paying a small fine, rather than premiums that are disproportionate to their need/usage.. why wouldn't they?

If you can't be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition... why not just wait until you get pregnant, or have cancer, or get in an accident... and then buy coverage at that time? I admit I don't know much about this, but that seems like a bit of a loophole.

As PPs have said, it's not retroactive coverage. If you've broken your arm, for example, you're not going to log onto the exchange and sign up before you go the hospital! My niece is 25 so she could be covered under her parents' insurance, but they don't have insurance. They're divorced and her mom is on Medicaid and her dad will now have insurance with the ACA (he's an independent contractor so no employer to get insurance from). She now has a very good job with health insurance, but she has college loans to pay off and other debt. She's making an amazing go of her budget, I'm very proud of her, but she has so little in savings that a bad accident could ruin her financially. I made sure she signed up for the insurance through her job as soon as she could and if that didn't work out she would be utilizing the ACA.

 

[lauradis]

I have a question about when a spouse has to go on Medicare. There is an age gap between my husband and I. He will have to go on Medicare in 2 years. Once he retires and is on Medicare, as a part time worker, will I be able to get Obamacare with subsidies? Will my husbands retirement and social security count as income and disqualify us for any subsidies?

All taxable income for household is what they base subsidies on.

My advice to you is save every penny you can for next two years into separate acct to pay for the insurance for yourself. The full tax penally will be effect for tax year of 2016. Which will cost you up to the min of bronze plan.

 

[barkley]

I have a question about when a spouse has to go on Medicare. There is an age gap between my husband and I. He will have to go on Medicare in 2 years. Once he retires and is on Medicare, as a part time worker, will I be able to get Obamacare with subsidies? Will my husbands retirement and social security count as income and disqualify us for any subsidies?

his retirement and social security will count (it's the ENTIRE household's income including non taxable social security benefits).

there are huge gaps in the legislation pertaining to this very issue, in particular when a medicare recipient has retiree health care available to them and their spouse/children.

in my case, b/c my employer provides retiree insurance AND their brand spanking new open enrollment charts show that the retiree's share of a family plan is right at 9.5% of what they estimate just their pension/social security is-none of the retiree's are eligible to the tax credits and the lowest crappy family plan they offer (2 dependents) is around $1300 per month

 

[barkley]

All taxable income for household is what they base subsidies on.

My advice to you is save every penny you can for next two years into separate acct to pay for the insurance for yourself. The full tax penally will be effect for tax year of 2016. Which will cost you up to the min of bronze plan.

some non taxable income gets counted too-non taxable social security benefits and non taxable interest income.

 

[lauradis]

some non taxable income gets counted too-non taxable social security benefits and non taxable interest income.

Thank you for info. Didn't read that part. Set up special retirement acct several years ago just for medical insurance.

 

[Lindaland]

Of course all of that is assuming most of the 40% will have insurance now. Its very possible they will still choose to not purchase insurance, pay the penalty and still get their "charity care".

I guess I'm still not understanding why young, healthy people would bother to buy insurance. If they could get away with paying a small fine, rather than premiums that are disproportionate to their need/usage.. why wouldn't they?

Because most people WANT to be covered. That is why the all the healthcare servers are crashing all over the country. People who don't have insurance want it. Everyone wants their healthcare to be 100% coverage for free, but that is not reality. So people want what they can get! IMO very few people will decide to go with paying a fee instead of paying for insurance. There aren't huge numbers of people protesting the law that mandates you have car insurance before you can drive a car. Most people are good and want to follow laws. The more people that buy into it, the cheaper it will be for all of us.

No one will know for sure until this is in full swing, prob in about a year or so. But I for one refuse to go into this thinking the worst and then waiting for something bad to happen. I wont waste my time on anger, being positive and thankful for what I do have is more important.

 

[North of Mouse]

Sorry, but not too many happy faces around here - only those that can be subsidized by the government, the rest have 'higher' premiums for less insurance - hard to get excited about that!

Just another way of making 'some' pay for the health care of others - a different twist on charity.

 

[robinb]

Sorry, but not too many happy faces around here - only those that can be subsidized by the government, the rest have 'higher' premiums for less insurance - hard to get excited about that!

Well ... the thread was started for "success stories" and few of them come with frowny faces.

Just another way of making 'some' pay for the health care of others - a different twist on charity.

You do know that you are already paying for others (who don't have insurance) now, don't you?

 

[eliza61]

Sorry, but not too many happy faces around here - only those that can be subsidized by the government, the rest have 'higher' premiums for less insurance - hard to get excited about that!

Just another way of making 'some' pay for the health care of others - a different twist on charity.

[[/I]

Im not sure I'm understanding that. for example I have health insurance through my employee, I go on the aca website compare and if my employees health insurance is better that's what I take.

Now as far as my premiums at work, for the most part premiums have been going up for the last 10 years. the rise in health care has been going up at double digit rates since the 1980's so I really can't figure out how folks swear it's this legislation that's causing the increase.
The Kaiser foundation said that between 2002 and 2004 health care cost rose almost 9%.

 

[luvmy3]

You do know that you are already paying for others (who don't have insurance) now, don't you?

And now some of us are paying even more so others can continue to pay even less.