Beginning of the End for Major Health Insurers

[enlightenment]

73. I agree. The lowest priced Bronze plan

in my state has a $6300 combined medical/prescription deductible - and no coverage until it is paid. (Catastrophic insurance, though they don't call it that).

After that, the Bronze plans have medical deductibles that range from a low of $4500 to a high of $6000 with additional deductibles for prescriptions. Co-pays range from $25 to $90 (one uses percentages: 25% of the full price of a visit/treatment/test/etc).

Silver plan deductibles range from $1750 (these are higher priced premium plans) to $5500 (it does not, to its credit charge a co-pay for doctors visits but does for test/lab/etc). For the rest, co-pays are lower, $20 to $80 . . . prescriptions are on a separate deductible for most, as with the Bronze plans.

After that, the premium prices are out of reach for many people, even with subsidies (what really sucks in my state is the difference in price between the urban and rural areas. Given that the folks in the rural areas are probably some of the most stretched, it is a double blow to discover that your premium is half again as much as your friend in the city will pay).

I'm annoyed with the information provided by the website of the exchange; it is too vague. I want to see the details - the stuff that comes on the multi-page contract that you sign - and I want to see it before I am forced to make a choice. Each plan page has a link that presumably takes you to the insurance company so you can find that information, but nobody made the insurance companies have that information available, so it's been a series of dead-ends.

Most people, I think, are going to just sign up without really understanding what they are getting - and that's a shame.