Mrs Danvers

Connect for Colorado is up today, Boiler. Though I didn't want to put my details in. Tried putting in Mrs Danvers of Manderley but they called BS on my fake address.

scrubbedexpat099

Thank you for your patience while we work to fix a technical issue. Please contact us at 1-855-PLANS-4-YOU (1-855 752-6749) if you need assistance.

Been like that all day. Just tried again and as I mentioned I called the number.

I think they may be going for the Guinness Book of Records for variety of error messages, at least this one makes sense.

They did very quickly find me in their system interestingly.

From what I can gather there have been a lot of visitors but very few have actually set up accounts.

I was nice, not the person answering the phone's problem, judging by the wariness might not be normal.

Steerpike

I'm now on Cobra, paying $590/mo for my plan (self only). I honestly don't know the gory details of my plan (deductibles, etc) since I'm healthy and never use it, but I chose the best plan available and I hear it's a good one from others in the (former) office. So I would guess it would compare with the silver or gold offerings from the Health Exchange. I'm 54.

I went to the CA site yesterday to see what I could come up with. I don't recall what income I put in; but the amount I entered was sufficient to generate a response of 'sorry, you don't qualify for any subsidy' (or similar). I don't recall putting in a zip code, but if I did, it would have been for east bay (one of the big frustrations with the site was that you didn't get a 'summary' or 'report' back at the end, confirming what you entered, and - even more annoying - you could not practically print the results (the print rendering was just atrocious). Even copy/paste of the text lost all tabular orientation. I ended up reducing the browser zoom level to the point where it all fit on one screen then doing a screen shot, then hand-writing the premiums alongside the plan details ... embarrassingly bad design). Anyway I assume they will improve it over time ...

The quotes I got (self only) were:
Bronze: $457 (blue shield) to $464 (Health Net) (3 choices total)
Silver: $553 (blue shield) to $670 (Health Net) (5 choices total)
Gold: $651 (blue shield) to $800 (Health Net) (5 choices total)
Platinum: $746 (blue shield) to $960 (Health Net) (5 choices total)

So the 'Silver' offering most closely matches (dollar wise) my current Cobra deal; I was hoping to see lower premiums, but at least those same premiums apply to my g/f who has serious pre-existing conditions.

Based on Michael's observations above, it seems like I should not even trust these numbers yet ...

I have another 16 months of Cobra to go ... hopefully in 16 months all will be clearer ... (or I'll have another job and be eligible for group health care).

scrubbedexpat099

The Deductible is a major factor, nice to see some actual affordable numbers quoted.

Michael

If you are actually 33 and single, the following are the quoted prices for San Jose. I suspect the prices are correct for no subsidy. The prices and subsidy can sometimes seem to be incorrect when income is below 400% of poverty (price can be too low and the subsidy too high). However those incorrect prices and subsidies seems to only occur for families of 3 or more so maybe they forgot to QA entries for families of 3 or more below 400% of the poverty level.

Bronze: $233-$286
Silver: $319-$363
Gold: $377-$441
Platinum: $431-$516

Gold and Platinum have $0 deductible.

Steerpike

So would you say, the big difference between your numbers here (based on age 33) and my numbers (age 54) above are age related?

Michael

Yes and maybe a little region related.

Steerpike

OK, I logged on to the UHC (united healthcare) website to look up my current plan details - what I get for my $590/mo Cobra payment.

My deductible is $450 (in network, $900 out), and my max out of pocket (OOP) is $2,250 (in network, $4,500 out).

Comparing this to the Health Exchange plans (for a 54 year old):

Bronze: $457 (blue shield) to $464 (Health Net) - deductible $5,000, Max OOP $6,350
Silver: $553 (blue shield) to $670 (Health Net) - deductible $2,000, Max OOP $6,350
Gold: $651 (blue shield) to $800 (Health Net) - deductible $0, Max OOP $6,350
Platinum: $746 (blue shield) to $960 (Health Net) - deductible $0, Max OOP $4,000

So this makes my current Cobra deal seem quite attractive. Even the 'gold' plan above still lets me go $6,350 OOP ... though I'm not sure how I'd ever spend that amount since there is $0 deductible and the highest charge I see is $250 copay for ER visit ... but maybe I'm not understanding it fully.

