Share Your Obamacare Horror Story
Well, it’s official folks.
The healthcare exchanges created by the mistitled “Affordable Healthcare Act” (AKA Obamacare) have now gone live on the InterWebs. Well, sort of.
Apparently our government knows as much about running a website as they do about running healthcare.
I’ve noticed the past two days that friends of mine in social media land are sharing some of their horror stories. Rates are skyrocketing, plans are being eliminated or dramatically changed, general chaos has ensued.
Here is one example from a friend in Charlotte.
For roughly the same coverage, his monthly cost is going from $128.50 to $314.08. That’s nearly $200 more per month for you mathematically disinclined.
In other words, not so affordable after all.
I’d love to collect a compendium of your personal Obamacare related stories. What have your rates been increased to? Have you even been able to get through on the website yet? Are you, like me, opting to pay the penalty and keep these exchanges at arms length?
It’s time to tell your story. Leave us a comment below.
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(From a Yahoo news site)
Locovelo 36 minutes ago
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34 (thumbs up)
Isn’t it more obvious now that the real non-essential personnel are the ones in Congress and the White House?
More
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Expand Replies (3) Reply
I hope the Capitol shooter they just took out wasn’t someone who’d been on hold for the last 24 hours trying to sign up for Obamacare. Now that would be a horror story. Nah, probably a Tea Party wingnut.
I have personal knowledge of the farce that Obamacare, ie the “affordable care act”, truly is……my current health insurance premium is $187. Effective 1-1-14 my premium is going to $790.
Yep, that’s clearly more affordable!!!
The bill was written by Lobbyists and passed by a Democrat Congress that never read it. Who could have guessed that premiums would go up?
The lobbyists were from the insurance companies that will be eventually be paid to pay the claims and administer the eventual single payer plan for the Government. Hopefully it will crash on them and they’ll go bankrupt like John Alden did.
Well if the R’s are the ones supporting big (bad) business, why did none of them vote for this bill? Why, if D’s are the ones looking out for the little guy, did they vote for a bill which was written to take care of business?
And, what happened to the left’s mantra, “Question Authority”? Seems they’ve forgotten that govco is also “THE MAN”.
Kayser The man is THEIR Man now.
27 year old, healthy male w/ no pre-existing conditions. Exactly the target for Obamacare. Currently earning $31k/year with a Fortune 500 rental car company. Current plan (a very good one, custom-tailored for me) is running me around $120/mo, including 3/4 of a million in accidental death benefits and a few other things no Obamacare plan offers at any cost.
According to preliminary estimates, my premium for ACA Bronze will be $137/mo (this is the unlimited deductible, low premium plan with next to no benefits).
If I want, ACA Gold, which most closely mirrors my current plan (but isn’t quite as good) will run me $387/mo.
My plan is, of course, being eliminated come Jan 1 by United HealthCare.
truth in advertising;
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/09/20131003_1800FUKYO_0.jpg
Obama has taken a huge dump on America with the approval of those who fed him the goods.
1:30AM and the system was down. C’mon dudes… the system sux!
Friend and House Guest Pete Kaliner sent these in from his listeners in Asheville.
Hi Pete,
We got a notice from Blue Cross/Blue Shield that our current high deductible insurance plan will not be grandfathered under the ACA. They have changed us over to a qualified plan that comes the closest to our current plan. Our current plan has a monthly premium of $498.25. The new plan will have a monthly premium of $1,246.55–this is 2.5 times as high as our current premium! This is for our family of four. It is pretty cynical to call this law the AFFORDABLE Care Act!
Bill H.
Pete –
Our letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield NC (dated 9/24) says that “due to ACA regulations, your current BCBSNC medical plan will no longer be offered for 2014.”
We currently have a hi-deductible plan that costs $547 per month, but starting in 2014 the premium for a plan BCBSNC describes “most closely matches the benefits of your 2013 plan” will be $1185, or 117% more than we’re currently paying.
My wife & I apparently were not in mind when the President said our premiums will be cut (by $2500 a year), and that we could keep our health plan.
Glen E.
Hendersonville
Pete,
I received my renewal premium from Blue Cross Blue Shield on Monday.I was currently paying $302 per month, but my new monthly premium will be $656 per month for the same coverage. Blue Cross informed me that the increase was due to the Affordable Health Care ACT. This is affordable Health Care????
