Insurance Costs Keep Going Up – Story
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I don’t care what I read from this site or opposing sites. I care about what actually is happening. What actually has happened with my insurance is the cost has gone up every year since this bill was passed. the coverage has gotten worse every year, while the deductibles and premiums have gone up. Every Single Year. I’ve paid more in health care expenses these past years than any other expense my family has. This bill is killing the middle class.
April
I’m happy to finally have healthcare since I’ve never had it before but every year the price keeps going up. It went up $100 when I turned 45 years old then it went up again & again & now its up over $500 a month & that’s with the subsidy! I thought part of Obama Care was to not discriminate against gender, age, & pre-existing conditions. I also still have to pay $65 out of pocket for every visit. I’m considering canceling my insurance & taking the penalty because it’s cheaper!
Kevin Matthews
My healthcare premium through my employer is obscene. I am a single guy making 42000. My monthly healthcare premium is $400! And this is a SUBSIDIZED plan with a 2500 deductible, and 6000 out of pocket limit. I remember not that long ago it was around $100 per month!! Not to mention all the co-pays are higher as well. Everything much much much higher. AFFORDABLE care act?? lol. Its a joke. At this rate my healthcare costs will quickly become higher than my LIVING EXPENSES!? And I am supposed to save for retirement too?? yeah right!
Kristen Hurst
I agree with the statement “NO PROGRAM should exist where there is more incentive to quit working because it is more cost effective than working and paying for an entitlement program that benefits others.” Between the ages of 34 and 47, I have had seven orthopedic surgeries (two hand, two shoulder, three cervical spine), I have OA, Fibromyalgia, permanent nerve damage to my right arm, a bone missing in my left thumb, carpal tunnel, Raynaud’s, occipital neuralgia, and the worst private insurance on the planet. I am doing my best to stay employed but don’t get insurance through my work. Hubbies insurance is so bad even the insurance company stated it is the worst plan they offer-and they don’t even know what the plan covers when I call. His paycheck is down close to $400 a month and we are getting nothing in return for it. Since I made the stupid mistake of going back to school to get a job that no longer punishes my body, I owe student loans, several Parent Plus loans for the kids (government extortion) and am no closer to paying off the mortgage than when we acquired it in 1989. Take my advice, don’t go back to school, don’t try to do the right thing, don’t send your kids to college, and don’t work hard so that you will avoid the medical costs. My daughter works three part-time jobs, hubby works full time with two other part time jobs, and I’m trying to drag my butt to work. I added up all the taxes we pay and it is more than two thirds of my yearly salary! We will never pay all of our bills and everyone is miserable. Eventually, folks like me who are trying to work with serious health issues won’t be able to since we can’t get the proper care. I have had professionals tell me I would get better care if I went on disability. Who’s going to pay for Obamacare when we can no longer work and why should it come to that?
Sick and tired
I agree with the statement “NO PROGRAM should exist where there is more incentive to quit working because it is more cost effective than working and paying for an entitlement program that benefits others.” Between the ages of 34 and 47, I have had seven orthopedic surgeries (two hand, two shoulder, three cervical spine), I have OA, Fibromyalgia, permanent nerve damage to my right arm, a bone missing in my left thumb, carpal tunnel, Raynaud’s, occipital neuralgia, and the worst private insurance on the planet. I am doing my best to stay employed but don’t get insurance through my work. Hubbies insurance is so bad even the insurance company stated it is the worst plan they offer-and they don’t even know what the plan covers when I call. His paycheck is down close to $400 a month and we are getting nothing in return for it. Since I made the stupid mistake of going back to school to get a job that no longer punishes my body, I owe student loans, several Parent Plus loans for the kids (government extortion) and am no closer to paying off the mortgage than when we acquired it in 1989. Take my advice, don’t go back to school, don’t try to do the right thing, don’t send your kids to college, and don’t work hard so that you will avoid the medical costs. My daughter works three part-time jobs, hubby works full time with two other part time jobs, and I’m trying to drag my butt to work. I added up all the taxes we pay and it is more than two thirds of my yearly salary! We will never pay all of our bills and everyone is miserable. Eventually, folks like me who are trying to work with serious health issues won’t be able to since we can’t get the proper care. I have had professionals tell me I would get better care if I went on disability. Who’s going to pay for Obamacare when we can no longer work and why should it come to that?
