Indiana Affordable Care Act Premiums Revealed
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that a new health insurance marketplace opened its virtual doors on October 1st. And, if you watch the news or participate in Facebook, you’ve probably heard people bitching and moaning ever since.
As a self-employed person, I’m highly interested in how all of this pans out. And, since Greg works in an industry that is notorious for having little to nonexistent healthcare benefits, he’s highly interested as well. Although we currently have a healthcare plan that we’re happy with, we recently received a letter from Anthem stating that our plan will not exist after December 2014. This was good news and bad news. On one hand, I’m happy that we can stick with our plan for another 14 months or so. On the other hand, I’m terrified of what happens next.
Anyway, I was bored this weekend so I decided to head over to healthcare.gov to see what all the hype was about. And, after spending over an hour trying to get their website to function properly, I was able to shop for the health insurance plan of my dreams. Brace yourselves.
The Unaffordable Care Act
Since our income is well over $94,000 per year, we don’t qualify for any of the subsidies….which is fine. I mean, does anyone making $94,000 per year need a subsidy to buy their health insurance anyways? Apparently, the government thinks so since that’s where they drew the line. Regardless, I don’t qualify so I’m able to bask in the glory of any full-price healthcare plan of my choosing. And, trust me, I felt like a kid in a candy shop!
Indiana Affordable Care Act Premiums
We qualified for 18 amazing plans. Here are a few of my hands-down faves:
Anthem Bronze Access Direct (the cheapest plan available)
- Premium: $738.83 per month
- Deductible: $10,000
- Maximum Out-of-pocket: $12,700
Anthem Bronze Direct Access w/HSA
- Premium: $752.05 per month
- Deductible: $9,000
- Maximum Out-of-Pocket: $12,700
MD Wise Marketplace
- Premium: $901.42 per month
- Deductible: $7,000
- Maximum Out-of-Pocket: $12,700
MD Wise Marketplace Gold
- Premium: $1,222.53 per month
- Deductible: $2,100
- Maximum Out-of-Pocket: $6,000
Anthem Gold Access
- Premium: $1335.26
- Deductible: $2,000
- Maximum Out-of-Pocket: $4,500
Now, I know what you’re thinking…. How did we get this lucky? I mean, having a $10,000 health insurance deductible is every girls’ dream, am I right? (I kid, I kid)
As someone who rarely goes to the doctor or gets sick, I think it’s pretty lame that the cheapest health insurance I can buy is $738 per month. I mean, our current plan is $377 per month and has a $11,000 deductible. Therefore, the Affordable Care act basically doubles our premiums for the exact same care. Of course, I’ve been made aware (by my ultra liberal friends) that other things are included in these new comprehensive plans. For instance, well visits, maternity care, and certain preventative procedures are now covered. But, is that really enough to justify increasing premiums by 100%? And, with a $10,000 deductible, is the insurance really “covering” your maternity care anyway?
***UPDATE: I checked ehealthinsurance.com as well to see if there would be cheaper rates through them. Unfortunately, the cheapest plan (that would start in 2014) was $839 per month.
Do these premiums seem affordable to you? What is your take on the Affordable Care Act? Speak your mind!
Oh my God, that’s a lot of money! $738.83 per month and a $10,000 premium? It’s almost like not having insurance at all and paying for everything out of pocket.
It’s bad enough that some people have to budget more for gas than they do their car payment every month. And now this? What happened to employers treating their employees right and providing the right kind of insurance for them? This is ridiculous.
Yep!
