A reader writes:
I’ve gotta push back a little against all the howling about how bad the online insurance exchanges are. I just signed up yesterday in New York and had no prob whatsoever. Took me about 20 minutes. Smooth sailing, no hanging, no repeat entries, and pretty simple to use from a UI standpoint. I even called customer service and was on hold for maybe a minute. Ask me how long I’m on hold for Verizon, Dell, etc, whenever I call them. My cousin also signed up yesterday – same experience, and I have two friends who enrolled last week, more or less same.
Furthermore, the fact that a lot of “lookers” aren’t “buyers” yet is fairly irrelevant, in my opinion. Every time I’ve had to change my insurance I’m used to seeing a very small number of plans I can afford and must compare. New York showed me 124 (?!). For people who aren’t used to making financial comparisons, I’m sure there’s gonna be a lag time between info gathering and pulling the trigger.
On a more substantive note:
I’ve worked for myself for about 15 years and insurance shopping has always been a nightmare. Last time I had to change my plan was a few years ago and I had about five options – all wildly expensive, most fairly sucky. I ended up with an okay plan for my wife and me which, with double-digit annual increases, is now $1400/mo (not a typo). That’s $16,800/year, or roughly 22% of my usual income, and I can’t write it off. Yesterday, the exchange listed 124 plans, the great majority of which were less expensive than I have now. I got literally exactly the same plan as I have now, from the same carrier, for ~ $1000/mo, and with the subsidy, I’ll be down to ~ $700/mo. This is a life changer for us.
I know people’s mileage may vary, and I’m sure some of the exchanges have problems, but that’s my story. I have direct firsthand knowledge of four people’s forays onto the exchange and all of them were good.
Update from a reader:
You posted a response from a reader noting that New York’s exchange is working well and gave them 124 options to choose from. New York is a state that created its own exchange, along with California, Kentucky, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and a few others. The states that created their own are performing fairly well, so your reader’s story is not surprising. What we haven’t heard yet are any success stories from the 36 states that relied on the federal government to build its website. The exchanges built by the Feds continue to appear to be an utter failure.
Another writes:
When judging Obamacare, you have to remember the following: 1. Each “application” can/probably does represent more than one person; 2. You have to count all of the “up to 26 year olds” that can stay on their parents insurance plan; 3. You have to count all of the people who got insurance through the expansion of Medicaid (e.g., California alone added 600,000+). In other words, you have to count ALL of the people who now have or soon will have healthcare because of Obamacare.
Another:
Please don’t forget the people who are getting their insurance greatly improved under the ACA. Not everyone needs subsidies. We have a small family business and purchase our own health insurance. Under the ACA, we will pay the same amount but get a much better policy with no underwriting and no chance of losing insurance if we actually use it. Unfortunately, there is no current benchmark to gauge how many people are getting this benefit, but it should also be included in the discussion.
One more:
Because so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, most people aren’t going to want to part with hundreds of dollars until they need to, which in this case would be December. As for those who tried to get insurance and failed, it’s not like a news site being down where people can just get their news from somewhere else. In this case, they can’t get it anywhere else – that’s why the ACA exists! – so most people will return once the site is fully functional.
