I had thought that Obamacare had left Massachusetts relatively untouched, due to the fact that we already had near-universal health insurance coverage. However, a self-employed friend told me that his old $21,600 per year policy was canceled and now he must pay $30,000 per year in after-tax dollars to insure himself, his wife, and two teenage children.
Related: another friend’s Massachusetts Obamacare experience.
I have a individual health insurance policy in Massachusetts. Last year I received a notice from my health insurer that my old policy was going to be cancelled as of March 31, due to the Affordable Care Act, which annoyed me at first. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new policy from the same insurance provider was significantly less expensive, my monthly payment went from ~$1400/month to about $1100. The copay amounts, etc. were slightly different in the two policies – some higher and some lower – but I chose the new policy that was the closest to my old one.
When I talked to someone at the insurance company, their explanation was that my old policy was completely obsolete and grossly overpriced and they had sent letters to everyone trying to get them to switch out of those old policies for years. Letters which I had stupidly ignored haha.
I have no reason to believe that my experience was at all common, however the insurance company representative did say that there were a small number of others who still had old policies like mine and were also being forced to change over.
So Obamacare did, accidentally, end up saving money for a few hapless souls like myself.