<p>I find the tenor of article calmom posted kinda ironic: ObamaCare works in those states that took initiative. In other words, it is the states that are making a federal program work. Otherwise, the federal program “isn’t working…”</p>
<p>Apparently some states are not doing enough “outreach” which is not free either. Has anyone seen the Richard Simmons ads? I can’t imagine why people aren’t signing up in droves.</p>
<p>I am hoping someone here might have some knowledge to help us out. My S recently started his first full time job. He is moving to his own health care plan with his employer (at a hefty cost to him) but my question concerns his dental coverage.</p>
<p>Currently, it is costing us $80 a month to keep him on our dental plan through my H employer. We were thinking of dropping him from our coverage yet due to the cost of him joining a plan with his employer, he has decided to just not have any dental coverage. </p>
<p>He recently had a yearly cleaning/xrays/check up and everything was fine. He has already had his wisdom teeth out and has never had any dental problems.</p>
<p>Does anyone see any problems with him dropping dental coverage? A yearly cost of $960 it seems like a lot to keep him covered. If, for some reason, he decided to get coverage again next year either through his employer or rejoin my H plan, will there be a problem doing that? I think with medical coverage it is easier if you are continuously covered but is the same true with dental? will a gap in coverage be a problem in the future?</p>
<p>There is no way I’d pay $960 a year for dental insurance that probably caps out at $1500 in benefits max. </p>
<p>I can’t provide options but I do agree that $960 sounds like a high price tag for dental for a young person. </p>
<p>Has he checked the cost of coverage at his current employer?</p>
<p>In federal system, states do a lot of the work on a lot of projects.</p>
<p>Sunmom, apologies for this worst-case, but my girl with the better teeth, pearly whites, rarely a cavity, nonetheless ended up with root canal work, then a cracked tooth. We kept dental through a former employer because the whole family cost $80/mo. </p>
<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the dental premium really shot up for 2014 due to the pediatric dental coverage that now has to be included. Even though S is over 18 and does not qualify for the pediatric dental coverage the rate for the family plan really increased - and this company charges the same for the family plan if there is just one kid or several so we got burnt there also.</p>
<p>The cost through his employer is more than he wants to pay - he did not give me an exact amount but I am thinking in the $40 to $50 per month range for him to balk at the price. He did pick up a vision plan for $6 a month.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if he will have problems if he tries to rejoin a dental plan in a year - will a gap in coverage make things difficult like it can sometimes do in medical plans?</p>
<p>The larger point of the Washington Post article that GP posted isn’t that specific Georgia county. That was one (perhaps poorly chosen example) of the structural problem ACA has pointing out that rural areas are paying higher premiums than urban ones. Mentioned in a sentence, which should have been highlighted was that rural Nevada, Wyoming, Alaska and some other rural areas have higher premiums due to limited numbers of hospitals and doctors and the poor health and hence high risk of the residents. </p>
<p>ACA was not supposed to penalize people for being sick. However, by allowing rates to be set by county, the sicker areas are getting higher premiums. MN was used as an example of a state with healthier people and lower premiums.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d like a cite for that. SOME rural areas have high prices, but I haven’t previously seen information that rural areas in general have higher prices.</p>
<p>To the extent it’s true, if “rural areas have higher premiums due to limited numbers of hospitals and doctors and the poor health and hence high risk of the residents,” that’s not a problem with the ACA, but with rural health systems with or without the ACA. If the ACA were repealed, rural people wouldn’t get any healthier nor would hospitals suddenly spring up in rural areas. The ACA does have some initiatives to get more doctors and other practitioners to practice in rural areas.</p>
<p>Sunmom, I think he can ask HR or call the dental plan and ask (per his specific employer plan.) Or it may be in any documentation he now has.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/04/the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-cbos-new-obamacare-projections/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/04/the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-cbos-new-obamacare-projections/</a></p>
<p>Some new CBO projections. This is the positive spin and it’s also rather mixed.</p>
<p>These rural areas were already high cost areas. Why didnt anybody step up to lower costs in these areas? Why didnt other hospitals open up in these areas? Why werent charities established to help people in these areas? </p>
<p>With Obamacare, the costs for people who make less than 400 percent of poverty are subsidized. Thats a lot of people. Including people in rural high cost areas. TatinG, can you tell us how many people qualify for subsidies in these rural areas that were highlighted in that article?</p>
<p>Preexisting conditions are over.</p>
<p>To cherry pick areas to complain about Obamacare is ridiculous. Every once in awhile I birdie a hole in golf. I will cherry pick. Because I can make a birdie, I am as good as Tiger Woods. ;)</p>
<p>First hole I ever played I was 13 years old and I shot an 11 on a par 4. I can see a few other golfers on the course were getting a little agitated. </p>
<p>Second hole was a par 3. I hit the tee shot 2 feet from the hole. My second hole I ever played I shot a birdie. </p>
<p>This old golfer walked up to me after that hole. He was probably the age I am now. 
