I used to have a $10,000 deductible, and I'd pay 50% for the next 10K, that's within the provider network. Outside of network was $20,000 deductible. My wife is on a separate much better plan, she's still fairly young, at a guess $5K deductible and only a $30 copay to go see a doctor usually the same day at Kaiser.
Come January 1st.
No premium.
No deductible.
No copay.
For both of us.
It's called Medicaid.
I finally made it through the online system my state has set up today. My application is in, but all my info is already there because my kids were on CHIP but now Medicaid.
Our state web site was a little buggy. I registered but couldn't log on for the first week. Then they fixed whatever was wrong, deleted my account and told me to re register, from there I got kicked over to the state medicaid web site, a place I didn't want to go, and I started filling out all their voluminous info. That site was no where near as simple, more designed to have info entered by an office worker who was familiar with the site already.
It hung up when I tried to enter my kids names, again and again. So I called the help number. It took a minute for the lady to figure out what was up. My kids are already in the system, she simply added our names to their case. We still have to wait for someone to review and approve but it's a formality. We have lots of documentation and a paper trail, and a history with their org, already on file.
How do we get Medicaid? Low income. For two years now. It's not hard to be low income believe me, lots of people do it all the time.
Prior to the ACA we weren't eligible because we have savings, lots of savings, I and my wife are savings fanatics. When we were making money we banked it, in savings. We have no backup except our savings.
No longer do we have to hoard pain killers in anticipation of having to tough it out until business hours. No more travel to foreign countries for treatment, or the transient docs at Clinica Salud or the price gougers at the doc in the box.
Obamacare! Ya.
Update:
Thanks all for the comments and the recs for rec list. I'd like to say how much we still need to get people health care after Jan 1st still. All those people in red states without a working Medicaid that reaches all the way up until subsidies start.
Deductibles themselves which discourage the use of health care should go. Even the wealthiest amongst us still value a hundred dollars, or a thousand, and health care decisions should be made based on best practices and science not short term costs.
I do believe there are many yet underappreciated parts of the ACA which will help to drive prices down. Kids got flu shots today, I didn't, can't find a place that takes my insurance. CAn't wait for Jan 1, still waiting for the day when all are covered.