We haven't had a good health insurance rant in a few months, so I figured I'd take the reigns on this one. My wife & I were notified a month or two ago that our Humana plan was being cancelled at the end of June, and we'd need to find new coverage for us and our 2 children. This is the 3rd time since the ACA was passed that we have lost our "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" plan (even though our original plan was ACA compliant & promised to be grandfathered in).
Currently, we pay $500ish/mo for a PPO with a $12,000 deductible. I expected our healthcare would rise, b/c that's par for the course with the Affordable [cough, cough] Care Act. But, after a month of calling insurance companies, doing research, working the ACA exchange, et al, the cheapest PPO my wife has found is over $1,300/mo, and the cheapset HMO is just under $1,100. And, that's with a $14,000 deductible. It seems insurance companies are leaving the market, and those that remain are using the opportunity to price gouge. So, we're going to end up paying over $16,000/yr for health insurance + another $14,000 out of pocket before insurance saves us a dime. How on God's green earth do people afford this? I get that most have insurance through work. But, I have to imagine this is crippling for small business owners who don't have a spouse who gets insurance through work (which is my case).
To add insult to injury, we spend 1-3 months each year living down in Argentina with my wife's family. Their cost of living is virtually the same as the US in terms of housing, food, etc. Yet, when we go to the doctor down there, we rarely pay more than $20 - $30 for a visit. Pharmaceuticals are also peanuts compared to the US.
Someone give me a glimmer of hope here. Are there alternatives that I'm not aware of? We've done Medi-Share before, and had issues with it. So (per my wife), that's off the table. Any chance the right & left actually get together and solve this healthcare crisis? The fact that anyone in politics thinks it's ok to force someone to spend $16k on insurance, which they can't use until they've spent another $14k on medical costs, just sickens me. There's no way the average person can swing $30k/yr in medical costs.
Currently, we pay $500ish/mo for a PPO with a $12,000 deductible. I expected our healthcare would rise, b/c that's par for the course with the Affordable [cough, cough] Care Act. But, after a month of calling insurance companies, doing research, working the ACA exchange, et al, the cheapest PPO my wife has found is over $1,300/mo, and the cheapset HMO is just under $1,100. And, that's with a $14,000 deductible. It seems insurance companies are leaving the market, and those that remain are using the opportunity to price gouge. So, we're going to end up paying over $16,000/yr for health insurance + another $14,000 out of pocket before insurance saves us a dime. How on God's green earth do people afford this? I get that most have insurance through work. But, I have to imagine this is crippling for small business owners who don't have a spouse who gets insurance through work (which is my case).
To add insult to injury, we spend 1-3 months each year living down in Argentina with my wife's family. Their cost of living is virtually the same as the US in terms of housing, food, etc. Yet, when we go to the doctor down there, we rarely pay more than $20 - $30 for a visit. Pharmaceuticals are also peanuts compared to the US.
Someone give me a glimmer of hope here. Are there alternatives that I'm not aware of? We've done Medi-Share before, and had issues with it. So (per my wife), that's off the table. Any chance the right & left actually get together and solve this healthcare crisis? The fact that anyone in politics thinks it's ok to force someone to spend $16k on insurance, which they can't use until they've spent another $14k on medical costs, just sickens me. There's no way the average person can swing $30k/yr in medical costs.
