Has anyone (in U.S.) had any bad experiences with Obama Care?

Some of these posts anger me. First of all, my mom is living without meds, she is ambulatory, and she is doing very well five year beyond diagnosis. She is our treasure and the heart of our home. We take VERY good care of her. My father retired as a Group Vice President of an insurance company which left her with secondary insurance coverage for life. This made it possible for us to cover all her medical bills in combination with Medicare. With the role out of Obamacare, her secondary coverage has been cancelled. She is about to have a joint replacement and we will be covering the 20% remainder out of pocket. I HATE Obamacare and those who diminish the value of the "5%" who are now extremely burdened financially so that those who are NOT working and can NOT pay for their own coverage can be covered. Sorry about you daughter (to the posted above) who was left without insurance after the dissolution of her marriage but that is HER responsibility to provide her own coverage the same way that I have provided my own coverage for the entire duration of my life without expecting an handout. We are looking at a $10,000 expense this year and we WORKED our whole lives to PAY for coverage. And, btw, I have had friends with cancer too who were never (in the past) dropped from plans due to pre-existing conditions.

If your mother lost her secondary insurance, she would have had a special enrollment period to enroll in a Medicare supplement and Part D drug plan. That would pick up her deductible, 20% coinsurance and many of her RX expenses for a minimal premium.
Most of the people I have enrolled in ACA (Obamacare) ARE working but at jobs that don't offer insurance and don't pay enough to afford an insurance premium in addition to their other living expenses. Some are self employed & were not able to get ins because of pre-existing conditions (high blood pressure, diabetes, etc) and can now be insured.
A few were early retirees (early 60's) pushed out of their jobs & either not able to find another job or aren't able to work due to health/family situations and don't qualify for Medicare/SSID. Our state did not expand Medicaid so those who are not working get NO insurance. They have to pay the entire premium out of pocket if they want insurance. Otherwise they are exempt from purchasing insurance if their income is too low. I will agree it's not a perfect system but it's better than what we had. It sounds like your family has been very fortunate in many ways and this change is making you feel some of the financial burdens that multitudes of others have been feeling for decades.

I have Medicare as primary and as a federal retiree I have continued to carry health insurance and currently have BC/BS. The ACA doesn't affect me directly, but I strongly support it. Some 80,000 people in Nevada have signed up for Medicaid, far exceeding those on the private programs. People need health care and the expansion of benefits is great. It needs to go further in the future.

Obamacare is just too expensive. It would have cost me $1,0000 per month in just my monthly premium with a $10,000 deductible. So, I would have had to potentially pay 22,000 out of my pocket before anything would be paid. I will take my chances out of the market. For me, they need to scrap this program, put it back in the private sector hands and create a well informed committee made up of insurers, dr.'s and insurance companies, hospitals,and business owners to come up with plans that will meet the consumers expectations and a more affordable pricing and to allow cross state lines of purchasing plans and medical care. This will create competition and keep costs in check. Having this in the government hands is like giving candy to a baby, except this candy is every hard earned Americans money.

I can’t help but take issue with some of the comments and point out “the elephant in the room” underlying in the tone of the original question and implied by a few of the subsequent responses.

First if I may, I’ll make an analogy, then segue to my grievance here...

It’s anyone’s prerogative to have a cynical/pessimistic outlook on the world. Looking over one’s shoulder that some sorta bogey man gonna get em when they’re not keeping a watchful eye on other folks, or is about to take something away from them that was never rightfully theirs in the first place. Some personalities like arrive to an airport 3 hours before what others consider a manageable check in time. I get it. Convenience. For some, change isn't easy. But on the backs of some paranoias is why corporations make all sorts of money selling things like extended vehicle maintenance warranties (post manufacturers) or gap insurances to cover between a vehicles “blue book” value and any residual loan payments still to be made. In reality, those “perks” always seem to find some fine print loophole when being called upon for payout.

