Real affordable Mr. Obama...

Health care continues to be such a mess. Sorry you find yourself in such a situation. I hope a surprising solution makes itself available to you.

I guess I should be happy ours is only going to double. From about $700 to over $1400.

Our premiums went up 30% at our renewal in March.

There have been several executive orders that have deferred enrollment for certain groups which means the pool of those they expected to participate is smaller and we all know what that means. Strap in for the ride because premiums will continue to rise

How can the ACA increase premiums like that? What if a family lives paycheque to paycheque and doesn't have an extra $600 a month to pay for insurance? How does that work? I know I don't understand your system. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Are you supposed to sell your house? (if you even own a house?) Forgo meals? You still aren't getting great prescription coverage either are you? 

Anyway just ignore my post because it was not meant to incite a war. It is just me thinking out loud.

This is simply not true for me. We were able to get better coverage for an affordable price. We both have huge medical expenses due to our issues and we finally can get the treatment we desperately need. The aca is helping many. It isn't all bad like some want us to believe. It still needs lots of work though.

i honestly think the insurance companies are jacking up rates and blaming ACA... i work for a fairly large school district in TX and our HR guy told us that while premiums did go up they went up a smaller percentage than he's seen in a long time

Yes, it isn't Obama. It's your employer. DH was out of work for 8 months (he's in IT) and we were thrilled when he was offered a job 2 months ago. He loves his new job. It's a much better commute, better office environment, much less stress.  But the health insurance sucks! For the last 20 years he's always been given a choice of policies. This time it was no choice-one policy-it's $1,000 to cover DH and I each month, plus it has a $5,000 deductible At least it's Cigna and not United, but $5000 for a deductible!

Everyone at the company complains about the insurance and the word is that the employer isn't paying any of it-just passing it on to the employees. That copay is killing us. We've paid half of it so far through my prescriptions but dang, by the time we pay the rest January will be here and it'll start all over again.

Yes, we are very thankful for the job but in this country health insurance sucks the big one and you just know there are folks getting rich because of it. Why can't we have an open market for health insurance like we do for car insurance? Competition would bring down these crazy prices into more realistic ones.

Debbie in MD.

My husband and I have been saying that about health insurance for years.  Allow insurance companies to sell across state lines (everyone else can, why can't they?)   Allow people to opt out of the employers insurance if they wish.   Take restrictions off insurance instead of putting so many on.  I think it's telling that insurance companies were lobbying for the ACA which placed more restrictions on the purchasing of health insurance than ever before.  If the companies want it, they must be making more money with the ACA in place.  

And btw, we have to find new insurance by April.  Our insurance company is dropping their individual coverage (no employer insurance because both DH and I work for very small companies.)  What fun it's going to be shopping for a new insurance.  

For us, it's not our employer. We're self employed.

On our plan all prescriptions go toward the deductible, which is $11,000. In December we have to get a new insurance plan and the deductible will be $12,000 with the same coverage otherwise (but higher premiums). The only difference is that the new plan will cover maternity and birth control, both of which I do not want coverage for.

DH and I are both lucky that we still have reasonably priced health insurance through our employers. But, it has gone up quite a bit due to Obamacare. The price increase is not necessarily seen in the premiums we are paying, it is seen in the no raises due to their extra medical costs (both are self insured companies like most larger companies) or other cuts in benefits. DH received an email that specifically said that due to ACA, they cut their 401K match by 50% so that they could keep insurance premium increases to a minimum. DH's premium only increased slightly but deductible and out of pocket max went up plus the reduction in 401K match as already mentioned. My coverage stayed the same with premiums going up slightly but no increase in salary. You are paying for it one way or another.

Was your company giving a big subsidy to your payments before, and have they discontinued that now?  $534 per month for family coverage is in line with what I have paid for years through my employer sponsored plan.  I think sometimes companies use this type of changes to sneak in other changes and blame it on the ACA or whatever the new law of the moment is.