Well, that was easy. On Sunday, December 22, the day before the deadline for January 2014 insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”), I signed up without problem.
I used the California exchange website, it took me less than an hour, I’ll be able to keep the same provider I had previously (and therefore, the same doctors), and I’ll be saving almost exactly $300/month or $3,600/year.
Sounds good to me. I had no “glitches” along the way, at least to date, and the process was quite clear and simple.
Since I’m in fairly good health, and haven’t used much of the plan that I’ve had for years, I opted for a marginally higher deductible in this new plan than I had previously, and the copays for most things will cost me about $15 more a piece. However, I could have had an almost identical plan, from the same provider (and many others) with the same deductible that I currently have, and still would have saved about $150/month. For that matter, every plan offered to me that I was able to compare side-by-side on the exchange site (there were many to chose from), would have been less expensive for me than my current individual plan which I’ve had for about 15 years.
My apologies for a rather boring Obamacare story. No drama. No outrage. It just seems to have worked as planned — and will save me a lot of money. (Even if I have to cover my entire deductible next year, I’ll still be saving money over what I had been paying to the same healthcare provider.)
While I still find no reason for private insurance companies to profit off of our illnesses — and hope for a far more moral system of healthcare in this country in the near future (as we’ve discussed in countless articles at The BRAD BLOG over the years) — Obamacare, in this case, seems to have worked just as it seems it was designed to.
So, for those who helped make at least that much happen, thank you. I’m better off than I was before Obamacare. So that, at least, is a bit of progress in the right direction.
The roll out is going great in places where the state is a willing partner with the federal government. The problems are largely the result of active obstruction from Republican Governors who are actively sabotaging things, and doing everything in their power to prevent their citizens from receiving health insurance.
Yes, if the ACA is the END of reform, it will fall woefully short (by world standards). But it is a giant step forward from the crappy, inefficient, and ineffective status quo. As long as it opens the door for single payer (rather than barring the door) it is worth it.
Don’t expect a call from Darryl Issa. He is barnstorming the Country for Horror stories to parade out in front of the conservative freakshow we call America.
Yeah, well, that’s fine for people like you who see their doctors in Kenya…(my imitation of a typical Fox News/Tea Party type objection to your post)(it’s hard, cuz you can’t make up shit crazier than what they say)
I was predisposed to like the ACA even though I think it’s half a loaf — I prefer single payer and hope we’ll get there in the not-too-distant future. My ACA experience is not so rosy. I work for myself and have a seasonal job w/o benefits so my insurance is going to cost me about 100% more for essentially the same plan I have now. High deductible, high out-of-pocket costs. Not overly excited…
I wasn’t as lucky — and my plan, which was reasonable enough although costly at $500 or so, is being shut down and the only comparable plans I found that matched my current Blue Shield CareFirst HMO plan would have cost me over $1,000 a month in premiums. I managed to reapply for a year into the same plan’s extended version that’s being shut down next year, but the company deliberately obscured the reapplication deadline date of end of October, so many who are losing coverage in January applied too late for an extension. I wrote about the experience here.
here’s the website I tried to leave on the earlier post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/a...b_4176187.html
I wish the Massachusetts website worked so well. It’s like swimming through molasses in January (http://tinyurl.com/matbpdq) with bonus freezes and crashes. I’m extremely grateful that those of us on Commonwealth Care (thanks, Governor Romney!) aren’t getting cut off on January 1, because I have not been able to make it through the preliminaries to the actual plans yet.
In statistical terms, you are what is called an outlier. Lucky you.
When did you change your name from Davey Crockett to Davy Crocket @8? And when, if ever, will you provide a link to support the statistical claims you make at this site?
Davy Crocket @ 8 said:
Really? Based on what “stats”? Or, are you saying that that 4 million American citizens who now have insurance under ACA are “outliers”? That’s a lotta “outliers”, eh?
Once I abandoned the application I started on Oct 1 that was hopelessly locked in limbo, it took me about 15 minutes to save $4300. That’s $287 a minute — I imagine that rivals what the Kochs pull in!
