Why Obamacare Sux!

More than a little peeved.  My wife & I have had an Obamacare healthplan for the last year and a half.  When we signed up the state told us our kids would have to be on a separate state run plan and we would need to get our healthcare on "the exchange".  So for a year and a half we paid for two separate health insurance plans (both to the state).  The plan my wife and I are on stinks to holy heaven, it is probably the worst plan we have ever had...all it does is force the doctors to reduce their rates while we pretty much pay for everything.  I didn't complain too much because the plan my sons were on was fantastic and didn't cost us much at all.
So my wife got a little better job and makes a bit more than she did before (not a whole lot more, just like $2 dollars an hour).  When we updated our "income" with the health exchange they informed us we are now rich and our boys will not be eligible for the state plan and we will need to add them to our plan.  So now our health insurance premiums will increase by about $250 a month (the total cost is only $300 less than we pay for our mortgage)....and all four of us will have the same worthless plan.  I have given thought to just dumping the entire thing and go without insurance but the government will just penalize us around the same amount (when we file our taxes) for not having insurance.  What a joke.
My daughter on the other hand makes minimum wage to the tune of about 35 hours a week and has absolutely all of her healthcare for free (she does not pay a dime for anything...including dental).  So if you want great healthcare do not get a job above minimum wage.

I believe if the healthcare plan that you qualify for is 8% of your income, you can file an exemption.

Xid wrote:

I believe if the healthcare plan that you qualify for is 8% of your income, you can file an exemption.

Never heard of that, but i believe that is probably right around where we will be at for the end of the year.

One of the problems is that the government insists on counting my minor son's part-time income as "house-hold income" he doesn't make a ton of money (maybe $400 to $500 a month) and he certainly doesn't contribute financially to his own health insurance. Why his income should matter is beyond me (just more stupidity IMO).

We now pay about 130% more for insurance (for a family of 4) than we did two years ago with our private plan (for a family of 5) and have vastly inferior plan.

When I was a teen my parents paid around $35 a month for health insurance and they had zero out of pocket expenses.  I pay more than 20 times more than that now, and the insurance covers almost nothing (I pay for nearly all of my medical expenses).  As you can tell I am a more than a little miffed.

The "affordable" plan we qualified for has a $12,000 deductible.  What's the point?

Three things I will do when I am president:

Repeal Obamacare.

Abolish the IRS.

Fire Congress.

We could just join the Resistance.  The evil Emperor must be stopped.

If you're part of an engineering society (ASME, IEEE, AICHE), you can see about getting insurance through them as they sometimes have insurance plans for members.

alldatndensum wrote:

We could just join the Resistance.  The evil Emperor must be stopped.

Soon, hopefully.  Although my fear right now is that Trump will be another Perot and confuse enough people that the next one in charge will be the wicked witch.

Xid wrote:

The "affordable" plan we qualified for has a $12,000 deductible.  What's the point?

My "affordable" plan has a $9,000 deductible.  I think it 47 years my family has only reached that maybe twice in one year.

BearDad wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

We could just join the Resistance.  The evil Emperor must be stopped.

Soon, hopefully.  Although my fear right now is that Trump will be another Perot and confuse enough people that the next one in charge will be the wicked witch.

I said something very similar to my coworker the other day.  He doesn't think it will happen because he thinks Trump won't run if he doesn't get the Republican ticket....I wouldn't put it past him to run anyway and muck up the votes just like Perot did.

Trump is a huge supporter and friend of the Clintons.  I wouldn't doubt that he is being paid to muck up the election.

I have what is called a "Consumer Choice" plan. We have an HSA (Health Savings Account). Our family deductible is $2,600, after that it pays 90%. After you reach $5,000 it pays 100%. Each year our employer puts money in the account and it rolls over (there is no "use it or lose it"). We have not used it yet this year and I add $30 a week to that account. This is the first year we have been on it and while I was apprehensive at first, I like it. We have been to the doctor a few times this year but have paid from our debit card instead of using the HSA. Someone else i know has one and they said try to go a whole year without using it at all and make weekly deposits. That way if something major happens you'll have a lot of money in the account to pay for a disaster. 

Since this is the first year, the company put $2,300 in the account to begin with. So that made our deductible the same as our old PPO plan, $300. On Jan 1 they will add another $1,300 or so. It is much cheaper than the PPO we had last year so that's why I put $30 a week in the account (this one is aprox. 30 bucks cheaper a week so I never miss the $30).

We are also a Union facility at a large company with probably 30,000 employees nationwide so I guess that helps in keeping somewhat decent healthcare. We used to have $20 co-pays when going to the doctor, now we have none. We just show the card and usually a bill comes in (we have been to walk-in clinics 2 times this year and each time it was around $88 so when the bill came I just paid it straight out of the checking account). So if I make it to Jan without any incidents and don't use the HSA debit card we will have over $4,000 in there for 2016. Prescriptions also count toward the deductible and on the PPO they didn't. But so far prescriptions we have needed this year work out to be around 3 or 4 dollars. 

But there is a guy I work with whose daughter is diabetic and insulin is full price, somewhere around $1500 a month (I think). He hit his deductible in no time but now the insulin is covered 90% (would be 100 % if generic but there is NO generic insulin). 

Haven't been to the eye doctor yet but another employee said he went and it only cost 10 bucks for a glasses and contacts exam. I'll go when i run out of contacts (my prescription hasn't changed in years so when I go I stock up on contact lenses and go about once every 3 years. Right now I have enough contacts to last me probably til the middle of 2016-- I wear them until they bother me. They are disposable and I wear them longer than you are supposed to but I clean them every day). 

So I guess we are happy with our insurance. I was against the Consumer Choice Plan at first because it encourages you NOT to go to the doctor or the ER. An ER visit will cost you $900 right off the bat, whereas with our old plan it was $20 for walk-in or specialist and $50 for ER. So if I get sick, I normally tough it out. The kids on the other hand will be taken to the walk in (our 2 visits this year) or ER if a situation happens.

You can be exempt from the tax penalty. I was informed my family of 5 makes too much money for free healthcare but not enough to pay the $925 monthly premium. I guess the consolation prize was the exemption, even though my family still has no coverage. Thank God for divine health.

My wife has a mild form of skin cancer so going without insurance is not an option for me.  I don't have an HSA (Health Savings Account), but I will be starting on before the end of the year.  I hope to see an end of year bonus (hopefully) and would like to put as much of it as I can into an HSA.

Thank God I still have a private plan through my employer....it's expensive by the time I add my wife and kids to it, but pretty cheap if it was just me on there.

Not anywhere near as expensive as an Obamacare plan......

Here's how it works for the NHS, which has done pretty good over the years...

What are the income and sales taxes like for you guys, Fundy?

20% - 40% income tax and sales is 20%

Fundy wrote:

20% - 40% income tax and sales is 20%

Dang!