Open enrollment for Affordable Care Act begins October 1st (Charlotte: 2014, health insurance)
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Nearly one in five North Carolinians under the age of 65 did not have health insurance in 2010, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Click on a county on the link below to generate a chart showing the percentage of the population without health insurance in 2006 and 2010.
Click on the "Statewide" button to generate a table showing the percentage of the population without health insurance in all counties. NC Insurance | NewsObserver.com
In North Carolina, only two insurers will sell subsidized policies: Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Coventry Health Care of the Carolinas.
It's so hard to discuss this without getting into politics. So - I voted for Obama twice, and my ideal would be single payer. However, I'm dreading Obamacare because I'm guessing that my employer will find a way to drive us to the exchanges if they can find a way ... and I wouldn't get a subsidy ... and I think my premiums could be close to $500 a month. That doesn't include deductibles (surely high) or coinsurance (the bronze plan only pays 60%; the platinum 90%).
POTUS said over the weekend that the plan would cost a cell phone bill. I think that's incredibly irresponsible to say.
I'm really worked up over this. I keep hearing people say cost will be offset by subsidies but a HUGE chunk of the middle class will be eliminated from that subsidy. Also, with only two insurers in our state participating, there will hardly be a lot of free market competition. AND, we can't buy insurance across state lines.
So:
--As long as I live in this state I will never go into business for myself
--Woe to me if I get laid off and end up with part time jobs until I get a full time
--I'm considering moving to a state with more insurers and one that has their own plan
Very worried.
Before liberals yell at me: I'm a liberal. Before conservatives agree with me: I want single payer. Everything good about the ACA would also be present in a single payer system. And there IS a lot of good in the ACA but there's a big doughnut hole that is going to ruin people.
The ACA could have been good. But it won't be. The law of unintended consequences caught up with it. Early. Employers are dumping employees out of the "have to provide" bracket, hours, temp, contractor and all of those will end up costing taxpayers money, when the assumptions were that employers would pay. The really sad thing is that when employers drop employees off health care, prices do not come down, the employer just makes more money.
This deal is too complex. In 2 - 3 years it will not be recognizable since I am sure a lot will go away. some will stay and that will form the core of the next attempt. I too, vote demo, but ACA is just not workable.
Oh most of my healthcare has been military medicine. So my standards in regards to choice are pretty low.
well I wanted to retire next year, not quite old enough for Medicare. I could have cobra'd my employers insurance for 18 months at a mere 700.00 a month. I could have went with a private carrier, alas, not with a bad heart, no one wants to cover you, however if I could have found a carrier, it would have been between 1200.00 to 1400.00 a month...not able to do that on SS. My SS will be 14,000.00 a year. My portion of the insurance coverage will be around 50.00 a month (Silver plan) after the federal contribution. For me it works, for me I can get out of the work force and some young person can come take my job (which has fabulous medical benefits ) The more money you make the more you will pay.
And what happens if you move out of state? Say in the middle of the year? Then what?
Too bad it doesn't break down the info by age. I'd like to know how many of those people are young and are just going to going to pay the penalty.
For the first few years the penalty won't be significant...but after ? Yes, the penalty will be very high. Also if you do a google search you can find several calculators that have been released that show how much per age, if you smoke and so forth. I highly suggest smokers stop now, because that is going to ding you a couple of hundred more a month no matter what age you are.
well I wanted to retire next year, not quite old enough for Medicare. I could have cobra'd my employers insurance for 18 months at a mere 700.00 a month. I could have went with a private carrier, alas, not with a bad heart, no one wants to cover you, however if I could have found a carrier, it would have been between 1200.00 to 1400.00 a month...not able to do that on SS. My SS will be 14,000.00 a year. My portion of the insurance coverage will be around 50.00 a month (Silver plan) after the federal contribution. For me it works, for me I can get out of the work force and some young person can come take my job (which has fabulous medical benefits ) The more money you make the more you will pay.
And what happens if you move out of state? Say in the middle of the year? Then what?
And for you I'm glad you'll have coverage. I thought that was the aim of the law. The idea of everyone having coverage is cheaper in the long run because they aren't getting emergency room only care.
But, as is stated earlier in the thread, and as we have seen with Trader Joe's, people are being pushed to ACA that already had insurance. For Trader Joe's it's a matter of being a better deal for their employees. That's great for them but in essence we are using tax dollars to get the insured covered by government programs. That's one of the Laws I see as also mentioned above. Where does this money come from to pay the subsidies of people that are already insured?
And then there's the issue of competition. I don't know about other states but I do not see in NC that the competition is going to drive costs down. There is only ONE statewide insurer participating in the plan. That cannot be a good thing.
The cynic in me thinks that this is driving towards single payer. And I'm not judging whether that would be good or bad. It's just suspicious.
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