Guest Post by Stilton Jarlsberg
Not long ago we reported on the absolutely nightmarish process of trying to get a new insurance policy through Healthcare.gov after Blue Cross Blue Shield killed our existing plan and – in a letter to the medically homeless – specifically blamed Obamacare.
But we eventually did get a crappy, overpriced HMO policy on Healthcare.gov, and on Monday our proof of insurance cards arrived. Which is when the trouble started.
The two cards (one for each of the senior Jarlsbergs) had the names of two different PCP physicians on them (in an HMO, your “PCP” is the alleged doctor who becomes the gateway to either allow or deny all other healthcare services). Despite the fact that we’d named another doctor during the application process – indeed, we were required to pick a doctor – the new physicians were complete strangers whose names indicated they “weren’t from around here,” nudge-nudge wink-wink.
A quick online search showed that both doctors had pretty dismal reputations. One of them only had office hours two days a week, and only for five hours each of those days. Good luck getting an appointment! The other doctor required a 45-minute drive and ran a combined “family practice and low-cost lasik surgery” center in a strip mall.
A panicked call to Blue Cross put us on hold for 50 minutes before ever speaking to a human. Finally, we were told that we could absolutely change our PCP doctors because the ones shown on our cards were “dummy doctors.”
Say what?!
“We can’t process the new applications unless there’s a PCP doctor, and so we just put in any doctor within driving distance,” said the helpful (honest!) woman on the phone.
“But what about the doctor I was required to choose on my application?”
“Healthcare.gov doesn’t share that information with the insurers.”
Let that sink in for a moment. You can’t get your HMO policy through Healthcare.gov without specifying the PCP physician you want, but afterwards the government discards that information and the only way for the insurers to meet their deadlines is to make assignments completely at random. This despite having multiple years and billions of dollars to design a system in which the information that is laboriously collected would actually be sent where it needs to go.
And then consider that these are the listmakers who can’t keep track of how many immigrants have overstayed their visas. Who can’t make meaningful terror watch lists. Who want to take away our second amendment rights based on new lists which will be compiled in secret and maintained by bureaucratic poltroons at best, and malicious political operatives at worst.
Sadly, if you liked you country…it may already be too late to keep it.
It is too late. Far too late.
The Democrats support it (Obamacare) and the Republicans do so also by failing to actually do anything other than ineffective token rhetoric about it.
In fact, its highly popular among the subsidized class, but maybe not so much among the outnumbered paying class.
The Republicans just gave it a more secure life by funding it in their budget deal with Obama along with Planned parenthood and other such obnoxious things).
People like to talk about a line item veto (not Constitutional) but never even seem to consider a line item budget with each item and program covered by one bill instead of lumped together, let the President explain why he vetoes each of them and shuts something down if he does so. That could be done today, it’s not something that can’t be done but sounds good to dissatisfied voters.
I got one of those high-deductible ($6,500) plans, which is the only way I could afford the monthly premiums, which are going up by 20% starting next year. I’ll be forking over $230 a month for coverage where, unless I get hit by a beer truck or get cancer, I have to pay for everything out of pocket anyway. Hence, I haven’t been to a doctor in about ten years. Unlike most people, I do keep enough money in a Health Savings Account to cover my deductible. (Most people couldn’t get their hands on $6,500 if they had to sell their sister.)
I keep going to the dentist for a couple of teeth cleanings a year, and I can use the HSA for that. I don’t take any prescription drugs. But yeah, eventually when I get old enough, I’ll start having health problems like all old people do, and then it’ll be a choice between getting, say, cataract surgery or buying groceries. I figure I’ll just die, at that point.
HSA’s backed by catastrophic care plans is the real answer, and can be done in a way that is Constitutional.
Which is why we hear no talk of them from places on high.
And why we’ll never see them in place of Obamacare.
Anonymous, I remember back in the 80’s and 90’s when health insurance had all these co-pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs, and the idea was that if people went to the doctor more often, they would get “preventive” care and this would avoid bigger problems down the road. It didn’t work that way, though. People just over-utilized it and drove up the costs.