Honestly, lots of employers can’t afford to. I’m not talking about huge corporations, but the ones like my business with 10 employees. I’ve priced group plans every year. They are usually at least double, sometimes triple what individual policies are. With a group plan, the employer has to pay at least half, so half goes on the employee. My oldest employee is 60, and a group plan for him is about $900 per month, so he would pay $450. His individual plan is around $300 per month for basically the same coverage. Colorado passed a law several years ago that requires that all insurance covers maternity and preventative, so we’re already good there. What I’ve done up to this point is add an “insurance subsidy” into their pay for insurance. I’m not sure where Obamacare will come into play. I tried to get on the website this weekend but it made me put in social security numbers for all the employees, so I stopped. It may come to the point that group coverage is equal to individual coverage, but I doubt it. Either way you look at it, it’s going to cost every one who is pretty health more money, either in premiums or employers will have to cut other things to afford it. Although, I guess everyone can get insurance now, which is an improvement. I’m just not sure everyone will be able to afford it, and we’ll see lots of people taking the penalty.
I really need to write a post on this, but I’ve been lazy since I don’t want to half-ass it. I am a libertarian politically but I like to think am able to approach things with reason, which I think most people do not when it comes to political issues. A few things:
-Obamacare is here to stay
-Obamacare has some good things
-Obamacare has some bad things
Definitely the #1 negative for Obamacare is the high cost. If you make “a lot” of money (and I’d say anything over 94k for a family is a lot, at least to most people) the plans are relatively expensive. You’d have to really budget for the high deductibles, premiums, out of pocket, etc. It’s definitely doable, though, if you want to make it work.
I’d say the #1 positive is that it gives everyone access to health insurance, no matter what. This was the #1 problem with health care before Obamacare, as far as I’m concerned. It means that with pre-existing conditions I can still get insurance and get all my (potentially) expensive medical bills covered. Think if I switched insurances and they said “sorry, you can’t have any of your sinus surgeries or appointments covered in the future, because you already had that problem.” I’d essentially be f**** because I could easily incur $40-$50k in expenses over the course of the next two years. It makes a $5k or $6k out of pocket max for me for a given year seem more favorable than the alternative.
I hope you write more about this as I love hearing what people think about the law.
I realize that the law benefits many people. We had an awful time getting maternity insurance when we wanted to have kids and I had to pay a fortune to have it. I find it ironic that now that I don’t need maternity, I’m actually being forced to pay for it!
Regardless, it’s too expensive to be feasible for most people. A lot of people (especially those who are uninsured) simply cannot afford to pay that much for premiums, nor can they afford a 10K deductible.
Ouch! $740 per month is certainly not something to sneeze at, especially with that deductible. What we have currently is around $440-450 per month and have a $10,000…I think. Have you tried going through an independent insurance broker to see what else might be available? That’s what we did last year and it was incredibly helpful.
In terms of Obamacare, I really don’t know. I think it’s great we’re trying to do something, but any time the government gets involved I want to run the other way. That said, something needs to change and I hope Obamacare will ultimately do something about it, I am just not overly hopeful it will.
We currently have a plan that we’re happy with, $377 per month for an $11,000 deductible. However, that plan will no longer be available in the future due to Obamacare.
The plan you’re on will also have to be modified to meet the Obamacare requirements as well! If I were you, I would call your insurance provider and ask them.
Ditto with John’s answer over here. We pay less than $400 a month and have a $5k deductible. There’s already lots of indie brokers that charge fees similar to the ACA. I agree the system needs revamping, but from everything I’ve read, this is only going to make healthcare less affordable for a whole lot of people.
From what I’ve read, it’s varying greatly between different states. In Indiana, the cheapest plan available for my family of four is $738.
That is pretty darn expensive. Which leads one to the conundrum of ‘can I ever afford to really ‘pre-tire’ or is ‘pre-tirement’ going to become working out a part time job somewhere which will pay your health insurance?
Things are a bit cheaper in Michigan, so my choices don’t seem so dire. And I can still remember my ‘on welfare’ days over a decade ago when I wanted to purchase insurance at any price and was told that I was ‘uninsurable’ by 4 seperate companies.
The last thing I struggle with is that when I pre-tire, it will be on an income of around 30k with kids. As such, I’ll qualify for huge subsidies. But I don’t think it would be moral to take them, insomuch as I’d have nearly a million in investments stached away.
Thank you for taking the time to post this. It was something I wanted to write about myself, but as a commenter above said, I didn’t want to half-@$$ it.