Daniel
I’m paying $1,340 a month for Obamacare for a family of 5 because I don’t qualify for subsidies. I had to kick my 23 year old son off my plan because I couldn’t afford him and now he’s uninsured. In 2017 my premiums will skyrocket to over 2K/month at which point I’m most likely loose my home because I can’t afford that and my house mortgage, car payments, etc. THIS IS NOT WORKING!!!!!! I can’t help but feel like this is all part of a plan to get the one payer system that Obama and Hilary wanted in the first place. America didn’t want socialized medicine so they are causing as much pain as possible with Obamacare to make people beg for it. In the mean time there’s real people getting hurt. Please, can we go back to the way it was?
Mr Smith
Over $1000 /month. What do you think. This will make the middle class disappear. And in turn “kill” the US economy. Something has to change for hard working middle class Americans! !!!!
John Farella
The cost of health insurance has gone up with obamacare since 2008. It’s been going up sense health insurance has been around. You have to look at the percentage of how much it’s gone up from 2008 to present and then compare it to how much it’s been going up from 2000 – 2008 the % it has gone up is considerably lower.
ObamaCareFacts.com
Right, the ACA has curbed the growth (and will likely make a giant and important dent over time). Something that is hard to explain to a person who is dealing with the costs for the first time.
Sharon
Let’s think about this angle – the fact that many employers pay for insurance. When the last recession hit I was in my mid forties, a woman working for a small firm where others doing my job were in their 20s. I knew that because the cost of employing me was higher (because of insurance) that I would be the first to go when times got tough. …And sure enough – I was. The cost of employing an older person (and by “older” I include middle age) is one factor in the devaluing of older people in the work sector.
The fact that we (unlike the rest of the “First World”) do not provide universal health coverage to our citizens hurts us and costs us in innumerable ways. “Obamacare” was an effort to do SOMETHING… because the BEST measure would be thwarted by the Right.
I hear my Republican friends and family talk about how they don’t want their hard earned money to be used to help those who are out for a free ride. Get your head out of the sand people! …This is about taking care of hard working people. This is about practicality and affordability. It’s about bringing down medical costs (high in part because of the high number of uninsured). Stop being so focused on who’s going to get something for nothing and research the facts of why our costs are so much higher than other countries, as well as how the rest of the world perceives their satisfaction with universal care. …And how bewildered they are at us.
Unhappy in TN
My health insurance coverage more than TRIPLED and I can no longer afford it, so I am now UNINSURED. I was insured before Obamacare, and I could afford my payment then, but not now. I know many, many people who are in the same position. Is this the trade-off, that some new people can get insurance, but many who already had it can no longer afford it???? Reading the comments below, many others agree. REPEAL THIS SORRY EXCUSE FOR A HEALTH CARE LAW. I WANT MY OLD INSURANCE RATES BACK.
ObamaCareFacts.com
If everyone had their old rates back we would have the sick and poor dying in the streets.
Daniel
You said, “If everyone had their old rates the sick and poor would be dying in the streets.” This response is you emotionally defending your position but is not factual. Even before Obamacare Hospitals were not allowed to turn patients away.
Groovner
Well for starters I pay almost twice as much for much worse insurance…So who’s really benefitting??? Where’s all my companies money as well as my money going? If the president wants everyone to have insurance, (which is a nice thought) why doesn’t he do something to break the insurance companies and doctors and hospitals??? If you follow the money you will see that the insurance companies are HUGE contributors to politics. Why wouldn’t they? If we try to curb what doctors can charge…well I guess we wont have doctors to go to…or hospitals…so perhaps we stop paying for illegal immigrants, ask those on Medicaid to start WORKING for a living and things may just get back to normal…Until then this great nation of ours and its political leaders are absolutely crushing the middle class…Why do we want a two class nation?
L Collina
Dear Mr. President,
My family’s health insurance premiums have increased by 137 percent since the implementation of The Affordable Care Act and yet our coverage has decreased significantly to the point where we are now paying 100 percent of our health care costs up to our exorbitant deductible amount. Essentially, other than catastrophic coverage and physicals for our family, we are coming out of pocket for any and all health care and prescription costs. Our health insurance premium costs are by far our most expensive monthly obligation and quite frankly I hesitate to take my children and myself to the doctor unless it’s an emergency.
