So, I got Obamacared
If I like my plan, I can keep it. And if I like my doctor, I can keep him, he lied.
I mentioned it before but my wife was told she’d lose her health insurance at work. She works 3 jobs (by design, with flexible hours, for the time off for kids and such) and the one she has health insurance through decided that, because the rules for Obamacare cost them tons of money, they would no longer insure part time employees. She lost it effective 10/1. So, we went out and got our own insurance through another relationship we have. It’s complicated. Regardless, our new insurance isn’t as good. And has the added effect of me losing the primary care doctor I’ve used for years because he’s not in that particular network.
This is what happens when there is no direct financial relationship between the provider of services and the recipient of those services. Changing that relationship is how you fix health care. Instead, we’re letting the .gov manage the middlemen. Poorly.
October 28th, 2013 at 9:08 pm
Bummer dude.
My Obamacared (until he was elected) notice arrived last week also.
October 28th, 2013 at 10:05 pm
I’ve got open enrollment next week and I am not looking forward to it. Last year my employer switched from “we will pay 70% of your premium” to “we will pay $xxx, not a dollar more, from here on out.”
So whatever the obamacare increase is, i get to pay the whole thing. Depending on how it works out, it’s possible I’ll save money dropping insurance altogether, pay the penalty, and use cash.
October 28th, 2013 at 11:20 pm
I have employer coverage, but Christie does not. The Obamacare plans cost more than twice as much as the previous individual plans for shittier coverage.
Not that I had a very high opinion of all this bullshit to begin with, but now I want to beat someone over the head with a clue bat.
October 29th, 2013 at 1:33 am
Welcome to the end of healthcare as we know it.
October 29th, 2013 at 3:01 am
My wife got caught up in the recovery, and then got axed from working with the Republicans… because she didnt fit in quite right.
I guess all the better, she’s full time raising our little hellion.
October 29th, 2013 at 10:11 am
Obamacare was the catalyst in this case, but you realize that could have happened at any time, for any reason, even without Obamacare, right?
A company for whom I worked for 9 years changed insurers at least twice during that period, causing me to go through much of the same. So none of this is new.
Q: Was it simply not possible to add your wife to the plan you were already on (and therefore keep the PCP you already had)? Or would it simply have been more expensive to do so?
Finally:
“This is what happens when there is no direct financial relationship between the provider of services and the recipient of those services.”
There’s a good deal of truth to that. Most health care economists (left, right, and center) will tell you that it would be a good thing to get rid of the idea of employer-provided health care for a lot of reasons. But if you think the whining and complaining you’re hearing NOW is bad, can you IMAGINE how much people would bitch if EVERYBODY with employer-sponsored health coverage had to go out and buy a new plan (with no more employer contribution, to boot)?
October 29th, 2013 at 10:18 am
But it didn’t.
October 29th, 2013 at 11:50 am
Could have happened, yes, in onesy-twoseys. You could always find your anecdote, but the anecdote now isn’t that it’s happening, it’s the millions it’s happening to.
October 29th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
If you like your plan, you can keep your plan*!
*Unless your plan was inexpensive, in which case you should be thanking us for making you buy a better plan. Or you had a really nice (Cadillac) plan, in which case we’ll penalize you for having the audacity to buy a premium product that other people simply couldn’t afford.
October 29th, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Employer’s offering health care have nothing to do with the government. It’s supply and demand. Employer’s want to hire the best people and therefor offer the best benefits to attract those people. I also don’t see what is stopping a bunch of non-covered people from banding together and getting group quotes from insurers.
October 29th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Adam: If memory serves employers offering healthcare came out as a response to FDR’s wartime price controls. As it was a way to attract people / incentivize them.
In the abstract having your employer be your agent on finding a 3rd party medical payment plan is very strange.
We don’t get our car insurance or our home loans through our employers…
October 29th, 2013 at 12:42 pm
As I learned yesterday, every dime of the increased cost of my employer-sponsored health plan is 100% due to Obamacare fees and charges. The health insurance company did NOT have any premium increase. 17% increase in my cost, for no good reason whatsoever. So, even if, by some miracle, Congress could “de-fund” Obamacare, it’d still be raking in megabucks from companies that offer insurance to their employees.
