Posted on 05/15/2016 5:31:53 AM PDT by reaganaut1
AMY MOSES and her circle of self-employed small-business owners were supporters of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. They bought policies on the newly created New York State exchange. But when they called doctors and hospitals in Manhattan to schedule appointments, they were dismayed to be turned away again and again with a common refrain: “We don’t take Obamacare,” the umbrella epithet for the hundreds of plans offered through the president’s signature health legislation.
“Anyone who is on these plans knows it’s a two-tiered system,” said Ms. Moses, describing the emotional sting of those words to a successful entrepreneur.
“Anytime one of us needs a doctor,” she continued, “we send out an alert: ‘Does anyone have anyone on an exchange plan that does mammography or colonoscopy? Who takes our insurance?’ It’s really a problem.”
The goal of the Affordable Care Act, which took effect in 2013, was to provide insurance to tens of millions of uninsured or under-insured Americans, through online state and federal marketplaces offering an array of policies. By many measures, the law has been a success: The number of uninsured Americans has dropped by about half, with 20 million more people gaining coverage. It has also created a host of new policies for self-employed people like Ms. Moses, who previously had insurance but whose old plans were no longer offered.
Yet even as many beneficiaries acknowledge that they might not have insurance today without the law, there remains a strong undercurrent of discontent. Though their insurance cards look the same as everyone else’s — with names like Liberty and Freedom from insurers like Anthem or United Health — the plans are often very different from those provided to most Americans by their employers. Many say they feel as if they have become second-class patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don’t think they offer catastrophic plans past a certain age, or if they do they would not be affordable anyway.
I’m in the same boat as these people, pay a fortune for a monthly premium AND get no coverage, or decide to go without and risk a 6-figure hospital stay for a moderate illness, plus the insult of paying a non-coverage fine.
It’s an impossible system.
Wow.
Exactly. The people at the NYT know exactly where they intend this to go:
Many of the problems may well be the growing pains of a young, evolving system, which established only broad standards for A.C.A. plans and allowed insurers — a large majority of them for-profit — considerable leeway in designing their exact offerings. The specific requirements and policing mechanisms vary by state, and are still works in progress.
The "growing pains of a young, evolving system" is the tipoff. Anyone going from a $100 deductible to a $5000 deductible has lost all insurance coverage but catastrophic. Exactly as intended. You get the voters so deeply into debt (they've done this with student loans as well) that a federal solution is the only way out. Instant constituency. There may or may not be a warm place in Hell for these people but there's certainly a very warm place in politics.
That caught my attention too. To my surprise, the first meaning of the word is not the pejorative sense of it.
ep- i- thet
[ep-uh-thet]
noun
any word or phrase applied to a
person or thing to describe an actual
or attributed quality:
“Richard the Lion-Hearted” is an
epithet of Richard I.
Hmmm, okay, thanks
I can text my friend for her monthly costs for her individual policy through the largest insurer in TX. All I know is that her individual policy was cheaper than an Obamacare piece of garbage.
It has to do with the availability of doctors (there are fewer than before Obama) and the reimbursement that these plans pay. The deductibles are high, and doctors know they will never see any of their money if the patient is expected to pay the fist $1,000.
Why bother?
My doc will not take you if you have only Mass Health or only Medicare.
He has a staff of eight for a practice of three docs. They cannot survive on Medicare and Mass Health.
You hit the nail on the head. Most cannot afford insurance coverage that doesn’t bankrupt them when it is used. Conversely, the insurance coverage they can afford to purchase will bankrupt them if they attempt to use it. All most people are paying for is access to the insurance company’s network of contracted providers. That in and of itself is not worth the $1K or more a month for bare bones ‘coverage’.
They didn't ban the plans, but ACA penalties make them unattractive for many former buyers. The age cut off is 30 for utilizing catastrophic plans as long term insurance. However, if one qualifies for a hardship waiver they can purchase those plans without paying a penalty.
Just go down to the government clinic, wait for hours for a 15 minute visit with a physicians assistant, be denied referral to see a real doctor without months of waiting, find the drug or treatment you need isn’t covered by Obamacare or be told you are too old to be worthy of government care. However assisted suicide will be covered. For the elites red carpet treatment at the best medical centers with no waiting.
Agree. Most people I talk to just ignore it totally recognizing that it is on it’s last breaths.
Many thanks!
“The goal of the Affordable Care Act, which took effect in 2013, was to provide insurance to tens of millions of uninsured or under-insured Americans, through online state and federal marketplaces offering an array of policies.”
Bull.
You are most welcome.
We’ve been trying to find a lab our ACA insurance covers within the network. We got a list of 5 - 2 numbers were disconnected, one is an hour away, and the other 2 are only 45 minutes away.
That’s what we’re going to have to do.
Plus eat an apple a day...
Place your assets in an unbreakable trust. Or else the hospital and docs and government gets them.
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