I do have a decent paying job and so does my wife. Not sure what you’re talking about regarding benefits for seasonal workers… I don’t know that to be the case. As to sick children… I’ll just say that the medical expenses of one of my children exceed those of type 1 diabetes by orders of magnitude and will likely end up in the tens of millions over the course of his life
Understand, but Medicare doesn’t assure that. Esp. if you can’t afford a supplement or a drug plan that actually covers the things you need. Such as the one I had that dropped my most effective insulin from its formulary, so I had to start paying retail or using something less effective. It’s a continuum, not an either/or. I wouldn’t want to do without it, certainly, but “great” isn’t an adjective I would apply. Different strokes.
I made that same suggestion just this morning in this very thread when another member went on a rant about the election process. I was quickly informed it’s fair game. Ps I didn’t start the exchange about math and science.
Also, I’m really sorry to hear one of your children has health struggles and such expensive medical expenses.
2 Likes
Thanks, believe me when I say that I have an extremely vested interest in quality affordable healthcare availability for middle class families… I’d venture likely moreso, in a financial sense anyway, than almost anyone on this forum… so it’s not like I’m just basking in my own privilege and don’t give a hoot about the needs of families.
Re Alaska, yes I agree there are a lot of people on some form of public assistance here, but I think the context presented in that article misses the mark by a bit… there are also more millionaires per capita in Alaska than any other state. If you’re interested in Alaska issues feel free to pm me.
@Sam19, I really am so sorry to read that - not only because it is so wrong to hear of a child having to deal with such a struggle, but also because it must be so hard on you and your wife.
There is another thread right now about beliefs and sickness. I have to say that this contradiction hits strongest when sickness strikes a child:( May your child go through this as unscathed as he can be.
1 Like
Wait, what? There are literally millions of people who bought individual plans on the ACA. My wife had one for four years, and I had one for a year. I’m sorry you don’t know any (now you do), but that’s not the same as saying those millions of people don’t have legitimate concerns. It’s a quaint and fantastic idea to just say “go get a job with insurance,” but there are many people for whom that’s not an option through no fault of their own.
1 Like
Are you aware of anyone with an ACA plan that feels like they are receiving fair benefit from it? Or are they just dumping money into it chasing ever rising deductibles and higher premiums? I get it, everyone needs quality, affordable health insurance-- and more importantly healthcare needs to be affordable. This is not either of the first two and it’s making the third worse. People (like me) who had very high quality plans that were affordable have watched our coverage go down the $hitter and our costs spiral out of control (even Bill Clinton acknowledged that this is going on and “it’s the craziest thing in the world”). I get their concerns as well as anyone, and that’s why I’m truly hoping there’s a better way than continuing down the sink hole we are currently in. And if there’s not, I’m sure democrats will sweep the next election and reinstate this… but I think it’s pretty inescapable that the reason republicans just swept the White House, congress, state legislatures and governorships nationwide is that the country was pretty disappointed with the democratic party’s handling of healthcare reform. but at least now we know what happens in elections when a party screws up healthcare… there will be a good model to follow if that happens again
I am truly glad it worked out well for you!
Since it’s a state-by-state system, it will vary across the nation. I would be curious to know how well it works in Louisiana or Mississipi, for instance. But my uneducated guess is that yours was a fairly unusual experience. I know that, in the two states for which I have experience, and when I had that experience, it would not have been true.
1 Like
Yes I am. My wife had excellent ACA insurance through the Idaho state exchange for four years. It was affordable (with tax credits), zero deductible, low copayment. There was a point where we were both students and she was paying less than $100 out of pocket expenses a year, including premiums and deductibles.
I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit your narrative, but the ACA provided affordable insurance to many people in many places for the first time in their lives. Like my wife. And it was better than my employer provided plan. In fact, even after four years of jacked up premiums, when I started making too much money for us to get tax credits to offset her premiums, her plan was still cheaper than my employer provided plan. We were forced to change her to my employer plan because she was eligible for coverage as my wife: therefore ineligible for an ACA plan through the Idaho exchange.
So yes, I’m aware many people say they haven’t been able to afford an ACA plan. But the idea that they were all bad plans is total ■■■■■■■■ and completely counterfactual. Sorry you didn’t like it, but honestly it sounds like you have no idea what you’re talking about.
