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Insurance companies are worried that tinkering with Obamacare plans will destabilize the health insurance market.
Here are a couple little secrets the media won`t cover. Before Obama Care insurance companies carried around a 8% profit. Obama Care guarantees the insurance companies a 15% profit. And the best one is if the insurance company guesses wrong on the payment from the government the government is not responsible for the underpayment the policy holder is. I can tell you a lot more but would someone please tell me how this law helps the middle class and please don`t say that as a 56 year old male I now don`t have to pay for lactation services.
Why is getting Obamacare website up and running the top priority? Millions of Dollars being spent on what? American People (including me) know that when it is up and running nothing is going to change. Insurance Coverage will be FAR FROM AFFORDABLE!!! I have blue cross/blue shield of Alabama. I worked two jobs to pay the $302. month premium. Now in 2014 my premium will be over $600 – DOUBLE with higher deductible and less coverage. I am 59 year old woman, self employed and can not understand why the Americans with NO insurance were not put on Medicaid or given the option for federal policy. That most likely would have cost less than this big fat MESS call Obama Affordable Healthcare was created!! Get the website up and running...the problem will not be fixed!! I can not pay the "$600 premium and will have to pay the fine for having NO insurance. from fully insured to no insurance.....and that is story of the majority of Middle American. Thanks for Freakin NOTHING!!!! An No Oprah...this is not a Racist Thing (White Middle Americans voted him in, myself included) This is ECONOMICS!!
I am an active and healthy 62 year old retiree who has maintained health insurance my entire adult life beginning with my first job out of college when I was 19 years old.
When I sold my business several years ago I purchased individual health care coverage from North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield.
In September of this year I was informed by BC/BS that I must "transition to a new, ACA- compliant medical plan and that my existing plan would no longer be offered". In other words, my policy was to be cancelled in 2014.
The new plan, which they proposed, Blue Advantage Silver 3500, was the closest thing to my existing plan.
I was informed that my premium would increase from $401.03 per month to $747.21 – an annual increase of $4,154.16.
I do not qualify for any federal subsidy as my income exceeds the threshold. I should note that my wife is on medicare with medicare and drug supplemental policies.
Although I am a retiree, my choice to retire was made with a budget and the responsibility to live within my means. An additional annual cost of over $4,000 is significant.
After numerous attempts and countless hours... I am one of the people who was able to successfully enroll in the federal marketplace as North Carolina does not have a state exchange.
However, once enrolled, I found that the only insurer available to me through the federal marketplace is Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and the plan available to me is the Blue Advantage Silver 3500 that Blue Cross had already informed me about. (There were a few options that Blue Cross Blue Shield offered but these were not comparable and were equally expensive.)
Note: I don't believe that the story has come out about the limited number of insurers available through the federal marketplace. I am one of the people who probably clogged up the system trying to enroll when I ultimately learned that the federal marketplace offered me nothing new or different! I suspect others may have had a similar experience.
Thus, my options are severely limited and my expenses are going to increase dramatically for essentially the same level of benefits that I have received in the past.
So....my question is "will Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina be required to provide me the same policy as they did last year for essentially the same cost as it was last year? I would be more than happy to pay an inflation adjusted premium.
Please know that I am a supporter health care reform and believe in it's necessity – and am willing to pay and do my fair share.
Thank you,