Has obamacare been a bad or good thing for you?

[Greystache]

I have not actually signed up yet.  I plan to do so in a couple weeks. Early retirement would have been much more difficult without ACA. My COBRA premiums would be over a thousand dollars a month more than the High Deductable HSA plan that I intend to use. Our biggest challenge has been to come up with a strategy to avoid falling off of the ACA subsidy cliff.  I will be getting pension payments and my wife will be working part of next year. Our income will come in right at the $63K limit for subsidies. If we go one dollar over the income limit we lose the subsidy and our premium costs go up by $6000 per year.  We plan to use HSA contributions and a direct rollover of part of my pension into an IRA to reduce our MAGI to the point where we can claim the subsidy.

[rtrnow]

I've had an ACA plan for a few months now after losing my employer provided plan. The plan costs is higher than my shopping pre-ACA. I pay $200/mo for a HDHP. Before ACA, a similar plan would have been about $90/mo. That said, I'm fairly pleased bc losing preexisting condition exclusions is huge. I feel lucky to be a mid-30s healthy male, but I'm glad I could get affordable insurance even if I wasn't.

[clarkfan1979]

Overwhelming good thing for me because I have a preexisting condition. I was previously unable to get health insurance without a job.

Obamacare encourages everyone get insurance. This means that young people are going to have pay somewhat more. However, older people pay less. Young people might complain about it now, but their is a benefit in the long run.

A smaller percentage of young people who did not have insurance would not pay their bill when something traumatic happened to them. The number of people not having insurance and not paying their bills is going down.

Graduate schools force their students to have health insurance for the similar reasons as Obamacare. The biggest one being grad students not paying their student health services bill because they don't have insurance. This has been going on for about 10 years before Obamacare.

On a side note it's sad when people say that they can't afford health insurance but have a car payment, cable and a $100/month cell phone plan.

[fartface]

It is a good thing, and will only improve with time (and increased participation) as people come to realize Affordable Health Care is not the Boogeyman the GOP would have you believe it is.

[iris lily]

Since DH and I are still on my employer's plan, no discernible difference. The uptick in our premiums at work were within the normal range for the past decade.

I plan to take advantage of the ACA in 2 years. Even though I think it's a piece of crap legislation, I will make it work to my advantage if it's still around.

[Catbert]

Hasn't affected me...retired with health insurance through my previous employer.  In real life the people who complain the most to me seem to be people who have benefited from the ACA.  People with kids in their early 20s who stay on the parents insurance...too young for Medicare retirees with apparent pre-existing conditions who are comparing their cost with previous heavily subsidized cost with private insurance.   

[RootofGood]

I've had an ACA plan for a few months now after losing my employer provided plan. The plan costs is higher than my shopping pre-ACA. I pay $200/mo for a HDHP. Before ACA, a similar plan would have been about $90/mo. That said, I'm fairly pleased bc losing preexisting condition exclusions is huge. I feel lucky to be a mid-30s healthy male, but I'm glad I could get affordable insurance even if I wasn't.

Did you actually get an offer of insurance at the $90/mo rate?  I say that because many people would check on insurance prices then apply and realize they didn't pass the underwriting for the lowest rate insurance and got rated up a risk category or two and would actually pay more than the lowest available price.  You could be perfectly healthy with no pre-existing conditions and still get dinged on risk (too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat, slightly elevated BP, low BP, high resting heart rate, low resting heart rate, etc etc). 

Now (post-ACA) you know $200 is $200 is $200 if you go to the healthcare.gov marketplace and browse plan options. 

[Spondulix]

Mixed experience, but I blame the insurance companies still looking to milk profits where they can find loopholes.

In 2012, CA passed a mandate that said all insurance plans had to coverage maternity and autism. Before, a plan with maternity was over triple of one without ($700-1000 vs $150-300/month). People were freaking out about how the mandate was going to affect there coverage. When the mandate went into affect, my insurance went up $3. Score.

