Krugman says the ACA is already bringing health care costs down:
The news on health costs is, in short, remarkably good. You won’t hear much about this good news until and unless the Obamacare website gets fixed. But under the surface, health reform is starting to look like a bigger success than even its most ardent advocates expected.
And by the way, the site seems to be working fine now.
Still out of reach for me. It’s a great program for those who already have insurance or who have pre-existing conditions.
For someone like me… yeah. not so much. Even Marc Stier has admitted to me that $203/month (after subsidy, for the cheapest Silver Plan) is way too high. And the Bronze isn’t worth the money you pay.
$2400+ with a $5000 deductible, no vision or dental, for a guy who needs maybe 2 checkups a year and asthma medicine. Oh sure, I get a 50% reduction in the cost of the inhaler, so I save a whopping $300/month. Wheee, lucky me.
If you’re eligible for subsidies, the deductible is subsidized, too. Yeah, it really does suck for those in your age group; my kid can’t afford it, either. But political pressure will eventually lead to better subsidies.
Also, when I looked at the silver plan, I could add on dental for $20 a month.
At some point in the not too distant future we’re all gonna call “bullshit” and fix our health care system. Everybody should have the right to health care. The Europeans and most of the rest of the world has figured out a way to deliver good health care at a reasonable cost to each of its citizens. We have not done that because we keep playing the Capitalist’s game of free markets and profit. There should be no profit made in war or off the sick, hungry, and ill housed. What is Utopian about that?
Susie, in your last post you mention the worrying business about the back-end problems with the insurers getting the right information.
Everything I’ve seen up to this morning says the insurance industry execs are still worried about it. The administration, from what I’ve seen, says they’ll have that fixed “by Jan 1.”
So by working fine, do you mean it’s now possible to compare plans? Or that the back-end problem has been sorted out too?
You can compare plans now, that part’s easy. I’m just wondering if all my data will be properly forwarded to the insurers.