General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My christmas gift this year [View all]LittleGirl
(8,282 posts)But the ACA made that illegal - refusing service or rejecting you because you have a pre-existing condition. No longer allowed under "Obamacare/ACA". Thank goodness. As a middle aged woman, I've always had to pay more for insurance because of those child bearing years where they would have to cover pregnancies even though I didn't have children. That is now illegal too.
So the new insurance law helped women like me for several reasons, 1. can't charge us more because we're female, 2. can't reject us because we might get pregnant, 3. can't deny to cover us because of being a female or 4. for pre-existing conditions. Also 6. children in college can be carried under their parents' policy until they are 26 yrs old.
So that's what is good about the law.
What's bad about the law is that they didn't control costs of insurance premiums. Our deductible costs doubled in 2014 from 2013 and doubled the year before that too. We used to have a deductible of 1000 dollars but then it went up to 1500 then 3500 in 2014. When you have employer provided health care insurance, you cannot go out to the market place and buy your own insurance so there is no competition (yet).
But we got some serious sticker shock in Switzerland. Our premiums for my spouse and are three times what we paid ourselves through my spouse's employer. We have to purchase on the open market in CH and don't have subsides from the employer so we have to pay full price. Ouch. But we are covered for hospitalization, emergencies and I can see a Naturopathic Doctor which is what I prefer anyway.
Anyway, Merry Christmas and take care of that ticker (heart) and be well in 2015. Maybe we'll meet on the other side of the pond. Cheers!