Like millions of other Americans who have health insurance through their employers, I just performed the annual Fall ritual -- choosing a health care plan for next year.
As usual, I put it off to the last few days in the enrollment period. I have found it to usually be such a painful annual experience that I consciously give myself permission to avoid it until the last minutes.
But, with the deadline being Sunday, I mixed up and put a dark chocolate cake in the oven, then, I sat down to tackle the task. I figured the smell of the baking cake would soothe me through the process, and I definitely assumed that I'd deserve and need a thick slice when I was done.
With the many diaries and articles I'd seen about how rates would be going up as benefits would be getting slashed as a result of HCR, I really was expecting worse than the worst.
But that didn't happen, and if other Americans are experiencing what I just have, then, the October surprise may be a really sneaky one that Americans are quietly discovering sitting at their kitchen tables, one family at a time.
Updated: Gee. Rec List? Thanks everyone and glad to share some good news. Oh, and I changed the title to show this was a good thing. :)
Before the baking cake smell had begun to fill the kitchen, two really important things jumped out at me. My employer (a RED State Government) wanted to make sure I saw them, so these two changes were in big, red, bold letters at the top of the directions pdf.
Due to the recent Health Care Reform Legislation, dependent children age 19-26 may now be eligible for coverage under your Family Plans.
Due to the recent Health Care Reform Legislation, there is now extended coverage for children diagnosed with Autism.
The message could not be clearer -- HCR is helping American Children.
Now, neither of these reforms helps our family, but I know friends and family that it would will be helping. It made me smile and feel excited for them.
And because I'm a Progressive, I retained that good feeling even as the thought washed over me that these changes would probably mean that I'd be seeing some pretty awful benefits cuts and double digit rate increases.
Fortunately, the cake smell was starting to fill the kitchen, so I clicked on the dreaded benefits comparison and rates table to see what the damage was going to be, this year.
I immediately went to the highest-end plan that we currently have and sure enough -- there was a deductible where there had been none, last year. AND the rate had gone up. However, together, they only equaled a 10% rate increase, so I was only worried and not in pure panic mode. Everything else was the same.
So, having armed myself with the worst case scenario, I sadly took the cake out to cool, and half-heartedly decided to look at the other options. I really wasn't expecting to be able to choose one. They've never been a reasonable option for our family:
- All three of us have chronic health conditions that require daily prescriptions
- My husband is in his early 60's with a family history of heart disease and colon cancer.
So, we need a good prescription plan for cash flow reasons, excellent routine health exams and testing, and a solid hospitalization option, just in case. THOSE needs had never been covered by the lower, let alone the lowest cost plan.
Plus, in the past, the lower cost plans all had HUGE deductibles that would have wiped out our meager savings if we ever had a health emergency. Finally, we needed no lifetime cap in order not to risk losing what little we'd been able to earn for ourselves over our lifetime.
With very little hope, I took a deep whiff of the cake aroma, and began glancing over the lower cost option columns.
Imagine my shock when I saw that ALL options now had a no lifetime OR annual cap.
Imagine my shock when I saw that routine health exams were no cost across the board, now! That meant that I just saved $300 a year in copays even if I went with the highest end plan, which meant that the % increase dropped to a single digit increase. AND the lowest end plan was still in the running for the first time ever!
Imagine my shock when I saw that the lowest cost option deductible had not only dropped, but it had dropped drastically. I had to rub my eyes on that one, and look twice. So, while the upper end plan had added a deductible, the lowest end one was less than half what it was last year. In fact, it was only 30% more than the highest end plan AND it only equaled two months, highest end premiums.
At this point, I was sitting foward on my chair with glimmers of hope flittering in my stomach.
Hospital coverage? - Comparable. A little more risk on the low end, but with the low cost cancer rider and AFLAC policy we already had, it was pretty much a wash risk-wise!
At that point, I literally stood up as I flipped the page to examine the final point ...
Prescription coverage? - The middle cost options had differences, but the bottom and top end prescription plan options were close, and I mean really close. It would only mean a $240 difference on an annual basis, and the lowest end covered Tier 3 brand name drugs, this year!
I quickly iced the cake, and rushed back to feverishly redo all my calculations trying to keep my waves of hope in check lest I find an error and end up flooded with despair.
Just to make sure, I clicked on the new option selection wizard I noticed on the site. (These things have usually been useless in the past, so I've never relied on them.) But, hope was taking over, so I decided to give it a try as a triple check.
Imagine my shock when the thing actually had our family's FULL annual expenses for two years loaded into it (premiums & out of pocket expenses), so it was a completely individualized, accurate analysis. It recommended the lowest end plan, too! It also showed me my projected annual savings.
Kitchen Table Bottom-line? The lowest end health insurance plan was comparable, and it meant a net savings for our family equal to a 12% salary raise.
At that point, I began to cry.
Christmas was going to be great, this year! I could already see my son's face when he read his Christmas card saying, "Yes, you can go on the band trip to Washington D.C." (His middle school band was the ONLY one in the country to be invited there for the 70th Anniversary of VE Day. Having to say no was breaking our hearts).
Grinning goofily -- and still tearing up -- I rummaged through my junk drawer to scavenge birthday candles. I arranged them to display the extra, in our pocket income, and I called my husband down to the kitchen.
As he looked at me and the cake like I'd gone nuts, I sang:
"Happy Obamacare to us, Happy Obamacare to us, Happy Obamacare to us -- look at what we'll save!"
We literally did a happy, huggy dance all around our kitchen table.
NOW, I know that our experience may not be what everyone is experiencing, BUT I do know that ten's of thousands of state employees in one RED state just got the surprise of their lives from "Obamacare!" As we were dancing around, I kept thinking -- in your face wingnuts!
So, looking at President Obama's rising poll numbers, I'm beginning to wonder if they might be partially due to a very sneaky October surprise, quietly happening at many kitchen tables all across this country.
I'm ecstatic, but I have questions:
Are we some kind of bizarre outlier, or is anyone else out there seeing shockingly good news starting to kick in from HCR? And, why in the world is this happening? Could it possibly be that more people are signing up for the Family Plans, with their healthy young adult children, meaning more premium money with lower risk members? Could the drug companies have cut deals with the insurance companies to reduce prices anticipating increased demand? Are the insurance companies gearing up, this year, with a truly decent, reasonable cost plan in anticipation of what is to come? Did our state play hard ball big time, and does this mean other employers have been given a stronger hand against the insurance industry that I underestimated? Seriously, what gives?
I'd love to hear from others.