<p>CalMom- I am playing with the website so I can help clients 
I agree, I am telling everyone to wait until November.</p>
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That’s because YOU and YOUR WIFE didn’t have any pre-existing condition like DStark’s one-time irregular heartbeat. IF one or the other of you had gotten sick, you would have had a lot more difficulty switching plans, unless maybe you were sticking with the same company and switching to a plan with less coverage.</p>
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As far as I recall, when I changed from an HSA with a $5000 deductible in 2010 to a similar play with a $3500 deductible, it had to go through underwriting. I have no medical issues so it wasn’t a problem – but I still had to complete that step).</p>
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<p>I’m asking you again, what was the premium rate on that grandfathered plan at the time? What is the current premium for that plan, based on your current age? What is the rate that will be charged next year?</p>
<p>I think your grousing about not having kept a plan that probably cost more than the premium you are facing next year.</p>
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Actually I’m guessing that YOU have that kind of resources, in your business. (You keep grousing about your insurance premiums, but are consistently reticent when it comes to revealing any details about your actual economic circumstances. Plus you seem to have rather expensive tastes when it comes to your choice of medical providers. My lawyer-brain thinks you are hiding something). </p>
<p>Anyone over the age of 59 1/2 with $100K coming in from business income would see it as no-brainer to max out the SEP IRA contribution and get the tax writeoff.</p>
<p>Calmom, let me say it again, I changed plans with Blue Shield WITHOUT underwriting. Believe it or not. BTW, you never admitted that you were wrong to assert that anesthesiologists did not have to be in the network for most surgeries. You should stop guessing about my circumstances because all you are doing is guessing. If I was rich, I wouldn’t be upset about a 100% increase in my premiums. So you are telling me that everyone who does not qualify for subsidies deserves these huge premium increases because they can afford it. </p>
<p>I hate to tell you this but a couple making $100,000 (not to mention couples making $65,000 - $100,000) in my community may not have $26,000 or whatever every year to stick in an IRA and a HSA. Also, there are plenty of people who are forced to go to the exchanges or off the exchange who are not self-employed. They are not able to deduct their premiums, 1/2 of SS or large contributions to a SEP IRA. Keep spinning it anyway you want, but middle class people are getting screwed.</p>
<p>Let me say this again: My premium is going from $679 to over $1,100 a month. Today, I am paying $679 a month. I have been told by my agent the grandfathered plan I am losing is only getting a small increase. Don’t know exactly what it is. I am not going into a new age bracket (nor is my wife) next year.</p>
<p>Calmom, I was perusing some of this thread and I noticed the following:</p>
<p>“In other words, if you are a Blue Shield PPO right now and seeing an in-network private doctor, that doctor will still be in-network on the new plan.”</p>
<p>Would you like to disavow this statement now? </p>
<p>“I understand your decision to go with Memorial Sloan Ketterling when you needed an oncologist – I’d go out of network too if I had a serious disease and knew that there was a doctor or facility which clearly could offer a better quality of service.”</p>
<p>Calmom, you said this in an earlier post. So I guess you like expensive medical care, too. Too bad you won’t be able to get this care on the exchange.</p>
<p>“BS of California is also a not-for-profit corporation, so at least when my rates go up I can take some comfort in knowing that the money isn’t going to enrich shareholders or pay some top executive a multi-million dollar salary.”</p>
<p>The former CEO of Blue Shield of Ca., Bruce Bodaken, earned $4.6 million in 2011.</p>
<p>Pre-2014, I don’t believe that coverage for someone in their late fifties in my state (much lower COA than California) would be as low as $679/mo. unless it was with Kaiser. Our (corporate) high deductible plan cost’s DH’s employer more than twice that amount to cover us. ($6K deductible, but drug copays don’t stop once you meet the deductible, and neither does co-insurance.) I’m somewhat surprised it was available at that price in California.</p>
<p>Paying for health insurance independently isn’t fun.</p>
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You claimed before that you changed plans because you wanted a lower premium – so in that case you would have been changing to a lesser plan. The whole point is that anyone moving to a better (more comprehensive) plan would have to go to underwriting. </p>
<p>When I went from a $5000 deductible to a $3500 deductible, that was a better plan so I needed to go from underwriting. But if I had gone the other way, from a lower to a higher deductible, I would have been asking my insurance company to reduce my coverage, so they wouldn’t have asked me to go to underwriting. </p>
<p>I’d suggest you try to keep your story straight. Why did you change policies again?</p>
<p>Goldenpooch, which plan do you have at Blue Shield for 2013?</p>
<p>What are your deductibles and what is your drug coverage?</p>
<p>Um, this back and forth is getting tedious to read through, and is not very helpful. I think I’m not alone in looking to this thread to help me stay informed about what the ACA is and isn’t, how the sign-up is going, if/when the networks are uploaded, etc. </p>
<p>Really, we all GET IT already, that some people are happy with the provisions of ACA, and some aren’t. Can we please “let it go” and move on? </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>I saw an article this morning that some of the websites are asking for your credit score? </p>
<p>I thought the insurance companies had to take all applicants. Why would they want your credit score? I think this was in Florida.</p>
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<p>I don’t mean to compare apples and oranges and in no way do I suggest that this is the case, but I got discount on my Allstate house policy based on my credit score.</p>
<p>However, I did not have to give them my credit score, I gave them permission to run my credit report. </p>
<p>I know that because of ACA they cannot cannot charge you more based on your health, they can give you discounts based on your behaviors. </p>
<p>Do they ask for a credit score or do they ask for permission to run credit report? What happens if you refuse?</p>
<p>My understanding is that they are accessing applicants’ credit scores as a method of identification.</p>
<p>Under the ACA, insurance companies may not discriminate in cost based on any behavior other than smoking. They may not give joggers a lower rate, or give a better rate to people who have a college degree, or anything like that.</p>
<p>CF is right, they are accessing your credit report to come up with some “out of wallet” questions which theoretically only you could answer correctly, this is identity verification.</p>
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<p>They find a way to give discounts though. I know there are some insurances on the exchange that give you gym membership discount if you go certain number of times per month. </p>
<p>You say tomato, I say tomato - it is de facto insurance discount, since I pay for gym membership anyway and both payments come out of the same place.</p>
<p>Are they asking for access to your <em>score</em> or your <em>report</em>? I believe the score is just a number whereas the report has all your identifying info.</p>
<p>Are we required to give them access?</p>
<p>I wonder if they will compare what is claimed as household income on a credit card or loan application vs what is claimed on that person’s insurance application. Maybe not initially, but it seems a bit “big brother-ish”, since you’re giving them access to a crazy amount of personal information that’s none of their business.</p>
<p>^Yes, and if they tried to compare information we provided even last year to what I will have to show on the insurance application, it would show a HUGE difference since our business is so slow this year.</p>
<p>A newspaper article said that it seems a major error the government made was requiring people to set up accounts before they can even look at prices. If people could have shopped anonymously, it wouldn’t have brought the system down as quickly.</p>
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<p>Mnsure (in MN) allows you to shop anonymously and this is why I could price insurance for my family. I have heard via news media, but have not tried it myself, that although you can shop for insurance in mnsure, at this moment you can’t really buy because of account creation issues or something like that. </p>
<p>I was also able to look for provider network with BCBS. I see people in CA still don’t have their network set, so I am not sure now if that network is complete.</p>