Let’s see..
I pay $125 (total) for my wife and myself (total)… zero co-pays, zero deductible, see any doctor I want to as often as I want to.
Oh yeah, we live in Canada 🙂
Simple comparison of a few different silver plans in different states.
I’m lucky to have great health insurance through my wife’s company, though it is still four times the cost of our Canadian friends’ insurance costs.
Question Brad, if you rarely saw the doctor why did you buy such an expensive plan? Was there an economic reason (not fishing for personal details) for you to choose a comprehensive plan instead a cheaper limited plan?
SH @ 13:
At the time I selected the plan when moving to L.A., about 18 years ago, it was not particularly expensive. (And, yes, I made moderately more money before I became a “blogger”!) At the time, the original plan was affordable and seemingly good value. That was, of course, 18 or so annual price increases ago.
Well Brad – I’m in CA. too. The web site is better than many states I hear however my insurance went up about 1500 a year and is WORSE coverage – or it will be when i finish the process. Much worse. I know one person who loves it – but he’s a rich smoker and is fine paying a lot since he could never get coverage before. and will be using his new coverage a lot this year. Everyone else I know who needed to look at getting coverage thinks it’s a raw deal. They hate it. I hate it. Stop blindly whoring for Obama. I swear thinking liberals would hate this law if they were not blinded by Obama cult tribalism.
Obama care sucks. It’s wrong. People on the left should not be supporting this crap law. Shame on you. Single payer now.
John (apparently not so) Smart said @ 15:
Why did it go “up about 1500 a year”? You do know, by the way, that increases in health care spending is at its all time low since WWII, right? And how is your coverage “WORSE”?
Why couldn’t he get coverage before if he’s so “rich”? Your story is starting to fall apart, amigo.
Weird. That’s exactly the opposite of everyone else I’ve spoken to. But, of course, you haven’t explained anything about the “raw deal” you’re referring to. What’s so “raw” about it?
I do hate this law. Did you not bother to read the article you’re replying to? Or any of our dozens of articles over the past several years about it? Guess not. Stop blindly whoring for whatever Rightwing con-men you’re whoring for.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. You didn’t read the article you’re replying to, and you’ve never read any of our other articles here either. Got it.
Fail.
Well, under the Obamacare Medicaid expansion I was able to get Medi-Cal. I got my card on January 2 or 3. So far it has been useless. The doctor I visited accepts Medi-Cal but when they tried to file prescriptions for me they said my records weren’t found, even though I have a unique ID on my card. So had to pay out of pocket for the visit and prescriptions (travel stuff for my overseas trip). Then, went to my dermatologist and she doesn’t take Medi-Cal. Well, I expected that but when I asked if the prescriptions would be covered she said, “probably not”. Of course, she was right.
Also, I haven’t been sent any information about how to use the insurance, who I can see, what is covered, etc. It isn’t a nightmare, but so far it feels the same as being uninsured.
Update!! My mother says it looks like they DID find my info afterall and the stuff I needed for my trip was covered. So, I retract most of my comment except the last part about getting zero info on how Medi-Cal works. 🙂
My ObamaCare story (via the Covered California, the state exchange): My wife and I were paying $1612/month for an Aetna plan with pretty good coverage; a PPO with fairly low deductibles and co-pays.
Through Covered California we’re now on Blue Shield, a non-profit, and very similar coverage; a PPO with low deductibles and co-pays lower than on Aetna. And the cost? $1035/month, a monthly savings of $577 or almost $7000 a year.
If John Smart @15 doesn’t know anyone in California who’s benefited from the ACA, he needs to get out more.
Through Covered California, I was able to get a PPO plan for $55/month. It has a $0 deductible, $3 copays, and $3 prescriptions. PREVIOUSLY I had a Kaiser group HMO that cost $470/month and had a $3000 deductible. This will save me about $5000/year on premiums alone, never mind deductibles and copays.
The experience was not problem-free however. I started applying on October 1 and there were all kinds of issues with that process. But it looks like most of those are ironed out now.