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Civitas's: Your Obamacare Stories - Part II
Publisher's note: This post, by the Civitas Staff, was originally published in the Healthcare section(s) of Civitas's online edition.
The third volume of this series is published here.
Below are responses from real people across North Carolina describing how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is making health insurance far less affordable while often forcing them off their current plans.
If you want, you can share your Obamacare story with us!
"I just received my notice from BCBSNC of my new medical insurance premium. I now pay $248.18 for a high-deductible policy for my wife and me. According to the attached, the equivalent policy under ObamaCare will cost me $968.48."
"I called BCBSNC and they verified that this was not an error or a joke. The letter also listed all the great things I get in return for a premium increase of 290%: maternity & newborn care [I am 55, no more babies planned], dental & vision for children, habilitative [is that a word?] care, and increased benefits for mental health and substance abuse. Clearly we are not going to see a $2,500/year reduction in premiums."
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Letter
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Files 2
"Our covered family consists of a 57 year old father, a 55 year old mother, and one age 23 year old son in graduate school. I am self-employed and my wife works for a non-profit entity. The son is on my policy as a dependent which is only very slightly better than a HSA qualified plan in coverage. My wife has her own HSA policy. We are healthy and have not required heavy use of healthcare providers. Thus, we picked our plans based on the low cost and reasonably low coverage.
Last Friday we both opened the notices from Blue Cross and Blue Shield stating our old plans were no longer offered and gave us the premium cost and changes in coverage for the "most comparable plans" for us to transition to from those available beginning January 1, 2014.
Now the shocker!!
First, the total premiums for the two policies, with less coverage and higher deductibles and co-pay requirements INCREASED by $8,227 per year. We do not appear to qualify for any subsidies.
To add insult to injury, the deductibles have increased, and co-pay amounts have changed to the point that our out of pocket exposure on self-pay of health care costs on the two policies has increased by $8,350.
In summary, our minimum direct increase in cost is 8,227 while in the case of accident or severe illness another INCREASE in out of pocket cost of $8,350 brings our total cost INCREASE and exposure to $16,577.
This is outrageous!!! It is a mandated cost from the federal government for which we are getting absolutely no benefit. Even though I think the Supreme Court was ruling on the penalties for no coverage as being constitutional by calling it a "tax", in my opinion, this increased cost in premiums and increase cost in risk in the out of pocket cost changes is tantamount to a tax as well.
I do not know many that wouldn't be taking up their pitchforks and torches and storming the Capitol if Congress raised taxes $8,000 to $16,000 in one year and all future years on middle income families.
On a post note, more than 25 times over 2 1/2 days I have been unable to get any information on what's available through the marketplace or exchange from the website healthcare.gov.
I cannot believe the news media isn't giving this more coverage. Maybe that is because the purchasers of individual policies directly from the insurance companies is only 10
12% of the insured American. Others that actually pay for their insurance obtain it through their employer and at worst share the cost on single coverage with the employer and obtain other dependent coverage through that same plan. See second paragraph below on why they aren't aware of the impact on them yet.
See the information below is from the US Census on percentage of Americans obtaining healthcare insurance from employers, public health insurance programs as quoted on Wikipedia:
"According to the United States Census Bureau, roughly 55% obtain insurance through an employer, while about 10% purchase it directly. About 31% of Americans were enrolled in a public health insurance program: 14.5% (45 million - although that number has since risen to 48 million) had Medicare, 15.9% (49 million) had Medicaid, and 4.2% (13 million) had military health insurance (there is some overlap, causing percentages to add up to more than 100%)"
As a CPA, I know most people obtaining coverage through their employer are not paying much attention to this yet. They haven't been given any information on their increase in cost because 1) Large Employers were given another year before having to provide the mandated policies by President Obama's executive order in July, 2) most small employers with group plans have employed a technique called "early renewal" and changed their group plan year ends to a Oct or Nov year end and thus delayed the implementation of the mandated plans to their group (effective for plan years beginning after December 31). In the process they locked into another 10 or 11 months of only a 10% or so premium increase. 3) With many, if not most employer provided plans the employer is paying the majority of the premiums with only a 20
30% cost share being paid by the employee. Many employees will shoulder only 20 or 30% of the increase, and/or see the level of coverage offered by their employer decrease as a cost containment measure.
They either aren't paying attention, or don't know how upset they should be since they haven't seen the cold hard numbers on what the costs to them and their employers will be. Employers will be 1) drastically changing the types of plans they offer (e.g. providing "Bronze" level coverage instead of "Silver" level coverage 2) reducing the employer cost share percentages pushing more cost to the employee, 3) drastically changing the part-time/full-time make up of their workforce and 4) reducing jobs where ever possible. There are numerous strategies and alternative that large employers have to option to employ to attempt to contain their costs. Collectively, the real pain and adjustments will be felt and dealt with next fall for most employers and employees.
