If you decide not to sign up for Obama care, any idea what the fine would be?

When you figure out how one "signs up for Obama care" let me know, would you?

Perhaps this is what you mean:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=fine...+insurance

I've been navigating the website with no problems for over a week, but I haven't tried to buy, cuz I don't need insurance. You can always call the phone number if you don't want to brave the website. Even Speaker Boehner got signed up in less than a day last week, but he had to use the phone number to finish the process.

The fine is small the first year ($69?).

$95 American dollars.

Freeloader.

It's not quite as simple as that.

The annual flat dollar amount is assessed per individual or dependent without coverage and is scheduled to be phased in over three years ($95 for 2014; $325 for 2015; and $695 in 2016 and subsequent years, indexed for inflation after 2016; one-half of these amounts for individuals under the age of 18). The flat dollar amount is compared to a percentage of the extent to which the taxpayer's household income exceeds the income tax filing threshold. The applicable percentage is 1 percent for 2014, 2 percent for 2015, and 2.5 percent for 2016 and subsequent years.

And some exemptions, such as those for people who have a religious objection to health insurance.

And had our state legislature done their job, no one would have to bother with the federal site. In states that have state exchanges, there have been minimal problems.

Wait, wait, wait...
Boehner signed up for healthcare through the Exchange? Through the AHA??? That cannot be possible!! Cruz, Boehner and a whole bunch of Reps insisted during the government shutdown that "Congress was exempt from Obamacare". It was all over their official transcripts, Facebook posts, media interviews. They spoke at length about how "if Obamacare is so good, why is Congress exempt?".

Are you telling me that they were... lying?

There are many exemptions to Obamacare: if you are uninsured for less than 3 months you are exempt, incarcerated, exempt, not lawfully in the US, exempt, member of an Indian tribe ,homeless, evicted in the last 6 months, received a shutoff notice from an electric company, recently experienced domestic violence (no, I am not making this up), recently experienced death of a family member, I guess that has to be the death of a "CLOSE" family member, a fire or flood caused lots of damage, filed for bankruptcy in the last 6 months, etc. http://www.forbes.com/sit...xemptions/

Do you know that more people received elk permits in Montana this year than have been able to sign up for Obamacare.

Don-- decent two page article on exemptions (some of which I'm interested in seeing them played out), but these were all PENALTY exemptions that allow people to not pay the fine for "no health insurance". Not "no Obamacare", no Health Insurance. A very distinct point.

But no one has managed to answer my question-- during and before the Shutdown, Cruz and others were bludgeoning the media and Americans with these exact words "Congress is exempt from Obamacare". Which Boehner just PROVED was a lie.

My fault for asking a rhetorical question.

Congress is "exempt" if you mean that they don't have to apply for insurance through the federal or state exchanges. They reason they don't have to apply is that they already get insurance as a federal employee. But that's not the meaning of exempt in my book.

[This message has been edited by Wendy Wilson (11/25/2013)]

Boehner actually signed up through the DC exchange, not the Federal one. The great orange douchecanoo then spent the next hour bitching about what an awful experience it was on twitter, while the person who tried calling him back waited on hold.

http://talkingpointsmemo....-obamacare

I think it's time for some success stories. It's been long enough for any number of people to have ventured into the exchange and scored cheap insurance.

Let's hear your story. I'm especially interested in hearing how much money you have saved on your new policy.

You want stories of how much people saved?

In July, our BCBS policy (we're self employed) went from $650 a month to $2349. (That jump is related to ObamaCare, but that's another story.) We were able to find another policy from the only other Montana option for self-employed individuals - Assurant - for $1150 a month. Still a huge increase, but a lot less than $2349.

We priced the Bronze plan on the exchange website and got a quote of $1799 which included a deductible of $5000/year MORE than our previous plan. Utterly ridiculous. We HAD affordable health insurance. Thanks to all this crap, now we don't.

^ I agree with the above. Our rates increased also.

Wow, "worldmom", you must be quite a bit older than I imagined. At least you'll be able to take advantage of Medicare soon.

Oh, wait. This is you?

Helena Independent Record: Miles City family adds 13th child with adoption of Chinese girl

Let's see, $1150/mo. divided by 15 people is $77/mo/person. That is a screaming deal.

Two words. Single payer.

