What Has ObamaCare Done?

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Amir Salehzadeh: Eric Kingsbury, 25, Has Insurance Thanks To Obamacare

Eric Kingsbury, 25, finally has health insurance via the Silver plan through Covered California (the state-run Affordable Care Act exchange), after living without health insurance for nearly a year. Kingsbury is glad he’s covered now, though because he was, “extremely nervous about going uninsured for a year, but I figured I was young and healthy and wouldn’t need to see a doctor.” Many Millennial Americans share the same perspective on health care under the premise that they are young and will continue to remain healthy.

However, Kingsbury says when a friend of his had a major health scare that required her to “have an MRI and a battery of tests” he realized what a gamble it is to go without health insurance and the price tag associated with those bills. “I decided it wasn’t worth the risk,” Kingsbury said. “You never really know when unusual, and perhaps even, expensive circumstances arise. Better to be safe than sorry.” Although he did not qualify for a government subsidy, and pays $297 per month, he says the benefits offered via his new plan are more generous.

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https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/408355394709651456

~1.7M more people will have access to insurance:

106,000 Oct
+
~100,000 in federal exchange Nov
+
29,000 in federal in Dec
+
1.46M Medicaid

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) December 4, 2013

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Think Progress: The Best Obamacare News That Nobody Is Talking About

Applications for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) spiked throughout the nation during Obamacare’s first month of open enrollment, and skyrocketed in the states participating in the health law’s Medicaid expansion, according to preliminary monthly data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday. Nearly 1.5 million low-income Americans now have access to public health insurance.

According to the CMS data, Colorado, New Jersey, and Hawaii are among the states that saw the biggest spikes in Medicaid applications as news about Obamacare’s open enrollment period dominated headlines in October. Another encouraging takeaway from the report is the increase in Medicaid applications even in states that refused Obamacare’s expansion of the program. Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Georgia were the five non-expansion states to see the biggest spikes in Medicaid applications in October.

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Rhonda Brown: Leslie Foster, 29, Has Obamacare That Costs Only $62 Per Month

There were no glitches when Leslie Foster, 29, enrolled online for a health care plan that provides him with more extensive coverage than his previous plan. The best part? He pays only $62 a month for it. Health Net insurance, his final decision, is considered a silver premium of the ACA and has a monthly premium set at $213.68 per month. However, after applying subsidies he can receive based on his income of about $20,000 a year, his total monthly payments came to $62 per month.

Even without those subsidies, Forbes provides an analysis that indicates Foster’s plan still remains lower than the national average of $328 per month for mid-tier premiums based on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calculations. Foster describes his initial reaction as an overwhelming experience. “I hadn’t had health care since college, and it blows my mind to have an extensive amount of coverage,” Foster said.

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Get Covered America: For Joe, Coverage Saved His Life

As a self-employed painter, Joe Lucas says he has always tried his best to make ends meet. Sometimes, that meant going without. While he was able to secure health insurance through an employer for a time years ago, increasing premiums forced him to give it up. Things went from bad to worse when he suffered an aortic aneurism while uninsured.

Joe knew he needed to do something to cover his health costs going forward. With his pre-existing condition, shopping for health insurance meant monthly premiums of $1,000 or more. Fortunately when the health care law was passed, Pennsylvania began a program allowing individuals with pre-existing conditions to get covered until the new Health Insurance Marketplace opened. Joe says the law helped save his life twice now.

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William Tomasko: Mark Got Covered Under The ACA

Meet Mark Sullivan, a 31-year-old software developer from Texas. Signing up for affordable health insurance has given Mark the freedom to pursue his dream of starting a business. “It’s hard to express how much that means to me,” he said. After working for two years in Austin’s tech sector, Mark has been eager to start his own business. However, the risk of high health care costs if he left his job made him hesitate— that’s why he was eagerly anticipating open enrollment.

After comparing plans, Mark settled on a bronze option and added dental insurance. He will receive $82 per month in financial help, which will halve the monthly premium he will pay down to $78. Even without the tax credit, his total premium is still much more affordable than the private plans he had been able to find on the individual market.

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Get Covered America: Covered Together At Last

Rita Rizzo and Lou Vincent, from Akron, Ohio, have built a comfortable life together paycheck by paycheck despite one missing piece – affordable health care. That’s because they’ve been denied health insurance for a decade due to pre-existing conditions. Years ago, Rita had surgery for a hip replacement for which she no longer needs treatment. Lou has diabetes and also takes medicine for high blood pressure.

Rita was recently able to find insurance, but at a steep premium of $400 per month, and an even steeper $6,000 deductible. Meanwhile, Lou hasn’t had any coverage. He pays $170 each month for his blood pressure medicine alone. But when the Health Insurance Marketplace opened, their pre-existing conditions were no longer a barrier. The couple qualified for a subsidy that dropped their monthly premium down to just $184. That’s only a bit more than what they currently pay each month just for Lou’s medicine.

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Name: Carol T Williams

Occupation: Self-employed, hairdresser

Why is having health care important to you?

I’m 52 years old, and as I’m getting older, I realize that health care is a necessity. I have a history of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure in my family, so it’s important I see the doctor. I’ve been self-employed for thirty years, and whenever I could afford insurance, I would get it. There were many years that I went without it, though.

How did it feel to learn about the new health care options available to you?

I’m super happy. With my old insurance plan, I was paying $443 a month for my son and myself, with a $7,5000 deductible. It didn’t even feel like I had insurance. Now, because of subsidies, I’ll pay $165 a month with a very low deductible, and my son will purchase his own insurance through the Marketplace. I used to put off going to the doctor when I needed to because of my high deductible, and now I don’t have to do that anymore.

Getting covered means: a relief. I feel like I don’t have to be scared anymore.

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