Medicare coverage? How old is your mil?
Where is birth control covered under medicare?
I think you are confusing aca with medicare.
The ex employer screwed over your mil.
You can look up medicare premiums.
Medicare gap coverage is not part of the ACA, is it?
I don’t think Medicare plans are part of the ACA. The OP’s mil may have a Medicare Advantage plan that works kind of like individual insurance. My parents have one. Instead of paying the medicare premium to the government, it goes to the Advantage plan, but they can only use certain doctors and hospitals.
MIL is 90. She is on Medicare. When a previous sitter in the oval office brought about Medicare part D - the prescription coverage plan - the ex employer informed her they would no longer cover prescriptions so she needed to sign up for part D. Guess who got to figure out those details. Yup…wanna avoid that donut hole.
Medicare gap coverage might not be part of the ACA. But the ACA is what gives companies the ‘right’ to drop promised policies. The companies group plan no doubt did not include the mandated minimum coverages (i.e. birth control). They have the option to force people into the private market. THIS is a goal of the ACA since it needs more paying bodies in the private market. A gap policy is simply a smart move if one wants to have any cost constraints an Advantage policy or a Medigap policy (the function quite differently) is needed.
So no @dstark
Please read my original statement where it states clearly “Today, more than 60% of employers have replaced, or plan to replace, a traditional group health plan with an ‘exchange’ of individual insurance options’.” MIL’s new ‘better’ options will cost her a considerably higher premium.
The new regulations give employers (and their plans for current and retired employees) an INCENTIVE to move bodies to the individual market. Does anyone really think that Medicare - who insures a large large number of our population - is unaffected by the ACA?
I read the original statement. The original statement is not a fact. The statement is an opinion about something happening in the future.
I am not going to waste time on that opinion.
Your mother in law receives medicare. Everybody who read your post knew that.
Well, @dstark, you asked about my MIL’s age…so I figured you were unclear on the Medicare coverage.
Here are the facts…
MIL is on Medicare
MIL was covered by a Medicare gap coverage policy paid by H’s previous employer
MIL received a letter exactly stating what I posted
MIL will now pay a huge increased in premiums to purchase a Medigap policy
MIL policy holder stated 60% of employers have or will drop group coverage and ‘offer’ (i.e. route) to exchange or individual options.
MIL carrier dropped prescription coverage when Medicare Part D became available. It said so specifically in the notification.
Fact:
Those currently providing group (or individual) policies to employees or retirees have a very simply ‘out’. Anyone can now buy on the open market. That’s the ACA.
But I understand that your facts will supersede mine. That’s okay…it’s just money right?
May I suggest you simply skip over any further obviously erroneous information since you simply should not waste your time.
Either your mil makes a very good income or she should shop around or both. My folks don’t pay anything close to $340 a month.
The Medicare part D RX coverage is not part of ACA. There are plenty of Medicare Part D RX plans to look at. Plenty.
"Those currently providing group (or individual) policies to employees or retirees have a very simply ‘out’.
Companies have been cutting back on supplemental coverage for retirees for years now going back well before there was ACA… This is nothing new at all.
Employers with more than 50 employees are required to offer employee health insurance (or pay fines.) I haven’t heard of any large employer dumping their employers health insurance - though I suppose there are a few, but it doesn’t seem to be a very common thing. That being said - having worked in the benefits division of my dad’s company years ago (1980’s) - we were always changing plans at every renewal to lower the company’s premium costs.
Your MIL situation has nothing to do with ACA. The plans she needs to look at have been around for a long time and are not the plans on the ACA marketplace.
@thumper1 I’m quite clear on the fact that Medicare part D is not part of the ACA - in fact it precedes it by quite a few years.
Let me try this again. When a program (Medicare part D) becomes available those currently paying for such a coverage for retirees now have an opportunity to have someone ‘else’ pay. Therefore, MIL’s insurer decided to discontinue prescription coverage and ‘help’ it’s members by moving them to part D.
Now, individual polices are available to everyone everywhere. This company decided to drop their group coverage and ‘help’ people my assisting them in there move to the individual on or off exchange market. In the case of it’s Medicare receiving clients, the company is ‘helping’ them move to the private market by assisting them in fining gap coverage. Coverage the retiree now needs to pay more for than they were paying while covered by the company. The company sees an opportunity to have someone ‘else’ pay for this cost and is exercising it’s option to do so. In essence, the company has applied for it’s rightful subsidies, just like individuals have a right to do.