He said, “You should get off the course. You should go to the driving range”. </p>
<p>I told the old fart, “I just got a birdie”. </p>
<p>The old man shut the … Up and left me alone. </p>
<p>I like this story. That is why I am telling it. Also, how do you judge my golf game. By the first hole, the 11? The second hole, the 2?</p>
<p>It is neither, right? Cherry picking is ridiculous. Really my game is somewhere in between. Closer to the 2. Just like Obamacare. Obamacare is going to perform closer to the two. </p>
<p>TatinG, why arent you quoting Califirnia numbers? Why arent you cherry picking those numbers? They are more representative on how Obamacare is going to work. ;)</p>
<p>California has already hit its lower range targets for the end of March. That is over 1 million people that have signed up on an exchange or for medi-cal.
Do you want to talk about Albany, Georgia?
I will talk about Albany, Georgia. </p>
<p>Sarah Kliff, who is normally accurate, got the “ugly” part of it slightly wrong. She writes “CBO thinks the law will cut full-time employment by 2 million people.” But that’s not exactly the prediction. The CBO predicts that workers will choose to work fewer hours, and the total fewer hours worked will be equivalent to 2 million full-time jobs. CBO says some people will work less because they’ll be eligible for Medicaid, some will work less because working longer reduces their subsidy on the exchange, and some people will work less or retire because they will now have health insurance in their early retirement.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45010-Outlook2014.pdf”>http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45010-Outlook2014.pdf</a> (p. 117)</p>
<p>Well, that’s a gigantic question about giving low-wage workers an incentive to choose benefits over job advancement that is probably going to fall into the political category. But, it is interesting.</p>
<p>sunmom - the standard practice at most companies is that one can join during a specific time frame each year for all health benefits and it is usually “no questions asked” during enrollment period which was somewhat adopted by ACA (new people have until March end but then miss the boat until beginning of next year when the enrollment timeframes will be much shorter unlike now). So if he is already enrolled and does not have dental, he will need to wait until next enrollment period. Most of the time one can join a plan in the middle due to changed circumstances (you had his plan but decided to drop) but I don’t know if they will let him choose dental only in the middle of the year.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it’s (not an argument, k?) choose bennies over “advancement.” For many, it may be reduce the press for as many extra hours as they can be scheduled, drop some overtime, etc. So this isn’t necessarily our ordinary picture of a guy working 40 hours who cuts back and puts his job or future at risk.
Also, need to see how full-time is defined. ACA may establish it as 30 hours, but I am not sure there is one standard, legal definition outside that. </p>
<p>Full time equivalent is forty hours a week. That’s the definition the CBO is using.</p>
<p>And some will work less because the law creates an incentive to have workers work fewer than 29 hours. </p>
<p>The CBO has made new projections today. If I was a hater, I would go with this over Albany, Georgia.
I am not a hater and dont think this is a big deal but I am not a hater. :)</p>
<p><a href=“CBO Issues Updated ACA Projections: Drops Private/Public from 7M/9M to 6M/8M | ACA Signups”>http://acasignups.net/14/02/04/cbo-issues-updated-aca-projections-drops-privatepublic-7m9m-6m8m</a></p>
<p>texaspg - yes he did have an enrollment period at the end of the year right after he started work - that is when he signed up for the medical and vision plans (medical, dental and vision are all separate plans and he had several choices of each to choose from). I think at this point we will just drop him from our dental and he can decide at the end of this year if he wants to pay the price and sign up for a dental plan with his employer. He did not want to pay the high amount for this year.</p>
<p>I was most concerned with his ability to sign up after having a gap in coverage but it sounds like he should be able to do that. I am pretty sure his medical plan has some type of dental coverage for certain circumstances (accidents and such). </p>