I read last night that Michigan is one of the more affordable states. Not sure why…maybe more competition?
I’m pretty sure I know why… Michigan took the money that the government has offered to get this thing rolling and Indiana did not take the money so ya we are gona pay more then the states that did take the money
What we are seeing is the true cost of covering pre existing health conditions with no waiting periods. As you point out the essential benefits like maternity care mean nothing when it comes with a giant deductible.
Your existing plan probably is only available to those who qualify medically. The price is affordable as long as you qualify. Now that everyone qualifies no matter their health – the coverage is no longer as affordable.
The biggest problem with the law is the name. If labeled the “Accessible Care Act” people would better understand why their rates are suddenly higher.
Ha! I agree. I don’t understand how they can call it the Affordable Care Act when it will double our premiums (and many other people’s!)
Wow, pretty crazy. I’d like to give it some time before making any big judgments on it though. One thing that would be nice is if people actually start seeing the ridiculous expense involved with health insurance and make enough noise about it to force the market to make come up with new products. I’d love to see some creativity to the insurance offerings that was beyond the familiar public outcry of “that’s way too expensive! But don’t you dare take away all of my “free” care!” There has to be some compromise, but that’s going to take some public awareness and pressure to get done.
I am hoping that more competition enters the market by the time our current plan expires in December 2014. Our of the 18 options we qualified for, only two health insurance companies were represented. Hopefully more health insurance providers will get on board and bring prices down through competition.
I understand that the government would like “healthcare coverage” to work more like “catastrophic coverage”, but that’s really expensive. Almost like they are incentivizing us to save our money up and achieve Financial Independence….
Thanks for the research Holly!
Ha! You’re so welcome. It was my pleasure.
Wow that is so expensive. The Health Exchange for my state hasn’t worked from Day 1 so I’m hoping it will work soon so that I can check on prices.
I tried for a few days before I got through =/
I’m intentionally not reading other comments cause I know politics are going to get quite fierce here. With that said, I don’t mind the healthcare cost increase.
Are there going to be bugs and fixes for those bugs? Absolutely. However, I believe the benefits of moving closer to a society of more health insured individuals is better than one where a single mom of 2 kids doesn’t have health insurance because it wasn’t affordable for her.
Another point I think is funny regarding the Act itself is how little most people know about it. They are just going off whatever their political party is saying. Check this out for a laugh. http://mashable.com/2013/10/01/obamacare-jimmy-kimmel/
Good luck finding the right plan!
The Warrior
NetWorthWarrior.com
As an independent voter, I don’t listen to any political parties, nor do I read political websites. I just base my opinion on fact. FACT: My family’s premiums will double under the Affordable Care Act.
Sure, I’m happy that more people are covered but I am in favor of single payer and cutting health insurance companies our of the equation.
Holly,
This plan was put in place to fail and become a single payer system which is what was originally wanted. A single payer system in our country will be horrible. Not only will you see your tax bracket go up at least 10 times (yes) more, but a single payer system will force other need based programs like medicaid down a slippery slope. For those who want a socialist government this is great news, for those who don’t; those who believe in the design of the founding fathers and those who believe in a “free market” where the “chance” to have the American Dream exists, not the “sheep” society of “I’ll take whatever the “all-knowing” government wants to give me because big powerful government will take care of me and has my best interests in mind” is sad and this law and it’s failure will catapult our children into servitude. You only have to look at other desperate governments and their healthcare systems. The care is worse, the waiting is sometimes deadly and when asked if they could keep that money in their take home pay and choose to plan for their own healthcare they invariably say they want the money they are paying out. I feel sorry for all the poor, medically needy and young adults who thought they heard “free healthcare”. None of which will be able to pay the premiums, certainly not the deductibles or the penalties. Just wait til all the unions, big companies and government workers find out what will happen to their plans in 2016, when they no longer have exemptions. Don’t think for one minute that we won’t have even more people unable to afford it or believe it or not–uninsurable. Credit scores are being looked at to determine costs and insurability. The insurance providers actuaries set that up from the beginning. Sure, I believe they are just checking my identity through a credit reporting agency. It is not just the Unaffordable Care Act, but the Unsuccessful and Unsustainable Act. BTW, I live in Florida. I am chronically/terminally ill and have a family of 5. My premiums and deductibles and coverage have all gone up significantly through my employer. In fact, I have no idea how I will get medication next year. On the exchanges, for the same coverage I would pay three times as much, with a very large deductible and I’m yet to find out additional info about medications, tests, procedures, etc… If my employer drops coverage I have told my husband to stop planning for care and plan for a funeral.
