THINGS I LEARNED WHILST BROWSING HEALTHCARE.GOV

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It's amazing what you can find out about Obamacare once you can get into the web site.  Here's what I've found in eight hours of browsing over two days:

On the main page of Healthcare.gov, using the utility called “See plans before I apply”, you have absolutely no ability to research anything but the most basic information on health plans, and the website has numerous disclaimers that you must enroll before you can determine the true cost of a plan.  That means you have to provide all of your private information before you can determine if Obamacare is any good.

There are explicit disclaimers on the website that you have no reasonable expectation that your personal information will be secure.   

With rare exceptions, the health care plans offered under Obamacare do not cover Optical or Dental, and you pay a massive upcharge for any Smokers.  According to the customer service representative I spoke with, “most of the plans do not include Optical or Dental”. 

Healthcare.gov cannot show you the plans that have optical.  You need to research them one at a time until you find one that does.

If you research Dental as a standalone plan, the average yearly premium for 1 person is $300 with $700 OOP (Out Of Pocket) expenses before any insurance benefits kick in.  Family plans averaged an $850 premium with a $1,400 OOP.

The website is incapable of allowing you to calculate a family Dental plan other than a generic template that assumes that you have two kids ages 3 and 5, and that you and your spouse are age 30.

There doesn’t seem to be any difference in the cost of health plans whether your children are 5 or 26.

There was only one Platinum plan offered for any and all combinations of family size and age.

The average of premiums, Deductibles and OOP (Out Of Pocket) expenditures across all Health Care plans works out to $8,000 per person for coverage for one or two persons.  Above three persons the costs add about $1,500 per family member, with the average Family plan costing $19,000. 

Making even reasonable assumptions about the incremental costs for Dental, Optical and Smokers premium, that makes Obamacare individual plans more than twice as expensive as employer sponsored health insurance plans, and Family plans about 40% more expensive.

By comparison, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that in 2013 employer plans averaged $4,700 per individual and $16,351 per family.  Those plans included Smokers as well as Dental and Optical.  Keep in mind that the Kaiser Foundation is Obamacare's Fluffer, so for them to reveal statistics that make it look bad is a big deal. 

All Bronze plans are nothing but hugely overpriced catastrophic health plans.  Premiums for individuals average $3,000 per year with Deductibles and OOP of $6,000.  Family Plan premiums average $6,400 Premiums with Deductible/OOP of $12,700.

“Silver” plans are the biggest rip-off in the system, with very high premiums along with huge Deductibles and OOP.  A typical plan for a family of three was for a $7,188 premium, $9,200 Deductible and $12,600 OOP.  And that did not include Optical, Dental or Smokers premium. 

There’s a reason they are pushing Silver plans.  You can only qualify for government subsidies on your OOP expenditures based on your income level if you sign up for a “Silver” Plan.  And of course, you can’t find out what those subsidies might be without enrolling in the system, but it is safe to assume that the same income-based subsidies provided on premiums will apply on OOP as well.  That means if you are in the lower middle class and above, you get nothing. 

Premium subsidies are based on your income as well.  They are a whopping good deal if you are in a lower income bracket, but they are a joke if you are not.  For example, a family of three grossing $25,000 gets an 82% premium subsidy. The website states “Households with yearly incomes up to about $46,000 for individuals or $94,000 for a family of four will qualify for lower costs.”  Doesn’t matter.  The meaningful subsidies actually cut off at $46,000 for a family of three.

Healthcare.gov does not have a program to help you calculate what your premium subsidy is.  You need to click on the Kaiser Family Foundation link to calculate your premium subsidy.  It will ask you whether or not you or any family members are smokers, but regardless of how you answer, it shows the same subsidy.  The Kaiser Foundation tool also only shows examples on the assumption that you want a Silver plan.

The Healthcare.gov website also goes to pains to explain that premium subsidies are only available if you get your plan through the “Exchanges”, and that folks with employer provided plans do not qualify.  If this doesn’t mean Obamacare was meant to destroy the private health insurance markets, nothing does.

The plans offered in Obamacare are heavy on PPO (Paid Provider Organization) plans.  PPOs are notorious for forcing you to use a doctor “on network”.  Whether or not your family physician or specialist is part of the PPO is a crap shoot.  There are numerous website disclaimers regardless of plan that make it clear there is no ability to keep your doctors.

There is an awesome subsidy for everyone who lies about their incomes, smoking habits and family size, and absolutely no way for the government to verify if you are telling the truth.  The bureaucracy will have to be expanded by at least 1 million in order to administer Obamacare.

Bottom line, Obamacare is savagely and relentless discriminatory to the Middle Class.  If you have even a modest income, you end up paying premiums and Deductibles much higher than current employer provided insurance, and qualify for minimal to no relief.

In summary, all Obamacare plans are designed to make you pay maximum premiums and maximum Deductible/OOP with little risk to the insurance companies.  With the way they have inflated both premiums and OOP, Obamacare pumps hundreds of billions in additional profits into the insurance companies every year.

So the next time you hear Obama or the Democrats trashing the insurance companies, well, use your imagination.