<p>I know people in NYC who already got refund checks because their insurance companies didn’t spend the 85 percent.</p>
<p>If I get pregnant, that would be catastrophic. But we did have that coverage because I have a 22 year old and 19 year old thankfully not yet pregnant daughter. </p>
<p>Look, I really don’t care. It just bugs me that the insurance companies are going to play benevolent helpful ones </p>
<p>It is what it is</p>
<p>
Keep in mind that your AGI can be reduced by certain tax deductions related to college expenses - which include the college tuition tax credit and student loan interest deduction. So if your AGI will qualify you for a subsidy -or is borderline – there may be an advantage in taking out more PLUS loans than you had planned, given that the interest on those runs right away, and interest is highest in the earliest years of a loan. But keep in mind that the max for that deduction is $2500. But if your concern is with college expenses, then it definitely is important to consider the role those deductions might play.</p>
<p>It’s not going to help me. I’m going to have to fiddle around with something. </p>
<p>I know my situation. </p>
<p>But I’m able to do that. </p>
<p>Not everyone can</p>
<p>"Because that would go over real big in Texas, right? </p>
<p>One reason that ACA can succeed will be all the low-information voters out there who have no clue that they are buying into “Obamacare”. They’ve been led to believe that Obamacare is a government-run system that will require them to see government doctors. "</p>
<p>Right, those boobs in Texas believe everything pitched to them.</p>
<p>One sure way to not get anyone to sign up when they believe that it is insurance company giving financial assistance.</p>
<p>I think it is very complicated, MaineLonghorn. You are not alone. I wish I had the answers but I dont. </p>
<p>If I kick my daughter out of our plan, I save 200 a month. That has to be more than what medicaid is going to cost me. I dont know what the actual costs are.
After dealing with the SS office for SSI, I am not looking forward to dealing with medicaid… Which is why we have 't even tried. </p>
<p>And people think it is easy to receive govt benefits. Lol</p>
<p>Sorry you have to go thru this MaineLonghorn. I just spent a couple of hours with a friend and his son who suffers from bipolar. Really, really rough. I was thinking of giving my friend some advice and told my wife this. She said keep your mouth shut. You don’t know what your friend is going thru so shut up. I know more than I need to… But not about this. </p>
<p>As usual, my wife is right.</p>
<p>That is why I married her. ;)</p>
<p>Poetgrl, I feel you. I got hit with a huge increase, higher out-of-pocket maximum and my doctor is not on the plan. I also don’t want any of the so-called essential benefits (in addition to what I already have) on the new plan. Would gladly get rid of them and pay less if I could. </p>
<p>Apparently, I wasn’t paying my fair share in the past so I shouldn’t complain. By the time Obamacare fully kicks in, this will probably become the biggest entitlement program in the history of the US.</p>
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<p>No, but you’d sure be mad if your rates doubled when you’d never filed a claim.</p>
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<p>For sure. A lot of people got those checks. But when the insurance company had to send out the refund checks, they had to send them out to everybody in the plan, not just certain subscribers.</p>
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<p>9.5% of $78,000 (400% FPL for family of 3) is the same number no matter what. (9.5% is the maximum paid for insurance when household income is at 400% – its a sliding scale that goes down to about 2% at the 100% FPL level)</p>
<p>The goal is to to get everyone insured and to make sure that the families buying on their own can be able to afford the premiums. If your income for that family of 3 is $45,000, you don’t have more money to spend on insurance simply because you have more kids – on the contrary you have less (which is why $45,000 would be near the 400% level if it were you alone, but is probably around 250% level for a a family of 3). With the tax credit, you are going to pay X, no matter what.</p>
<p>Thanks, dstark. This is not a journey I ever expected to go on! I AM thankful for government assistance, though. I don’t know how we would have made it, otherwise. I guess I’ll take it one step at a time. We can let each other know if we learn anything helpful.</p>
<p>Right. So even if someone uses more than they pay, they too will receive a check!</p>
<p>Hilarious!</p>
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<p>Yes, that appears to be the argument. The funny thing is, I thought we were all already paying for everyone who wasn’t paying, via our taxes and our own hospital bills and the high costs that were passed through our insurance companies. I know this was brought up before, but I still don’t get it. What exactly are we “fixing” by raising rates and taxes on people who were already paying for everyone before?</p>
<p>You will have to contact the insurance lobby who wrote the bill to get an answer for that. </p>
<p>I’m really beginning to see how hilarious this is. Big smiles.</p>
