I am a 69 year old male and am retired from Police work. When I retired I kept my insurance through the city I worked for. That policy is with BCBS of Arizona and I have had it for 33 years. I don’t remember what the premium was when I retired but in 33 years it had worked its way up to $239.00 a month. As of July 1, 2013 it went to $432.00 a month, a 82% or $192.00 increase. Around April of 2012 I received a letter from BCBS that my policy was one that met the requirements of ACA and that it would be one that ACA would call “grandfathered”. Shortly after getting that letter I received another letter from the city titled “clearing up the confusion”. I guess it was supposed to help get us through the fog that I seem to remember being brought up once. It talked about the “comparative effectiveness research fee”, and the “ACA reinsurance fee”, and that how the ACA was going to have a increase effect on our policy’s. It had a effect alright, but no one thought it would be a 82% increase effect. As far as I know just about all the city’s and police departments in Arizona have BCBS. I worked for the City of Glendale Arizona and about 610 retires were effected. The city pay’s for most of the employee’s insurance. I found out that an employee is only paying about $11.00 a month more and I couldn’t find out how much more the city was paying toward an employee’s policy. I found out that July 1, 2014 we could get another 40% to 60% increase, and no one will speculate what is going to happen when the “employer mandate” kicks in. There was nothing wrong with the policy I have, its so good that because I have Medicare (which adds another $104.90 on top off the $432.00) they even pay all of my deductibles and co-pays. At the end of the year in 2011 I had a $60,000 plus hospital bill and over 40 Doctor or test appointments and had $0.00 out of pocket. If I had the ACA it would of been thousands. This is only the beginning and how may millions of people will be affected like me. The ACA is the most ridicules piece of legislation I have ever seen in my life.
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