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I stand corrected on this... And a few other things that my fellow members have helped to educate me with.sjfcontrol wrote: Simply not true. The Texas Health Insurance Pool is (was) available for those that couldn't otherwise qualify due to preexisting conditions. My wife had cancer, and was covered under the pool until she turned 65 and medicare took over. Expensive? Yes. High Deductibles? Yes. But it was insurance and was available.
The rates are capped (for the risk pool) at (as I recall) twice what the average cost for a plan for a non-pre-existing person would be. So no $10k per month premiums.cb1000rider wrote:I stand corrected on this... And a few other things that my fellow members have helped to educate me with.sjfcontrol wrote: Simply not true. The Texas Health Insurance Pool is (was) available for those that couldn't otherwise qualify due to preexisting conditions. My wife had cancer, and was covered under the pool until she turned 65 and medicare took over. Expensive? Yes. High Deductibles? Yes. But it was insurance and was available.
However, a Texas Health Insurance pool that candidates coverage of pre-existing conditions, but doesn't limit premiums is essentially the same as not insuring them. Have a history of cancer? That'll be $10k/month in premiums. Apparently Obamacare makes it so that you can't exclude the condition and you can't charge more for it.. Which is why they're pushing young (healthy) people to get in the pools and balance out.
Again, I'll wait and see.. It's the statistical cost/coverage data that I want across the board. If it's worse, I'll work beside you to get rid of it...
In that event, we're solving a problem that we don't have (at least in TX).sjfcontrol wrote:
The rates are capped (for the risk pool) at (as I recall) twice what the average cost for a plan for a non-pre-existing person would be. So no $10k per month premiums.
Hyperbolecb1000rider wrote:I stand corrected on this... And a few other things that my fellow members have helped to educate me with.sjfcontrol wrote: Simply not true. The Texas Health Insurance Pool is (was) available for those that couldn't otherwise qualify due to preexisting conditions. My wife had cancer, and was covered under the pool until she turned 65 and medicare took over. Expensive? Yes. High Deductibles? Yes. But it was insurance and was available.
However, a Texas Health Insurance pool that candidates coverage of pre-existing conditions, but doesn't limit premiums is essentially the same as not insuring them. Have a history of cancer? That'll be $10k/month in premiums. Apparently Obamacare makes it so that you can't exclude the condition and you can't charge more for it.. Which is why they're pushing young (healthy) people to get in the pools and balance out.
Again, I'll wait and see.. It's the statistical cost/coverage data that I want across the board. If it's worse, I'll work beside you to get rid of it...
No, I mean I want a look at the actual data in terms of coverage and associated costs compared to pre-implementation. I don't mean it as a a rhetorical statement.mojo84 wrote: Hyperbole
TLE2 wrote:For employers with a majority of blue collar workers, the exchanges seem to be popular. Our company is still keeping it plan intact for 2014, but the future may change.
The Oklahoma exchange is up today 10/1. The deductibles and prices are not low.
I'm a Heath actuary. Glad I'm retiring in a few months.
The income figure I mentioned above is in some ways artificial. I started my business 6 months before the economy tanked. The last 5 years have been an exercise in "holding on" until things get better. MOST of that money was in the form of withdrawals from our retirement fund. More than 20% of it went to paying taxes, and another chunk to keeping my business afloat. In order to get the $3,000/year Obamacare subsidy, I have to reduce my adjusted gross income by approximately $25,000/year, to the $52,000 household income limit. Mind you, adjusted gross income is pre-deductions, and pre-tax.10/3
WHEN MANY THINGS SEEM to be going wrong, trust Me. When your life feels increasingly out of control, thank Me. These are supernatural responses, and they can lift you above your circumstances. If you do what comes naturally in the face of difficulties, you may fall prey to negativism. Even a few complaints can set you on a path that is a downward spiral, by darkening your perspective and mind-set. With this attitude controlling you, complaints flow more and more readily from your mouth. Each one moves you steadily down the slippery spiral. The lower you go, the faster you slide; but it is still possible to apply brakes. Cry out to Me in My Name! Affirm your trust in Me, regardless of how you feel. Thank Me for everything, though this seems unnatural—even irrational. Gradually you will begin to ascend, recovering your lost ground.
When you are back on ground level, you can face your circumstances from a humble perspective. If you choose supernatural responses this time—trusting and thanking Me—you will experience My unfathomable Peace.
