Obamacareless begins...

[z31maniac]

how in the hell do you pay that little for health care?

He either meant per month, or he has a really good benefits package?

I know when I was applying at Oklahoma State University years ago, the pay was relatively low, but the insurance was amazing and paid 100% by the university. You even had the option to take a lower coverage amount and put the extra money toward your paycheck.

[rwh11385]

NO. Why on earth would I buy a high deductable plan???? Pay now or pay latter your, going to pay one way or another.

Because high deductible plans are pretty popular along younger persons who rarely get sick or use health care. Outside of dental / vision appointments, I've been to a medcheck once for a cold and that's been it for about 5 years that I can remember. I'd be throwing money out the window if it wasn't high deductible... Now your situation may be very different, but it's not a stupid question.

^

Why do you assume its employer provided???? What in that post implied employer provided???

Probably because most people get health insurance through their employer rather than on the market.

We BUY hers though what was a state organized pool that is funded solely through premiums the state mearly provided the abilty to group enough people togeather to get a plan discount.

MCHA's MACP?

http://www.mthealth.org/montana-affordable-care-plan/

http://www.healthinsurance.org/risk_pools/

If it is MACP, wasn't it supposed to be temporary until the exchanges rolled out? And only ever came about because of what you are hating on? And also federally funded?

Why is MACP enrollment being suspended?

MACP is the Montana PCIP coverage option. PCIP is a temporary Federal program for those locked out of the current insurance marketplace. The program has limited funding from Congress.

Unless I am mistaken, MACP only existed because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act ( P.L. 111-148 ) into law. The Act contains a provision (Sec. 1101) for a new federal high risk health insurance pool program to be established within 90 days (the “Federal Pool”). In Montana, this plan is called the MAC Plan. The Montana Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA) will be offering this health benefit plan.

MCHA began accepting applications for this new option on July 1, 2010. The first date that coverage could be effective was August 1, 2010.

Correct me if it is a different plan... but it seems you are mad that a program is going away that was always meant to be temporary and only came about because of ACA and is being replaced by the exchanges as intended...

With 0 care starting they have disloved the program and from her inital perusing of the options it looks like a lesser amount of coverage with more location restrictions for more money monthly. More than likely we are going to just suck it up and pay it until I get home next and the let the govt socially engineer our lives with the tax code and this O-bortion of a law, and go through the proceedings to be able to add her to my benefits package

Have you checked this out? It seems to be new.

http://www.mhc.coop/

Montana Health CO-OP is a local, member-controlled nonprofit organization dedicated to offering quality, affordable care to all Montanans. We use the profit we earn to lower prices or provide additional benefits for members. And we spend as little as possible on marketing and overhead so we can keep our prices low.

http://www.mhc.coop/plans/accesscare

We expect to begin advertising plan specifics (premium costs, participating providers, etc.) by September 24, 2013. In the meantime, you may view the different Individual Plan Brochures below.

And today is your lucky day since their prices should be out now and shortly, and her initial search wouldn't have had those costs yet.

[rwh11385]

You know who gets government run healthcare

Vdubbin's gf? Do you see any irony in that?

I also agree with you on how the current system is locked, where you cant shop for health care, but Obama care is nothing but the first step in a single payer insurance system. Nothing but going from a Private program to Government program.

Wow exactly is the promotion of more open competition between private insurers the first step towards single payer?

If anything, trying to overturn ACA is the first step in having single payer be its replacement.

pay the doctors, nurses, and hospitals, sure. Do we really want our health care being run by corporations who's only agenda is share price increases?

I didn't say doctors shouldn't be paid. But the fact that our insurance companies are raking in the dough, with their only goal being increased value for share holders, when nobody can afford the 10-20% yearly increases in health care costs - and you say it's the best system? huh?

I'm excited about co-ops - delivering health care and returning profits to customers. They'll hopefully also be working hard to be efficient. Similar to how credit unions deliver superior service and better rates, I think they can do it.

As for the Private Competition, you are right. But that is big business infused with gov. Big business paying off Gov in not opening up the markets.

You ignored my question in regard to the competition increasing due to the exchanges, but were able to talk about Germany and Sean's insurance costs being cheap?

[rwh11385]

It's interesting to hear people complain about how much it's going to cost. if all it does is STOP the current increases in costs (or even slow them down), we'll be better off. that seems pretty likely to me.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2013/09/24/health-spending-slows-as-obamacare-sign-up-looms/

Healthcare spending growth rates continue to be low. Who knows what kind of impact private exchanges might be able to have? (And hopefully less ER trips by the uninsured) It includes points about more concern for primary care instead of hospital trips.

And premium increases seem to be slowing:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/02/23/health-insurance-company-requests-for-double-digit-premium-increases-plummeting-more-proof-obamacare-is-working/

In 2009, prior to passage of Obamacare, 74 percent of the requests made for rate increases by the health insurance companies in the 15 states were for bumps in excess of 10 percent.

However, when the relevant provision of the healthcare reform law went into effect in 2011, that number began to fall precipitously.

In 2011, double digit bump requests totaled 50 percent of all insurance company requests, down roughly 25 percent from 2009. In 2012, the number feel more dramatically to 35 percent and, based on preliminary data for 2013, the number looks be all the way down to 14 percent.

