By Chelsea Conaboy
Globe Staff
January 26, 2014
...Many who struggled (click here) without insurance are getting it. Others with poor coverage have found better plans. Some whose policies cost a lot, yet covered little, have obtained more comprehensive coverage that — with government subsidies — often costs less.
About 3 million people have signed up for a private health plan through the online insurance exchanges, a senior US health official said Friday. More people are newly enrolled in Medicaid in states expanding that program, which provides coverage to people with low incomes....
...In New England, more than 91,000 people have signed up for private plans through the federal health law....
...More than 1 in 3 health plans sold in the state’s individual market had a deductible of $7,500 or higher, according to a 2011 analysis.
Many of those plans will be prohibited under the Affordable Care Act, which requires insurance to cover at least 60 percent of expected health care costs for a typical patient.
Gamage dropped his coverage early last year. With lobster prices low, he and his wife were forced to gamble on his heart.
“It could have been a nightmare,” he said. “It could have been bankruptcy, if something major had happened . . . You can see your whole life and your whole family fall totally apart.”...
