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Comment by atonse | Hacker News Reader

Thank goodness for Obamacare (at least in the mid-Atlantic US). Before Obamacare, individual plans were absolute shit (my individual plan wouldn't have covered my wife's pregnancy with our first kid... her job's insurance did).

Thanks to Obamacare, individual plans have the same coverage as employer plans. Without Obamacare I couldn't have started my company which now employs 9 people in well paid tech jobs (without a penny of outside investment). I'd be stuck in an artificial set of handcuffs imposed by a stupid legacy system of tying health insurance to employment.

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> Thank goodness for Obamacare

Yes, without Obamacare it wouldn't be possible for me to even imagine retiring early.

> Thanks to Obamacare, individual plans have the same coverage as employer plans.

Not quite. The network is usually smaller. Employer plans have a nationwide network. Which means that if you get a rare disease for which the best doctor is in UC San Diego, you can fly over there and get treatment. Most Obamacare plans have limited networks, for example in my area only in-state providers are on the network.

I’m not sure if I agree with your experience, in New York City Obamacare plans are horrendously bad, The coverage comes nowhere near to the crappiest employer plan. I had to hire a Nigerian kid to just call the doctors listed on Obamacare website which accepted the silver plan, and about only 40% of the doctors really did (this was for a delivery). $1400 per month for a mother and a child. I currently pay $1400 per month for coverage in all the US through open access for a full family of four (because I live in a place where Obamacare isn’t applicable so the prices are relatively dirt cheap and allows special deals with mainland insurers to get that coverage most mainlanders don’t get).

The price is probably similar to what the employer pays. It just gets hidden because everyone only pays attention to what comes out of their paycheck. I know a past employer paid $2000 for me per pay period.

Health insurance is bullshit obviously. the costs are hidden and definitely suppress what our wages could be. A government solution would be hard pressed to be worse.

I don't think anyone really thinks that health insurance plans cost $200 vs individual plans being $1400. Just the implication is ridiculous. Our problem wasn't the price, but the coverage. I know my BIL pays $2200 (total, including what his employer pays) and gets excellent plan for him and his wife, whereas us paying $1400 (and this was the same case with the more expensive plans too, coverage didn't change a bit, any doctor who accepted gold, accepted silver too).

My point is, (speaking strictly from a consumer POV) whatever is the reason, the NYC doctors just didn't take Obamacare plans, period.

Oh this is true of insurance everywhere but especially in NYC. Dental, Vision, legal, whatever. Every time (in NYC) I tried to make use of insurance I had limited choices and they were often bad.

In other parts of the country I’ve had more success using insurance.

> Oh this is true of insurance everywhere

Oh come on, I am comparing apples to apples (my last insurance, and my BIL's current insurance). But that's fine, I see why the mental gymnastics are being played here.

> hire a Nigerian kid to just call the doctors listed on Obamacare website which accepted the silver plan

How much did this cost? How did you find/arrange it? This is fascinating. When selecting my healthcare I remember wishing I had the time to make so many calls and then just gambled with an educated guess.

I paid him the US minimum wage and that was a bit too much for him for very little work, kinda spoiled him a bit.

I think I paid around $200.

How did you find him? An upwork-like platform? Personal connections? How did you vet for english ability/reliability?

I suppose my fascination is that this seems like a 'platonic' example of globalism in action. But in my mental model of globalism, the ability to engage with its benefits are an exponential function of ability to spend public-company amounts of money.

Obamacare is utter garbage and costs ridiculous amounts of money. It impoverishes poor people far more than it helps. They should've provided a tax credit to people who pay in with it. Instead they just reduce AGI. What a joke. Honestly the best thing Trump did was make that no longer mandatory or face a penalty. It was a rammed through system democrats did just to pat themselves on the back. Quite literally one of the biggest slap in the faces to the working class in a long time.

not being denied for pre-existing conditions, or being dropped for hitting a lifetime limit, have been a huge lifesaver for many Americans. if one is fortunate to be young or healthy the ACA wont benefit as much. but its a huge improvement and peace of mind for the large percentage of folks it helps

It sounds like you are incredibly privileged to not have "pre-existing" or chronic medical conditions. For many, the ACA saved their lives and the lives of their loved ones even if the premiums were as universally outrageous as you claim.

This. Little babies born with health issues used to be forced onto government healthcare, and parents had to reengineer thier life to qualify. Absolute savagery.

I know it's super shitty to say this, but the true reality to life is...no they don't. It's a savage truth but genetically your produced a child with a major issue. To see their survival it's gonna cost something.

I wouldn't say privileged, just normal seeing as people born with pre-existing conditions are the abnormality.

Sorry, but anti-health-care supremacists don't get to do everything in their power to sabotage, strangle, and corrupt something necessary, good, and sensible, just to backflip and whine that it's not perfect, not named after their cult leader, and "not hurting the people it needs to be".

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/tr...

Why is penalizing people you disagree with (or secretly agree with, but just hate) more important to you than saving lives?

If the net effect is saving lives, improving health, reducing poverty, battling pandemics, fighting quack medicine, and advancing science, then maybe the DO deserve to pat themselves on the back, huh?

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