The Affordable Care Act is financially devastating our family
My husband and I are both self employed. We have always paid higher premiums for health care coverage than our corporate peers, but understood it was a cost of self employed. When the decision to pass this law was made, I was happy to learn that we could keep our current plan, if we wanted to. I was relieved, I had worked very hard to find the plan we had and it worked well for us, pre-existing conditions and all. I was devastated later to learn that the President was mis-informed on his own plan and I would have to sign up for a new one. Our monthly premiums went up $200 and did not include dental, which would be another $200. In other words, with a stroke of a pen, Mr. Obama cost my family $400 a month. What is equally horrific, is my deductible, which went from $2500 a year to $12,000!!. Here’s the new narrative in my families life…my oldest son went to the emergency room last month. I just received a bill for over $6000….that same bill would have been $1200 under the plan I had. AND, for the first time ever, my family doesn’t have dental coverage, because now, we can’t afford it. This plan is an utter disaster, I am on a mission to share my story with anyone, and everyone, chat rooms, discussion boards, media, you name it.
Michael
I agree; it is easy to blame “ObamaCare” and not knowing the real facts!
It’s not Obama but insurances who screw us left and right trying to keep their financial Status Quo!
ObamaCareFacts.com
For sure. I don’t think we can pin the blame on a single entity in healthcare and politics, but it is pretty unfair to lay the whole thing at the feet of Obama as a person. The ACA did a ton of good, it isn’t really reasonable to think it would along simply fix all our healthcare woes.
John Smith
You are lost in a world of facts & misrepresentations about ACA.
The Affordable Care Act is contested by those who are only representing the Health Insurance industry, whom will not be making mega millions from innocent, hard working tax paying citizens. Congressmen who attest to repeal the Affordable Care Act are paid political hacks who only care to line their pockets as lobbyist & not work for their constituents who pay their salaries.
ObamaCareFacts.com
Can you imagine a world where Republicans worked with the moderate left to demand real change instead of thinking anyone who wants healthcare for the sick and poor is a crazy liberal. I can imagine this world, let’s keep fighting for it.
Jean
Obamacare is a nightmare and not affordable. It plunges you into debt. Now I have a $5000 tax credit to pay back for 2015, so I won’t get any tax return and will have to pay the remainder out of my pocket. This is debt I don’t need. I need that money for retirement. Also, found out that a lot of doctors aren’t taking Obamacare, so the quality doctors are not available. It has been an awful experience. ACA.needs to be repealed. Nobody should be forced into this type of debt.
ObamaCareFacts.com
How did you end up owing SO much back? You would have had to qualify for $5,000 in assistance and then made over 400% FPL resulting in you having to pay the whole thing back. That would be a big difference in projected versus actual income, and potentially also an expensive plan.
Anyway, that is an awful situation. Can you explain it better so we can help to ensure other people don’t get in that boat?
jim phillips
A back injury caused me to quit my job of 25 years so I signed up for obamacare through the marketplace. My monthly payment was $189. After 7 months I got a letter stating that I was no longer eligible for the exemption because of a discrepancy in my application and now it would be$618/month. They would not however tell me what the discrepancy was. Also when I was applying it took about 10 hours over the phone to make sure everything was filled out properly. Since then I have not been able to find anything affordable. The term affordable health care is a joke. Can anyone help? Im desperate……thanks
ObamaCareFacts.com
Premium tax credits to lower your premium are claimed on form 8962 at tax time based on income. Even if the Marketplace decides (in error) you shouldn’t get tax credits you can simply file for them yourself at tax time. You can also appeal their decision.
However, they may be correct and just not explaining what is happening in a satisfactory manor. It’s hard to give you a solution without knowing what the discrepancy was, but here are some ideas:
– To get cost assistance your annual modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) must be between 100% – 400% of the federal poverty level. If any part of this isn’t true, or if due to working at the begging of the year your income was higher than projected, your new premium cost could be correct. If your income is too low, try Medicaid.
– If you qualify for Medicare due to disability or employer coverage you would not be eligible for Marketplace cost assistance.
https://obamacarefacts.com/appeal-health-insurance-denial/
jim phillips
Thank you for that info. After I wrote the last e-mail I got on the phone with blue cross and demanded to speak to a supervisor and tell me why there was a discrepancy. After an hour and a half on hold they said that apparently even though I currently have no income the relative I am staying with makes 50k/yr. Is that how they determine eligibility ???? Doesn’t seem right !!!
Thanks again JP
Yvette Atkins
Our health insurance premiums for catastrophic coverage went from $700/month to $1800/month! We are spending $20K a year just in premiums. We have to spend $50K before we reap any benefits from our coverage.
