[helmut_hed]

I'm curious to know, for the "Ongoing Medical Conditions" case, whether they verified if you could actually get insured in the first place on the plans they recommended. This seems to be the biggest issue with private insurance - they don't have to take you, and generally won't, if you have a "preexisting condition" of any sort.

[tptacek]

HealthNet in particular appears to be prone to decline coverage for preexisting conditions. All insurers currently do this, though, so unless you're a single man in your 20's, getting insurance on the private market is a royal bitch.

To get a feeling for the problem, consider that common reproductive health issues in women, like endometriosis or uterine fibroids, are both extremely prevalent and actuarially unacceptable to insurers (they correlate with expensive surgical interventions, which aren't common but are common enough for insurers to wave women off).

[jpdoctor]

This.

Also: Going with some mickey mouse plan is essentially a bet that you'll never be diagnosed with anything that is chronic during coverage. My wife manage to strike it rich with an autoimmune disease, and now we essentially cannot move nor change plans in any way.

(ACA will help a lot, but I still wouldn't put it past the assholes in DC to repeal it before it helps us.)

[khuey]

Now that Barack Obama has been reelected there's no way the ACA is getting repealed before January 2017 (he's not going to let his signature accomplishment get repealed, and there's no way Republicans will amass a veto-proof majority in the legislature). After that, it likely will be too entrenched to repeal wholesale.