Large numbers of healthy people paying into any health insurance are always the ones that make it work. It's just now that insurance companies can't have their cake and eat it too: they can't turn away people with pre-existing conditions. Am I missing something here?

Anyway, I've been trying to create an account and I've run into the security question glitch where you get blank fields on the dropdown. I can see why people are frustrated but it's early and we have until December to wrap up enrollment. I wish this could have gone smoother but it has become the norm to see these issues with massive rollouts.

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Those numbers you cite don't reflect the the true cost of healthcare, but are wildly capricious and arbitrary prices set by hospitals and health-care providers. Countries with national healthcare systems - which is to say, just about every other industrialized country in the world besides the U.S. - manage to treat cancer patients and care for preemies for a fraction of that cost. Insurance companies certainly don't pay that. They negotiate much lower prices with the providers. The people on the hook for "list" prices are those who can least afford it: the uninsured. Rather than work out a fair billing system that reflects the true cost of their care - and a chance that the patient might actually be able to pay some or all of the bill - hospitals would rather just send these unrealistic bills to collections, thereby forcing patients to declare bankruptcy. How can this system possibly benefit anybody involved?

Good analysis by the NY Times earlier this year on hospital billing. The interactive map was particularly eye opening.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/bus ... rates.html?pagewanted=all

All due respect, jerseymom, but there's a flaw in your logic. you've "self-paid" your medical expenses, but can your family absorb the cost of a $1 million cancer? A $3 million premature baby? Those costs incurred by uninsured people - not the routine medical expenses that a generally-healthy family pays - are what's crushing the system. If you're willing to let hospitals turn away people who can't pay, we could have the "freedom" you want. Since we don't do that, those of us with insurance, (or mostly our employers) are absorbing those costs. It's just plain not fair.

nrgravey - not quite sure what you're talking about. My plan (and I'm nowhere near the pesky level) will cost my self-employed family a ton of money we don't have with a huge deductible to boot.

We self-paid our way each year for our medical costs prior to this debacle and did just fine. I don't see anyone paying my way nor did I ever ask them to.

I'll never begrudge any successful business person - just be sure you know "what" you're paying for and what the middle class disproportionally shoulders as well.

And if I did my research correctly, the group who is expected to pay into this plan to "make it work" are large numbers of healthy young people.

Everyone enrolling, just be sure to thank those who are actually paying for this plan (those pesky 1%'ers), without whom none of this sh*tshow would be possible.

I got all the way to the lost password questions when it crashed. What a waste of time. Probably best to wait a week or two and try again.

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I expect we will get the same error messages when we try to actually use the healthcare services too.

Tried periodically all day to get on. Got the 'Sorry, you're SOL' message, try again.

Tried several times throughout the day on different browsers, with no luck. Tried the chat feature, too, but was just stuck in wait mode. Hmmm.

I visited it late last night and it seemed to be working OK. I think it's just experiencing heavy load today.

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I just tried using Chrome browser...had to wait a 3 minutes while it refreshed every few seconds. Then I got this screen:

"Create a Marketplace account"

So in answer to your question - try it again.

Obamacare exchanges: not working as planned

The online insurance marketplaces at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul are showing signs of trouble handling the volume of consumers on the first day of a six-month open enrollment period.

Federal officials are aware of the website problems Tuesday and are working to address it as quickly as possible.

U.S. Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne Peters says officials "have built a dynamic system and are prepared to make adjustments as needed and improve the consumer experience."

The site for Maryland, which is running its own exchange, displays a message saying "We open at 12:00 noon on October 1st."

Callers to the federal call center where consumers can get help by telephone have reported long wait times.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Millions of Americans can now shop on the insurance marketplaces at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care reforms, entering a world intended to simplify the mysteries of health coverage but that could cause yet more confusion - at least initially.

Whether consumers will be pleased with the experience, the premiums and the out-of-pocket costs of the plans offered to them will finally start to become clear Tuesday. The nationwide rollout comes after months of buildup in which the marketplaces, also known as exchanges, have been both praised and vilified.

Illustrating the heated political disagreements over the law, the opening of the exchanges comes the same day as the shutdown of the federal government, led by congressional Republicans who want to block the health insurance reforms from taking effect.

The shutdown will have no immediate effect on the insurance marketplaces that are the backbone of the law, because they operate with money that isn't subject to the annual budget wrangling in Washington.

Efforts early Tuesday to access the online marketplace in Illinois prompted a message saying traffic to the site was heavy. The website churned slowly to the log-in page, but eventually got there.

The marketplaces represent a turning point in the nation's approach to health care, the biggest expansion in coverage in nearly 50 years.

The Obama administration hopes to sign up 7 million people during the first year and aims to eventually sign up at least half of the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans through an expansion of Medicaid or government-subsidized plans.