Randy
The TRUTH is there is NO Obamacare nightmare. Don’t believe me? In the poorest state in the nation – Ole Miss – here’s the TRUTH.
1) If you make too much you don’t qualify for Medicare (’cause of greedy Republicans).
2) If you make too little you don’t qualify for Obamacare (’cause of greedy Democrats).
3) Alas, no worries, your special needs daughter will still get 10 very expensive surgeries at no cost to you regardless of your ability to pay under EMTALA laws where you can walk in to any hospital in the US, claim to be John Doe and homeless and they, by law, MUST help you.
To wit ….
(Reuters) – As Americans across the nation begin to find out what Obamacare has in store for them, many of Mississippi’s most needy will find out the answer is nothing.
That is likely the case for William and Leslie Johnson of Jackson County, since the state decided not to expand the Medicaid program for the poor under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. As a result, nearly 300,000 adults there will fall through the cracks of healthcare reform.
Many are the working poor – truckers, childcare workers, mechanics – who make too much money each month to qualify for Medicaid under Mississippi’s existing criteria but not quite enough to get government help buying private health insurance on an Obamacare exchange.
Nationwide, 25 states have rejected the Medicaid expansion, leaving nearly 7 million adults who would otherwise have qualified for coverage without benefits. These states, many of them Republican-led, have declined government funding for an expansion largely because they say initially generous subsidies would eventually be reduced, leaving them with an unacceptably large burden in a few years’ time.
Among those states, Mississippi faces one of the most dire situations. It tops the charts for poor-health indicators: highest in poverty, second-highest in obesity, highest in diabetes and highest in pre-term births.
For the Johnsons, the struggle for health coverage has been a years-long battle. In the 16 years since her birth, their daughter, Mackenzie, has already had 10 major surgeries to treat her club foot, dislocated hips and malformed spine, all due to a rare form of spina bifida that causes the spinal cord to split. (The Johnsons also have an 11-year-old son, Tyler.)
A major operation to insert two metal rods helped to straighten a 70-degree curve in Mackenzie’s spine that was collapsing her lungs and making it difficult for her to breathe. It improved her condition to the point where she no longer qualified for a special Medicaid program for disabled children living at home. She hasn’t had health insurance since last June.
“At this point, we’re still fighting to get her on Medicaid, but being self-employed, if I gross a certain amount of money per month, they kick her off the program,” said William.
In Mississippi, a two-parent working family of four earning $10,000 to $23,500 would not be eligible for assistance either through Medicaid or the exchange because the state did not expand Medicaid, said Ed Sivak, director of the nonpartisan Mississippi Economic Policy Center.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/qblhlrt
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And yet, we “wonder” why health care costs are spiraling out of control.
Under glorius Socialism, the healthcare panels would have told the Johnson’s, “We’re terribly sorry but there is nothing we can do.” Then would have counted her infant death as a miscarriage in their statistics.
My premium from BCBSNC will increase from $248 to $964 per month, an increase of 390%. Civitas is also collecting horror stories, see NCCIVITAS.org
from 6,000 per year in 2012 to 12,000 per year in 2013 with same coverage with higher copay, to 18,000 per year in 2014 – with $20,000 out of pocket before first bill is paid, then I pay 20% of any “covered” expenses. (through my employer). Going Commando…
Got a strange letter from my employer today – saying my coverage was “creditable” and that if I were to go to Medicare I would therefore not be charged a fine as long as there was no “gap in coverage” but that I needed to save that letter to “prove” it. What does that mean I am not eligible for Medicare…Any ideas as to what that even means?
Oh god. The sky is falling.
Here’s my Obamacare horror story:
The law was passed by Congress. It was then signed by the president and upheld by the Supreme Court. Per the Constitution, that’s how we do it it in this country.
But don’t tell that to our state legislature. Their cry baby opposition of the law forced rates on its citizens that are higher than the national average.
http://www.politicsnc.com/to-spite-your-face/
Using that logic if they passed a law that says we all have to wear cardboard clothes we have to do it. Never question authority!!
Kayser as long as there is a penalty for not wearing the cardboard clothes that John Roberts can call a Tax, then yes we’d all better stay out of the rain.
I have a bridge to sell you, as it appears you will buy into anything.
Roberts had to re-write the law to make it constitutional as a tax. All along, Obama and the Democrats insisted it was not a tax to avoid public outcry.
