<p>CF: I understand your explanation. However, the ACA contains risk pools within arbitrary State borders. The funding (via Federal tax dollars - collected from individual States) pools and redistributes the subsidies but the actual risk pool of real bodies is not pooled. Makes no sense. But, probably not an approved topic.</p>
<p>I wonder if someone can explain something to me. If a child turns 26 in June can he still enroll in the ACA even if the enrollment period closed in March. Also, can they buy the insurance in their parent’s state versus the state they attend school in. Sorry, I haven’t read this thread and I hope this question is appropriate here.</p>
<p>Yes, you can enroll once you turn 26. </p>
<p>I’m not sure about the state of residence question- that’s a very relevant one! </p>
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<p>That would be one solution, but it would have to be mandated by law. Insurers will always go for the smallest risk pool they can. Here’s why: Suppose we have two insurance companies, FangCo and Dietz Shield. Both FangCo and Dietz Shield can choose to have regional risk pools, or they can have one national risk pool. FangCo decides to go for regional risk pools, and offers super cheap insurance in New Hampshire and Minnesota, and expensive insurance in California. Dietz Shield offers the same prices everywhere, an average of the health care prices all across the country. Everyone in New Hampshire and Minnesota buys from FangCo because it’s way cheaper. Everyone in California buys from Dietz Shield because it’s way cheaper, but since nobody from the cheap areas buys from Dietz Shield, it loses money and goes out of business.</p>
<p>So, you could imagine that the ACA could have had one giant risk pool mandated by law, but who would have been in favor of that proposal? It would be a nightmare for insurance companies, so they would have opposed it. It would have been bad for consumers in cheap areas, so they would have opposed it. It would probably have exerted downward pressure on providers in expensive cost areas, so they would have opposed it. I don’t see the constituency. </p>
<p>But Dietz, the subsidies are based on the cost in the region. So both the risk pools and the subsidies are regional.</p>
<p>CF: Thanks, that clarifies the intent. </p>
<p>If you’re going for one nationwide risk pool, with insurance subsidies, you might as well go for the two words we can’t say here.</p>
<p>Volde-Mort… :-j </p>
<p>:)) </p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>They should totally use Harry Potter to get my generation to sign up. That’s much better than the stupid frat-bro ads they came out with. We are the Harry Potter generation. </p>
<p>I still hold that the reason we don’t have one pool is the whipped up fear of socialized medicine. </p>
<p>The Silver family plan my insurer “chose” for me was better. The premium dropped $30/mo, visit charges dropped, all Rx co-pays dropped, other co-pays after ded stayed the same %, the max oop went down by $2300, but the individual ded went up $500 (family ded went up 1k.) Obviously, my Silver via the exchange is even better.</p>
<p>For the record, for age 59, RI, individual: lowest Bronze/HSA $470, $2400 indiv ded (but the co-pays are killer, 50% after ded.) Highest Gold $718, $500 ded. But remember, the devil is in the details- coinsurance, misc coverage enticements, etc.</p>
<p><a href=“Obamacare has led to health coverage for millions more people”>Obamacare has led to health coverage for millions more people;
<p>“At least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gotten health insurance since Obamacare started, surveys and reports show,” says the LA Times. That includes 3 million under-26 young adults on parents’ policies, 4.5 million previously uninsured Medicaid enrollees and 2 million previously uninsured people who bought private insurance on the exchanges.</p>
<p>Love the article. It is very dated though. The number of previously uninsured is 16 to 18 millon now. Botth the medicaid and on exchange numbers are dated and the off exchange sign ups arent reallly included.</p>
<p>"“We are on target to exceed what was estimated,” Lisa Sbrana, counsel for New York’s insurance marketplace, said on a recent call organized by Families USA, a Washington-based advocacy group that supports the law. About 70% of New Yorkers signing up for coverage through the marketplace or Medicaid were previously uninsured, Sbrana said.</p>
<p>In Kentucky, about 75% of the state residents signing up on that state’s marketplace or for Medicaid had no insurance, a state study indicates. As of Friday, more than 280,000 new people had enrolled in Medicaid in Kentucky, or nearly 91% of the residents officials estimated would become eligible for the program this year.</p>
