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Sharon B. Ingerson | Ingerson is a resident of the Glenvar area and has worked as a Registered Nurse in Salem for fifteen years.
I am a registered nurse and I buy my individual policy with Optima Health. I love it.
However, seeing all the reports about canceled plans, I called them to ask if I would lose my policy. They said that next year I will.
My plan does not qualify under the Affordable Care Act because it does not include maternity coverage. I am a 41-year-old woman with three children (one with moderate-severe autism and mental retardation). I am not having any more children.
This is ridiculous. However, it gets worse. Optima gave me my options. Now I have a $2,500 deductible with 100 percent coverage after the deductible is met. The family deductible is $5,000. The plan costs $209 per month. This is not a substandard plan.
I have a health savings account where I have saved more than $12,000, so if my family needs health care, I can provide for them.
The new Obamacare plans are worse in every regard. They are not better and I do not save $2,500, as President Obama promised so many times.
Here is the closest plan to mine: $3,250 deductible (worse), $6,500 family deductible (worse), and the premium is an outrageous $674 per month (far worse). Essentially, I will pay $465 a month or $5,580 a year more for insurance. Obama promised the average family (I’m a nurse; we’re average) $2,500, but I will pay $5,580 more?
I’ve tried to log onto healthcare.gov, but it is a total disaster. I have called other insurance companies in Virginia and the plans are worse than Optima. The closest plan was a $4,000 deductible/$8,000 family deductible for nearly $600. That is not a better plan. It is far worse.
This will ruin my family’s health care options. I will lose the ability to save any money in my health savings account. Instead of saving for my family’s needs, I will have to give that money to an insurance company.
I will have higher out-of-pocket costs and worse coverage.
Anger doesn’t begin to describe how I feel. I urge my congressional representatives to support the president’s other promise, that “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”
This has to be changed.
http://roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/2389210-12/give-back-my-health-care-policy.html