Obama care my ass

[crockett]

A friend of mine is a small business owner, family with 2 kids. He and his wife are in their early 60s with no major pre existing conditions. Business in the year 2019 was on the decline and he was able to get a good family health care plan with support of the Affordable Care Act, which paid over 90% of it.

Now he just did his 2020 tax returns, and found out that income climbed back to some 110k on the year for the family. Right above the limit for substitutes through the Affordable Care Act for a family of 4, and now he has to pay back the entire amount of substitute on his health care. Basically everything.

One would say that sounds fair, because he made enough money to pay for his ****, until I heard that he owes $43,000!

Somehow his insurance broker sold them a health care plan that costs outside the care act $3,500 EVERY ******* month for 2 adults with no major pre existing conditions and 2 young kids in college!

Am I completely out of touch or is it normal that you pay 3.5 grand a month for a healthy family of 4? What do you guys pay, at what deducible?

 

[gwalchmai]

That seems high. Probably the new normal. I have Medicare, but still have to pay over $800/mo for Mrs. G's insurance.

You being a young guy I suspect yours is pretty cheap, huh?

[LostinTexas]

Unfortunately they charge what they want, and even then, are usually better than anything else out there. States seem to matter a lot.

I'm on MC and pay ~$300/mo for LostWIfe. I think ours was just over $1000 per month before my MC kicked in. We paid half that.

The plans have always been close. I don't remember the deductible, but $7500 out of pocket/year and $15-$30 PCP visits, one or two plans limited that to 4 or 5 per year.

It sucks for him, and that seems very extreme, but we are dealing with .gov HC. Wait till they are single payer.

[GT4494]

I stay outside the ACA and have BCBS.  It costs approx. $2000 per month for me and the wife (that includes the deductible spread out monthly)

[Dric902]

Now they’re ‘rich’ under the democrat definition and don’t ‘need’ to be subsidized.

I joined that club when the trump tax cuts raised my taxes. 

surprise, surprise, surprise

[crockett]

2 hours ago, gwalchmai said:

That seems high. Probably the new normal. I have Medicare, but still have to pay over $800/mo for Mrs. G's insurance.

You being a young guy I suspect yours is pretty cheap, huh?

 

I currently pay $570 for an in-network plan with 4.5k deducible and some 30 / 70 bucks per visit. Haven't used it in years. I don't complain, but 3.5k for 2 adults and 2 kids makes zero sense. Should be more like 2k at the most with no pre existing conditions. I think his broker sold him a plan with the highest commission or something.

[Peng]

One of the most depressing things about the ACA, in addition to the **** insurance with it's attached $9,000 deductibles, is if you take the tax credit you have to be very careful on your income level.  I've actually deferred trades to the next CY for that very reason, which is a piss poor strategy but the math demanded it.

I think you only pay back a small amount in certain ranges of income, but if you are above the max you are screwed.  It used to be like that anyhow.

We need more people to be screwed by this stupid law so things change.  Corporate insurance has hidden it's true effect from 90% of people because they are absorbing most of it.  Luckily Obama2.0 is going to "build on it".  God help us.

Those numbers sound high though.  There are bronze, silver and gold plans, sounds like he went for the gold.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Peng

[Paul53]

I'd like to see what the "Insurance broker" drives.