ObamaCare Deductibles 26% Higher

pocket_out-620x415Americans seeking cheap insurance on the ObamaCare health exchanges may be in for sticker shock if they get sick next year, as consumers trade lower premiums for out-of-pocket costs that can top $6,000 a person. Expenses for some policies can reach $6,350 for a single person and $12,700 per family, the most allowed by the health-care law, according to a survey by HealthPocket Inc. of seven states, including California and Ohio. That’s 26 percent higher than the average deductible in the seven states, and a scenario likely repeated across the country, said Kev Coleman, head of research and data at Sunnyvale, California-based HealthPocket. (More)

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  1. Jackson says:

    “Americans seeking cheap insurance on the ObamaCare health exchanges may be in for sticker shock”

    Just what sick people need: shock.

  2. Billy says:

    “Expenses for some policies can reach $6,350 for a single person and $12,700 per family”

    This is supposed to help the lower and middle class, but it sounds like it will destroy them.

  3. Wilbur says:

    “That’s 26 percent higher than the average deductible in the seven states”

    Leave it to the administration to make things worse.

  4. Stewart T. says:

    At least these people will have some health insurance now.

  5. Devon Herrick says:

    Expenses for some policies can reach $6,350 for a single person and $12,700 per family…

    That’s not necessarily bad — most enrollees will never run into a problem that results in this much out-of-pocket costs. These plans will likely experience favorable selection. Maybe this will drive people to use HSAs/HRAs.

    • Don Levit says:

      Good point, Devon.
      People need to pre-fund these deductibles.
      Doing so with paid-up insurance benefits provides much higher accumulation than HSAs. They function like HRAs, and can be funded by employer and employee on a split basis.
      Paid-up benefits can be provided at 20% of the cost of the employee for his dependents, using the insurance pooling principle.
      Imagine an insurer providing substantially discounted premiums over time, for those with no or low claims, and a fully community-rated premium for those wth chronic claims.
      Everyone wins.
      Well, you wil no longer have to imagine such an insurer by the spring of 2014.
      It will be chartered and open for business as a Texas life and health insurer.
      Don Levit

  6. Erik says:

    Sounds like they are cherry picking data to prove their preconceived point.