ObamaCareFacts.com
??? What kind of plan do you have? You should get a plan on the health insurance Marketplace during open enrollment. The most you can pay in a deductible for a family plan $13,200 a year (out-of-pocket maximum before insurer pays 100% is the same). So in this case you would spend $33,200 total on all care and coverage for a family (if your plan cost $1,800). Now another step back, I don’t know of any instance where a plan with the maximum deductible costs that much. Typically for individual plans with the max deductible allowed be law, for an older person, in an expensive region we are talking $300 – $400 a month (not sure how big your family is, but still would be hard to see how the total would be $1,800 for such a high deductible). Other advice here would be to use an HSA to bring down taxable income and to pay tax free for healthcare and to make sure you are getting minimum essential coverage and not actually just get some short term catastrophic plan.
none of your business, fool
you are so wrong, you did not mention the huge separate deductible for prescription drugs that would easily top out over $500000 for a family of 4
JC
I lost my job and my medical coverage January 1, 2015…Instead of immediately getting on the dole, i felt it better suited me to put my nose to the grind stone and find another job! Well, it is now April, and I have not had any good prospects for employment…I have a pre-existing, condition that has recently flared up, so I thought I should obtain health insurance. NOT A CHANCE! I missed the “open enrollment” period, so I have to wait until November 1, 2015 to apply??? I am not looking for a hand out, I wanted to pay for my health coverage, but I can’t! I did though have a health insurance broker tell me to lie about being penalized on my 2014 taxes so that he could enroll me. What a complete JOKE! They won’t let me sign up, but next year they will fine me because I wasn’t covered, they recommended that I lie to skirt the system…So now I sit (literally, can’t get off the toilet) and hope that my ulceritive Colitis, doesn’t turn cancerous over the next 7 months due to non treatment.
Great Idea IDIOTS!
ObamaCareFacts.com
That story will almost certainly qualify you for special enrollment (you got bad information, which is a qualifying life event. Also those who would owe the fee from last year qualify for a one-off special enrollment period which ends as late as April 30 in most states). Don’t go without coverage, go to the Marketplace and enroll today.
You can read up on special enrollment options here first: https://obamacarefacts.com/special-enrollment-period/
Mercygo
Wait til you file your taxes, you have another surprise coming. Obamacare has been an utter disaster for us. My partner and I retired, moved to the coast, got our new doctors, then once Obamacare was passed, our insurance companies dropped us, claiming they would no longer service our county.
So, he and I had no choice but to go through Covered California, for which there are only 2 insurance companies that would insure us in our coastal county. After the hassle of providing countless eligibility documentation, we received a letter confirming our eligibility, paid the new premium which was lower than our other insurance company that cancelled us. We thought, Great, we were set, we have to wait one more year til we get Medicare. Then we went to see our Doctors, who informed us that they will not take Obamacare (it pays them way less tha Medicare, and can’t afford Obamacare patients). So, we kept our doctors all right, but we have to pay their full rates for office visits; making Obamacare worthless to us. Can’t change doctors because none of the doctors in our county take Obamacare.
After a very challenging 2014 under Obamacare, I go to file my taxes, and because I have to report capital gains from my portfolio (even though I don’t get that money, it reinvests) and along with my social security, it raised my Adjusted Gross Income over the limit for Obamacare subsidy this last tax year. Mind you, I qualified for Obamacare using my 2012 and 2013 AGI as requested by Covered Ca, Bottom line, I am now going to have to pay back the $7,000.00 subsidy that I got from Obamacare.
There is nothing Affordable about this Healthcare Act! I just need to hang on til June when I turn 65 so I can go onto Medicare, then rid myself of the Obamacare chain around my neck.
Senator Ted Kennedy must be turning in his grave.
Truth
Except that she liked her plan. Period. It covered her needs, so why is it that the government knows what she needs better than she does. And the reason the insurance company will no longer sell it is because it probably doesn’t meet one of the arbitrary coverage requirements of the ACA, i.e, coverage for birth control or similar. So instead of being able to offer individualized coverage, it becomes easier in the long run for insurance companies to create generic tiered plans with massive increases in premiums and deductibles so that everyone can be ‘equal’.
Richard Fiekowsky
You state that your old plan costed $200 less per month, had a low deductible, and covered dental. So, you should keep it. Except for one thing, which you left out: your insurance company no longer will sell it to you.
The ACA does not prevent the insurance company from selling you that plan.
Your problem was not caused by Obama nor the ACA, it was caused by the insurer. They dropped you from their plan. Most insurers do this to most customers every year, and offer them plans that cost more and pay lower benefits. This has been a huge problem for many people for many years. The English and Canadian systems do not have these problems.