Just Lost My Insurance

[Vol Texan]

In the short term, some will benefit, especially those that are older and/or with serious chronic health conditions. Long term, all will pay the price. Most of those that pushed for Obamacare and supported it the most vigorously are the ones that will feel the sting the worst.

mojo,

I appreciate and respect the fact that you try to find a silver lining, but I guess I'm just not that gracious. I refuse to believe that there is anything but contempt for the American people in the entirety of this travesty of a law, and believe that it fully demonstrates the evil that exists in the left wing of American politics.

The sooner that obamacare is gone, the better. Until then, it will be a pestilence upon our land.

You were right - in the long term, all will pay the price.

[RottenApple]

The sooner that obamacare is gone, the better.

It doesn't matter at this point. Most of the damage has already been done. People, such as the OP, are losing their insurance, hundreds of thousands (If not more) of employees are being cut back to 29 hours, etc. Obamacare is also affecting small (less than 50 employees) companies is other unexpected ways.

Until this past March I owned a small non-emergency medical transport company (private transport, not shuttle-type service). We were expensive, but we worked with our clients. We only had a single wheelchair van (which I drove), but also employed the occasional contract driver. But in or around March, certain provisions of the "Affordable Care Act" kicked in which caused out commercial auto insurance (specific to non-emerg med trans) to QUADRUPLE. We went from $300/mo to almost $1,200/mo for a $1M/incident-$2M/general policy. Killed my company dead. We just couldn't afford to pay 4 contracts, fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc. And those former patients we transported? I still keep in contact with some of them and, sadly, the areas they live in there just isn't anyone to pick up the slack. So not only is my company dead, these folks have no way to get to the doctor, run errands, shopping, etc.

Defunding or repealing this disaster is still a good thing, but I'm concerned that it will be a long, long time before the damage is repaired.

[gthaustex]

Everyone is talking about their premiums going up. That is just the insurance side of it. Wait until we all get hit with higher federal taxes as well to help fund the inevitable shortfalls I see in the future...medicaid, medicare, social security....ring any bells. Higher taxes, higher premiums and lower benefits is the only way to balance out all the costs it seems to me.

[Vol Texan]

Everyone is talking about their premiums going up. That is just the insurance side of it. Wait until we all get hit with higher federal taxes as well to help fund the inevitable shortfalls I see in the future...medicaid, medicare, social security....ring any bells. Higher taxes, higher premiums and lower benefits is the only way to balance out all the costs it seems to me.

Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is smiling, knowing that soon he'll be known as the '2nd worst'...

[sunny beach]

Bummer.

The GOP will save us. Just ask Boehner.

Anygunanywhere

What's the over/under on how long until Papa Boehner caves on defunding Obamacurse?

[CHLLady]

Everyone is talking about their premiums going up. That is just the insurance side of it. Wait until we all get hit with higher federal taxes as well to help fund the inevitable shortfalls I see in the future...medicaid, medicare, social security....ring any bells. Higher taxes, higher premiums and lower benefits is the only way to balance out all the costs it seems to me.

We will be paying $10 a gallon of gas like the UK.

[anygunanywhere]

Bummer.

The GOP will save us. Just ask Boehner.

Anygunanywhere

What's the over/under on how long until Papa Boehner caves on defunding Obamacurse?

Seems like you have not been around long enough to know that my "The GOP will save us" reply is entirely sarcastic and is in no way intended to infer that there is a snowball's chance of the GOP in either bidy of congress to do the slightest thing to stop bummercare. Boehner is barry's lap dog.

Anygunanywhere

[The Annoyed Man]

I haven't had any insurance since February of 2008. You manage, that's all.

I found a doctor who does not take insurance. Cash, check or credit card only. Office visit is $35, yesterday he wanted to do an EKG, it cost me an extra $10
I see him twice a year to get BP meds renewed.

Check your PM inbox.

[The Annoyed Man]

Everyone is talking about their premiums going up. That is just the insurance side of it. Wait until we all get hit with higher federal taxes as well to help fund the inevitable shortfalls I see in the future...medicaid, medicare, social security....ring any bells. Higher taxes, higher premiums and lower benefits is the only way to balance out all the costs it seems to me.

Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is smiling, knowing that soon he'll be known as the '2nd worst'...

Too late. He's been known as the "2nd worst" since January of 2009.