I am a member of the 10% purchasing health insurance directly from the insurance company. Needless to say, I am upset, very upset. I feel mislead and outright lied to. I think Americans should be given the opportunity to see these costs before it could be forced on them. This information should have been available BEFORE the elections and before any bill implementing it was voted on. None of this ""We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it." manure.
I have plenty of documents with the personal numbers mentioned in this submission. However, the BCBS quoted rate for 2014 is for a Silver 3000 plan listed on their website for a 57 year old, non-smoker living in Craven County. I will also point out we supposedly only have two providers for Craven County. One is Blue Cross Blue Shield. I have no idea who the second one is since for two days I have been unsuccessful getting any information off of the healthcare.gov web site on the North Carolina Exchange. It ALWAYS says it has too many visitors, crashes, or for some reason says the username and password I set up on Monday is invalid. (and I was very meticulous about setting it up and recording). Attempts to gain access by resetting said "invalid" usernames and password to the website are supposed to be sent to me by email by healthcare.gov. It's been more than 6 hours since it said the email has been sent. It has not arrive yet. No surprise. The website isn't working any better than any aspect of the whole program...which we were told would reduce costs since more premium payers would be brought in to the system. Malarkey!!!"
"I am the principal of a small consulting company and have my own insurance policy through BC/BS of NC. It is an HSA policy with a high deductible and allows me to contribute $4250 annually tax free. My premium for this policy is about $220/mo, as I am healthy and in the low risk pool. I loved the policy and it was working well for me. Last Monday, I received a letter from BC/BS stating that my current policy is "non compliant" and they can no longer offer that policy. My "new" policy is a bronze level policy with a monthly premium of $564.90 and a deductible of $5500 annually. This is approximately a 260% increase in my monthly premium. BUT...I am now able to get maternity and lactation benefits, neither of which I could possibly use, as I am 64 years old! I also do not qualify (legally) for any subsidies. When I called BC/BS to inquire about other options, I was told after about 30 minutes that they couldn't give me any other rate information, as the rep couldn't access the info. I would need to call back in a week or so.
For me, it doesn't make sense to pay that much more (and no tax benefit). I will most likely opt to pay the fine this year. I have to believe that others will make the same decision and probably in about 3 years, BC/BS will be out of business! "
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Files 1
"My premiums are going up $276 a month. Medicine co-pay is now $50 instead of $10. We are looking at $376 hike. Crazy! That is almost double of what we were paying"
My out of pocket has gone up $1,000 and my premiums have go up to 125%. I am required to pay for "coverage" I will never need (maternity and who knows what else). All the dems who voted for this INCLUDING KAY HAGAN are rotten to the core.
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Files 4
"BCBS...paying $357 with a $10k deductible...New rate with $11k deductible...$945.88
Thank Kay Hagan for me."
"I've had insurance with Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) and have been paying $202 a month this past year.
I just received a letter from BCBS informing me that on January 1, if I wish to continue to carry insurance through BCBS, a policy that is ACA compliant and most similar to the coverage I was paying $202 dollar a month for, I would have to pay $599 per month.
I cannot afford this increase, so I would be forced to apply for subsidy. This means that American taxpayers would be paying more in subsidy to the insurance company for me than I was paying for myself before the "Affordable (?) Care Act intruded."
I am self-employed and buy my own insurance, a BlueCross BlueShield of NC "Blue Advantage" policy. This weekend I received my new premium notice for next year. In order to be consistent with ObamaCare, my policy is being converted to a compliant new policy and my new premium will be 177% of my current premium. Yes that is a 77% increase. I have a serious medical condition and am afraid to shop around. I need to stick with my current provider. For no additional value, I will be paying thousands and thousands of dollars more a year to cover my 4 person family. I am outraged. I want this socialized medicine bill repealed fully.
"We have been given notice from Honeywell that our pension healthcare coverage will not be available anymore! and that we can get healthcare through the exchanges. So, for all the people depending on this added coverage, it is gone. Sadly, when companies can save a dime on the backs of employees, they will do it, so Obamacare fits their needs nicely."
"My 33 year old daughter received notice that her Blue Cross & Blue Shield policy did not comply with Obamacare & was given a new policy that would be $150 more a month for her 2 boys. Also she & her husband will be penalized for not having insurance. I explained they would probably qualify for a subsidy & she said, "No way". But what choice does she have?"
