Is anyone else losing spouse coverage?

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I am an LPN in a Florida nursing home. I received a letter that they are dropping spouse coverage on April 1. My husband is retired and not eligible for Medicare or health insurance elsewhere. We have been getting quotes of $800 to 900 a month. Does anyone know if this is a trend in nursing homes? What about home health care? I will need to change jobs, but the insurance is an important factor. Any input is appreciated.

Obamacare seeks to (politically speaking) "float the boat" of a demographic that legitimately needs help.

However (in my limited, anecdotal observances over time), it is sinking the boat of many others. That's all I'm saying at this point.

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You say that your husband is retired but not eligible for Medicare, then I am assuming he is under 66ish. Could he possibly return to work? I am only asking.

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Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

I have a private ppo plan for my husband and family. My employer offers insurance to the employee only. You can buy the extra coverage through the employer but I have been told in the past it is usually cheaper to get an individual plan than use the one from the emplyer. Of course you can shop around. Since Obamacare, insurance plans have gone up and coverage is worse.

My plan from last year, which was one that was cancelled because it was one of the "subpar" plans as proponents of Obamacare called it, was much better than my current plan. My current (new) plan (husband, daughter and son) would cost $650-700 a month with $5000 deductible per person/year, with a high office copay and prescription coverage that starts after I have paid $150 to name a few changes. My old (cancelled) plan was $350 a month with a $2500 a year deductible per person/year and the prescriptions started immediately. So now I would be paying twice as much a month for twice as much of a deductible and less coverage. I just don't see how I am benefited by this.

We were forced to take our daughter (21 years old) off our plan and have her try to do it on her own hoping she will qualify for a lower plan. I could barely afford the previous plan how am I supposed to have that double and make it work? AND the worst part is there isn't much I can do about it. Yeah, Esme had it right. Thanks OBAMACARE (and the insurance companies). :yawn:

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I have a private ppo plan for my husband and family. My employer offers insurance to the employee only. You can buy the extra coverage through the employer but I have been told in the past it is usually cheaper to get an individual plan than use the one from the emplyer. Of course you can shop around. Since Obamacare, insurance plans have gone up and coverage is worse.

My plan from last year, which was one that was cancelled because it was one of the "subpar" plans as proponents of Obamacare called it, was much better than my current plan. My current (new) plan (husband, daughter and son) would cost $650-700 a month with $5000 deductible per person/year, with a high office copay and prescription coverage that starts after I have paid $150 to name a few changes. My old (cancelled) plan was $350 a month with a $2500 a year deductible per person/year and the prescriptions started immediately. So now I would be paying twice as much a month for twice as much of a deductible and less coverage. I just don't see how I am benefited by this.

We were forced to take our daughter (21 years old) off our plan and have her try to do it on her own hoping she will qualify for a lower plan. I could barely afford the previous plan how am I supposed to have that double and make it work? AND the worst part is there isn't much I can do about it. Yeah, Esme had it right. Thanks OBAMACARE (and the insurance companies). :yawn:

You are one of those discussed above as having your boat sink, while others have their boats lifted by ACA. Most people are getting free or almost free coverage, while the top half of what's left of the middle class are getting gouged- it's these people that will eventually cry UNCLE!!, and be relieved when Medicare For All becomes reality. As far as the rich, who cares- they have ways of not actually paying for anything, also on the backs of what's left of the middle class.

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Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.
You are one of those discussed above as having your boat sink, while others have their boats lifted by ACA. Most people are getting free or almost free coverage, while the top half of what's left of the middle class are getting gouged- it's these people that will eventually cry UNCLE!!, and be relieved when Medicare For All becomes reality. As far as the rich, who cares- they have ways of not actually paying for anything, also on the backs of what's left of the middle class.

What really bothers me is that I brown bag my lunch every day, work hard to pay my bills and scrape by while (some of) those who are on welfare are using their EBT cards to by big screen tvs, ipads, etc. My mom works at walmart and she was shocked by this when working on black friday. I thought these cards were food stamps and were to be used to buy food and needed items, not electronics. I wish I had an ipad but I can't afford it, my insurance just went up. :mad:

Oops. Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the OP's thread. This whole insurance thing just makes me mad. :shy:

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.

