California health insurance exchange still lacks doctor search tool

Los Angeles Times ^ | October 3, 2013 | By Chad Terhune

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Several days into enrollment, California's insurance exchange still has no answers for people wanting to know if their doctors are included in health plans being sold on the state-run market.

The issue is especially important because many insurers in California have sharply limited their number of doctors and hospitals to help hold down premiums in the exchange. That has fueled concerns that some patients may struggle to get the care they need.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

June 15, 2009: "no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.”

[Lurker]

Kafka couldn’t have imagined this.

[CheneyChick]

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.”

[jimbo123]

Here they are...

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Indeed!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"fix what’s broken and build on what works"

Or did he mean to say break what's fixed and work over everything that's built?

[VeniVidiVici]

June 15, 2009: "no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.”

Simple words for simple minds.

[Joe 6-pack]

A better caption for that pic would be, “There you are.”

[2ndDivisionVet]

[ArmstedFragg]

Once again, creating a system that doesn’t conform to the laws of reality is blowing up in their faces. The emphasis on cost savings has resulted in the insurers creating a subset of their normal product for exchange use. There’s a multitude of ways to cut back, eliminate your high utilization doctors from the plan, increase deductables, eliminate payments for out of plan services, etc. Each company has done something different, but they’re all doing it, and it all adds up to cost driven rationing in one form or another.

They tried to create a system that left out the cost variable, without understanding that everything else is related to it.

[LowTaxesEqualsProsperity]

This is overpriced shit care with high deductibles.

[RightGeek]

[grumpygresh]

Someone from the Ukraine or Belarus will create a great insurance plan with low premiums and deductibles and great doctors. Just enter your name, birthdate, SS#, credit card # and bank account info.

[ArmstedFragg]

The price reflects the pool they’re being required to insure. There’s no free rides, if you stick a bunch of million dollar a year claims in the pool, the price has to be raised to cover them. Same is true with deductables and, to a lesser degree, quality of care. Essentially we’re getting government operated medicine while the government is getting someone else to blame it on.