Affordable Care Act for dummies version

Obama is really a crazy republican who aspires to be a Socialist who an expert at doing the twist.  That's why your healthcare is so high.

Yes, this. I'm sure I'm missing something. This increase doubles what we are currently paying.

And the letter says we must move to a plan that meets the law's "minimum essential benefits" with pharmacy or maternity benefits. Umm, we currently have a plan with no prescription coverage as none of us take any regular medications and I am 41 years old with 2 adopted children so I don't think maternity issues are something I want to be forced to pay for! 

How is this helping me?!

This isn't helping you, and it's not designed to help you.   You're one of the "young and healthy" people who is being forced into the pool with sick people in order to reduce their costs.

If you are poor and/or sick, ACA is designed to help you.   If you are rich and/or healthy, ACA is designed to force your money into the pool in order to help defray the costs for the poor and/or sick.

I couldn't sleep last night for wrestling with this information. It's very disturbing honestly. My husband tried to get on the exchange to look for cheaper insurance for us but he could not even get on. I guess it's either send your kids to college or pay for health insurance.

I've been looking at ACA options as my employer coverage via COBRA will end soon. Like you, my costs will be significantly higher based on what I've found thus far - although I could only get to the calculators.  I've read that some major insurers have opted out of the state exchanges, at least for the first year.  It "may" be worth looking for other insurance providers outside of your state exchange to see if your family's "young, healthy, no maternity etc" needs are available at a lower cost elsewhere. At least worth a bit of internet time. 

I agree, they system was broke before for sure.  My father had a large laundry list of health issues everything from cancer to heart problems, my mother in law had 5 eye surgeries. I don't need a face to go with the sick and poor - they are my family.  And I never voiced an opinion about anyone being a drain on the system. That is not the point of my post.

My household alone is looking at $15,000 to have basic insurance with no current medical needs. This is not affordable health care. Don't I remember someone stating that the middle class could expect to save $2,500 with Obamacare? Well that is not what I see happening.

I will be searching for something less expensive, which probably means it will cover only the basics with a doctor I do not know or get to choose and carry an incredibly high deductible. And maybe I will save 200 bucks.

The open enrollment period has ended so I don't think so unless ACA makes them change that too? I don't know.

The name Affordable Care Act is misleading.  It has nothing to do with reducing the medical costs for the country as a whole, and it's hard to argue that it won't actually result in greater costs for everyone combined.  As others have said, it will allow people who had trouble getting insurance in the past to get it now.  That's about the only thing good I see about it.

IMHO, we need to find a way to make health care more affordable by addressing the actual costs, rather than just trying to funnel more money into the system like the ACA does.  Making it more affordable would actually help more people.  Forcing more money into the system just creates a drain on the economy.

My prediction is that as big of a mess as it appears to be now, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

What's the deductible and copay?  There are "affordable" premium plans in the bronze area but they then have a very high deductible/copay that make them unusable.

BTW, on a side note I have seen a lot of these calculators before and figured it would be "affordable" for most of the poor and the obvious benefits to the folks with pre-existing conditions.  My contentions were mostly around the costs not being sustainable and the increase in demand will drive costs up and quickly bankrupt the system.

However, now that the plans are starting to come out the "calculators" don't seem to be adding up to the reality numbers I'm seeing.  I'm also just digging into it a little more now, but I read something last night that says the law is written so that any states who don't have their own exchanges are not eligible for any Federal subsidies.  Supposedly the President has committed to ignoring that portion of the law and paying them anyways.  Oklahoma apparently has a lawsuit going up about this portion of the law.

A family of 4 (2 adults) making 30K a year would equate to both adults making less than minimum wage?  Hate to sound like an azz but if you've got 2 kids and you make 15K a year as an individual maybe health insurance isn't your biggest concern.

That's were the problem with the name comes into play.  AFAFBMEFM (Affordable for a Few But More Expensive for Most) just doesn't roll off of the tongue very well.