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from the sign-this-form-and-we-can-cure-the-hemorrhage-with-a-money-extraction dept.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period for US Soylentis has ended. The website was plagued by problems from its launch and even had issues on the the last day.
So, did any Soylentis actually use healthcare.gov to sign up and how has your experience been with the Obamacare system so far?
For those that don't know, from Wikipedia:
The ACA was enacted with the goals of increasing the quality and affordability of health insurance, lowering the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reducing the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. It introduced a number of mechanisms - including mandates, subsidies, and insurance exchanges - meant to increase coverage and affordability. The law also requires insurance companies to cover all applicants within new minimum standards and offer the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or sex. Additional reforms aimed to reduce costs and improve healthcare outcomes by shifting the system towards quality over quantity through increased competition, regulation, and incentives to streamline the delivery of healthcare. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the ACA will lower both future deficits and Medicare spending.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by gishzida on Sunday April 06 2014, @05:56PM
No if they wanted to destroy the insurance companies they would have made this single payer... Instead we have exactly the system the Insurance companies, hospitals, and big Pharma wanted. So unless you are someone that is supposed to get paid by the insurance company... or get service from them... you'll be just fine. The point is they couldn't deny you assistance before the ACA if you walked into a public facility...
As for the penalty... they will grab you by your tax return and squeeze. Never give the IRS a reason to want to squeeze anything... ever. You won't like it.
We had trouble with the sign-up. The insurance that the insurance company signed us up for was not the one we signed up for on healthcare.gov. We ended up having to cancel and start over. We happen to fall in the government assistance bracket and the insurance company essentially deducted the government money right off the top so we paying about $77 a month for my wife and I.
The main issue we have had is finding doctors / providers that accept this insurance... its government sponsored but we happen to live in one of the "don't want no 'bama care" states [i.e. the state hates its citizens and refused to create a state exchange and refused the Medicaid expansion] even tho' it ain't costing them a dime.
For us the copay is reasonable... but even so the deductible for major medical is steep... $4000... when you are making $12000 like we did last year we can only hope that we don't have any major issues.
What the insurance companies have done is gamed the system to raise their rates on those that are not getting government assistance and made it hard for those that are getting assistance to actually get decent care.
When I last had insurance [three years ago] I was paying something like $500 a month for a plan that now costs something like $900 a month.
So yes we now have insurance that we did not have before...but no the insurance companies are screwing us all... And I image that it is only going to get worse if the Republicans decide they want to dismantle the ACA... to please the people that will never miss the money then my wife and I will be without insurance again.