Steve, there is a lot to chew on in your post <ggg>. My wife and I are self employed and have had ACA insurance since it's inception. Let's tackle your situation first. Your comment on financial 'help' rising is because Trump stopped paying CSR subsidies to the insurance companies as he claimed it was a 'bailout'. The part of this he does not tell you is that the insurance firms still have to provide these CSR subsidies to lower income buyers, so they have jacked up rates for 2018 in many cases as high as 30%. In some states they spread this additional cost over all their plans, in others they load the increases into Silver plans as those plans have the lower deductibles and copays that the CSR subsidies cover. SO, the government ends up paying anyway, and I have seen studies that they will actually pay MORE and add to the deficit in the longer term.
As far as which plan to buy, I think it really boils down to how much your family might use the policy, in some cases it would be cheaper to go for the lower priced plan with the higher deductible, in others the higher priced plan with the lower deductible. I can tell you that in my case my wife and I are pretty close to 'medicare age', and we are going with a plan the covers the doctors we like and has a lower deductible although it costs more.
Now on to your friend in South Carolina.
What you have posted for him puzzles me. Just for grins I plugged in a Charleston zip code and went through Healthcare.gov for two 60 year olds with a $34,000 income. The result is that they would get an almost $2,000 per month subsidy and could buy a decent silver plan with a lower deductible for $247/month. This plan itself runs $2168 per month but the subsidy they would receive covers the vast majority of the cost. The plan I show below has an individual deductible of $690 per person and a max out of pocket cost of $5850. There are 22 plans in all available for that zip code with pricing starting at zero but with higher out of pocket costs. For older folks I always like to suggest that the plans that cover more at lower deductibles if available are best. For a couple with a $34,000 income, they can buy silver plans with lower out of pocket costs because of the additional CSR subsidies that are available..
I'm pretty familiar with how the ACA works so if you have more questions let me know.
Extra savingsBlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina · BlueEssentials Silver 1SilverEPOPlan ID: 26065SC0380002
Estimated monthly premium
$247.17
Was: $2,167.82
Deductible
$690Individual Total
$1,380Family Total
Out-of-pocket maximum
$5,850Individual Total
$11,700Family Total
Copayments / CoinsuranceEmergency room care: $300 Copay with deductible/50% Coinsurance after deductibleGeneric drugs: $30Primary doctor: $30Specialist doctor: $60
Estimated total yearly costs
Medical providers & prescription drugs covered |
