So grateful for the ACA

[PointBreeze]

I just hit a milestone - I paid my last ACA health insurance premium; I start Medicare May 1st.

The ACA allowed me to retire early (2017), which has given me the opportunity to take much better care of my elderly parents and spend much more quality time with my significantly-older-than-me partner than I would have if I were still working.

In 2018 one of my brothers was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He lived in Arizona and my parents and I live in Pennsylvania. I was able to take my parents out to visit my brother several times and then back out for the funeral in late 2019. I am so grateful I was retired and could do that for my parents, for my brother, and for me.

Both of my parents have had extended hospitalizations in the past three years, and I was able to spend all day every day with them in the hospital, which gave all of us a lot of peace of mind.

 

[skyking1]

Thanks for sharing with us. I'll not get to use the ACA but I am quite grateful for it, for all the people who were able to get coverage. They can get regular health care rather than "go to the ER" for any and everything.

 

[finnski1]

Me too. I will start Medicare on May 5th myself.

 

[pacergal]

The ACA is beneficial to many in our family as well, thanks for sharing your story.

 

[Texas Proud]

I too have used it and am glad it is available.


The only complaint is that when it started the insurance companies were pretty bad and so were the plans. The current plans are not that great either, but a bit better than before.

 

[plsprius]

Yes.

The ACA allowed me to phase into retirement, and Medicare starts next year. What a gift!

 

[cheyrl]

Same here. My husband was laid off unceremoniously at age 61.5, I hadn't worked for several years because of family responsibilities. We had money saved for retirement, but the medical insurance would have stopped us from retiring. Due to the ACA, we retired instead of taking jobs. We'd like to think that our retirement opened up positions for deserving young people. We're frugal, but not extremely so.

 

[AllDone]

I'm in complete agreement! I start Medicare June 1. I’ve really enjoyed not having to work for insurance for the last few years. I'm looking forward to just paying the supplement now, but even with unsubsidized ACA, it was worth it.

 

[GenXguy]

I too have used it and am glad it is available.

Thanks for sharing with us. I'll not get to use the ACA but I am quite grateful for it, for all the people who were able to get coverage. They can get regular health care rather than "go to the ER" for any and everything.

The ACA isn't just something to use for a marketplace plan. It's a law that also affects private insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare.


The ACA is NOT insurance.

 

[wearefinishedworking]

Yes, I am so thankful for the ACA which allowed DH and I to retire at 61 and 62. Our coverage now is better than what we had with DH's high deductible plan through his employer. Medicare will start next year.

 

[monte1022]

In our case, the ACA is better insurance than I had while working and I worked for a healthcare system. My daughter in college 3 hrs away had limited options for providers and no options for pharmacy since health system competition is fierce in our state. How dare you go to a competitor for care and it's our pharmacy or you pay cash! Now, we have a PPO nationwide network.

 

[statsman]

The ACA isn't just something to use for a marketplace plan. It's a law that also affects private insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare.

Yep, I saw that. My Under-65 retiree medical insurance option went from a $15/mo premium in 2011 to $925/mo this year, along with raising the MaxOOP from $1000/year to $4000/year. While I didn't start on the retiree medical plan until 2017, I was able to monitor its cost since ACA was passed.

 

[foxfirev5]

I just hit a milestone - I paid my last ACA health insurance premium; I start Medicare May 1st.

The ACA allowed me to retire early (2017), which has given me the opportunity to take much better care of my elderly parents and spend much more quality time with my significantly-older-than-me partner than I would have if I were still working.

In 2018 one of my brothers was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He lived in Arizona and my parents and I live in Pennsylvania. I was able to take my parents out to visit my brother several times and then back out for the funeral in late 2019. I am so grateful I was retired and could do that for my parents, for my brother, and for me.

Both of my parents have had extended hospitalizations in the past three years, and I was able to spend all day every day with them in the hospital, which gave all of us a lot of peace of mind.

Yep. That's what it's all about. While I had great retiree coverage there is no logical reason why everyone in this rich country should not benefit from basic health coverage.

 

[PRSC]

Couldn't agree more. I never would have retired in 2014 without the safety net of the ACA. Got me thru to Medicare which I started last year.

 

[Jeffman52]

DW and I (and our kids) have (crosses fingers and knocks on wood) had good health throughout our lives and we have been paying into the healthcare system without getting much in return. But if we did have some issue at least we wouldn't be wiped out. We will both go on ACA this year and for the next few years until we turn 65 and go on Medicare. Its nice this is there to help us bridge that gap.

 

[karl404]

Just piling on to share the sentiment. Is it perfect? no. Our plans here in Nevada aren't the best, but neither is the overall health care infrastructure. But I wouldn't have been able to retire early without it.

 

[xlf11]

Same here and we used it for 3-4 years between two of us before Medicare.

 

[MichaelB]

<mod note> this is not a discussion on public debt or other support programs. Posts have been removed that were off topic

 

[iloveyoga]

We had ACA coverage for awhile and it has been very important for some of my family. I think it is wonderful to have access to good insurance benefits.

 

[Bigdawg]

<mod note> this is not a discussion on public debt or other support programs. Posts have been removed that were off topic

Thanks Mods. Awesome job as usual

We don't use ACA as we are both retired military. I am glad this country has the ACA. My hope is that we can tweak it. It is OK but can be so much better. I do believe in some form of basic health care for all people.

 

[MichaelB]

One thing that might be interesting is if there is a specific aspect of the ACA that people found most helpful. For me, hands down, it was guaranteed access.

 

[GenXguy]

Thanks Mods. Awesome job as usual

We don't use ACA as we are both retired military. I am glad this country has the ACA. My hope is that we can tweak it. It is OK but can be so much better. I do believe in some form of basic health care for all people.

Don't those military health programs have to meet the ACA requirements? The ACA may still apply to you.

I'm thankful for the ACA and the marketplace plans and requirements/guarantees/subsidies, but they are still very expensive, particularly if you actually need to use much health care with some of the high deductibles and out of pocket costs, especially if out of network. So I agree it can be much improved, but there's a cost involved, so I'm not optimistic.

 

[Dtail]

One thing that might be interesting is if there is a specific aspect of the ACA that people found most helpful. For me, hands down, it was guaranteed access.

Agree.
However, I can't ignore the ability to manage my income for subsidy levels of the magnitude of 20k+ yearly for my brother and me.
My premiums have ranged from 64 monthly to 286 monthly.
This is my last year on the ACA and am grateful that it exists.

 

[marko]

Happy for all of you!

Never was able to access ACA and an involuntary ER meant $26k a year for 13 years and then $13k for six more years for DW until she also hit Medicare.

Hitting Medicare was like getting a nice "raise".

Geez! Just did the math for the first time: close to half a mil$!

 

[GenXguy]

Happy for all of you!

Never was able to access ACA and an involuntary ER meant $26k a year for 13 years and then $13k for six more years for DW until she also hit Medicare.

Hitting Medicare was like getting a nice "raise".

Geez! Just did the math for the first time: close to half a mil$!

Weren't you still in your low 60's when the ACA came out? And then your wife?