Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes

[tpeichel]

That Per-Month chart above is pure EXTORTION, no if's, and's or buts. And to think that the Platinum coverage still leaves a 20% coverage shortfall for every individual, and is NOT comprehensive.

Bloody extortion.

It is for some people. For others with chronic conditions that may have medical bills that cost $5000-$10,000 per month, this is wonderful. The government is requiring companies that participate in the exchange to cover everybody. If they don't charge more to the people who use less healthcare, how can they afford to cover sick people who use vastly more than they are paying for?

[centrehice]

Dollar for dollar. That is where you have to start. If you don't it all becomes extortion. Your problem is that you have lived nowhere else and believe that this acceptable behaviour, when it's not.

Itemized billing for hospitals is no different than a la carte at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. You cannot go in thinking that you can have a steak, potatoes and vegetables for $50.00 when it really comes to $100.00

Money cannot be made on items used. a 2 cent tongue depressor cannot be billed out by hospitals for $2.50. on a patient's bill.

That is why I call Bullchit on all US Health Care. It's legal shylocking.

[tpeichel]

Dollar for dollar. That is where you have to start. If you don't it all becomes extortion. Your problem is that you have lived nowhere else and believe that this acceptable behaviour, when it's not.

Itemized billing for hospitals is no different than a la carte at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. You cannot go in thinking that you can have a steak, potatoes and vegetables for $50.00 when it really comes to $100.00

Money cannot be made on items used. a 2 cent tongue depressor cannot be billed out by hospitals for $2.50. on a patient's bill.

That is why I call Bullchit on all US Health Care. It legal shylocking.

I absolutely don't accept cost-shifting, but it is government regulations that allow the legal shylocking of which you speak. If the government forced McDonalds to give free food to people that couldn't pay, they would have to overcharge the paying customers to make up the difference. Healthcare is no different except it is a much more expensive product.

[centrehice]

The government got itself into hot water for not paying dollar for dollar. Yes, they forced the hospitals into extortion, but 2 wrongs do not make one right.

Hospitals are still in the wrong. Health Care can not be mandated in a rich country for profit by profit. It simply cannot be mandated this way for residents to be able to afford care.

Now if the Federal and State Government mandated that hospitals can only be Health Care Facilities instead of Profit Facilities, then you would have a chance.

Until the USA decides that Post-Secondary Education, and Health Care cannot be driven by profit, your country will walk with a broken leg and inability to rationalize it's way out.

This country will crash and burn eventually from these two behaviours.

[tpeichel]

Americans think about their healthcare different than Canadians. It is very important if a specific doctor is in your network or out of your network. Most Americans would feel as if their plan was no longer offered if the doctors they were used to visiting were removed from their network. To them it would be a different plan.

Here are some details from NY where there are no plans on the exchange with out of network coverage.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/23/out-of-...amacare-plans/
A Manhattan businessman who signed up at healthbenefitexchange.ny.gov said he was stunned to learn that not one insurer offered out-of-network coverage — even in the top-tier Platinum plans that run more than $600 a month.

“This is absolutely terrible,” said the small-business owner, who ™requested anonymity out of fear of retribution. “This is an absolute fraud. Basically if you want to go out of network, you pay through the nose. You’re screwed.”

New York officials and insurance companies confirmed they’re not providing out-of-network coverage.

And they acknowledged that if patients use a doctor or facility outside the plan’s network of health-care providers, they’re on the hook for the entire tab.

They defended the decision as making affordability — not choice — the priority.

“We do not offer out-of-network coverage for individual plans on the New York marketplace or for individual plans of exchange,” said United HealthCare spokeswoman Maria Gordon Shydlo.

“We offer a broad network of providers for members to choose from and if they decide to go out of network, they would pay the billed charges,” she added.

[jlzinck]

I have a friend who is the biggest Obama Supporter among all the people I know.

He got his cancellation notice 2 weeks ago because his plan would no longer be offered.

He went on a rant with more profanity that I use in a month, and that's a lot.

Married with three children. Makes a good living.

His premiums for the coverage closest to what he currently has are going up 37%. His maximum out of pocket expenses are going up 4X and his dental and eye care coverages are being dropped. He has yet to figure in the additional cost of those to replace.

Is this the worst? No. Is it a representation of everyone? No. But someone is paying for the "free" and subsidized covereage.

[tpeichel]

In Florida...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...re_764837.html
"For many, their introduction to the Affordable Care Act has been negative: A broken website, and now cancellation notices from insurance companies, followed by sticker shock over higher prices for the new plans," says a CBS reporter. "It's directly at odds from repeated assurances from the president."

Obama is quoted as saying, "If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you."

"But people across the country are finding out they're losing their existing insurance plans under Obamacare," says the reporter. "In Florida, at least 300,000 people are losing coverage."

"When I got this bill, I was outraged," CBS quotes a 56-year-old Florida resident who got dropped from her health care plan.

Her new plan will be 10 times higher than what she's paying now, jumping from $54 a month to $591.

"What I have right now is what I'm happy with, and I just want to know why I can't keep what I have," says the woman. "Why do I have to be forced into something else?"

[tpeichel]

$600/year versus $6,000/year. I'm not sure what kind of healthcare she could possibly be getting for $600/year, but that is still a crazy rate hike.

[tpeichel]

Trick or treat? Remember when Pelosi said we needed to pass the ACA to find out what was inside? Trick.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/28/21213547-obama-admin-knew-millions-could-not-keep-their-health-insurance?lite

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”


None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.

Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”
That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.
Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” was still saying in 2012, “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”

[shrewsbury]

For others with chronic conditions that may have medical bills that cost $5000-$10,000 per month, this is wonderful. The government is requiring companies that participate in the exchange to cover everybody. If they don't charge more to the people who use less healthcare, how can they afford to cover sick people who use vastly more than they are paying for?

the way to pay for it is to clean up government spending, create more jobs, and use the taxes we already pay to help those in need. Those not in need can buy their own.