14 Ways Obamacare Is Still A Disaster That You Won’t Learn From Vox

Here’s the short list…go to the article for the details:

1. Premium Increases
2. Exchange Subsidy Roller Coaster
3. Reducing the Quality of Insurance
4. Slashing Quality of Employer-Provided Insurance
5. Here Come the Trial Lawyers!
6. Enrollees Are Older and Sicker than Average
7. People Dropping Exchange Coverage Are the Ones Exchanges Need Most
8. The Exchanges Benefit Big Business at the Expense of Smaller Businesses
9. Policy Cancellation Déjà Vu
10. Medical Research Has Tanked
11. Medicaid Still Provides Terrible Care for the Poor
12. The Deficit Will Increase $131 Billion in the Next Ten Years
13. Fewer Jobs for Low-Wage Workers
14. More Economic Woes Ahead

I can corroborate point #4 with my own experience. When our policy renewed in mid-2013, we had a choice to make: accept a switch from PPO coverage to HMO coverage for roughly the same price, or accept a 4x rate increase to keep PPO coverage.  At the time, there was a possibility that Tabitha might need to switch to my insurance if she had to quit her job due to her illness.  Her oncologist was available through the PPO, but not the HMO, so we bit the bullet and took the more-expensive option.  I’ve since switched to the HMO plan; it’s inferior coverage compared to the PPO plan, but since I’m not really using it, why spend more than I must?

The 2014 renewal fortunately didn’t include further alterations of the deal.  Who knows what 2015 will bring, though?  Horror stories like those described in the article would make it awfully tempting to  cancel coverage altogether, and to tell whatever goons the feral government sends by to GFY.