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My Obamacare Adventure Part 2: A New Reality?
Due to pre-existing conditions, my family has only been able to secure health insurance through the State of Arkansas “high risk” insurance pool. This insurance pool was created for Arkansas residents who could not get individual/family insurance through other avenues. The insurance coverage in this plan, administered by Blue Cross of Arkansas, has been very good. Suffice to say, the insurance coverage was also very expensive.
Monthly premiums alone were nearly 30% of the average Arkansas family’s annual income.
Given the high cost of this “high risk” insurance, I fully expected that my insurance premiums would drop substantially under the Obamacare policies. After all, my family would be placed in a large pool of customers that included both healthier and younger customers. My cost of healthcare would be blended in with those who cost less, thus driving my insurance rates down to the group average.
I figured that my family would be one of the very few who would get a better deal under Obamacare.
I figured wrong!
Instead of my premiums going down, they went up over $200 per month! Furthermore, my out of pocket cost of care will be higher in the Obamacare policy. Fortunately, by picking an approved “metallic” plan from Blue Cross, it appears that all of my family’s doctors will be available to us under the new policy.
Precious few people signed up for the Arkansas high risk pool insurance because very few could afford the premiums. We now know that millions of people have had their affordable individual insurance policies canceled due to Obama’s ironically named “Affordable Care Act”. As they look to replace those policies with the options available through Obamacare, they are experiencing rate shock. They will experience it again the first time they go to a doctor’s office in 2014.
Newly formed advocacy groups are touring college campuses and holding rallies to encourage young adults to “opt out” of Obamacare. These “community organizers” are showing young adults how much money they can save by paying the “no insurance tax” and sticking with inexpensive catastrophic care policies. As the young adults make this prudent financial choice, they will further deplete the Obamacare plans of low cost customers. Insurance companies will be forced to raise rates even further.
The full weight of Obamacare will hit in 2014 as the 80% of all Americans who are insured through their jobs will see their policies converted to the bloated Obamacare policies. Of course, a whole new wave and young and healthy workers will opt out of Obamacare leading to rates spiraling even higher in 2015.
Get ready, America, for a new reality.
