I've been buying insurance on the individual & small-group markets for almost 20 years. I've done this across three states. Which is to say I am keenly aware of

I've been buying insurance on the individual & small-group markets for almost 20 years. I've done this across three states. Which is to say I am keenly aware of how much healthcare has cost in both the pre-ACA and post-ACA timeframes. > The sudden and dramatic increase in premiums, deductibles, and co-insurance was effectively a massive pay cut for the entire American middle class. This is just a misrepresentation (or overgeneralization) of facts. One thing that was true before the ACA is that insurance rates increased monotonically every year, often by large percentages. This also applies to deductibles and co-insurance. What changed was compounding. In 2002, a 20% increase on a $150/mo policy added $30 to the price. The same 20% increase in 2007 might have been on a $400/mo policy, so it added $80. A 25% increase in co-pay from $40 to $50 is barely noticeable, unless you're old enough to remember when insurance didn't have co-pays. (As an aside, that pre-ACA policy might not have covered actually getting sick or needing medical care.) This compounding had been going on since at least the 1980s, and it was inevitable that it would get large enough to notice at some point. Anecdotally, the policies on offer here (GA) on the individual market are markedly less expensive than the trend line circa 2007 would have predicted for 2019. And they cover more, since the fake insurance has been outlawed. Curious what others have noticed, but this has been my experience.