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Comment by sys32768 | Hacker News Reader

Pre-ACA, I could afford family insurance. My family premiums went up ~$500 a month post-ACA, while the coverage worsened.

My afib ER trip three years ago cost me $7k out of pocket even though I left the hospital still in afib.

Today in my 50s, my deductible is now $8,500. My partner doesn't have insurance because she's not poor enough or rich enough.

We had an insurance rep come to my work last year who said after ACA they had some people whose premiums went up 900%.

So yeah, ACA is better in your world, but not in mine.

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Yeah, since the ACA my coverage has remained the same while my costs have risen 10x; I'm in my 30s and my medical insurance costs 3x what my mortgage costs, and I still have $$$$ sized bills after a round of strep throat.

I would really like to just be able to get a true catastrophic policy which would cover unlikely risks such as cancer -- and then go on a cash basis for common meds and treatments. The ACA made this kind of insurance illegal, so my choice is to leave my family uninsured -- or let insurance soak up the money I might have saved for their college education.

Your blame is misplaced. Costs are increasing in spite of the ACA, not because of it. Pre-ACA your family insurance policy was likely worse in some key ways: it probably excluded coverage pre-existing conditions and had a lifetime maximum coverage limit.

But then the blame might be correctly placed? If he had no pre-existing conditions and was on a no-existing conditions plan, that plan might have saved him a lot of money.

Imagine car insurance regulations changing in such a way to force underwriters to blanket-assume everyone has had a couple speeding tickets this year. I understand why we do it. We are ok with speeders paying more for insurance, and not ok with someone born with diabetes forced to pay more for health insurance. But it is the end result in any case.

Pretty much everyone who lives long enough will end up with some sort of pre-existing condition.

It's almost like the real problem is hospital and medical costs versus cost of living.

)which is why as a percentage of GDP, Americans, European costs are remarkably similar, just distributed differently).

So you support single payer where none of that exists?

Yep. We were promised it would save us money. Instead, healthcare care costs skyrocketed thanks to Obamacare.

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