I don’t think this act was intended to give you lower cost insurance. It was intended to give low wage earners the ability to afford insurance. For them, the subsidies cover much of the cost. For you? They think you’ll pay…..and you will….through the nose.
Ummm….yeah! I know! Ha!
Well, I wasn’t really interested in lower cost insurance. But, I didn’t really expect my premiums to double either. $738 is more than I pay for daycare or groceries. And, I’ll have a 10K deductible to boot. It really is a bunch of bullshit.
My insurance is gonzo too as of Dec 31st. Happy New Year! I wasn’t happy with them as they’ve raised premiums every six months or so, and my premium is $100 more than it was at this time last year.
I haven’t been able to log on here due to some error in the system. After seeing your premiums, Holly, I am a bit concerned about finding something more affordable.
If you guys earn less than 94K, you’ll likely qualify for a subsidy which will offset the cost for you. Let me know how it turns out!
Omg. I could (and am) cry!
My son has a life-threatening genetic disease and I pay almost $500 a month for his health insurance through my work.
I was praying that costs would be lower through ACA.
🙁
I love your blog and would love for you to do investigate more.
Well, it might turn out completely different for you. I’ve read (on other sites) how other people’s premiums have dropped dramatically. Maybe it will turn out better for you!
Thank you, Holly. It looks like we will be over the limit also… he is a college student so maybe if we quit claiming him as a dependent then he would qualify… but I Dont understand how that works because he IS totally dependent on us for everything.
I guess maybe I need to hire an accountant to help us figure this out. It just overwhelms me.
One good thing about all of this is no more lifetime insurance caps…his medicine (blood plasma byproducts) every 28 days would have him reaching the old lifetime insurance caps by age 30. Now at least he won’t DIE. 🙁
I absolutely love your blog. My fave place on the net! Thanks for everything that you do!
Wow, that’s crazy to pay that much for such a high deductible. When you say that you make too much money to be subsidized does that me that you don’t qualify for a tax credit or that you actually see higher prices than those with lower incomes.
I live in another state, am under 30, and my husband and I are self-employed.. Because I am overweight (even though I am otherwise in great health – all numbers like blood pressure, cholesterol, etc are excellent, and I rarely get sick or go to the doctor), the only insurance available to me is $700/month just for me (not my husband), has a high deductible, and has limited coverage (doesn’t cover maternity at all). My husband’s insurance is only $75/month for a $2400 deductible currently (although the plan goes away at the end of 2014, of course).
I got on the healthcare.gov marketplace. (The website was incredibly slow.) We make about 45k a year and we did not qualify for any tax deduction. I thought I was seeing the full prices because of that, right? The best option was a $300 month premium with a $5400 deductible, and that would include maternity coverage, so it’s a huge improvement for us. I think if I can ever get the website to cooperate, we would do even better separating my husband and myself so we each get a lower deductible since I’m the only one likely to meet the deductible when we have kids. I don’t think it would change the overall premiums but it would make the out of pocket cost cheaper.
While I’m glad it’s working out to be much cheaper for my situation, I don’t really think it’s fair that others should have to bear that cost. I think where it works out to be better for people is when they have pre-existing conditions and could only get ridiculously expensive plans that didn’t cover much previously. Also, it’s really tough to find private insurance that covers maternity, so it works out better for those who hope to have children.
