@Syag
“Reb E – i don’t know why you and CTL keep saying that. ”
I haven’t said anything in this thread and it has been quite a while since I posted an opinion about the ACA.
For Mrs, CTL and Myself the ACA was wonderful (now we both are Medicare age and donlt use it). At age 60 she had a $2million medical expense and our prior commercial policy with the c=same carrier as our exchange issued policy capped at $1 Million. She also had preexisting conditions which would have disqualified her from renewing our prior policy (we got a letter informing us of it).
And yes the ACA policy bought through the CT Healthcare Exchange saved us lots of money.
BUT>>>>>>>>>>>the exchange and policies are not the same in all states, nor are costs or out of pockets. The last year we had an exchange issued plan the maximum family out of pocket was $6700 per year, not the $14,000 a CR reader posted. Different policy, different state and different year (Mrs. CTL went off Exchange policy in early 2021).
All of that said, I am disappointed in the ACA, the courts gutted its teeth when they did away with the financial penalty for not buying insurance. We need all the healthy young people in the pool to lower overall costs.
We had an exchange policy from the year they started until Mrs, CTL turned 65 in 2021. We didn’t have a single one of our doctors, hospitals, pharmacies or other providers who were not in the plan, so we didn’t have to change any providers. CT is a small state, no city has more than two hospitals so they all take all insurance written in the state. In big cities with dozens of hospitals there may be some who don’t take exchange plans and can still survive financially.
I can only speak from my experience, I can’t offer an opinion on current plans in the various states. That said, I would love to see a single payer national health plan to cover all Americans. I am willing to pay higher taxes to make it happen. I am a capitalist who believes in social programs for the greater good.