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<p>The only place you can easily and simply go to grab more $$ is from those already paying the $$. So if you have already been covering yourself and everyone else who refused to cover themselves, you now have the honor of not only continuing to do so, but most likely at a greater contribution rate. Obviously those who were paying before were not charitable enough. That has been rectified…:(</p>
<p>BTW, I participate in a few financial or investment forums and there are threads exclusively dedicated to reducing income to qualify for subsidies. I don’t think these posters are penniless or even experiencing financial difficulties. </p>
<p>I would like to know the breakdown of people enrolling in the first week. I wonder what percentage of them qualify for subsidies?</p>
<p>My oldest daughter never filed a claim. Well that is not true. She did come down with hypothyroidism several years ago. That was a b… </p>
<p>But things have been fine for 8 years. Until this year. My super intelligent, hugely empathetic, very athletic, gorgeous daughter and I am being modest…came up with a brain tumor. </p>
<p>Let’s see. That brain tumor occurs in 1 out of 1 million to 1 out of 10 million people a year. Pretty good odds. Nobody knows why she got the tumor. The doctors said, “Bad luck”.</p>
<p>I have another daughter with a low IQ, but April 18th, 2013 was the worst day of my life. That was the day we were told my daughter has a brain tumor.</p>
<p>Her treatment has cost a fortune. I am writing this because the tumor was taken out. Today
Is the first day since the surgery in may that she has felt good. We are hopeful. We have to live with the possibilty the tumor could grow back, but that would be rare.</p>
<p>My daughter’s doctor said My daughter is lucky that Obamacare exists. And she is not the only lucky one. I wouldn’t wish what we have been going thru on anybody. I dont want to see anybody die because they couldn’t get health care. My daughter is 27. </p>
<p>When I read the nonsense about paying penalties instead of buying health care insurance it makes me sick. It is nuts. The kid I saw today who had bipolar is 21. He was healthy until he turned 19. His care is very expensive. </p>
<p>Parents…make sure your kids are covered. You want your kids covered.</p>
<p>We don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t. I had no idea what it was like to have a healthy daughter turn into a person with a brain tumor. It is soooo bad… And my daughter is still alive. I can’t fathom what it is like to lose a kid. Some people on CC have lost kids. I am so sorry.</p>
<p>Some of you that are so critical about Obamacare need to rethink a few things. I am not sure some of you are capable of a rethink. I hope I am wrong.</p>
<p>This thread has a lot of positive qualities, but some posts bring out the worst in CC.</p>
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If you lived in a heavily wooded region where large fire losses had been recently sustained, you’d probably see your rates double even if your house had been spared. </p>
<p>Insurance is all about spreading the risk. An individualized system would make no sense – you’d be better off just paying into some sort of saving account or annuity that you could draw from or cash out whenever the need arose. Of course, that would never be enough if you incurred high end medical expenses. </p>
<p>So the insurance company sells you a premium that is a fraction of the amount that your medical costs might be in the event of serious illness or injury, but for most people far more than the amount that you would actually pay for ongoing, current medical expenses. And you buy it because no one is immune from injury or disease --you know that just because you are currently very healthy, doesn’t mean that you can’t be diagnosed by cancer or paralyzed in car accident. </p>
<p>Maybe a better system would be to automatically qualify everyone with catastrophic level injuries or illness for Medicaid, rather than expecting private insurers to pay out hundreds of thousands or millions for the health care needs of a few. But the government would need money to pay for that plan as well – and that money would have to come from taxes – and ultimately the healthy people would be paying anyway, with the risk simply spread around a different way. </p>
<p>Anyway, that’s what insurance is always about, whether you are paying $150 for a policy to insure your kid’s dorm room property or you are a doctor or lawyer paying several thousand each month to protect against the possibility of being sued for malpractice. Insurance can only work if the vast majority of the insured population pays more in premiums than the insurance company is required to pay out for their benefit.</p>
<p>Yeah. Most of us know how insurance works. </p>
<p>I’m happy to do my part. </p>
<p>I’m just not sure we want publicly traded companies handling this.</p>
<p>dstark, so glad your daughter is starting to feel better. My mother, grandmother, and uncle by marriage all had brain tumors, but the youngest was in her late 50s. None of the tumors were related to one another, and no one ever recalls a brain tumor in their family’s history. </p>
<p>A very tough diagnosis, but many good outcomes. Hoping for the greatest great outcome for your kid.</p>