Do The Affordable Care Act Effect All Health Insurance

How does the Affordable Care Act affect health insurance companies?

Insurance companies are likely to get about 20 million new customers out of the ACA (or PPACA if you prefer). That is the positive side for insurance companies. However, as Robert mentioned, the flip side is that they have to accept everyone who applies and can only charge within a certain range based on demographic factors and not health factors (with the exception of smoking). The problem is that based on the early estimates of the cost of the insurance plans that will be available within the Exchange marketplace and looking at the amount of the subsidies available, it will still be cheaper for many individuals to waive coverage and pay the penalty. The main cases in which this will not be likely is for those who have pre-existing conditions or other medical conditions. So the current prediction is that the low-to-middle income earners who are healthy are likely to waive while those who are unhealthy are likely to opt in. What ends up happening in that scenario is that the insurers, to offset on the losses they either expect or realize from the exchanges, will pass those costs onto the employer marketplace and costs will increase there. However, employers will/can only take on a portion of the increase costs. So my prediction is that in the short-run, insurance companies will do pretty good assuming that their underwriters can accurately forecast things. In the long run, I think that things will get a little more dicey for them.And despite what the media likes to portray about doom and gloom scenarios, a lot of what they tend to write about is the individual marketplace and not necessarily the exchange or the group marketplace. I'm doing my group insurance renewals right now for a plan year that crosses half way into 2014 and they are 6% and .17% respectively - both of which are significantly lower than previous years.

How would the law affect the demand for health insurance?

How would the law affect the demand for health insurance?The law imposed multiple mandates on InsurersThese mandates added base premium costsThe law also mandated no denial for not having had insurance and then getting sickThe law also mandated insurers tie premiums to claims cost plus taxes imposed (MLR rule)Insurer premiums (rates) went up as a result of the law mandates, since may people started waiting until sick to get coverage, and then dropping coverage when wellAs the premiums increased, more people who had to pay all or part of the premium dropped coverage3.2 million dropped it in 2016 for 20173 million plus dropped it in 2017 for 2018

How will the Affordable Care Act affect health insurance coverage in 2019 if I need major elective surgery, such as knee or hip replacement? Should I have it now in 2018 or wait until next year?

Under the assumption that this is a sincere question:ACA has no effect on individual insurance policies and their coverage of elective surgery. NONE. ACA’s focus was on ensuring that carriers could not discriminate against folks with pre-existing conditions, and that at least a minimum level of standard coverage would be provided at the various levels of tradeoffs between premiums and deductibles (the bronze, silver & gold levels).If your insurance carrier has not yet informed you of major changes in coverage beginning on January 1, then you can probably assume that you will still have the same level of coverage with the same co-pays and deductibles that you have now.However, I will add one warning from personal experience: since major elective surgery includes substantial pre-op and post-op procedures, if you don’t even start until October then there’s a significant risk that you won’t be done with your post-op procedures until next year. Given that most policies have a deductible plan year that runs from January 1 to December 31, you may see greater out-of-pocket expenses if your rehab/PT follow-up crosses the annual change-over, compared to doing it all within a single calendar year.

What will be the effect of the Obamacare / Affordable Care Act on the health insurance industry?

Here's a stupid answer, that will do until a better one comes along.I don't know if insurance agents will lose their jobs because of the ACA ("Obamacare"). But if it did, how terrible would that be?If you could wave a magic wand and all the heroin in the world disappeared forever, would you do it? Would you do it even if some opium farmers and drug dealers lost their jobs? If we could somehow get rid of aggressive war, that would put a lot of soldiers and sailors out of work. If you had the choice, would you choose to have wars of aggression so those folks could keep their jobs?Lots of goods used to be made by hand. When they started to be mass-produced, it put some people out of work. Should we continue to create everything by hand, even though it's slower and more expensive?When thinking about jobs, we should think about not just the person who holds the job, but also that job's usefulness to everybody else.Sorry if this was harsh. It may be that I have misunderstood the intent of the question. If so, I apologize.