Since our family’s income was higher than the “allowable” limit in 2014 and 2015, in order to receive a “subsidy” we were forced to find ways to reduce our AGI to meet the minimum requirements to receive the “subsidy” amounts. We need the “subsidy” to reduce our costs to be somewhat close to yet still significantly higher than Pre Affordable Care Act amounts. Even though, as I previously stated, our current coverage which costs 137 percent more gives substantially less benefits than our Pre Affordable Care Act coverage.
The Affordable Care Act is not working for my family at all. As a matter of fact, I believe that my family is now paying for other people’s health care coverage. People who don’t feel like going to work every day and don’t need to because the government will happily support them. People who take advantage of the system and go to the hospital when they need a Band Aid or a battery of unnecessary tests because your policy makes it so easy.
My husband and I will both vote Republican in the upcoming election no matter who is the candidate in hopes that the next president can repeal your policy.
Please explain to me the following:
1. Why my health insurance premiums have increased 137% over the last three years?
2. Why my exorbitantly increased premiums have resulted in significantly decreased coverage?
3. How exactly this “is working” for my family as I heard you say to the American people about your Act?
Dorcas Silva
After Obama care started my ensurance does not stop going up!!! What is going on ??? I am selfemployed, and soon I won’t be able to afford health ensurance! !!
Misato Katsuragi
Exactly. Ever since ACA, everyone’s premiums just keep going up. It’s also funny that everyone knows about the ‘if you like your insurance and you like your doctor’ line that Obama spewed over 20 times during his 2008 election campaign, was nothing but a lie, but they’ve forgot about his other lie that insurance premiums would not go up under the ACA.
ObamaCareFacts.com
You are right, as we cover on this site, there were some talking points that didn’t translate to fact. Many did though, and we often forget the good points when upset about the bad points. The cost curbing provisions and patient protections delivered for one example.
Dave
I agree. I’m feeling the Bern!!!
This is not working like they said it would. The real benifactors are the Inc. Companies . We need BOLD changes ASAP
Brad Kempson
I’m 60 years young, and for the first time in my life I do not have insurance because of the cost of OBAMACARE. The premium and deductible are so large it would be less costly for me to die. Obama has placed a price on life that I literally can’t afford.
Misato Katsuragi
And this is what Michelle Bachmann meant when she said Obamacare would literally kill people. It is here now, and it literally is killing people. Those who can’t afford health care or obamacare insurance, so that means they get no health care.
I am one of those people, so Mr. or Ms. Fact can keep citing Obamacare rhetoric all they want, but I am living proof that Obamacare is doing exactly what you say it’s doing to you as well.
And don’t even get me started on the ‘people with pre existing conditions can now get health insurance’ garbage Obama and the democrats kept spewing. What a bogus bunch of B.S. I have a pre existing, and had AFFORDABLE health insurance before the ACA, and not I don’t.
Also don’t get me started on this Open Enrollment garbage and the insurance companies that keep cancelling our policies the minute we me our exorbitant deductible, and they have to start paying coverage. I have had 2 insurance companies cancel their policy on me after the ACA went into effect, and I find it highly suspicious that they both send cancellation notices to me the minute they had to cover something. I don’t think that’s just coincidence.
xjxy
ObamaCare is too expensive, the deductables too high. I’d rather take the penalty than paying for a plan which offers virtually no coverage I need. I’ll vote for whoever promises to kill this evil ACA.
David
This is exactly what is fueling the Trump campaign. The ridiculous cost of health insurance premiums directly related to ACA is greatly affecting the financial freedom of many. I have seen my health care premiums for a single person go from $35/month to $210/month. And then an American’s freedom of choice is also removed? I am definitely an angry American!!
