Preventive care: It's free, except when it's not (Obamacare BS alert)

AP/Yahoo ^ | 12/28/11

[markomalley]

Bill Dunphy thought his colonoscopy would be free.

His insurance company told him it would be covered 100 percent, with no copayment from him and no charge against his deductible. The nation's 1-year-old health law requires most insurance plans to cover all costs for preventive care including colon cancer screening. So Dunphy had the procedure in April.

Then the bill arrived: $1,100.

Dunphy, a 61-year-old Phoenix small business owner, angrily paid it out of his own pocket because of what some prevention advocates call a loophole. His doctor removed two noncancerous polyps during the colonoscopy. So while Dunphy was sedated, his preventive screening turned into a diagnostic procedure. That allowed his insurance company to bill him.

[cherry]

a scope can detect early cancer and if it does, it can prevent far more costly cancer treatments/surgeries etc plus save the life of the patient....

so its really just as "preventive" (of far worse outcomes) as a blood glucose check would be....taking steps to catch diseases early...

[Tax-chick]

People should just find out for certain, in detail, what their insurance covers, so they won’t be surprised. This requires thinking through what might happen and probably phoning a representative to discuss each potentially billable event.

I had my colonoscopy using a bit of labor breathing and a recorded book on my husband’s iPod. No big deal compared to just about anything else I’ve been through, medically, and I was fully functional ten minutes later.