I’m a single black man in my mid 50’s. And these days I’m a full time caregiver to my 85 year old Mom. Thanks to my upbringing, I’ve enjoyed the luxury of life experiences most folks only get to dream of. Ivy educated. Pedigreed career, corner office, lived at some enviable addresses. Well traveled, etc. Now it’s my time to give my Mom a hand. She’s a feisty ol’ gal who’d never ask for anyone’s help. My caregiving isn’t lazy, cushy situation or a simple task. It’s probably the hardest job I’ve undertaken yet. For her, aging is complex and not an easy “one size fits all” transition. Nor (at this time) do I think “banishing” her to a substandard lifestyle on my behalf is ethical. So I’m doing it.

Since 2000, I haven’t had the luxury of “traditional” corporate provided healthcare. President Obama recognized that people like myself deserved a respectable choice. I’m grateful to have accessed Maryland’s network of Affordable Health Care plans. Here n there, I’ve advised on some noteworthy projects. As a self employed consultant, could have paid into some of those “fly by night” pseudo healthcare plans that folks are now pining over. Wisely they’re now been called out. Even then, I knew most were smoke n mirrors just waiting to prey on my hard earned income. Never “drank the cool aid” or signed into their too good to be true premiums. I’ve worked for many decades making sure people are fairly compensated in the workforce. Back in the late 1980’s, the “Fortune #1” company where I worked (in a traditional employment role) put pensioners on notice that they couldn’t afford to subsidize their “cadillac” coverages. Collective bargaining cried blasphemy. Those who are blessed with golden parachutes always seem to have a “let them eat cake” attitude about life and others around them. Nothing new about that. That advisement had been decades in the making, yet lots of time to craft the outcry from the outraged. I’m not so sympathetic to folks crying wolf when what they were accustomed to gets challenged. That’s real life.

I wish the demonizing would stop. Just yesterday, after shuttling my Mom to PT, we’d stopped to pick up a few grocery items. While buckling her in the passengers seat (leaning over from the drivers side) I carelessly left one foot on the ground and car door open. High winds slammed the door shut on my leg. Another time during a spring rain I lost my footing, bouncing off a guardrail, sliding on my back, 10 feet across a slimy sun deck falling onto an adjacent lower sidewalk. Meanwhile my Mom was totally distracted, engrossed in her own concentration, inspecting our caller ID for a phone number of cousin she’d lost touch with. Oblivious to my yelps. Once when she’d come home after a surgical procedure, I’ve gone days on little sleep to end up doing something careless to my finger with strawberries and a kitchen knife. Scary situations where my Mom was of little help. Me without health insurance. In the bigger picture, all minor stuff most folks on this thread probably take for granted. Thank goodness I was able to brush em off. In the meanwhile it's just pure luck nothing catastrophic occurred to my own life as her sole caregiver. These are real life situations. Now I’m thankful for not being treated like an outcast or marginalized. I’m glad OUR president bravely fulfilled a need that was neglected.

We all matter. Period.

Some folks seem to thrive on whining, find any platform to inappropriately place themselves on the “me too” bandwagon, place blame or hint some non sequitur is “unpatriotic”. My bad experiences with ACA are tolerating ugly side some folks have been waiting for any excuse to show us anyway. I love the “maybe” in the original question. As some would probably respond to my heartfelt tome, “no offense, buddy” LOL. But it is.

To SoHillsGal..how is a $25 premium. A 350 ded and $10 copay for someone "not in any way disabled" right? He is highly subsidized by taxpayers when he is not even disabled! He pays more for a haircut than a doctor visit. That is not a "reasonable" premium. He should be insurable at the same rates that others have to pay. Part of the problem is expecting excellent health care for practically free. Health care is not free or cheap.

Huge mess! I have spent over 100 hours trying to get signed up and have been unable to do so yet! I am beyond disgusted. These problems are THEIR computer issues and I have spent so much time trying to fix it it is ridiculous. In Dec I was told to write a formal appeal, which I have done, but of course I have not yet heard back from them and last week when I called on the phone I was threatened by the "supervisor" that I just better sign up for something or even though I had submitted this appeal that they would fine me anyway and I would still have no insurance. Beyond disgusted

I know many have heard that people had their health insurance cancelled but what is left out of the information is that a vast majority of those people were automatically moved to new plans offered by the same insurance companies. These people might not be happy with their new coverage, but they got a plan without going through HealthCare.gov.

