Recent content by bamsphd

From page 19 it looks like Medicare spending would increase by $43 billion.

I don't find comparing plans easy now. CBO projects that comparing plans is going to become even more difficult once the actuarial value requirements (metal levels) are repealed. From page 15 of the CBO report.

I found the CBO's insurance premium projections especially interesting, emphasis mine. From pages 21 and 22 of the CBO report.

The Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate (March 13, 2017) of the American Health Care Act is now available. https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/costestimate/americanhealthcareact_0.pdf Reminder: A generally useful and enjoyable "Nice Summary..." thread on the...

I received an MLR rule rebate on my first year's ACA policy. So after adjusting for the rebate my insurance company must have spent 20% of each premium dollar to pay overhead expenses, such as profits, salaries, marketing, administrative costs, and agent commissions. The other 80% must have...

Tell that to people in AK, AL, KS, NC, OK, SC, WY who generally only have one carrier providing coverage on the exchanges. For more see: 2017 exchange market: Carrier participation trends | McKinsey on Healthcare Sharp Decline in Competition Across ACA Exchanges, Experts Predict | Avalere Health

My intent was to say that as I understand it COBRA is never age rated. Not that there was some fixed national COBRA price for everyone. The company I worked for actually offered a cafeteria plan of benefits and we could choose from multiple different insurance plans. Each plan had a...

Hope you keep it. My dad's former employer basically went to a fixed medical compensation system effective 1/1/2017. So now he gets some money to buy coverage, but it won't be increasing as costs/inflation increase, and I don't think it was enough to even fully cover this year's coverage.

As I understand it, from the employer's perspective there are age rating differences in premiums. I know that is true in the small group market. Many large companies "self insure" only hiring insurance companies to "administer" their plans, in which case age rating is a mute point. However, at...

Yes, but pruning benefits and/or means testing become much more politically feasible once the "Trust Fund" runs out. I try to plan for "worst case for my family" scenarios, and this affects the political probabilities we might encounter a worst case scenario.

Found your answer: source this New York Times article.

When I fired I used COBRA to bridge us to the first ACA open enrollment. Then I used family ACA exchange polices covering myself and dear wife, but we have not collected any ACA subsidies. After the election I read articles talking about worst case scenarios where exchange policies might be...

Once I get past the distraction of credits/subsidies, which though critical for many Americans won't imperil my FIREd state, I personally have medium-term and long-term personal concerns with this bill. Over the medium term, I already have only a few disappointing insurance options in my state...

Yes, but I mistakenly implied otherwise when I wrote: So I was just correcting the information I provided earlier to cover that edge case. (Can you detect my engineering/science background yet? ;D )

Correction/Update according to Kaiser Family Foundation Compare Proposal page, the March 6th, 2017 proposal contains exceptions for Short-term non-renewable polices: However regular policies are still guaranteed issue, still cover pre-existing conditions, and can only base premiums on age (and...