From my understanding, subsidies are available for families that make 94K or less. We make over 94K and do not qualify for a subsidy. If you make 45K, you’ll likely qualify for a subsidy for your care which I’ll pay for (you’re welcome). Ha! All kidding aside, I just hate the entire program. I’m glad that you’ll benefit though.
The cutoff for tax credits (subsidies) is 400% of the federal poverty level, so it depends on your household size.
http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html
Holy crap. I’m so glad I’m Canadian! I can’t believe you will pay $750-900 per month for health care!!!! That’s more than what I can put towards my debt each month. I realize I end up paying in taxes (likely around the same, maybe more a month), but I don’t see as one big chunk from the bank account each month.
I would love it if the U.S. implemented a plan similar to Canada’s!
Me too! With my son’s disease, I have investigated moving there to become a citizen. From what I have researched, you must live there and work for 3 years to obtain dual citizenship. ?
Ugh. I hope that by the time you’re ready to sign up for new coverage when yours is no longer available more plans and competition will have made their way into the marketplace and lowered costs at least somewhat.
That is my hope. Currently only two providers were able to offer plans to me through the exchange- Anthem and one other company. Hopefully others will jump in the pool by the end of next year.
I hope it works out for you. High earners are getting the shaft!
I think for some people, like yourself it really sucks. For someone like myself who makes around 20k a year, it’s going to be great. Maybe they need to raise the income cap for subsidies?
No, they don’t. I mean…if the whole premise of the ACA is that people *need* subsidies to be able to afford it then the entire thing is a joke. And for high earners, its a double whammy. First, we’re paying higher premiums because we don’t qualify for a subsidy. Second, we have to pay higher taxes to pay for everyone else’s subsidies. Sometimes I wonder why I bother trying to earn more money.
I make what you make or possibly less. I’m currently paying more than what you’re paying per month out of pocket on my employer plan, and that’s not counting the lower salary I get from my employer paying the employer contribution. I’m having a really hard time feeling sorry for complaints about higher taxes and higher premiums. Maybe it’s because I grew up with a lot less money, but I feel damn fortunate, and I feel like it’s my responsibility to help people who are making less than say, 94,000 per year. My children are never going to know what it’s like to be terrified of not having enough money, even if they double or triple or quadruple my health insurance costs. And they’ll never be in the situation that my husband’s family is, worrying about getting their utilities shut off and keeping the children fed, declaring bankruptcy when one of the kids breaks an arm and then hoping their kids will stay whole until they can declare again. That’s not even remotely a part of my life, because I make so much more than the median income. And I’d rather have the government step up with women’s shelters and health insurance and training programs than have to decide whether to give money to the homeless person in the street.
As a high earner, I can afford the measly progressive tax rates that we have. If you wonder why you bother trying to earn more money, it’s because you still get to keep most of it. But if you want to cut your income so you make less than 94K, you can do that. You’ll get to pay somewhat less, but you’ll get a lot less income too.
Excuse me, but I have every right to complain about where my tax dollars are going, high earner or not. This is, after all, my blog. Isn’t sharing my opinion the whole point of this thing?
Listen, I was raised in a one-income family for most of my childhood. I’ve never inherited money nor have I been given any substantial amount. Every dollar I’ve made, I’ve earned by working my ass off. I’ve cleaned houses on the side, grocery shopped for the elderly, babysat, and always had at least once side job on top of my full-time job.
But, now that I’m a fairly high earner, I’m supposed to never complain about how high my health insurance premiums or taxes go? Because I can afford it, I should be thankful. Is that really what this country is about?
For the record, I’m a proponent of single payer health insurance for all and always have been. I voted for Obama (twice) and was led to believe that the Affordable Care Act was the “next best thing” to single payer. It isn’t.
I truly believe that healthcare is a human right and I don’t think anyone should lose their house or go bankrupt because their kid breaks their arm or they get cancer. But, I don’t believe that the greedy and unnecessary health insurance companies need to scrape their 20 percent off of the top.
