Guest Post by
When it comes to Obamacare, the devil is in the details.
As the years go by, Americans are quickly recognizing that not only is Obamacare not helping them out, it’s actually crushing their paychecks to such an degree they’re finding it necessary to pursue alternatives. This has resulted in a mad dash into non-ACA compliant short-term health insurance plans, or the kind of plans Obamacare was specifically designed to replace.
Before we get into that, it’s important to understand just how unaffordable and useless Obamacare actually is for millions of Americans. First, let’s revisit a few excerpts from last month’s post, The Health Insurance Scam – “Coverage” Doesn’t Mean Affordability or Access:
The Affordable Care Act hasn’t just caused premiums to skyrocket across the country, out-of-pocket costs are also on the rise.
According to Freedom Partners, an Arlington, Va.-based pro free-market non-profit, 41 states are facing higher deductibles in 2016 – 17 of which saw a double-digit hike.
“Higher Obamacare deductibles increase, by hundreds of dollars, what families must pay out of pocket to access their health insurance,”Freedom Partners Senior Policy Adviser Nathan Nascimento said in a statement. “Instead of reducing costs, Obamacare regulations and mandates continue to drive up these costs and make quality care less accessible for hardworking families.”
For some additional insight, let’s turn to a New York Times article published last year titled, Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All but Useless:
WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials, urging people to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, have trumpeted the low premiums available on the law’s new marketplaces.
But for many consumers, the sticker shock is coming not on the front end, when they purchase the plans, but on the back end when they get sick: sky-high deductibles that are leaving some newly insured feeling nearly as vulnerable as they were before they had coverage.
“The deductible, $3,000 a year, makes it impossible to actually go to the doctor,” said David R. Reines, 60, of Jefferson Township, N.J., a former hardware salesman with chronic knee pain. “We have insurance, but can’t afford to use it.”
Brilliant, just brilliant. So what are consumers faced with either an unaffordable and unusable Obamacare plan, or no insurance at all doing? They’re shopping for non-ACA compliant short-term plans.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
A type of limited health coverage with features largely banned by the Affordable Care Act is flourishing, as some consumers grab onto an alternative they say is cheaper than conventional plans sold under the law.
Sales of short-term health insurance are up sharply since the health law’s major provisions took effect in 2014, according to insurance agencies. New sales figures show the temporary policies, traditionally sold to consumers who are trying to fill coverage gaps for a few months, have continued their surge recently—even though people who buy them face mounting financial penalties because the coverage doesn’t meet the ACA’s standards.
Robin Herman, the 34-year-old owner of a marketing firm in San Francisco, bought a short-term policy in December. The monthly cost of her short-term coverage, plus conventional ACA-compliant plans for her two children, is roughly one-quarter of what she would have paid for conventional health plans covering all three of them, she says.
“This is saving me a ton of money for the year,” she said, despite the penalty. Plans that comply with the health law’s rules cost more than her old pre-ACA policy and are “just not affordable,” she said.
“This is exactly the kind of coverage the ACA was designed to get rid of,” said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Thanks for playin’ America.
The short-term policies’ limits help keep premiums down. A survey by eHealth Inc. this year found that 51% of purchasers cited price as their reason, versus 39% who said they needed only temporary coverage.
EHealth said the number of people applying for short-term policies on its site last year was nearly 147,000, slightly down from 2014 but more than double the figure for 2013, before the ACA took full effect.
HealthMarkets Inc., a national insurance agency, said short-term sales in 2015 were about 150% higher than in 2013. GoHealth LLC, a major health-insurance site, saw a “substantial increase” in short-term policy sales in 2014, and again in 2015, said Michael Mahoney, a senior vice president.
In addition, if consumers develop health problems they can move to ACA plans that cover pre-existing conditions.
Right, so at the moment there appears to be little downside to buying the short-term plans since you can just swap into an Obamacare plan if you develop a serious condition down the road.
That holds a risk for the ACA’s insurance marketplaces. The short-term plans can siphon off healthy people who are needed to help make the ACA insurance business work. Those consumers then add to the costs of ACA plans if they buy coverage only when they have health needs. “You cause some real problems for the market,” said Timothy S. Jost, a professor at Washington and Lee University.
