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How is the ACA, aka Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare affecting you?

I got a notice from my current insurance carrier that they decided to non-renew my coverage as of December 31st, and open enrollment for the ACA plans begins October 1st, to be affective January 1st. I am currently self-insured with mostly catastrophic, sucky yet expensive insurance.

I work for a small company that doesn't offer insurance - we did not get any kind of notice in the mail, yet I just learned thru the grapevine that we're required to send notification to employees about the ACA options, and starting in 2015 my employer will have to pay fines if he continues to not offer insurance, affordable at that, to employees.

How about you? Any notice from employers or other? Are your rates going up to cover previously uninsurable or high risk insured's with pre-existing conditions like me?

Do you know that everyone will be required to have health insurance or pay a penalty? If you don’t have health insurance, you’ll have to pay a tax penalty, starting at $95 per individual, $285 per family, or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater, for 2014. (That rises to $695 per individual, $2,085 per family, or 2.5 percent of income in 2016.)

I'm sorry, but I think THIS BLOWS!!! Even though people like me will probably pay less for better insurance, it's ripple effect is going to in turn have a cripple effect on our country.

Consumer Reports Info:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012 ... /index.htm

One big thing that's only being mentioned now.... there is a HUGE incentive for companies to avoid giving people more than 29 hours of work per week. In actual practice, giving them 29 can put the company in jeopardy if OT happens, so... a lot of companies are actually cutting people back to 25 hours per week.

Not fair, not nice.... and not avoidable.

Hang on pholks, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I tried warning people during election season that this is a bad evil socialistic thing. Why is it that the man himself is exempt from this, along with everyone in Congress.

All trolling aside,
My wife works for the IRS and I'm on her insurance. Honestly I'm not sure how we're affected and I have not noticed a change.

sonofabeach wrote:All trolling aside,
My wife works for the IRS and I'm on her insurance. Honestly I'm not sure how we're affected and I have not noticed a change.

You won't notice a change til January. Open Enrollment season (when employers announce their insurance options and employees have the opportunity to make their choices for the following calendar year) usually takes place in October/November for most organizations.

One thing that isn't mentioned is that all insurance is slated to change January 1st. Your age, smoking, kids, etc are going to play a roll in how much individual cost. Right now one insurance rate fits all. Our HR person was in yesterday and filled me in on this. She told me that it is a good thing we are renewing in November.

That being said, every employer has to notify all their employees about the insurance marketplace option that will be available effective october 1st. This is a department of labor thing. If anyone is interested, I can post the link when I get to work.

If you want to know what's in the bill you have to pass it!

tigzoe wrote:One thing that isn't mentioned is that all insurance is slated to change January 1st. Your age, smoking, kids, etc are going to play a roll in how much individual cost. Right now one insurance rate fits all. Our HR person was in yesterday and filled me in on this. She told me that it is a good thing we are renewing in November.

That being said, every employer has to notify all their employees about the insurance marketplace option that will be available effective october 1st. This is a department of labor thing. If anyone is interested, I can post the link when I get to work.

Here is the page with the model notices that are required by employers to give to employees prior to October 1, 2013, which is when open enrollment begins. There is also lots of other info, delivered in pretty complicate manner.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform/index.html

See:
Model Notice for employers who offer a health plan to some or all employees http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/FLSAwithplans.pdf

Model Notice for employers who DO NOT offer a health plan http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/FLSAwithoutplans.pdf

Funny that it's a requirement, however, there is no proof required of it being done, and not penalty if not done.

Just got our notice yesterday. We had a HDHP to start with and essentially a similar plan will be $300/m higher. It will cover things like mental health/dental and pregnancy (which is not needed) The family deductible and co-pays will be alot higher. No good at all for us.

I assume the only winners will be low income and possibly a few pre-existing condition folks. Middle income and certainly upper income will not do well.

Just got our notice yesterday. We had a HDHP to start with and essentially a similar plan will be $300/m higher. It will cover things like mental health/dental and pregnancy (which is not needed) The family deductible and co-pays will be alot higher. No good at all for us.

I assume the only winners will be low income and possibly a few pre-existing condition folks. Middle income and certainly upper income will not do well.

phjrsaunt wrote:

sonofabeach wrote:All trolling aside,
My wife works for the IRS and I'm on her insurance. Honestly I'm not sure how we're affected and I have not noticed a change.

You won't notice a change til January. Open Enrollment season (when employers announce their insurance options and employees have the opportunity to make their choices for the following calendar year) usually takes place in October/November for most organizations.

Oh, well that explains it. I've been hearing about it so long and people complaining that I thought it had been in effect for a while.

I wasn't aware there was such a thing as "affordable" health care I plan on paying the 95 dollar "tax" the first year and see what happens from there.

Anyone know what happens to the unemployed? Do they get hit with the $95 tax on top of the other bills they can't pay because they don't have a job because this economy still S U C K S?

krusin1 wrote:One big thing that's only being mentioned now.... there is a HUGE incentive for companies to avoid giving people more than 29 hours of work per week. In actual practice, giving them 29 can put the company in jeopardy if OT happens, so... a lot of companies are actually cutting people back to 25 hours per week.

Not fair, not nice.... and not avoidable.

You're right, it's completely unfair that employers would try to defeat the provisions of the act by cutting back on their employees' hours rather than doing what's not only honorable and right, but good for them in the long run. But that's on the employers, not the ACA.

As for the tax penalty for the uninsured, that's cheap compared with the bills you'll run up if you are injured or seriously ill without insurance. The USA is the only industrialized democracy in the world where people fear their medical bills...and it just doesn't have to be that way. Maybe this is the first step towards actually joining the 21st century. Baby steps, but at least now the days of scaring people with "death panels" and crashing the economy are numbered.

Starting next month, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield is no longer affordable to my company, so it's being dropped. I have no idea what my choices will be now. I just wanna know what happened to "If you like your insurance/doctor now, you can keep it". Well I can't. And neither can my doctor.

SMLCHNG wrote:Starting next month, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield is no longer affordable to my company, so it's being dropped. I have no idea what my choices will be now. I just wanna know what happened to "If you like your insurance/doctor now, you can keep it". Well I can't. And neither can my doctor.

The ACA is full of lies and more lies. Health care and insurance certainly needed to be changed, but this change appears to be hurting more people than it helps. It's BULLSH*T.

And yet the same folks keep drinking the kool aid.

SchoolGirlHeart wrote:Anyone know what happens to the unemployed? Do they get hit with the $95 tax on top of the other bills they can't pay because they don't have a job because this economy still S U C K S?

i'm guessing , we will be paying for that. I want to see how it effects the people who are lazy, and don't want to work, and live off the state and Government. they may have to cut back on buying booze and cigarettes.

Wino you know wrote:And yet the same folks keep drinking the kool aid.

my question is , if you don't take the medical Insurance , what happens if you have a medical emergency , will they deny you , and if that's the fact , and you had something potentially fatal , like a heart attack , would that be considered murder , because they refused to help. My head spins reading all this , thank god I have only myself to worry about , because if I had a family , i'd be working 5 jobs , just to pay the insurances.