My husband and I currently pay $875 a month for healthcare. With BCBS we would pay $923 for medical a month and $142.50 a month for dental, (this is a silver plan with a $6000.00 family deductable), starting January 1. We opted to go with a silver plan because the bronze was $758 a month plus the $142.50 dental, but it had a $10,000 family deductable. I personally was never able to get the on the healthcare.org site, but we would qualify for a subsidy of a whooping $94 a month, which a raise or a bonus would have us not qualifing at all and I was worried we would end up owing back our susidy if I didn't estimate our income correctly for 2014. We do have 4 children but I think $12,786 a year for healthcare is a little steep.

Two words.....Socialized medicine.

Brandy, that is steep. A very painful monthly bill.

If you don't typically meet your deductible on an annual basis then it might make sense for you to go with the bronze plan. In about two years you will save enough to make up the difference in deductible amounts. $6000 is a lot of medical care particularly when you consider that a lot of your preventive care is included in your premium so having that preventive care done doesn't count toward your deductible anymore.

Do watch for catches in the bronze plan such as limited or no "out of network" coverage or a limited network of doctors that doesn't include the doctor(s) you want to see.

Also I question the value of dental insurance since it often comes with high co-insurance and low annual limits. That doesn't mean I recommend skipping regular visits to the dentist.

Part of the law is not that all children under the age of 18 will need dental insurance. We have 4 children and it's a cost of $47.50 per child per month, with the fourth one being free. So no matter what plan we choose we have to have that $147.50 a month in dental.

We considered the bronze plan it would run us $900.50 a month and we would have that $10,000 deductable looming over us. My concern with that high of a deductable was then having to turn around and pay the hospital, plus pay our monthly insurance premiums. Last I knew Holy Rosary has a set time they want bills paid, for example anything $5000.00 and under you have a year to pay (please correct me if I am wrong). So let's say we have one broken arm, one tonsillectomy, and the usual bumps and bruises that comes with having four children, it not out of the realm of possiblity that we could hit $10,000 pretty easy. Which, if Holy Rosary wants that paid in two years our monthly payment to them would be $416. That brings us to a total of $1316.50 a month going out of the house for medical this and that. With the silver plan in the above scenrio we would pay out $1398.00 a month, but the silver plan does cover a lot more then the bronze. It really came down to the math for me. And before anyone mentions the hospital will write off some of those bills, we make too much to qualify, hence the $94 subsidy we would get to help pay for our insurance.

I have looked into the other insurance companies and their plans are price comparable to BCBS. Luckily for us we were able to get on a group plan, so my months of worry were in vain, but there are tons of other people in the same boat we were in. I figured with the yearly increases in insurance premiums we would only be able to afford insurance for maybe the next 3 years. The day I have to sell my camper to pay for a few months of health insurance is a sad day in America.

My employer plan has a $5,000 deductible. I am old enough to remember when we had a $500 deductible before the plan kicked in. Ah, for the good old days. . .

I should, but I will not.

Amorette you should look in to the BCBS Gold plan it's only $921.81 a month for a husband and wife and it has only a $3500 deductable.

Brandy, that is interesting about the dental care for kids. Information on that is a little vague -- one FAQ I saw said that if you buy your policy on an exchange and dental care is offered as a standalone policy you aren't required to buy it. Another said if you obtain your insurance through an employer, then you are required to buy a separate standalone policy. Then there is also implication that these rules vary by state with Washington and Nevada mandating that exchange-based plans include dental coverage.

When I stepped through the Washington state health exchange site nothing was said about dental insurance. Perhaps this was because the required dental coverage was built into the plan. By the way, the cheapest high-deductible bronze plan for my family of 4 was $477/month (no subsidy included). There were several bronze plans to choose from with pricing going up to the high $500's or low $600's/month. It's been a while since I looked and I don't recall the exact numbers for all of the bronze plans.

If you guys are hitting your deductible amount on an annual basis then it could very well make sense for you to have the lower deductible silver plan.

Luckily we haven't spent $6000 on medical care (that would count toward our medical deductible) in the last 6 years combined. (Note: Washington state has required coverage for some preventive care long before the ACA so our expenses could have been lower for that reason.)

David, I had heard nothing about the dental insurance being required until the last few weeks. I went to a training on the law and that was the first time I had heard about it and on our application for BCBS we had to choose a plan, the $47.50 was the cheapest. I never was able to get on the exchange (not for lack of trying!) so I have no clue if it's just added in or if it's even required. With our new group coverage we will have a separate dental plan and it is only $68.00 for all the kids to have, but even with group I have the impression it is part of the law.

