IRS-says cheapest obamacare plan is

[fredsanford]

I had to pay COBRA for a couple of months 2 years ago. For my family of 3, the premium would have worked out to $14,640/yr. If you're not aware, when you pay COBRA, you are paying the entire monthly premium including what your now former employer used to cover.

Based on that, something around $20k 6 years later doesn't seem that extraordinary.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by fredsanford

I had to pay COBRA for a couple of months 2 years ago. For my family of 3, the premium would have worked out to $14,640/yr. If you're not aware, when you pay COBRA, you are paying the entire monthly premium including what your now former employer used to cover.

Based on that, something around $20k 6 years later doesn't seem that extraordinary.

COBRA is a killer, but I have to say depending on your personal situation you can be better off just not having health insurance for a few months.

[fredsanford]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

COBRA is a killer, but I have to say depending on your personal situation you can be better off just not having health insurance for a few months.

Well, one good thing about COBRA is that you can wait 59 days to elect it, and retro it back that entire time if needed.

However, with a toddler in the house, going without wasn't an option.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by fredsanford

Well, one good thing about COBRA is that you can wait 59 days to elect it, and retro it back that entire time if needed.

However, with a toddler in the house, going without wasn't an option.

Well like I said it depends on your personal situation. Paying doctor visits out of your pocket for a few months would be much cheaper absent of any preconditions.

[bluelang]

Pretty sure most people have to (or used to have to) maintain COBRA in order to cover pre-existing conditions in their next insurance.

[fredsanford]

Originally Posted by bluelang

Pretty sure most people have to (or used to have to) maintain COBRA in order to cover pre-existing conditions in their next insurance.

You can be uncovered for 62 days before that's a problem.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by bluelang

Pretty sure most people have to (or used to have to) maintain COBRA in order to cover pre-existing conditions in their next insurance.

You're probably right on that, I was basically refering to people in good health that are younger with no pre-existing conditions.

[GatorFanCF]

OBOB: here's the difference - when Govt dictates what MUST be in the plan you get a premium of $20,000. If someone has a net worth of $500,000 he can elect a catastrophic plan for $5,000 per year and deductible of perhaps $10,000. If he is seriously ill, hospitalized, etc. he's out $15,000 on a bad year. A "normal" year might run $2-3,000 + the premium. CHOICE allows the person if means to conduct their affairs as they see fit. If the GOVT forces Platinum, Silver, Bronze then the creative options are gone. But, I know Send are all snout choice...after all, they told me so.

[Emmitto]

FWIW, perhaps a little reset is in order here. Despite the title of the article, it has nothing to do with the lowest cost of insurance. First off, it's just an estimate that was used in an example, not a rule and not a real policy. Secondly, the example says AVERAGE cost, not the lowest cost. And the scenario is 2016.

As we've discussed here, $20K seems either likely or too low, based on the increasing insurance premiums of the past decade or so, Obamacare or not. I personally am speculating it's low. But the average isn't likely to be $25K, so I'd guess the tidy figure of $20K was used to make the example's math easier.

OBOB speculates that government involvement will make prices even higher, and that's certainly possible. But let's not pretend the average 2016 premium wasn't headed to $20+K no matter what.

If Obamacare is completely scrapped and then erased from your memory Men In Black style and in 2016 the average is $20-25K per year, that's fine? Because that is indeed the likely reality.

[QGator2414]

Originally Posted by wgbgator

If your net worth is zero, you don't have to worry about the tax or buying insurance, because you qualify for Medicaid. That goes up to 133% of the poverty line, if you're in a state doing the expansion.

There are plenty of people with a zero or even negative net worth that make more than the "poverty line"...

[QGator2414]

Originally Posted by GatorFanCF

OBOB: here's the difference - when Govt dictates what MUST be in the plan you get a premium of $20,000. If someone has a net worth of $500,000 he can elect a catastrophic plan for $5,000 per year and deductible of perhaps $10,000. If he is seriously ill, hospitalized, etc. he's out $15,000 on a bad year. A "normal" year might run $2-3,000 + the premium. CHOICE allows the person if means to conduct their affairs as they see fit. If the GOVT forces Platinum, Silver, Bronze then the creative options are gone. But, I know Send are all snout choice...after all, they told me so.

It really is frustrating that we are not pushing health insurance this direction. What insurance actually IS...

[orangeblueorangeblue]

Originally Posted by GatorFanCF

OBOB: here's the difference - when Govt dictates what MUST be in the plan you get a premium of $20,000. If someone has a net worth of $500,000 he can elect a catastrophic plan for $5,000 per year and deductible of perhaps $10,000. If he is seriously ill, hospitalized, etc. he's out $15,000 on a bad year. A "normal" year might run $2-3,000 + the premium. CHOICE allows the person if means to conduct their affairs as they see fit. If the GOVT forces Platinum, Silver, Bronze then the creative options are gone. But, I know Send are all snout choice...after all, they told me so.

That doesn't explain any difference save that "small penalty" you mentioned.

You either risk it, pay subsidized through your company or pay a bunch for private.

[brainstorm]

Originally Posted by fredsanford

I had to pay COBRA for a couple of months 2 years ago. For my family of 3, the premium would have worked out to $14,640/yr. If you're not aware, when you pay COBRA, you are paying the entire monthly premium including what your now former employer used to cover.