Obamacare is unraveling before our very eyes. Don’t say you weren’t warned…
The Health Insurance Scam – “Coverage” Doesn’t Mean Affordability or Access
ObamaFraud: GAO Study Finds Almost All Fake Applicants are Approved for Subsidized ObamaCare
The Obama Administration is Forcing Insurance Companies to Keep Quiet About ObamaCare Problems
Woman Touted as Obamacare Success Story is Now Kicked Off Obamacare
Humana Warns of “‘Adverse ObamaCare Enrollment Mix”
Computer Security Expert Claims he Hacked the ObamaCare Website in 4 Minutes
Serfs Up – Average Healthcare Premiums Have Soared 39%-56% Post Obamacare
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
Our 2 person aca approved plan
216 per week payment
2600 per person deductible
90% paid at 10400 out of pocket
Firstly, the individual deductible is meaningless. Til 5200 is paid, all they do is some sort of reduced negotiated price. From 5200 to 10400, I am not sure what they pay. Most recent orthopedist bill was 200 , and they pay 86.09, I pay 113.91 . When I hit 10400, they will start to cover 90% of the bills. See, I got fuckin seriously injured nov 6. So nothing I spent on this last year got covered. Now in 2016 I have spent thousands and they are still helping with less than half. At this point I could have cancelled the insurance and payed cash for my bills and I would be miles ahead. But they arent even done doing the mri’s and all the ct scans yet. They wont do more than one scan at a time. I need multiple types of scans with different dies. They have me doing pt and they dont even know the full extent of the injury. And I’m waiting, o joy, for the scan where they go up thru your femoral artery to your brain with dye. Now that there are this many people in this plan with limited doctors and like one specialist and only one of each of the three types of scanners, the wait time to get scheduled even for an appointment is extreme. It was six weeks after I got the referral before the neurologist even called to schedule me an appointment. So it took until febuary 16th from november 6th for them to finally discover I am losing blood flow to my brain which is why the headaches and passing out. Good thing its not important or life threatening. Maybe soon they can figure out what to do about it.
And that bitches and gentlemen is one of the reasons I screamed of the evils of .gov nosing into my healthcare. The more fuckers trying to get served by a reduced number of doctors, the more fucking ridiculous the wait times I would get. As soon as it went into effect I had to quit getting allergy shots because it became a ridiculous fucking nightmare, and now this.
And lets not even get into the coding nonsense that prevents them from talking about two things at once. I need a seperate visit to the same orthopedist on different days to discuss the shoulder injury, vs the the neck and herniated disc injury. The physical therapist can only work with the shoulder, not the neck. So its julie for the shoulder, then cathy for the neck on different days.
This backwards fuck ass city is syracuse ny. Bcbs ins. Sos ortho.
At least we know what’s in the bill now.
Government/politics: Best liars money can buy.
Apparently they should have been able to tell by smell alone that the bill was full of shit
Problem is, and all you GOPers will disagree, the “private” health insurance companies had to be in the loop in order for Obamacare to pass. Otherwise their lobbyists would have totally blocked it. These bloodsucking leeches are what needs to go.
A “medicare for all” single-payer plan will eventually come to pass here as it has in every other developed country in the world. No copays, no deductibles, just you, your doctor, and your national healthcare card.
Well Westcoaster, all those national plans work from piss poor to fair at best. I now live in New Zealand and they have what you are talking about and it is, for those who can’t afford or think it is their due to get it “free” from the govt and won’t pay anymore, fairly well implemented (which means it is marginal). This makes it a blessing compared to most other countries with these national plans. On the other hand, private pay is not against the law as well as private insurance. Guess what, if you care to pay yourself or have insurance to help then care is excellent with NO WAITING LINES/QUEUES. And, the prices are quite a bit less than in the U.S.
For example, I pay $250 per month for major medical and specialist care for myself and my wife, both in our later 50s. Deductibles are $1,000 per year each (tracked separately) and then the insurance pays 100%. Compare those criteria to the rice in the U.S.
