Health insurance premium increases (apply, take, care, company)

[OutdoorsyGal]

She may need to have hubby work even less than 50% if he can, depending upon his income.

Obamacare can be very cheap

[Qwerty]

Originally Posted by aquamarin

I would never ever pay $13,644 per year in premiums. Screw health insurance companies... My suggestion is to look in Obamacare plans for better options.

They make way, WAY too much money to qualify for subsidies and the plans they are looking at are the same or better than a Marketplace plan...

[ocngypz]

Originally Posted by aquamarin

I would never ever pay $13,644 per year in premiums. Screw health insurance companies... My suggestion is to look in Obamacare plans for better options.

All plans are governed by the ACA.

In my state prior to ACA a self-employed couple paid approx $7500 a year to BCBS directly for coverage with a $1500 deductible.

Now that very same couple has to pay over $18,000 a year for the cheapest plan with close to $7500 deductible. So out of pocket over $25,000 during the calendar year before any insurance pays out a penny.

The fact that they are self-employed is already taken into consideration as they file a Schedule C and their qualifying income is based on adjusted gross income (after business write-offs).

[stan4]

Originally Posted by aquamarin

I would never ever pay $13,644 per year in premiums. Screw health insurance companies... My suggestion is to look in Obamacare plans for better options.

Obamacare plans ARE insurance companies.
Hello!!!!!!!

[stan4]

Originally Posted by Qwerty

Also, you are business owners, you get to write off your premiums so you really are not sharing the whole story here....do you offer a group plan to your employees, if not, you would probably save money in the long run, and have access to more PPO's by doing that.....

Our business has close to 600 employees and it's next to impossible to get an insurance company to even converse with us regarding creating a group plan that isn't ridiculously priced.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by OutdoorsyGal

Maybe it is more financially feasible to have hubby work 50% less so you guys qualify for a subsidy? you can use the online calculator for your state. Just a thought...I mean it would only be for 5 years anyhow until Medicare

That's such a crazy scenario though - why should we be FORCED to make less money - and pay less in taxes by the way - to be able to "afford" to go on the dole, so to speak?

That's so bass ackwards it's not even funny.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by aquamarin

I would never ever pay $13,644 per year in premiums. Screw health insurance companies... My suggestion is to look in Obamacare plans for better options.

No offense, but do you think we haven't done that?

We don't qualify for any subsidies. We are self employed so we don't have any company kicking in any portion of the premiums.

As for "not paying," it's illegal not to carry health insurance, not to mention risky.

And finally - "screw health insurance companies - look in Obamacare plans for better options???????" Obamacare plans are offered by HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES. On the ACA website, Blue Cross Blue Shield is my ONLY option in this area in fact. Maybe Humana offers something, I can't remember about 2016 but in 2015 Humana offered a few very expensive plans.

The plan we have is one of the plans on the ACA website in fact - at the exact same cost.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Qwerty

Cigna had similarly priced HMO's, but they have a national network. If you need coverage out of state, you could just change your PCP and then change it back, just like people on Medicare do when they snowbird.

BCBS offers the ONLY available plans in this area.

As I've explained before, my husband works out of state - in various states - every month. It's not as easy as simply "changing our PCP and then changing it back." He literally doesn't know what state or town he's going to till the day he arrives at the airport and picks up his vehicle. It could be anywhere within a three state area and within a four hour drive.

Also, you are business owners, you get to write off your premiums so you really are not sharing the whole story here....do you offer a group plan to your employees, if not, you would probably save money in the long run, and have access to more PPO's by doing that....

In another thread, I addressed this issue specifically and in great detail with you. Yes, we are business owners, but a "tax writeoff" simply means that we don't pay federal taxes on the money we spend on health insurance premiums. In our case that's a savings of about $2700 a year. However, that just comes off our already huge tax bill - we still have to pay that $1137 every single month like clockwork. In the end, we "save" about $200 a month in taxes but it's just in the form of a very slightly lower tax bill in April.

Also, for some weird reason, we don't even qualify for a Medical Savings Plan that's tax deductible. If we get hit with that deductible, like we did in 2014, we just have to pay that full amount with no tax write offs.

We don't have any employees - we are self employed and it's just the two of us.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by OutdoorsyGal

She may need to have hubby work even less than 50% if he can, depending upon his income.

Obamacare can be very cheap

So in other words, we can just get poor and get government handouts. That's pretty bleak - and really goes against our work ethic and our personal goals.

We have to save for retirement. If we intentionally make ourselves poor enough to qualify for ACA subsidies, we can't save for retirement.

We don't live lavishly. We're comfortable but we're not rich. We're in that upper middle class that gets no break tax wise or subsidy wise. We're not even old enough to qualify for property tax freezes!

[OutdoorsyGal]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

That's such a crazy scenario though - why should we be FORCED to make less money - and pay less in taxes by the way - to be able to "afford" to go on the dole, so to speak?

That's so bass ackwards it's not even funny.

yes aint that the truth

My son signed up for Medcaid 1.5 years ago. He's since got a job with Apple so he's been covered about that time. They sent a notice saying he is enrolled in the states low income health insurance because they checked his income and he qualifies. Yeah, part of the year when he's in college he works 20 hrs, otherwise it's 40 on holidays and stuff. It was a booger to get him off! He's had Kaiser Insurance forever

They want people dependent upon the State for some reason. Poor and dependent upon them.