And please note, many of the people above probably would have had their insurance cancelled even without the ACA.

I'd like your opinions about this. My mother is in an assisted living facility. She pays the entire cost---she isn't on Medicaid---but I believe most of the other residents are on Medicaid. We just received a letter from the facility stating: "Despite practicing every cost saving measure, we are forced to readjust resident fees as of May 1, 2014 due to the mandated Obamacare Health Insurance and the every [sic] increasing cost of food, utilities, and insurance." My mother's rate went up almost 10%. The letter ended "Please be patient as we struggle with the new and onerous mandates." Is there any possible basis in fact for this letter or are the administrators of the facility using Obamacare as an excuse for a rate increase?

“…create a well informed committee made up of insurers, dr.'s and insurance companies, hospitals, and business owners to come up with plans that will meet the consumers expectations and a more affordable pricing …”

Very sorry, Junkkit, but that is what SHOULD have happened during the previous administration. One big reason Obama was elected president is because almost nothing was done to improve health care as you suggested during the previous 8 years. 50 million people without insurance finally got to be just too many.

Please listen to SoHillsGal, an insurance agent, who every day is finding people affordable coverage. Remember that the premiums and out of pocket maximums are scaled to income, so many people who think they can’t afford it are surprised when they actually meet with an insurance agent and find out that they can.

And yes, Obamacare is being used as an excuse for all sorts of things, many of which were already happening beforehand, like overall rate increases. If you were running a company and wanted a handy excuse to cover up your misdeeds, blaming ‘the government’ usually works. The difference is, in this case, Obamacare set actual performance standards, minimum acceptable benefits, and affordability caps, along with the requirement that no one be denied coverage. All of that is shaking up the medical insurance ‘industry’, and they’re feeling a little uncomfortable right now. But 50 million people are able to sleep at night knowing that a heart attack, or a cancer diagnosis, is not going to bankrupt them and their families. And I am one of them.

Realtime, in ny state, al is never covered by medicaid. Don't know about other states.

ba8alou, I suppose it depends on the definition of "assisted living." This particular facility (Florida) does receive payments from Medicaid. But it's a non-profit facility that receives funding from the state, rather than a private facility, and many of the residents are very, very frail.

I have epilepsy, fibromyalgia, asthma, diabetes, coccydenia, Prinzmetal's angina and a mild form of cardiomyopathy. I was uninsurable except through my husbands work. He is 63 yrs old, and not in great shape himself. As he is 5 years older than me, he was going to have to work until he was 70 so I could reach retirement age - I didn't think he would last that long since his work days were typically 14hrs long/7days a week. He might get one day off every 2 weeks. I finally decided to check out the ACA, and discovered we could both get better coverage for less than what we already were paying, so he retired. It's been 3 weeks now and my husband is starting to smile again.

I was stucked with @pstegman reply. Good point to note.

To Blannie - I've not had luck with the ACA..could you please share which plan you signed up for and how much you pay? If people who found great plans at a great price would share this info, it would help more of us who have having problems. Thanks so much...I'm hoping I hear from you or anyone.

Russkm I don't know that my sharing will help...but I signed up (I'm in Illinois) for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan that is a Gold PPO Plan. I was previously with BC/BS and was paying close to $500 a month (which was going to increase in 2014 to about $550 and has increased every year I had it). My plan (with the discount based on my income) is $280 a month with a $1,500 deductible. My previous deductible was $2,400. I believe I can now get a colonoscopy (which I've put off) covered as a preventative service at no cost to me. Before I would have paid the full shot.

When I left my corporate employer and had to get self insured, only BC/BS would even quote me (I went through a broker). I am healthy (no meds, no history of medical issues). My dad died at 92 and my mom is 94. So my genes are pretty dam*ed good. But because I'm overweight, no one else would even give me a quote. So the idea that I can always have coverage is VERY big to me. And that I don't have to fear being denied coverage is also VERY big to me.

