Posted on 10/11/2013 7:34:38 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)-- In the midst of major changes in health care, United HealthCare has sent thousands of pink slips to Connecticut doctors.
Termination letters went to physicians caring for Medicare patients.
Those letters were sent out to doctors caring for 'Medicare Advantage' patients.
It's a plan, marketed to Seniors to provide additional services through UnitedHealthCare.
A mix of primary care and specialty doctors are affected by it. And it comes at a questionable time.
Open enrollment for Medicare starts next Tuesday, and it's still not clear at this time as to which doctors are still in the United network....
(Excerpt) Read more at wtnh.com ...
United Health Care is the largest of the insurors I believe. AARP is in effect an agent, a seller of their policies.
AARP is not actually part of the company except as seller. You don’t need to belong to AARP to buy from United. In my case the United Medicare Advantage policy requires $0 payment to them. Medicare pays it all.
Rather than deal with AARP, you can deal with a non AARP United agent in your local area or better, you can go on line and study. To really understand it all it is in my view necessary to go to their (or any insuror’s) web site and pencil in hand sort through the various plans and options and note costs.
Years ago, I subscribed my parents that were then out of the country to the AARP medicare supplement because they had the best plan for the money. AARP is at base, an insurance agency. They are not an insuror.
How many of such services will ‘go underground’???
Socialist Security is also a Ponzi scheme, but we still have it after 75 years. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work.
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I understand your point but Social Security is a walk in the park compared to Obamacare, which is a major threat on two fronts to people’s lives: (1) high and likely increasing costs that will make it unaffordable to most and (2) massive deterioration in what is generally understood to be a well functioning health care system that delivers high quality medical care.
IMO Social Security and Obamacare are totally different programs in terms of their impact on people. At the risk of great over simplification, one is basically an annuity that provides supplemental income; the other makes Americans pay for the dismanteling of their own medical services.
A lot of our economy will be going “underground” soon with the socialists in charge. And the penalties if we are caught will likely be prison.
The Doctors are way ahead of you as are various hospitals.
It’s called Doc in a Box. You go, you pay.
"Single Payer" is Zer0's stated goal...SINGLE PROVIDER is his ultimate intention!
I mentioned this to a conservative buddy of mine who happens to be a GP, and he brought up a great point:
If the government is putting doctor's out of business by making insurance impossible to navigate, what makes you think that government would allow physicians to practice if they don't toe the government line?
Physician licenses would be invalidated faster than you could say Obamacare if they decided to go to a cash-only model. They may have the expertise and knowledge to perform surgery, but they would have to do it illegally according to the government.
Democrat-designed Holocaust, ya think?
two to one that letter you received was from AARP wraped in a fake medicare letterhead if so AARP can get into big trouble with medicare..
the dr’s network contract is being terminated by Unitedhealthcare for who knows what reasons. happens all the time, eithers the Dr’s terminate or the health plan does or united found a big clinic to go with for their AARP members
“McCain is a major problem that the Republican Party needs to deal with. He has done significant damage to the party brand, such as it is. Someone has to show him the exit door and tell him to join his pals on the other side of the isle. “
Politics is about money. McCain and his RINO collaborators have big money supporters who fund the campaigns and provide other perks (rides on corporate jets, lucrative speaking engagements at conferences, employment for family members). The power these politicians enjoy the product of the money they receive. Cut off the money and you eliminate the power.
Notice how in the age of Obama there is no longer any cry for campaign finance reform. Obama trashed the campaign finance system in 2008 by refusing federal matching funds, after he had maneuvered McCain into accepting matching funds by promising that if the Republican candidate accepted matching funds he would. By not accepting matching funds Obama could outspend McCain over 3 to 1. The mainstream media and the progressive organizationa pushing stricter campaign finance rules were silent. Had it been the 2004 campaign with Kerry taking matching funds and Bush going with unlimited private contributions, the media and the Democrats would have screamed and it would have been a major campaign issue. Shame on McCain in 2008 for not making it an issue.
True campaign finance reform would accommodate free speech as well as the need for transparency (i.e. allow the public to know who owns their politicians). It would be simple and easy to administer. Here’s a proposal:
1) No foreign contributions, period.
2) Any US citizen, corporation, or organization registered with the IRS (profit or non-profit) can give as much as it wishes to any politician or political organization.
3) The politician or political organization must post the name of the contributor, the address of the contributor, and the amount of the donation within 24 hours of receipt on a website accessible to the public for the lifetime of the politician or organization. Upon the death of the politician, or disbanding of the organization, the contributor records must be turned over to the National Archives for permanent access to the public.
4) All donations must be reported no matter how small. If a corporation gives the candidate’s wife a ride on a corporate jet, or a sign company provides yard signs at no cost, the monetary value of these in-kind contributions must also be reported.
5) From the moment a politician becomes an active candidate for office, he or she must post on on a public website all sources of income whether in money, gifts, or services. This includes income tax returns for the three years prior to declaring his/her candidacy.
6) All public and private organizations contributing money or in-kind services to politicians or political organizations must report all such contributions, at the time they are made, on the organization’s website or, if the organization doesn’t have a website, on a website created and administered by the FEC for the purpose of reporting these contributions. Whether the organization is Exxon, Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, or a corporate PAC, the public is entitled to know who the politicians representing them are indebted to.
We have reached the point in our history where our candidates are no longer prominent citizens in the community interested in representing their constituents. We now have hired hands representing monied special interests. While we should not be restricting the free speech of donors by restricting the amount of contributions, it is in the public interest for the voters to know who really owns the candidates they are choosing. It might be that if the voters knew who owned McCain, they would have chosen differently in the last primary.
You’ll see the best and brightest heading offshore, likely somewhere in the Caribbean, short plane ride from Florida.
Medical tourism will be a booming industry, and will create a lot of well paying jobs somewhere.
When Obama started his “you can keep....” campaign one of the Medicare Advantage programs sent out a letter to all their current members telling them that eventually there would be no more Advantage programs. They were forced to retract their letter. Now two years later what they predicted would happen is happening. Eventually all Medicare eligible people will not have any choice and will be forced into the standard Medicare program.
If you don’t sign up for Medicare when you are first eligible and try to sign up later, you can but you will pay a penalty and higher premium.
Wonder how many people over 65 who opted for Advantage programs are aware of any of this, particularly the fact that they are going to owe more to the Government.
All seniors who voted for 0bama please applaud and raise your AARP card
Seniors, as a group, voted AGAINST Zer0.....TWICE!!
don’t get too nostalgic - 2008 45% and 2012 44% voted for the One. that is a lot leaving the “group”
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