Affordable Care
The problem is that middle class Americans are charged outlandish rates for the plans.<p>The plan for my family last year cost over $1200 per month, and this year rose to $1400&#x2F;month.<p>Previously, with employer-provided plans I paid at most $400&#x2F;month for my family.<p>Not only are the costs outlandish, there are no high deductible plans available for people who are generally healthy.  All of the plans, gold, silver and bronze, are geared toward heavy users or highly risk-averse users.<p>A healthy, disease-free family at an income level to afford $1400&#x2F;month in health care costs surely ought to be able to purchase a plan that covers catastrophic scenarios and costs a lot less than $1400&#x2F;month.<p>In the past I&#x27;d had a plan via an employer that was a high-deductible plan.  It cost $350&#x2F;month but I had to pay the first $10K of all costs each year.  Do the math, this was a better deal even in the worst case scenario than my ACA plan.<p>The problem with bundling a progressive tax, a flat fee, a subsidy, and a prepayment plan into one &quot;price&quot; is that it is impossible to tell which dollars apply to what.<p>I&#x27;d much rather have my actual taxes go up a small bit than pay an income-based penalty in my healthcare price.<p>I&#x27;d also much rather self-insure the first $15-20K of risk each year in exchange for a much smaller payment.<p>One other detail.  Nearly all the plans by all the providers are essentially identical.  The cheapest bronze plan I could have found was over $900&#x2F;month!  That&#x27;s for a pretty abysmal level of coverage of most things compared to any other employer provided plan I&#x27;ve ever had.