When Obamacare kicked in, my provider got out of the independent market, and I got stuck with a 30% hike changing providers. I wish I could get a subsidy, and that's the part I think sucks - Middle class income in CA is not the same as middle class in Mississippi, and wages are higher because expenses are higher. So there's people who really could use the subsidy and can't get it.

[iris lily]

...When Obamacare kicked in, my provider got out of the independent market, and I got stuck with a 30% hike changing providers. I wish I could get a subsidy, and that's the part I think sucks - Middle class income in CA is not the same as middle class in Mississippi, and wages are higher because expenses are higher. So there's people who really could use the subsidy and can't get it.

My friend,



One size Fits All when Nanny G is solving the problem. And if it doesn't, well then--too bad, so sad.

[Dicey]

...When Obamacare kicked in, my provider got out of the independent market, and I got stuck with a 30% hike changing providers. I wish I could get a subsidy, and that's the part I think sucks - Middle class income in CA is not the same as middle class in Mississippi, and wages are higher because expenses are higher. So there's people who really could use the subsidy and can't get it.

My friend,



One size Fits All when Nanny G is solving the problem. And if it doesn't, well then--too bad, so sad.

Oh, this made me laugh! Oddly, your caption didn't appear until I hit "quote", not sure why. Just made me laugh all over again.

[Spondulix]

One size Fits All when Nanny G is solving the problem. And if it doesn't, well then--too bad, so sad.

LOL!

[Allison_D]

Very goid for us.  25 year old daughter who hasn't found a career job yet still has health insurance through us.  The annual premiums on our high deductible insurance policy through work went down.  My spouse has some very serious ongoing health issues and he should now always be able to get coverage.

[BlueMR2]

0 direct impact.  Still covered through work at the same levels for the same amount of money.  However, I'm told the company was socked with a 30% increase in premiums this year (which they completely covered, passing none of it on to the employees!).  Supposedly due to the increased cost/claims that have been rolling in since obamacare took effect.

On the other side, a friend of mine said it "saved his bacon" this year while he's been between jobs.  He's got a family and family independent coverage is INSANELY expensive.  Oddly, despite the higher accident rate for males, only males can get cheap health insurance privately it seems.  Female coverage is about 4x, and family is about 10x.  Cost of having children must be quite high...

Anyways, on the other, OTHER side, my more well to do friends, that have to provide their own insurance, have been complaining about how their premiums have doubled or even tripled since obamacare took effect.  Despite the high income, some of them are living basically check to check so the increase has hit them really hard.

[rtrnow]

I've had an ACA plan for a few months now after losing my employer provided plan. The plan costs is higher than my shopping pre-ACA. I pay $200/mo for a HDHP. Before ACA, a similar plan would have been about $90/mo. That said, I'm fairly pleased bc losing preexisting condition exclusions is huge. I feel lucky to be a mid-30s healthy male, but I'm glad I could get affordable insurance even if I wasn't.

Did you actually get an offer of insurance at the $90/mo rate?  I say that because many people would check on insurance prices then apply and realize they didn't pass the underwriting for the lowest rate insurance and got rated up a risk category or two and would actually pay more than the lowest available price.  You could be perfectly healthy with no pre-existing conditions and still get dinged on risk (too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat, slightly elevated BP, low BP, high resting heart rate, low resting heart rate, etc etc). 

Now (post-ACA) you know $200 is $200 is $200 if you go to the healthcare.gov marketplace and browse plan options.

Nope, never actually got a quote. That was the listed price for several plans at the time.

[JetBlast]

No effect. Premiums through my employer have increased roughly the same both before and after the ACA. It could be a huge plus in the future though, as my wife as a pre-existing condition.  The ACA means we aren't forced to make sure one of us has an employer that will offer her coverage.

[Denarius]

Bad for me and the 20 other medical underwriters at my company who lost our jobs as a direct result, not to mention the decrease in coverage with an increase of cost.