Not looking at the letter, but it sounds like you can go from your employer plan to Medicare without incurring a tax penalty. I would be surprised if anyone asks for the letter, but you should keep just in case. At least through the first full tax year.
The letter you received is a standard one sent so you have proof that you have been continuously insured by a previous insurer. If you qualify for Medicare or any other plan which you may switch to you are going to need to submit that letter as proof to change to another plan or Medicare. When age 65 you automatically qualify for Medicare and a Medicare supplement if you choose to have one. If you are not 65, but are disabled, you may still qualify for Medicare, but it is not automatic. I assume you are not qualified for Medicaid which is for those at poverty level or below.
Libtard Obamacare quote of the day:
“Of course, I want people to have health care,” Vinson said. “I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_24248486/obamacares-winners-and-losers-bay-area
Most people like Mr. Vinson think that the healthcare will be free and that they will tax the ‘rich’ to pay for it. When they get the bill, they discover the Government considers them to be ‘rich’.
From Facebook:
From a friend, PAY CLOSE ATTENTION…posted on the Obamacare website today “I actually made it through this morning at 8:00 A.M. I have a preexisting condition
(Type 1 Diabetes) and my income base was 45K-55K annually I chose tier 2 “Silver Plan” and my monthly premiums came out to $597.00 with $13,988 yearly deducti…ble!!! There is NO POSSIBLE way that I can afford this so I “opt-out” and chose to continue along with no insurance. I received an email tonight at 5:00 P.M. informing me that my fine would be $4,037 and could be attached to my yearly income tax return. Then you make it to the “REPERCUSSIONS PORTION” for “non-payment” of yearly fine. First, your drivers license will be suspended until paid, and if you go 24 consecutive months with “Non-Payment” and you happen to be a home owner, you will have a federal tax lien placed on your home. You can agree to give your bank information so that they can easy “Automatically withdraw” your “penalties” weekly, bi-weekly or monthly! This by no means is “Free” or even “Affordable.
Larry,
Would you feel comfortable posting the text (including the sender’s info) of the email you received, “5:00 P.M. informing me that my fine would be $4,037 and could be attached to my yearly income tax return,” that includes the “REPERCUSSIONS PORTION” for “non-payment” of yearly fine.
Never mind. I see this is a FAKE passing around on Facebook. Thanks gor wasting our time.
Got my new BCBS of FL health insurance rates yesterday. Last year I paid $370/mo. for single coverage. This year it is $670/mo. for less coverage. Can’t afford that, so I guess I will have to go without. If the IRS tries to fine me they can BLOW IT OUT THEIR A$$! Thanks ODumbo!
If you do not pay for Obamacare and don’t have employer based insurance you can be fined. If you don’t pay the fine they can take your driver’s license. If you still can’t pay the fine they can put a lean on your home and make you sell it. If you still can’t pay the fine they can deduct it from your paychecks. If you don’t work, don’t have a home and can’t pay for the fine they can throw you in jail. I think the very people the bleeding hearts were trying to care for are the ones who will really suffer for this. No one is more dangerous then an ignorant bleeding heart do gooder who cannot or will not do the research before voting. They vote with their emotions instead of with knowledge. And then you get what we got with Obamacare, disaster.
I don’t believe they can take your driver’s license or throw you in jail. They can levy your tax refund and/or place a lien on your house. And yes, MOST people, both conservative and liberal, vote with their emotions instead of their logic, and yes, Obamacare is a disaster.
Kayser you would be surprised at how many reasons they can take your DL these days.
No I wouldn’t, but that’s not one of them as far as I can tell.
50 plus Americans vote for these folks, so kids, you deserve what you going to get. This Election had out comes most we’re willing to look the other way or who, whoed the reports of what they would do your family and you. Not once but twice, over 50 % of you folks said change and hope are what we need. You got both. CHANGE, LEGION OF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE HARMED IN WAYS OUR NATION HAS NEVER EXPERIENCED.
No man is as blind as a man that will no see.
Hope is just around the corner, unfortunet problem is 3 more years of pain be the the just starts to feel some relief. Lets hope the damage is repairable.
I set up an account on healthcare.gov, providing only my name and email (that’s all that’s initially requested. Before I could fill out at an application, I got a screen saying “Your identity wasn’t verified.” I called the provided number and they said I must snail mail them a copy of a drivers license before I could proceed!! Incredible.
