A possible unintended side effect of Obamacare [View all]

[yurbud]

California has set up their exchange and has a calculator to show what your premiums would be if you used it to get your insurance.

My family is currently covered through my job, though if my wife lost her job, I'd have to pay quite a bit to cover her and my daughter with my job's insurance.

So I was curious to see what the exchange would cost.

I plugged in our numbers and got about $1200 a month for the three of us for the gold coverage (the ones below that had such high deductibles it wouldn't make sense for us).

I had two reactions to seeing that number:

1. That is significantly cheaper than it would cost to get covered in the past (I've checked).

2. It's still a hell of a lot.

That second reaction is the one I'm wondering if more people won't have.

Since most people get their insurance through their job, they probably have no idea what the total cost of their coverage is.

I've worked with my union local, and the only time I felt the least bit sympathetic for management was when I heard how much health insurance costs went up every year.

I think a lot of people will appreciate the lower cost, but after the initial gratitude wears off, I wonder if they won't be a bit critical of the total number and ask if their isn't a way to reduce it further--like taking the for-profit leeches out of the equation altogether.