I can only speak for myself, but if not for the ACA I would be dead or hundreds of thousands in debt, or both. I was diagnosed with aortic stenosis and needed a valve replacement and pacemaker in January. The tests, hospital stays, cardiac rehab, medications, etc. totaled more than $250,000 alone. My total out of pocket expenses was $106 a month for premiums, with the subsidies, and $1,850 in deductibles with my ACA plan. I never had a problem with my insurance company and the medical care I received and doctors I saw were all great. Thank you Obama.
9
I pay $20,000 a year for lousy ACA insurance, where high co-pays and deductibles make it even more unaffordable. Despite paying all this, I don't even know if it would be covered if someone in my family got a serious illness. How these health insurance plans are viewed as anything but an enormous rip-off and burden on the middle class is beyond me.
4
Well, they're all going up in Vermont: 11% for ours. As it has every year since the ACA preempted an actually affordable state plan that had been in place.
And about those subsidies. They're based on the adjusted gross income (AGI) on your tax return: below 133% of the federal poverty level, you are expected to pay 2% of your AGI; from 133% to 299%, it's a sliding scale from 3.02% to 9.53%; and from 300% to 400% you must pay 9.56%. So 10% of your AGI appears to be what the ACA considers to be "affordable".
This past year, 401% of the federal poverty level for a couple was $65,122, and you're no longer eligible for subsidies. 10% of that is $6,512, or $543/month. What insurance is available at that premium?
Obamacare is a cruel sham.
3
A group never mentioned is transitioning seniors, those who are no longer working or able to work, no longer eligible for COBRA, but too young to start with Medicare. These people are living off savings and/or claiming social security at minimum age in order to make ends meet, and the $900-$1000 a month for the "benchmark" silver plan (in our state, at least) for someone in this age group is unaffordable. We need a practical solution for these people now.
6
no mention of the deductibles that go along with those falling prices. When a family of four pays $1500 a month for health insurance and has a $10,000 deductible on top of that, can you really say they're insured if they don't have the cash savings to pay for that?
I also find it laughable that Republicans have drafted a plan to offer reinsurance to help out private companies who face large losses that they weren't prepared for. What is that word that is used to describe the government redistributing money to people....? Oh yes, "socialism". I guess the old adage of socialism for the rich still rings true.
9
As a person who lives in a state where which has nearly, 50 rating territories, and charges higher premiums in Longmont, than Bouldder, because Boulder is in the Denver rating area, and Longmont is not (the two cities are 7 miles apart), I have useless insurance, with a $6700 deductible, and that policy goes fro nearly $1000/ month, before a subsidy. I am 64 years old.
I am waiting see how much "Lower" these premiums are.
I am less than a year from receiving Medicare and living on Social Security and an IRA.
What I despise bout the ACA, that, even if I am healthy, I must pay six times more than someone who is in their late 20s. What I also despise is that teh state and insurance companies, have 50 rating territories for the state; instead of one.
There is some solace in this, if I lived, in one of the mountain counties, my premiums would be 10% to 20% higher.
Universal care is noble goal, but it should not cost someone a mortgage payment to be insured. And, have to pay nearly $7000 before the policy si even useful.
8
“The A.C.A. simply doesn’t work and is still unaffordable for far too many,” Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, said on Monday. “But until Congress gets around to replacing it, President Trump will do what he can to fix the problems created by this system for millions of Americans."
Another gem that will be enshrined in the Trump-Republican Party Gaslighting Hall of Fame.
14
Mr Azar, and Ms Verma
“The A.C.A. simply doesn’t work and is still unaffordable for far too many,” Alex M. Azar II,
It works for the patients I see everyday, It is not good as the fully government funded insurance Mr. Azar and Ms Verma enjoy, but it works, and it is better than the non-existing replacement.
Your jobs should be to come up with ideas to fix Obamacare, same way social security and medicare were amended multiple times.
12
ACA was a great idea, destroyed by Republican idea of economics:
ACA Silver plan:
2019 - $776 Mo (6816 year + 2500)*
2018 - $570 Mo (4341 year + 2500)
2017 - $458 Mo (3006 year + 2500)
2016 - $401 Mo (2312 year + 2500)
2015 - $323 Mo (1386 year + 2500)
* 20% of my income. I am 57, in good health, medications consume the deductible every year.
If Mitch McConnell had a silver plan paying a similar rate he would be paying $40,000 per month ($2.4M yr * 20% / 12).
1
Trump will take credit for the falling premiums.
His supporters will cheer.
This is a win for Trump.
Facts are meaningless to his supporters.
3
Wow if this trend continues, the current White House occupant will start claiming it was his idea all along.
