Ok, so I need the advice and perspective of you helpful kossacks on my personal ACA situation. These issues can be difficult to understand, so hopefully those with extensive knowledge on the new plans can help me out.
Before I begin, let me say I was a huge supporter of Healthcare reform, though not necessarily the ACA, and that I have defended the President and the Dems in Congress on this for the past several years.
I work at an Insurance Agency (One of the big ones). For many years, they have offered Health coverage to all employees, for a decent, but not fantastic, rate. Due to the new laws being implemented, the company has decided that all Agencies are now Independent Contractors, and therefore, coverage will not be extended to Agency staff.
As I said, the rates weren't great through the company, so for the past several years, I've paid for my own Blue Cross policy here in NJ. The rate was very reasonable, and the coverage it provided was very comprehensive, at least for my purposes. Then, about a week ago, I received a letter from BC/BS telling me that my policy does not meet new federal requirements, so my plan will no longer exist after August of 2014. It then pointed me towards the exchanges to check for available plans to replace it.
When I logged onto the new healthcare exchange, I was met with some unpleasant circumstances. The absolute cheapest plan on offer is double my current premiums, even accounting for the small subsidies I could qualify for. Not only that, but the coverage, from how it's described, seems much less comprehensive. High annual deductible, high copayments and coinsurance, and just generally crappy coverage when compared with what I had previously.
Now, even though I work for an Insurance company, Health Insurance is like an alien language to me. I'm really hoping I'm just reading this stuff wrong. But from what I'm seeing, it looks like cruel irony that I- Obama's biggest defender amongst the people I have to deal with on a regular basis- am going to be affected terribly by the new Healthcare laws. I could hardly afford the insurance before, I definitely can't afford to pay twice as much for less.
Again, I'm not trying to be unfairly critical, just looking for advice and perspective. Any help you guys can send my way would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
-K