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The number of consumers signing up for plans under the Affordable Care Act has surged during the first few days of open enrollment compared with past years, according to federal and state officials.
More than 200,000 Americans chose a plan on Nov. 1, the day open enrollment began, according to one Trump administration official. That’s more than double the number of consumers who signed up on the first day of enrollment last year.
Well - the penalties for NOT having healthcare have probably now increased (for next year) to the point where people are less penalized for having healthcare.
That was the original plan in place.
The goal was to wipe out as much private insurance as possible so that when we got to this point, there would be much fewer options and government care would be much more palatable.
It's perfect if you have little to no income, say you're retiring early, late 50's, but don't qualify for medicare until 65.. but if you have income it quickly becomes ridiculous to afford without the subsidies. Who's going to pay $600+ a month for what amounts to a high deductible catastrophic plan? Why not just store all one's assets in bitcoin, self insure, and file bankruptcy if you have a major health problem?
Since the subsidies go by income and not net worth, you can have a lot of assets and still get a cheap plan.
Chances are though if you're only pulling in $50-75K/year you have employer sponsored plans anyways.
If the penalties get bigger every year, maybe now it's cheaper to buy it rather than pay the penalty. They now have a very expensive health card that doctors won't take and for which they have to spend thousands out of pocket to use up their deductible. We need more community health clinics and coops.
I thought people were now allowed to form groups, like restaurant workers for example, to get cheaper group rates.
I voted for repeal it, but I'm afraid there is no good answer now that the genie is out of the bottle. With all of the misinformation out there, it's easy to understand why people are so in love with the PPACA. I can absolutely understand why someone paying $100/month for a family of 4 is happy about that. They couldn't get that kind of rate prior to the PPACA. But, you've got people like me, who had full monthly premiums around $500 for 3 people now paying $1000 or more WITH the subsidy. I simply can't afford that. I'm not a high earner and I'm paying a full 25% of my income for insurance. What does 2019 have in store for me? What will 2019 look like for the millions of other families who have to make the choice between a garbage insurance plan and other bills?
Repealing it would lead to enormous backlash. Leaving it as is will result in the same. You can't just take it away. Too many people confuse health insurance with healthcare. You've got to get off your butt and go to the doctor for care.
Capping rates will make insurers pull out of all marketplaces. Forcing everyone to buy makes people go broke. Single payer is a horrible option. Seriously, when is the last time the government did anything more efficiently than the private sector? I'm afraid we are in an untenable position and there are no real good options.
And how do you improve this mess? Without going to single payer? I don't see how it can be done. I don't care what your political affiliation or feeling of the PPACA are, the government screwed us all on this one. It'll just take a little longer for the rest of the country to feel the pain.
ADDED: With the amount of money many families are paying for premiums, what does this do for our overwhelming amount of personal debt in this country? In the past 2 years, I have paid enough in premiums to wipe out just about all of my debt, excluding my mortgage. That would include my wife's student loans. How many people, as a percentage, are paying just the minimum payments on their credit cards each month? How much of the money sent in to insurance companies could be used to grow our economy? What would you do with an additional $12,000 or more per year?
It's perfect if you have little to no income, say you're retiring early, late 50's, but don't qualify for medicare until 65.. but if you have income it quickly becomes ridiculous to afford without the subsidies.
This was my experience as well. It probably works fine if you qualify for subsidies, but people who make like $50k or $100k and use the exchanges are getting totally screwed. You get an extremely expensive plan that covers very little.
As long as group employer plans are so much cheaper per-person than individual plans, there's going to be issues with the ACA. It isn't really stable as-is.
This was my experience as well. It probably works fine if you qualify for subsidies, but people who make like $50k or $100k and use the exchanges are getting totally screwed. You get an extremely expensive plan that covers very little.
As long as group employer plans are so much cheaper per-person than individual plans, there's going to be issues with the ACA. It isn't really stable as-is.
Serious question: what percentage of Americans is in that income range and doesn't get employer-provided healthcare for themselves or through a spouse? I know there are a lot of self-employed people, but most make next to nothing or do quite well for themselves, and many are married to employed people.
This is great news. The Trump Administration is not having a campaign to remind people of the December 15th deadline the way the Obama Administration did every fall, so I was worried that people would forget to sign up. But it appears all of Trump's attempts to thwart the law are not paying off.
Remember, December 15th is the deadline this year. Get over there and sign up or renew you health insurance.
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