Obamacare is Single Payer with a time delay

[LWolf]

96. Well, I won't go back and look at paystubs

for the last decades, since that's how my premiums are paid. But I'll give you estimates.

My current premium is $989 a month. My son's mortgage, with taxes and insurance added in, is $678 a month.

My deductible is $2500. I just today got the bill for my recent visits to urgent care; urgent care because it couldn't wait, and because they wanted to do the followups for the procedure they performed. I still haven't met the deductible, and I don't know where I'm going to find the extra $1600 in my budget. It was about $600 for the first visit, $300 for the 3 subsequent visits, plus $93 for lab work, plus the prescriptions, of which my copays added up to about $60.

In 2005, I had no deductibles, and no copay higher than $8.00. My premium then was about the same as now. The premium rose a bit each year, $25 - 50; about 3-6% a year. Those increases were a concern. The premium was at about $1100 before the ACA took effect. The next round of raises bumped it up to $1250, an increase of 13-14%,so I signed on to the next lowest plan, which kept the premium the same, but the deductible went from 0 to $250. The following year, the premiums went up again, by about 15%. To keep premium costs the same, I signed on to the next lowest plan, but the deductible went to $750, and the copays went up. Finally, the last time I had to sign up, the premium for the same plan increased by about $250, which I could't afford. So I dropped to the bottom of the barrel plan, with the premium that is about a third more than my son's mortgage, and the huge deductible.

My available plans are negotiated by my employer. We have to re-up every year.