I've just come from healthcare.gov and I am confused and extremely suspicious, all at the same time. Can anyone add some insight?

We’ve about debated Obamacare to death here, but your situation illustrates exactly what I was afraid of, and I never have gotten a straight answer about what happens to the poor soul who ends up having to do without a necessity so they can pay their health insurance bill.

We had a similar policy years ago. It was the only one we could afford, but we did it voluntarily. We did end up using up the $5000 deductible, and it did save us a lot of money, but it sure wasn’t fun. However, if you don’t have it to begin with, it puts it in a whole different light, doesn’t it?

First off, they want to prevent fraud, so of course they’ll want to verify your income and whether your employer offers insurance.

Second, high deductibles are the price one pays for low premiums, and healthcare costs (including health insurance) are horrendous. Why do you think employer-subsidized health insurance is such a highly sought after benefit? At a previous employer, I paid $24/week for a $1,000 deductible employee+spouse plan… and my employer paid the other 95%. It was a good plan, but at $2,000/month, it better be! And that was also why nobody who worked there complained about the low pay; $9/hour (in 2007) isn’t much, but the total compensation package (pay + benefits) was ridiculously good.

Now that people are shopping for health insurance, they’re now seeing the true cost of healthcare instead of just having their employer deduct a little from their check and turning a blind eye. Now people of means are seeing what the poor have faced for years. Unpleasant, isn’t it?

In California I could shop without giving out any info. I could shop as a hypothetical person. I’m not eligible for rebates but I’m still saving a ton on the exchange.
Just because your deductible is high you will still get the reasonable co pays and you do get a free physical once a year.

$6500 deductible doesn’t mean you have to spend $6500/year before the insurance kicks in.

For example, prescriptions, routine visits and screenings probably have a co-pay, where you are only paying a portion. The rest is covered by insurance.

I am not saying the process isn’t confusing. I haven’t figured out all the options yet, either.

But that was true before, too, if you were on the individual market. Now it’s more affordable with better coverage.

We got a $600 tax credit and my husband said he’s seeing some very good deals on insurance but you have study all the policies available. Looks good – we just had to be patient. Very nice people – we worked with a supervisor. Most patient woman we’ve ever dealt with.

Our problem was our cell phone number goes through Google so both our phones ring on same number – I think the first person was trying to match my husband’s file with the number appearing on caller ID and that doesn’t work. The supervisor understood 100% and after that, no probs.

You might be better off trying to go through your state’s exchange, if it has one.

That still seems expensive, but people who can’t afford that get medicare now, right?

@Yetanotheruser My state is a Tea Bag State. It is one of the neediest states in the US but is making a point (Obama Bad, Poor People Bad, God wants poor people punished) and refusing aid to its people. Not even nonprofit sites to help people with the problems on the federal site.

My friends and family in California all got great deals quite a while ago. But California helped by setting up its own support site.

We have to use the government site. No choice for us. We are college educated people and it’s been a challenge but we know if we are patient we will get what we need Hub already qualified and we know he get tax break, next step pick insurance.

I feel so bad for those who are not well educated and are expected to balance the phone calls and online work. But the state wants this to fail and the only way it will fail is if people are prevented from signing in and/or are kept ignorant. My state is in the Bible Belt and religion is playing a role in keeping people mislead and uneducated.

@trailsillustrated 600 is the tax credit not the cost of insurance. It’s what we can take off our taxes.

Nobody can just get Medicare. Medicare is for retired people on Social Security and the disabled and everyone waits two years after qualifying to get Medicare. Medicare has nothing at all to do the Affordable Health Care Act.

You’re probably thinking Medicaid but my state has not updated it’s Medicaid program to expand it by taking the Federal AHC free money for three years. My state thinks its better if people die when God says they have to die unless they have been blessed with Wealth, which is a very holy condition sanctified by Jesus who is God the Father.

Blessed are the rich for they shall inherit everything;
including the poor.

@MadMadMax yes I meant medicaid, people that can’t spend on insurance will get that, yes? bible thumpers…..eh

NO

What state do YOU live in?

I’m in australia yes a socialist country so I have free healthcare. if you make over 79880 a year you have to have private cover or pay 1% of your income in taxes which I don’t make that much…

To the OP: My husband applied on the phone yesterday (because when he applied online a month ago, the system chewed up the application and spit it out).