I too received my letter from BC/BS of FL stating my current $70 a month bare bones policy will no longer be available come Jan 2014 due to the ACA. They have offered me one for $467 a month. I called them and was told that they had nothing less than $377 a month for me. I can’t afford that. I also don’t qualify for any on the exchanges and FL is not in the Medicaid exchanges, so I will be without insurance for the first time in my 59 years of healthy life. Thank you for nothing Obamacare.
My current plan which I’ve had for 15 years or better has now been canceled because of this POS law. The plan they put me in will now cost $5,640 in yearly premiums and then another $3500.00 in deductibles. This means, this great plan won’t pay for 1 pill until I shell out $9140.00. My agents advice was cancel it and pay the penalty. Paying for a couple Dr visits a year and the penalty will be a far cry from 9 grand. Then if I do get sick, I can always sign up again and will have to be accepted because of the pre existing condition clause. Sounds like the route to go.
Here’s the data dump for Obamacare premiums:
https://data.healthcare.gov/dataset/QHP-Individual-Medical-Landscape/ba45-xusy
27-year old male, living in Mecklenburg County, NC, Bronze Plan = $2,666.42 per year. Ouch!
IMPORTANT! MUST READ! This is news worthy.
I wanted to reach out to you to provide you with insight on some of the significant effects of Obamacare on our country. I am an insurance consultant in the state of NJ and an EXPERT on the law. I work with hundreds of business owners throughout the state and I would like to share with you what’s actually happening to the small business owner and all business owners throughout the country. I assure you that it’s imperative you read this contribution!
I feel that you’re missing some key talking points in your message. The website will be fixed and it’s time to turn your attention to the bigger issues.
Below is an outline:
Termination Letters: The ENTIRE country (less exempt plans) will receive a termination letter. Not 1 million, not 100 million but more like 170 million. Obamacare considers pediatric dental to be one of the 10 essential health benefits that are required to be included in all plans for 2014. As far as I know, there aren’t any pre obamacare plans that cover this benefit. Therefore all plans are non compliant, hence the termination letters.
Rate Increases: I received my January employer sponsored plan renewals last week. It was horrific. With very few exceptions, rates rose from 15% to 150%. The average increase was between 30-50%. Rate increases of this magnitude lead to a variety of socioeconomic issues. More notably, recession, unemployment and inflation. I have illustrated this in my scenario below.
If an employer currently spends 50K on their employee benefits and is then faced with a 50% increase (this is small in some cases) they will have some decisions to make. This would be an additional 25K burden on the employer.
Many of the businesses that I consult with are struggling in this economy already and will not likely absorb the increase. They might pass the increase on to their employees in the form of higher employee contributions. This means less take home pay and disposable income which results in less spending. This is RECESSION.
Another approach might involve cutting hours to part time (29 hours under the ACA) or simply terminating an employee who perhaps earns 25K/ year. I call these employees the 29ers.
In the case where a business employees over 50 full time equivalents, they might have several layoffs to bring them under the 50 employee threshold. I call these businesses the 49ers. This is UNEMPLOYMENT.
Another approach might be for a business to simply raise the cost of their goods and services to offset the rate increase. This is INFLATION.
I will now expand on the subject of rate increases. Some of these rate increases have lead business owners to change their renewal dates to December instead of January to put off the Obamacare increases until December 2014. Essentially “kicking the can down the road.” This is becoming so prevalent that it has led to the following broker release from the NY Department of Banking on November 5th.
The Department of Financial Services is concerned that certain small employer groups may have elected to renew health insurance coverage in 2013 that would otherwise not renew until 2014 in order to avoid the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that take effect on January 1, 2014. Health insurance producers are hereby reminded that in accordance with the New York State Insurance Law Sections 3221(s) and 4303(nn), insurers and insurance producers are not permitted to renew a small group policy which provides hospital, surgical or medical expense coverage that renews on or after January 1, 2014, but before July 1, 2014, prior to the policy’s annual renewal date for the sole purpose of evading the requirements of the ACA and regulations promulgated thereunder. Health insurance producers that steer small employer groups toward early renewal of coverage for the sole purpose of avoiding the requirements of the ACA may be in violation of the Insurance Law. Likewise, insurers who early renew coverage for small groups for the sole purpose of avoiding the requirements of the ACA may also be in violation of the Insurance Law. An isolated, inadvertent renewal date change that was not made for the sole purpose of evading the requirements of the ACA shall not be deemed a violation.
