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Comment by hueving | Hacker News Reader

The healthcare bill took forever to pass because of its half-assed marketplace that's offering terrible healthcare for lots of people. $621/mo premium with everything out of pocket up to a $6,000 deductible is a joke. That's as much as a mortgage payment for many people and it amounts to nothing more than catastrophic coverage.

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And that's for one young, healthy person! The plans available, coverage, and costs are terrible. I can't imagine how regular workers making < $100k are paying those premiums and they're going up by about $50/year consistently. The bill had many other good provisions, but other than Medicaid expansion (which was turned down once again by mostly baby boomer asshole governors whose demonstrated compassion and empathy levels are so low they don't belong in the human race) none of them actually provides health care. It creates a market, and like you say, not a very good one, and fixes problems that shouldn't have existed in the first place like denying people coverage because they're sick (preexisting conditions) or went a month without coverage.

And this is amazing progress and the best we can expect in America from the mostly baby boomer assholes in power. But if we repeat mindlessly that America is the greatest country on earth enough, we can overlook the fact that it is dead last in healthcare out of all developed countries. Why socialize medicine, pharmaceuticals, and other industries that profit off of people's misfortunes, sickness, and death? Why not profit off of other people's misfortunes, sickness, and death? Die already so I can get rich. That is the American way, after all, and that's why those prices are so fucking high.

The average cost for an ACA premium in 2015 was $374 per month, but since 85 percent of people signing up receive a subsidy the cost is actually much lower.

"Among consumers who are signed up for 2015 coverage to date in the 37 HealthCare.gov states, 8 in 10 could choose a plan with a premium of $100 or less after tax credits, based on available options."[1]

[1]http://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2015/02/09/almost-6-point-5-mi...

Yes, but I'm sure that includes health insurance not on the Platinum level (pays 90-100% of costs) which is even worse than what is described above and truly only for catastrophes. In New Jersey, there is no Platinum health plan < $500 per person and most of the plans, even at the Platinum level, still have outrageous out of pocket maximums, deductibles, or limits on coverage. For example, in New Jersey out of half a dozen or so Platinum plans only one has a nationwide network. It wouldn't matter for a person who gets sick on these non platinum plans because having to pay 20-50% of the whole bill with such high out of pocket maximums will most likely bankrupt anyone who can't afford the premium for more expensive plans.

This is why the public option was so important, but even the democrats couldn't agree to that.

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