4
During a 60 Minutes interview in 2016 candidate Trump boldly and confidently made the following health care promise:
“I am going to take care of everybody... Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.”
Three years later and we’re all still waiting for the glorious “replace” part of the Republican’s “repeal and replace” efforts. Still waiting. Still waiting. Still waiting...
7
Why don’t the NYT, and the people, talk about the real issue!
Healthcare is not republicans vs. democrats’ issue. It is special interest vs. rest of the people in America. The medical board, the pharma industry, the insurers…they are all bankrolling the politicians to spin their wheels. Not making a decision is a decision in itself.
I say, flood the country with medical schools and doctors (like they did with lawyers). Loosen the regulations so foreigners can practice medicine in this country. Heck…the human body is the same in China, India, and America! Do this, and see what happens in 10-15 years.
I will tell you: $700 for appendectomy; $5000 for a heart bypass surgery.
Alas…the 19% GDP will not be able to accept the shock to the system. So, lets just talk about it until we are blue in our face…living…and dead!
/Super Ugh!
2
“But until Congress gets around to replacing it, President Trump will do what he can to fix the problems created by this system for millions of Americans.”
How many people believe this after Trump has done everything in his power to repeal the ACA? What a joke.
1
Mine is going up.
3
"OBAMACARE IS A JOB KILLER !!"
- Some dude who you don't hear from anymore
1
Obamacare 1
TrumpScare 0
1
The nine most terrifying words you can hear today: "I'm with your insurance company -- I'm here to help!"
Our market baed health care system has failed us. And the government can do better. Medicaid may have issues, but they are nowhere near the issues the market based systems has created... we have to fix this!
Why?
-- We spend more -- ⅓ more-- per person on healthcare than any other country in the world.That means, for every three people, the next closest country, in terms of spending, can insure a 4th person for free.
--- It is obvious profits and healthcare do not mix unless they are reasonable. As American's, we don't do reasonable; we do obscene. Insurance companies, and specifically Pharma companies, are there to make a profit! And as we've seen they will even get you addicted and kill you!
Right now, we DO NOT treat the patient as the most important person in the healthcare mix. Instead, we treat every other person -- the insurance execs, the pharma execs, the doctors, the nurses, and even the paper pushers -- better than the patient.
-- Furthermore, market based healthcare providers have no incentive to take quality records. In fact, taking poor records benefits them because they can charge for one more you for a test you probably don't even need. Poor records = more money!
Costs are too high and it isn't the patients fault. So let's keep the above in mind and talk about how we can bring down costs and make healthcare a right for every American resident.
3
Obamacare was the only option for my wife and me after her employer unilaterally ended its "pre-retiree" health insurance program with 60 days notice just two years after she accepted an early retirement package. Yes, our ACA policy is expensive given our age, but there are no pre-existing conditions that preclude coverage. The deductibles are high but it does pay for preventative stuff like exams and colonoscopies. And we don't qualify for the premium tax credit. The purpose of the insurance is to mitigate the risk of a financially catastrophic injury or illness. We pay our bills; I'm not going to stiff some hospital because I choose to not have insurance. Sure, I wish the premiums and deductibles were lower. And they might have been if the Republicans kept the no-insurance penalty in place. Younger people would have reduced the risk of the pool and lowered premiums and deductibles for everyone.
24
^^^^^ T H I S ^^^^^^^
2
'Medicare For All' would be a boon to national security, free up everyone to spend more money into the system and would prevent spending by the government on unnecessary invasions and tax cuts for the already wealthy.
7
Premiums are just part of the picture. Co-pays and deductibles are rising faster than inflation. You also need to look at changes in (limiting) preferred treatment plans and drug lists, limited networks.
10
This is true for all insurances. We have private insurance through my husband’s employer (an international bank) and the same thing is happening to us.
7
Yes, so let's rapidly move forward with the Republican Party's plan to replace the ACA with......nothing.
2
“co-pays and deductibles” are set by insurers competing in a free-market. They have nothing to do with regulation or legislation
1
I am not eligible for a subsidy. I buy my family insurance through the exchange. The premium is going up over 9% next year. The premium + deductible will easily be 30% of my income next year for a terrible plan that has a small provider network with no out of network and no out of state coverage. This is not sustainable.
31
@Eric The middle class is dying and the far left does not get it...they want to give "free" healthcare to all illegal immigrants while the American middle class gets crushed. Talk about tone deaf.
3
Thank the GOP & Trump! Where is the 'great plan' they have blockaded about for years? Clue: there ain't one! All they've done is try to foul up the ACA with a thousand cuts. They should have been working across the aisle to improve it, but that would displease their Corporate Masters.
