What did you have before obamacare?

[zenzy]

My private insurance premiums rose steadily with advancing age and eventually I could not afford the premium for my carrier's highest deductible plan. Rejection letters from other companies qualified me for the state high risk pool. That public option was partially funded by a tax on insurance companies. Some of the proposed 'ACA replacement' ideas would bring back state high risk pools.

[unclemick]

Age 50 -62. None. An up to date Passport and a really bad attitude. Leaving Louisiana post Katrina I found BCBS of Kansas City to be affordable.

heh heh heh - Also time in the market for my portfolio made the $168/mo cost affordable. My experience is NOT recommended for anyone else.

[Silver]

Pre-existings for both my husband and I, so no private insurance would cover us.

In order to get some kind of coverage, my husband went back to school for a graduate degree in digital forensics. The combined tuition for an in-state university plus the cost of student health insurance for the two of us was about $8,000 a year....which was better than nothing.

We now have BCBS bronze from ACA for about $3200/yr and are happy with it.

[BellBarbara]

We live in Mass, so we used cobra first (was a requirement) then switched to the Mass open market. That was fine. Mass had issues with their website the year ACA came out - we ended up on Medicaid because they could not process our application.

Now we are on ACA plan, but my FREE mammogram cost me $190 because the hospital sends their films to a provider in another state who does not take our insurance. I will have to search for a new location to do that this year.

[jetpack]

I had cheaper insurance... It's since gone up and up.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

[lemming]

I worked at a real estate office for years and as far as the insurance industry was concerned we only had 6 employees so there was no group plan. I had no coverage for a long time then got an individual plan.
I went to work at a small company with a group plan. When one principal's wife had cancer and another employee had a heart attack and surgery the rates went crazy.
I had cancer and surgery that ended my employment. I went on Cobra for the duration and new rules kicked in about then that allowed you to transition to a individual plan when you completed Cobra coverage. I kept that until the ACA kicked in and I got another plan. I'm grateful that I was able to get coverage. Haven't used it much after the really big deal but it will take the industry a lot of years to recoup what that one year cost them.

[I earned it]

I had insurance with my employer and union , I kept it after I retired , the spouse coverage ends when I die I took an option that she would get coverage for 3 years after I croak in lieu of a small lump some death benefit from the union.