How will the Affordable Care Act affect the supply and demand of medical products and services?

The ACA, which is the medical side to the larger PPACA that also included enhancements to patient privacy, had an insurance mandate. So it required all of us to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Now the penalty was delayed to give people time to get fiances in order, allow states and the federal government time to implement and adjust to the new system, etc.But the requirement of health insurance being mandatory led to a flood of new insured people. And increases in the numbers of people who are seeking medical care through primary care providers. FYI, this was exactly the purpose of the ACA. With emergency services being the most expensive part of the healthcare system, shifting people to a primary care physician vs just going to the ER is a cost saver and lessens strain on the healthcare system.So patients, insured and not, are the “customers.” And one determinant of demand is the number of consumers. When there’s an increase in their numbers, demand rises. And that’s the case here with healthcare. Higher levels of insured patients has led to more of them visiting primary care physicians, which has increased the demand for medical products and services.It’s also led to an increase of facilities to provide these services. And that’s why we’ve seen the building and expansion of hospitals, clinics, etc. So there’s been an increase on the supply side too as more healthcare providers and device makers have entered the market, built new facilities, and expanded current ones.

Has the Affordable Care Act actually made healthcare more expensive for Americans?

It depends on what you had before and your situation.   I had insurance through my employer before the ACA for $300 a month with a high deductible.   I became ill, lost my job as a result (went on Cobra that was $600 a month for a year), and then lost health insurance and all medical care for about six months.   Fortunately, the ACA then went into effect.   Last year (2014), I paid about $250 a month (with a subsidy) and had a deductible of $3500 with a $6500 ceiling on possible medical expenses.   This year I am paying $121 (after subsidy) a month for a policy with no deductible and a ceiling of $2500.  Office visits this year will be $10 for PCP and $40 for specialists.    My regular doctors and specialists have been covered on all of the policies I've had (in fact, I never even changed insurance companies).   I always check to make sure the policy considers my doctors to be in-network before I purchase and, while this has weeded out some of the smaller insurance companies, I haven't had a problem at all with this.   The only thing I don't get covered this year that I did in previous years is a free eye exam.   But considering the cost of the policy and my medical needs, I'm okay with that. The ACA has literally saved my life.   If it had not been implemented, I would have been unable to purchase health insurance at all with the cost on the private market and having a pre-existing condition.   With it, I'm able to get the monthly care I need which allows me to work part time and barely scrape by.   I'm very thankful for it.

Who benefits financially if the Affordable Care Act is repealed?

The biggest winner from repeal of Obamacare is the American public.Young people will gain because they no longer will be forced to pay for expensive insurance priced to cover older and much more sick people to prevent paying a fine. Everyone forced to buy health insurance under Obamacare will gain because they are no longer forced to buy too much insurance which in most cases is worthless to them because of incredibly high copays and deductibles.Everyone in America will gain because whatever replaces Obamacare will probably actually address health care problems instead of just looking at health care as if it is only a financial issue. I hope this includes a new charity care system to replace the unfunded federal mandate that hospitals treat anyone who shows up at their door without considering their ability or willingness to pay for the care. I am also hopeful there will be a reduction in the need for defensive medicine practiced all over America to prevent frivolous medical malpractice law suits. And of course I expect removal of the restraint of interstate commerce represented by the federal law that prevents selling health insurance across state lines. I would like to see (but don’t really expect) a change that removes the practice of providing “free” health insurance to employees while preventing people who don’t work for a company from getting the same tax deduction for the cost of health insurance. Putting health care decisions in the hands of everyone instead of just business owners and insurance companies will tend to improve the health care and make it less expensive.I would like to see a change where government employees have the same health care situation (and retirement system) as average Americans. However, I don’t expect to see this. I do expect to continue to see government bureaucrats and members on congress get much more in the way of all benefits including health care than average people do.