I worked on and obtained my MPH (Master’s in Public Health) in the U.S. during the time ObamaCare was being rammed through. Needless to say quite a bit of discussion occurred. All the young, right out of undergraduate degree students thought it was a good idea. Me and the few other older students did not think so and thought it was a false flag, so to speak, to ultimately “force” the single payer plan you hope for so much. Do you really think single payer will be implemented well in the U.S.? My prediction is that the 90% plus who are forced on single payor will have close to the worst healthcare available in a “western” nation. OF course, all the exempt politicians and employees of crony corporations will be exempt… for a time until it comes their turn too.
Are you shitting me? The premiums are astronomical! Our ACA policy is almost 4 x what we were happily paying for a crappy Anthem policy.
The ACA policy is even crappier. We can’t afford use our health insurance and got ZERO use of it last year. This year the premiums are higher, deductibles are higher and out of pocket are higher.
Pretty soon we’ll be paying for policies that give nothing.
“A “medicare for all” single-payer plan will eventually come to pass here as it has in every other developed country in the world. No copays, no deductibles, just you, your doctor, and your national healthcare card.”
Add to that increasingly abysmal or deteriorating care and rationing of anything not required for immediate lifesaving needs (unless you are older where it does get rationed) and costs that are making some countries wonder how to continue affording it along with other basic government functions and you have the epitome of the single payer system.
But let me ask, can you show how a “medicare for all” with “No copays, no deductibles” would work financially using real math and realistic numbers without bankrupting and destroying the healthcare system the rich and poor alike of the world seek out for their advanced care because they can’t get it at home (the US system)?
Update: shit motherfuck. I just hit the thresh hold. Left side nerveblock. 12,122 bucks. Ho lee shit. Get the right side tomorrow. In and out in fifteen minutes to boot. Thats not a fix or a cure. Its for pain relief alone. I needed some relief, and I dont do opiates. Didnt even get the sedative. At least I know why they offer it.
Now imagine we go single payer. Imagine that we dont, because we cant, increase the number of doctors. So, thirty or forty million more people waiting to see the same inadequate number of doctors. Its april 13th. It took me from november 6th 2015 until april 13th 2016 to get this done. Believe me, it hurt right away. But just because you wont use opiates does not mean you get some manner of priority for care. More people equals more waiting. How well will single payer work in america? Well lets ask the VA, since they are in effect a single payer system. Hear that westcoaster? How well does the VA work? How many die while waiting for care? One is too many. I am still waiting, because there is a line, because too many people are in this pipeline, for an arterial catscan of my neck looking for arterial dissection. Which can cause a stroke if untreated. So fuck you westcoaster. Before obammy care my doctor had walk in hours. Now I cant use my doctor. And its not for lack of money or because I did not pay. Its because of you westcoaster and all the fucks like you.
Westcoaster
You should at least wiki the canadian single payer. 12% of gdp, and 6000 per capita, rounded up by 2 bucks. Cant say I call that a success. And it covers 70% of their expenses. So they are closing in on spending eight grand per person. Whether they use it or not. So, some folks are poor and dont pay. You think that doesnt raise the cost. Such flawed think lefty.
@Didius Julianus, john and von, etc.
We already have a single-payer system in place. It’s called “Medicare” and it has a highly favorable rating with Seniors. The VA is another issue totally and you can thank John Shitstain and his GOP cohorts for withholding funds to care for our veterans. It should be replaced by Medicare or single-payer.
As far as reports on single-payer in other countries, don’t you folks believe just a little bit, that the MSM is being salted by the private health insurance companies who want to “bend” the news so you’ll have a dis-favorable opinion on single-payer?
The other big issue is Big Pharma. Do you people realize Billy Tauzin’s last act as a Rep of Louisiana (prior to resigning and assuming the title of Big Pharma CEO) was to push through the “non negotiation” of drug prices for Medicare? A feature that’s costing us $50 Billion a year?
And to jon and von, fuck you back, I’m right and you’re wrong.
