While I recognize there are clear benefits of the new law (such as coverage for preexisting conditions and keeping children on parents policy’s longer), there is one HUGE negative that just burns me up. I am referring to the individual mandate requiring every to obtain health insurance. I think it is a sad state in America when the government can mandate such a thing. For millions of Americans, this means, in essence, you get up early every morning, go to work, and bust your butt to make a living, only to have the government spend a large part of your money for you on something you may not want. I have a real problem with that. Especially considering so many people choose not to work (the ones that are physically able) and receive health care benefits for free!
Beyond the above individual mandate itself, I am baffled as to how the President thinks people are going to be able to afford this. Oh wait, he calls it the Affordable Healthcare Act. So that magically makes it affordable right? Nope! I don’t think a money fairy is going to start leaving hundreds of dollars under my pillow at night every month. What about you? Most people live paycheck to paycheck, and they have very little extra money. So even $100 a month will be unaffordable to many Americans. The President continually touts the new healthcare law, enthusiastically stating that millions of Americans will now be able to have health care. As if the uninsured didn’t have insurance because they were too lazy to get it. The truth is, the majority of uninsured people do not have insurance because they cannot afford it. This inability to financially afford health insurance has not changed just because a law tells us we have to have it.
As many of you know, lower income people are allegedly eligible to receive subsidies based on their income. More specifically, the troubled (I’m being generous) healthcare website claims that individuals with incomes “up to about $46,000.” and families of four with incomes of up to $94,000. will qualify for lower costs. Unfortunately, you cannot see pricing without first applying and giving TONS of personal information. Sure, there is a link on healthcare.gov which lets you see sample prices, but relying on guesses, which do not include any alleged subsidies or tax savings, does not really tell you anything. There is also a tool called the Kaiser Family Foundation Calculator, but this tool admittedly only provides an estimate which may be “significantly” different that your actual costs and premiums.
So how do you go about seeing actual real costs? Fill out an application and give the government personal information it does not need to show pricing or provide insurance. Since the government can pretty much find out anything they want about us anyway, I figured I would go ahead and apply just to see pricing. I suspect that millions of Americans that have been trying to use the website were simply curious about the prices as well. However, the President uses the website’s problems to claim that millions of Americans couldn’t wait to sign on and get insurance. Really? How about they were just curious as to how much the plans costs? Anyway, I set out to apply and see pricing.
On October 1, 2013, the healthcare website went live. Well, sort of. By now everyone has either experienced the website’s problems, or have heard about them. Surprisingly though, I was able to create an account and submit an application on the first day the site went live. However, when I clicked on “View Eligibility Results,” a new tab opens in my browser that is blank (there is a URL, but nothing loads). I have tried using the online live chat for help, but they are completely useless. All you get is a generic form response that in no way addresses your issue. So I called the 800 number and reported the problem. They had someone from their ARC (Advanced Resolution Center) call me back. That individual allegedly submitted the issue to their tech people. About 5 days later, I received a phone call from the individual in ARC who told me that their tech people said to either wait for the system to fix itself (lol) or re-apply. And here’s the catch…. I could not re-apply online, but instead, have to re-apply via phone. Just what I wanna do, give my personal information AGAIN, to someone I do not know. So for now I wait. And wait.
It has now been 30 days and I still cannot see my eligibility results. I have tried everyday, morning, noon, and night. As I type this, the news is reporting possible security concerns with people’s information they submitted to the site during their application process. That’s just great. I fully expect there to be a major security breach with the website. There is just way too many peoples’ information in the glitched-filled system for some high tech hacker somewhere to pass up.
I have heard reports of people that have allegedly managed to apply and view their eligibility results. And what I have heard hasn’t been good. From sticker shock to bait and switch pricing when completing the final sign up. And because you cannot see pricing without applying, I am not at all surprised to hear how expensive the insurance is. If it were truly affordable, they wouldn’t hide the pricing or switch the cost during final sign up. And one big question I have not heard addressed anywhere is what happens the following year, and the year after that, ect.? I suspect that the alleged subsidies and tax credits will go away. Make no mistake about it, people will have to pick between making their mortgage payment, or paying their monthly insurance premium.
In conclusion, I believe the law obviously has some positives, but I feel that requiring everyone to have insurance is absolutely absurd and impractical. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts and experiences with the health care website. Have you been able to see your eligibility results? Has anyone actually signed up for insurance? Hows the pricing? Any thoughts on the health care law overall? I look forward to hearing from you!
UPDATE (November 19, 2013): It has now been 17 days since my original post, and while I still cannot view my eligibility results, I felt it necessary to pass along some information I was given. One week ago, I met with an insurance agent from a local insurance agency to get some information regarding policies outside of the marketplace (they do offer policies through the marketplace as well).. Very nice gentleman with years of experience. I came away from this meeting with some very important information.
First, I learned that if you sign up for an insurance policy through the current private sector (as opposed to through the government’s healthcare website) by the end of November, with an effective date of December 1, 2013, you will be able to keep that policy at the current monthly premium. Stated a different way, your monthly premium will not increase in January because of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Why is this important? Because if you do not have a preexisting condition, you can most likely get a cheaper plan now through the private sector than you will be able to get through the marketplace (if the site ever works), even with the alleged subsidies! Don’t believe it? Let’s think about it logically….
Because the government is forcing insurance companies to accept people with preexisting conditions (costing the company more money), and because the insurance company cannot discriminate against them in regards to monthly premiums, the insurance companies will have to recoup that money elsewhere. So how do you think they will do that? Well, its pretty simple. The plans will be higher for healthy people than they are right now. Its kind of like telling an automobile insurance company that it must accept drivers that have multiple DUIs and accidents and cannot charge them any more than it charges good drivers. Well, the insurance company would have to start charging the good drivers more to make up for their losses incurred in insuring the bad driver. Its the same theory in regards to the new healthcare law. If you are healthy, you are going to pay more than you would if you had a policy right now from the private sector. And that alleged subsidy that President Obama thinks will magically make your policy affordable will most likely fall short of making up the difference. And even if the subsidy did make up the difference, the deductibles are outrageous, and the coverage does not even compare to what is available in the private sector right now.
In all fairness, I will say that no one, not even the agent i met with, can say what will happen at the end of your first year of your policy if you sign up on the private network sector before December 1, 2013. If the policy stays true to the typical increases, it may only go up about 4% or so. And again, in the interest of fairness, if you are in bad health or have preexisting conditions, then you may in fact have better luck with the marketplace (if the website ever works).
In addition to the above, I was actually able to see prices during my meeting, and I didn’t even have to answer a hundred irrelevant questions! What a refreshing change from healthcare marketplace website. In my particular case, being blessed with good health and no preexisting conditions, I could get a policy with a $3,600 deductible for about $88 bucks a month. And I could get a policy with a $1,200. deductible for about $109 per month. Definitely better than the prices I have seen on the Kaiser Family Foundation Calculator, which is supposed to give an estimate of the price you might pay through the marketplace.
So what’s the take away from this post? Check into a private policy QUICKLY before the end of the month! It may just save you hundreds of dollars a year! The other obvious take away is that the government website STILL does not function correctly. Maybe the government should have hired the three guys that made this website: http://www.thehealthsherpa.com/. Although I have no way of knowing if the site provides accurate information, the site DOES work, and DOES give you pricing, without having to supply personal information!
Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog. Please feel free to register and leave a comment. I look forward to hearing from you!
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