Posted on 12/23/2013 12:23:03 PM PST by heartwood
One week ago, we got a letter from NJ Horizon BCBS saying our current plan qualified under the Affordable Care Act.
Today, we got a letter saying they were discontinuing our plan in April. Their "Bronze" Plan substitute , not covering our oldest two children, would cost 50% more, or 17K per year, and requires a 50% copay for specialists, and a 50% copay on drugs (the old plan didn't cover drugs.) We can't afford it. We barely can afford the old one. And I guess "Bronze" means "Lose your home and go bankrupt if you get cancer, but, hey, your oldest two can go on the government teat."
Going without insurance means being charged far more for tests and procedures - like an $800 mammogram instead of the insurance company-negotiated rate of $150.
We've been planning to move out of NJ - this is accelerating our timetable. Is there any state where
1) you can buy a a relatively decent catastrophic plan, one that doesn't have a low cap, like 100K, because that's not catastrophic
2) you can set up a largish tax-exempt health care savings plan
3) there are some requirements for transparency in health care pricing, so you can find out before you have a procedure what it will cost?
I have no doubt that it might be true. I just have trouble believing that it is true . . . . because it is so absurd!
I have just completed a week’s worth of research. I have been there.
A friend told me about the website. I went, and I noticed that it did not list all the plans available to me elsewhere. It is also true, of course, that healrhcare.gov does not, as not all insurance companies are participating in the exchange. The best thing to do is (1) find out which insurance companies sell insurance in your state, and (2) go to their websites and shop and compare and (3) purchase directly from them (unless you are due a subsidy from the government, in which case your options are limited to what is on the exchange).
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