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Re:Only 6 people managed to enroll in an insurance plan on D... by twoodfin on Friday November 01, 2013 @10:37AM (#6654017)
The case the administration is making is that these old plans had invidious characteristics such as lifetime spending limits and missing "essential" no-deductible coverage for preventative services and birth control. Not sure whether that's an accurate claim for the pre-ACA plans you listed. Presumably ACA's no-deductible requirement applies to the new plan, so while you might pay for irregular doctor's visits, your scheduled preventative checkups should have no out of pocket costs.

But I think that's small potatoes (the number of patients likely to exceed any reasonable lifetime coverage limitations has got to be tiny, and cheaply re-insurable by BCBS if needed). The real cost is likely coming from BCBS' estimate of the change in the risk pool characteristics of this new plan. Namely, it doesn't matter how healthy you are to sign up for the new one, so presumably on average it will be made up of less healthy people. There's also the cost-shifting that has to happen: Plans for older people can only be a set multiple (3x?) more expensive than for younger people, so the younger person's plan must be made more expensive. This is called cost-sharing if you're being polite, and a redistribution scheme if not.

Re:Only 6 people managed to enroll in an insurance plan on D... by hga on Friday November 01, 2013 @10:48AM (#6654100)
"The case the administration is making is that these old plans had invidious characteristics such as lifetime spending limits and missing "essential" no-deductible coverage for preventative services and birth control."

Coupled with the claim that plans based on the new floor for coverage would be at least affordable. Which many are finding invidious because they can't afford the replacement policies that are initially offered by their existing insurers. With all subsidy calculations tied to the Federal site, those who might get a subsidy aren't able to find out for sure without generally extreme levels of effort, although subsidy calculators are available, like the Kaiser Foundation's: http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

Re:Only 6 people managed to enroll in an insurance plan on D... by twoodfin on Friday November 01, 2013 @11:04AM (#6654222)
That Kaiser calculator is great. I get the sense that this would have all worked so much better if the law had been structured such that HHS approved plans, insurers sold those plans on their own sites (or through private clearinghouses), while the IRS provided a quick calculator like this and a longer process to get a certification of your last year's income you could present to an insurer to get a subsidized rate.