Bottom line, though, for me is - I've always heard that it would cost me a LOT to get private insurance (non-group rate) at my age, and I live in fear of the 'pre-existing condition' situation (I don't have one NOW, but who knows what I could develop in the next 10 years) ... so overall, these 'Health Exchange' rates are good news for me, and fabulous news for my g/f who has a big red flashing pre-existing condition (I doubt she could ever get private, non-group insurance in a pre-Obamacare world).

Ironically, it's the Republican anti-Obamacare nuts who claim to support 'small business', but having access to affordable insurance rates WITHOUT a group contract means I can more easily be a self-employed or small-business worker, since I can now get affordable health insurance. My g/f, for example, has essentially been forced to work for a big company offering group health coverage due to her pre-existing condition; now she can be an independent contractor ...

Michael

I suspect that you were working for a company that had a lot of young healthy employees and therefore your cost for Cobra is based on health of the employees of that company and is relatively low.

When I worked for a company with many older employees, my cost for Cobra was more than it was 10 years later when I quit working for a company with younger healthier employees.

I believe the all plans have a set co-pay for certain procedures and any thing else is a 40%, 30%, 20%, or 10% co-pay depending on the plan (Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum).

Steerpike

Is $590 / month for one person considered cheap?! Oh my!

The company had over 1,000 employees but they were all over the country. The 'head office' was in AZ and there were about 300 people there. The employee demographic wasn't unusually young, to my recollection. Maybe AZ was a factor? Which raises an interesting question ... I plan to spend most of my time back in CA now ... I'm hoping there won't be any issue 'consuming' services in CA when my plan is nominally an 'AZ' plan ...

Michael

In 1989, Cobra costs me nearly $500 for AETNA's best plan. In 2001, Cobra cost me $239 for the same AETNA plan. Companies are only allowed to charge 100% of their cost + a maximum 5% management fee for Cobra.

The company could have also had healthy older employees. A few very sick employees (whether young or old) that run up medical bills causes the employer health costs to rise. Even changing insurance companies doesn't help since all insurance companies base the cost on the previous year's medical bills. Cobra can be very expensive when you work for a very small company and only one employee gets very sick and runs up huge medical bills.

I don't think you should have a problem with getting treated in California under Cobra since you indicate that employees are scattered all around the country and they all are covered under the same plan.

Michael

I suspect the health insurance companies on the exchanges are currently being cautious about pricing (pricing high) since they don't know what their costs will be. However it is basically a group health plan with about the same amount of paperwork required from employees working for companies so prices may drop. If medical bill payout is less than 80% of premiums, the insurance companies will have to send a year end refund to all participants in their plans (part of Obamacare).

Eventually prices should be similar to what the average employer premiums are +5% (group health plans must have a 85% or higher payout) since health insurance companies will no longer need to evaluate medical records, check policies to determine payout and coverage, have a staff to answer questions about different coverages, and lawyers to write fine print and to defend themselves against lawsuits.

Since everybody is getting one of the same four identical policies from all companies on the exchanges, they everybody should know what they are getting and insurance companies know what they must pay.

I suspect the insurance companies that are pricing high may be sorry as they lose customers and the low priced ones will get the bulk of the business and a better idea of how their policies should be priced. If they price it similar to average employer group policies + 5%, they'll probably profit well. They have those statistics in their database so risk analysis should indicate how to price the policies but I suspect some are currently pricing for worst case analysis.

For individual policies not on the exchange, insurance companies analyze health records and price at the high end of that analysis and if the costs are greater than that, the policy is canceled or the person is put into a risk pool with much higher premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and unlimited out of pocket expenses.

Bob

When I had COBRA on offer, it was a few bucks shy of $1600 a month, for a very comprehensive plan mind.

Good mix of young and old people at the company, but there were a few people with various cancer treatments as well as a organ transplanter.

Steerpike

I presume this was for spouse and dependent children? Do you have any recollection what the 'self' cost was?

Bob

That was me dropping the wife and kid off the cover as well as removing the dental component.

Saying that, the family component only added a few hundred to the plan.

$20 co-pay, no deductible, no limit of cover, 100% cover, for me. Family component had a small deductible for certain things.