and rules that hurt EVERYONE. Now there are limits on deductibles and profits and no lifetime limits on coverage and no crimes against people with pre-existings.

Based on looking for loopholes in a person's policy.

And cliiiiimbing, right up on the backs of all Americans.

This made changes to the entire health insurance market, although there was the ability to have a plan grandfathered in.

And therefore, they don't work enough hours to qualify for employer coverage. Would they not qualify for Obamacare at an even better price, and probably with subsidy also??

I don't understand all these tales of dread?

right... that has nothing to do with Obamacare. the problem is, many MANY people remember the quote, "If you like your insurance you will be able to keep it." (I know it is not an exact quote but it is what people remember) To them that meant there would be NO CHANGE... but that is NOT what is happening to them. And like it or not, a lot of those folks are Democrats and they are going to be hurt financially by the changes that they believed were not going to affect them because of that statement.

And for Medicare, there are folks like my parents whose supplemental policies are experiencing a dramatic increase in cost...

sP

Time to hunt for a new plan -- it's going to cost more for poorer coverage from what I've seen so far.

to gut the monopoly powers of the industry, just certain ways that they try to hurt people. But they still have tricks up their sleeves and have loopholes to exploit. It seems prices are still going to go up in the form (primarily) of increased out of pocket deductables and co-pays. That was already going up before ACA though.

They have also eliminated the capability to have double employer coverage, which some people used to reduce their out of pocket. That is going away. They are continuing to increase "fines" and penalty traps tied to lifestyles. While there is some legitimacy to that approach, they are exploiting it to increase revenue.

to the poor. There are absolutely good things in it. No more pre-existing conditions, etc.

I do think that it will eventually slow the growth of costs some, due to the exchanges, which should add some manner of competition.

My hope is that long term the point is to get us all "in the same boat", and thus build momentum for real change to the system.

After learning more about it I went from sceptical of any value, to "glad we have it". But it does seem to pretty much leave the insurance and other profiteers in a place they can continue to jack the market around until further changes occur. Prices are going to continue to creep up.
Yearly costs for those who get sick, deductable caps, seem to be the "loophole" that the insurance companies are now going to exploit.

There are going to be healthy people with individual plans who had medically underwritten plans who will now be paying what everybody else was paying, which is to say a lot more. When you put it that way, it sounds bad. When you describe it as "requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions" (the two are the same thing, ultimately) it sounds great.

if they developed an expensive condition, or lost their jobs, or hit the annual or lifetime limits of their policies, or had a baby born with a "preexisting" condition.

So many more than 30 million, really.