Campaign Watchdog: GOP claim that health insurance going up 34 percent in Ky. mostly false

Indiana Attorney General Sues to Stop Indiana Residents from Getting ACA Subsidies

Indiana Lawsuit Article

Because of This Blog, Nathan and I Made It Onto CNN.com!

Obamacare LGBT Push

The comments really run the gamut from the usual ugly homophobic remarks to some more thoughtful ones.

Physician Shortages

CNN's Jen Christensen has a story today on a question I've been asking since the ACA was first debated:  who is going to provide care to the millions who will be newly insured?  Check out the story.

 Comparing Premiums

 

Kentucky:

Individual described below does not qualify for Medicaid.  Premiums do not include any possible subsidies offered through the ACA.

Fayette County:

1. Non-smoker, 47 year old male, 2014 income of $13,000:

a. 20 plans available, monthly premiums:  $197 to $456 (rounded)

2. Smoker, 47 year old male, 2014 income of $13,000:

a. 20 plans available, monthly premiums:  $227 to $547 (rounded)

Carter County:
1. Non-smoker, 47 year old male, 2014 income of $13,000:

a. 16 plans available, monthly premiums:  $220 to $482 (rounded)

2. Smoker, 47 year old male, 2014 income of $13,000:

a. 16 plans available, monthly premiums:  $253 to $579 (rounded)

Time for a Break

I've been working on this all day in between other work.  It is time for a break.  Some thoughts about the day:

• Before any subsidies, the private plans offered in Kentucky appear to run the gamut from $197/month to $456/month for premiums.
• Dental plans are offered too.
• There are three companies offering plans:  Humana, Anthem/Blue Cross, and Kentucky Health Connect.
• The site offers a great deal of information which will take a person a lot of time to go through unless you are knowledgeable of insurance industry terms.
• The exchanges are flooded today with potential enrollees, the press, and the insured interested looking at them.  I'm going to wait awhile before checking more so that the traffic dies down.

Confusing!

This stuff is really confusing.  I called up three of the plans to compare and now feel overwhelmed.  There is so much information provided on each plan that uses specialized terms such as coinsurance, EHB, MOOP out of network, EHB variance, etc. etc.!  Some of the information is blank for the Anthem plan. I feel lost. 

If I was urgently trying to enroll today, I would feel really frustrated about now.  The website keeps crashing, and the plans are complicated. 

I finally called KYnect again.  A kindly woman named Shavona helped me with some of the terms.  She said she and her fellow staffers are being hampered by the site being down and thus they cannot see what the callers are referring to on the callers' screens.  She was not sure why some of the columns were blank under the Anthem plan but that the updates could be affecting things.  I asked if there was a part of the website that explained these terms, and she said there is on healthcare.gov 

Also, if you choose to remain uninsured, the penalty this year is $95 or 1% of your income (whichever is greater).

Also, you must enroll and have your money received by December 15, 2013, if you want your coverage to begin January 1, 2014.