Why Are People with Health Insurance Going Bankrupt?

[Ms. Toad]

72. The changes don't take effect until 2014.

People (on both sides of the political aisle) keep lamenting the fact that the ACA has not solved the problem, when the bulk of the changes don't take effect until 2014.

It isn't going to be a panacea - but since the big step toward making insurance accessible hasn't happened yet, it is way too soon to declare it useless.

As to the families whose COBRA is about to expire - they are entitled to purchase a private policy under HIPAA - which they should be told about by the employer or the insurance company (not sure which when the company is gone). They will need to do so within a very small window after the end of the COBRA policy (~ 2 months) - and it will almost certainly cost as much as the COBRA policy does (they are guaranteed issue, but there are no price caps). Since that is about half what my 22 y/o daughter's routine expenses are - that is still better than not purchasing it...but it is no picnic.