"My plan is no longer valid and a similar plan will cost me more than double what I am paying now. There is no way I can afford this increase."
"My family has been purchasing a BCBC Individual policy for seven years. Our premiums have gone up in the past, but maybe 6 - 9%. The policy was still affordable until ObamaCare. We just received our rate increase notice for 2014. Due to the implementation of ObamaCare, our rate will increase by approx. $441.00 per month. Also, our out-of-pocket has increase and the co-pay dropped from 75% to 60%. We do not want to go on an government exchange. The "Tax Credit" is tax revenues being paid directly to BCBC, then we pay the monthly premium. Isn't the tax revenues still our money. Indirectly we end up paying the entire bill anyway. Or it is some other tax payers' money. Either way the government sub. is WRONG. We do not want to go on the government exchange anyway. We hope if we keep our private insurance, no matter how expensive, we might avoid the government intervention in our healthcare decisions. No "death panels", etc."
"We received our 2014 health insurance premium in the mail on October 7.
Currently our premium is $300.43 and will rise to $767.68 next year. On top of the huge premium increase our deductible will be $5,500 per person and $11,000 for the family (there are two of us).
For the first time in 47 I won't have health insurance next year and for the first time in 53 years my husband won't have insurance. We will pay the fine and self insure until the ACA can be repealed (I am confident it will eventually be repealed).
This is outrageous!"
Go Back
The third volume of this series is published here.
Below are responses from real people across North Carolina describing how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is making health insurance far less affordable while often forcing them off their current plans.
If you want, you can share your Obamacare story with us!
290 Percent Increase in Premiums...from $248/mo to $968/mo ... Losing Current Plan "Due to ACA Regulations"
"I just received my notice from BCBSNC of my new medical insurance premium. I now pay $248.18 for a high-deductible policy for my wife and me. According to the attached, the equivalent policy under ObamaCare will cost me $968.48."
"I called BCBSNC and they verified that this was not an error or a joke. The letter also listed all the great things I get in return for a premium increase of 290%: maternity & newborn care [I am 55, no more babies planned], dental & vision for children, habilitative [is that a word?] care, and increased benefits for mental health and substance abuse. Clearly we are not going to see a $2,500/year reduction in premiums."
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Letter
135 Percent Increase in Premiums ... From $465/mo to $1,096/mo ... Losing Current Plan "Due to ACA Regulations"
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Files 2
Losing Current Plan "Due to ACA Regulations"..... Premiums for Two Policies Increase by $8,227 Per Year....not Eligible for Subsidies .... Increase of Out-of-pocket Payment Exposure Increased by Another $8,350
"Our covered family consists of a 57 year old father, a 55 year old mother, and one age 23 year old son in graduate school. I am self-employed and my wife works for a non-profit entity. The son is on my policy as a dependent which is only very slightly better than a HSA qualified plan in coverage. My wife has her own HSA policy. We are healthy and have not required heavy use of healthcare providers. Thus, we picked our plans based on the low cost and reasonably low coverage.
Last Friday we both opened the notices from Blue Cross and Blue Shield stating our old plans were no longer offered and gave us the premium cost and changes in coverage for the "most comparable plans" for us to transition to from those available beginning January 1, 2014.
Now the shocker!!
First, the total premiums for the two policies, with less coverage and higher deductibles and co-pay requirements INCREASED by $8,227 per year. We do not appear to qualify for any subsidies.
To add insult to injury, the deductibles have increased, and co-pay amounts have changed to the point that our out of pocket exposure on self-pay of health care costs on the two policies has increased by $8,350.
In summary, our minimum direct increase in cost is 8,227 while in the case of accident or severe illness another INCREASE in out of pocket cost of $8,350 brings our total cost INCREASE and exposure to $16,577.
This is outrageous!!! It is a mandated cost from the federal government for which we are getting absolutely no benefit. Even though I think the Supreme Court was ruling on the penalties for no coverage as being constitutional by calling it a "tax", in my opinion, this increased cost in premiums and increase cost in risk in the out of pocket cost changes is tantamount to a tax as well.
I do not know many that wouldn't be taking up their pitchforks and torches and storming the Capitol if Congress raised taxes $8,000 to $16,000 in one year and all future years on middle income families.
On a post note, more than 25 times over 2 1/2 days I have been unable to get any information on what's available through the marketplace or exchange from the website healthcare.gov.
I cannot believe the news media isn't giving this more coverage. Maybe that is because the purchasers of individual policies directly from the insurance companies is only 10
12% of the insured American. Others that actually pay for their insurance obtain it through their employer and at worst share the cost on single coverage with the employer and obtain other dependent coverage through that same plan. See second paragraph below on why they aren't aware of the impact on them yet.
