I surely hope the ACA helps a lot of people -- and helps them a lot.
It looks like it will result in me having to give up the insulin pump, and CGM. Two devices that have changed my T2 life, and made me normal w.r.t. blood sugars.
I expect to have complications, and suffer a painful early death as a result.
Here's the deal: At my small company (18 people) the health care option I've chosen to cover me and my family (4 total) costs $789/mo. Fortunately, this plan continues through 2014 because we "got in under the wire" and renewed before some deadline that allowed us to "keep the health insurance we like", and keep our doctors.
I went on the "Covered California" site to see what I'm facing next fall in open enrollment. The closest plan is the Gold.
With a premium over $1,400/mo. Deductible is 4x my current plan. So is OOP max.
I worked all the numbers, and there is no way we can afford this. This plan will hardly pay for anything of my annual expenses, because of the huge deductible increase.
To add insult to injury, none of my doctors are in-network for any of the carriers offering Gold plans.
Finally, I make too much money to qualify for any subsidy. Basically, my out of pocket -- including the premiums -- will go from around $13,000 a year to $30,000 a year.
I can't afford that, of course.
So, goodbye omnipod. Goodbye G4. Probably goodbye insulin altogether.