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...nice that the article is encouraging people to lower their incomes so they can qualify for those subsidies since their cost is doubling with coverage for things they don't want or need, like maternity care...
I guess on the positive side Obama has probably also helped people lower income to qualify for those subsidies...
"Take, for example, Jacqueline Proctor of San Francisco. She and her husband are in their early 60s. They have been paying $7,200 a year for a bare-bones Kaiser Permanente health plan with a $5,000 per person annual deductible. "Kaiser told us the plan does not comply with Obamacare and the substitute will cost more than twice as much," about $15,000 per year, she says.
This new plan, Kaiser's cheapest offering for 2014, would consume about 25 percent of their after-tax income. The new plan still has a $5,000 deductible but provides coverage for things her current policy does not, such as maternity care, healthy child visits and coverage for dependents up to age 26. Proctor has no use for such coverage, since her son is 30."
...nice that the article is encouraging people to lower their incomes so they can qualify for those subsidies since their cost is doubling with coverage for things they don't want or need, like maternity care...
I guess on the positive side Obama has probably also helped people lower income to qualify for those subsidies...
"Take, for example, Jacqueline Proctor of San Francisco. She and her husband are in their early 60s. They have been paying $7,200 a year for a bare-bones Kaiser Permanente health plan with a $5,000 per person annual deductible. "Kaiser told us the plan does not comply with Obamacare and the substitute will cost more than twice as much," about $15,000 per year, she says.
This new plan, Kaiser's cheapest offering for 2014, would consume about 25 percent of their after-tax income. The new plan still has a $5,000 deductible but provides coverage for things her current policy does not, such as maternity care, healthy child visits and coverage for dependents up to age 26. Proctor has no use for such coverage, since her son is 30."
Nice work democrats.
Is there a reason why they can't shop around, maybe look at plans from someone else besides Kaiser Permanente? All this is telling us is that the plan they had didn't provide the minimum coverage the ACA requires, and that Kaiser has offered them a more expensive plan. They may have a relationship with their Kaiser agent, and be loathe to look at other insurance companies' plans, but that is their personal choice.
Is there a reason why they can't shop around, maybe look at plans from someone else besides Kaiser Permanente? All this is telling us is that the plan they had didn't provide the minimum coverage the ACA requires, and that Kaiser has offered them a more expensive plan. They may have a relationship with their Kaiser agent, and be loathe to look at other insurance companies' plans, but that is their personal choice.
They STILL have to buy coverages they don't need.
Why can't they be allowed to buy exactly what they want?
Why can't they be allowed to buy exactly what they want?
Because that's not how insurance works. The insurance companies design plans. The consumers are presented with a number of plans, and choose which will best meet their needs. Consumers don't design plans. It's not a supermarket, where every shopper can customize their cart to their own tastes and needs. Insurance that was customized to that degree would be enormously expensive, because rather than checking if a patient's coverage was Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D or Plan E, each individual patient's insurance plan would have to be referenced every time to check if they wanted this coverage or that coverage or didn't want this coverage or that coverage. They were likely paying for coverages they didn't need before as well. Only now things are changing, and they don't like it.
They can shop around, and probably will end up with better coverage than they had before, for close to the same amount they paid before. If they will actually do the work involved in shopping around.
Semi affluent people can choose to cut back. Qualify for subsidies for healthcare plus collect early social security. It's a double whammy. More money being taken out of social security and more benefits being paid by giving subsidies to semi affluent people who understand the ACA game.
What? Since when? Insurance companies have always attempted to create plans to let the consumer get as close to what he wants as possible, while not complicating the actuarial analysis too much . Years ago, you could choose your basic plan and have a significant number of options. Now you can't. Why is that? I'm sure you know the answer, I'd just like you to say why.
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The insurance companies design plans.
No, they do not. The federal government now designs plans, and allows some minor variability.
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The consumers are presented with a number of plans, and choose which will best meet their needs. Consumers don't design plans. It's not a supermarket, where every shopper can customize their cart to their own tastes and needs.
Why not? (here's a hint... state governments often outlawed many or most of the choices... and now the federal government has taken away MANY more, including NOT being insured)
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Insurance that was customized to that degree would be enormously expensive, because rather than checking if a patient's coverage was Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D or Plan E, each individual patient's insurance plan would have to be referenced every time to check if they wanted this coverage or that coverage or didn't want this coverage or that coverage. They were likely paying for coverages they didn't need before as well. Only now things are changing, and they don't like it.
That's actually nonsense.
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They can shop around, and probably will end up with better coverage than they had before, for close to the same amount they paid before. If they will actually do the work involved in shopping around.
What? Since when? Insurance companies have always attempted to create plans to let the consumer get as close to what he wants as possible, while not complicating the actuarial analysis too much . Years ago, you could choose your basic plan and have a significant number of options. Now you can't. Why is that? I'm sure you know the answer, I'd just like you to say why.
No, they do not. The federal government now designs plans, and allows some minor variability.
Why not? (here's a hint... state governments often outlawed many or most of the choices... and now the federal government has taken away MANY more, including NOT being insured)
That's actually nonsense.
That, too, is factually incorrect.
You are the one that is factually incorrect. I'm sure you will deny it, but it is what it is.
You are so hell-bent on bashing Obamacare, you don't care what the FACTS are. And yes, if this couple will take the time to shop around, they will discover plans with better coverage for close to the same price they are currently paying. It's not nonsense. It's simply the job of the consumer to actually shop around and do research.
You do realize that the best dollar value insurance was always the high deductible, no-frills plan?
The one where nothing is paid for until you reach the deductible, and everything is after that.
Why can't people buy that? What is so evil about it that the federal government forbids it? Explain it to me.
Frankly, the best dollar value insurance was a comprehensive plan with a low deductible that my employer paid 100% for.
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