to be fair, the ones that cost as much as cobra are gold and platinum plans.
how different is the coverage in those plans than what you had/have with cobra?
ACA plans are not as good.
even at the "gold" or "platinum" level? Really? Damn.
Yup, very, very common. These plans simply aren't as good as the decent plans in the large employer category (likely what he's coming from). On top of that, the provider networks are much smaller (which he's discovered with the issue of his kid's pediatrician).
Sorry....I was asking how the gold/platinum compared to the cobra...sorry for the confusion. Rayderr?
COBRA = the large employer plan that Rayderr has. When he accepts COBRA, what he's really doing is asking to stay on the exact same plan he's had while he was employed with them, only now he'll be paying the full amount himself without his employer paying anything. The benefit is that he doesn't switch plans or networks, and he doesn't have a brand new deductible.
It's extremely likely that anything he could obtain via the exchanges (or off exchange in the individual market) such as the "platinum" or "gold" level options via Obamacare are much weaker than what he already had - and according to him cost about the same. In fact, when comparing the two,
this just came out this morning...
"Patients with a chronic condition
pay an average of twice as much for their prescription medication when they get health insurance through exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act than those who have employer-sponsored insurance, a new study has found. As a result, these patients are less likely to fill their prescriptions, leaving them sicker and more likely to need medical care later on."
The coverage simply isn't as strong, and very likely has a smaller network to utilize.