Adam
So after doing the math with my wife and my income I have come to the conclusion that if we take two weeks off per year we will be in the no penalty zone for not having healthcare. Two weeks off equates to about 2k in gross pay loss, healthcare penalty is $695 per person or $1390 in penalty for both of us. So basically the government is telling me that instead of paying $1390 to pay for someone else’s healthcare I can pay an extra $610 for a two week vacation from work for both me and my wife. Since the 2k is gross income it will actually cost me about $400. Hmmm what would you choose? If everyone in my tax bracket did this, that’s $220 per person in lost income tax to the government each year times how ever many million people this would work for. I’m not a genius but this doesn’t make sense to me. Anyone else in this situation?
ObamaCareFacts.com
100% get this. What the government is really saying is FUND AN HSA and take deductions. https://obamacarefacts.com/health-insurance/health-savings-account-hsa/
Sometimes cost assistance programs can incentivize not working. This is good if you want to jumpstart your start-up, but when it truly incentivizes doing nothing we have more work to do. So really good points, but in this situation the answer is 401ks, HSAs, other deductibles to bring down MAGI etc.
Ben Miller
It is killing me. Im just a single male 29 years old. $500 per month student loan payment, which is fine since I found a nice job after college, however my premium has went from around $100, to now $386. The catastrophic plan would cost me $240, but still had a $6000 deductible to meet before any coverage would happen with that sh*t of a plan, so I stuck to a higher plan. I dont understand why my premium has sky rocketed? Ive always carried insurance and feel this is just unjust that I was told to pay “a little” more to help thousands get covered to a $4000 per year expense… I feel like I was lied to… and I would quit this agreement if it was a normal business, but its not… ITS NOW LAW, and its really having a detrimental effect myself and other middle class… The middle class is further being destroyed by the ACA
ObamaCareFacts.com
Just make sure you are taking advantage of HSAs, tax credits, and such. But yeah, with student loans and mortgages there are MANY people suffering. It’s almost like interest rates and the rising cost of healthcare are big problems that are destroying the middle class and need addressing as a country rather than divisive infighting… I could go on.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/
Russell
I don’t know why you blame the ACA for that. Insurance costs go up every year for the past forever. The fact is that they have gone up less in recent years because of the fact that more people have insurance now. As for them lowering coverage, again, not because of the ACA. Sounds like it is time to find a new insurance company.
pax
My rates have increased 10x since the ACA went into effect. I used to have no deductible, and low monthly payments. Now we pay almost $1000 a month and still have $1000s in premiums between us. Obamacare is nothing more than taxing the middle class to subsidize the poor, it’s done nothing to actually reform the health care system.
Christina D. Thundathil
I agree…if people want to be poor then let them..why do I have to pay for someone else. Obamacare is killing the middle class….I guess we should all not work and see how the poor get health insurance…It sickens me…
ObamaCareFacts.com
“If people want to be poor, let them”. How many people do you think actually want to be poor? From what I can tell from our readers and from people i’ve met in real life essentially no-one wants to be poor and everyone wants to provide for their family and strive toward the American dream.
Hard working people are suffering all over America as wages remain stagnate, profits rise for the top fraction of 1%, and the middle class struggles with inflation, taxes, and rising costs.
When you start being angry at poor people for taking all the money, you need to take a step back and think about that logically.
Anyway, we are all entitled to our opinions.
lori hansen
UGH! Just got a sneak peak at my insurance premium! Increased by $110.00 for a single coverage. NOW I need to get a plan that covers virtually nothing. I can barely afford the premiums and definitely can’t afford to use the insurance! I just don’t know what’s going to happen when my car craps out and I need to replace it. How am I going to afford this! This is killing the middle class! I should be saving for retirement but instead I’m paying health insurance! I guess the government can support me when I’m old……
Lou
Hell, I was paying $12,000.00 per year
for my wife and myself 10 years ago,
before Obamacare and that was not for the best plan.
The truth is healthcare was going to go nowhere but up, up, up, before the so called ACA. Young people just don’t want to pay anything, generally,
for a universal system, they feel invincible. Until they need the free emergency room. If they paid into the system some of the issues would
resolve. Hence the tax. However, not all of the issues will resolve simply.
Everyone should pay in, just as with social security, without which millions would be destitute. Modern healthcare may not be a right, but, it is a privilege.
There are regional and individual disparities in the ACA which should be worked out with further refinements and changes to the law. Scrapping the law and starting over with a new “plan”will cause such devastation and confusion that it will make the current
situation look like a picnic. More problems.