I truly believe that a lot of the horror stories are put out by people who either don't understand insurance (I'm a former HR person, so spent 20 years working with benefits) or haven't really looked to see what is available. The individuals that have been highlighted in the media and identified have (when tracked down by the media) had programs available to them that they didn't know about or wouldn't investigate because of their hatred for Obama. Which is just plain silly.

Or they are high income people who have to pay a bit more now and aren't happy about that. I'm sorry for they have to pay more, but for the millions who need coverage, it's a blessing. A blessing that I am VERY happy about. I've worked since I was 19 and have never taken a penny of government assistance. No unemployment insurance (which I've paid for in all of my jobs), no welfare, no food stamps, etc.

If you're unsure or confused about what coverage is available to you, contact a navigator to get some help. If you need info about where to go, post it and I'll research it and send you a note.

My husband and I are in CA. On our corporate plan, we were paying appx $500/month for an HMO with only local access. Our ACA plan is a multi state Anthem Blue Shield Silver PPO plan. There is no deductible, and a $4500 out of pocket maximum for the family/yr. Prescriptions are $3/$5/ or $10 + 20% for non formulary drugs. Our monthly premium, based on our new reduced income, is only $139.70. If we make more money (based on odd jobs or if I get disability, which I hope to if my appeal goes through), then we will pay extra at tax time (remember, these are tax credits that are given early in the form of premium assistance) and the premiums will go up.

My only bad experience was getting on the web-site when it was initially available. After that, found it pretty nice to be able to decide what level of health care I wanted and to be able to compare plans in my price range in order to find the one that fits my family the best.

With myself self-employed and my husband unemployed, am just pleased as anything about being able to get affordable health care as, in the past, we'd just go without.

When you're laid-off, you have the option of COBRA, but it's quite expensive, actually AND your eligibility period runs out after some period of time, so it's not a long-term option.

Health care and health insurance are two different things. From my perspective, the problems the ACA has experienced are largely due to the insurance companies -- these companies are being forced to insure people they'd rather not insure (i.e. older, sicker people who will cost them more). Thus, they've raised rates across the board. Lower income people will get subsidies from the government to help, but a lot of people (especially a huge chunk of middle-income families) won't.

It's not the government that is raising rates -- it's the insurance companies. And it's not the government that's cancelling policies -- again, it's the insurance companies. My individual policy through BC/BS was cancelled because it "didn't meet the requirements of the ACA." Why didn't it meet those requirements? Because it didn't include maternity care! Well, I'm 62, so I have no need for maternity benefits! But my new policy, which will cost me about $100 more per month with a 50% larger deductible, includes maternity care! This isn't the government's fault; it's the insurance companies that are doing whatever they need to do to keep their profits up (and that means getting their money in any way they can). There are only two questions they are now permitted to ask when they are insuring people under the ACA -- how old are you, and do you smoke? Older people like me are getting hit with higher premiums and increased deductibles so the insurance companies can keep their profits up.

We need good, affordable health care in this country -- not health insurance! Insurance companies make money by denying care, as we've all found out over the years. I applaud President Obama for attempting to do something about the ridiculously expensive health industry in this country, but it's hard to put something together that works if you have to cater to insurance companies. I'm hoping that a single-payer option is eventually available, which would provide actual HEALTH CARE (rather than health insurance) for the huge percentage of Americans who are struggling each month to pay their insurance premiums -- not their health care bills, their insurance premiums!

pamstegman I just had that same discussion yesterday. The healthcare industry has stopped it's original intent to keep people healthy and heal. It is now a huge business that is only concerned with the bottom line. Regulating our insurance companies private and gov't was needed in the worst way.

