Employees Start to Feel the Squeeze of High-Deductible Health Plans
You can argue that the ACA improved the healthcare system overall. But it's been tough for people who were already covered by employer insurance.<p>I think people fail to appreciate that prior to the ACA, when the healthcare system worked, it actually worked really well. I got very sick at the age of 20 while I was still on my parents very modest insurance (pre-ACA). Within 48 hours I had an appointment at the best oncology hospital within 500 miles, and I was able to get scans, tests, etc on a very short turnarounds. Ultimately I had two major surgeries in 4 months, and the whole thing probably cost the insurance company a couple hundred thousand dollars. Since my parents had already hit their out-of-pocket maximum, the marginal cost to us was 0.<p>Now, the "when it worked" caveat is a big one. The story would be very different if my parents didn't have insurance at all or if I hadn't been eligible to be on it. But the same story today on my insurance would cost me <i>a lot</i> more money out of pocket due to a much higher deductible and a higher out-of-pocket maximum.<p>My perspective is that the ACA made things significantly better for a small group and modestly worse for most people. I'm open to moral arguments that the tradeoff was worth it (although that's not what I believe.) But I dislike rhetoric that pretends there's no tradeoff at all.<p>Edit: Added substance to a one-liner.