September 29, 2020
written by Net Advisor™
I would encourage people to have health insurance. I went almost seven years with no healthcare insurance. I was in an extreme low-risk group, very fit and healthy. I had an excellent healthcare plan ($116/ month with $1,200 annual deductible before Obamacare. This was an Individual PPO plan – not an employer plan).
After the $1,200 annual deductible was met, my insurance would cover 100% of healthcare costs less $10 (ten dollar) doctor co-pays. If I recall correctly, there was a $4-5 Million lifetime insurance benefit. So insurance would pay for costs up to that amount over a lifetime.
If I ever needed to, I could go to any doctor, specialists or hospital in the PPO plan.
Then Obamacare was passed.
My healthcare costs increased from 2010 to 2014. I remember calling my insurance company who told me the costs were up because of Obamacare regulations.
By 2013, my $116/ month with $1,200 annual deductible PPO plan increased to $214/ month, $1,500 deductible until Jan. 1, 2014. Thus, my monthly premium went up 84.48%, and my deductible went up 25%.
Then the PPO plan was finally killed by Obamacare.
On Jan 1, 2014 (tweet below). The new costs for the next best alternative plan had less coverage and greater shared expenses. It was a “70/30 plan.” After paying out-0f-pocket costs each year to meet the annual deductible, I would still have to pay 30% of all costs. Deductible restarts every January.
My monthly premium went up 192% to $627 per month. The deductible went from $1,500 a year (2013) to $4,200 a year (2014) – a 180% increase.
Please tell me again about how Obamacare is affordable?
@SpeakerBoehner @SenTedCruz @SenRandPaul @Senate_GOPs @SenatorReid NOTICE CXLD INSURANCE. PREMIUM +192% #ThanksObama pic.twitter.com/qdpnAW3IgY
— NetAdvisor.org® (@NetAdvisor) October 4, 2013
At that time, one could lease some 40 different cars including a new Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Cadillac, or a choice from a couple different Porsche models.
Or I could have bought ONE (1) share of Amazon.com stock for about $400 (01-02-2014), and made over 7x my money in six years.
I wasn’t the only one affected of being canceled by Obamacare.
Needless to say, I am one of those millions of people who lost their healthcare coverage because of Obamacare.
After about 7 (seven) years, I decided I should probably get some insurance coverage just to reduce my cost risk, so I did. It wasn’t Obamacare. Now, I have found even better coverage, and far less costly than I was paying before Obamacare in an employer sponsored program (not Obamacare). Hopefully I can keep this one.
I was pretty fortunate to have no health issues during the time I had no insurance. I just hope the government doesn’t try and screw up healthcare again.
About the Author:
Net Advisor™ studied as a research-based major, and graduated from the University of Southern California (USC). He previously worked in the insurance and financial services industry and maintained nine (9) licenses, (three insurance licenses, and six securities licenses). His work included being a financial industry branch manager, compliance officer, and risk management consultant. He also served as the project manager for a subsidiary of a major healthcare company.
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