See the information below is from the US Census on percentage of Americans obtaining healthcare insurance from employers, public health insurance programs as quoted on Wikipedia:
"According to the United States Census Bureau, roughly 55% obtain insurance through an employer, while about 10% purchase it directly. About 31% of Americans were enrolled in a public health insurance program: 14.5% (45 million - although that number has since risen to 48 million) had Medicare, 15.9% (49 million) had Medicaid, and 4.2% (13 million) had military health insurance (there is some overlap, causing percentages to add up to more than 100%)"
As a CPA, I know most people obtaining coverage through their employer are not paying much attention to this yet. They haven't been given any information on their increase in cost because 1) Large Employers were given another year before having to provide the mandated policies by President Obama's executive order in July, 2) most small employers with group plans have employed a technique called "early renewal" and changed their group plan year ends to a Oct or Nov year end and thus delayed the implementation of the mandated plans to their group (effective for plan years beginning after December 31). In the process they locked into another 10 or 11 months of only a 10% or so premium increase. 3) With many, if not most employer provided plans the employer is paying the majority of the premiums with only a 20
30% cost share being paid by the employee. Many employees will shoulder only 20 or 30% of the increase, and/or see the level of coverage offered by their employer decrease as a cost containment measure.
They either aren't paying attention, or don't know how upset they should be since they haven't seen the cold hard numbers on what the costs to them and their employers will be. Employers will be 1) drastically changing the types of plans they offer (e.g. providing "Bronze" level coverage instead of "Silver" level coverage 2) reducing the employer cost share percentages pushing more cost to the employee, 3) drastically changing the part-time/full-time make up of their workforce and 4) reducing jobs where ever possible. There are numerous strategies and alternative that large employers have to option to employ to attempt to contain their costs. Collectively, the real pain and adjustments will be felt and dealt with next fall for most employers and employees.
I am a member of the 10% purchasing health insurance directly from the insurance company. Needless to say, I am upset, very upset. I feel mislead and outright lied to. I think Americans should be given the opportunity to see these costs before it could be forced on them. This information should have been available BEFORE the elections and before any bill implementing it was voted on. None of this ""We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it." manure.
I have plenty of documents with the personal numbers mentioned in this submission. However, the BCBS quoted rate for 2014 is for a Silver 3000 plan listed on their website for a 57 year old, non-smoker living in Craven County. I will also point out we supposedly only have two providers for Craven County. One is Blue Cross Blue Shield. I have no idea who the second one is since for two days I have been unsuccessful getting any information off of the healthcare.gov web site on the North Carolina Exchange. It ALWAYS says it has too many visitors, crashes, or for some reason says the username and password I set up on Monday is invalid. (and I was very meticulous about setting it up and recording). Attempts to gain access by resetting said "invalid" usernames and password to the website are supposed to be sent to me by email by healthcare.gov. It's been more than 6 hours since it said the email has been sent. It has not arrive yet. No surprise. The website isn't working any better than any aspect of the whole program...which we were told would reduce costs since more premium payers would be brought in to the system. Malarkey!!!"
Losing Current Plan "Due to ACA Regulations" ..... Premium Increase of 157 Percent ... Not Eligible for Subsidies
"I am the principal of a small consulting company and have my own insurance policy through BC/BS of NC. It is an HSA policy with a high deductible and allows me to contribute $4250 annually tax free. My premium for this policy is about $220/mo, as I am healthy and in the low risk pool. I loved the policy and it was working well for me. Last Monday, I received a letter from BC/BS stating that my current policy is "non compliant" and they can no longer offer that policy. My "new" policy is a bronze level policy with a monthly premium of $564.90 and a deductible of $5500 annually. This is approximately a 260% increase in my monthly premium. BUT...I am now able to get maternity and lactation benefits, neither of which I could possibly use, as I am 64 years old! I also do not qualify (legally) for any subsidies. When I called BC/BS to inquire about other options, I was told after about 30 minutes that they couldn't give me any other rate information, as the rep couldn't access the info. I would need to call back in a week or so.
For me, it doesn't make sense to pay that much more (and no tax benefit). I will most likely opt to pay the fine this year. I have to believe that others will make the same decision and probably in about 3 years, BC/BS will be out of business! "
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Files 1
Premiums Doubled .... Medicine Co-pay Now Five Times Higher
"My premiums are going up $276 a month. Medicine co-pay is now $50 instead of $10. We are looking at $376 hike. Crazy! That is almost double of what we were paying"
Premium Increase of 125 Percent .... Out of Pocket Increased by $1,000
My out of pocket has gone up $1,000 and my premiums have go up to 125%. I am required to pay for "coverage" I will never need (maternity and who knows what else). All the dems who voted for this INCLUDING KAY HAGAN are rotten to the core.
