Actually, it's a completely different government. The Executive + the House + the Senate + the Supreme Court is nothing like it was when Social Security was passed. To boot, there's nothing wrong with Social Security that preventing Congress from raiding the trust fund won't fix. (Remember the "lock box"? Yeah, neither does anybody else since we were all distracted by 9/11 and the ensuing "war on terrorism")

As for Debt Ceilings: The House controls spending. If you want to avoid debt ceilings, tell them to not spend the money in the first place that we are required to repay by Constitutional rule. The time to eliminate the debt ceiling is before we spend the money, not after ...

The calculator is if you want to take advantage of the exchanges; there's nothing requiring you to use them. If your current coverage is less, you can keep that. If your current provider decides to raise rates, that's on them. Theoretically, the existence of the exchanges is supposed to foster competition both within the exchange and with companies outside the exchange. If your current provider deems it necessary to raise rates to protect their bottom line, perhaps this is an opportunity for you to shop around. It's not like there's not going to be options =)

If you were self employed and just saw a recent 33% increase in your health insurance rates for no reason, on top of the 15% from the year before, and nary a claim for the last 6 years while with Medical Mutual, you'd understand.

Just sayin'.

I agree with your caution about the economics of this. Perhaps the rosy picture being painted by some about the Act is correct.

Still, Mrs. Stumpy and I are paying over $4K out of pocket more for our group health coverage this year than last. Not all is due to things related to the Act, but some are.

My employer was informed by the rep from our health care provider that premiums are expected to rise 55-60% next year, primarily from Affordable Health Care provisions. I don't carry my employer's insurance - we have a policy thru Mrs. Stumpy's employer.

Good luck to us all.

Over the last two decades, the health insurance that my school provides has become more expensive every year. Some years the cost rises by 10 or 15%. Some years it rises "only" 6 or 7%. But it always rises. As a result, my school has changed providers and options to keep the costs down as much as possible, but the consequence is that our current health insurance plan, which costs significantly more than the plan we had just five years ago, is basically not worth the paper it's written on. It's a PITA to use, the deductibles are astronomical, the "out of network" penalties are horrible--if the company agrees to pay them at all, which initially they won't and then you have to spend the following three months getting them to do so.

It's a damned mess.

And none of it has anything to to with Obamacare. All of it has to do with the insurance companies, middle men who do nothing much beyond shuffling paper. I hate the Republicans for having made single payer impossible, and even more, I hate Sen. Mealymouth, I mean Lieberman, for playing along with the Republicans because he represented Connecticut, home of the insurance industry. I wonder how much of a payoff there was there.

Given their track record, I'm not sure how much faith I'd put in Insurance companies raising rates "primarily from Affordable Health Care provisions." Basically, they just got the government to force everyone in the country to buy their product -- not really convinced that premium hikes are anything more than Insurance companies soaking existing customers and blaming the ACA ...

John...nothing wrong with the SS that Congress can't fix.
Like this fiscal debacle it's all Self-imposed crisis !!!

#1 Congress -quit stealing from it ! as someone mentioned the lock-box...

#2 Congress - pay all you've stolen back ! (fat chance) - it'd be solvent to 2100 !!

#3 - take the f-ing cap off- why should those making <$110K pay 6.5% of their income into SS and those making more LESS (a smaller %)?? Someone making $1 million would pay 0.6% !!!

#4 Dems don't like this one, but we DO need to slowly increase the eligibility age... up to 70... again phase in over 2-3 decades. People are just living longer and work longer ! It's the changing times !!

So it's VERY FIXABLE... Congress just doesn't want to do their dammed job !!

Same as some employers cutting wages back during the economic meltdown. Most were legit... but then when things got better... your pay didn't.

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