Way to go Obongo!

[$tevie]

kd wrote:
[quote=michaelb]
They mystery of this thread is that before the ACA it was essentially impossible to buy individual health insurance as a private individual for a reasonable cost. Certainly not at a poverty level income. So whatever coverage kd is talking about was either provided in large measure by an employer (as a wage), or was a high deductible plan, or was set up in some other way that fails the ACA's "minimum essential coverage" standard. If average folks could have bought affordable insurance before, there would not have been this overwhelming need for reform of the entire marketplace.

Anyone medicaid eligible is not eligible for a subsidy, so if you reject Medicaid you would have to pay the full cost on the exchange, which would be a large portion of your income. There was no change for Medicaid for seniors on Medicare, so they still have asset tests and lower income eligibility levels.

I don't think it is possible to pay "extra" if you are on Medicaid. Medicaid prohibits balance billing as a condition of participation, so your medical providers cannot accept anything more than the Medicaid rate which must be considered payment in full. You could privately pay for non Medicaid participating providers.

Thanks for this helpful post.

I had not intended to be mysterious and hope I've clarified elsewhere. Indeed, few people at my current level of income would be able to afford the plan I have, or really, any reasonable individual plan. I'm atypical in that I have lots of money but little income.

You are correct to surmise that it's a high deductible plan, but some of the ACA-qualified plans offered by the same insurer for 2014 have even higher deductibles so I'm not sure whence comes the disqualification.
Are you in fact being refused the ability to purchase anything except Medicaid? Or are you merely seeing that with your income you only "qualify" for Medicaid? In other words, does it say anywhere that you will not be allowed to spend money for any of the healthcare plans available, if you wish to? Have you called and asked a human being to find you a plan similar to the one you are losing? They do have human beings available to assist you. Or you could have an insurance broker do it, if you have lots of money it could be well worth it to you to skip the need to do all the research. It sounds to me like you can purchase whatever insurance you want wherever you want, so why limit yourself to the ACA web site.