[cb1000rider]

If you have under 50 full time (30 hours per week) employees you do not have to pay the penalties, and the individual employee may participate in the exchanges. We have had to let 20 people go, and now full time mean 29.5 hours a weak. We cannot afford to pay the penalty and stay in business in the US.

There are zero benefits to us as a company, our former employees, and arguably our current employees. Obamacare has created a future in where EVERYONE who is paid hourly with have two 29.5 hour jobs.

That stinks.
You had to let 20 people go to get under 50? I assume your coverage didn't meet whatever minimums are stipulated?
I'm no lover of Obamacare. I recognize it as Socialism. I also recognize that the growth rate of health insurance costs without Obamacare were unsustainable. Bascially, either way it looks like it's going to train wreck.

For the OP that lost coverage - did your employer provide the funds to you that you can use in the exchange?

I see that the Republicans are trying to de-fund Obamacare and are considering holding the ability of the government to function in order to do it. This is attempt 30+ or 40+ - depending on who you ask. Personally, I find that ineffective and political theater as they already lost that battle. What do I want to see? I want a proposal that replaces Obamacare. I don't want to go back to ever-increasing costs. Replacing Obamacare is fine, but you need to let me know how you're going to make it better.

[filmtex]

is this an option for those of you losing insurance?

http://samaritanministries.org/healthreform/ or something like it?

I believe the organization that I work for is seriously considering this option. IFAK it could save us $ in the neighbor hood of six figures or about 1/2 to 1/3 of what we are currently spending. Not quite sure EXACTLY how it works at this point, but it looks like I will soon enough. Something to consider at any rate.

[Abraham]

Obama makes Carter look like a right wing extremist, to use a Democrat favorite expression...

[SewTexas]

is this an option for those of you losing insurance?

http://samaritanministries.org/healthreform/ or something like it?

I believe the organization that I work for is seriously considering this option. IFAK it could save us $ in the neighbor hood of six figures or about 1/2 to 1/3 of what we are currently spending. Not quite sure EXACTLY how it works at this point, but it looks like I will soon enough. Something to consider at any rate.

film,

I have a friend who uses samaritan specifically and another friend who uses a different group but it's much like samaritan. if you need any help let me know, I'll see what I can find out. my husband and I were starting to research them when he finally was picked up from contract to full time and we didn't need it.

[Kythas]

So I went through the exchange website this morning. Here's what I got.

A high-deductible plan with a Health Savings Account. The deductible is $2,000 individual/$4,000 family, which is double the deductible of my old BCBS insurance plan. Everything is paid 80/20 after the deductible is met, which is the same as my old BCBS plan.

I opted for dental and vision coverage for my wife and myself. My son is only 9 days old so will not need dental or vision this year.

I opted out of short and long term disability. The monthly premiums for those don't make much sense at all (the STD was $39/mo premium to only pay a benefit of $100/mo if used).

All in all, I'm losing the short and long term disability insurance which my company used to pay for, and am having my annual deductible doubled. The medical/dental/vision plan I chose has a total annual premium of $21,516. That includes the $6,250 annual HSA contribution I'm making. All this is paid for with pre-tax dollars.

My employer will be contributing $11,379 per year for my health insurance, leaving my portion of the total cost at $10,137.96. Again, this DOES include the amount I'm contributing to the HSA, which is all my money. Without the HSA contribution, my total share of the insurance premium itself is $3,687.96 for the year.

I was paying $322/mo for insurance premiums for my wife and myself. Since we just had our baby, this would have gone up when I switched from Employee/Spouse to Employee/Family, anyway. We were also told by BCBS that premiums would increase 20-35% this coming plan year if we stayed with them, which is why my company chose to use the exchange.

I've been paying $250/mo into a Flex Spending Account.

I will now be paying $307.33/mo for insurance premiums for my entire family.

I will be paying $537.50/mo into a Health Savings Account to cover my deductible.

All in all, I'm not unhappy with it. I will be paying more overall out of pocket, but not an exorbitant amount. My total monthly cost will go from $572.00 to $844.83. Again, to be perfectly honest, my premium would have gone up anyway since I would have switched to cover my entire family rather than just my wife and myself. This cost is probably in line with the extra person on the policy and what the annual increase would have been with BCBS.

[texanjoker]

Sorry to hear that. I am dreading to hear what work does on our benefits (Jan 1).... regardless the cost will go up.