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Originally Posted by Rochard
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I keep hearing people complaining about Obambacare and I am just not getting it.... My healthcare went from $900 to nothing. That is a little misleading - The reality is I was paying $900 a month and then with Obamacare it dropped to $250 a month, and at that point my wife's employer kicked in to pay the rest (although by law she is not required to).
For me it's working perfectly.
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How much "credit" are you getting? You see what's really going on is the insurance companies are raising the rates to where they would normally be without the "credit" because truth be told the government isn't paying these companies anything. Nothing compared to the expenses they are incurring anyway. In addition the deductibles are being raised to the level that most insurance has become catastrophic insurance. Unless you understand how insurance actually works you can't understand what's really happening. Let me give you an example.
My son had a motorcycle accident early this year. His mom told him he was covered under her policy. He in turn told the hospital this. He wasn't. The hospital thinking he was insured charged him the insured rate. His bills in total were in excess of $30k. Fast forward a month or so and them figuring out he wasn't insured they came back with a uninsured rate that was around $5-6k. Now many people have this belief that the people who are insured are filling in this gap of being uninsured. But what's really happening is the hospitals mark up the cost of an insured persons bill 4-5+x what it would be an uninsured/cash payer.
So in my sons case. If he had insurance he would have most likely had a policy with around a $5k deductible. So he pretty much would have ended up paying out the same amount of money with or without insurance. Now if he were insured the insurance would (if they already didn't have an agreement in place which they usually do) call up the hospital and negotiate down the cost of the bill. So if I'm said insurance I call up the hospital and say "you've sent me this bill for $30k but I know that you only charge uninsured people $6k. My client has to pay $5k of this so that leaves a $1k difference. What do you say we send you a $500 check and call it even." So having insurance my son would have saved $500 but not really because he had monthly premiums. So ideally said insurance company would have still profited of his premium for the year. Which is their goal.. They aren't a non-profit charity.
Grant it not all cases end up like this but you have to remember the insurance company is a for profit business not a government who can print money. This is not a case for not having insurance. Hell I've been telling him since he turned 18 he needs to get it but like many young adults they don't feel the need for one and two would rather spend the money on gadgets. Simply put the system will never work for everyone as a whole. Those who can't afford to pay for it will obviously benefit but those who can will increasingly get gouged to fill the gap so the insurance company can make a profit. This is what's already happening and it's what everyone was warned abut when it all started.