Obamacare was a lifeline for my family. I couldn't get that nice "private" health insurance because of preexisting exclusions. I needed ongoing medical care and back when I started my
sign company I was making no money so the subsidies helped. Now that I'm rolling in it, I pay full till. Cost sucks but it's always been a major expense even 20 years ago.
I was a teacher when obamacare first came out. My insurance (for just me, my kids were covered under my ex husband) DOUBLED. Then, my doctor visits got more complicated. At the time I was in my early 40s. So I saw one specialist a year (the well woman exam). They suddenly had me going to get outpatient procedures for things that used to be done in the office. (I had them done in the office for years). Then, they started "finding things" and sending me to outpatient procedures. That kicked in deductibles and out of pockets. Then after I would have the outpatient procedures done to "find things" (a mass in my uterus). There wasn't actually a mass there. I went to another doctor and the same issue ensued. They sent me for outpatient surgery for precancerous cells. That same procedure that was outpatient, I had done before in the doctor's office. Suddenly, an anesthesiologist was involved for something that I used to take tylenol for after the procedure was done in the office. They were making money just to "check things out".
Then, when I had my followup, the doctor said, "there's nothing there".
this happened to me 3 different times with 2 different doctors. once is 2014 and again in 2017. All because I had a history of these precancerous cells.
Now, back in the late 90s, I worked for Prudential insurance and they sold us to Aetna. Not many insurance policies had many preexisting conditions. I believe there were a few, diabetes was one of them. But the list of preexisting conditions started growing...probably because they were opening up the door for ACA.
