Obamacare is working exactly as intended. The death spiral has begun and is even more precipitous than I thought it would be.
Case in point. My original private insurance plan was canceled in Sept. of 2013 because it didn’t comply with Obamacare, so I had to purchase a one that did (Anthem Blue Cross). The benefits and price were comparable to what I had previously.
I just got a notice that the plan I had just last year no longer complies with Obamacare (the goal posts seem to be continually moving) and a different one with comparable benefits is 60% more expensive ($480/month last year - $740/month this year). It was a “silver” type plan.
Only recourse to keep the premium about $500 is to go with a catastrophic, “bronze” type plan.
With premium increases of this magnitude, people are just going to go “bare”. So there will be less and less paying customers to support those who are getting subsidies or freebies. As this trend continues, the private insurance industry will hasten toward collapse. Voila - single payer for everyone. Welcome to the VA system, everyone.
I can only imagine what kinds of increases employer based plans are going to experience.
At least, I can keep my doctor. But I don’t know how much longer I can afford to go to her, so that’s a moot point.
"How come going to the doctor sucks? It used to be good." I can hear it now. And it will be the fault of the "greedy insurance companies."
Lots of that going around. My Blue Cross Blue Shield plan was 'grandfathered' last year, but BCBS has advised that my 'non-compliant' plan will be cancelled on Dec 31 2014. BCBS claims that they'll provide a choice of acceptable replacement policies but they won't make that information available until after November 15.