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<p>2k can easily be taken out of the income by putting it in retirement.</p>
<p>3younguns, I see that Covered California had significant issues today. So probably your problem was one of those issues, and not any mistake you made.</p>
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The other way to look at is that you’ve been paying to cover other people’s health issues. Not much has changed, other than you’re likely to pay more for the privilege of being healthy.</p>
<p>Honest question: the advice is to shop around - because just renewing whatever plan you had is likely to result in a nasty, double digit surprise - and look for something that’s only increasing in the single digits… does that necessarily entail ending up paying a little more for a little less? </p>
<p><a href=“Where Federal Health Exchange Rates Will Rise - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/14/us/Where-Federal-Health-Exchange-Rates-Will-Rise.html</a></p>
<p>Premiums might go up in your area. In some places, they’re going up a lot. In other places they’re going down. Yes, down. Down, as in decreasing.</p>
<p>Thanks, but that’s not what I was asking, Fang. I’m wondering if the shopping around that’s being advised will result in a plan that’s either narrower even than the last one, or comes with a higher deductible, or whatever. When I’ve googled for an answer, all that comes up is boilerplate like the below:</p>
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<p>(Not that it needs to be explained, but a premium rise of 6% is only a 6% rise if you’re paying for essentially the same product.)</p>
<p>We’re paying a 6.9% increase for exactly the same product. </p>
<p>So that’s around a 4% increase for the <em>same</em> product, and a 2.5% increase because you’re a year older. </p>
<p>I don’t think you need to do much shopping around other than a quick glance to see what other rates are. I have roughly a 5% increase over last year, but if I factor in the change in age rating, then it’s much less. That is, 59 year olds who buy the plan this year are only paying about $12/month more than my last year’s cost. Or, to put it another way, I’m paying about $35 more per month, but two-thirds of that is due to the fact that I’m a year older.</p>
<p>But the other factors that led to my choice of plan haven’t changed. I don’t want to give up the new doctor I started seeing last year with the new plan in order to buy a slightly cheaper plan with a more restricted network. I’ve now got a year’s experience, seen how the claims are handled, and had time to address whatever kinks there were in the system… so why change? </p>
<p>My “product” has actually improved ever so slightly - the maximum out-of-pocket has actually gone slightly down since last year. Last year it was $6350, now it’s $6250. That’s irrelevant to me – I’ve paid out roughly $700 in medical bills, no where near the deductible – and $100 more or less isn’t much of a difference – but it’s something of a relief because I had expected that the out-of-pocket maximums would grow along with everything else. This appears to be a California thing – the OOP maximums are up to $6600 nationally. </p>
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<p>And the answer is… it depends. It depends on where you are. In some places, some insurance plans actually decreased in price. </p>
<p>I don’t recall the ‘year older’ qualification being mentioned to explain past health care increases. Is this particular to ACA?</p>
<p>It’s a knowledgeable group here so I was really looking for some sort of stats, rather than personal, anecdotal experience. If I’ve time tomorrow, I’ll try to find whatever I recall reading that touched on the question.</p>
<p>Keeping your doctor was one of those things I remember being promised, calmom… glad the cost was small enough you considered it worth it.</p>
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<p>It’s the standard way that price increases in health insurance are measured. It has always been the way price increases in health insurance are measured, and the way they are discussed in news articles. It was less salient in previous years because price bands were by five year groups, so a person only got an age-group increase when their new age ended in 0 or 5.</p>
<p>ETA: To put this another way, the articles we’ve been linking to in newspapers don’t include age increases when they talk about how much premiums are going up or down. They compare premiums for 2014 for 25-year-olds to 2015 premiums for 25-year-olds (or you could use any other age, so long as it was the same age for both years) and compute the percent difference.</p>
<p>I am the one who posted earlier about my plan having a 28.34% increase in premium. I am in Texas (Dallas) area. My plan is with BCBS of TX. Because I have no health issues and take no prescriptions, I chose a Bronze PPO plan with a $6000 deductible, 100% coverage after that, and no copays. This was cheapest plan (and still is) in my area. There were HMO plans that were, of course, less expensive, but the nearest hospital in the network is a tiny, rural hospital about 25 miles away. I would literally have to pass right by our local hospital to get to the HMO hospital. Also, I am pretty sure that there is no coverage for going out of network with an HMO plan. And the local HMO doctor is not taking new patients. </p>