But if people become frustrated with predicted glitches in the computer-based enrollment process and turn away from the program, the prospects for Obama's signature domestic policy achievement could dim.

"The promise of the law is that no one will go bankrupt because of medical bills," said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, which helped work for passage of the law. "It won't happen in the first day or the first year. But when the law is fully operational, it will provide an economic benefit to roughly 30 million Americans."

Tanden cautioned against rushing to judge the marketplace's success on its first-day performance. Numerous observers have predicted bugs and setbacks. Trained outreach workers in many states are having trouble getting the certification they need to start helping people to enroll.

Many states are predicting that people will initially test the online application system but actually sign up closer to Dec. 15, which is the deadline for coverage to start Jan. 1. Customers have until the end of March to sign up in order to avoid tax penalties.

Looming as one of the biggest challenges to the law's success is the ability of insurers to persuade relatively young and healthy people to buy insurance, as a way to balance the costs for the sicker people who are likely to get coverage as quickly as possible.

"You've got to launch this thing right the first time," said Robert Laszewski, a consultant who worked 20 years in the insurance industry. "If you don't, financially you will never recover."

Under the law, health insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to someone with a pre-existing medical condition and cannot impose lifetime caps on coverage. They also must cover a list of essential services, ranging from mental health treatment to maternity services.

Another obstacle: Nearly three-fourths of people under 65 who lack insurance are unaware the marketplaces open Tuesday, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released over the weekend.

Spending money to raise that awareness with ad campaigns has varied vastly, with some Republican-led states doing little or nothing to promote the insurance exchanges. Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, even recently urged residents not to sign up for coverage.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott and key lawmakers have pushed back against implementing parts of the law. The Florida Department of Health recently ordered county health departments to prohibit so-called navigators from signing people up for health insurance at those facilities.

But other states are doing more, such as Kentucky, the only Southern state running its own marketplace. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, was an early supporter of the health law.

The state kicked off an $11 million advertising campaign in June, with ads on TV, radio, Internet and newspapers. It'll expand Tuesday and continue through the first three months of next year.

"Frankly, we can't implement the Affordable Care Act fast enough," Beshear said.

Not sure...


However, I posted a link in an earlier thread to the webpage to the Kaiser foundation where you can compute what your subsidy will be (if any).

I don't have it handy at the moment...

Thanks MDM - do you know if they factor in the subsidy, if applicable?

Whilst helping my sister-in-law get insurance, we found that Amerihealth has the most cost competitive indemnity style plan (with HSA).

They have a direct link to their new plans under ACA act:

https://apply.ahnj4you.com/amerihealth ... ping/anonymous.html#index

No idea if the new plans are HSA qualified.

Current plans that start before 2014 are here:
http://www.amerihealth.com/searchPlanResults.html

So I took the plunge this morning to register for health insurance through the marketplace. I logged in to the healthcare.gov site, choose NJ and got this message (after which nothing happened after I waited).

Health Insurance Marketplace: Please wait

We have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we're working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience!

Anyone else having this experience?

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I think the standard deduction for 2012 for a married couple (assuming nothing special like being blind) was just under $12k. If you file as a single, its 1/2 of that amount. So the net standard deduction is the same if you file as a married couple or as a pair of singles.

A link to the premium calculator is [age]=39&adults[0][tobacco]=0&child-count=0&child-tobacco=0]Here. Its courtesy of the Kaiser Foundation.


Those of you with kids where both of you work, see what happens when you "divorce" and give the kids to the spouse with the lowest income. When you factor in subsidies (which depend on your individual income), the savings of can be pretty significant.

If you are both high income, it won't change anything.

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Saving $7,000 in taxes > $10,000 tax deduction

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This is only half true. HSA deposits are federally tax exempt. They are also exempt in the state of New York. They are NOT exempt from tax in the state of New Jersey, which we all live in.

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So, what you're saying is that people who are married and receive a $10,000 tax deduction off straight off are better off getting divorced so that they can save $7,000 in taxes... I guess when you are pushing an agenda, you're better off arguing from an exceptionally narrow point of view.

The Obama administration today will release prices and availability of some health insurance plans on the federally run exchanges that launch next week as part of the Affordable Care Act.

In what should be a boost for supporters of what?s become known as ?Obamacare,? the nationwide average cost of a mid-tier plan will be $328 a month, or 16 percent less than what the Congressional Budget Office previously estimated, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Premiums may be even lower for those who qualify for federal subsidies.

In New Jersey, the average rate will be slightly higher ($385 a month) than the national average but still less than what the CBO had projected, according to HHS.

?We are excited to see that rates in the New Jersey Marketplace are even lower than originally projected,? Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a press release.

The federal data released today has been closely guarded by HHS, which is in the process of approving plans and rates for policies to be sold on the exchanges it will run in 36 states, including New Jersey.

