My hellacious health care nightmare -- Obamacare has ruined me

[still_one]

70. That is expensive, no question about it, and you are not alone. When I got laid off, I didn't

qualify for the subsidy either, and the CoveredCa premium was actually more expensive than COBRA, so I went with COBRA. I consider myself fortunate though since I was able to afford the premium, about 700 a month, and my wife was on Medicare at the time. I am now covered under Medicare, for about a year, which is about 300 dollars a month for me plus 300 dollars for my wife.

If I had gone with the ACA, I would have taken the Silver plan also. The Gold was significantly more expensive, and the Bronze had a lot of out of pocket expenses.

That is the BIG problem, what happens to those whose incomes are just above the subsidy requirement, but can't meet both the insurance premium plus mortgage. It is a serious issue, and one of the biggest failures of the ACA.

So your husband was affected by the HP layoffs. That is awful. Probably the worst mistake HP made was putting Carly into that position. She sold HP down the river with the Compaq deal, and a lot of people lost their jobs in the bay area. A lot of us in California know all about Carly, and I hope others in the country realize what a disaster she was. She got her golden parachute. She did a different maneuver with Lucent, by extending credit to companies who did not qualify to make the bottom line look good, and left the mess for someone else to clean up.

Sorry for your situation. I hope it gets better. Medicare will make it better, but it will still cost.

Take care