We haven't hit our deductable for a few years, even this year with routine stuff and a broken arm I think we've paid out $3500.00. We did have one year where in October someone had their tonsils out and I turned around that December and got a heart virus. Thankfully it was back in the day of $1500 family deductables and great insurance because we racked up a little over $80,000 that year. Those are the years that worry me and that's why I would choose a smaller deductable.

BCBS has 2 bronze plans availible for my family of 6. The cheapest at $746.56 has a $12,000 deductable, the next is $750.41 with the $10,000 deductable. My favorite are the Gold plans to get a $3000 deductable I would have to pay $1095.05 a month, add dental onto that and your looking at $14,844 a year for insurance.

Am I the only person who is having a hard time wrapping their minds around affordable healthcare being over $10,000 on average per year? I'm not so worried about my husband and I, it's my kids. How much will they have to make a year to own a home, a reliable car and have a couple of kids here in the next 10-15 years? Will they be able to have those things?

"We did have one year where in October someone had their tonsils out and I turned around that December and got a heart virus."

Seems like these things have a way of happening toward the end of the year just before your deductible resets. I had one insurance company that rolled some late-year payments into a credit toward the next year's deductible. That was the nicest thing I've ever seen an insurance company do.

If you think the cost of medical insurance or medical care is going up fast take a look at the rate of increase for a college education. We're doomed!

My dad always used to joke that when you turned 18 he broke your plate and you were out on your own, my kids will be 30 I think before I can break any of their plates. Of course if my subsidized flood insurance increases as much as rumor has it I may be living in a camper down by the river, but that's another thread!

One thing I just realized. Until recently (through 2010 for sure), Regence Blue Shield of Washington charged a flat rate for 2 or more kids. So, premium for 1 kid is $64/mo total, 2 kids is $128/mo total, 3 kids is $128/mo total, 4 kids is $128/mo total. Got that? 13 kids, only $128/mo. Think about that. What a sweet deal for big families. (FYI, I just made those premium numbers up to provide an example.)

I'm pretty sure Regence took this away in January 2011 and now you have to pay a premium for each child.

The same is probably the case for families in Montana such that you pay a premium for each child which can really drive up the monthly bill for larger families. For instance, if "worldmom" really does have thirteen kids in her family it could explain why her premium is so high.

It would be interesting to know why Regence ever had such a "flat rate" policy in the first place and if such a policy was common.

Here's a link to an article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that talks about Regence's rate request and its request to change the child rate.

Seattle P-I: Regence wants to raise health rates -- again

Some select parts:

Article dated November 3, 2010

* "In documents filed with the state last week, the insurer requested an average premium increase of 3.7 percent for individual plans starting Jan. 1. That comes on the heels of a 16.4 percent rate hike on Oct. 1."

* "Regence blamed its latest request, which has not yet been approved by the state, on health care reform. Specifically, it cited mandates to add preventive care benefits, remove lifetime benefit limits, and cover kids with pre-existing conditions."[/b]

* [i]"While premium increases are due primarily to rising medical and prescription costs, we must also factor in provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Regence president Jonathan Hensley wrote in his rate request to state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler."[/b]

* [i]"Although the request is a small bump compared with Regence's annual double-digit hikes in the last four years, many consumers are bracing for bigger increases, as Regence adopts a new line of individual plans called "Evolve.""

* "In a letter to Henderson, [State Insurance Commissioner] Kreidler's office said Regence was able to justify its 16.4 percent rate hike after losing $6.5 million in the individual market last year. The office also said Regence is expected to lose $15.2 million next year, despite the October increase."

We had considered dropping my oldest son's insurance because his father also has insurance on him, but I was told you pay for the first three and after that the rest don't matter. A Gold plan with BCBS based on a family with 13 kids should be around $1247.47 and a bronze should be $850.00, I have no clue what coverage worldmom has but I pulled those figures off the BCBS web site.

So Brandy's insurance is $153.83 per person
David's is $119.25 (family of 4, bronze plan off exchange)
worldmom is $95.95 per person
Family of 5 is $184.00 per person

The way I see it, it's those poor families that have 3 kids that are bearing the brunt of the per person costs.

When we first bought our own health insurance in 2012 all of my kids had a different rate, we never saw a flat rate. Some of it may be what BCBS labeled as pre- existing, but my 2 older boys came in as a level 1 and they had a different monetary rate. I think the oldest was $78.00 and 13 year old was $64.

Do we currently already have a plan for socialized medicine that works? It would be so much easier and in a few years the number of people in this program will rise drastically, anyways..;?

Good point, Amorette. Montana missed by one mistaken vote from what I read. Sad situation for too many people who could use medical care and don't seek it.