Obamacare and you

[derspiess]

And what has made it less attractive?  Higher cost for you?  Less benefits?

The biggest problem is rising costs, combined with a steep rise (from $1500 to $3000 in three years) in the amount I pay out of my HSA before the system kicks in to pay 100% of costs.

Yikes.  With that kind of a deductable I would assume people would be reluctant to seek health care. 

It actually makes you think twice before having a wasteful visit to the doctor for the sniffles.  Which is a good aspect of it.

[crazy canuck]

And what has made it less attractive?  Higher cost for you?  Less benefits?

The biggest problem is rising costs, combined with a steep rise (from $1500 to $3000 in three years) in the amount I pay out of my HSA before the system kicks in to pay 100% of costs.

Yikes.  With that kind of a deductable I would assume people would be reluctant to seek health care. 

It actually makes you think twice before having a wasteful visit to the doctor for the sniffles.  Which is a good aspect of it.

Not really, that cuts out a lot of preventative medicine which results in greater costs and poor health outcomes in the long run.

[derspiess]

Not really, that cuts out a lot of preventative medicine which results in greater costs and poor health outcomes in the long run.

Not really.  Preventative visits and screening procedures are usually covered by high deductible plans at 100% and do not require you to meet your deductible first.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The stuff that would increase premiums for employer plans are primarily the changes in coverage requirements necessary to make the employer plan compliant with PPACA. Namely this meant the plans had to cover preventive care without requiring a copay or meeting a deductible first (so the plans basically cannot require any out of pocket expense for preventive care), and the plans could have no lifetime limit.

Depending on what coverage your employer offered, changing to comply with those two standards could mean higher premiums. I've always gone with the Kaiser HMO plan available to Federal employees in this area, and as an HMO it didn't have the whole deductible/lifetime maximum scheme in the first place so I basically so no change. However, you can choose between a large number of plans as a Federal employee. My understanding is the other plans, some of which had the lifetime maximum coverage and that required copays for things like physicals had to be changed to comply with the PPACA to stay on the list of plans available to Federal employees, and those did have modest premium increases after that.

This is the first place I've heard that all private employers are required to participate in exchanges. I've seen that many employers are choosing to participate in private exchanges, which are different from the PPACA exchanges, because it gives employees more choice and creates large risk pools that can lower the employer's costs.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Not really, that cuts out a lot of preventative medicine which results in greater costs and poor health outcomes in the long run.

A lot of the HDHPs were not so great when they and HSAs first went en vogue, but there have always been good ones that covered preventive care completely. With the PPACA, to even be recognized as a compliant PPACA plan these plans have to cover preventive care. If they are employer offered plans and they were not modified to be compliant, then for the PPACA purposes it's akin to the employer not offering insurance so they have to pay the per-employee penalty (iirc $4,000/year per employee) if they wanted to continue to offer a HD plan like that.

[crazy canuck]

Not really, that cuts out a lot of preventative medicine which results in greater costs and poor health outcomes in the long run.

Not really.  Preventative visits and screening procedures are usually covered by high deductible plans at 100% and do not require you to meet your deductible first.

prevention isnt about just screening.  Its going to the doctor when you have an issue.  It might be minor but it might also be major.  Thats why we have doctors who are trained to make that call.

[MadImmortalMan]

Out of curiosity, does Medicare have deductibles?

[merithyn]

It actually makes you think twice before having a wasteful visit to the doctor for the sniffles.  Which is a good aspect of it.

For those living paycheck-to-paycheck, it makes you think twice, thrice, and then some before going in for necessary treatments, too. I know it does for me.

[MadImmortalMan]

My brother in law is constantly giving ambulance rides to lonely old people who just want a free meal and somebody to talk to...

[Admiral Yi]

Out of curiosity, does Medicare have deductibles?

I believe there is a copay for doctor visits.

And as everyone with a TV knows, it only covers 80% of hospital stays.

[merithyn]

Out of curiosity, does Medicare have deductibles?

It depends on the plan that you have. There are a number of plan options, some of which require a deductible while others do not.

[MadImmortalMan]

Did Obamacare make any changes to the Medicare setup or was it always like that?

[merithyn]

Did Obamacare make any changes to the Medicare setup or was it always like that?

I believe that it's been that way for the past five years or so, but I'm not 100% sure when MedAdvantage kicked in.

[Jacob]

Out of curiosity, does Medicare have deductibles?

In Canada it does not. Or do you mean the US program for seniors?

[Ideologue]

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.  I've been given no guidance.  Am I supposed to sign up for something or what?