That's what I am seeing as DH starts Medicare this fall.
However the impact is somewhat lessoned as we use bronze plans and the % is based on the second lowest cost silver plan.
Doesn't seem right that two people pay the same price as one.
That's what I am seeing as DH starts Medicare this fall.
However the impact is somewhat lessoned as we use bronze plans and the % is based on the second lowest cost silver plan.
Doesn't seem right that two people pay the same price as one.
OK...DH is retiring this year; I have 2 yrs. I will keep our current insurance as our 2 youngest can still be on it.
I believe our BC/BS retirement rate is about $1100/mo. after the kids drop off (we expect that in 2 years). Our deductibles aren't too bad. (sry, exact numbers escape me)
If there is an 8.5% cap, that puts us at under $650/mo--but what kind of deductibles could we be looking at?
We have had BC/BS our whole lives with zero issues. Are ACA providers as good to work with?
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The thing the ACA tried to do is to add an extra charge the healthiest customers' premiums and use that overcharge to subsidize other customers' risk premiums. In the term insurance example, it would be like the 25YO being overcharged and the 65YO being charged less than his risk calculation would call for. Much of this discount was due to accepting customers with preexisting conditions without making those customer pay the real cost of their insurance. There really is a free lunch for those folks. The actuarially healthier folks at the next table paid. Or at least that was the plan.
Now you can argue whether this kind of cross-subsidy is desirable or not but the fact is that the cohort that the government planned to overcharge figured out the scam and refused to play the game.
In most states BC/BS is one of the major ACA providers. Unfortunately, ACA plans generally have big deductibles compared to corporate/COBRA plans.
Anyway, you need to shop your own state's marketplace to see what's what.
I'm from the government and here to help. What could go wrong.
It will be great, Well, unless you are the tax payer.
Doesn't seem right that two people pay the same price as one.
The part that doesn't seem right to me, is that we are subsidizing a family of 2 making $70K a year and a family of 4 making $104k. I thought it was poor people that needed help.
All this arguing over the ACA and in 2020 only 8 Million people signed up.
The numbers has been in decline since 2016, and we are getting closer to the actual number of people that needed real help, although clearly not there yet, there are still people with 100s of thousands of dollars and even a million dollars still an the ACA. So now to make it look better, (bump the numbers), the government is giving it away for free? It would have been much better to actually take care of those that needed it. As it is now, the poor are asking where am I going to get $16,300 for my family deductible.
The single biggest tax benefit the US Government provides is thebhealth insurance tax break for employed people, and the highest income employees earn the greatest benefit. This is never mentioned when people complain about a benefit others receive.
The median household income in the US is around $69k, and the average cost of large group family health insurance is $21k. Before tax, that’s almost 1/3, before payroll and income tax. Health care insurance is unaffordable for middle income working families, and they only get it at all because it’s paid by the employers.
Your implicit assumption is that the employer still pays all costs...maybe that was true 20+ years ago but not today.
OTOH, for the 4 public systems I mentioned taxpayers do indeed bear nearly all the costs.
Which will only increase with the likely permanent end of the ACA cliff and even more so if "Medicare at 60" happens.
Thanks for pointing this out. I'm in the 5% mentioned. I have purchased my own private health insurance since 1985. I have never worked for an employer who offered health insurance. Currently I'm in the state exchange paying over $16,000 for a Bronze plan. I'm just a few thousand over the cliff, so I'm paying 100% of the premium with AFTER tax income. Over 16% of our MAGI. So, this legislation may not help a lot of people, but it does help some.On average, for the year 2020, the large group policy costs $21342, the employer share was $15754, the employee share was $5588. Unseen here is the tax subsidy, the single largest tax expenditure item in the US Gov’t budget.
Most of the costs of the ACA are not paid by taxpayers. Medicaid yes, VA yes, Employer provided, partly. Medicare, it’s paid by govt only if you don’t consider the years of contributions from payroll taxes.
Getting back on topic, this is a measure directed toward the few people that aren’t getting help, or enough help, to afford health care insurance.
I'm very open to alternative ways to dealing with the health care situation in this country. But I also don't think it's right that a family of 2 making $70,000 should have to pay $14,400 in health care premiums + the additional costs of deductibles $7600 + the additional costs of prescriptions. These numbers are from my county. And my county does not seem to be the most expensive (by far) for medical care in this country.
That is more than 20% of their income -- just for the premiums.
Solve the problem one way or another. It's a problem.
In my opinion way too much effort has been spent subsidizing health care and not enough effort spent addressing and reforming health care to make it more cost effective and affordable.