Yesterday, the news about Obamacare fell on us like hammer-blows. Our insurance agent phoned and went over all the options with me. My wife is definitely going to lose her health insurance because the law is going to take it away from her. As of 12/31/2014, Obamacare forces her current policy to cease to exist. She won't "get to keep her insurance if she likes it," as the thief in chief assured us would be the case. He is a liar. Big surprise.
- But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
PSALM 13:5
... always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
EPHESIANS 5
Her insurance will go up from $245/month for a policy she likes with a $5,000 deductible, to $595/month for a policy she doesn't need. Maternity care? For a 55 year old woman? Really? Abortion on demand? For a vocally pro-life woman? THIS is the kind of tripe that is more than doubling her health insurance cost. She would have a lower deductible, from $5,000 down to $2,000, but her annual policy cost would go from $2,940 to $7,140.
As for me, I can opt in (currently uninsured) to a $536/month policy with a $6,000 deductible, with 100% out of pocket until the deductible is met, and 100% coverage after it is met. In other words, I have to pay $6,432 in annual policy payments AND $6,000 in deductible before I get to see coverage.
[comment.... by the way, these policy prices are only good through 12/14. Nobody knows what they'll be in 12/15 because, as of yet, there is no data history in the program on which to base the rates......but only drunks and clowns believe that they will go down....]
If we both opt out. . .which we'll have to do because we simply can't afford Obamacare, we will pay an annual fine of 1% of our adjusted gross income. We don't have the 2012 figure yet [still finalizing taxes], but our AGI was approximately $77,000 in 2011. Based on that, our fine will be roughly $750-$850 dollars a year. . .which will be used to subsidize insurance for people whose AGI is $25,000 a year less than that.
Our government is giving us an ultimatum, accept the poorhouse government plantation, or accept punishment for refusing to condone the evil.
I don't normally talk about this kind of stuff during my devotional, but I wanted to lay it out there as a preface for what comes next. All of the above dropped on us yesterday. My wife was rocked. Badly. So was I. But I assured her that we were far from the only couple in the nation, right at that very moment, having that very conversation. It goes beyond the financial blow. On Saturday, I will be 61 years old, and this is the closest I have ever seen my nation to the brink of a literal civil war. There are millions of people in this country are are literally only a few steps from taking up arms against their own government. It is a terribly frightening thing, and in their massive pride and ego, the people who are forcing this abomination onto us believe that we'll just lay down and take it. Obama promised hope and change, in that order. What he has given us is disastrous change, and loss of hope. . . .if I fall into the trap of putting my hope in worldly things.
Our hope in things not of this world is about to be severely tested. The words of the author in the devotionals of the past couple of days speak to hoping and trusting in the goodness of the Lord. We believe in this. We really do. I believe in this, truly, down in my bones. He has shown me His goodness in the past. He will continue to show me His goodness going forward. I have to keep faith with that, even in the face of enormous challenges. Since 1865, Americans who believe in the Goodness and Faithfulness of God have not had their faith in those things really and truly tested. . .here at home, on our soil. Christians in places like Darfur, and India, and North Korea have historically always had far bigger faith challenges to overcome, than Obamacare and its inevitable fallout if democrats do not agree to pull us back from the brink to which they have shoved us.
Jesus promised us that it was going to get rough. He didn't mean strictly in America; he meant in the world. But those troubles which we have successfully held at bay ever since the end of our civil war, and which other peoples in other countries have had to confront for generations, are about to intrude into our national sanctuary.
It is in times like these when faith is tested. It is not just the test of a personal illness or a financial crisis. It is the test of faith which happens when one's entire social structure begins to disintegrate, and the more savage of man's instincts begin to be revealed. Obama has successfully changed the nation from the world's most powerful, to an irrelevancy. This will not come without a severe domestic price.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference;
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace;
Take, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is;
And not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life;
And supremely happy with You forever in the next;
Father in heaven, Your name is Holy;
Your kingdom come, Your will be done;
On earth as it is in heaven;
Give my wife and me today our daily portion of Your Spirit;
And forgive us our sins against You,
As we forgive each other our sins against one another;
Do not let us be led down a path of lies and deceit, temptations, and loss of faith in Your vast goodness;
But deliver us from the schemes of the devil, and his minions in government and out of it;
For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever.
Amen