All day long at DU are panicky posts about this. Relax. It is not going to affect the election.

Here's some solid info on the Obamacare announcement:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/obamacare-premium-spikes-for-2017-plans

"So you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world," Clinton said."

Last edited Tue Oct 25, 2016, 11:13 PM - Edit history (1)

I certainly won't vote republican because they have absolutely no alternative to the ACA but this is a major issue for me and my wife. Time to fix this properly so GOTV so something in government can get acommpleashed.

We all have to make sacrifices sometimes but just keep in mind the people that are being helped by this program. We can improve it after Hillary wins.

to take the next steps. The white wingers are going to gripe no matter what.

Red meat issue to conservatives...

Wrong.

Tmmrw they will crow about something else it's what the MSM does not going to change Hillarys win or the senate Altho I am not sure how many house seats we will get But yeah day one priority will be dealing with ACA and that's as it should be along with immigration reform etc

It's more than worth it, we can all afford to give a little to help the 20 million people who otherwise wouldn't have any Health Insurance at all. Me and the wife are just going to eat out a little less (which will definitely help my waist line!) to compensate.

We all have to make sacrifices sometimes but just keep in mind the people that are being helped by this program. We can improve it after Hillary wins.

"Let them eat cake" indeed.

I think its insensitive to just tell somebody to budget their money a bit better.

Perhaps some people on welfare could just budget their money a bit better too. Problem solved!

Sometimes the best advice isn't what you want to hear

Or we could agree that all of us should chip in based on what we can afford and make healthcare a right.

You know, like they do in the entire rest of the civilized world.

We're well on the way to having Universal Healthcare and the ACA is a great first step. We're all better off for it, rather we know it or not. The best thing to do is trust our Party to make the right decisions. We'll all have to make sacrifices along the way but in the end the goal is worth every one of them.

That excludes deductibles, copays, and any other incidental medical expenses.

Last year, my ACA premium for a nearly identical policy (this year's is slightly worse with slightly higher deductable/copay) was 4.8% of my income. As the new year passed, the premium went up while the subsidy stayed the same.

The theoretical maximum that was put forth when ACA was enacted into law, was that the individual premium should not exceed 8% of personal income. The increases haven't been announced where I live yet, but my state follows what has been reported in other states, the individual (unsubsidized) portion of my premium could easily hit 10% of income. Last year my subsidy stayed the same because my income stayed the same, and I had to bear the entire premium increase myself, so my experience bears out others' concerns with ACA price increases.

If my premium reaches 11-12% of my income I will have to decide between insurance and food. I don't mean eating out food, I mean skipping meals food. That was why I had to cancel my health insurance in 2010 before ACA passed too--I could no longer absorb eternal, excess-of-inflation medical costs on my income. Damn right I hope the subsidy goes up to cushion the increase this year, because last year it did not change at all.

...the premiums are going up, It is essentially just a small tax for the uninsured and you may even qualify for an exemption. The irony is that Congress made a mandate, but the tax penalty is pretty small.

http://www.vox.com/2016/10/25/13397930/obamacare-mandate-penalties

If you look at the report that [the Department of Health and Human Services] put out on Monday, the average income of the marketplace population is 165 percent of the poverty level. It is a very low-income population.

The mandate penalties are not working to compel people into the market, but the subsidies are in. Absent higher mandate penalties, which even in a Democratic Congress is hard, you might see getting rid of the subsidies for people between 300 and 400 percent of the poverty line and doubling down on the people between 200 and 300 percent. If you could get better enrollment among that group, it might stabilize the market.

Then there are all sorts of benefit design things you could do to attract healthy people. You want to think about how to make the things that healthy people use, like maybe prescriptions or certain doctor visits. You could see rolling in vision coverage to attract healthy people. Benefits design research suggests those things make insurance seem like a better deal, when you have routine care that is being paid for.

So the insurance companies are raising their rates to try to swing the election to loser Trump. Seen this coming a mile away. The Dems should have been prepared.