Dear Friend,
On October 1, 2013, California is opening its own healthcare marketplace – Covered California – where most of you will be able to purchase quality health insurance at affordable rates.
I want to make sure you and your family have all the information you will need to utilize the new marketplace.
That’s why I’d like to invite you to attend one of my FREE Town Hall meetings next week where we can talk about:
- Preventive Care Coverage
- Pre-existing Conditions Coverage
- Easier Comparisons Between Plans
- Financial Assistance For Those Who Qualify
Join us on Thursday, August 8th 2013, 7pm-8pm
*In Partnership with California Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva*
The Downtown Community Center, Anaheim, 250 E. Center St., Anaheim, CA 92805
Please RSVP to (714) 621-0301 or ca46rsvp@mail.house.gov
Can’t wait to see you!
Sincerely,
Loretta Sanchez
Member of Congress
Member of Congress
Anyone go to this?
If I were a nicer person, I’d be more excited (than I am) about how Obamacare is gonna save and improve the lives of millions of Ameircans like my brother and maybe me, and less happy about how much it seems to piss off Republicans – the party that fought Social Security and Medicare as well.
Sorry Repub friends, just had to get that out of my system… I still want single payer…
Sorry but it is hard to share the selective dyslexia that Obama(Care) enthusiasts seem to exhibit on this subject, forever seeing “affordable healthcare” when they read “insurance” as if they are forever equivalent. As a zero – income caregiver of a parent who is old and fortunate enough to be covered by VA benefits and Medicare while Social Security ‘supports’ us both, but unqualified by assets (my house and IRA) for the programs which are alleged to be a ‘safety net’. That ‘net’ is drawn on the ground with charcoal, while the REAL choice I see lies between a ‘responsibility’ payment, or cost of 20% to 40% DEDUCTIBLE coverage that will ITSELF cut ALL my expected IRA distributions by 1/3 to 1/2. before paying the deductable should illness strike. Before you jump out of your chair to point out that I will be exempt, being under the ‘cost as 8% of income’ floor, let me point out that I am trying to plan for my POST CAREGIVER FUTURE, no longer able to enjoy zero income existence, having to cover a 10 year gap until Medicare starts, with the combination of early IRA taps, and a 3 year wait for early Social Security.And before you draw the “Oh just sell the house!” card, figure in what that INCOME will do to boost tax rates and cut my generous “Insurance tax credit” that PPACA beams about. It was galling to listen to the press conference today and hear “Oh, well EVERYTHING has SOME problems that have to be worked out initially!” which sounds lots better being delivered by the guy with his name on the program, with the smiling pride of a 2 year old who has just filled a diaper for you. Here in the diaper laundry, the choice of view is between rocks and hard places, the choice of prudently managing your OWN health and finances, successful thusfar, is blown off the table, and I don’t want to even get started about how many of my dad’s doctors have suddenly retired this year, refusing to say more about it than ” time to do it now, with changes in the business approaching” Guess which one they were alluding to?
How are you insured now? What would you do if you got sick or injured?
Since COBRA is no longer affordable, I switched to ABCOMP – (All Benefits are Cash Out of My Pocket) and increased my attention to diet and health. My current ‘occupation’ leaves little time for skydiving, drugs, or any other risky ‘recreation’, and regular checkups (even at cash prices) are cheaper than delayed treatment OR the PPACA choices. Since I stick close to home, the chances of injury are reduced, and as for a surprise stroke / heart attack, I would have few objections (or choice) if that drained my assets at once vs same result gradually with costs PLUS 40-60% NON-coverage / deductable of PPACA choices. (NO WAY I can afford ‘platinum’ level).
How do you know how much PPACA will cost here already? Did you go to a forum where they announced it?
No, through Google, I found coveredca.com, the exchange site, and am iterating income (IRA distributions) to see the results. I also looked at healthinsurance.org, but that seems to be for cash policies, not exchange offerings. I had (and lost!) another site yesterday that I thought had prices for all 4 levels. Will retry the thread. After my first post I found an interesting (and alarming) narrative at http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/02/03/obamacare-a-primer/, which struck a responsive chord about the effect of the sudden onslaught of PPACA costs to folks only more or less able NOW to keep above water. It disturbs me that I so OFTEN run across the phrase “No specific IRS guidelines have been released on XXXX” even though implementation milestone dates are come and gone – like getting a ticket when the speed limit sign is BLANK! I also think that I have a lot of company in “boomers” with little/ no jobs/income, but living off saved assets/retirement funds who are in for a painful surprise if they haven’t started down this unpleasant path of research. Your thoughts?
