What did you have before obamacare?

[Chuckanut]

The same thing I have now. Obamacare did not impact my health insurance.

 

[Dawg52]

Same individual policy I have now, only paying 45% more now.

 

[sengsational]

I went from the company plan (while employed) to having a COBRA backstop contingency plan for 45 days (but not needing to pay for or use the COBRA), to a PPACA policy (which I was allowed to get mid-year due to my walking out of the job).

 

[Mulligan]

Pre ACA NY had very high premiums, probably double anywhere else. This was because NY did not permit sickness or age to be considered in policies. That is a real problem without a mandate for everyone to get coverage. Only the sick signed up and premiums skyrocketed.

Fortunately, I had employer coverage pre ACA. Megacorp had a UHC "Select Choice" plan. I am currently on the UHC "Community Plan", aka Medicaid, which has the same doctor network as the work plan.

I would probably not have retired without the ACA in place since I have chronic health conditions.

I wouldnt be surprised if it was more. I read before ACA, about 16,000 people in NY even had individual insurance. My state had dirt cheap insurance but I imagine if you had a toe infection you were denied. I had no health issues at retirement my individual plan was so cheap, factoring in the HSA deduction, I actually scored a profit buying health insurance...


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[walkinwood]

Prior to ER, we had company coverage.

After ER, while in NJ & then for a year in Colorado, we had individual health insurance. I found that COBRA would have been more expensive than individual coverage. We are healthy, so have always had high deductibles.

NJ being a "community rating" state, the insurance premiums were quite high.

Moving to Colorado four years ago cut our health insurance premiums by 50%. Luckily, we didn't have any pre-existing conditions that could have led to being shunted to a high-risk pool in CO. Our premiums are still below what they were in NJ. (I don't know how premiums in NJ were affected by PPACA).

 

[NW-Bound]

For several years we had a high-deductible HSA PPO policy. I could go to any specialist without needing referral. We paid 100% for the first $10K, after that they paid 100%. It was that simple. We had no pre-existing condition (I do now), so did not have any problem getting that policy.

 

[AllDone]

We had COBRA. The max OOP was $5000 lower than our last year's OOP, but the premiums were $5000 higher for the year. We didn't get anywhere near our max OOP, so that was a big win for us. We'd probably still be working, if the ACA hadn't passed or had disappeared. Our backup plan now is that my husband is eligible to claim Italian citizenship and I can too as his spouse. Insurance wouldn't be free, but we would be guaranteed access.

When my mom was 50ish, she fell down a long slope, broke her leg and had a plate placed. The plate bothered her, so she had a second surgery to remove it. When my dad retired she could only get insurance that excluded her right leg. She's now 80 and still hasn't had the slightest bit of trouble with that leg.

A friend had a colonoscopy at 50 as recommended. Diverticulae were noted. When she retired, insurance would not cover her colon ('tics are not a risk for colon cancer). Thirty years later, still no problem with the colon.

I can provide a near infinite number of those stories.

 

[FreeBear]

ACA launched our ER. Spoke with a guy at w*rk who was planning to ER for health reasons in his late 50's. He was planning to use ACA to get to Medicare. So I realized that ACA and our newly realized FI paved the way out of the rat race. DW and I exited 8 months later.

So ACA has been a huge blessing for our ER. Sure it is expensive, but all these posts suggests that the "bad old days" were even worse. Plain and simple ACA and LBYM enabled our ER so early.

 

[athena53]

A friend had a colonoscopy at 50 as recommended. Diverticulae were noted. When she retired, insurance would not cover her colon ('tics are not a risk for colon cancer). Thirty years later, still no problem with the colon.



I can provide a near infinite number of those stories.

It was worse than that. The sleazier companies used "post-claim underwriting." They'd take your premiums but if you developed something expensive they'd go over your medical records with a fine-tooth comb, find something to declare your coverage void from the beginning, and refund your premiums. One case I remember was a woman whose 3-year old developed cancer. The insurance company voided the policy because she didn't mention she'd once been on antidepressants. The ACA didn't solve every problem but it fixed a few major ones.

 

[ziggy29]

It was worse than that. The sleazier companies used "post-claim underwriting." They'd take your premiums but if you developed something expensive they'd go over your medical records with a fine-tooth comb, find something to declare your coverage void from the beginning, and refund your premiums. One case I remember was a woman whose 3-year old developed cancer. The insurance company voided the policy because she didn't mention she'd once been on antidepressants. The ACA didn't solve every problem but it fixed a few major ones.

Ouch. There are certainly times where insurers were justified, pre-ACA, in denying large claims (or even refunding all premiums and canceling the policy) when the insured failed to disclose an obviously relevant and significant piece of medical history. But this is an abuse, IMO.

In 2013 I was laid off and did the math, and decided I could FIRE, or at least semi-retire after a few months off. And I think that math still works. But with what I am seeing in the individual market this year, with massive spikes in premiums and deductibles, and forcing people into HMOs where many of the best facilities are not available (for example, MD Anderson here in Texas), I almost feel like I have golden handcuffs on me again through my accidental journey toward being covered by employer insurance again, which started simply as looking for "something to do" for one morning a week.

I really want to see the individual market stabilize and improve before I test those waters again. In the meantime I'll count my blessings that I get great medical coverage while w*rking 20-25 hours a week on average, and not paying a dime more than full-timers do for the same coverage. Not many people get that deal, so maybe I should embrace and protect it for a while.

 

[W2R]

The same thing I have now. Obamacare did not impact my health insurance.

+1

I really want to see the individual market stabilize and improve before I test those waters again. In the meantime I'll count my blessings that I get great medical coverage while w*rking 20-25 hours a week on average, and not paying a dime more than full-timers do for the same coverage. Not many people get that deal, so maybe I should embrace and protect it for a while.

Wow! That is a terrific deal, I agree.

 

[Car-Guy]

I see a lot of threads concerning the affordable care act, what did you folks have before this was passed? As early retirees you had to have something , a big illness would have wiped you out. I'm not familiar with the fine points of enrollment , I myself even called a few years ago to see if I had to register and buy something as I heard about a penalty if you didn't have insurance, turns out my Union health plan was fine and I didn't have to do anything. As a finance site I'm sure everyone had some kind of plan, that like not have homeowners insurance in my opinion.

The same insurance plan as I have today except it was cheaper and had better coverage.

 

[audreyh1]

It was worse than that. The sleazier companies used "post-claim underwriting." They'd take your premiums but if you developed something expensive they'd go over your medical records with a fine-tooth comb, find something to declare your coverage void from the beginning, and refund your premiums. One case I remember was a woman whose 3-year old developed cancer. The insurance company voided the policy because she didn't mention she'd once been on antidepressants. The ACA didn't solve every problem but it fixed a few major ones.

That was one reason I didn't mind too much paying the extra for the state risk pool. I knew they wouldn't come after my record as my continuity of coverage meant pre-existing conditions were covered. But what if DH had developed something and they went after his record and found some uncrossed t or something?

I read about lots of abuses.

 

[AllDone]

The other problem occurred when you moved to a new state. My sister and her husband moved to a new state for retirement pre-ACA. Although very healthy and fit, he has a common congenital problem, so high risk pool only in the new state. Whoops.

 

[foxfirev5]

Still hoping corporate retiree medical will be available for 2016. If not it's off to ACA land in May.

 

[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.


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[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.