October 1, 2013 - First Day of Obamacare Registration

The headlines scream that the U.S. Government is shut down as a faction of the Republican Party hold the government hostage over Obamacare.  Ironically, last night I returned from Washington D.C. where my government worker brother was contemplating what to do with his unanticipated, unpaid days off.  His wife, also a government worker, telling me how her department was expecting to work without pay. Both work for the U.S. State Department where I wrongly assumed they'd enjoy not thinking about Syria, Al Shabab and Iran for a couple of days. Their baby is due in 11 weeks so they've got that going for them.  But I digress. Today, my alarm was set for 5am to log in to CoveredCalifornia.com to begin the process of signing up for health insurance. I wanted to be the first person to log in, I was so excited about it. Covered California is the State of California's  insurance exchange, set up to achieve the goals of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.  4 years ago,  when it passed, I didn't think my family would need the exchange since we had our union insurance. However, we were ecstatic about the ACA provision that required our insurance plan to cover our children up to the age of 26.   My husband and I had enjoyed union health insurance for 30 years and we felt relieved that our kids would have health care until they were able to get jobs and get on their feet in this shaky economy.  We were a healthy family by and large and incurred very few medical expenses.  But like millions of other Americans out there,  a series of events plunged us into the medical insurance hell hole. 
Our son developed a brain tumor - Stage 4 cancer.  To our ever grateful relief, our union plan carried us through that nightmare to return our son to good health, but we observed first hand the immense cost of a medical emergency like that.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars all told. I understood completely why 65% of all bankruptcies in America are due to unforeseen medical bills. For the first time, since the birth of this same child - I made a point to appreciate our incredible Union Insurance plan. But then, our sure footing gave way to a slippery slope. Last year, I didn't qualify for my SAG union health plan after they raised the minimum income to qualify. My husband's Motion Picture Industry Health Plan also dropped him after he took time off to help our son and recover from the emotional ordeal.  Banked union hours were wiped out.  So here we are today paying insane COBRA premiums - $1799 per month until we can get our union plan back. I realize that that's what lots of people pay for insurance and I say, it needs to be more affordable!  My search for a more affordable plan went nowhere since our son had a pre-exisitng condition. NOTE - As of January 1, if the ACA remains in place, no one can be denied insurance for a pre existing condition. Period. That provision will help a lot of families like ours to be sure. 
    So I logged on to CoveredCalifornia.com today.  I went straight to the calculator to see what was being offered. A very simple form pops up - I put in our family's information - size of family, yearly income, ages of family members. Many plans were offered at different levels of coverage. One was practically identical to our present Union COBRA Insurance - except that it's $300 month cheaper.  In the entertainment industry, family income often fluctuates a lot, so I put in income figures for good years and bad ones.  The differences in plans and costs were very interesting. I found out that if you are a family of four with under $93,000 of income, you can qualify for a subsidy to offset the premiums.  I encourage everyone to at least give the calculator a try and see what's offered. I think you will be surprised. I then entered my phone number to be contacted.  I'll let you know when they get back to me and what they say.