5
how is the deductible an expense? Are you guaranteed to exceed this max cost with expenses above and beyond this cap?
As for “available networks”, that’s a function of market conditions related to where you live. More people = larger market = more competition.
Perhaps you could move to a blue state that expanded Medicare (red states chose not to expand for political reasons).
Republicans tried to kill the ACA in 2017 and replace with a 'Drop Dead, America' sign.
The GOP came up a few votes short of ripping healthcare away from 15 million Americans.
Before then and since then, they have tried to kill though a hundred knife cuts, but it's still alive.
Republicans could fix the ACA's shortcomings, but they refuse because they can't stand to help the unrich.
Even today, a Senate bill to decrease ACA costs by expanding federal-state reinsurance programs across the country (drafted by Republican Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Susan Collins of Maine) is being held up by Monarch Mitch McConnell.
Thanks, Mitch McConnell, for working hard to make American healthcare a failed rip-off....and representative government a fantasy.
Nice GOPeople.
52
@Socrates
GOPers attempts to decimate Healthcare, alone, should kill any chance of Republicans winning the WH, the House and Senate.
One MILLION fewer children have have coverage now thanks to these current GOPers!
3
It's time to make the legislature choose--offer us the same government healthcare they receive, or turn it down for the healthcare we all get.
1
“Now, a correction is taking place. Some of the states with the biggest premium increases this year, including Delaware and North Dakota, will see the biggest decreases in 2020. There will be 20 more insurers selling plans next year in the federal marketplace, which is used by people in 38 states, bringing the total to 175. That will be the largest number of issuers since 2016. Only two states, Delaware and Wyoming, will have a single insurer selling plans under the law next year, compared with five states currently.”
Maybe the health insurance market is finding its footing?
Or...
Maybe Medicare for All is scaring the living daylights out of them.
Trust me, nothing operates in a vacuum. Prices only decrease when competition abounds. Especially if that competition is the SOLE BUYER. A condition where nothing (or very little) is negotiable.
A shot has been fired across the bow. The Healthcare Industry is taking notice.
But it’s too little, too late.
12
Trump will somehow take credit for this
8
Despite the very best efforts of the GOP and Trump to kill Obamacare—and to erase our first black president from history—the ACA remains, and the legacy of Obama shines brighter than ever.
During ALL THAT TIME what exactly have the GOP and Trump actually DONE? About...anything?
Still trying to think? So am I....
29
No One Knew this was so difficult!
1
Thanks, Obama.
20
@Yeah You must not use Obamacare of if you do get heavy subsidies.
2
Or I read the article.
By the way, the subsidies are part of ObamaCare. What’s wrong with someone being grateful for having them? I don’t see people with insurance through their employers being told to feel guilty about the $300B in tax breaks thrown their way every year.
2
So a family of four will pay $18 240 a year for health Insurance. A single 27-yar-old will pay $4656 a year for health insurance. And then if you fell sick or have an accident you have to pay over $ 4 500 of your own pocket to cover deductible. To use a old slogan of the Clinton 1992's campaign it is looking that the problem is THE PRICE STUPID!
11
Healthcare is a joke in this country. I enjoyed a good healthcare plan in the private sector until I decided to start my own business. The annual health premium of $24K just to participate is ridiculous. Not to mention the program is riddled with exclusions and “fine print” that only a healthcare attorney can understand.
America’s healthcare plan: do not get sick! Ugh!
26
@Sam
Starting your own business IS the private sector
1
Republicans who want to trash ACA say that it forces high costs on Americans who can't afford the premiums. But the article says: "... the health law is coming to serve almost exclusively the struggling families and individuals who qualify for federally subsidized coverage."
Trump created cheaper non-ACA insurance policies with inferior coverage. Since the article says that ACA plans are now thriving, it seems that we have good reason not to abolish them. (Of course, don't try to reason about health with most Republicans.)
4
It is not thriving at all, it means that more and more of middle class can not afford the insurance on the market exchange. Obamacare is relatively good for low-income families ( but high deductible make healthcare unaffordable even for them) but drives up the premiums for the middle class who are not qualified for subsidies.
6
@Jerry "Republicans who want to trash ACA"
Democrats want to give "free" healthcare to illegal immigrants....far far worse....paid for by the American middle class.
1
Agreed that falling premiums probably have more to do with fear of Medicare for All than with “resilience” of ACA.
6
Trump taking credit for “fixing” Obamacare would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.
14
I hope when people go to vote they remember there is one party, the Democratic Party, that gave Americans Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, and Health Care. And, that there is one party, the Republican Party, that has systematically over the years tried to destroy them all.
