Posted on 10/18/2014 12:13:26 PM PDT by Hoodat
Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.
But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.
“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61. “I don’t have that money.”
About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums. But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.
Insurers must cover certain preventive services, like immunizations, cholesterol checks and screening for breast and colon cancer, at no cost to the consumer if the provider is in their network. But for other services and items, like prescription drugs, marketplace customers often have to meet their deductible before insurance starts to help. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Here’s a hint...healthcare isn’t free.
Obama are is a pathetic shell game. Fooling nobody
The company I work for is self-insured and I now have a $3,000 deductible for my insurance. They also made some other changes for 2015 that will mean AFLAC-type insurance that I will have to pay for.
Thanks, Bart, you stupid-pack-of-crap, pro-choice idiot.
Who could have guessed that this would turn out so badly (other than 55% of voters).
Don’t worry, the premiums go up next year....
Even big companies today effectively have what was called 20 years ago “catastrophic” insurance, except that you can get all kinds of preventive “wellness” crap that you may not need or want.
Meanwhile, you go to the doctor for one of those wellness checkups, and they will work extraordinarily hard to turn your low-profit wellness visit into a higher-profit regular visit.
Well, if it is any consolation to all the uninsured who are now insured with worthless, expensive policies, the rest of us who have paid the price for good insurance over the years can’t afford it anymore, and our policies are nothing compared to what we used to have. There are high copays and deductibles, and maximum payouts where there used to be none. For people on the economic margin, where millions of us reside, Obamacare and the fascist insurance tyrants it supports are killing us. We have carried the burden of insane markups in medical costs, and our backs are breaking.
“... insurers must cover certain preventive services...at no cost ...”
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The services are not provided “at no cost”.
Those costs are already calculated into the premium.
The services are pre-paid, whether you use them or not.
As long as it makes a difference in the life on one person seeking gender reassignment, it will all be worth it.
Every one of those people interviewed for this piece either were happy with their old TV or else they walked into Best Buy or Target and paid exactly what The store asked in terms of price for their new TV.
Medicine costs money. Doctors and hospitals these days work under huge burdens from the government. Hospitals are forced to treat illegals for free.
If your deductible is $3000 and your wife is struck with something serious after hours, it was your choice to take her to the ER. And $1000 was your bill, which means she probably didn’t have anything super serious, thank Gd. You can pay it off $100 a month if you wish.
You can have good health care or you can have free health care.
More like the 1990's when conservative think tanks (Heritage Foundation?) hatched the ideas behind RomneyCare that has morphed into Obamacare. We have met the enemy and he are us?
Your post expresses the real problem perfectly. A lot of us have always had “good” insurance, paid through the nose, and gotten the best care we could find. Now we can’t find good enough care and what we once could afford has become out of reach for all but movie stars.
The poor will always get close to free or free care. WE are the ones who lost our plan and lost our doctors. Thanks to the lying uncaring schmuck in the WH.
Thankfully, my company has its own wellness center that is run in conjunction with the regional hospital, so all the basics can be taken care of there at minimal cost ($10 co-pay). But I’m no spring chicken so out-of-ordinary ailments would not be good for me or my wallet.
So lets do the math: $4,200 per year in premiums, plus the $3,500 deductible and that equals $7,700 in medical expenses before Obamacare kicks in............That's almost 1/3 of his annual salary...............
I think we all know health care isn’t free but Obama care for some has quadrupled the cost of insurance and deductibles to the point people cannot afford to use their own insurance. And this hardship is being force on people who were just barely able to provide insurance for their families to start with while deadbeats get full coverage for everything.
All the more reason to get as many illegals into the US as soon as possible, make them full-fledged citizens, and start reaping the huge economic benefits of their hard work and taxes. They will help spread the costs of healthcare among more working people, lowering the premiums for everyone and leaving big smiles on all Americans’ faces. Healthcare will be focused on prevention and the cost will be much lower than it was before O-Care. And, not only that, but all the new immigrant (Democrats) will pay social security taxes and secure the retirement benefits for all Americans. /sarc off
[The preceding sarcastic statements are so utterly ridiculous they should induce vomiting, but despite what conservatives have trumpeted for years, these are the very arguments that politicians proffered regarding illegals, healthcare costs, and social security. Where are those politicians now? Do you hear these arguments anymore? Such arguments have led to our nation being at grave risk of extended economic failure and have put all Americans’ health, jobs, and retirement at greater risk than ever before]
Chin up, sweetie.
Pelosi and obama promised you INSURANCE and you got INSURANCE.
And someone else is paying for most of it! Now, no one ever said it would be good insurance beyond providing you basics. Like free birth control pills.
I’m betting you voted for it, too
Yes they will and that is why doctors have to charge so much..........We are paying for THEIR defaulting on their medical bills...........
Do I fault the doctors? Having three in my family and knowing the full story, NO, I do not..........
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