re: Help re: "affordable" healthcare

All this is now. But if ACA is repealed, where can a small businessman with pre-existing conditions buy insurance?

I am not in a group. I run a small outfit, trying to pull together the American dream. Prior to Obamacare, I couldn't get health insurance. If the 'marketplace' is repealed, I am SOL.

If I shut down my small business, went to work at some big company, and got on their group plan, I could get it.

Is that what America is coming to?

I fee ya.

My insurance through work is shite. No copays and an out of pocket visit to the doc runs about $140.

My wife switched jobs about 6 months ago. It was a risky move and unfortunately it didn't work out. 6 months ago when she switched, she got a temp policy for a month for her and my daughter for $246. That same policy today is $535. To add them to my shitty policy costs $545.

Seriously our government fricking sucks. What do people do that have to go on temp unemployment? That's like $800/month after taxes, right? And decent health insurance costs $535.

Why bother working hard, trying to save money and get ahead so you can pay all your hard earned money to people that don't. Seriously.

If I remember right, the big thing with obamacare was that if you meet certain income requirements, some kind of voucher is issued to pay part of your premiums....have you looked into that?

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UHC silver

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UHC, along with pretty much everyone except BCBS, has pulled out of the individual market in Louisiana as of 12/31/16.

Anything less than $400 in the Marketplace currently in Louisiana has a several thousand dollar deductible. The best deal I've seen was Vantage for $450 or so with a $750 deductible, but if you live anywhere other than the Monroe area, you are very limited using that company.

I don't know what state you live in, but if you're paying under $200 per month in Louisiana for an individual plan through the Marketplace, you either have a huge subsidy or you have a huge deductible/shitty plan. I can tell you that when I was making $41k, my subsidy through the marketplace was only $50 per month. I am now making right under the $47k threshold for a subsidy so it is probably even lower. I haven't ordered my new insurance yet.

I had to purchase insurance for my family through the marketplace when I worked briefly in the private sector. I misunderstood what accepting the credits meant. Come tax return time, we almost wound up owing (and I liberally hold back taxes). We paid thousands upon thousands in insurance premiums that year. Tread carefully!

The ACA has to be the most ruthless, anti-American law dumped onto the backs of the middle class in American history. It's almost like Obama fully intended to destroy middle class, private workers, and small business owners with it.

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Obama fully intended to destroy middle class, private workers, and small business owners with it.

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he said he was going to "redistribute the wealth" and that is exactly what he did...shame on us for electing him.

You're pretty spot on. I took out the insurance at the end of one job and before beginning the new job. So I wound underestimating my new salary (I based it on the old salary). So we initially qualified for credits that wound up having to be paid back.

Not only were we burdened with paying hundreds a month for scum-level health insurance, but we wound up being on the hook for thousands upon thousands come tax time.

I also had to deal with the ACA as a manager in private industry. It fricked out budget and staffing abilities up big time.

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So, all the people who are covered by Obamacare (like 30 million) who will still go to the hospital - just now be unisured. So, the hospital will pass this cost on to those who pay insurance just like before.

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I would say that any transition will not terminate your insurance but hell, Obama lied his arse off in that regard, and the ACA is so enormous and convoluted, who knows what will happen when it gets amended or repealed.

As for others paying the bill for those without coverage...That still happens. The plans that people can afford come with such ridiculous costs that they may as well go to the ER without insurance.

It is impossible to do more harm than what Obamacare currently does...Because Obamacare is not sustainable. Not even in the near term. Currently the increases we see in Medicare/Medicaid (just the increase) surpass the DoD budget.

My guess is that Trump will act to open things up completely and de-regulate. In the short term some companies are going to change the price of an epi pen by 250%, and after about a year, another company will enter that market and all of a sudden it'll be 50% of what it was initially.

The market works very well, if government will get out of the way. The greatest stimulus that increased medical costs was Medicare/Medicaid legislation from 1965. Since then it's been skyrocketing upward.

Also, the last group we should be listening to in this debate is the American Medical Association. In the past the AMA sabotaged things to keep their grip on all the money and all the decision making. When the govt stepped in the AMA started getting politicized. Look at the biggest advocates of Obamacare - they are "doctors", but really they are now administrators and they are tied to the govt now. They are just shills. Pick up an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association some time - it's basically SJWs with MDs. Your local docs are still largely good people with good intentions. But the AMA is just a political advocacy group now.

Lastly, the ACA has done nothing to help costs or make the nation healthier. Health insurance does not equal health care. It's a complete failure.