What the data does not tell us is what is happening in all 50 states in the nation—as the survey is based only the 15 states that make this data publicly available.

And good news for the federal budget:

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44596

The slowdown in health care cost growth has been sufficiently broad and persistent to persuade us to make significant downward revisions to our projections of federal health care spending.

Relative to our March 2010 baseline projections, our latest projection of spending in 2020 for Medicare is now $137 billion, or 15 percent, lower for technical reasons, and projected spending for Medicaid is now $85 billion, or 16 percent, lower for technical reasons. (Those figures leave aside revisions caused by enacted legislation and updates to our economic forecast, and focus on the remaining so-called “technical” revisions.) During that period, we also revised down our projection of private health insurance premiums per enrollee in 2020 by about 9 percent.

Still, mandatory spending remains a concern for the future, regardless of improving forecasts due to slowing growth rates:

Despite the recent reductions in our projections of federal health care spending, growth in such spending remains the central challenge in putting the federal budget on a sustainable path.
In our reports on the budget outlook, we devote a great deal of attention to federal spending for the major health care programs, by which we mean Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the subsidies to be provided through insurance exchanges. Federal spending for those programs equaled less than 3 percent of GDP on average during the past 40 years. It is about 4½ percent of GDP in 2013 and, we project, will be about 6 percent of GDP in 2023 and 8 percent in 2038.

[mrsleeve]

Heeter thanks for the links and the time

IIRC its a indemnity plan though MCHA, she handles all that kinda thing (after all its her shit), I just make the money to pay for it :) the program has been around a while longer than in response to 0 Care. It was an option (or at least something similar) when we 1st relocated to the state in jan of 08 but we had other more affordable options then as well...


In the Co-Op link looks like the Gold plan is comparable, and some things go up some go down, over all more up than down and no way to check what the annual premium is going to be yet. I do like the ideas of the exchanges and the actual competition they may bring to the market for people in a situation similar to ours, but I am not really sure the way they are being implemented is going to foster such competition and actual cost savings

On that note

heres a fun read

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/23/aca-family-glitch-issues/2804017/

[rwh11385]

Heeter thanks for the links and the time

IIRC its a indemnity plan though MCHA, she handles all that kinda thing (after all its her shit), I just make the money to pay for it :) the program has been around a while longer than in response to 0 Care. It was an option (or at least something similar) when we 1st relocated to the state in 08 but we had other options then as well...


In the Co-Op link looks like the Gold plan is comparable, and some things go up some go down, over all more up than down and no way to check what the annual premium is going to be yet.

No problem. I didn't seen any other MCHA's plans that were coming to a close. I can't tell if Indemnity Option 1000 going away (saw nothing to make me think that either) - so check if that's available still. [If that's what she had, you should be able to confirm the premium in the first table: http://www.mthealth.org/pdf/traditional_rates.pdf]


Yeah, the rates were supposed to be up today but they should hopefully be available by Oct 1.

[mrsleeve]

Well I have not been home since she got the letter, from what she has told me it states that her current option will be going away and open enrollment for the newer federal mandated options is 10/1 and will need to enroll in that.

[LowR3V'in]

So how do I take advantage of this asap?
I need to use the free medical care obama has provided for me.

Man this country I love it so much.
One step closer to utopia like in Europe and Canada.

The health car is all free correct?

[Sean]

Heeter - no time to read that all!

To answer your question...No, that's per year. I have great benefits. I also work for a huge corporation, so there are some perks with that. My plan is also a higher deductible.

But, yes, just confirmed - $16/mo. I could pay as much as $96, but that's my highest.

See why I don't want this? lol

[phillipj]

Heeter - no time to read that all!

To answer your question...No, that's per year. I have great benefits. I also work for a huge corporation, so there are some perks with that. My plan is also a higher deductible.

But, yes, just confirmed - $16/mo. I could pay as much as $96, but that's my highest.

See why I don't want this? lol

Do you think you are losing your current coverage for some reason? If you like your current coverage you keep it. You don't have to do anything.

But if you are a person whose employer doesn't provide insurance, and you are buying health insurance on your own, now there's an easier way to do so.

here's a decent Health Insurance 101 on the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare

[mrsleeve]

Do you think you are losing your current coverage for some reason? If you like your current coverage you keep it. You don't have to do anything but pay more for it.

But if you are a person whose employer doesn't provide insurance, and you are buying health insurance on your own, now there's an easier way to do so.

here's a decent Health Insurance 101 on the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare

Fixed that for you

also This is bull shit, see my situation out lined above. Also see the USA today article I posted

[phillipj]

Fixed that for you

also This is bull shit, see my situation out lined above. Also see the USA today article I posted

What is bull shit?

Also, you didn't fix anything, you aren't that person (Sean), his personal situation is specific to him.

[mrsleeve]

its bull shit that everyone gets to keep the care plans they have, When their Employers are dropping said plans, or the providers are dropping the plans due to the increased cost thanks to 0-care.

[nando]

its bull shit that everyone gets to keep the care plans they have, When their Employers are dropping said plans, or the providers are dropping the plans due to the increased cost thanks to 0-care.

that's up to the employers, and all the people that buy into the dogma that the only thing a business exists for is to enrich their share holders.

[phillipj]

~95% of employers nationwide are keeping things the way they are.