2014
Have I got a deal for you?
I have a brand new 2014 car that I’m going to sell you for $1,000 and you can pay me at the rate of $16.00 a month for 60 months. How much more affordable can it get? Oh, I forgot to mention the car gets five miles to the gallon and the mileage will decrease a bit each year.
While our illustrious Department of Health and Human Services spends millions selling Americans on Obamacare, they are also selling you a car. What good is a virtually free car if you can’t afford to drive it?
I searched the New Jersey exchange plans and I focused on a rural county trying to find the plan mentioned. I couldn’t find it, but I’m sure it’s there someplace and who knows the income assumption they used. But that’s not the point.
Look at the plans I did find in this price range. Look at the deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. Look at the amount of the tax credit it takes to make even this coverage “affordable.” Look at the co-insurance after the deductible is satisfied and this coverage does not include two children eligible for Medicaid or CHIPS. In addition, these lower cost plans are EPOs meaning they have small networks of providers and no coverage out-of-network.
So how affordable does that five miles to the gallon look now?
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Look up Sussex county NJ. A married couple 60 and 62 years old earning more than $62,040 (no subsidy) will pay over $18,000 a year for a Horizon silver plan with a $3000 deductible and $10,000 out of pocket, 70% paid by insurance with co pays. $63,000 a year for a married couple is not a lot of money even in a rural county of NJ where many commute an hour to work in the NYC area. Property tax at $9000, utilities, mortgage ( or rent at $1500 ) insurances and taxes not a lot of money left over after paying for health insurance. Many seniors I know some who had that crappy $10,000 (no longer offered) policy will be without insurance hoping nothing happens until they go on Medicare. Just when you may need insurance the most as you are aging.
In NY (literally in our backyard) that same couple would pay $7800. NJ uses age as a factory NY does not.
NJ for the same horizon plan a 30 year old couple would pay over $7500 a 37 year old couple over $8000.
NY 30 year old couple or the 37 year old couple would pay the same $7800 the 60 year old couple pays.
Insurance in not cheap in NJ.
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Lisa you think the costs are high now? Wait until we see the impact of the so called death spiral when mostly older people sign up. Costs will soar even higher.
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