PJ Media: I Compared My Obamacare Options to My Current Plan, and Surprise, Surprise

[LAGC]

So I saw this nasty piece of conservative propaganda trending on Yahoo! News just now:

It happens that I started a new day job as a principal engineer a couple of weeks ago. It's for a Very Large Company, VLC. It has a health insurance plan that is, if not the absolute best one I've ever had, a nicely adequate one. It's what's called a "high deductible" plan, but that means a $1500 deductible, with both a health savings account to which the company contributes, and a flexible spending account. Looked good to me. With my contributions to max out both the HSA and the FSA, my net deduction from my pay is around $600 a month -- but remember, that's almost entirely pre-tax money going into accounts I can use to pay for health care of various sorts.

Because of the ACA, however, they were required to notify me I could opt out of their plans, and choose instead a plan from the health insurance exchanges.

Okay, so just to reassure everyone I haven't completely lost my mind, when this option was offered, I immediately said "you mean I can opt to buy my own expensive and inadequate coverage instead of going with the company's plan they pay for?" And, reassuringly, the HR person explaining these plans answered, "Yes, that's about it."

I did get curious, though: what would that option be?

So I went to Connect for Health Colorado, the Colorado exchange website and ... well, tried to sign up. After filling in a long page of personal information, I tried to submit it, and got an error

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2015/11/18/i-compared-my-obamacare-options-to-my-current-plan-and-surprise-surprise

So I thought I'd do a little quick investigating to see if he was telling the truth.

So I went to Colorado's exchange site:

http://connectforhealthco.com/

Clicked on the blue "Sign-In/Shop" button on the top-right, then chose "Individuals & Families" from the drop-down list.

Then scrolled down to the lower-middle: "Browse Plans" (you don't even have to sign up and make an account and enter anything to see prices and plans, like that guy was claiming)

I just entered a Denver zip code (80123) and a date-of-birth making my fake persona age 50 like I presume is around the age of the author of that piece is, based on his profile picture, then left "Start Coverage" date to 01-01-2016 and ticked the "Health" coverage type leaving "Dental" blank.

Well lo and behold... I did find some cheaper shitty Bronze and Silver plans like he was saying that had high deductibles, but if you scroll down further I was able to find a decent Gold EPO plan (Cigna Vantage Flex Gold 1400) that cost less ($589.41/month) than what he is paying now through his private employer and has a slightly lower deductible.

In short, he's a bald-faced liar! Claiming that none of the Obamacare plans are any good in comparison.

I suppose that's just par for course for right-wing media, but I found it quite funny how I could debunk this guy's story in less than 5 minutes just by visiting the Colorado exchange site that he claimed "stumped" him, trying to sign up.

[Todays_Illusion]

1. The writer of this article from this very conservative publisher ignores the fact that

The ACA law mandates coverage for all health care policies. The policy he has purchased is only good because of the law.
The law only allows the policies with the high deductibles and high co-pays because the Congressional Republicans demanded that the cheaper plans be available.

But the real fact is that insurance companies are no longer allowed to deny coverage for preexisting coverage nor deny payment for claims for covered expenses.

The writer does not acknowledge that prior to ACA it was not possible for anyone in the U.S.A. to buy a plan that had to cover preexisting conditions and couldn't drop you if you developed a chronic condition.