I don’t know why the end-of-the-year tax refund can’t be issues for an ACA-compatible plan purchased directly from the insurance company, as presumably the insurance companies can and will file appropriate reporting forms with the IRS. But I can see what the subsidies need to be centrally administered. </p>
<p>It’s not as if the US government is going to be sending out millions of separate subsidy checks to the various insurance providers. That part will obviously be coordinated and the exchanges are set up specifically so that there is only one entity for each state where the government has to send the funds. Much easier for auditing purposes that way as well, and far less likelihood of confusion. You don’t want a bunch of people having their insurance dropped because their particularly company botched its record keeping and failed to properly apply the subsidy to their account. It’s also a simple cost-savings measure – the system with the subsidies is expensive enough without adding on a bunch of extra administrative and record keeping tasks.</p>
<p>But I don’t see that problem for anyone who waives their up front subsidy in favor of the tax refund. Maybe it’s just something that wasn’t thought out that well, or maybe they wanted to simply assure that no one would lose their coverage due to inability to pay their premiums. Even if someone plans to wait until tax filing time to get a refund, circumstances could change – it’s my understanding that the exchanges will be set up to allow subscribers to update their financial information and change their payment options at any time. </p>
<p>I couldn’t get into CT’s website this morning, but did access it this afternoon. We have only 3 insurance companies offering plans, so there were 16 possible plans that covered us. Just from perusing the monthly premiums, half of them are less than we currently pay and half are more. I’ll wait a few days to let the frenzy die down before I investigate further. </p>
<p>It’s still too glitchy to find out for sure if our doctors are in the plans, but both DH and I have physicals this month so we can ask our MDs directly.</p>
<p>I went on today to confirm what the actual rates would be…sorry you are so defensive about this law creating such a mess…and this is just the beginning.</p>
<p>Why don’t people get the same tax break in all plans? </p>
<p>It might have to do with the fact that for some (especially young) people, the cost of their plan is LESS than the amount of the subsidy, and they don’t want you making money on the choice. So, if your subsidy (tax break) would be the equivalent of $400 a month, and you choose a $500 a month plan, you get the full subsidy of $400 a month, but if you choose a $250 a month plan you only get subsidized to that extent, not the $400 you’d get with another plan. But, it might be something else.</p>
<p>Lerkin…can I move to where you live for that platinum plan?? </p>
<p>NPR had this discussion on this morning. At that point the CT site was working, and they had one enrolled person and 75 pending (30 minutes after opening).</p>
<p>I am not going to rush to deal with this this month at all. I mean really…what is the rush?</p>
<p>Has anyone been able to log on to the NJ marketplace through healthcare.gov? When I finally get almost through, I get to the 3 security questions, but no questions come up at all. Since I use google chrome, I also tried internet explorer and then I get the question drop down menus, but they are blank. I know someone earlier today on here had the same problem, but different state.</p>
<p>I also went to medicare.gov to check medigap plans for DH and that isn’t loading either.</p>
<p>Wow…that’s a lot of conjecture and speculation on what motivates other people. The ACA has been THE BIG THING for many a day, a responsible citizen is IMO required to inform themselves of the details…and if they wish to do so quickly…then so be it.</p>
<p>I guess all those CC’ers who crash the system April 1st are just trying to cast an evil shadow …right?</p>
<p>my friend just received a letter telling her that the company she works for will no longer offer health insurance effective 12/31/2013. She has to purchase the plan now at her own expense and can’t get the same plan at near the same cost.</p>
<p>right or wrong…the reason my friend is so upset is because of this:</p>
<p>Throughout the debate over health care reform we all heard the line: “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” President Obama used this line in practically every speech.</p>
<p>So, I was able to get a quote for the plan with BCBS ($3000 family deductible, 100% coverage afterwards) and the quote for my family of 4 is $799 (no subsidies), more than what was advertized ($603), but less than what I feared. The same plan for me (39 year old) is $227.69 ($1000 individual deductible).</p>
<p>I don’t know the details for my employer’s plan costs (the enrollment period start Nov. 1st), but most likely (99.99%) I will not be switching. My employer’s plan is compatible with HSA, will have much much much larger network (which is important for serious illnesses and access to specialist) and my premium through employer is tax deductible.</p>
<p>I am going to contact my insurance agent regarding our small business plan, because our business’s coverage period started October 1st, which does not coincide with January 1st (obviously :)). I will let her figure this out and get me the quotes.</p>
<p>"Will employers increase premiums in order to get people to go to exchanges? "</p>
<p>It is interesting to see people here who are small employers (geeps, lerkin). I am trying to get my head around how these tax subsidies work for them.</p>
<p>Let us say a small employer has 4-8 employees and they are not part of ACA employer mandate (I guess no one is this year anyway). They have a employee pay varying from 20k to 60k and let us assume most employees make the cut for 400% poverty line.</p>
