Make no mistake: the high deductible is how rationing is achieved under this program. This way, no one gets accused of establishing a "death panel". People can be denied care without the word "denied" appearing anywhere.

Amy, I say this with all due respect and genuine affection: never apologize for bringing your boobs in. Especially when they are illustrative.As you know we men are so rational, we always appreciate the instructive quality of breasts. Yeah. That's what it is. Instructive.
(As a side note, I've long maintained that a better way than mammograms to detect cancer will be developed when testicular cancer is tested for in the same way....)

I think you're right, Rad. It absolutely is rationing. I don't have $700 floating around. And I say that as somebody who barely uses the care they have.

And -- hah -- thanks BlogDog.

This is a very sore subject for me. My husband and are both fortunate to have jobs that provide insurance (of which the payments are deducted from my checks). Mine use to actually be pretty good and since I've always been relatively healthy, my costs were low. Then, ObamaCare... our plans at work changed, dramatically.

2012-2013 was a rough year financially for us. After two very painful late term miscarriages (both of which required very expensive D&C's), having our dog attacked by another dog and his extensive vet bills, a severe pipe break which caused thousands of dollars of damage to our home and one of our cars finally deciding it was time to die, we've been struggling to keep our heads above water. We've been trying to bounce back and rebuild our savings for a little over a year with little success. On top of everything else, I've been having some unusual health issues and have had to make more visits to the doctor than usual. Our healthcare costs increased due to the ACA so these visits, even with insurance, have not been cheap. Our savings is completely gone now. We are literally living paycheck to paycheck. Just two days ago, I had the lovely experience of having to decide which of my prescriptions to get because of the cost. I also have to take a high dosage of Vitamin D suppliment because like you, Amy, I am paler than most vampires and avoid the sun like one because we recently discovered that I have a reaction to sunlight that causes me to have a rash (which is SO much fun living in South Florida). I was so broke by the end that pharmacy trip that I also decided not to pick up my suppliments and still only walked away with ONE of my three presribed medications. My pharmacist, who I've been using for years, tried everything in his power to make it work but just couldn't. I chose the birth control. Without getting into too much detail, the second miscarriage really messed up my cycle and my birth control has helped get things back under control. And, getting pregnant right now is the WORST thing that can happen because we just cannot afford the maternity care costs or the cost to lose another, whatever the case may be. I'll have to wait until my next check to pick up the other medications. I also just canceled another follow up visit to my doctor because I genuenly cannot afford the co-pay it will require. I actually spent the entire evening crying about this. I'm still very angry that I was even forced to make that decision when just a year ago, it would have been a non-issue.

Sooooo... thanks, Obama... I guess...

Sabrina,

BTDT which is no help to your and yours but I wish you a short trip through this hell.

Some advice that helped me (even though I did not follow through completely) is to CONSTANTLY tell myself to RELAX. (Heard that snort all the way here in W. Texas.)

Seriously, your body can cope w/this stuff but it also may become 'stuck' in tense, WTF is next, angry/stressful state. When this happens you do not cope.

If you can prevent this being 'stuck' condition by consistently taking a few seconds relaxing your shoulders, taking 5 SLOW breaths, trying to find tension (shoulder blade area?) and reliving it, you will be much better off in the long term.

Pick up a yoga VHS tape/DVD at a yard sale ($5) and just do the simple poses. The one that helps me is the Corpse(?) where I just lie there and breath slowly.

Good luck on your journey.

Not quite sure of the logistics for a breast MRI but since it is a preventive test you should now not receive an invoice for it.

I am sure I am telling people nothing new, but if you tell your physician of the cost of the prescriptions, which they often don't know, your physician can find alternatives, either generics, or different drugs, or dive into their boxes of samplers.

Walmart seems to have very good drug prices without even requiring insurance.

Depending on where you live, and income level, Planned Parenthood can provide free birth control, or so google tells me.

Sabrina, best of luck to you as you navigate a rough spot.

I deliberately chose a high deductible plan at work last year because it ended up being cheaper than the regular plan once I added up prescription expenses. However, that one had no monthly premiums. The combination under Obamacare of high premiums and high deductibles is killer.

We can afford to have a second kid because I get awesome insurance through work. If our family were on an ACA plan, our premiums would double and our deductible would nearly triple, and I know that at least one of the doctors I use (for perinatal screening) doesn't take the plans. So we decided to have our second and last kid this year before my benefits change (which is always a possibility- but I'm employed by one of those "best places to work for" companies. For that, I'm VERY grateful.) I feel terrible for people who have to go on the ACA plans. It's a TERRIBLE deal for the middle class. A family with children with an income around $70k could easily be paying out 10% of their income just in premiums- what a screw job!

Thanks, all. I am very sorry. I really didn't mean to make this thread about me... I'm still reeling from it and I got to typing and it all spilled. Thanks for the tips and support and I'll definitely check out those other options. This too shall pass, I suppose.

Every time I hear some ignorant asshole sing the praises of ObamaCare, I feel like punching them in their throats. On behalf of myself and the thousands of other Americans who now have to deal with all the crap that comes from the ACA, I say FUCK YOU, OBAMA!

