John P.

Really screwed those of us that are individuals making good money in our own business and already paying in the top tax bracket. I get the idea of wanting to get health insurance for everyone that can't afford it. Isn't that what medicaid is supposed to be? This method screwed the rest of us. Far less options available and no freedom to get the insurance you want. The carriers in the marketplace are horrible bottom feeders. Also noticed the attention and detail of the doctors has gone way downhill since all this started and they get their costs cut and have to do way more paperwork. So the bottom feeder insurance companies win and the patients all lose.

I tolerated this crap and signed up every year for my plan. The last two years we had issues where the insurance company said it didn't receive the enrollment payment that I paid online when signing up through the site. Last year they fixed it, this year not yet. The payment was clearly made in November and charged to my card. Finally got to the point that the insurance company incorrectly applied it to last year and now I have a credit for last year but they show no payment for enrollment. Waiting for them to fix it and going without insurance in the meantime.

Ask healthcare.gov to help since I enrolled through them and they can't help. Useless. We were forced into this crappy system and they can't even do their job. So I was hoping this year we'd have more options for carriers since the law changed but in my area its still the same bottom feeders. Hopefully some of the better carriers will be back soon. Won't be using healthcare.gov for anything anymore either way. Not sure why I ever did go through the web site since I don't qualify for any discounts or anything.

Then on top of all of that every year when I sign up through healthcare.gov I start getting phone calls from telemarketers every day trying to sell their health insurance. Not sure if healthcare.gov sells our information or gets hacked. First year it happened I didn't tie it together but when it happened each year thereafter its obvious. Other people complain about it and all healthcare.gov says is its probably security on our computer. Complete BS. I use VPN technology all the time and I never have issues except right after I submit the application at healthcare.gov.

And I'm not an Obama hater. I liked Obama for a lot of things but this is not one of them. The idea might have been good but the method to get there and the execution were terrible and to this day it is still the most frustrating thing. I remember what doctors and health insurance used to be like. Maybe not great but 100 times better than we have now. We'll never get back to that.

Just like many other people who are able to do it we leave the country for anything. Stupid ACA didn't realize how pushing people in that direction was going to take money away from doctors and insurance in the U.S. Decided to go with no insurance this year. Everyone says its crazy but you need to do the math if your like me and not qualifying for any discount.

We live close to the border so for anything thats not an emergency cross the border and you get the care you need from more attentive doctors for the same price as your copays. People say what about an emergency, e.g. a heart attack. Scary at first right? A heart attack can cost about $150K. But if you tell the hospital you are uninsured it gets switched to self pay and a hefty discount. Nothing special because the insurance companies all negotiate the original price down to about 10% of what the hospital asks for anyway. Then if you tell them you can pay all at once its another huge discount. Get that bill down to about $30K. Sounds like a lot but if you had bottom feeder insurance do you think you'd walk away without paying anything? You'd still end up paying about $15K out of pocket. So if I do have a heart attack I lose $15K. But will I have one this year? Next year? When will it happen? Save and invest those premiums (nearly $10K a year for us) during that time and you'll have more than $15K.

So this year since we're not forced to buy insurance or pay a penalty we are just not buying any insurance. Thats the way to go for us and a lot of other people and that just further drives a hole through this bottom feeding insurance practice that we've gotten stuck with.

Not saying everyone should do that but do your research. Look at how low you can negotiate hospital bills for everything on your own. People do it all the time. Don't just be scared of that $150K emergency and be tricked into buying crap you don't need. If the insurance and the doctors were any good I'd buy but what we have today is just crap so why would anyone want to buy it.

The catch to the plan is that if you have a pre-existing condition it may be hard to get insurance if you want/need it in the future. But at least for now these same bottom feeders have to accept pre-existing conditions through the market place. So you can always go back. Until that changes or we have better insurance options I'm going to keep going without insurance.