Based on that, something around $20k 6 years later doesn't seem that extraordinary.

I took my chances about 17 years ago and decided against the COBRA due to the big increase to my expenses - things were tight and I didn't have a job yet. Big mistake for me - I had a major surgery that wiped me out.

[g8orbill]

we have a high deductible major medical plan that has served us well

[GatorFanCF]

That doesn't explain any difference save that "small penalty" you mentioned.

Read more: http://www.gatorcountry.com/swampgas...#ixzz2JkiqJyAs

Really? You don't see a difference betweeen Govt mandating certain coverage so the minimum plan costing $20,000 and an individual (for a family plan) buying a stripped down policy for $5,000.

I have 2 daughters going to college in Mass. Initially, their schools sent me a list of all the things that HAD to be in their health insurance including no less than $250 deductible. No freakin' way was I going to pay $2,000 per year per daughter + coverage on my family members in addition to them. So, I had them claim the exemptiion, saving me $14,000 over the last 14 semesters. If you don't see the difference I cannot offer any more examples.

[thedyc09]

I was definitely taken aback when H&R Block showed us what our expected insurance premium would be through an exchange. My wife and I are both quite young and reasonably healthy. I have a great plan through my employer which costs about $70/month for the two of us. Expected cost through a health insurance exchange? $220/month. Of course, I'll be able to keep my plan through my employer....until they decide its cheaper to drop it.

[g8orbill]

Originally Posted by thedyc09

I was definitely taken aback when H&R Block showed us what our expected insurance premium would be through an exchange. My wife and I are both quite young and reasonably healthy. I have a great plan through my employer which costs about $70/month for the two of us. Expected cost through a health insurance exchange? $220/month. Of course, I'll be able to keep my plan through my employer....until they decide its cheaper to drop it.

which will happen quickly and is part of the plan to get us to single payer-which will put all health insurance companies out of business and put a lot of people on the unemployment line (some of those unintended consequences)

[theorangebluewinagain]

Originally Posted by thedyc09

I was definitely taken aback when H&R Block showed us what our expected insurance premium would be through an exchange. My wife and I are both quite young and reasonably healthy. I have a great plan through my employer which costs about $70/month for the two of us. Expected cost through a health insurance exchange? $220/month. Of course, I'll be able to keep my plan through my employer....until they decide its cheaper to drop it.

Let me remind you that the state exchanges have not been constructed yet. But if one of the two options is a Medicaid and/or Medicare option. The whole healthcare system will grind to a hault. Because although you may have an insurance product no one will take it except the ER, because they have too. Good luck with that America. I guess we will find out whats in it after we impliment it. Way too go Pelosi $itch

[theorangebluewinagain]

Why the "smartest guy" in politics is worried

BASED ON STOCKS' RECENT STRONG performance, investors might seem immune to such fears. I guarantee you, they are not. I've fielded phone calls from nervous money managers with concerns that either Obama or the ideological diehards in Congress will blow up the fragile recovery. The perception that investors are complacent is an illusion. They are twitch-prepared to bolt from the field.

The market is higher in spite of Obamanomics, not because of it. The Federal Reserve's low-rate regime, kept in place because of high unemployment, presents prudent investors and cautious savers with a Hobson's choice: Either choose "safe" investments with such low yields that they are, in fact, producing negative returns and thus actually unsafe, or plunge one's savings into risky stocks and real estate, where the returns for now at least are positive. In short, as long as low rates prevail, then normally cautious investors must risk their necks to get any sort of reward at all. The Federal Reserve won't change its low-rate policies until unemployment drops to 6.5% from its current 7.9%. Obama's policy of extending unemployment benefits and food stamps for laid-off workers lessens the urgency for these people to find work and, consequently, keeps the jobless rate high, perpetuating the unvirtuous cycle.

OBAMACARE IS BROWN'S IMMEDIATE CONCERN -- another rich irony, given that California was the first state to pass laws implementing the health-insurance scheme. Brown must expand Medi-Cal, its program for Medicare recipients, and federal rules make this "incredibly complex," Brown noted.

Savers and prudent investors have a great deal more to worry about than Brown does. In addition to concern over the economic impact of sequestration and Obamacare, they must keep a hawk's eye on federal regulators -- especially the Environmental Protection Agency -- and on members of Congress who are determined to rewrite the corporate tax code
Brown, in his speech, decried the expansion of the "coercive power of government" and quoted 16th-century French essayist Michel de Montaigne, who famously said, "The most desirable laws are those that are rarest, simplest, and most general; and I even think that it would be better to have none at all than to have them in such numbers as we have." Fat chance of that.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB...mod=BOL_hps_dc

[orangeblueorangeblue]

Originally Posted by GatorFanCF

Really? You don't see a difference betweeen Govt mandating certain coverage so the minimum plan costing $20,000 and an individual (for a family plan) buying a stripped down policy for $5,000.

Here's today:

Private insurance through company, private insurance on your own (this is the $20K+ option) or risking it ($0).

In the other scenario:

Private insurance through company, private insurance on your own ($20K+), government insurance ($20K+) or risking it (small penalty).

So no, I don't see much difference.