But the report offers a limited snapshot of what?s in store for millions of uninsured Americans who are expected to buy coverage between Oct. 1 and March 31.
The report provides estimates on just three categories of premiums: For a 27-year-old with a $25,000 income; for a family of four with a $50,000 income; and the weighted average of certain policies to be sold.

For New Jerseyans, the premiums quoted in the HHS report figure to cost less than comparable plans now available in the state?s individual health insurance market, according to a review of Department of Banking and Insurance data.

The exchanges will sell tiered health insurance policies known as bronze, silver, gold and platinum. A bronze plan will cover 60 percent of all health costs; a silver plan will cover 70 percent, and so on. Premiums will be based on the level of coverage. Those 30 and younger also can buy ?catastrophic,? which is the cheapest plan available and offers the least coverage.




According to the HHS report, New Jerseyans will be able to choose from 29 health plans. That is fewer than states such as Arizona and Florida, which will offer more than 100 plans, but more than New Hampshire or West Virginia, which each will offer just a dozen plans.

The data in the HHS report also show the impact of tax credit subsidies on premiums for the lowest earners. Families and individuals whose household incomes are at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level may qualify for a subsidy to reduce their cost of coverage. For an individual, that is roughly $45,960, while for a family of four that is about $94,200.

For a 27-year-old New Jerseyan who makes $25,000 a year, the average price of the second-lowest silver plan before credits is $260. But after the credit is taken, the premium drops to $145 a month, HHS says. Similarly, a family of four making $50,000 a year can expect to pay $943 a month for the same plan before the tax credit, or $282 after the credit is taken into account.

The numbers are not final and could change, the report said.

Star-Ledger staff writer Dan Goldberg contributed to this report.

If anyone here is married and your spouse works, you might want to check out this guy's analysis:

http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-wedding-tax/?singlepage=true

If what he states is correct, you would be financially better off getting officially 'divorced', create separate addresses for each other, but in reality just continue to live together.

Something tells me the individual mandate might get delayed like the employer mandate, as part of a debt ceiling compromise.

It appears the exchanges are not going to be ready in time, so both sides of Congress might be willing to agree to a delay until next years at least.


At least the HSA plans appear to survive:

I found out recently that the plan I get through my employer just barely qualifies under the ACA. So for now at least, I get to keep piling cash into my HSA.

If any of you aren't familiar with HSA, they are like a Flex account, except you don't lose the money you don't spend. Once you reach a minimum (mine was $2,500) you can invest the money in ETF, mutual funds, or individual stocks (my plan requires a stock must have a share price $5 or greater.. so no penny stocks).

The IRS contribution limits for a family is $6,550 for 2014. Contributions are exempt from income taxes.

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Not sure if that's entirely true on the Marketplace setup - look:

"After open enrollment ends on March 31, 2014, they won't be able to get health coverage through the Marketplace until the next annual enrollment period, unless they have a qualifying life event.

A change in your life that can make you eligible for a Special Enrollment Period to enroll in health coverage. Examples of qualifying life events are moving to a new state, certain changes in your income, and changes in your family size (for example, if you marry, divorce, or have a baby)."

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Now look further into the "pre-existing" clause of the law:

"Being sick doesn't keep you from getting coverage -

Starting in 2014, being sick won't keep you from getting health coverage. An insurance company can't turn you down or charge you more because of your condition.

Once you have insurance, the plan can't refuse to cover treatment for pre-existing conditions. Coverage for your pre-existing conditions begins immediately.

This is true even if you have been turned down or refused coverage due to a pre-existing condition in the past.

One exception: Grandfathered individual health insurance plans

The only exception is for grandfathered individual health insurance plans--the kind you buy yourself, not through an employer. They do not have to cover pre-existing conditions.

If you have one of these plans you can switch to a Marketplace plan during open enrollment and immediately get coverage for your pre-existing conditions."

Source

Almost everything you need to know in one place.How dose the Affordable Care Act effect me?

The government can't keep the NSA secrets... can't wait to turn over all my confidential information to some stranger over the phone... you think the scam phone calls/emails are bad now.... wait till you have people logging onto phony healthcare websites.

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Learn the correct information about (rare) exemptions (and the ridiculous urban legends) of Obamacare here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/exemptions.asp

From what I heard, not read, certain groups are exempt, such as the Amish.

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At the same time though, you cannot be refused insurance. For some, the penalty might cost less than the insurance policy. So you can buy insurance the day you get sick.

That is sort of like buying homeowner's insurance right after your home catches fire.

Starting in 2014, about 100k people in NJ are going to lose their health insurance. The Basic & Essential plans, which are popular with the young and healthy will no longer be allowed under ACA.

I got a bit of a refresher course in insurance whilst helping my sister-in-law get her insurance setup after moving to NJ from TX.

She ended up with a high deductible HSA through Amerihealth, which is similar to what she had in TX. Though in TX, the plan cost less and included a term life policy. She had to purchase term life separately here in NJ>