Obamacare deductibles a dose of sticker shock (Chicago Trib)

Chicago Tribune ^ | October 13, 2013 | By Peter Frost

[Brad from Tennessee]

Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner, considers himself better informed than most when it comes to the inner workings of health insurance. But even he wasn't prepared for the pocketbook hit he'll face next year under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

If the 33-year-old single father wants the same level of coverage next year as what he has now with the same insurer and the same network of doctors and hospitals, his monthly premium of $233 will more than double. If he wants to keep his monthly payments in check, the Carpentersville resident is looking at an annual deductible for himself and his 7-year-old daughter of $12,700, a more than threefold increase from $3,500 today. To promote the Oct. 1 debut of the exchanges, the online marketplaces where consumers can shop and buy insurance, Obama administration and Illinois officials touted the lower-than-expected monthly premiums that would make insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. But a Tribune analysis shows that 21 of the 22 lowest-priced plans offered on the Illinois health insurance exchange for Cook County have annual deductibles of more than $4,000 for an individual and $8,000 for family coverage.

Those deductibles, which represent the out-of-pocket money consumers must spend on health care before most insurance benefits kick in, are higher than what many consumers expected or may be able to stomach, benefit experts said.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, socialism has now become naked. This is a Good Thing.

[Brasky]

Close the thread down. We have the winner right here.

[Tammy8]

A lot of that care for no payment was due to illegals. Illegals are a large number of the uninsured as well. The elephant in the room...

[FrdmLvr]

the IRS will come after you for fines... that get bigger every year.

And after paying the huge fines you STILL don't have health insurance, so you get nothing for your money.

[GOPJ]

“Hospitals provided $41 billion in care for which no payment was received in 2011, up from $3.9 billion in 1980, according to a January report by the American Hospital Association. About 25 percent of uncompensated care stems from insured patients...

That was under the old system - where no one was denied medical care.

Obama and dems have a new plan. They will make people HURT who don't buy medical insurance... just like they're doing with the shutdown. Buy it or else. No more free hospital care - no more memorials or parks until dems get it their way 100%

Newest dem tactic - pain - deprivation...

Buy the expensive insurance with sky high deductibles that breaks your family or dems will send the IRS after you AND let your child die.

[GOPJ]

Well someone has to pay the salaries and benefits of those new 16,000 IRS workers. If we're not happy, if we joke about them maybe we'll get arrested. That's what the TSA is telling people who fly... if you joke about us, we'll arrest you. /s

[Lancey Howard]

Romney stupidly did not condemn Romneycare. Conservatives knew that he was the wrong person to run against Obama but the establishment thought they were smarter than we were.

And they still do. We gotta flush that crowd down the toilet, because here comes Jeb.

[Graybeard58]

This was all knowable information last November. I have no idea why the republicans (Romney, in particular) didn’t make a campaign issue

You seriously don't know why Romney couldn't make an issue out of romneycare? Oops, I mean obamacare.

[Lorianne]

Exactly right.
The GOP establishment is just stupid.
There is no getting around that.

[JohnBrowdie]

You seriously didn’t read my post. Or you are seriously more interested in criticizing romney’s happily mouldering corpse than dealing with the present. or you don’t understand how much more to obama’s sinister health care law there is than merely the the individual mandate.

[rawhide]

I have been saying for weeks now that the increased monthly premiums are not the worse of obammacare, even thought they are very bad, but it is the deductibles that will hurt you more. These deductibles have to be met most times before any insurance will kick in. This article shows that.

[Lmo56]

291% increase over current coverage - I wonder if he voted for Obama ... twice !!!

[Brad from Tennessee]

[See Peter, there are winners and losers... the losers are the people who work for a living...]

An unending mantra of Obama is his party's dedication to the “middle class.” This is a lie. Obama launched a war on the middle class the day he took office.

[GOPJ]

An unending mantra of Obama is his party's dedication to the “middle class.” This is a lie.Obama launched a war on the middle class the day he took office.

I believe you're right... but it's senseless. I have no idea why he chose to do that...

[Brad from Tennessee]

[I believe you’re right... but it’s senseless. I have no idea why he chose to do that... ]

The middle class is the portion of society that is the repository of moral values such as work ethic, and most resistant to change. In the U.S. the nucleus of the middle class are the Scots-Irish who are stubbornly independent. But in Marxist theory the middle class of any society has to be reduced to poverty and fear to make it more malleable.

[GOPJ]

The middle class is the portion of society that is the repository of moral values such as work ethic, and most resistant to change. In the U.S. the nucleus of the middle class are the Scots-Irish who are stubbornly independent. But in Marxist theory the middle class of any society has to be reduced to poverty and fear to make it more malleable.

That's easily the best three sentence answer I've seen on FreeRepublic... Thanks Brad.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Thank you.