27
We need Medicare For All now.
16
@It's me
Yes, I would rather wait in long lines at the hospital and/or at the doctor’s office…over receiving exorbitant bills that I will never be able to pay leading to bankruptcy, loss of assets and becoming homeless!
America, let’s not risk our tomorrow for a little inconvenience today!
1
The ACA does meet a need that was not satisfied. Why accepting that annoys people on the right is rather difficult to explain without concluding that they are out of touch with the world in which they live.
9
We need to do whatever it takes for people to be covered by insurance.
6
Health insurance is garbage and should be abolished. It's an entrenched system of collusion and price-fixing that ruins us. How can we allow it to go on?
13
Let's face it, the ACA, ("ObamaCare"), stinks.
The non-existent Republican plan will stink if if it ever materializes.
Here is MikeCare. It almost doesn't stink.
You know how the government pays to provide us with universal necessities like cops, education, libraries, road construction and repair, fire departments, snow removal, defense, garbage removal and the like? That's what we need in regard to medical care to make sure that everyone in the country, regardless of wealth or income, is covered. Just like with the other services medical services should be paid for using the taxes which we pay.
You go to whatever doctor you want, you pay a deductible to discourage frivolous medical visits, and the medical providers get paid according to a reasonable government schedule that is tailored to region. Medical providers who do not want to accept what the government is paying can do so by posting a notice in their offices to that effect. You either pay the difference or go elsewhere. In any event you get the best possible care which is what we all deserve.
What is the argument in favor of letting people get sick and die just because they are financially distressed? And that's the end of it. Welcome to the 21st Century! If it makes the prez feel good call it "TrumpCare".
12
every governmental service you listed (save “defense”) is not a function of the FEDERAL government. They are city, county or state responsibilities.
@MIKEinNYC
What you describe here is what they have in Canada, England, France, Germany, etc., etc. It's what Democrats have been advocating for many years. The government should pay for health care and we contribute through our taxes. Mike is right.
2
@Ray
So?
How about this, DEA, FAA, FCC, defense, border control, federal courts, DA, EPA, want more? USPS, DOJ, VA, DOJ, FBI, FDA, and lots more.
2
Don’t fall for this.
This is the medical insurance marketplace’s gambit to make you like their snake oil so that you don’t vote for a better system in 2020.
Throw this private medical insurance fraud system into the garbage can—where it rightly belongs.
10
I hope some providers will pick it up again. I just heard NYU Langone gynecology is dropping all ACA plans.
2
Premiums went down slightly, deductibles went up more...
8
So on balance your saying Trump’s stewardship of ACA is net positive?
So you’re asking rhetorical questions?
Look, if you want to make a point, make it. Then back it up with facts
And if it were not for John McCain, there would not even be an Affordable Care Act. The reality of life and death.
In March 2010, we saw Barack Obama give people a chance - a decent real chance to have an alternative healthcare insurance. As an RN Case Manager who tried to help people in the recession, people who had lost their jobs, lost their healthcare insurance, about to lose anything they had, I rejoiced at the ACA signing.
Donald Trump and his cronies tried and tried and tried to rid this country of a healthcare insurance that would not only prevent them from going broke, but it could literally save millions of lives!
This announcement today is interesting. Prices going down, more companies taking on policies. Giving more people a chance.
But how close we came to decimation. And at whose expense?
21
It's disappointing that the article didn't mention the biggest reason for premiums rising under Trump: him stopping the cost sharing reduction payments which are supposed to be required under the law. This caused the insurers to"silver load", jacking up the prices on silver plans so that the government would end up paying for what the CSR was covering one easy or another. At least for subsidized enrollees. For those without a subsidy, this made silver plans too expensive for the coverage they provided, so I'm sure that was why many of the unsubsidized dropped out, being unable to afford a gold plan and deciding a bronze plan didn't offer enough coverage. This is why I dropped to a bronze plan, the silver plan I preferred became way too expensive after Trump dropped the CSR payments.
9
Insurers are running scared. What will happen to their profits if either Warren or Sanders become POTUS. On the one hand, I am happy for us Americans who will be faced with less onerous premiums and more choices. It is the desired end to which President Obama aspired. But let us remember that this was our former president's creation. He was thinking of us. This latest "plan" in the long run still focuses on profits for health care CEO's and their corporations. It also, deceptively, shines a spot light on a man who if left to his own devices would take away any means of making Americans healthier. Do not be fooled.
15
It has been over two years since the Republicans "Repeal and Replace" effort failed. Why, Mr. Azar, are we still waiting to see the details of the plan to "Replace" the ACA? This seems like a dereliction of duty, especially in light of the Supreme Court challenge to the ACA.