To those that blame ins companies...the ACA limits the amount insurance companies can make over cost of claims to 20 percent. BEFORE EXPENSES. So out of that 20 put come all their costs and profit which is below 5 pct. So the reason insurance prem are raised is because cost of claims paid out for meds and Rx are rising. Like I said..Lots of mis - information out there..There is no one villain in this mess. Plus insurance companies have the network leverage to negotiate huge discounts w hosp and doctors..which are passes on to policyholders.

realtime, did they use the term Obamacare? Because anyone who uses it, especially in a professional setting such as an Assisted Living facility regarding my mothers finances would get a huge side eye and lack of respect to their business practices from me. It's not Obamacare. It's the Affordable Care Act. ACA for short. Unless of course you are paraphrasing. Also the COL has gone up and that isn't because of Obama or the ACA.

I was part of that 5% that were a big issue for the ACA, but I was able to get it worked out. My problem was that my income now is low, but I have good retirement savings. I am self employed. This year my insurance premiums almost doubled. I couldn't afford them, but I also didn't qualify for any relief when I was considering only my income. I didn't qualify for Medicaid, either. I imagine all of this is a common caregiver problem, since our incomes are low and our savings might be high.

The solution was pretty simple. I started pulling down a bit of money from my Roth IRA each year to put me in the qualifying zone.

It's rather funny. The thing that pulled my income down so low last year besides having a bad year was my healthcare insurance. It was very expensive, of course, and totally deductible. It made me realize that I was working for the insurance companies. Not a good thought!

Anyway, after a bad start with being in the 5% that fell through the cracks, my retirement money pulled me out of it. I don't like to have to depend on taking any out, so I hope customers will be buying more this year. So far so good this year. I was able to qualify for help with the insurance, so now am paying less than I was last year. Yea! Insurance was driving this modest person to the poor house.

I personally think the problem with healthcare is the cost of the care itself. It is ridiculous. I know what the president wanted to do is to have one payer in order to help contain the cost of healthcare. Somehow the AMA and insurance companies convinced people that they actually did want to continue to pay more. They are tricky and most people don't even realize how foxed they were.

Meghart, believe it or not, the letter said exactly what I quoted. It was so outrageous that I wondered if I should respond, or report it to the state agency regulating ALFs, or write a letter to the editor of the local paper. But I suppose there was nothing illegal about it (it's clearly unethical). Then I worried about repercussions for my mother. The letter came out just as the ALF was undergoing an inspection by the state, following an anonymous complaint about serious management problems. Maybe they wanted to distract us from their other problems?

I just have to respond to a couple of these statements. Kacunnin, it IS the government that is causing policies to be cancelled, and it is the government that is requiring you to pay for maternity coverage. Policies were cancelled if they did not meet the new government mandated coverage requirements under the ACA. One of those requirements is maternity coverage for everyone, regardless of age. My insurance was cancelled because it was through a professional group, and my husband's office was a sub-group of one, which was not allowed under the ACA. BC/BS would have been happy to renew our old policy, and, in fact, offered to do just that after the government extended the mandate for another year, but I had already contracted for replacement coverage. I didn't think the savings was worth going through the hassle of cancelling the new coverage and going through the whole process again next year.

My other response is about the rising cost of health care. I agree that health care costs have risen sharply for many years. A significant percentage of this increase is due to the vast improvement in care, and the availability of procedures to improve health. If you went to a doctor forty years ago with a bad knee, you would have been given a cane. Today you get a knee replacement. Organ transplants have saved countless lives. My cousin's wife has had two liver transplants and a kidney transplant. She was diagnosed with a rare liver abnormality as a young mother in her twenties. These procedures were covered by insurance and are very expensive, requiring extended hospital stays and lots of equipment. They have allowed her to live to see her children grow up, and graduate from high school, and she has been able to welcome a grandchild into her life. None of this would have been possible if she had been born a generation earlier. Since insurance pays for things like this, in effect we all pay. Health insurance spreads the cost around, just like the insurance on your car or your house. It's the same situation with the earlier poster who has a son who will be able to get expensive scans while paying a very low premium and deductible. We all contribute to his care through our premiums.

I agree that there should be some control over the profits that insurance companies are allowed to keep, They negotiate reimbursement rates with healthcare providers, thus limiting the profits of the providers, so their profits should be limited, too. Hopefully, competition in the marketplace and the profit limitations will solve this.

