General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I don't think the Health Insurance Reform Act was a great progressive achievement. [View all]Bob Wallace
(549 posts)A $5,950 out of pocket cap for people on the 'pre-existing' policy. That's for individuals, for families it's $11,900.
I would think that someone who had a pre-existing condition and could get no insurance, leaving them with either enormous bills or no treatment would be pretty happy about not having to pay out more than $5.5k.
I did find a statement in a Department of Health and Human Services -
"The health reform act specifies maximum out-of-pocket limits in 2014 equal to the corresponding maximums as defined in the Internal Revenue Code for high-deductible health plans. We estimate that these limits would be $6,645 for an individual and $13,290 for a family with qualified creditable coverage (including employer-sponsored health insurance)."
https://www.cms.gov/ActuarialStudies/Downloads/PPACA_2010-04-22.pdf
I did find warnings for people to look closely at out of pocket costs when choosing a policy. Advice to consider paying more per month to protect yourself against the higher potential costs.