The notice we got only referred to the Medicare recipients. But notice, the company is simply dropping its group coverage…hence those not yet on Medicare will be ‘assisted’ in their move to individual policies.
It is a small sign of a bigger trend. Some may like the trend, others may not.
@dstark Again, please read my post. MIL has the option of gap plans starting at $`110 and up to $340. My first level evaluation points to a plan in the middle cost range if she wants to keep her current benefits level. In addition, this company is only offering Medigap plans, not Advantage type supplement plans. Yes, the are two separate types of plans, each with pros and cons. Medigap plans have a higher premium and subsequent lower OOP costs. Policy premiums are not income adjusted. Here’s an overview
http://www.medicarerights.org/pdf/Paying-More-For-Less-Medigap-First-Dollar.pdf
$161 to $213 per month. Of course CA will be higher, and NorCal higher still. So MIL’s income matters not.
The ex employer had promised that if MIL liked her plan she could keep her plan. But they didn’t honor their promise. And yes, I that would amount to screwing over MIL.
Now, didn’t someone else make that same statement… Oh yeah…And they screwed over a considerable number of people also.
So…when it comes to health insurance…all is fair in love and politics.
Hey look…we agree on something!!!
Oh and yes, the 90 year old should be sure to shop the online market. Now THAT’s a plan.
I see nothing in the letter your mil got that says anything about dumping their employees into ind. plans. They are talking about retiree health plans. Companies have been doing this for quite a while now - so it is a good bet that 60% of companies have dropped the supplemental policies for retirees that had been quite common.
Again, nothing to do with ACA or companies dropping their health ins. plans for present employees.
You are certainly free to believe they are and I doubt anything anyone says to you will make a dent.
Come on now, dietz, you have to understand that not a single person has had to pay higher premiums, gotten worse coverage or their coverage dropped because of the ACA. It has been nothing but cost savings and happy times for every single person.
And that fact that my company is trying to negotiate us into paying for any increased costs because of the ACA, and the big hit that the Cadillac tax places on good health care plans…it’s got to be all good, right? Not a single individual or business can possibly be negatively impacted by the ACA, because it’s all manna from heaven. Only the good stuff flows from the ACA. It’s got to be true—you just have to believe it!
@busdriver11, more extremism? 
Oh come on, can’t you tell the difference between extremism and sarcasm? Do I have to put a 
after every single post? Just assume it’s there.
I saw the sarcasm. The post is based on an extreme view. 
Health care costs a lot of money in this country. The United States is number 1 in costs. The average cost for a person on medicare is $11,000+ a year.
One of my best friends is a tea party guy. We have interesting conversations. He hates Obamacare. But he has never had individual health insurance. He has had employer based health insurance. The company self insured. Now he has medicare. More republicans according to a 2011 study would rather increase medicare and social security benefits than reduce medicare and social security benefits. Hard to believe with all the rhetoric. But, we were talking. It is easy to dislike a program when you are not benefiting by the program. It’s harder to dislike programs when you can see the benefits. He is liking social security and medicare now.
Businesses act in their own self interests.
I’m actually in support of Medicare to be available to everyone, and rates based upon income and net worth. But no fancy benefits included with it. If you want the top of the line specialists, you pay yourself or have private insurance. More of a “what is necessary” sort of system. However, I think the rest of the health insurance industry didn’t have to be messed with. Get everyone covered who wants to be, don’t change the entire system. I don’t know that the ACA is really going to reduce any costs, but I guess we’ll see.
However, it would be way too simple to use something we already have in place, and nobody listens to me anyways.
Employee based health care is heavily subsidized. It’s a good deal for employees. I don’t think it is going anywhere.
Medicare for all would be great for many of us. I don’t think that is going to happen.
Rubio and Walker released their own proposals this week. You can google rubio health care proposal and walker’s also and decide for yourself if you like the proposals.
I don’t know if proposals ever mean anything. They are just bribes to get elected.
However, if they want to stop subsidizing, just don’t allow companies to write it off, or limit the amount.
I wish my dad had known to blame Obamacare. His retiree health benefits were terminated in 2005 despite a promise by his former company that they would continue without charge for life. They also defaulted on his pension. (Obamapension?)
I didn’t think I believed in time travel, but since all rate changes are clearly attributed to Obamacare, it must be true.