Obamacare an expensive mandate

To the editor,

I would like to say “Thank You” to the President and the Democratic Party. It has been my great honor to have health insurance made available to me and my wife through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In October 2014, we were informed that the health coverage that we had had for ten years was not up to par per the ACA regulations and had to find another insurer. The last payment we made to that insurer was for $866 to cover both of us with basic care, some prescription coverage, and some moderate major medical coverage. We had a deductible of about $3,000. We had what I believe to be an average plan.

When we purchased roughly the same insurance (a Silver plan) through an ACA compliant provider, our cost went to $1,672 in February 2015, $60 shy of doubling. We recently received notice that as of January 1, 2016, our rate will increase to $2,322. This is a 268 percent ($1,456) increase in our cost in less than one year. We will be paying $17,472 per year more for essentially the same coverage. We are both healthy and did not have any major medical events that would raise our costs, just normal stuff when you are in your early 50s. We operate a small business with one full time staff and a couple part-timers and are not big enough to qualify for group coverage so we pay for our own insurance. I guess that when we can reapply for insurance in November we will look at reducing our coverage to a Bronze plan to try to offset some of the cost.

So, again, I want to say thanks to those who passed this bill and removed over $17,000 from the local restaurants, stores, church coffers, and wherever else we might have spent that money; and for allowing us to have less insurance at a higher rate. Clearly, I am a little peeved.

Michael Foster

Wasilla