We worked with a fabulous insurance broker back in 2009 when DS graduated from grad school and needed an individual plan. My insurance did not cover once a kid wasn’t a student. Got a great Anthem PPO for $175 a month.
Worked with the same broker in 2014 when DD turned 26 and no longer could be on our plan. Again…got a great Anthem PPO…not on exchange…for about $200 a month.
This broker was honest with me…he had hoped to retire from the business before,the changes came about. But then the ACA passed, and he weathered that storm.
My guess…folks like him will simply stop doing this kind of work, and folks will need to fend for themselves.
No place. There won’t be an individual market anymore unless Congress gives the insurance company boatloads of money to stay put until a new plan is in place. Reconciliation only affects funding - not things like guaranteed issue which would need 60 votes in the Senate to repeal.
The other thing they may do is tweak a few minor things and just slap a new name on it. I think if they did that a whole mess of people wouid say it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.
We don’t know what “replace” means right now. With Repeal and Delay, the subsidies and marketplace would remain in place during the Delay part, though many experts say that insurers would flee the individual market because insurers don’t like unpredictability.
Checking for clarity: can Trump on Jan 20th declare no more subsidies and that would be the end? Or would it have to go through Congress? Or something else?
So for example, you’re on the exchange and have a $250 BCBS plan but have a $150 subsidy. Could Trump issue an executive order OR could congress pass something that Trump will sign and your February or March bill will become the full $250 instead of $100? (I am just making up numbers, please don’t talk about how low the numbers are compared to what people “actually” pay)
Romani, congress did a dry run last year, repealing all of the funding. The current president of course vetoed it, but the point was made. The new congress could have that same bill on the new president’s desk on Jan 20, and he could sign it on Jan 20. I don’t know why they couldn’t make it effective Feb 1, if that’s what they want to do. Heck, they could make it effective Jan 20, and require people to pay back 10 days worth of January subsidy.
^ yep. Under reconciliation, which only needs to pass with a simple majority, only funding can be repealed - so that is likely step 1. I imagine a bill doing that will be on President’s desk on day 1.
So let me get this straight. In order to get rid of ACA because it’s so expensive, the govt is going to pay $$billions to private corporations (which ACA opponents used to call a “bailout”) to persuade them to sell a product they don’t want to sell? Those of you who believe in unfettered capitalism – you’re ok with this? That’s an awful lot of taxpayer money just to take insurance away from poor and sick people.
You have it completely wrong. Congress could get rid of insurance subsidies without paying any bailouts to insurers. They could just nix the subsidies, nix the Medicaid expansion, nix the ACA taxes on rich people, nix the individual mandate that requires people to buy insurance or pay a fine. Nothing forces them to pay insurers anything. Well, nothing but the desire to be re-elected.
The trouble here is political. They can nix the subsidies, but they can’t nix the rule that says insurers are allowed to use age, smoking status and nothing else in setting premiums (= guaranteed issue, no pre-existing conditions ban). Moreover, guaranteed issue is popular. Most Americans don’t want to get rid of it.
As Larry Levitt, head of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care costs research institution, said in the LA Times:
it makes perfect sense if what you want to do is not give insurance to the poor and sick. Subsidies go away so only those who can afford to pay 100% can buy insurance, plus the insurance companies get billions from the govt at the same time. The insurance companies will love it. It might be so profitable for them there won’t be a replacement at all.
CF, they have to pay off the insurance companies to stay in the indy market after they repeal the subsidies or else they will leave the market completely. They want the insurance companies to be in place when they come up with their own plan. They also don’t want it to look like they are throwing poor and sick people under the bus -even though that is what will happen when they repeal ACA funding.
There isn’t anyone here who actually believes that they care about making health insurance available to everyone, is there?
My fellow Romani, I don’t think there is a single person on CC who doesn’t value you, and wants you to find a medical,solution. Your pain is so real and palatable.
I have been so happy finally having Medicare and a supplement, even if $600 a month. I have no problems finding doctors or hospitals. It was awful before. My sister was finally able to get insurance thru ACA. This is a very scary time. People talk of being retired by my age, and I’m afraid to do so.
Sorry, you’re right. She didn’t say I should get kicked off insurance… just that it may benefit society if I’m dead. My bad.
There were other posts as well but I have certain people on ignore due to hurtful things they’ve said in other ACA threads. I will not go through 60 pages of posts and click on each individual post to find them. But that’s the general sentiment.
I don’t think if anyone was designing a health care system from scratch, people would get their health insurance through employers rather than an individual market. I do think there are a lot of people who don’t want the government to give free health care to poor people, especially illegal immigrants. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.
^^undocumented kids get free care thru California’s Medical.
According to a WSJ survey, 20 of the 25 largest US counties provide non-emergency care to the poor, regardless of “immigration status”.
OTOH, undocumenteds are not eligible to purchase thru the ACA. California requested a federal exception to that rule, which is currently under reivew in DC.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid, CHIP, or premium subsidies. Shockingly, if an undocumented immigrant comes into an emergency room bleeding, the ER is not allowed to let him bleed to death right there. He have to be treated. If an undocumented immigrant arrives at the ER in active labor, the ER is not allowed to shove her out the door to give birth in a stable with oxen and sheep there and lay the baby in a manger; they have to take care of her.