Healthy, Twenty-something Female, 24 Percent Premium Increase
Click here to see the insurance report Obamacare Rate Increase Files 4
Premium Increase of 165 Percent .... Even With Higher Deductible
"BCBS...paying $357 with a $10k deductible...New rate with $11k deductible...$945.88
Thank Kay Hagan for me."
Premiums Virtually Tripled .... Insurance No Longer Affordable, Forced to Rely on Tax Subsidies
"I've had insurance with Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) and have been paying $202 a month this past year.
I just received a letter from BCBS informing me that on January 1, if I wish to continue to carry insurance through BCBS, a policy that is ACA compliant and most similar to the coverage I was paying $202 dollar a month for, I would have to pay $599 per month.
I cannot afford this increase, so I would be forced to apply for subsidy. This means that American taxpayers would be paying more in subsidy to the insurance company for me than I was paying for myself before the "Affordable (?) Care Act intruded."
Self-employed....premium Increase Of 77 Percent
I am self-employed and buy my own insurance, a BlueCross BlueShield of NC "Blue Advantage" policy. This weekend I received my new premium notice for next year. In order to be consistent with ObamaCare, my policy is being converted to a compliant new policy and my new premium will be 177% of my current premium. Yes that is a 77% increase. I have a serious medical condition and am afraid to shop around. I need to stick with my current provider. For no additional value, I will be paying thousands and thousands of dollars more a year to cover my 4 person family. I am outraged. I want this socialized medicine bill repealed fully.
Losing Employer's Pension Health Coverage....
"We have been given notice from Honeywell that our pension healthcare coverage will not be available anymore! and that we can get healthcare through the exchanges. So, for all the people depending on this added coverage, it is gone. Sadly, when companies can save a dime on the backs of employees, they will do it, so Obamacare fits their needs nicely."
Young Mother of Two Losing Current Plan "Due to ACA Regulations" ... Children's Insurance Premiums Increase $1,800/yr
"My 33 year old daughter received notice that her Blue Cross & Blue Shield policy did not comply with Obamacare & was given a new policy that would be $150 more a month for her 2 boys. Also she & her husband will be penalized for not having insurance. I explained they would probably qualify for a subsidy & she said, "No way". But what choice does she have?"
Losing Current Plan "Due to ACA Regulations" ... New Plan Would Cost Twice Current Plan
"My plan is no longer valid and a similar plan will cost me more than double what I am paying now. There is no way I can afford this increase."
Insurance Premiums Incrased by More Than $5,000/yr ... with Higher Co-pay and Out-of-pocket Expenses
"My family has been purchasing a BCBC Individual policy for seven years. Our premiums have gone up in the past, but maybe 6 - 9%. The policy was still affordable until ObamaCare. We just received our rate increase notice for 2014. Due to the implementation of ObamaCare, our rate will increase by approx. $441.00 per month. Also, our out-of-pocket has increase and the co-pay dropped from 75% to 60%. We do not want to go on an government exchange. The "Tax Credit" is tax revenues being paid directly to BCBC, then we pay the monthly premium. Isn't the tax revenues still our money. Indirectly we end up paying the entire bill anyway. Or it is some other tax payers' money. Either way the government sub. is WRONG. We do not want to go on the government exchange anyway. We hope if we keep our private insurance, no matter how expensive, we might avoid the government intervention in our healthcare decisions. No "death panels", etc."
Insurance Premiums Would Increase 156 Percent ... with Higher Deductible .... Forced to Drop Coverage and Pay Fine Instead
"We received our 2014 health insurance premium in the mail on October 7.
Currently our premium is $300.43 and will rise to $767.68 next year. On top of the huge premium increase our deductible will be $5,500 per person and $11,000 for the family (there are two of us).
For the first time in 47 I won't have health insurance next year and for the first time in 53 years my husband won't have insurance. We will pay the fine and self insure until the ACA can be repealed (I am confident it will eventually be repealed).
This is outrageous!"
After nearly two months since the incredibly inauspicious roll-out of the ObamaCare website: What should the Democrats do to correct their mess?
6.45% Democrats should continue to revamp the current site.
7.26% Scuttle it and rebuild it.
86.29% Scrap the site and scrap ObamaCare
124 total vote(s) Voting has Ended!
| My Vision of 21st Century Community Oriented Policing | Civitas Institute, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics | Civitas's: Your Obamacare Stories - Part III |
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