Posted on 06/22/2017 8:08:08 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Insurance companies are getting out of health care -- along with a lot of other lines of business -- as it has become increasingly difficult to make money on these types of policies.
Ten bucks says the Trump administration won't even do anything to challenge this move, especially if Congress can't get its act together and pass a bill that actually saves people money.
I've been saying for a couple of months now that this is looking more and more like the inevitable end game for ObamaCare.
“And your idea of relief is replacing one train wreck with another?”
Have you read the bill? Have you seen the combined bill?
“I believe nothing from the NY SLIMES that sheds a bad light on the Republicans unless verified by an outside reliable source.”
Thank You. No one on this thread has read the bill. No one knows what the final bill will be after the Senate and the House get together.
The purchase and use of anything catastrophic coverage insurance should stop.
use of anything BUT.
sorry for word drop.
Exactly. Which is why the Mississippi insurance company has zero incentive to sell a premium to someone in New York.
Insurance companies make money by controlling their costs. One way they do this is by establishing a network of providers - doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, etc. - with whom they have negotiated a set rate for their services. They pass this savings on to their customers in the form of lower deductibles, lower co-pays and the like if you use one of their network providers. They penalize you through higher deductibles, higher co-pays, and the like if you go out of network. So now say you as a New Yorker contact the Mississippi company and say you want to buy a policy. The Mississippi company has no network established in New York, so they have no way of controlling their costs. To establish a network isn't an inexpensive undertaking, so they aren't about to establish one for only one or two or three customers. The answer the Mississippi company will certainly give to your inquiry for coverage is, "Sorry, we don't do business in New York."
And even if they did take your business, every claim you made would be out of network and you would be paying a lot more than if you had gone with a local company. So it's lose/lose for both of you.
And that's why opening insurance sales across state lines will do nothing to reduce premium costs. It hasn't reduced costs in the three or four states that already allow it, it won't if forced on the other states nationwide.
Why don't you contact the insurance commissioners in Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wyoming and ask how their allowing the sale of insurance from other states to customers within their borders is working out? Last I heard, and this was in April, not a single insurer had chosen to take advantage of it.
There is no combined bill. There is the Senate Bill and the House Bill and both are available online. And I will stand by my opinion that Trumpcare is going to be as big a train wreck in its own way as Obamacare was.
“There is no combined bill.”
Precisely. We do not know what the final bill will look like.
I'm talking about a scenario where a state -- Wyoming, for example -- lets an insurance company that is already doing business in the state sell insurance products that do not meet ObamaCare's mandates. An example of this would be an insurance company that offers a plan to Wyoming residents that contains an annual cap of $1 million and a lifetime cap of $10 million. These caps are prohibited under ObamaCare, but having them in place would probably reduce premiums dramatically.
We know what it will likely be like since we know the House and Senate bill. The end result will not be much of a departure from those.
Can they not do that anyway?
I don't believe so. It was part of the House plan that allowed insurance companies to charge a higher premium if you allowed your coverage to lapse.
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