Poll:If the Healthcare Insurance Subsidy was removed, would it affect you & family?

[aaronc879]

The last 4 1/2 years I have been self employed with a low income($15-20K/yr) so the ACA subsidy has been very important. If I continued with my self employment work then I would have to go without health insurance after the subsidies are taken away. For that reason, I start a new job next week thru an employment agency that I expect to lead to a permanent position with HI provided by employer.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I don't know if it would impact us. We are getting ACA subsidies now but could make use of tax credits doing Roth conversions instead, so it might have no impact financially except for the uninsurable part. If we became uninsurable we would most likely rent the house out and live some place in Europe until Medicare age. DH is pretty clear he would not go back to work full-time just for health insurance. So I'd either have to get a full-time W2 kind of job or we would move.

 

[Refresher]

Wow, I can't imagine how going uninsured or moving out of the US can be a possibility as a result of lost subsidies. And concluding I can't afford it really shouldn't apply because the cost of insurance cannot be fit into the WR figure. Medical costs can go through every dollar and asset someone has. And WR means nothing if long term or nursing care is required as we all know.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Wow, I can't imagine how going uninsured or moving out of the US can be a possibility as a result of lost subsidies. And concluding I can't afford it really shouldn't apply because the cost of insurance cannot be fit into the WR figure. Medical costs can go through every dollar and asset someone has. And WR means nothing if long term or nursing care is required as we all know.

If you are referring to my post, it is not due to loss of subsidies we would move but rather it is due to elimination of pre-existing condition clauses being a part of the ACA. We would move rather than go without health insurance in the U.S. where one Christopher Reeves type accident could eventually bankrupt us.

 

[Refresher]

If you are referring to my post, it is not due to loss of subsidies it is due to pre-existing condition clauses being a part of the ACA. We would move rather than go without insurance in the U.S. where one bad car accident could result in medical bankruptcy and wipe out our life savings.

It is unlikely insurance will not be able to be purchased with pre existing conditions. Even prior to the ACA there were risk pools. And states like NY, NJ, and others took everyone. Not even age rated.

 

[Johanson]

I didn't answer the poll and it doesn't affect me right now. I'm still on my employer's HDHP, which became the only plan we could choose from as soon as the ACA was settled law. But, I expect to have to come up with my own health plan for at least 7 years after I retire and before I can get on Medicare so I probably would have been affected. I believe what is now the ACA would have changed no matter who would have gotten into office.

What I really regret is the fact I could have switched to my employer's HDHP after I got divorced in 2008 and could have been contributing to my HSA an extra 5 years. My employer offered that to single employees for free. Now it's $150/month. I've probably spent less than $1500 on healthcare since 2008 and most of that was for vaccinations before going to Africa and an STD screening that a GF insisted I get when we started dating.

 

[Taxman59]

Losing the cost sharing and subsidies would raise our premiums by $24k per year, and increase the max OOP by about $13k. This would mean that the next knee replacement would cost about $20k over what the insurance would pay. That would make significant difference to our budget. Our travel would be gone for about 2 years, and our discretionary spending would be cut to the bone in the year of any surgeries. It would be doable, but the fun of retirement would be gone in those years.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

It is unlikely insurance will not be able to be purchased with pre existing conditions. Even prior to the ACA there were risk pools. And states like NY, NJ, and others took everyone. Not even age rated.

Been there, looked into that, those didn't work before - so no reason to think they will in the future:

Why High Risk Pools (Still) Won't Work - The Commonwealth Fund

In California the risk pools had low lifetime caps, you had to be uninsured for 6 months to qualify and there was a long waiting list. We've been through this before, pre-ACA. It was very expensive and difficult to get insurance for early retirees in most states in the U.S. prior to the ACA. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of older threads on this topic on this forum.

Moving to another state might be an option, but most states that had coverage for all pre-ACA were not generally low cost, mild climate, popular retirement destinations.