Yikes. DS just got his individual subsidized plan info for next year…Arizona. Most individual providers have pulled out of the AZ exchange completely. His provider is selling off to another vendor (he has Healthnet). Premium is increasing from $220 a month to $350 a month…and the letter says that includes his current subsidy.
He will look for a higher deductible plan…and also look OFF exchange.
I got a letter too. My premiums are going way up, by 25% and my PPO is going to be an EPO. I talked to a health insurance broker and she can’t even tell me which doctors and hospitals will be in which plans until Nov. 1.
The insurance situation is going to get ugly.
I remember being distressed last year at the large increase in premiums. I also received a letter that showed my new cost after applying the *** previous year’s *** subsidy. Eventually I learned the subsidy was increased as much as the premium. I expect the same thing will happen this year. Great for the beneficiaries, but not so great for the cost of the program. Here in NC Aetna and others have dropped out, leaving only Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC in the ACA market. I will wait until Nov 1 to see what is available and at what cost.
@NJres I hope you are right…and this year is the same in terms of subsidy and premiums.
I have not heard of any individual policies that didn’t increase at least 25% for this year. That is, of course, if the policies weren’t cancelled.
University of Chicago Hospital, Northwestern and Rush are dropping out of the ACA exchanges, at least with Blue Cross, the largest insurer in Illinois. If you have Blue Cross through your employer those hospitals are still in network.
I haven’t gotten official word from our individual policy, but in checking on their website, our premium will increase 43% next year. Yikes! Obviously, I’'ll be shopping around. We currently have an off-marketplace policy since we don’t qualify for subsidies. There are cheaper plans on the ACA exchange, but I’d have to check their networks and formularies before applying for them. We’ve avoided them up to now because of that, but if those plans are $400-500 less per month, we’d have to consider it. I can’t wait to see how high our premiums go before DH reaches Medicare eligibility in 3 years.
And I live in what used to be known as the Insurance Capital.
I was a bit confused by the OP’s initial comment: “Premium is increasing from $220 a month to $350 a month…and the letter says that includes his current subsidy.” But then I realized what was going on.
The ACA premium subsidies are designed to bring down the cost of insurance to an amount the subsidized person can afford. For a person who makes $X/year, the subsidy is whatever will bring the cost of their insurance down to $Y, where $Y doesn’t change from year to year.
But there is a caveat: the subsidy assumes that the person buys the reference insurance policy, the second cheapest Silver plan. If a subsidized person bought the second cheapest Silver plan last year, and buys the second cheapest Silver plan this year, they will pay the same, by law. Their subsidy, no matter which plan they buy, is the amount of money that will make the second cheapest Silver plan cost $Y. If the plan they buy went up more in cost this year than the second cheapest Silver plan, they will have to pay the extra.
So, an example: Ava is entitled to subsidies. Because of her salary, she is entitled to spend $200/month for health insurance, no matter how expensive her insurance would be if she didn’t have subsidies. In 2016, the second cheapest Silver plan, Bob’s Insurance, cost $500. She gets a $300 subsidy, which she decides to apply to Acme Health’s $600 plan. In 2016, she pays $300/month for Acme, even though she could have paid $200 for Bob’s.
In 2017, she hasn’t gotten a raise, and she is still entitled to pay $200/month for insurance. This year, the second cheapest plan is BeWell Insurance, which costs $550/month. She is entitled to a $350/month subsidy. Acme Insurance costs $750. If she chooses to stay with Acme, now she has to pay $400, versus $300 last year.
But the point is, in both years, she can pay $200/month if she buys the second cheapest Silver plan. She choose to go for the more expensive plan, and the taxpayers aren’t going to subsidize her for going for something more expensive when she could have picked something less expensive. We’re subsidizing hamburger, not steak.
For people who are not subsidized, the calculations are completely different. After several years of lower increases, many of us are seeing big increases this year.
Doesn’t annual income also come into play? (Some of our kiddos are earning nice raises…)
Annual income does come into play:
She pays more if she earns more, and she also pays more if she buys a more expensive policy.
Gah! Critical Reading Fail!
Back to SBUX.
@thumper1 Do you work? You may be able to cover him cheaper under your plan - up to age 26 for full time students.
We are affected by the major medical centers dropping out of the exchanges. (Northwestern, University of Chicago and Rush.) It really stinks to be self-employed in this state.
It stinks to be self-employed in any state.
@Fishnlines29 My son is almost 32 no self employed.
@“Cardinal Fang” so basically, my son needs to wait until after November 1, and apply for,the same plan? And if he does, he should have a subsidy that will reduce his premium to something similar to what it is now?
He did earn a little more in 2016 than in 2015, but he is still eligible for a subsidy.
I still recall when H and I were self-employed and paid $450 per month for a plan with a $15K per person deductible.
Eventually we gave up and were just uninsured. We had to pay out of pocket for any care we got anyway. Luckily, within the year H got a regular job in his field with benefits and we magically got health insurance. We still maintained a higher deductible than most people, and used an HSA. Now that has changed also. Not sure, frankly, what we pay now.
But I’m quite sure the ACA coverage would have been a hell of a lot better and cheaper than what we used to have, if we were still in that situation.
Put everyone in the Medicare system and bring on single payer, is my feeling. Let people who want more deluxe coverage buy supplementary policies.
Phew–am glad S has a job that handles a good portion of his insurance premium and provides great coverage. I’m not sure what plan he has, but so far he hasn’t grumbled, so it must be good enough. I’m so relieved I was able to get D covered as a disabled dependent so I don’t have to deal with the ACA for her. She doesn’t make anything, but we don’t want to have her under Medicaid or MediCal, so having her under the family plan as a disabled dependent works for all of us.
In my personal scenario, count me as one who has much more affordable health insurance due to ACA.
I agree with @Consolation that our country would be best served with a single payer system.
People in the business are pretty sure it was designed to drive us to single payer.