Just One Obamacare Story

I tried again today to get on the Connecticut Obamacare Exchange site.  This time I was successful.  I got to see what it would cost me for health insurance under Obamacare, and the results were not good.  Right now, I buy my own health insurance which covers me for in-network doctors from the first visit with just co-pays.  The comparable plans offered on the Connecticut exchange all had deductibles before the co-pays kicked in.  Those deductibles ranged from $2500 to $6000 per year for in-network medical visits.  For out of network, my current insurance has a $1000 deductible; the Obamacare policies had a deductible of $6000.  My current policy includes coverage of lab tests; the Obamacare policy has a co-pay of $45 for each test.  There are other differences, but based upon my usage of the healthcare system, it would cost me about $3000 more per year under the Obamacare policy than under my current policy.  Of course, were I to have some sort of acute sickness that resulted in hospitalization, the extra cost under Obamacare would rise to something more like $6000.

On top of the coverage differences, there was a difference in the premium.  My monthly premium under the Obamacare policy would be about $180 more.  Simply put, the cost for a wonderful new Obamacare policy for me is about $5000 per year more than I am currently paying.

Remember, with the current structure of the tax code, all of these medical costs get paid with after tax money.  I doubt there are many folks out there who can afford to pay another $5000 per year in medical costs without having to give up something else important in their lives.

It should have been called the "Unaffordable Care Act".