CONGRATULATIONS. You qualify for a $3 Obamacare Tax Credit.

 

So this past Monday (that would be April 28, 2014 for future readers), I decided not to put my trust in the supposed case worker assigned to review my Obamacare enrollment application. As of this posting, it has been over a week since I was supposedly assigned to my case worker, but have received no acknowledgement and have no clue if I have a case worker or if Priscilla was blowing smoke.

Anyway, I girded by loins, went back into my application, under the premise of updating my income and re-enrolled. Once again, some of my information was saved and some not. I am guessing the data input took a half an hour or so. Anyway, after putting all the same information back into the system…. again…. for the fourth time…., I nearly fell out of my chair when it actually said I was qualified to enroll. Furthermore, my unemployed family is entitled to a $3 per month subsidy which would lower the monthly premium on the cheapest plan to $738 per month BUT…. it only has a $12,600 deductible/out of pocket max.

So annualized if you add my premiums to my maximum out of pocket, I will have to spend $21,456 before I get real relief. Is this affordable healthcare? In fairness, one does get the benefit of the insurance companies’ negotiated rates with healthcare providers, but one must become very sick and in my case very broke, before getting any relief.

I want to mention once again that at the end of 2012 I was on an individual insurance plan with Humana. The premium for my high deductible health plan was $300 per month and my max out of pocket was $10,400. My total annual exposure was $14,000 (total annual premium plus maximum out of pocket).

So what does all this mean? It means I am going to step back and assess my options off the exchange, take a break from this nonsense and then try again.