Rising healthcare costs aren't just about the advances in medicine. Costs vary from city to city and state to state. I just looked up the average cost of an appendectomy and it varied tremendously, with the average in the US of $33K. A typical copay would be about $6.6K -- a large amount of money from most of us, and to me seems like what such a standard procedure should cost. I was not really surprised to read that the operation cost less in more rural hospitals.

Appendectomies can be done more easily than they once could and the person may have to stay over night to stabilize. $33K is a big bill for a quick procedure and an overnight stay.

Compare the cost of US healthcare costs to those in other countries and you'll be really shocked. Our healthcare costs are so over-inflated it is disgusting. The same procedure in another country cost probably 1/3 of what it does here.

As for medical advancements, they have been tremendous for sure. However, they are keeping people alive longer yet not offering people better options to continue the care it takes to live medically or financially. We can keep people alive but can they afford to live a meaningful life while doing it?

Here is an article on the difference of cost that is interesting.
http://247wallst.com/healthcare-economy/2012/03/05/the-28000-appendectomy/

It is interesting. Your results were similar to the ones I found. I found others that had smaller sample sizes with different amounts reported. I couldn't find any report on what insurance actually paid and what the actual copay would be. That would be useful information. It is clear to see that without insurance in the US, a simple operation like an appendectomy could be financially devastating. It is sad that we can be so worried about our own healthcare system. I am so glad that our elders have Medicare.

Jessie, I don't want to argue about why healthcare costs are higher. There are many reasons, and I said that advances were responsible for a significant percentage, not the entire amount. As far as regional differences, insurance companies enter into contracts with providers that dictate what the provider will be paid. These rates vary greatly by location, supposedly because of factors like cost of facilities (it is more expensive to build a hospital in New York City than it is in a rural area of South Dakota), wages in the area, etc. My husband, a pediatrician, (which is one of the lowest reimbursed specialties), can charge whatever he likes, but he will only get paid what the insurance contract (or Medicaid) allows. He cannot bill the patient for the difference. I don't know of another profession where a third party determines what you can be paid for your work or products. If his cost for a vaccine is more than the reimbursement, he takes the loss. I have often wished that I had "gas station insurance" so that I could fill up my car, and then pay only the amount that my insurance contract allowed.

Comparing foreign costs is even more complicated. Health care delivery systems vary greatly. There are as many opinions about the Canadian system or the British system as there are patients. One thing that has always seemed unfair to me is that foreign health care systems are reaping the rewards of research, development and stringent testing that occurs in the US without paying for any of it. The companies that develop new equipment or drugs are trying to recoup their costs. They only have a limited time to do this before the drugs go generic or patents expire. If they can't make a profit, they go out of business, and we don't get the benefit of new treatments. About ten years ago, I needed a relatively new drug which was quite expensive. I paid for it for 18 months. If I needed it today, I could use the far cheaper generic that is now available. Am I angry that patients today get this drug for so much less? Of course not, I am just glad that it was available when I needed it. You never know when you might benefit from research. Even that easier appendectomy is the result of research into less invasive surgical procedures and the development of the equipment to do it. My grandmother's seven year old brother had his appendectomy done on the kitchen table and did not survive.

Is there waste in the health care delivery system? Absolutely, but again, there are a multitude of reasons for this. Malpractice insurance, government requirements (always changing), licensing fees, permit fees, inspection fees, time spent getting pre-approvals from insurance companies, all add to the cost of health care without providing any services to the patient, but at the same time, all these regulations help to maintain the quality health care that we expect.

And I agree with meghart13 about keeping people alive without meaning. I guess that is why we should all have medical directives and the courage to make the tough decisions about how much care our loved ones should have. Those of us who have faced this know how hard it is, and I would never presume to tell someone else what they should do.

I wish that we could find a way to make high quality health care available and affordable for everyone. At the same time, I want research and development to continue toward new treatments and cures, and I want health care providers to be fairly compensated for their investment in training and equipment, and the time spent providing care. If they are not, provider shortages will become the norm. I just wish I knew how to make it all happen.