I definitely will not be trying to earn less than 94K so that I can get a subsidy, nor do I believe I deserve one.
Holly, can you explain the difference between single payer and ACA? I Dont understand. Is single payer what Canada has?
Wow..that’s quite pricy. For me and the wife we have coverages through our employers and when I played with the government website, it said I do not need to enroll on anything. However, at the end of this month we have a mandatory meeting at work regarding health insurance so I will be waiting to hear if our coverage will be affected in any way.
I hope that they don’t make any big changes to your plan as long as you’re happy with it!
I got a notice from Cigna too saying there are going to be upcoming “changes” which makes me very nervous. Currently I pay $230 with a 5k deductible. But it doesn’t cover a lot of extras, which I found out when I had to pay for my own MRI and physical therapy when my shoulder was f’d up. Yes, that seems like a high premium. And I’m pretty sure If I checked the affordable health care act would make my premium higher too but I have to double check. I think it’s good for people who have no insurance, especially if they can’t qualify because of pre-excisiting conditions (I know too many people who got screwed trying to get their own insurance) but for us “middle of the road” people it hardly changes anything and in some instances could potentially affect our premiums negatively. Only time will tell. And this coming from a liberal.
I’m an independent but consider myself a liberal. I completely ignore both political parties and their talking points. I only deal with facts. And, in this case, the fact is that my premiums will just about double.
I echo sierra who is glad she is Canadian. I know our taxes are higher and it basically turns into a wash (I lose a little under 30% to taxes at 75k) but that pays for multiple programs, not just health-care… and I don’t have a 10k deductible!
Fingers crossed another option enters the market for you before your current plan becomes obsolete in a year.
Also, you don’t have to deal with the stress of all of it. I can only imagine how many hours people in the U.S. spend worrying about their healthcare problems in the average year. Billions, I’m sure. What an enormous waste of time that could be (mostly) solved by enacting single payer.
My friend just posted that her health insurance costs were dropping in half in Colorado. It just depends on your age and which state you live in! She is thrilled. Sorry your costs look like they are going up. Since insurers can only keep 20% of the plan costs for admin and profit, 2013 will be a trial by error year. They are over-estimating their claims. The premiums in your area could very well, and likely will, drop by 2015.
Yeah, it really depends on where you live. Prices dropped quite a bit in New York too but that’s because our insurance regulations already exceeded those of Obamacare. No denying people with pre-existing conditions, no charging higher premiums due to age/health, mandatory maternity coverage, young people can stay on their parents’ plan until age 29, etc.
The only new things for us are the state exchange (more transparency/direct competition) and the individual mandate, both of which would drive prices down.
Once all you healthy people who were able to get coverage before the ACA (not me!) are kicked off the cheap plans, the premiums will probably drop some. Though health costs are going up each year because health costs have been going up even without the ACA, so in 14 months who knows what your old plan would have cost.
Still, all those plans are less than what my employer-based insurance costs in my crappy state with crappy coverage. If outside plans cost less than employer-based coverage that might break the employer market so only really expensive people stayed with employer insurance, driving those premiums up, plus the non-employer market is less healthy on average because it includes people who can’t work (as well as those taking time out to have babies).
So sorry to hear your costs are going up, but at least they can’t kick you off the plan if you have another incident that makes you expensive.
True.
What I really hope is that more insurers begin offering plans on the exchange by the time I have to enroll next year. I was only offered eighteen plans from two different insurers. I’m not sure why other insurers aren’t currently offering plans on the exchange in Indiana, but hopefully they will be by next year. I would think they will…there are a ton of health insurance companies operating in Indiana. I’m not sure why the majority of them aren’t participating.
WOW! Those premiums are outrageous. I’m in the same spot as you here in CA but fortunately my current Anthem plan is grandfathered in. Simply amazing. It is pretty obvious that people without healthcare, especially healthy young adults, will just pay the fine rather than be sucked in to these outrageous options.
Are you sure that its grandfathered in permanently?
