4 ms·

[deleted]

cma 7y ago
Obamacare abolished maximums, for essential health benefits (emergency care, necessary surgery, prescription drugs, etc.): https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/lifetime-and-yearly-limits/ https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/lifet... https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/what-marketplace-plans-cover/ https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/what-marketplace-plans-c... If the plan qualifies for meeting the mandate, there shouldn't be maximums on essentials.
hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
> Your home, your 401k, is easy pickings for a bankruptcy court. No, they are not. 401k is a protected asset, and is basically off limits to creditors. Similarly, it depends on the state, but most states provide for homestead protection from creditors. In some states, like Texas, the homestead protection amount is unlimited.
reilly3000 7y ago
401k isn’t eligible for bankruptcy liquidation, but all else is. You’re not wrong about the whole situation, it’s a financial bloodbath.
javagram 7y ago
FYI, there are good arguments that the 2/3 number is significantly misleading. For instance, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865642/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865642/ “ However, the magnitude of the bankruptcy effect is much smaller than previously thought: we estimate that hospitalizations cause only 4% of personal bankruptcies among nonelderly U.S. adults, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the previous estimates described above.”
disabled 7y ago
This. Every single American should take your comment to heart 100%. I am an American in her 30s, on disability, who has Medicare. I am looking to return to the workforce, after I complete my final year of engineering school, in electrical engineering. I require a blood product that costs $300,000/year in order to survive. I have 2 rare immune-mediated diseases that affect my peripheral nervous system, which are in pharmaceutical remission, thanks to this medicine. It is the only thing that has worked, and we have tried about 10 treatments, plus combinations of them. It is my only option. In addition to having Medicare, I also have employer-based insurance through a family member. For reasons which I will not discuss, it is extremely likely that I will lose this coverage if the Affordable Care Act is partly or completely repealed. I can expect to pay at least $50,000/year for this via Medicare coverage, if it is my only insurance, as I will be subjected to Part D catastrophic coverage levels. Obviously, I cannot afford to. One would be lucky to be able to afford this, even if they saved and were living on a huge pile of money, which is unlikely even working as an engineer. Living in the US is just not worth it. You would be lucky not to need an exorbitantly expensive medication at some point in your life. Cancer meds are unbelievably expensive too. Almost half of cancer patients exhaust their lifetime savings within 2 years of diagnosis. 62% are in debt from it. Besides stuff like that, in the US the third leading cause of death is preventable medical errors (if you do not believe me, Google it), which is on par with third world countries. You can go to the best institutions and get the best possible medical care, but I can assure you that you cannot evade that statistic, with it being #3 as the cause of death. I want to work in the US but with my healthcare being so tied to my insurance, it really does not work for me. This country is no place to live, if you want to survive your health problems. The best place to go, in general, if you are concerned about healthcare are the European Union countries. They do not discriminate on the basis of your health status, but you will have to work and earn your citizenship. You can also get citizenship by descent. I naturalized as Croatian (also as an European Union citizen), as I cannot afford to risk my health here any more. My situation is more precarious than one would think.
elfexec 7y ago
> Your home, your 401k, is easy pickings for a bankruptcy court. Your 401k and retirement accounts ( pensions, IRAs, trust funds, etc ) are legally protected from bankruptcy or legal judgments. In some states ( like florida ), even your home is protected from bankruptcy or legal judgments. Otherwise OJ Simpson who be homeless begging on the street rather than playing golf every other day. Medical issues can be a source of financial distress for sure, but your statement about 401k is simply not accurate.
- ThrustVectoring 7y ago
  IRAs are state-dependent, not all states have an unlimited IRA exemption.

[deleted]

cma 7y ago

Obamacare abolished maximums, for essential health benefits (emergency care, necessary surgery, prescription drugs, etc.): https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/lifetime-and-yearly-limits/ https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/lifet... https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/what-marketplace-plans-cover/ https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/what-marketplace-plans-c... If the plan qualifies for meeting the mandate, there shouldn't be maximums on essentials.

hn_throwaway_99 7y ago

> Your home, your 401k, is easy pickings for a bankruptcy court. No, they are not. 401k is a protected asset, and is basically off limits to creditors. Similarly, it depends on the state, but most states provide for homestead protection from creditors. In some states, like Texas, the homestead protection amount is unlimited.

reilly3000 7y ago

401k isn’t eligible for bankruptcy liquidation, but all else is. You’re not wrong about the whole situation, it’s a financial bloodbath.

javagram 7y ago

FYI, there are good arguments that the 2/3 number is significantly misleading. For instance, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865642/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865642/ “ However, the magnitude of the bankruptcy effect is much smaller than previously thought: we estimate that hospitalizations cause only 4% of personal bankruptcies among nonelderly U.S. adults, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the previous estimates described above.”

disabled 7y ago

This. Every single American should take your comment to heart 100%. I am an American in her 30s, on disability, who has Medicare. I am looking to return to the workforce, after I complete my final year of engineering school, in electrical engineering. I require a blood product that costs $300,000/year in order to survive. I have 2 rare immune-mediated diseases that affect my peripheral nervous system, which are in pharmaceutical remission, thanks to this medicine. It is the only thing that has worked, and we have tried about 10 treatments, plus combinations of them. It is my only option. In addition to having Medicare, I also have employer-based insurance through a family member. For reasons which I will not discuss, it is extremely likely that I will lose this coverage if the Affordable Care Act is partly or completely repealed. I can expect to pay at least $50,000/year for this via Medicare coverage, if it is my only insurance, as I will be subjected to Part D catastrophic coverage levels. Obviously, I cannot afford to. One would be lucky to be able to afford this, even if they saved and were living on a huge pile of money, which is unlikely even working as an engineer. Living in the US is just not worth it. You would be lucky not to need an exorbitantly expensive medication at some point in your life. Cancer meds are unbelievably expensive too. Almost half of cancer patients exhaust their lifetime savings within 2 years of diagnosis. 62% are in debt from it. Besides stuff like that, in the US the third leading cause of death is preventable medical errors (if you do not believe me, Google it), which is on par with third world countries. You can go to the best institutions and get the best possible medical care, but I can assure you that you cannot evade that statistic, with it being #3 as the cause of death. I want to work in the US but with my healthcare being so tied to my insurance, it really does not work for me. This country is no place to live, if you want to survive your health problems. The best place to go, in general, if you are concerned about healthcare are the European Union countries. They do not discriminate on the basis of your health status, but you will have to work and earn your citizenship. You can also get citizenship by descent. I naturalized as Croatian (also as an European Union citizen), as I cannot afford to risk my health here any more. My situation is more precarious than one would think.

elfexec 7y ago

> Your home, your 401k, is easy pickings for a bankruptcy court. Your 401k and retirement accounts ( pensions, IRAs, trust funds, etc ) are legally protected from bankruptcy or legal judgments. In some states ( like florida ), even your home is protected from bankruptcy or legal judgments. Otherwise OJ Simpson who be homeless begging on the street rather than playing golf every other day. Medical issues can be a source of financial distress for sure, but your statement about 401k is simply not accurate.

ThrustVectoring 7y ago
IRAs are state-dependent, not all states have an unlimited IRA exemption.