2 Likes
I know that our employer plans (combined) went from absolutely free to me to over $2000 / month since the passage of the ACA. After being promised that the average family of 4 would see their premiums reduced by $2500 / year. I know that I went from two very good policies to one mediocre one (because I could no longer afford to be well insured) since the passage of the ACA and my costs have increased in the process… so our experiences have been very different. Those are the facts of my reality… not just “my narrative”
It’s not that the ACA plans themselves are necessarily terrible as the trajectory they’ve set the entire insurance market into is
1 Like
No, they are your narrative. The story you tell. And that’s fine. I’m sorry your costs have gone up. I’m not sure that you can really blame that on the ACA, but whatevs. Your narrative is clearly different.
But don’t try to claim that noone benefited and that noone appreciates the ACA. You are wrong, and your narrative is wrong. You claimed you knew nobody with an ACA plan. And that people didn’t benefit. You are wrong, as simple as that. It may have cost you something, which is certainly something to talk about. But the idea that there were no benefits to individuals that gained good coverage for the first time in their lives is… absolutely bonkers.
2 Likes
I’m not claiming it did nobody any good. I did say I do not personally know one person who believes they benefitted from it and I stand by that statement (unless we are counting people I have discussed with on this forum). I am suggesting there has got to be a way to do equal or more good with a whole lot less harm
Saying that person A suffered while person B benefited proves nothing about the overall goodness or badness of the program. You can always find people who had good experiences, and people who had bad ones. The germane question is, what did it do on balance? Are those who benefited outnumbered by those who were worse off, or the other way around? Were those who benefited in more dire need than those who were negatively affected, or the other way around?
I have not seen trustworthy answers to those questions, any of them. Every attempt I have seen to date has been from a source so obviously in one camp or the other that their data simply cannot be taken at face value.
Like most, I have an opinion about the ACA. But that’s all it is: an opinion. I have seen no reliable, objective, uncooked data; least of all from those responsible for it.
All any of us have on this issue are personal experiences and observations/anecdotes from our daily lives. The press coverage, partisan announcements from politicians and special interest groups, etc. of this issue is terrible and clouds over everything. The ACA had too many moving parts, they tried to control too many facets of health insurance, health care, etc.
My own example of one small piece of the health care pie made worse by the ACA: Pre-existing conditions coverage. The WA insurance commissioner, under one of the many provisions in the ACA, decided to “go after” association health plans and basically shut them down. Small business owners with pre-existing conditions relied on these association plans to get into large group coverage. Luckily, he was not 100% successful and gave up before he targeted the association plan I am involved with. However, many people I know lost “pretty good” group health coverage for their businesses and were not allowed to keep their plans.
Bernie Sanders published the names of the 13 Democrats who opposed this bill. I am aware both parties are in big Pharnas pockets. We must take note of the names and hold their feet to the fire. I was VERY surprised with some of the names on Sander’s list.
1 Like
I am very sorry to hear one of your children is sick. But insurance companies also had a thing called “caps”. In other words, once your child’s health care cost exceeded the lifetime cap of, oh, say, $100,000, coverage stops at $100,000. I have never heard of insurance covering a child in the tens of millions… before it became illegal to do so. Although diabetes is expensive, I know other children have much higher medical expenses. The clotting factor for a hemophiliac is $30,000 a vial, I read somewhere recently. Clinton was right in what he said. But the solution is a health care system such as they have in the Scandinavian countries, truly low cost coverage for all. Obama did want universal coverage. The plan he passed was Mitt Romney’s plan which he put forth in exasperation after all other attempts had been rejected. This is going to be a long, hard, lifetime fight but our kids are worth it. Truly affordable health care. Other countries have managed to do it.
1 Like
You might have to rewrite that…
how can this be acceptable in our country, that some people have to choose between food and insulin like novolog,humalog,afrezza or the $25 walmart insulin?
how about —> how can this be acceptable that some people else where have to choose between food and no food?
why not help those choosing between food and no food and every one use the walmart insulin?
1 Like
some of the countries are low cost because doctors and pharmaceutical companies dont pay out millions of $ after being sued.
While we all want low cost, we are also happy to sue for 100’s of millions of $ if something goes awry… cost trickles up into many things…nothing is free…
1 Like