<p>I went back to the marketplace to update my application. I discovered that last year I had overestimated my income (did not take into account my contributions to retirement plan) so I am eligible for a larger premium tax credit this year. I should also get a hefty income tax refund. Bottom line, even with the 28.34% plan increase, I will only be paying $55 more each month next year.</p>
<p>Musicmom…do you have an HSA (Health Savings Account)? I’m pretty sure that the plan you chose is HSA-eligible. (I looked on the BCBS of TX web site) </p>
<p>If you don’t already know this, that means that you can also set up a bank account and contribute up to $3350 in 2015-- $4350 if you are over 55 - deduct the full amount that you deposit off your taxable income-, reducing your AGI even further (and increasing your premium credits) – and you can write checks or use a debit card from that account to pay your out-of-pocket medical expenses. That’s a great deal to have with a high-deductible plan.</p>
<p>I realize that if you qualify for premium subsidies your income is fairly modest – so you might not have an extra $3000 lying around to deposit – but if you are able to do so, then the HSA also functions as a supplemental retirement savings plan. When you reach age 65, you can access the funds for any purpose without penalty – in the meantime they can only be used for qualified medical expenses, but it can go beyond what the your insurance covers, such as paying for optometry or dental. </p>
<p>Is it legal to have dual coverage? D is now covered by her employer. We still have D and S as dependents on our BS plan. The cost for one or two dependents is the same. Dropping D from our BS plan saves us nothing. If it turns out that S moves over to his school plan then I’d drop the dependent coverage. At this point, not sure what the best move is regarding S. </p>
<p>So, is there any reason D can not be covered by two plans? She’d only be using the employer plan since the benefits are (of course) much much better. As I’ve mentioned in several posts H and I are still grand mothered into a group plan which is only possible because of extensions given by CA. I’d prefer not to rock the boat in anyway (by dropping D and having BS ‘look’ at us). No one is really sure what the lay of the land will be come next enrollment period so I’m just trying to stay below the radar. </p>
<p>Thoughts?..</p>
<p>We’ve got a new health insurance co-op here in Colorado that looks interesting and has very good pricing. Their PPO plan seems to include the doctors/hospitals I use; their EPO plan doesn’t include the right hospitals, so I’m discarding it from further consideration. </p>
<p>I still don’t understand why there is any reason to buy a family plan to cover two people if the premium for the family plan is the same as the sum of the premiums for each individual. I’m thinking that a $2000 deductible for each person is better than a joint $4,000 deductible. Does that sound right?</p>
<p>The other item that is confusing me is that many of the plans (but not all) include dental, but it is just pediatric dental. Given our ages, that doesn’t apply. Is it only people who are buying for children who need to buy a plan with that option? One of the plans I like has it – is it just a feature I can ignore, much as I do PSA screenings?</p>
<p>A $2,000 deductible for a single person is better than a $4,000 deductible for two people but is that really the choice?</p>
<p>We have a family plan through H’s employer but our deductibles are separate. I don’t know if that holds true for marketplace plans, though. </p>
<p>Great NYT article on different approaches to comparing ACA premiums year-to-year, and why so many different answers pop up: <a href=“How Much Did Health Insurance Rates Go Up? It’s Complicated - The New York Times”>How Much Did Health Insurance Rates Go Up? It’s Complicated - The New York Times;
<p>Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California incorrectly included doctors as a part of their network doctors under Covered California. Between 8.8 and 12.8% of the doctors listed were not accepting Covered California patients.
<a href=“http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_26965330/two-covered-california-health-insurance-plans-misled-consumers?source=most_viewed”>http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_26965330/two-covered-california-health-insurance-plans-misled-consumers?source=most_viewed</a></p>
<p>From the link…</p>
<p>"Steven Weissberg, a 52-year-old self-employed technologist from Benicia, said he expects the insurers’ directories will continue to have problems.</p>
<p>He said the Anthem Blue Cross plan he signed up for through Covered California in August listed four of his doctors. But when he called their offices, he was told they would not accept his plan.</p>
<p>“It’s a poison pill – they are forcing you into out-of-network coverage,” said Weissberg, who is now considering joining a Kaiser Permanente HMO instead."</p>
<p>:)</p>