Network & Doctor Shortage: Can I keep my doctor? Yes but you have to pay for it. We have always had a national and regional network to choose from in NJ but now we are seeing the development of “Skinny” networks that encompass a fraction of the previous benchmark network.
With rates driving consumers to these smaller networks we are left with a class system of care and doctor shortage. The rich will pay for the stronger network and easily receive high class treatment and the low income consumer will wait for services, perhaps of lesser quality. Doctors have already begun to close their doors and with a heavier migration to smaller networks and a larger insured population (in theory, I actually believe we will have a similar number of uninsured after all of this) you end up with a DOCTOR SHORTAGE. Most aspiring physicians are entering the field of specialty medicine. This only adds to problem.
Adverse Selection: Adverse selection hurts the insurance company and in turn all consumers. The insurers are mandated under the ACA to cover everyone without pre-existing conditions. The insurance carriers are looking at a claims nightmare. Many people are starving to cover their pre-existing conditions and are ready to bombard the carriers with massive claims. Typically the old and sick.
The carriers were counting on having everyone in the insurance pool to offset the old and sick. Unfortunately, they’re not going to get them. The young and healthy will pay the ridiculous fine of $95 per year or 1% of salary. This will result in explosive rates. After all, the rates are based upon claims.
More on adverse selection: Tell me how much I should make? In theory, people should be paid based upon merit and work ethic, but there may be a new magic number. How much should I claim on my tax return to maximize my government subsidy. Shameful but still realty. You may find those business that can, shift to a cash incentive business model similar to a gas station. Pay by cash then it’s cheaper.
Insurance Carriers: They don’t want your business. They will come out and tell you this. Many carriers are contractually obligated to offer plans in the Obamacare marketplace. The carriers in the marketplace want you to enroll with the other carriers because they see it all as bad business. This is evident in the behavior of United Healthcare and Aetna. They have chosen to stay out of most exchanges because they recognize the heavy claims burden that it represents. That’s a nice strategy.
THE INSURANCE CARRIER IS NOT TO BLAME (or for the most part): I don’t’ work for the insurance company. I work for the best interest of my clients. The carriers are mandated under the ACA (affordable care act) to pay out 80 cents in claims for every dollar of premium that they collect. This leaves them with an operating margin of 20% to pay for their overhead. If they make too much money, they have to give it back.
Push back the individual mandate and employer mandate: DON’T DO IT! I realize it’s too late on the employer mandate but this is a bad idea. We’ve already killed the bill when we pushed back the employer mandate. In order for this law to have a chance to succeed, it needed to go down as it was written. When you start picking at the most critical pieces of the law, the cost explodes. The insurance carriers and consumer need everyone to be insured. Unfortunately, they won’t be.
PERHAPS THE BEST IDEA WOULD HAVE BEEN TO PUSH THE ENTIRE LAW OUT TO 2015. IT’S TOO LATE NOW.
Cost: I’ve been to Washington to speak with congress and the budget committee on this for 12 days over the last 3 years. The budget committee said that they’re responsible for telling the president how much the bill will cost BASED UPON WHAT IS WRITTEN IN THE BILL. When you take out pieces of the law you destroy the fabric and integrity of the entire law. This bill was projected to cost approx.. 1.5 trillion. I speculate that it will cost 4 trillion.
Results: This bill was so focused on the uninsured population that if failed to consider the fragile currently insured population.
There are many responsible people who have insurance and want to do the right thing. They follow the rules and listen to mom and dad. Unfortunately, there is a large currently insured population who will not qualify for a subsidy or a very small one and they will be forced into the uninsured market.
I sometimes look at spending in terms of return on investment. If I’m going to spend 2 trillion dollars (assuming that’s what it is. I believe it to be more like 4) I would like to see a good value and return on my spending. With the toothless fine of $95 and 1% of salary, the young and healthy will not participate in the insurance market. When you consider this along with the exemptions and new price driven uninsured demographic, you end up with 4 trillion dollars less in your pocket and a similar amount of uninsured.
About me: I think this law is a nice idea but don’t most laws start out that way. People sometimes ask me, if I’m a republican or democrat or if I’m for the law or against it. My answer to that is that I’m a Republicrat and I’m about the law.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have regarding yourself or your business. I would also like to extend my services if anyone would like to hold an educational event on the subject.
My cell is 609-675-0338 and my email is Schaffer01@yahoo.com
God Bless America!
Kevin Schaffer