Firsthand Obamacare experience

[UtahSkier]

I was recently forced to purchase an Obamacare insurance plan for the remainder of 2016. Here is some data.

I had the old plan for over 6 years. It was an individual plan with United Healthcare and covered myself and DW.

For 2016, the old plan cost $590 a month and had a $6000 deductible.

The Obamacare plan costs $760 a month and has a $9000 deductible.

I have prescriptions that I refill monthly. One of them has a retail cost of $96.00 each month. My old plan priced that prescription at $16.00 per month. Paid that amount for several years.

Obamacare's pricing is $80 per month. A 500 percent increase.

[Mod Edit]

 

[NoiseBoy]

Those are unfortunate cost increases. Can you share why you were forced to purchase an Obamacare plan?

Not that this will lesson the sting, but the healthcare prices at my megacorp are going up too. But, that has been going on for years and predates the ACA law.

 

[UtahSkier]

Life change....

My original plan was a multistate plan and covered me in AZ and UT. I recently sold my AZ home. Since I originated this plan in AZ, I could keep it, nor could I transfer it to UT.

As for price increases, Bill Clinton recently described the problem pretty well. The Obamacare risk pools are very small (county based I think). These small pools have no pricing power. My prescription cost is a good example of this.

"But there is a group of people -- mostly small business owners and employees -- who make just a little too much money to qualify for Medicaid expansion or for the tax incentives who can't get affordable health insurance premiums in a lot of places. And the reason is they're not in big pools," Clinton said. "So they have no bargaining power."
Bill Clinton calls Obamacare 'the craziest thing in the world,' later tries to walk it back - CNNPolitics.com

 

[Alan]