[wberkgal]

In short, it's the final piece in my early retirement puzzle. My giant self-insured company paid $10965 for coverage for my husband and me last year and we paid a further 20%, so $13700-ish. It was good coverage without an annual deductible but with modest co-pays. Before Obamacare, I suppose I could have paid this under Cobra and waited to retire until my husband was close enough (with cobra) to get Medicare. He has minor but chronic health issues so no coverage is not an option and we likely could not have obtained independent coverage. Now I don't have to worry about that. With the subsidies, it looks like insurance will cost much less than Cobra coverage, although the deductibles may make up for that. However, we know we will have insurance.

[Beridian]

Good or maybe nuetral

I am on an employer sponsored plan.  My monthly premiums have gone down slightly, but I am not sure what if any affect the Affordable Care Act had on this change.

I hope everyone keeps in mind that health insurance prices were rising dramatically and steadily well before the Affordable Care Act was even thought of.   I think of the ACA as addressing things like  pre-existing conditions, covering children up to age 26, and removing lifetime caps.  I am not sure how directly the ACA actually addresses premiums.   

From my vantage point it seems unfair to blame all the cost increases for health insurance on the ACA, prices have been on a steady upward march for a couple of decades now.  Maybe someone has some factual information that shows that I am wrong.

[Cpa Cat]

Currently indifferent. Future bad.

Prior to ACA, we had been self employed. We had insurance coverage for about $500 per month. It was not a high deductible plan and co-pays ranged from 15-40 bucks.

During most of ACA, insurance has actually been paid by an employer. I have a high deductible plan with HSA and it's covered by my employer for me and $150/mo for husband.

Investigating self-employment for next year, my best guess is that it will be about $500 for a high deductible plan now. That's worse than what we had before. It's hard to say though. I'm not ready to apply for insurance, and it seems to be difficult to get a real estimate on healthcare.gov without actually applying (if that's possible? I tried lying and saying I had a qualifying event, but it never let me look at plans).  Mostly it just gives me error messages and says it can't show me information for my state (despite the fact that healthcare.gov is my state's only access to an exchange). So as far as actually researching and applying for health insurance - very bad.

We will not qualify for a subsidy.

[Gin1984]

Good or maybe nuetral

I am on an employer sponsored plan.  My monthly premiums have gone down slightly, but I am not sure what if any affect the Affordable Care Act had on this change.

I hope everyone keeps in mind that health insurance prices were rising dramatically and steadily well before the Affordable Care Act was even thought of.   I think of the ACA as addressing things like  pre-existing conditions, covering children up to age 26, and removing lifetime caps.  I am not sure how directly the ACA actually addresses premiums.   

From my vantage point it seems unfair to blame all the cost increases for health insurance on the ACA, prices have been on a steady upward march for a couple of decades now.  Maybe someone has some factual information that shows that I am wrong.

You are right, in fact the increase for this year was less than the previous average increase, maybe because of the requirement that they have to spend 80% of the premiums on health care?

[Mr. Frugalwoods]

Currently: Neutral.  Nothing major changed with my employers health plan.  Good employer => good plan.

Future: Major Win!  One of the great "oh shit!" variables on my gigantic Financial Independence and Early Retirement spreadsheet has always been the cost of a major medical issue.  Before Obamacare, a major medical issue while you were buying individual coverage would cause your insurer to raise the rates to an unsustainable level.  You'd be effectively uninsured, with a major medical condition, and oh... you've been early retired for 10 years so getting a decent job with good healthcare would be a real trick!

Talk about screwed.  Ughh.  It's that sort of unknowable (and nearly incalculable) risk that insurance is supposed to protect you from.

Now with Obamacare, you won't be dropped from your insurance because you got sick.  It's literally a lifesaver.  And it will allow us to early retire with confidence.

The one downside: the political climate leading to regulatory risk.  Right now it would be foolish to count on Obamacare in early retirement.  With one political party actively seeking to destroy it... remains to be seen if the benefits will stay long term.  The next two years will be instructive.  If it survives until 2016 I'll feel a lot better about relying on it in the future.  Not coincidentally, our earliest projected FIRE date is mid-2017...