<p>“We expect a huge net gain” in coverage, said Bill Nold, deputy executive of the state’s marketplace.</p>
<p>In Nevada, state officials this month reported that Medicaid enrollments are on pace to hit 500,000 by this summer, a total that was not expected until 2015.</p>
<p>Even states such as Tennessee that are not expanding their Medicaid programs are reporting a flood of unexpected enrollments from previously eligible people who had not signed up before.</p>
<p>Insurers also are reporting gains across the country.</p>
<p>In California, Health Net and Blue Shield of California, two of the state’s largest insurers, are on track to substantially increase their number of customers, according to company officials.</p>
<p>“It’s way beyond our projections,” Blue Shield spokesman Steve Shivinsky said.</p>
<p>Florida Blue, that state’s dominant insurer, also now expects to gain customers after sign-ups were initially slowed by problems with the federal HealthCare.gov site last fall.</p>
<p>Around Philadelphia, Independence Blue Cross has more than doubled its customers since last year. The company’s New Jersey subsidiary, AmeriHealth New Jersey, has seen a nearly sevenfold increase.</p>
<p>Some insurers are finding that most of the new customers are coming through direct sales to individuals, not the law’s new marketplaces. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, for example, says more than 90% of its sales have not been on the state marketplace. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the dominant insurer in Iowa and South Dakota, is seeing growth, even though it elected to stay off the marketplaces this year.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether consumers buy through the marketplaces or directly from insurance companies, they form part of the same risk pool, so both groups are crucial to the law’s sustainability."</p>
<p>Wow, dstark, those numbers are eye-popping. Especially encouraging is the number of previously uninsured who are now getting coverage. </p>
<p>GP: Most uninsured people (pre ACA) were employed, children of employed parents, or full time students. </p>
<p>Healthcare.gov so overwhelmed yesterday it crashed. That hasn’t happened since it was fixed in December. </p>
<p>GP…how many people have paid in Cal? What is the matter GP? You dont like the McKinsey survey? (I noticed they were using the Feb McKinsey numbers on Fox, yesrerday. :)) ). You liked the Mckinsey survey when you thought the numbers were low. You dont like the CBO projections? Oh wait! The CBO’s projections are too low! :)</p>
<p>GP…you have zero credibility on the numbers. Sorry.</p>
<p>LasMa…yeah…the numbers are eye popping.</p>
<p>Scubasue, you are right.</p>
<p>Emilybee, healthcare.gov crashed yesterday? Missed that. </p>
<p>H turned tv on this morning while I was still half asleep and I heard it. TV was on CNN. Seems I didn’t hear it completely correctly and didn’t verify before posting. Here is the report. <a href=“http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/31/website-issues-on-obamacare-enrollment-deadline-day/?hpt=hp_t2”>http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/31/website-issues-on-obamacare-enrollment-deadline-day/?hpt=hp_t2</a></p>
<p>Emilybee, that is a great link. Thanks. </p>
<p>Hopefully, there won’t be a crash today. :)</p>
<p>The LA Times article CF posted is just great. The Rand survey looks good. :)</p>
<p>Fits my projections. :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79773450/”>http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79773450/</a></p>
<p>"• About 9 million people have bought health plans directly from insurers, instead of using the marketplaces, Rand found. The vast majority of these people were previously insured.</p>
<p>• Fewer than a million people who had health plans in 2013 are now uninsured because their plans were canceled for not meeting new standards set by the law, the Rand survey indicates.</p>
<p>Republican critics of the law have suggested that the cancellations last fall have led to a net reduction in coverage.</p>
<p>That is not supported by survey data or insurance companies, many of which report they have retained the vast majority of their 2013 customers by renewing old policies, which is permitted in about half the states, or by moving customers to new plans.</p>
<p>“We are talking about a very small fraction of the country” who lost coverage, said Katherine Carman, a Rand economist who is overseeing the survey.</p>
<p>Rand has been polling 3,300 Americans monthly about their insurance choices since last fall. Researchers found that the share of adults ages 18 to 64 without health insurance has declined from 20.9% last fall to 16.6% as of March 22."</p>