Well I just received a letter saying our coverage is going up from $658.02 to over $1,000 for 2016 so we need to reapply for insurance if we want to keep our plan in the same price range as 2015. From what I understand, more people than expected used coverage in 2015 so premiums need to increase to make up for the difference.
Time to grit my teeth and hope we don't repeat our experience from 2015 that lasted from January - June.
The website still stinks in terms of user experience. In order to make a change you have to trick the system. I say this because it forces you to select something from a list saying that you've had a change in your income, employment or had a baby. I've had no changes so I tricked the system by making a one dollar change in my income. However, I had no issues in getting through to the insurance options and I was able to find one from Evergren Health for $668.60 that is only slightly more than what we paid in 2015. I hate to leave Blue Cross as we've been with them for 3.5 years but I can't pay over $1000 for the same plan.
This plan has a higher deductible, I think 1,500 when we had $500 in 2015 but there doesn't seem anyway around that. From what I understand, deductibles went up along with increased use of insurance premiums in 2015. So we all pay more this year? I guess that's the answer to health coverage for all Americans.