In Which Obamacare makes me livid

[aishuu]

The more I see of Obamacare, the more I hate it. There's going to be some winners and some losers, and I am most decidedly a loser. I just tried NY's health exchange and it is EVIL and I am praying my employers decide that maintaining my current coverage is to their benefit - I think they will, but I am not sure

Comments

[scribble_myname]

I'm in the awful position of being helped by alternative medicine and never finding relief when I use allopathic for something besides a broken limb, etc. I have an extremely generous employer but was required to take only half of the self-funded plan that I actually needed so I could pay for the HMO that won't cover literally ANYTHING I do need so I wouldn't get dinged with a huge tax hole at the end of the year. I'm still ticked about it.

And for anyone who thinks the insurers made out like bandits- You've got to be kidding me. I was working at Anthem when the law hit. Their working capital and all monies they normally put into trying to improve their service was gone. They had to unbundle medical and specialty insurances when most people wanted to get all their coverage under one plan because it was less expensive that way. They had to make administrative cuts, which resulted in a longer average response time to claims. There were several markets most insurers were simply no longer providing at all because that insurance could now only be run at a loss.

The whole law was fundamentally flawed for one reason: in an attempt to get people health care, they chose to force everyone into the already broken system of health insurance instead. Those who need health care not covered by insurance often can only afford one or the other. Nice.

[aishuu]

Obamacare has become a story of individuals, because it's impacted everyone's life. I think health care is way too complicated to be "one size fits all" and that's really coming through with the rollout. Sorry you're joining me in the "I got screwed" camp.

I do think there is a problem with the insurance system - I think the "state limits" of policies need to be explored. I live in NY, which is cost prohibitive. The system as-is is clearly broken, but in trying to protect the private industry, the government sacrificed the ability to make substantial changes to our system. We don't have the infrastructure to provide health care for all! You can't put everyone on a broken train and expect it to transport everyone!

My employer provided me with a breakdown of my benefits, and my policy (entirely funding through my employer - yay for working for a successful private practice that invests in their staff) costs $6,000. And this is a GROUP plan - if I was to try to buy it on the private market, I'd be paying 8,000 (easy) for it. I'm glad my company is keeping the plan, but worried that I will get forced into the private market within the next couple of years because I'm screwed if I lose my current plan. Since my employers only have about 20 employees, it would make sense for them to force us onto it... it would be cheaper in the long run for them. Thankfully, the work I do is pure human-skill and can't be automated or temped out, so my firm has to keep its employees happy.