Hacker News Reader

Comment by ambiate | Hacker News Reader

If necessary, I will pay the penalty. I assume the credit for health care costs and taxes charged on health care should make up for any penalties incurred by the PPACA. If I read correctly, my penalty should only be $950-1300. Inevitably, with my insurance rates, I would spend that on 2 months of health coverage for my small family.

Just to break down costs: $600/mo health for wife/kid. $7200/yr. vs ~200/mo + 1000 penalty. $3400/yr.

We're not exactly getting Xrays and CT scans on a daily basis in my household! If my wife was to get pregnant, I know most hospitals offer a specialized bundle plan for dealing with the pregnancy for a set flat rate. All check ups, ultrasounds, single doctor, etc, for $6000.

View on HN

You don't need to have traditional "insurance" to be exempt from penalty under PPACA.

There are exemptions for members of certain groups (IIRC, Native American tribes and religious groups that are opposed to the concept of insurance, like the Amish). There are also exemptions for participants in "health cost sharing ministries" [0]. My family pays $135/month for what, practically, functions like a high-deductible plan [1] -- a little more expensive than just paying the penalty, but it's worth it to mitigate the cost risk associated with catastrophic illness.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_sharing_ministry . There's a list of Christian health-sharing ministries at http://www.healthcaresharing.org/ ; I don't know what other religions or non-religions might have similar programs.

[1] the friend who referred me to this signed up for a no deductible option. He was diagnosed with cancer a month later, and they covered everything.

I'm not in the USA, but 'only $950-1300'? That's more or less what I pay for a whole year of health insurance in the NL. How much does insurance cost in the USA?

$200/mo per kid. $350/mo for wife. $600 for wife and unlimited kids.

And for the record: that's what qualifies as "incredibly inexpensive" in the US. Many people pay well over $1000/mo for family care, not counting what their employer contributes.

These costs are roughly what I'm faced with as well. I have insurance on myself but my kid is uninsured because I can't bring myself to pay so much per month when my child is only at the doctor 2-3 times a year and the cost is probably around $180 for a whole year, or less than the cost of a single month of insurance which I'd still be paying a copay on.

Here is an example rate sheet for where I live (Northern NJ):

http://www.horizon-bcbsnj.com/SiteGen/Uploads/Public/horizon...

when I left my last job, I had the option to continue the health insurance the company was paying for, for up to a year (this rule is called "COBRA"). It costs me about $1100 per month, to cover two people.

Unless you have low income, you pay more than that in the Netherlands.

Payment for health care is composed of two parts:

You pay about EUR 867 to 1,140 directly to an insurance company PER ADULT depending on how much you want to pay yourself in case of required care.

Then there's the socialized income dependent part of the insurance that's either payed via your employer or by yourself, which, in the latter case, is 5,65% over up to EUR ~51 K.

A family of two, each with an income > 51K then pays between EUR 7,480 to 8,026 (atm USD ~10K) each year for health insurance, subsidizing insurance for lower income groups.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com