Coaster- I vote in advance that YOU are the first schmuck from TBP community to report in for your round of twenty vacs once this flaming turd goes 100% gooberment paid. Then we’ll take bets as to how long it is before you are gone. Also let’s say you have heart problems and they say, “Coaster…you need a by-pass operation but the waiting list is 9 months long”, yet again we are taking bets.
Good luck with your government non-healthcare.
Westie,
“As far as reports on single-payer in other countries, don’t you folks believe just a little bit, that the MSM is being salted by the private health insurance companies who want to “bend” the news so you’ll have a dis-favorable opinion on single-payer?”
The news is the news from those countries, the MSM here rarely mentions their healthcare problems.
I doubt that, say, British or German or Swedish news sources are being influenced by private American healthcare companies to influence us here since they are close to being unread by the majority of Americans.
Medicare allowed my mother to die. Declined to pay for a drug that might have saved her. The government made that decision not any one of us
Every doctor Ive been too has notice posted that they do NOT take Obamacare aka aca.Every!
Westcoaster says: A “medicare for all” single-payer plan will eventually come to pass here as it has in every other developed country in the world. No copays, no deductibles, just you, your doctor, and your national healthcare card.
———————-
…and a HUGE increase in your taxes.
Obamacare is another Cloward-Piven strategy tactic to overwhelm government resources, just like EBT cards, “lifeline” phones (that now include data plans), section 8 housing, etc.
http://www.teapartyconnect.com/102/the-cloward-piven-strategy-explained/
The Strategy was first elucidated in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation magazine by a pair of radical socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. David Horowitz summarizes it as:
The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
Cloward and Piven were inspired by radical organizer [and Hillary Clinton mentor] Saul Alinsky:
“Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules,” Alinsky wrote in his 1989 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system’s failure to “live up” to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist “rule book” with a socialist one. (Courtesy of Discover the Networks.org)
Newsmax rounds out the picture:
Their strategy to create political, financial, and social chaos that would result in revolution blended Alinsky concepts with their more aggressive efforts at bringing about a change in U.S. government. To achieve their revolutionary change, Cloward and Piven sought to use a cadre of aggressive organizers assisted by friendly news media to force a re-distribution of the nation’s wealth.
Washington/big pharma and the blood suckers,Marie Antoinette,the French Revolution.When will citizens say Enough! when Washington says let them eat cake!
Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It …
http://www.amazon.com › … › Graphic Novels
Amazon.com, Inc.
Jonathan Gruber shows how health care reform works in a way that everyone … Really, Jonathan Gruber’s childish comic-book style Democratic propaganda comic book
So leftcoaster, because a government agent from lousyanna fucked up drug prices, we should hand over healthcare to other people just like him who do the exact same job for a living? More government to fix the mistakes of government?
So….we’ve been Grubered, again. And some wonder why Trump is doing so well.
Well Westcoaster, I just reported first hand on New Zealand’s “free” national coverage and it is better than most. Still can line up plenty of horror stories for you.
Frankly, I think NO healthcare should be payable by the government or insurance and no one should interfere with the market at all. If i8t was truly a free market, we would have a few years of extreme duress as the system adjusted but we would settle out with affordable health care, Why> Because the pople would have to pay the bills and all the medical industrial complex would go broke if they did not get their costs ibn line for what people could afford. Take a look at prices in the 1930s and 1940s before notable insurance or government payments. While they were not cheap for working class folks, working class could pay. Google it for yourself, it was affordable back then for working class, and people making more could very easily afford it.
so basically, when you get sick enough to die, then you will, notice how “hospice” coverage is always included, they won’t pay for you to live but will for you to die, its much cheaper, remember the ending in soylent green, an injection and 20 minutes of peaceful tv..
Only a retard would think that someone should continuously be forced to give them something for nothing, and have it have no negative consequence. That asshat Gruber was right. A large portion of the public is freaking dumb. All you have to do is look at the fawning faces of all the fools at political rallies, no amount of truth will get these Kardashian-admiring fools to question things a little bit. They don’t know how.