Do not forget that it was not solely the president that put this bill into effect.
People always forget about Congress.

I can't say if Costco pharmacy is cheaper than others because I was prescribed Entocort for microscopic colitis. The pharmacist called me because the cost of the prescription was $1,600. I was able to avail myself of a, dare I say, "non-local" pharmacy from which I got the same name brand med for $322. And actually bought more than the Rx had me using (though of course i stopped at the Rx dose - which worked perfectly by the way).

"Every time I hear some ignorant asshole sing the praises of ObamaCare, I feel like punching them in their throats." - Sabrina

Yeah, then they'll see just how good their coverage is.

Actually, that won't work, because the majority of people who support the ACA don't have to resort to using it and will never really know what it's like to have it.

We are paying $1400 a month for health insurance for a family of 5 (they stop charging per child after 3 as well). It's absolutely ridiculous and will still cost a small fortune to use care. I lost my job and have had no luck getting hired anywhere at this time and my unemployment will be running out at the end of July. I'm not sure what we'll do then because bills will not be getting paid, or certainly not the amount that's due each month. If not for me having some major health expenses right now (complications from blood clotting disorder and now unintentional pregnancy on an IUD) we'd probably skip the insurance and pay cash for what we need because it's normally a hell of a lot cheaper for what we need and use.

If I needed healthcare and was unemployed I would look at going the concierge medicine route.

Oh, how timely. I just sat through our insurance renewal today. (I'm the accountant). Holy hell. We used to pay 90% of our employee's health care costs. That's gone now. We "can't" pay a percentage because every freaking person now has his or her own rate based on age and it's "discriminatory". But, I CAN discriminate and make singles pay less than families, etc. WTF?

I'm going to have a lot of unhappy campers when this year's insurance renewal meetings start...

I'm going to have a lot of unhappy campers when this year's insurance renewal meetings start... -- Daghain at May 2, 2014 6:24 PM

Have you looked at going a concierge medicine route for all employees with a universal catastrophic coverage plan?

Depending on the size of the company and employee diversity and locations it might make sense to do that instead.

If you approach a medical practice and say we want to contract you for a year for X00 number of employees and families you could probably get a discount rate. The typical concierge practice has their own in "office" labs, cheap pharmacies, x-rays and a lot of the rest. And then see about enrolling the employees in the MSA/HSA systems.

It may be a dumb idea -- just throwing it out there.

Meh, I've always had employer-sponsored health insurance, and my premiums and copays/deductibles/out-of-pocket costs have gone up every year - and have done so long before Obamacare was even thought of. BTW, I also have large dense breasts, but the only time my employer's plan even considered paying for a breast MRI was when a routine mammogram showed a problem.

Concierge medicine will not work for me and my current situation because concierge practices are general practitioners, not specialists. I am a high risk pregnancy normally and now have another issue causing another risk because of the stupid IUD. I have to see a perinatologist very regularly and get a lot more ultrasounds and labs than the average person. I also have to see a hematologist for my blood clotting disorder and the issues I'm having from it right now. Not to mention one of my prescriptions is $1400 a month without insurance and doesn't come in generic. The alternatives are not safe for pregnancy, will cross the placenta and harm baby. In general I do like the idea of concierge medicine, but it's not right for our needs.

Friends of mine decided to go with one of those health share co-op type plans because they couldn't afford insurance premiums otherwise. That turned out to bite them in the ass. Four months into the year and they are already owing more than the max out of pocket on most of the insurance plans offered in our state. On the other hand, most of it is due to her newborn son. She owes several thousand for herself for his delivery and then toward his hospital bills at birth. She's then paying out the ass for his well-child checks and immunizations (not "free" on health share plans). I was seriously shocked at the itemized bill for his 2-month appointment that included four immunizations. They were charging $300 to administer the immunizations and other insane fees. The visit was $950 and her insurance covered $90 of it saying that was the "standard" coverage amount for that visit, so she owes over $800 for it. I personally think her doctor is significantly overbilling and inflating the costs considering I know what things cost and what people were charged where I used to work. As far as that goes, when we got the enrollment packet from Kaiser (so I could keep my specialists) it included a paper that showed what the standard cost of the most common tests, procedures, and visits were so you could calculate your percentages to see what you'd pay. It was less than half the costs on my friend's bills.

@Jim - I don't know if that would be feasible, we're only around 44 employees. I'm about fed up enough to suggest we just give everyone a 10% pay raise and send them to the exchange, but I haven't quite reached that level of fuck off yet. We're still under 50 employees so we really don't have to offer it, but we always have, and we'd like to keep doing it. This is making it next to impossible.

So. What did people do before "insurance"?

Hi all,

For everyone trying to afford the expensive medications, please check to see if the drug company has a co-pay assistance program. It often works like secondary insurance, and will often help even if you don't have any insurance.

Also, please go to your doctor and see if they can give you samples of the medication. While my insurance was debating the latest in expensive medications, my doctor was able to float me with samples from the office. That allowed me to continue therapy without burying me under debt.

-Julie W