Drug companies are a bit of a problem. They spend six times more on advertising than on research they claim is the reason for the cost. There
is profiteering going on. Everywhere . This needs further legislation. Universal healthcare
will be an uneven proposition, at best,
until these issues are addressed.
It is massively complex but will keep improving. Constant tweaking.
Julie
I agree. When I was 54 I paid 285. At 55 it went up to 385. Then Obama care came and it went from 385 to 542. Now the premiums go up every year as appose to every 5 years. Now I need to look for insurance for 2016. The rates for this coming year are coming up for over 815.00 per month for less insurance and a higher deductible from presently 3K to over 6K. I am in agreement that everyone should have insurance but not at my expense. My insurance premium is practically a mortgage for most. I don’t understand how I am expected to pay a premium of over 800.00 per month, have a deductible of over 6K and survive. How are we expected to save for our later years. We live in such a sorry world. This makes me sick and to boot if we can’t afford insurance for any year we get penalized. Now I understand why many live from the system….
ObamaCareFacts.com
Think we can agree that “killing” is an ironic statement in this situation. Certainly for those middle class Americans with access to subsidies and/or those who had a pre-existing condition it’s making insurance more affordable. Then of course there is the one’s who are seeing premiums go up. Part of the overlying issue is that premiums were going up before the ACA too. We were going to be standing at this point if we did nothing and for many of us we are here even though something was done. This is why we need more reform, not less.
The middle class doesn’t have the money to foot the bill, we know our poorest don’t, and I’m not so sure the popular consensus is to just leave 50 million Americans without coverage (a estimate of how many would have no coverage without the ACA).
At best the ACA is the start, the question is where do we go from here to take the burden off the middle class?
Nic
“The middle class doesn’t have the money to foot the bill, we know our poorest don’t, and I’m not so sure the popular consensus is to just leave 50 million Americans without coverage (a estimate of how many would have no coverage without the ACA).”
Based on your statement above you agree that the poor can’t afford health care in the United States. So your answer to this is make them pay more and fine them like crazy if they can’t pay for the excruciating costs you impose on the American people for not having this so called coverage? This is insane. I don’t know why people aren’t marching on Washington over this issue. This is not right. It is literally forcing middle class citizens to pay for food vs coverage. And knowing the “fine” for not having this bogus coverage is going up fast in 2016 is really going to piss people off.
I’m an independent contractor, i’m already paying 40% of my income in taxes and i’m looking at this health care and what i’m left with after 40% of my income is taken for god knows what…. that leaves me with 420 a week based off an income of around 36500 a year…and now i have to pay over 200$ of that into basically a black hole and STILL have to pay for my own coverage.
Keep in mind…this was all way cheaper for the “poor” without this obamacare. If the poor cant afford healthcare…here’s an idea…HELP THEM! Don’t make them pay for MORE EXPENSIVE COVERAGE and then fine them for not doing so.
ObamaCareFacts.com
We certainly hear what you are saying, but poor Americans (according to the poverty level) get very inexpensive or free coverage under the ACA. The statement was that they can’t afford coverage without assistance.
Now for you who is paying the top tax rates because you earn enough to be in that bracket, but don’t have enough sway to hide your profits offshore, there is no reason to celebrate. We don’t need to be angry at a family who doesn’t have enough money to feed their children or provide them health insurance, we need to be looking at those who get corporate handouts and use loopholes to avoid paying their fair share and are incentivized by an inefficient system. In short, we need better healthcare reform that favors the majority of people first and foremost. This is not impossible.
Scott Bernard
Good lord, the cost is too high. Here’s the ugly truth. I don’t care about other people when I can’t afford to pay my own way. When I am in a position where I am broke and can’t afford to put food on the table, Why the hell should I be covering someone else for anything?! These deductibles are too high, the premiums should be less than $40 a month with these high deductibles, not upwards of $250+ !
NO PROGRAM should exists where there is more incentive to quit working because it is more cost effective than working and paying for an entitlement program that benefits others. The fact that the bill wasn’t even read before it was passed is a god damn shame and the glaring truth that lobbiest control everything and votes don’t mean a damn thing in this country.