31–40 of 53 posts
The affordable care act doubled most people's insurance over night (This happened to me and almost everyone I know). Nobody wants to mention this, because it makes their side look bad. Until we can admit where there are problems, there will never be a solution.
The affordable care act doubled most people's insurance over night (This happened to me and almost everyone I know). Nobody wants to mention this, because it makes their side look bad. Until we can admit where there are problems, there will never be a solution.
The two times I did not have employer sponsored health care AND $0 income, the ACA plans were more expensive than getting a plan directly from the insurance company. It never costed me $27,000 though. Most recently, in 2024, I had medical and dental coverage for my family of 6 for around $1,200/mo - roughly half what's quoted but again, family of 6. Wasn't the greatest insurance but it would have kept us from financi…
The affordable care act doubled most people's insurance over night (This happened to me and almost everyone I know). Nobody wants to mention this, because it makes their side look bad. Until we can admit where there are problems, there will never be a solution.
That doesn’t pass the sniff test. I was self-employed and self-insured when the ACA took effect and my premiums immediately dropped when I purchased through the Marketplace (and it wasn’t subsidized). It sounds like you either had junk insurance or you’re exaggerating things to score points.
Maybe yours dropped immediately, but I'm sure it's up quite a bit since then. You may say that's just inflation and that's part of it, but I think the deeper point is that the ACA is not containing the inflation. And that was one of the promises.
I'm in a EU country, in total I pay also around 15.000 EUR per year
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When the ACA plans first came online in South Carolina, I switched over immediately. I was paying something like $300 per month as a young healthy single male with my small company plan. I got a Marketplace plan for about $120 per month. The next year my insurer went out of business but I found another insurer in the 200s, barely cheaper. The following year this insurer also went under. I was now left with Blue Cross…
Yes, health insurance costs rise every year. Partly due to increasing costs, but also due to the age of the insured. The question isn’t whether the ACA raised costs—those were always going to go up. The question is whether a the ACA made them go up less than not having it. For me, the before and after trend was remarkable. And I had higher quality insurance without lifetime maximums or arbitrary exclusions. Republica…
No. That wasn't the promise. Obama said that his plan was going to cut a family's bills by $2500.
Now you may say that inflation has to creep in and I think that's fair. If oil rises in price, that affects everything. But the premise was always that the magic of the ACA would lower premiums.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, health insurance costs rise every year. Partly due to increasing costs, but also due to the age of the insured. The question isn’t whether the ACA raised costs—those were always going to go up. The question is whether a the ACA made them go up less than not having it. For me, the before and after trend was remarkable. And I had higher quality insurance without lifetime maximums or arbitrary exclusions. Republica…
> those were always going to go up No. That wasn't the promise. Obama said that his plan was going to cut a family's bills by $2500. Now you may say that inflation has to creep in and I think that's fair. If oil rises in price, that affects everything. But the premise was always that the magic of the ACA would lower premiums.
My impression was it would be painful in a lot of ways but we need better competition and better protection in order to have the private insurance industry actually work for people instead of abuse them and health insurance is too important (and complicated, and too much history of dishonesty) for laissez faire.
The affordable care act doubled most people's insurance over night (This happened to me and almost everyone I know). Nobody wants to mention this, because it makes their side look bad. Until we can admit where there are problems, there will never be a solution.
After ACA went into effect, I got insurance and it was reasonable - I didn't even need to claim a subsidy for first few years, until I lost my job.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Germany a couple of two software developers would earn above the threshold of ca. 70k EUR per year each and therefore pay each around 15.000 EUR per year, which would be higher than the number given in the article ($27.000 for a family in US vs. around $35.000 in Germany currency converted). This applies for the public insurance where adults each have to be insured but kids are included for free. People with lower…
You're comparing what appears to be the MAXIMUM cost of German health insurance with the AVERAGE cost of US health insurance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
no actuarial reserve has been built up This is laughable. Health insurance companies don't have no steenkin "actuarial reserve". Inventing one is an act of rhetorical desperation on your part. They only thing these companies consider or respond to is next quarter's profits.
> Health insurance companies don't have no steenkin "actuarial reserve". Inventing one is an act of rhetorical desperation on your part. This is how private health insurance companies work in Germany and many other countries (more precisely for Germany "private Krankenversicherung nach Art der Lebensversicherung" (Google Translate: private health insurance in the form of life insurance); formally, in Germany there al…
I think it exists in the same way social security does: money from people who pay in but don’t withdraw goes to people who do withdraw. There’s probably some reserve, but I’d guess it’s thin because withdrawals should be fairly predictable for large insurers.