[rant mode ON] I cannot believe how much Obamacare is costing me! I thought it was supposed to be this great thing and help save me money on my insurance. Once again I find out how much it is actually hurting my wallet.
First off my insurance went up. I know that this is not old news, but it did not go up during the last open enrollment period so I figured that I was safe. Not even close, I was paying about $150 a month for really great coverage. But, the plan that I was on was deemed too good for Obamacare. So my company was told to either drop the coverage or pay a fine. Can you believe that? A fine because the insurance is too good! So, my company dropped it of course. Now my insurance is about double what I was paying and for worse coverage.
I never had to pay co-pays and was rarely charged for any in office procedure, you know stuff like wart removal and things like that. Now I am being charged $30 per office visit, unless it is just for a checkup. But if they do anything at the checkup that isn’t considered part of it, I have to pay for that procedure. I just had to pay a $137 office bill because the doctor was concerned about a mole and removed it at my last checkup appointment. Needless to say I was a bit upset about it.
The only good side is that my generic prescriptions that I was once paying $4 for are now free. Isn’t that great that I am saving a whole $4 a month? I should wave banners in the street for that!
One of the things I definitely took for granted was that my old plan covered chiropractic and even massage therapists for only a $15 copay. My new plan doesn’t cover either of these! If you’ve ever paid out-of-pocket for a chiropractic appointment or even a 30 minute massage, you understand how expensive they are and how quickly multiple appointments can add up. With my chronic lower back pain, I’m now learning about how to massage out a knot using a tennis ball or other self massage tools. This may actually be a good thing in the long run since even at $15 an appointment, it gets spendy really quick. If I can learn how to massage my own back for the cost of a tennis ball, I’d be a happy camper. That combined with my new jade heating pad, and I’ll be set… hopefully.
After I found out that my insurance would be going up and that it wasn’t the plan that I was originally on, I decided to go and check the Obamacare website. I typed in all my information, which was the biggest pain. I swear they wanted me to sell my first born child just to get a quote! It shouldn’t be that hard to just get a quote. So, after agreeing to sell my first born I finally got my quote and I about had a heart attack then and there. I found out that I could get my original insurance, yes the one that my company dropped because it was deemed too good by Obamacare standards, for $6000 a year. I was paying $1800 a year originally, and the exchange wants me to pay 3 times as much! Guess I won’t be upgrading my 25″ TV anytime soon or actually getting some really good tools for the garage which are much needed for all the projects I have planned.
This is such a crock! We were promised that we wouldn’t lose our insurance. We were promised that prices would not go up. We were lied to and I expect prices to continue to jack up! And, to keep rubbing salt in our wounds we are still being lied to. Obama keeps changing the rules of his bill. He keeps putting off the implementation of certain parts of it. I thought that was illegal and that the President could not do that, that it takes congressional approval. I could be wrong though. But, with a President who is making up the rules as he goes along, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit that he is breaking his own law!
