<p>It is so confusing, kelsmom!</p>
<p>We asked and got in writing that our kids are covered under H’s family plan until they turn 26, even if they have full time job offering health insurance and live out of state.</p>
<p>I thought that companies didn’t have to cover kids if they had coverage offered from their employer - I think that I saw this in an earlier thread and checked our company and they do provide coverage, even if your kid has coverage from his employer. Our company provides coverage after 26 in some cases too. I think that it’s best to check with your own company to see what they cover and where they plan to go with coverage.</p>
<p>Many companies have rules for working spouse coverage with an additional monthly fee when the spouse is able to get coverage from their employer.</p>
<p>I wonder if the companies will come up with similar rules for working kids. They can’t deny coverage but they can charge more money for a kid who can get coverage from their employer?</p>
<p>Yes, we pay more for coverage of our kids but the costs are marginal as opposed to linear. I assume that this is due to kids that age using relatively few medical services.</p>
<p>BC, when I enrolled in the family plan, in addition to kids, I could have included a common law or domestic partner- I would guess the family plans are not simply about younger folks needing less.</p>
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<p>My HSA is in a interest bearing account, but I have access to investment options with that account. However due to costs and investment risk I decided not to pursue this option. I only have around $5K in that account and I don’t want to risk it until I have enough money to cover family deductible. I don’t know when it is going to happen though because of annual limits on contributions and ongoing expenses. I use HSA to cover both medical and dental expenses.</p>
<p>Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50%</p>
<p><a href=“Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50% - The New York Times”>Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50% - The New York Times;
<p>The devil is in the details. Read the comments following the article.</p>
<p>Lower costs but higher deductibles? There’s just not enough known yet.</p>
<p>“The devil is in the details. Read the comments following the article.”</p>
<p>I did read them. The comments are simply people’s opinions, they don’t know anything specific either.</p>
<p>Thanks for the concern kelsmom, but I did call the insurance company yesterday. I looked online at the plan, and it appeared that he would be covered…unless it was a grandfathered plan, and then he didn’t have to be covered (and who knows if their plan is grandfathered)! So I called them, and the lady actually recommended that if he has a plan offered at his work that cost him anything, to just leave him on BC/BS, as it doesn’t cost us anything extra. She said that if his company required him to accept their plan, then BC/BS would be secondary, but there is no reason to take him off ours. </p>
<p>I was convinced (okay, I’m paranoid), that when I called they’d say, “What, he’s not a student anymore? No more insurance as of today!” And then we’d have to get him a gap policy, or he’d immediately get a major illness, being uninsured. It would be just my luck.</p>
<p>Our student verification calls ended quite some time I go. I don’t think that we had any of those in 2012. I don’t recall whether we had them for 2011.</p>
<p>The NYT article linked in #348 by emilybee makes clear one point: things are changing. Exactly how is unclear. I read the comments and most make no sense or are argumentative. The article makes clear it’s talking about rates for individuals. Those rates currently are high in NY because the state requires coverage but has no mandate to buy. This means, per the article, that NY premiums for individuals are very high. The numbers are stark: 17k people buy insurance now while 2.6 million are uninsured. They expect over 600k will buy in the first few years. I have no idea how these numbers were generated.</p>
<p>It also mentions but doesn’t go into detail about changes for small business. The article doesn’t pretend to be the source of all knowledge.</p>
<p>If we look at MA, there are 3 basic tiers with the difference being mostly the amount of deductible you pay. The cheapest plans obviously have the highest out of pocket costs. </p>
<p>I happen to believe the construction of this part of the plan was pushed through by the hospitals. I know for example in CA the amount of unreimbursed care claimed by CA hospitals exceeds $11B - with $10B of that being to US citizens given the hospitals estimate of about 10% going to undocumented people. I know that in MA the hospitals now claim tens of millions in unreimbursed care provided to people from NH & ME (mostly, they say) along just the northern border of the state. Data for each state is hard to get but the problem is obviously not a rounding error to the hospitals.</p>
<p>The solution seems to be requiring people to document their health costs. That is, you only use up your deductible if you pay the bill. If you walk, the hospital pays but you are still paying for insurance. So I see this as an attempt by private industry to enforce social responsibility on their customers using their market power to convince the government to help.</p>
<p>Original OP here.</p>
<p>You want to know how it’s changing? Last bill for our medical insurance (small business owner insures his family and two full time employees==2 single plans, one family plan) was $24,000 for the year. The bill we just received for the SAME plan has risen to $40,000 for the upcoming year (renewal date is Sept. 1). </p>
<p>As far as the plans through the new ACA go, I wouldn’t want one of them. I can only assume that the doctors around here are not going to accept patients with the plans. Why would they when they will be reimbursed pennies on the dollar for their services? More and more doctors in our area are dropping/not accepting various medical insurances. Where does that leave us? Do you really want to have to drive 2 hours away to find a doctor out of the area to use as a primary care doctor?</p>
<p>We’re are still waiting to here from the second insurance agency. They are gathering a list of more options for our business that will fit our needs (local doctors must take the plan as well as our current specialists and Stony Brook Hospital). I feel that ACA is going to be a friggin mess. Maybe it’ll be fine for the very low income people who have nothing now, but I can’t see it being of any benefit to small businesses.</p>
<p>I’m truly disgusted by the cost of medical insurance in our area. We are stuck. If you don’t buy it, you could lose everything with one major illness/accident. If you do buy it, you’re out an enormous amount of money which in our case ranges anywhere from $22,000/yr for an extremely high deductible plan to our previous plan which has increased from $24,000 to $40,000 in ONE YEAR.</p>
<p>Lergmom: Just as a clarification. The $10B would be US citizens and immigrants with documents. Not all immigrants are undocumented.</p>
<p>Miami, my insurance stays the same because I already pay the family rate, for another kid. When there are no more kids on my policy, I pay less. My husband is on his own insurance. I would say that the insurance company has come out way ahead with us paying the family rate, they don’t have very high costs.</p>
<p>The comments in the article mention bring up complications with the article’s spin to make the ACA look like a good thing in NYS. </p>
<p>From what I’ve learned in the past year due to seminars, there are going to be many problems, only some of which are now coming to light.</p>
<p>Reminds me of how dental insurance works here. You have a max benefit amount and a procedure that will go over that. Do you wait until the following year, possibly risking complications from the problem, or do you do it now? This can be one of those things where a filling repair for a few hundred can turn into a root canal and crown for $1,500 if you wait.</p>
<p>The long vacation at the same time reminds me of when I worked for a manufacturing company. There was a mandatory vacation of a few weeks for physical inventory. This is where the accounting department went through the floor and counted up inventory - the manufacturing folks really couldn’t be working when this went on.</p>
<p>I like flexibility in taking vacations and I’m sure that most people do today as well but not all jobs give you that.</p>
<p>Dietz, you dont want to start comparing other countries healthcare systems with the US. You just dont want to go there. ;)</p>
<p>We are going to enter some slow news days as we wait for Oct. Obviously I like the NYTimes article, but I do want to see the reality. </p>
<p>One reality for many people reading this thread is their under 26 year old kids are insured on their plans. There has been an increase of 2.5 to 3 million young people that are now insured. </p>
<p>There is going to be more transparency in how much plans cost and what the benefits are. I think that is good.</p>
<p>I still dont know how a family with an income of 90,000 is supposed to come up with 30,000 to pay their healthcare costs. I hope the costs are going to be a lot less, but it doesnt look that way in calif.</p>