I’ve encountered a number of old people (like my Grandma J, for example) who seem to enjoy the attention they get from going to the doctor. I’ve also known people in their 30’s who went to the doctor every time they caught a cold and wanted a prescription. Do people honestly need to go the doctor as much as they do? You get older and get some aches and pains, and let’s say your doctor tells you that you are starting to develop arthritis in your joints. Well then what? There’s no cure for arthritis. You essentially wasted a bunch of money to have a doctor to give your aches and pains a name. What’s the point?
About two years ago, I developed a couple of red, scaly patches on my skin. I did a bit of Googling, realized that what I had was psoriasis (one of my grandfathers had it too, and it is hereditary), so I found (online) a highly-rated cream to treat it and purchased it for about five bucks. It cleared up and I’ve been able to take care of it on my own ever since. Never had to go to a doctor.
People get these mammograms (smash your boobs in a vise) and colonoscopies (stick god-only-knows-what up your ass looking for “polyps”) and every other damn “test” they can think of, and who benefits? What would you do with the information anyway? We all know (or should know) that our bodies aren’t going to last forever.
Pirate Jo–
What did you buy for 5 bucks that worked?
It is called Psoriapalm and is made by PROcure. I am seeing it on Amazon for $13 but am pretty sure I got it for less than that. Drugstore.com has it for ten bucks.
But your chances of legally buying marijuana at a store near you is coming son!!! Priorities man…priorities!!!!!! Our country is fucked.
Don’t get me started on dealing with “Un-Covered California” and how they can’t seem to communicate with Healthnet, my provider. They’ve cancelled me twice for no good reason, now they can’t seem to get the billing straight. And they pulled that same crap doctor switch-a-roo on me as well. And not only is it not true “if you like your doctor-you can keep your doctor”, it’s more like, you have to buy the plan to see what doctor participates in it. I guess that trickled down from Nancy Pelosi.
hello anon.,
Republicans and Democrats are a false paradigm…
they play a weird version of good cop – bad cop,
and it is all just BS.
The biggest thing wrong with the affordable healthcare act is that it is not AFFORDABLE!
Free Shit is just that. SHIT.
That organic brain disorder I spoke of in the Judge thread is in clear view about four clicks north of this post
This insurance nightmare was conceived in Obamas sick mind and became law without one Republican vote! Obamacare is 100% Democrat! We have our local Democrat bitching about Democratic programs while planning on voting for more Democrats! I’m telling you it’s a form of mental retardation! These crazy bastards can preform some amazing mental gymnastics, at times its breath taking!
Pirate Jo–
You rightly ask “who benefits” from all the damn “tests they can think of” such as cancer screening tests.
Anyone who were to examine the mammogram data above and beyond the information of the mammogram business cartel (eg American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Komen), they’d also find that it is almost exclusively the big profiteers of the test (eg radiologists, oncologists, medical trade associations, breast cancer “charities” etc) who promote the mass use of the test and that most pro-mammogram “research” is conducted by people with massive vested interests tied to the mammogram industry.
Contrary to the official narrative (which is based on medical business-fabricated pro-mammogram “scientific” data), there is marginal, if any, reliable evidence that mammography reduces mortality from breast cancer in a significant way in any age bracket but a lot of solid evidence shows the procedure does provide more serious harm than serious benefit (read: Peter Gotzsche’s ‘Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy’ and Rolf Hefti’s ‘The Mammogram Myth’ – see synopsis at TheMammogramMyth dot com).
Most women are fooled by the misleading medical mantra that mammograms save lives simply because the public has been fed (“educated” or rather brainwashed) with a very one-sided biased pro-mammogram set of information circulated by the big business of mainstream medicine.
Because of this one-sided promotion and marketing of the test by the medical business, women have been obstructed from making an “informed choice” about its benefits and risks which have been inaccurately depicted by the medical industry, favoring their business interests.
Operating and reasoning based on this false body of information is the reason why very few women understand, for example, that a lot of breast cancer survivors are victims of harm instead of receivers of benefit. Therefore, almost all breast cancer “survivors” blindly repeat the official medical hype and nonsense.
In all honesty, it’s been cheaper to pay the penalty than to buy insurance. Eventually, the penalty will increase enough to force me to buy insurance. This process is all being done to force us into a single payer system of some sort that will have formal death panels and life value assessments. Your life will be valued at a certain amount and when your healthcare costs exceed that amount…. no more medical resources for you….. Or something equally draconian or soul crushing…. or all of the above. :0(