What do you make of the elimination of the IRS’s ability to level tax penalties for non-compliance — for God’s sake?
I can’t rule it out entirely, but I will be highly surprised if you are worse off due to Obamacare — especially if you need medical services. You’re nowhere near as likely to go bankrupt, for one.
What I make of it, is that it was (a)probably an oversight, or (b) a temporary respite which will vanish under the increasing revenue demands of a system that maintains itself by Fed conjuring as long as dollars are reserve currency. Either way, that will be quickly remedied in the usual manner, being buried in the middle of an unrelated bill, and/or with a quick vote before a holiday weekend adjournment. Just call me cynical! BTW still looking for the thread to the ‘lost’ site with full (bronze, silver, gold platinum) level pricing – will post when found.
No, it wasn’t an oversight; it was absolutely essential to cobbling together a majority for the bill.
Essentially — as with Social Security, as with Medicare — we’re going to start the process and see how it affects people before we make some changes to lessen those negative effects. That’s the process that Republicans really fear, because Democrats will be proposing real fixes as the need arises and Republicans will just be shouting “NO! No fixing it, just get rid of it!” But it’s already too late, due to the consumer protection laws that went into effect years ago — unless you want to bankrupt the insurers.
It should end up with a public option, if not Medicare expansion for all.
Greg, to find out how much the Obama care will cost you just look up a Boston zip code, go to the healthcare exchange in Massachusetts. Look it up as if you lived there.
It’s $1000 a month! How many people who do not work at a big company full time can afford that? None, I’d say. There are darned few full time jobs in California today, because of this.
That healthcare exchange is going to fail completely, it will be all for nothing. Waste of time as long as the same health insurers are involved, which is the case in Mass.
The only way Obamacare could have had any positive effect is if they had *not* negotiated away the “public option.” That public option if correctly designed would have prevented essentially all the health insurance rate increases in the last 5 years. The health insurers would have felt the competition.
Since they did negotiate it away we are all still in the hands of those same health insurers who are loathe to cover individuals and families.
They only want to do employer groups because of underwriting standards. They can charge you whatever they want.
I had great health insurance, but they raised the rates and raised the rates until what I had was a $900+ a month plan with a $5,000 deductible. It was no longer worth it. How many people can afford $16,000 a year for healthcare? No one. This was several years ago, I am sure it’s much worse now.
I don’t know what your question “What would you do if you got sick or injured?” is supposed to mean. You can’t get blood out of f turnip. If health insurance was $80 a month it might be different. But $1000? $1200 a month? No one can pay that. So many people are just getting by.
If the healthcare exchange took all the groups and put them all in one, the group comprising the people of California, those health insurers would have to take those customers or go out of business. That will be necessary for the healthcare exchange to work.
No one is suggesting that but me. We shall see.
I agree that they should have retained the public option. (Thank the conservatives in Congress — almost all of them Republican — for that failure.) And pressure to go to such a system, if necessary, should be building. It should be bipartisan, in fact.
You say that you had great healthcare that a few years ago went up to $900/month with a $5000 deductible. And you say that it’s gone up since then, but that Obamacare — not that I trust your figures, especially given that you don’t give a family size or income that would determine discounts — is $1000/month.
Well, if it is $1000/month, that’s a lot less than you’d have been paying without it. I presume that you’ll support giving the CA Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, the ability to wrangle down health insurance prices (as he can for life and auto insurance) — right?
Check it out yourself, I told you how.
Massachusetts.
As to a family size for $900, that was for two.
But I have been quoted $660 for just myself.
2 years ago.
The private health insurers are circling the wagons, they don’t expect this gravy train to last.
As to Dave Jones, I support much more than what Dave Jones asks for.
I applied to be on the health care exchange board, but as you can imagine they didn’t want me.
They’d have gotten change they could believe it. A poison pill that would have those very same health insurers whimpering.
The same insurers who are loathe to accept individuals, or even small groups.
I’d have taken away all the large groups that they like. Heh.
*Whatever you get……get the lowest “Deductible”…..we are now paying $1700 per person before we get any of our 80% for an in Network provider. Our monthly out
of pocket for two is about $450 a month. $40 dollar co-pays are typical. $20 if you want to go for something you DON”T have yet!
After seeing the item below in my inbox I think I may just wait for the dust to settle – and buy a case of HEPA dust masks!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/08/11/will-democrat-voters-support-obamas-suspension-of-democracy-and-calculated-deception/3/