I have not received or read anything about it expiring. Have you?
I just got my letter from Anthem last week stating that my plan would no longer exist after December 2014. From what I’ve read, all plans will have to cover maternity, etc. and there will be no catastrophic coverage available once the ACA goes into full effect. If you call your healthcare provider, they can tell when you your plan will stop existing. Let me know what you find out!
Called Anthem Blue Cross and my HSA plan is grandfathered indefinitely. Cutoff date was April 2010 – if you made any changes to your plan after that date you’re not grandfathered. Still going to shop around though and educate myself to what is available.
That’s crazy high. I think people underestimate the impacts that including individuals with pre-existing conditions will have on the insurance pools.
Maybe….but it seems pretty high to me even with all of that considered.
Holy cow, that is expensive.
I think Obamacare is good in theory but it’s making a lot of people pay A LOT more for health insurance. Makes you wonder if you should make less just to pay less? lol.
Well, the subsidies are tiered….so even if my income dropped enough to get a subsidy, it wouldn’t work out in my favor. Basically, I would take a 30K paycut to get a $900 subsidy or something like that.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. From an employee perspective, our plan basically stayed the same. I really want to get to the place you are where I am self employed. Seems a bit unreasonable to have your premiums double!
It does =/
I’m with you. I would much rather see a single-payer system than this POS legislation, but our country is notorious for making things way more complicated than they need to be.
In this case, I can’t see single-payer passing any time soon because a) Americans are terrified of change, and b) getting rid of the private health insurance industry would result in millions of people losing their jobs. Basically the same reason most politicians won’t consider throwing out the 75,000 page tax code and replacing it with a flat tax or fair tax.
End political rant. 😉
I’m with you. I would much rather see a single-payer system, but our country is notorious for making things way more complicated than they need to be.
In this case, I can’t see single-payer passing any time soon because a) Americans are terrified of change, and b) getting rid of the private health insurance industry would result in millions of people losing their jobs. Basically the same reason most politicians won’t consider throwing out the 75,000 page tax code and replacing it with a flat tax or fair tax.
End political rant. 😉
No, keep going!
That’s crazy expensive – hopefully things will drop to something more affordable by the time you have to switch. Surely there’s more companies that will put their hat in the ring other than the two above once push comes to shove.
I hope so. There isn’t a lot of competition between insurers in Indiana just yet.
That deductible is nuts for a $700/month+ premium!
The secret, as I’ve believed for a while is to hide our wealth and make little money on paper. Got to take advantage of the government and not vice versa!
Sam
Any suggestions? This is just regular income we’re talking about here…not investment income or anything.
Preach!! I thought our monthly payment was a lot and when we add on the two bambinos it’s going to be around $500. I was hoping it would get lower once hubs gets a job but geez, likely not!
Totally unrelated to your post but did you ever see the movie Bernie? I am reminded of that film when you mention your husband’s job in the mortuary business.
They don’t sound affordable to me, but I’m not terribly surprised. Your costs would be lower than they currently are if you were a senior I’d bet, but you aren’t! So be happy you’re young and pay up!
I am expecting that the next phase of affordable healthcare will be some cost containment. It is going to take a while to see the premiums lower. The more young uninsured people who join the better.
We didn’t see much change in our health insurance premiums this year. We have been doing an HSA through Humana for several years and pay $520/mo. with a 6K deductible. I’m just waiting for the gov’t to come and take these away from us.
You have got to be kidding me. It makes me sick just thinking about it. It’s great that it provides certain things to those people who need it, but it seems to me like another “tax” on people who don’t need it in that healthy people are paying higher premiums in order to cover the premiums for others.
“Affordable” ha! One of my employees called me today in tears because our new health insurance at work won’t cover the tests her son needs and she’s going to have to pay for them out of pocket (we recently switched to a high deductible plan so this paying out of pocket business is completely new to us).
My rates would go up if I wasn’t able to lock in my current plan. At least I have one more year of affordable insurance before it gets too bad.
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