12
Who knew health care could be so complicated?
Who knew that “Obamacare” would be so resilient?
This much I know is true: We’ll never see a solid health care proposal from Trump or the Republicans.
24
Mr. Obama is a brilliant constitutional law scholar and when it came to Obamacare he knew what he was doing. The Republicans who are trying undo it are simply not the sharpest tools in the shed, may be politically savvy but are but are ill-informed populists.
8
''President Trump will do what he can to fix the problems created by this system for millions of Americans.”
He could help it most by resigning.
32
His resignation would definitely improve my mental health!
1
"Seema Varma...said that from 2016 to 2018, the number of health-law enrollees who did not qualify for premium subsidies dropped by 2.5 million people, or 40 percent.
It was inevitable that Obamacare’s affordability crisis would eventually increase the number of uninsured,” Ms. Verma said, pointing to new census data showing a rise in the number of higher-income Americans without insurance."
Hmm. A ten-year-long recovery and rising wages couldn't have anything to do with that, could it?
For anyone in the GOP to blame a law they've been fighting to disrupt since day one is like an arsonist blaming the damage to your home on the fact that you carelessly had things that burning gasoline can set on fire.
4
To think, it still works this well despite 10 years of constant sabotage. Imagine if Republicans actually sought to make it better?
47
When a society sees everything as a "for profit" transaction - even the health of its own people upon which the society depends - there is a fundamental flaw in thinking.
A flaw in the collective soul of that society.
A massive shift in how we see ourselves and our fellow humans will have to be brought to bear before we can have rational, compassionate, normal discussion about a basic human issue: should people be able to live a decent life that includes care when we all inevitably need it?
This is about our hearts and our goodness.
And how we intelligently blend that with health care delivery to our people.
A shift in consciousness and view of ourselves and each other. How can we care more about each other?
That's what we need to hear about from our leaders. Not just numbers.
34
My monthly bill from our current insurer is set to rise 20% in 2020. Guess our plan isn't popular enough.
10
@Concerned Citizen
It means something when the price goes up 20% for the same plan and deductible. FWIW $6500 for 1 person.
1
The out of pocket max for a 2019 individual plan is $7,900. By definition a deductible has to be less than (or equal to) the out of pocket max. So it is not possible to have a 2019 ACA ("Obamacare") plan for an individual that has a $9,000 deductible. You've either made a mistake in relaying the information or you don't have an ACA plan.
You may have an off-marketplace plan or one of the short-term junk insurance plans that the administration reduced regulation of.
"The health law is coming to serve almost exclusively the struggling families and individuals who qualify for federally subsidized coverage." ... "For many of those who do not qualify for subsidies under the health law — people earning more than 400 percent of the poverty level, which comes to just under $50,000 for a single person — premiums will remain out of reach."
This is not a functioning market. The goal posts of who's too poor to receive the subsidy obviously needs to be moved. The goal posts of who's to pay for that subsidy also needs to be moved. The taxman cometh...
26
I somehow make too much money to get any federal subsidy at all, yet premiums for two people is more money than I have after rent, etc. Is the assumption that everyone who makes more than $50,000 a year has an extra $500 a month laying around?
Right now I have health insurance through my work but it's pretty much all the money I have. My wife has to go uninsured because the marketplace, private insurance, etc are all too expensive. She works part time and her employer does not offer health insurance. I feel trapped here.
57
@Darin There are still discrepancies in the ACA that need to be addressed. While the premiums are demographically indexed the subsidies are not. So an older person living in an expensive region doesn't get commensurate relief compared to a younger person in a less expensive region.
12
@Darin, my family is in a similar situation. I hope our voices can be amplified too.
5
One viable solution is the company that hires your wife should pay half of her insurance she would get from the ACA. 2 of the dem candidates have similar ideas.
3
I’m sure the medical insurance companies would rather have the ACA than Medicare for all.
The ACA insurance is good because it insures the working poor who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but whose employers don’t offer health insurance.
The ACA is too expensive for anyone in the middle class or the self employed and so we need Medicare for all.
71
ACA covers a ton of benefits that you yourself use, actually. Starting with free checkups and basic tests.
1
@Margaret Davis Medicare for all will cost you way more as you have to pay for all the "undocumenteds" and poor Americans.
Actually, it covers not so much and prone for surprised charges. Colonoscopy is an example. It is free under ACA, but if during colonoscopy, polyps are found and sniped you have to pay for whole procedure. So, price goes from 0$ to 2500-4000$ in moment. And beside check ups are cheap, but follow-ups are much more expensive and that is where your deductibles and co-pay come to play.
1