Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.
But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.
“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61. “I don’t have that money.”
About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums. But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.
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This is muuuuch better than before!
ReplyDeleteSarcasm font off now!
You get the opportunity to vote again for hope and change in a couple of weeks....let's see if we can collectively get it right this time!
Not many normal "middle class" citizens can afford good quality health care anymore. America is for the rich or the worthless, there is no in between.
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for the ACA, she probably couldn't have gotten insurance at ANY price.
ReplyDelete"America is for the rich or the worthless, there is no in between."
ReplyDeleteVery, very well said, 10:06AM!
P.S. May I use it?
So before she would just have had the test and paid for nothing, supposedly indirectly raising the cost of the people who have insurance? Maybe we could not give Ms. Wanderlich that huge tax refund this year and pay that deductable, just saying.
ReplyDelete10:59 - this is 10:06 - have at it. Use it! Maybe the truth will set us free!
ReplyDeleteObama despises the rich so much he that he asks them to pay $32,000.00 to have dinner with him.........hypocrite.
ReplyDeleteI am one of many in my generation whom I do completely believe that are refusing to enter into this erroneous ploy to make the rich richer. I a health single 28 year old male was curious and surprised that the cheapest monthly premium plan I was offered under the "Obama I Don't Care" plan that my deductible would also be $6,000 a year. This is completely absurd to ask of someone who is very unlikely to use such coverage in the first place let alone is who the whole system is dependent upon to make it work. If the healthy young people don't see the value in health insurance only the sick and old will and it's primed for disaster and collapse.
ReplyDeleteYou can get a lower deductible by paying a higher monthly premium. Seems pretty simple don't see the problem. Your's to choose
ReplyDelete