Posted on 11/01/2015 11:22:31 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
“Doesn’t it seem reasonable to you that an insurance company isn’t going to start covering someone who, say, got cancer a month before?”
People can’t help life events like unplanned job changes that force insurance changes. There needs to be a mechanism to handle that for folks caught in the pre-existing condition trap. I don’t know for sure what is driving insurance rates up, but I would think it is more the companies being nickel-ed and dime-ed to death rather than the one off pre-existing condition person.
You can add other durable items like hearing aids. I need new glasses every year, and I pay for them, no co-pay exist for dental or vision when you are on Medicare or Tricare Life both of which are per-paid either with taxes or Military service of 20 years, both Fed government controlled. Medicare will pay $75 for 1 lens bi-focal if you have cataract surgery. I wear Tri-focals, blended lenses and I buy the best Zeiss, I don’t waste money on box store crap.
2014 We were DOD MANDATED to get all daily meds from Military Dispensary or Express Scripts. 2015 this pilot program becomes permanent, co-pays went up. 2016 NO COLA RAISES even though the cost of food has risen quite high. Then we get this: Medicare Rates Set to Soar for Many Seniors
http://www.wsj.com/articles/medicare-rates-set-to-soar-for-many-seniors-1444920052
Lots of test are now on a 2 year rotation, instead of a 1 year as they should be, some blood work won’t be covered, doctors are starting to turn us away with specialist being the worse. Quality of care in hospital is less than it was 7 years ago. Techs are ill trained, and they don’t care how much pain they cause trying to do a simple IV PICC line. Just went through the Cardio work up from HELL. Took 3 weeks to get the results, a small leaky heart valve. A 3 hr procedure that took 5 hrs, and they let me walk out totally dehydrated in need of an IV. Nothing done to mitigate the level 10 pain. Had to beg for a glass of water to start re-hydrating.
There already was, at least in the state I'm in.
If you switched plans for any reason but didn't have a gap in coverage, then pre-existing conditions were covered in the new plan. COBRA existed so you had time to get new coverage if you lost yours abruptly.
“People can’t help life events like unplanned job changes that force insurance changes.
That fact doesn’t alter the original fact that people can’t wait until they are sick to get insurance.
There are two choices: (1) make all voluntarily insured people pay for those who don’t have insurance when they get sick, and (2) make everyone get and pay for health insurance.
My impression is that a lot of people, especially young people, could get health insurance but choose not to because they want to use their money for other things. Should the rest of us bail these people out?
Two of my children are in active service, so I know of what you speak. Fortunately, they’re in an area (D.C. metro) where there are many military bases and a few hospitals, so they aren’t jerked around too much. But still, they don’t get the kind of response and care that we get going to a private practice.
Yes, they are definitely recommending stretching out screening tests. Last time I had a PAP, they said the new guidelines are a PAP every 3-4 years now if you’ve had several years of normal results and don’t have a family history. Same with mammograms.
And colonoscopies - every ten years now unless you’ve had issues or a family history.
It’s rationing. There aren’t enough doctors and enough money to pay for yearly screenings anymore, especially since a vast majority of them are getting free care.
Isn’t it interesting that all these new guidelines are popping up - right at the same time Obamacare is getting into full swing. One might think there was collusion or something.
Another drawback is the lead time you need to get an appointment. My GP is scheduling annual physicals 4-5 months out and it’s longer than that for a specialist.
People I have spoken to who are not eligible for medicaid or something similar are reporting that their total costs for premiums and out of pocket costs that must be met BEFORE the insurance starts to pay are astronomical, in fact equal to or exceeding the family incomes of many people who have jobs. Even when AND IF they ever meet all the out of pocket costs the insurance still may pay a pathetic percentage. Back in the eighties when I started a business of my own I was able to buy coverage that paid one hundred percent for hospital costs, I hear people talking now about seventy percent or even as low as sixty percent coverage. My attitude is that if you have that low a percentage covered you really don’t have hospital insurance. So called mainstrem health care as it exists today is largely contemptible and it will only get worse unless the government can be taken out of the health care picture. That is probably the least likely outcome of all.
what a way to scam the peasants eh? Force them to get healthcare, penalize them if they don't, give them "healthcare" that doesn't pay much in the way of benefits, pocket the difference, and set up a citizen database that gives them access to all their personal and banking information. You peasants though this was about the government providing healthcare, eh? Suckers...
I don’t know, but I do believe that’s it’s wrong that people before the ACA had literally no way of staving off terminal illnesses because there was absolutely NO WAY to get coverage.
That, to me, is wrong...in a civilized country.
There was a woman in my town who died of brain cancer, had four kids, husband, and couldn’t get health insurance. She DIED, with a surgically repairable disease, because she had no coverage and the surgeons wouldn’t operate without assurances of being paid.
The town had fund raisers, pleas were made, but to no avail...she died.
I thought that was obscene.
There has to be provisions made, in my opinion, that prevent people from dying from fixable illnesses simply because they couldn’t get coverage.
Ed
I totally agree with that!
My girlfriend’s insurance was canceled and her new plan is DOUBLE the prior plan, she’ll be paying $500/month! Almost ruinous, for someone who is never sick.
My boss’ family plan went from $750/month for him and his son, that plan was canceled, now he’ll be paying $1,200/month...more than his mortgage!
It’s ridiculous, but at least mentally deranged people can have their genitals cut off and can call themselves by a different sex...
Ed
Hell, we could have bought insurance coverage for people with that kind of diagnosis and probably come out cheaper. Hell, it's all our grandkids' money anyways, what's a couple more trillion? But putting everyone under this law had a purpose, and it's a little unseemly, in my opinion, for you to ignore that it had nothing to do with helping people like you.
That’s awful, Gail! No one should be treated like that...
Ed
I never claimed that in the slightest, don’t put words in my mouth!
I agreed with the prior posts that there was an evil agenda behind the whole thing, and the 20 million uninsured could have been covered without forcing everyone else into a collectivist nightmare...
Ed
Understood. My apologies.
“There has to be provisions made, in my opinion, that prevent people from dying from fixable illnesses simply because they couldn’t get coverage.”
I agree but blanket elimination of pre-existing conditions doesn’t work, obviously, right?
The idea of a national health coverage paid for through taxes, meaning we have no choice but to pay the premium, has been chosen by other countries.
There’s opposition to it in America. We know the advantages and disadvantages of this government-furnished medical care.
Maybe we can come up with a scheme that incorporates some of both approaches.
Year before last, my premium was slated to go up 60%. I switched to a plan with a high deductible and higher out of pocket costs and it was still about 10% higher. I have gotten the notice for the premium increase starting in 2016. It’s up almost 30% for the same high deductible, high out of pocket plan. I haven’t signed up for it yet. I’m going to explore some other options, including Christian plans.
Unbelievable!
It’s not the first time bad medical practices have happened to me, since they police their own, it does no good to complain. I did and got no where. Even wrote my State Senator on that one, as it left me with even more hearing loss than I had at the time.
0’Care has just made it worse as it has allowed more sadistic people into the medical field. More poorly trained techs.
Incredible! I’m sure sorry to hear about your travails.
Take care, I hope it gets better, soon!
Ed
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