Is the ACA (Affordable Care Act) beneficial to you?

Our business has been unaffected because our coverage exceeds minimum guidelines. I personally know of 3 people who have either saved money or have finally been able to afford coverage because of the ACA.

I won’t know till next year because the employer mandate was extended. I do know my insurance agent warned me that my Blue Cross Blue Shield very good health care coverage will cost me a $1,100 more a month for the 5 employees I cover here….that does not sound good to me at all.

@Cruiser But have not health care costs for your employees risen exponentially every year? I know in our business they have. I don’t know that that is related to ACA.

But to answer for me personally, no, but for people I know, yes. One friend’s healthcare costs went down from $450 a month to $45 a month! I am now on COBRA from my business and I compared the cost of that to a better ACA plan and it would have been higher. But my income is fairly high so I would expect that.

I still believe that universal single payer healthcare is the way to go but we’ll never get there.

No impact for me, we have friend that has coverage now. She has a pre-existing condition and will need an operation this year, not related to the condition.

Not for me directly, as I am employed with a good plan that covers my kids. I do know a number of people that are now covered.

@janbb Not in that large of a percent. I was offered by BCBS to be able to renew my existing policy for another year as is and I did to avoid the higher priced “Obama Care” version but it is costing me $650 more per month. That is more in line with the 5% annual/bi cost increase I am accustomed to as opposed to the 13% jump I am facing with ACA. Then of course we need to add in the $326 per month ACA re-insurance tax I also have to pay. And I am absorbing all of this increase as I do not think my employees should be penalized for this health care fiasco.

I want to add my brother now has the free ACA health care….but he was getting free health care from the state before….odd part is now he can’t see his old doctor because he is not covered by ACA. Makes no sense to me.

Not yet. I’m insured through my employer and my husband is employed through his.

My step-father recently got insurance through Obamacare. Nearly $400 a month seems a bit steep to me (then again, my employer pays 100% of our healthcare), but he hasn’t had health insurance in years. Seeing as he just had a heart attack, I think he’ll definitely benefit from ACA.

@Cruiser The last increase I heard about from my Ex in our business was a 40% annual premium increase. That’s when they went to a high deductible plan. This was way before ACA but obviously different situations apply. I think healthcare costs have been in a big mess for decades but this is something we will never agree on.

@janbb I could not agree more with you that HC is a hot mess.

I have insurance already so it dies not direct benefit me, although more people being insured might benefit me from having to pay higher medical bills to make up for the uninsured. Although, probably not, the system is not fixed, not yet. I don’t see any pressure from the government or outside parties to lower medical costs. I don’t see any competition to lower medical costs. I don’t see any reason why the system will not continue as it is, inflated false prices all too often and even false claims.

I hope I am wrong. I hope the long term effect of ACA Is lower costs for everyone, we’ll see. Insuring more people with the same crappy system doesn’t really help the biggest problem we have in America regarding healthcare—how expensive it is. It could actually make things worse, if some of the naysayers are right, and make health catskills more expensive for everyone. Maybe then there will finally be a breaking point. Again, we’ll see.

@JLeslie What are health “catskills”?

Should be expenses. How did autocorrect come up with Catskills? LOL. Sorry everyone.

Used to be some mighty expensive hotels in the Catskills! :-)

Not a bit. I presently have Wal-Martian insurance, which meets or exceeds the minimum requirements. My rates have gone up, but they do that every year.
My girlfriend’s parents were griping about how they now needed to get health insurance, and that it was going to cost them too much. At the same time, one of my co-workers was gushing about how great her ACA coverage was, and how it only cost her $5.00 a month.

I still think the whole thing stinks.

I like reading about this.. gah I’d be in a red panic if I had to pay anything right now…

We saved THOUSANDS and that’s per month. We moved our employees to the ACA and gave them a raise. One employee went from $950 per month to $175. Another went from $1200 (family) to $350. My husband and I still pay the same but we’ve added dental and vision. All the coverage for everyone is better than before. The other employee was out on disability but we continued to pay his premium because we didn’t want him to be left vulnerable. We stopped paying that since he now gets medicaid for free.

@Judi Can I ask how you did this? Did you use a facilitator, an agent? A family of 4 costs me over $1,500 per month on a grandfathered policy and ACA will cost me even more. I wish there was more clarity to this issue.

I did use an agent. The employees were all eligible for subsidies. Hubby and I were not eligible for subsidies do we bought an individual plan outside of the exchange. We still pay around $1200 for the two of us (he’s 63) but the plan is better than our previous group policy. We have an HSA plan and put the maximum into the HSA account. It covers all our out of pocket expenses pre tax. We have a high deductable but to buy a policy with a lower deductable would cost as much more as what we put in in the HSA and now it’s our money. We can spend it on co pays and deductibles or on designer glasses or dental services not covered. The money is only taxable if we use it for non covered items. We can even use it foe many over the counter medications.

It helps us since my son is in his early 20s and can stay on my plan for a few mor years.

This first year is going to be messy. No one ever said that this was the answer, either. This is just what both sides could agree upon enough to get it to pass. This is brand new, and the for-profit insurance company execs are in a panic, because they may end their streak of record-breaking profits and they might not get a yacht for a Christmas bonus this year, so they raised everyone else’s rates even more to try to make up the difference.

It’ll probably be several years before the dust settles on this one, but it believe it will be a step in the right direction.

@hearkat I seem to recall the ACA was shoved through a heavily partisan Congress over Christmas a few years back, and that it was a hack job even then.

@Nullo, I think that’s right, it was shoved through because there was heavy blocking from the right, with the hope that it could be refined once it was in place. Not sure this wasn’t the best outcome available given the divisiveness we have at the moment.

Go back and read the posts from 2008 here. There was a lot of negotiating and they caved on everything the republicans asked for and in the end only a few stepped up and voted for it. We talked about what was being sacrificed, how it was being negotiated and many of us Jellies almost felt like we were part of the negotiations! Nothing was shoved down anyone’s throats except the concessions the left gave to the right who ended up not voting for it anyway.
In the end, if politics continues to be a block the other guy at any cost game, this might very well be be the last piece of meaningful legislation our country produces before the republic implodes.

A resounding yes. My husband and I finally both have health insurance for the first time in years, me through my employer and him through the ACA exchanges. It cost almost $300 a month less to get him insured through the ACA than it would have cost to add him to my work policy.

Prior to my January employment, I was self-employed for years and couldn’t get health insurance at all, at any price, due to my pre-existing conditions. If I should become unemployed in the future, that will no longer be the case. It’s all a huge relief.

I’m still pulling for single-payer universal healthcare, but am happy we got at least this far.

No effect on my life thus far.

I know several people who can’t afford Obamacare. They’re opting out because there’s no other viable option for them.

@snowberry – Most people who cannot afford a health care plan through the marketplace are qualified for the public assistance plan. Consumer Reports put a website together to help people understand the options and to have their voices heard: https://www.healthlawhelper.org/

That’s not the case with my friends. They have money, but it’s already accounted for, and not available. Not everyone can afford it. Really! However, they are working toward the day that they can afford it.