OP,

Did you price through http://www.healthcare.gov. ?

i picked a random county in Florida, and prices for a 61 y/o male started at around $400 for a bronze plan

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I have a private ppo plan for my husband and family. My employer offers insurance to the employee only. You can buy the extra coverage through the employer but I have been told in the past it is usually cheaper to get an individual plan than use the one from the emplyer. Of course you can shop around. Since Obamacare, insurance plans have gone up and coverage is worse.

My plan from last year, which was one that was cancelled because it was one of the "subpar" plans as proponents of Obamacare called it, was much better than my current plan. My current (new) plan (husband, daughter and son) would cost $650-700 a month with $5000 deductible per person/year, with a high office copay and prescription coverage that starts after I have paid $150 to name a few changes. My old (cancelled) plan was $350 a month with a $2500 a year deductible per person/year and the prescriptions started immediately. So now I would be paying twice as much a month for twice as much of a deductible and less coverage. I just don't see how I am benefited by this.

We were forced to take our daughter (21 years old) off our plan and have her try to do it on her own hoping she will qualify for a lower plan. I could barely afford the previous plan how am I supposed to have that double and make it work? AND the worst part is there isn't much I can do about it. Yeah, Esme had it right. Thanks OBAMACARE (and the insurance companies). :yawn:

I have to say I'm skeptical of your numbers. Prior to Obamacare the average cost of a family insurance plan was $14,000 per year. If you were paying only $4,000, you likely either had less coverage than you apparently thought you did, or you were the lucky recipient of a health insurance miracle.

I've shopped for both individual and small business group plan prior to Obamacare and I found nothing like what you're describing. $300/month for a family of 4 would buy a "mini-med" plan, which are essentially nothing more than a way of pre-paying relatively small health costs, if you end up with cancer or even a typical ICU stay these plans were unlikely to prevent significant financial hardship and often bankruptcy.

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Wow. To assume a nurse, much less a guide in this forum, isn't aware of what she paid or pays or reveived or receives from her health insurance plans is making quite a claim, more so with the detailed statistics provided in her post. I know what I've paid for insurance every year for the past 10 years or so, and what those plans covered, then didn't cover.

As far as your average prices, pray tell how you arrived at that, when even insurance companies in 50 states plus 1000's of variant regional markets can't arrive at an 'average' price?

As far as using EBT for electronics, seems there's always a way to trick the sytem. Thanks to lobbyists, in CA and NV, at least, EBT cards can be used to buy fast food- may sound OK on it's face (like a 99 cent burger)- but that 99 cents can buy a few pounds of rice at Costco.

As far as the OP, good luck with finding a plan you can manage. Like I've said before, the purpose of the ACA is to cause chaos- maybe it'll crash sooner, rather than later, so your husband will be eleigible for Medicare For All.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

As far as your average prices, pray tell how you arrived at that, when even insurance companies in 50 states plus 1000's of variant regional markets can't arrive at an 'average' price?

The most commonly cited source on average premium prices: The Kaiser health research survey of premiums http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/8465-employer-health-benefits-2013-chartpack.pdf

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The most commonly cited source on average premium prices: The Kaiser health research survey of premiums http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/8465-employer-health-benefits-2013-chartpack.pdf

Which means there is also a least commonly quoted source, that uses its own criteria, and a million other quoted sources in the between those two extremes. If the issue were only so simple, OP would have found the perfect, affordable coverage for her husband. Determining an average price for health insurance is akin to determing the average salary of a nurse, with the vast number of degrees, specialties, regions, shifts and other variables that are present.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Which means there is also a least commonly quoted source, that uses its own criteria, and a million other quoted sources in the between those two extremes. If the issue were only so simple, OP would have found the perfect, affordable coverage for her husband. Determining an average price for health insurance is akin to determing the average salary of a nurse, with the vast number of degrees, specialties, regions, shifts and other variables that are present.

It's the most quoted source because it's likely the most accurate due to it's sample size. Feel free to offer information that could disprove that, but saying you don't believe something because it's not the number you wish it was doesn't offer a lot to your argument.

I would hope that any reasoned discussion of premium costs 'then-vs-now' would obviously include what the cost actually was before, yet those numbers seem to be just a nuisance for those trying invent a fictional storyline.

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Feel free to offer information that could disprove that, but saying you don't believe something because it's not the number you wish it was doesn't offer a lot to your argument.

Yet also: "I have to say I'm skeptical of your numbers". (From your own prior post?).

Small wonder that the OP, like millions of others, is bewildered trying to locate health insruance for her husband.

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