Obamacare insurance exchange

Geez...what I am hearing from most of you makes me sick. I don't know what will happen to Senior citizens.  Does anyone have a clue?  It should not be this hard and I don't know what young families will do.  You have my sympathy.  I have a son with children who are faced with private school tuition because the city schools are so bad and dangerous I don't know how they will manage insurance and have anything left over. 

Hi BWB

Not to worry.  

Seniors have Medicare.

Poor seniors have Medicare and Medicaid.

Veterans have VA hospital.

Poor people can get tax credits (google Obamacare Subsidies Calculators) 

Stay tuned for updates to the program for sure.

They can reduce the Medicare amount that they cover.  We pay a huge amount to AARP to cove the gap.  

I'm lucky enough to have good insurance at work (except for not covering WLS), but I was helping my mom price insurance.  She's a 59 year old diabetic who only works part time.  With subsidies, it will be $108/month for the silver plan, and if she goes for the bronze plan, she will not have to pay any premium at all.  This is in WA state.

The exchanges are only for people who don't already have insurance through work or the government, so the elderly get to keep their medicare, and there are subsidies for anyone who doesn't have other insurance and makes less than 400% of the poverty level.  For reference, the poverty level is $23550 for a family of four, so subsides are available for families making less than $94,200/year.

Keep in mind, though, that after 2014 some companies may opt NOT to pay for medical insurance since it is cheaper for them to provide a fixed amount of money to the employees for them to purchase their own insurance (and potentially have more choices) OR for the company to just pay the fine for not providing health insurance.  Some companies have already notified employees that this will be the case.  PNC bank is one, and they are using next year -- when they will drop their PPO/HMO and offer only a HSA -- as a transitional year.

So just because you are "lucky" now  (as am I) doesn't mean you will be in 2015.

Lora