[WarDekar]

I would imagine most/all young (under 35 - I'm 30, personally, and had same experience as GP), self-employed people making a decent amount of money (such that they don't get subsidies) have had this experience. The plans never match up fully, but I had a high deductible "catastrophic" plan pre-ACA and for the equivalent coverage I a.) had to apply for an exemption to even get the "catastrophic" plan through ACA and b.) it still cost significantly more for a higher deductible.

Now as you note I do get certain benefits with this plan I didn't get with my other one- namely a couple doctors visits a year when my other one was only one every 2- but I had a catastrophic plan for a reason and my premium more than doubled under the ACA. Beneficial to me (and likely the GP) is being able to pay only for coverage we actually want- not additional "benefits" that we don't plan on using and would rather pay out of pocket for.

[infinite8s]

Are you sure you wouldn't have been dropped when a catastrophe happened? Before the ACA that wasn't illegal.

[herge]

What about yearly or by incident payout limits? Like max 20000$ per year in treatment or the like. That's what most of the plans canceled by the ACA were limited by.

[rdl]

My plan had no lifetime limits, generally awesome coverage, HDHP, and was ended. I don't believe it's because it was non-compliant, but because it was no longer economic to underwrite with 1) guaranteed issue 2) substantial minimum/preventive benefits paid per year (so, essentially a guarantee of $300-400 in reimbursements on a $1200 premium per year, with some odds of $100k or $1mm or whatever payouts in rare cases too.)

My insurer got out of the individual market.