The Best Article on Health Insurance Under the ACA

[ABC]

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2...emium-joy-under-the-affordable-care-act/?_r=0

This article will give you insight on how the current medical underwritten policies vs without underwriting under the ACA.

You will need a bit of math skills to understand the article.

 

[stuy119]

That is a great article, but most people won't comprehend it because of the math components.

 

[Sam]

I agree that the article is great, but his conclusions are foolish. His math is an excellent way to illustrate the impact of the community rating. However, he basically says that since the subsidies are rich, and the plans are much richer, the premium shock is OK.

First, he only outlines the premium shock from guaranteed issue. He makes no mention of the shock that will come from having your deductible lowered to the $2,000 level and he never mentions that the shrinking of the age bands are going to have a killer impact on young people.

Second, he just assumes at face value that the plans in the exchange are going to be much richer than what people have. In fact, the majority of new enrollees will take bronze plans, and some will take silver, neither of which are all that rich compared to what is regularly available in the IFP market today.

 

[TXINSURANCE]

I agree that the article is great, but his conclusions are foolish. His math is an excellent way to illustrate the impact of the community rating. However, he basically says that since the subsidies are rich, and the plans are much richer, the premium shock is OK.

First, he only outlines the premium shock from guaranteed issue. He makes no mention of the shock that will come from having your deductible lowered to the $2,000 level and he never mentions that the shrinking of the age bands are going to have a killer impact on young people.

Second, he just assumes at face value that the plans in the exchange are going to be much richer than what people have. In fact, the majority of new enrollees will take bronze plans, and some will take silver, neither of which are all that rich compared to what is regularly available in the IFP market today.

Inside the exchange = silver and subsidy

Outside the exchange = bronze and no subsidy

Good article although the "adverse selection COULD raise..." should be changed to "WILL" raise... Some of this will be masked over time with reinsurance and insurance company / government fuzzy math.

The real rate shock will be after 2+ years when INSIDE the exchange potentially is nothing but a massive risk pool with the exception of a few above average healthy states perhaps.

Enjoy the ride... Thanks for sharing the article, good reading.

 

[AllenChicago]

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2...emium-joy-under-the-affordable-care-act/?_r=0

This article will give you insight on how the current medical underwritten policies vs without underwriting under the ACA.

You will need a bit of math skills to understand the article.

This excerpt from the article..

"Because the penalties for disobeying that mandate are so low, many young, healthy people may prefer to pay the penalty and remain uninsured until they fall ill, when they can get community-rated coverage."

..is what many people who call themselves ACA Experts mistakenly believe. If they want this to succeed, the biased writers, and all ObamaCare Supporters, should learn the truth, and tell healthy people that they CAN NOT enroll in an ObamaCare health plan whenever they want to. They must do it during the brief open enrollment window each year, if they want their sicknesses and injuries covered by insurance.

BTW, even though there are just a couple (or maybe none?) health questions on the 2014 application, does the Exchange/HHS do a MIB search anyway..just to get an idea of how many billions of dollars insurers will have to pay out starting January 1, 2014?

On second thought, HHS/Exchange doesn't give a poop. They want insurers to crash and burn anyway! Perhaps it is INSURERS who will want to run MIB (or whatever) health investigations to see how much carnage they can expect in 2014. They're not prohibited from doing this, are they?
-ac

 

[Yagents]

Only 1 health question: Do you smoke? If so, 50% surcharge. YIKES!

 

[houcoogster]

This is basically a "Cost Plus" job for the insurers. In the construction industry this common from time to time and it works like this, whatever it costs in time/labor, materials and expenses plus some profit or mark up is what you get paid.

Since the insurers have to take everybody what real skill can they utilize to make more money and with the MLR over their head what can they do?
Nothing, they have to be happy getting what they can get.
This is what business life must have been like back in the USSR.

Maybe they can make a little bit on this but make up for it selling other stuff, time will tell.

 

[Sam]

Inside the exchange = silver and subsidy

Outside the exchange = bronze and no subsidy

In my opinion, most who get subsidies in the exchange will be buying the bronze plan. The subsidy is based on the price of certain silver plans, but there will be lots of buy-downs.

 

[Yagents]

Up to 250% FPL, will buy silver since that is the only plan where the cost sharing is available.

Many younger people in the 300-400% FPL won't get a subsidy, because the premiums are less than 9.5% of their income. Ex: 30 yr old making 35k with premium of $250 = $3000/yr = 8.5%

Think before voting!

 

[Dowejonez]

[QUOTE=Yagents;709087]Up to 250% FPL, will buy silver since that is the only plan where the cost sharing is available.

Many younger people in the 300-400% FPL won't get a subsidy, because the premiums are less than 9.5% of their income. Ex: 30 yr old making 35k with premium of $250 = $3000/yr = 8.5%

Think before voting![/QUOTE]


Which calculator did you use Yagents and if was the Berkeley, did they update it?