My husband was not asked many of those the questions the OP was asked. And those questions were not asked when he first filled out the application online six weeks ago.

$6,500 deductible sounds like a lot of money but one bicycling accident can end up running $30K to $100k or more.

This deductible will help you from going bankrupt and no insurance company can refuse to treat you for pre-existing or made up foolish conditions ever again.

Right now my husband has no insurance. He is literally afraid to get up on a ladder to clean leaves out of the gutters, or go on a bicycling trip or any one of innumerable potentially hazardous tasks he’s done all his life.

Why? Because a simple fall could destroy us – we’d lose all our savings, lose our house and end up in a tent under a bridge.

Each year, employer health coverage is becoming more expensive, has higher deductibles. higher co-pays and covers less and less.

I don’t know what Utopia you think is out there, but we haven’t been able to find it for 25 years

When my husband was employed, he paid out vast amounts of money in monthly premiums, high deductibles and co-pays – and people WERE fired for overusing their health insurance when catastrophes attacked. That’s how they kept the rates down.

American lose ½ billion unused vacation days each year because they are AFRAID of using them. If you use your employer sponsored health care plan too much by their judgment, you’ll lose not only your health insurance, but your job as well.

@trailsillustrated Ohhhhhh!

Yes. I have friends in Australia. One is a former colleague – we worked for years building a very large website and more. The other is a guy who I really liked who posted on AV for years.

Both were kind of horrified by the American Health Care system. Both wanted me to relocate to Australia. I would if I could.

@MadMadMax I had two healthcare crisis in the 15 years I lived in the states, one cost about 4k which to me was shocking and the other far,far more but I kind of left the hospital then the country. I love america but would be terrified to grow old there, not being rich….

Vermont just went single payer:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/vermont-governor-signs-single-payer-health-law/

My co-pays on my own health insurance are using up our savings – this no country for old men.

@MadMadMax my daughter had minor surgery yesterday at the dr’s office, her dad has private cover, (not even sure what it does, nothing in this case), took about 45 mins the total was $167.75 of which I was refunded $129.75 by medicare which meant it cost about $38 because he has private cover. If it had been me they would have bulk billed.

It’s a disaster.

@MadMadMax Despite what you think, and you’ve been very vocal about it, I am not seeking a “Utopia”. I would just like to be able to go to the fucking doctor without it costing me $200 just to get in the door. And not have to go back just to get him to authorize a refill on my prescriptions so that he can charge me for another office “visit” when he literally barely glances at me, but thereby costs me another $200.

My Spiriva alone is $240 a month. My ulcer medicine is $80 a month. My health “insurance” will be around $450 a month. What Utopia is it that you think I’m looking for? The one that leaves me unable to even afford to get to work so I can make money to pay for my health insurance?

@laurenkem These things vary. It could be your doctor’s charges. We don’t have to go back and pay a full office visit to have our medicines renewed and that’s only every three months.

AHC fees, because we aren’t a single payer system, vary from state to state, plan to plan. I don’t know what your finances are or what your state offered or what your employer chose for coverage.

Basically Jobs should not be tied to health coverage

I’m saying for my family so far, AHC has been good.

My state goes out of it’s way to make it hard for us, They think they are proving “Obama bad” but I noticed they have no alternatives to offer. Apparently they want to go back to insurance companies f’king people over. That’s why there’s no much of a problem. Jobs should not be tied to health coverage

I could never, ever understand why employment was tied to healthcare. It has been explained to me, but I just could never wrap my mind around it. Something about socialism..but as I have tiresomely said before, the only real difference in that that I can see is the side of the road you drive on…now i’ll shut up

Nixon’s idea I think.

If today your doctor’s visits cost $200 each, and your medicines are $240 and $80, what does that have to do with Obamacare which isn’t in effect until January?

In order for anyone to really understand their costs with any health insurance, they need to talk to each provider they see (doctor’s, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.) and talk to them about what their costs would be after their bill is processed through their insurance company. Just looking at the premiums, co-pays, and deductibles does not tell you the whole story when it comes to what you will pay out of pocket.

From my understanding, with some of the changes to come in 2014, some routine preventative things are to have no charge (even if you haven’t met your deductible).