you know in car and home insurance when you raise your deductible your payments go down? SAME SHIT!

I actually upped my insurance plan because I can budget for $400/mo easier than I can $1,000 in a random month because I saw specialists or needed testing. $1,000 is more than a week's pay for me.

I have Kaiser, which I purchased privately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like my HDP because I get to save money in an HSA. I rarely go to the doctor, so it works out for me. I hope to save 10-20k in my HSA before I switch back to regular insurance.

OP here, so the firm announced today that they will be creating an HSA for all employees and put $1,000 in it for us - to get us acclimated to the high deductible plan. However they said employees cannot contribute to it. We would have to put money in a flex spending account. i'm leery of the flex spending account (not that I really have the $ to put in there) since you lose it if you don't use it.

I will be checking out the ACA marketplace to see my other options. Thanks!

OP, please check again. A high deductible plan means you must have either an HSA (Health Savings Account) or an HRA (Health Reimbursement Account). A Flex Spending Account (FSA) is one of the "use it or lose it" type accounts. FSAs are NOT compatible with high deductible plans (per IRS). My high deductible plan allows us to do a "limited use FSA" for vision and dental... but not medical. We also have a separate HSA for that.

Based on your description, it sounds like the employer is funding $1000 to an HRA. However, employees typically can contribute to HRAs. HRAs don't have the portability that HSAs have. You can roll the balance of an HRA from one year to the next, but you cannot take it with you once you leave the employer.

What is your deductible again? (You might have said, but I can't remember.) What about your Out-of-pocket Max (OOPM)?

It sucks, but at least you are covered. We have one because my husband is self employed. We pay for EVERYTHING out of pocket except for our yearly checkups (including dental). For every additional doctor's visit we pay $60. But for specialists, medicines, ER, urgent care, etc., we need to pay 100% out of pocket until we reach our deductible, which is high. But we need it because if something happens we don't pay after the deductible. And the monthly costs are astronomical for this plan.

Anonymous wrote:I like my HDP because I get to save money in an HSA. I rarely go to the doctor, so it works out for me. I hope to save 10-20k in my HSA before I switch back to regular insurance.

OP here, so the firm announced today that they will be creating an HSA for all employees and put $1,000 in it for us - to get us acclimated to the high deductible plan. However they said employees cannot contribute to it. We would have to put money in a flex spending account. i'm leery of the flex spending account (not that I really have the $ to put in there) since you lose it if you don't use it.

I will be checking out the ACA marketplace to see my other options. Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And don't forget to think about this when you vote!!

Why? How would that help drive down medical costs? Big Pharma is in both dem and republican's pockets.

These problems have arisen with aca - if it's repealed we can all go back to our plans from before - in a lot of ways it's so expensive people are struggling now

Sorry, but prior to ACA I couldn't get private insurance due to pre-existing conditions. At one point, a long time ago, I did have private insurance (before I worked for a company, then I dropped the private insurance, then tried to switch back to private), the premium kept going up by ridiculous amounts every year. I'm thankful for ACA.

The issue is medical costs and greed, pure and simple. ACA is also forcing insurance companies to spend x% of the premium on medical cost. Prior to ACA, this was not the case.

Yes, insurance companies are now required to spend 80% of the premium income from small businesses and individuals on health care claims and quality improvement. This leaves 20% for administration, marketing, and profit. For large employers, that threshold is 85%.

Why do you think it is bad that insurance companies have a minimal threshold? Previously, they could be spending far less than 80% (even for large employers).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And don't forget to think about this when you vote!!

Why? How would that help drive down medical costs? Big Pharma is in both dem and republican's pockets.

These problems have arisen with aca - if it's repealed we can all go back to our plans from before - in a lot of ways it's so expensive people are struggling now

Sorry, but prior to ACA I couldn't get private insurance due to pre-existing conditions. At one point, a long time ago, I did have private insurance (before I worked for a company, then I dropped the private insurance, then tried to switch back to private), the premium kept going up by ridiculous amounts every year. I'm thankful for ACA.

The issue is medical costs and greed, pure and simple. ACA is also forcing insurance companies to spend x% of the premium on medical cost. Prior to ACA, this was not the case.

Great, you're happy, but OP is screwed. Why are you more important?

So, it's ok for OP to be happy but someone else to be screwed? Overall, more people are covered under ACA than not, so I'd say ACA was, for the most part, a good thing. Plus, like many have stated, OP really should look at the health exchange.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And don't forget to think about this when you vote!!

Why? How would that help drive down medical costs? Big Pharma is in both dem and republican's pockets.

These problems have arisen with aca - if it's repealed we can all go back to our plans from before - in a lot of ways it's so expensive people are struggling now

Sorry, but prior to ACA I couldn't get private insurance due to pre-existing conditions. At one point, a long time ago, I did have private insurance (before I worked for a company, then I dropped the private insurance, then tried to switch back to private), the premium kept going up by ridiculous amounts every year. I'm thankful for ACA.

The issue is medical costs and greed, pure and simple. ACA is also forcing insurance companies to spend x% of the premium on medical cost. Prior to ACA, this was not the case.

Great, you're happy, but OP is screwed. Why are you more important?

I like my HDP because I get to save money in an HSA. I rarely go to the doctor, so it works out for me. I hope to save 10-20k in my HSA before I switch back to regular insurance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And don't forget to think about this when you vote!!

Why? How would that help drive down medical costs? Big Pharma is in both dem and republican's pockets.

These problems have arisen with aca - if it's repealed we can all go back to our plans from before - in a lot of ways it's so expensive people are struggling now

Sorry, but prior to ACA I couldn't get private insurance due to pre-existing conditions. At one point, a long time ago, I did have private insurance (before I worked for a company, then I dropped the private insurance, then tried to switch back to private), the premium kept going up by ridiculous amounts every year. I'm thankful for ACA.

The issue is medical costs and greed, pure and simple. ACA is also forcing insurance companies to spend x% of the premium on medical cost. Prior to ACA, this was not the case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And don't forget to think about this when you vote!!

Why? How would that help drive down medical costs? Big Pharma is in both dem and republican's pockets.

These problems have arisen with aca - if it's repealed we can all go back to our plans from before - in a lot of ways it's so expensive people are struggling now

It can suck. I was in a high deductible plan with my old employer and we usually hit the $6000 threshold sometime in March or April, which stinks. I put a lot of money into the HSA but it's never enough.

My new employer is small so I get a plan with the ACA exchange and my kids qualify for low-cost Medcaid so I'm actually better off now. (I'm in Maryland) Definitely look beyond what your employer offers.

Anonymous wrote:And don't forget to think about this when you vote!!

Why? How would that help drive down medical costs? Big Pharma is in both dem and republican's pockets.

I would look at kaiser privately to compare. Maybe Kaiser would be cheaper?