How to Handle 62+ % Premium Increase?

[MDRI]

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Thanks for replies to my postings and looking into my issue. I am in Maryland, USA.

We learned about ACA premium increase in Maryland, but we are surprised about our premium increase by 62.15% . We reviewed the piece about holistic objectives on healthcare, but implementation is troublesome.

Our family is healthy . We exercise regularly and eat healthy. We're ideal weight for our size. We've had insurance for years, pay every month and have never used it for anything aside from routing physicals and lab work every few years.

We obtained our plan through MD Health Exchange.

Current Plan BlueChoice HMO HAS Bronze 6550
Proposed Plan BlueChoice HMO HAS Bronze 6550 with 62.15 % increase

We are paying our premium without any financial help or tax credit. As we hear from media that MIA did not approve 62.15% increase. Even for 2016 , we made two physician visits and lab work, after paying large sum as annual premium.

How did we increase the risk by 62.15%?

High premiums have priced many people out of the health insurance market.

We are debating, how do we handle this hike and where to get fund to pay health premium.

I am self employed as independent contractor in tech area. I did search for any professional association that offer health insurance coverage as membership benefits. I did not find any in Maryland. I did find costco offer health insurance to their members, but their offerings is not available in Maryland.

What are the option we have ?

Thanks for sharing/guidance.

 

[junkman]

I am seriously considering writing UHC/GoldenRule STM for myself & family. I didn't bother to get ACA certified this year because all of the TN carriers quit paying commission on new business.

That said, I still have to make sure that my understanding is perfectly correct.

UHC has a STM that can be written for ~360 days. My intent is to write the lowest premium ACA HDHP plan effective 1/1. I'll probably write my wife and son under one contract and me under another. The intent is to ride the ACA grace period and pay the premium retroactively if one of us is in the hospital.

Anyone not in the hospital becomes covered under the STM. There are reasons for separate contracts. All need access to coverage 1/1 but I don't want to get the entire family stuck with the higher premium if only one is in the hospital.

My understanding is that children are only eligible when covered as a dependent and not on their own. My wife's premium is lower than mine so my son gets covered under her.

Be sure to understand the limitations of the UHC plan and quote it for the full 11 months and a few days. The per cause deductible is optional as is the supp acc. Supp acc is not worth it and I haven't priced the per cause. You also need to decide between the $5,000 & $10,000 deductible. It is an all or none proposition. If you hit the $5000 deduct, you'll likely blow through the $10,000. What is your risk tolerance?

Find someone licensed in MD who is familiar with MD laws and specifics to write your plan. Details matter and you don't want your ass hanging out because something was missed.