Leah K.

Trying to figure out how CC determines what's actually affordable for us plebs, so... I have been divorced for 3 years now and a month away from 62 yrs old. I purchased a condo (couldn't afford an actual house) with what money I was left with after the divorce so my mortgage is $2,000 a month (in California this is cheaper than rent, yes, seriously). So far I don't have a car payment but I will soon enough because my vehicle (Honda) has 147,000+ miles into it and not doing well. Continuing... auto insurance is about $450 a month. Home insurance is $250 a month. Utilities are roughly $200 a month. Gas to/from work is about $225 a month. So far that's $3,125 a month in expenses. Now keep in mind there's no mention of expenses for food here yet. State & federal taxes for me is 25%, removed from my pay check. After these lovely taxes my take home pay totals about $4,000 a month (give or take). Now, that leaves me with $875 a month for CC health insurance, food and other essentials but somehow Covered California thinks that I can afford $750 a month in health insurance. I know that others are worse off than I am but seriously how can you (corporate personal) in good conscience charge these outrageous rates to everyone and still consider them affordable? I attached only two of the "quotes" (they are a moving target once you actually press the button to sign up) which range from $649 (Kaiser) to over $1,000 (Blue Shield). This is very sad because my insurance (with my husband at the time) was only $289 a month (yes, total for both of us) in 2008. This current "affordable care act" and the (2) insurance companies (why only 2) are taking advantage of everyone :(