<p>If the small employer is incurring 6k or so per employee (making up the number) and determines that most employees will pay only 3k in a subsidized exchange, what incentive do they have to keep the insurance? They can give 3k to the employee and ask them to buy it through exchange while tax payers foot the rest?</p>
<p>what I noticed is that my lowest paid employees ($10 per hour, plus small commission) do not get insurance through me - ever. We pay half of their premium, but they don’t buy it anyway. Nor do they get it through their spouse (if they are not single - almost everyone is). They self-insure I guess.</p>
<p>Those who have kids get their kids’ insurance through the state for free. </p>
<p>I think these people are now going to be eligible for free or deeply discounted insurance through the state/exchange and will get it there, regardless of what I do. We will continue offering insurance anyway, but I have no plans to increase wages for those who choose not to get it through me.</p>
<p>I have 6 employees, and only 3 are buying insurance through me. The wages of those 3 employees range from about 40K to 60K.</p>
<p>P.S. The insurance that we have offered in the past has no deductible, but has co-pay. I think this insurance is better suited for my employee’s needs than the one with a deductible, so I would like to continue offering that.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying also. I’m getting the 3 dropdown questions showing up, but once I hit “submit” I get messages (several different ones over the past hour) that say basically that the system is too busy. I’ve filled out the form now, and I’ll just wait till sometime in the wee hours of tomorrow morning to hit “Create Account”, and maybe it will go through then.</p>
<p>I haven’t been able to get the Kaiser subsidy calculator to work either, btw. I get to the form, but the “submit” button isn’t live. Anyone else having that problem?</p>
<p>The reason I’m so anxious to find out the rate is that it reallllly matters to me. I don’t have any idea whatsoever what my rate will be in 2014. Based on what I’ve read and heard though, I’m sure that my premiums will be lower than they are now but I don’t know by how much. I may be forced onto Medicaid, and I hope to avoid that. </p>
<p>I’m in the middle of having some expensive medical testing done, and don’t know if I should rush to get it all done in 2013 or not. Don’t know if I should keep working with my current physicians if I’m going to have to find new ones in 3 months anyway. I don’t know if any of these tests and possible procedures will be covered by whatever new plan I get. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find ANY doctor to treat me if I’m on Medicaid, or some other plan that I may or may not get.</p>
<p>A general question to those who seem to have this figured out…If you check to see if your doctor is in a particular plan, is there any guarantee that they will be in that plan for the entire year? I have a feeling a lot of doctors will be making changes throughout 2014, so any of us could wind up having to switch doctors no matter what choices we make now.</p>
<p>At that level, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. From my own experience, it is a huge burden for a very small employer (under 10 employees) to take on the responsibility of providing insurance for all employees, and historically the costs have been pretty high. They don’t have a separate HR department or someone on their own staff to help guide the employees, they don’t have the resources to offer a choices of several plans, and in a small work environment it’s a lot harder to choose a plan that pleases everyone. The single 30 year old really needs a different type of plan than the 45 year old employee who is married with children. </p>
<p>The SHOP exchange might enable those employers to get better rates, – but that still may not address other difficulties that the small employer faces.</p>
<p>Insurance through a large employer is quite different - the big companies have more clout with the insurance companies and probably still have the ability to negotiate much better plans and options.</p>
<p>For those of you who are having difficulty with site access and are trying to sign up now - a bit of technical advice: DON"T. Wait until the system is responsive.</p>
<p>Quite simply when a system is overloaded, there is always a potential risk of a database crashing, and when a database crashes, information can be lost. There’s also a very big likelihood that information that you send from your computer never quite reaches the computer on the other end. </p>
<p>This has nothing to do with the exchanges, it’s true of any online transactions – if you are buying from Amazon or another online retailer, and the site seems sluggish or unusually slow – wait until another time to complete the transaction. </p>
<p>One of the most annoying things with a slow site is that you can work your way through every form and complete everything, then click “submit” - and then see a blank screen or an error message rather than a confirmation page letting you know that the information has been received and processed. Then you are stuck not knowing whether the transaction has completed. Do you try again and risk duplication? Or wait and see? </p>
<p>Don’t worry: the sites will be fixed. It’s a lot easier to fix a site when a tech can see the problem in action – the hard part is fixing problems you can’t replicate. It will take some time, but not forever. You have until December 15 to sign on, and if you can’t do it online, you can also phone in and get it done (just not today!).</p>
<p>I just heard from someone at CMS that most of the IT techs who would normally deal with the computer problems cannot work due to the government shut down.</p>