Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

[Socnorb11]

I am glad you all invoke the teachings of Jesus. I will go back to one of my favorite lessons in the bible in which Jesus said that if you are a good person you go to heaven. Unless of course you studied from a substandard bible, in which case you need to be grandfathered in. But here's a far better bible, it just costs a lot more. Enjoy your tax credit though to help defray the cost.

Say what?

[IMADreamer]

Obible care?

[lukethedrifter]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/co ... 8.facebook

When it comes to the continuing debate over the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, three numbers to chew on:
$9 million:
That’s how much a California jury awarded in 2008 to Patsy Bates, a 52-year-old breast cancer survivor, after her insurance company, Health Net Inc., had dropped her individual insurance plan while she needed treatment and faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills. As the opponents of the ACA make hay over the fact that some people on the individual market today are having to shop for new plans because of changes in the law, it’s worth noting that before Obamacare, those plans regularly were dropped by insurers, sometimes for no reason at all. That’s no longer legal.
16,000:
That’s how many poor people in the city of St. Louis, some on Medicaid, many without any insurance, will be looking for a new place to receive health care services now that ConnectCare is closing its Smiley Urgent Care Center on Delmar Boulevard. The ACA was intended to help them, but many are falling through the cracks in the system. The cracks were created when the Missouri Legislature refused about $8 billion in federal aid over three years to expand Medicaid coverage to people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
7 million:
That’s how many people nationwide could qualify for free private insurance under Obamacare, according to a study by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health Care Reform. Those 7 million people fall somewhere between 100 percent of the federal poverty level and 400 percent of that level. They qualify for enough federal subsidy to buy a basic “bronze-level” policy on the insurance exchanges set up as a result of the new health care law. Many of them don’t have insurance now. The bronze policies aren’t top of the line — they cover about 60 percent of care — but before the ACA became law, most of those 7 million people had no regular access to quality health care services. Now they do.
This is the great tragedy in the Obama administration’s mishandling of the rollout of healthcare.gov.

[Diddy]

Our premium is going up $250 a month, our deductible is going to almost double and our dr is no longer taking our insurance. I'm really not sure what were going to do about a pediatrician, none in our rural area are accepting new families at this time. When you have to take your children several time a year that matters. Our current, till Jan 1, dr is 5 miles away. It's easy to get in if something comes up and a kid needs to be seen. In the future it'll probably be 1.5 hrs one way so a min of a half day of work missed to see a dr where in the past it was rarely over an hour.

So 3 grand more in premium, 5k more in deductible, that's a potential 8k more per year out of pocket. We dont have an extra three grand in the budget anywhere, and weve already made several cuts to our spending. Our deductible was 1k in 2008 and has gone up every year, we've had two kids so that has made a difference but overall our coverage has gone down every year and our premium and deductible up every year sine Obama was elected.

[Diddy]

How is the federal poverty level figured? Is it gross income or is it your adjusted income your taxed on?

[IMADreamer]

Our premium is going up $250 a month, our deductible is going to almost double and our dr is no longer taking our insurance. I'm really not sure what were going to do about a pediatrician, none in our rural area are accepting new families at this time. When you have to take your children several time a year that matters. Our current, till Jan 1, dr is 5 miles away. It's easy to get in if something comes up and a kid needs to be seen. In the future it'll probably be 1.5 hrs one way so a min of a half day of work missed to see a dr where in the past it was rarely over an hour.

So 3 grand more in premium, 5k more in deductible, that's a potential 8k more per year out of pocket. We dont have an extra three grand in the budget anywhere, and weve already made several cuts to our spending. Our deductible was 1k in 2008 and has gone up every year, we've had two kids so that has made a difference but overall our coverage has gone down every year and our premium and deductible up every year sine Obama was elected.

Your premiums and deductible have gone up every year ever probably. To some how tie it to Obama would be insane. It's not like insurance companies were saints and out for regular people then all the sudden Obama was elected and they were forced to be [expletive]. They have always been [expletive].

Have you gotten on the exchange to see what you can get? Chances are your old insurance sucked and there is something better out there for you.

[Diddy]

I don't think it's all tied to Obama but there is no denying its gone up much faster the past five years. Other then for yearly wellness exams that are supposed to make the insurance cheeper, I've personally been to the dr twice in that five years. Both for shots to clear up poison ivy. Other then preg i dont think my wife has been at all and our kids havent had anything other then ear infections so its not like were racking up claims, other then their births.

Fortunately we never needed to take advantage of it but the hospital my wife works for use to provide free in house services for its employees. Then it went to half off now its going to be mon existent, wish they hadn't done away with their OB program a few years back that'd saved us a ton.

My mom fought cancer for three years getting regular chemo treatments and her insurance didn't go up as much in that entire time as ours has in the past three years.

My wife has been looking at other options but hasn't found anything yet.

[New Pagodi]

How is the federal poverty level figured? Is it gross income or is it your adjusted income your taxed on?

According to this page, it's based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income:

Exchanges will calculate enrollees’ household incomes using Modified Adjusted Gross Income, or MAGI. The MAGI calculation includes such income sources as wages, salary, foreign income, interest, dividends, and Social Security. MAGI calculation does not include income from gifts, inheritance and some other income sources are partially excluded.

You should try the calculator on that page. You should be able to find a better deal on the exchanges (when they get them working) than what you were describing above.

[Diddy]

How is the federal poverty level figured? Is it gross income or is it your adjusted income your taxed on?

According to this page, it's based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income:

Exchanges will calculate enrollees’ household incomes using Modified Adjusted Gross Income, or MAGI. The MAGI calculation includes such income sources as wages, salary, foreign income, interest, dividends, and Social Security. MAGI calculation does not include income from gifts, inheritance and some other income sources are partially excluded.

You should try the calculator on that page. You should be able to find a better deal on the exchanges (when they get them working) than what you were describing above.

Just skimmed that but it says people who are not elegible through their employer. We get our insurance through my wife's employer so doesn't that make us in elegible?

[New Pagodi]

Just skimmed that but it says people who are not elegible through their employer. We get our insurance through my wife's employer so doesn't that make us in elegible?

Yeah. I was thinking you were self employed. Sorry about that.