<p>That would be you, Dietz, and the dwindling number of employed people.</p>
<p>^^^ Oh yeah! I feel sooooo special!!!</p>
<p>I am happy I can afford to pay for others.</p>
<p>ML, I am glad to see there are good plans for you out there.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So the poor are SOL?</p>
<p>Bluebayou, your concern for the poor touches my heart. ;)</p>
<p>Nobody here knows about NY plans? One of my grown up kids is going to sign up in NY.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nothing ever prevented anyone from doing so in the past. Is it only now attractive (justifiable) because others are forced to do the same? Doing so only when forced is not charity nor is it virtuous.</p>
<p>Many of us are forced to pay for others at many different times.</p>
<p>I am not saying I am virtuous or it is charity. </p>
<p>I am saying what I am saying </p>
<p>I am happy I can afford to pay for others.</p>
<p>“Nobody ever prevented…”</p>
<p>That is true… And yet… There are 35 million ininsured not counting illegal immigrants.</p>
<p>Yep nobody ever prevented… And we ended up with 35 million uninsured.</p>
<p>“Nobody here knows about NY plans? One of my grown up kids is going to sign up in NY.”</p>
<p>What are you trying to find out?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thanks, dstark. (We probably don’t disagree on the end game, just how to get there!)</p>
<p>Anyone in any sort of pool is taking a calculated risk that their contributions may underwrite another’s needs. And, we know that if we should be the ones in need, the others’ payments are what allows us to have some costs covered (details depending on the plan.)</p>
<p>The 35-million uninsured are not all a bunch of poor sick people who will die if we don’t all chip in to help. People misunderstand this for some reason. There are plenty of people in there who are young and healthy and choose not to buy insurance for whatever reason. Some even turn down employer insurance because they prefer the extra 100-bucks in their paycheck. That is a fact.</p>
<p>And if I understand this correctly after ACA there will still be a rather big number of uninsured. Let’s not pretend skeptics about this plan are all mean and selfish. It’s not true. And there are plenty of valid reasons to be skeptical.</p>
<p>Bluebayou, how do you get there? </p>
<p>Emilybee, I dont want you to do the work for me. 
</p>
<p>However, any insurance firms we should be looking at? The usual? Blue Cross?</p>
<p>sry, dstark, don’t want to get too far off topic and wake up Tx… :)</p>
<p>:)…</p>
<p>You can pm it to me. :)</p>
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</p>
<p>Let’s tax 'em.</p>
<p>“And that leaves exactly WHO to pay for all of this…???”</p>
<p>Yeah, I wonder who?</p>
<p>Everyone pays in some way or the other, in time, when there are unpaid medical bills. Someone gets needs emergency life saving treatment, racks up a bill, and doesn’t pay, either because he can’t or won’t, means that there is now a deficit. I’ve known hospitals that have closed because of too much of that. Then everyone pays because that option has disappeared. Those working and associated with the hospital pay becaue they lose their jobs. Prices go up to cover unpaid costs. So, yeah, we all pay. Insurance is really a more organized, planned way of paying for medical care.</p>
<p>Dstark, what do you want to know about insurance in NY? I know two things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>NY runs its own state web site, an it isn’t broken.</p></li>
<li><p>NY does not allow insurance premiums to be rated by age. I ran a check for a hypothetical 20-something in Brooklyn and came up with about $360/month for a benchmark silver plan (2nd lowest cost) - but I was using the Kaiser Foundation calculator, not the actual NY web site. These rates look pretty high compared to other parts of the country, but its a really great deal for the over-40 set. There was never any sort of insurance available on the individual market that came even close to those rates.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Re post 5819:
</p>
<p>SHOP is not delayed; online enrollment for SHOP is delayed. Small businesses will have to do one of the following to enroll in a plan:
- Mail in a paper application;
- Work with an agent or broker; or
- Purchase directly from the insurance company.</p>
<p>(Honestly, I don’t know why any business wouldn’t want to go the agent/broker route – that makes the enrollment process somebody else’s problem, without any extra cost to the business.)</p>