And our so-called “cadillac” plan will be going away in 2015…and it’s not even a very good plan.
Adam, even if companies WANT to provide the best, they’re simply not able to, under the Obamacare rules and regulations.
October 29th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
^^^^^ This.
We’re paying for the crackheads and the dinks that have sucked from the gubbamint teat for their entire existance. Thanks to all who sat home during the elections.
October 29th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
Question: Why did Obama, Congress and the Supreme Court exempt themselves from Obamacare? The government shutdown occurred primarily to keep this exemption. It’s like their exemptions for gun control. If it’s good for us, why isn’t it good for them?
October 29th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
Adam — one problem is that EMPLOYERS get tax credits for providing health insurance (part of the FDR wartime plan to freeze cash wages as an indirect line of price controls to combat black marketing).
individuals generally cannot. In fact, that was one plan the republicans have offered for YEARS, before, during, and after the Obamacare debates — including RIGHT NOW; allow EVERYONE to deduct the cost of health insurance from their taxes, so they can get the same net out of pocket costs as if they were getting it through an employer.
The Democrats are adamantly opposed, because it reeks of self-reliance.
October 29th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
(Yes, the SAME net out of pocket costs — because those companies that won’t pick up some of teh premium costs as equivalent employers WILL have to pay higher straight salaries to compensate. Or they will be sucking hind teat on hiring equivalent employees.)
October 29th, 2013 at 4:36 pm
If I like my plan, I can keep it. And if I like my doctor, I can keep him ….. Looks like the only people who can do that is the President, Congress and the Supreme Court. This is going to cause a lot of problems for us and for them
October 29th, 2013 at 5:14 pm
40% more with the new plan that looks just like the old plan.
October 29th, 2013 at 5:32 pm
But for the company as employer it should all be a business expense — whether it comes out as wages or as some other fringe benefit. As a business expense, isn’t it equally deductible for the company?
TGirsch, “but you realize that could have happened at any time, for any reason, even without Obamacare, right?
A company for whom I worked for 9 years changed insurers at least twice during that period, causing me to go through much of the same. So none of this is new.”
When I worked in Aerospace the company I worked for for 12 years changed providers three times in that period, and each time it was invisible to us working stiffs. No zero zilch nada issues with pre-existing conditions or with my doctor being outside of plan.
The company doubtless had that invisibility as part of the cost of the changeovers, so it is in fact a new thing.
October 29th, 2013 at 6:00 pm
My premiums went up approximately 40% *last* year, such that I’m now paying between $700 and $800/mo for me and my 2 kids through our employer sponsored, not-super-great plan. I hate to think what’s coming next month…
October 29th, 2013 at 8:11 pm
“Obamacare was the catalyst in this case, but you realize that could have happened at any time, for any reason, even without Obamacare, right?”
“Sure, it was Guido that broke your kneecap, but you realize that your kneecap could have gotten broken at any time, even if Guido hadn’t dropped by, right?”
You’d make an AWESOME bereavement counselor, dude.
October 29th, 2013 at 8:26 pm
My medical plan through my employer went up a few per cent, but my deductible went up by a third, and my limit went up by nearly a third.
October 29th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
I pay my doctor in cash, and have Tricare if I’m seriously injured or need hospitalization. Thankfully, the administration didn’t kick all of us directly to Medicare like they wanted to. Both daughter’s plans went up by 100+% for less coverage, higher deductible and higher out of pocket than they had… Both are in California, so doubly screwed!
October 30th, 2013 at 9:28 am
Anyone who thinks your employer gives you insurance for free is a fucking idiot. That’s cash they would have on hand to pay you that they withhold from your check and then claim it’s a ‘benefit’.
The further we remove people from feeling the actual costs of their decisions, the more poorly people will act on those decisions. But to the left, we have to ‘protect’ people from themselves, and this is the shit we get.
October 31st, 2013 at 11:14 pm
Here’s a little something to make all you a bit happier. Microsoft Employees just got their information on their healthcare options… its not pretty.
The biggest insult is, if your a low wage employee then your coverage is basically 90% (low being almost near the poverty line for WA State) but if your above that you pay only 10% AFTER you fork out 1500.00$
Why should you be happy about this? 90% of MS is liberal ObamaTards