Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

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stlouie_lipp
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by stlouie_lipp »

lukethedrifter wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:
GeddyWrox wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:Just got a letter from my health insurance company informing me they will no longer be offering individual plans in my service area. Awesome. Can't wait to see how much this is going to cost me.
There's also this today:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-sign ... e-updates/
I hate 'em all so much.

How’s that working out for you?
The decision was made by my company back in January so it wasn't due to anything this goof did. I just hope something works.

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MuntyJay
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by MuntyJay »

Obamacare has pros and cons. I think that there are more pros. More important that there is no time limits on care, so insurance companies can no longer maintain a pre-set dollar limit on the coverage they provide their customers. It was a very important for me 'cause I had a chronic decease and I was often examined with one of these scary machines https://bimedis.com/search/search-items ... -equipment . Also one of the important moments is that the ACA promised to make prescription of drugs more affordable as the price on some drugs are enormously high. That's my point.

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stlouie_lipp
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by stlouie_lipp »

stlouie_lipp wrote:Just got a letter from my health insurance company informing me they will no longer be offering individual plans in my service area. Awesome. Can't wait to see how much this is going to cost me.
Open enrollment started today. I have one company that will provide individual plans....ONE. Guess what? The price went up by about $100/month. I guess that's what no competition leads to.

Oh, and the best part...the local hospital and clinic aren't "in-network". So not only will I lose my doctor, I will have to drive about 30 miles to see one.

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Hoot45
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by Hoot45 »

stlouie_lipp wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:Just got a letter from my health insurance company informing me they will no longer be offering individual plans in my service area. Awesome. Can't wait to see how much this is going to cost me.
Open enrollment started today. I have one company that will provide individual plans....ONE. Guess what? The price went up by about $100/month. I guess that's what no competition leads to.

Oh, and the best part...the local hospital and clinic aren't "in-network". So not only will I lose my doctor, I will have to drive about 30 miles to see one.
I need to enroll but have been afraid to look. This will be my fourth year on the exchanges. I've never been eligible for subsidies. Every year my premiums had actually gone down with at least comparable coverage. The coverage is not good but I have been happy with the plans because I use an HSA and consume almost no health care. This year, I get a letter from my current insurer that my premium is going way up and my coverage will be worse. Hopefully they have some competition so I can shop...

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Jocephus
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by Jocephus »

mine, thru the state of kansas is going to be about 25$ more. i dont like it but i'm sure its better than most. the state is being a little nefarious too, they're forcing everyone to re-enroll. normally, if you didn't change anything you'd just stay with your previous plan for the next cycle but not this year. you must actually go in, and re-select even if it is the same thing. and if you don't you get put into Plan N, i.e. the cheapest plan for the state. our enrollment was the month of oct and like, on 10/20, our boss forwarded a message to us that he got from HR and said they were really worried 'cause only about maybe, 35% of employees had made their selections. not sure what the final number was. and man, they do not make this [expletive] easy. they try to streamline everything but it just feels like i'm being scammed or not being told the truth on everything.

on another note, the irony and satire from this melts my soul, if i have one

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ghostrunner
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by ghostrunner »

stlouie_lipp wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:Just got a letter from my health insurance company informing me they will no longer be offering individual plans in my service area. Awesome. Can't wait to see how much this is going to cost me.
Open enrollment started today. I have one company that will provide individual plans....ONE. Guess what? The price went up by about $100/month. I guess that's what no competition leads to.

Oh, and the best part...the local hospital and clinic aren't "in-network". So not only will I lose my doctor, I will have to drive about 30 miles to see one.
There's a way we could fix this.

Diddy
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by Diddy »

Not sure if this is the place to put this or not but since the ACA has a big impact on rural hospitals I’ll add it. Today is my wife’s last day at our rural hospital. She was worried about the long term stability of the hospital and decided to get out when she had options. I think it was the day after she turned in her notice the hospital announced they had a deal in place for a lease with a bigger hospital. Could be a great deal. The bigger hospital thinks that there is a demand for more services then the hospital currently offers and has the resources to make it happen. The scary news came out this week that the hospital is nearly 5 years in debt and was going to close the doors Jan 1 has they not worked out the lease.

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pioneer98
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by pioneer98 »

Red-State Voters Take Medicaid Expansion Into Their Own Hands
Montana, Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska are all reliably Republican states, while Medicaid expansion, which is optional for states, is the product of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Thirty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, have opted in; Virginia is the latest state to do so, after several Republican legislators defected and joined Democrats to pass expansion. But even these red-state voters seem open to the growth of government-subsidized health care—Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal government and individual states—and polling suggests they just might endorse it. A June poll put Utahns’ support for expansion at 63 percent. In Idaho, a June poll found 66 percent support in favor.

These polls, if accurate, depict a voting population at odds with their states’ Republican legislative majorities. In each state, voters are preparing to sidestep officials who have either blocked Medicaid expansion entirely or passed it with significant restrictions. They therefore follow a pattern first established by voters in Maine, who passed Medicaid expansion by referendum in 2017 after the state’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, repeatedly vetoed expansion bills. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled last Thursday that LePage must implement the expansion his voters approved.

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by GeddyWrox »

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... 8-951-bill
"I thought I was dying," the 44-year-old father recalled. He called out to the only other person in the house, his oldest daughter, Eleanor, now 7. Using the voice-recognition feature on his phone, he texted his wife, who was at the store with their youngest, Emory, now 6. A neighbor rushed him to the nearby emergency room at St. David's Medical Center on April 2, 2017.

The ER doctors confirmed the damage to Calver's heart and admitted him to the hospital's cardiac unit. The next day, doctors implanted stents in his clogged "widow-maker" artery.

The heart attack was a shock for Calver, an avid swimmer who had competed in an Ironman triathlon just five months before.

Despite the surprise, Calver asked from his hospital bed whether his health insurance would cover all of this, a financial worry that accompanies nearly every American hospital stay. He was concerned because St. David's is out-of-network on his school district health plan. The hospital told him not to worry and that they would accept his insurance, Calver said.

The hospital charged $164,941 for his surgery and four days in the hospital. Aetna, which administers health benefits for the Austin Independent School District, paid the hospital $55,840, records show. Despite the difference of more than $100,000, with the hospital's prior assurance, Calver believed he would not bear much, if any, out-of-pocket payment for his life-threatening emergency and the surgery that saved him.

Then the bills came.

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G. Keenan
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Re: Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

Post by G. Keenan »

GeddyWrox wrote:https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... 8-951-bill
"I thought I was dying," the 44-year-old father recalled. He called out to the only other person in the house, his oldest daughter, Eleanor, now 7. Using the voice-recognition feature on his phone, he texted his wife, who was at the store with their youngest, Emory, now 6. A neighbor rushed him to the nearby emergency room at St. David's Medical Center on April 2, 2017.

The ER doctors confirmed the damage to Calver's heart and admitted him to the hospital's cardiac unit. The next day, doctors implanted stents in his clogged "widow-maker" artery.

The heart attack was a shock for Calver, an avid swimmer who had competed in an Ironman triathlon just five months before.

Despite the surprise, Calver asked from his hospital bed whether his health insurance would cover all of this, a financial worry that accompanies nearly every American hospital stay. He was concerned because St. David's is out-of-network on his school district health plan. The hospital told him not to worry and that they would accept his insurance, Calver said.

The hospital charged $164,941 for his surgery and four days in the hospital. Aetna, which administers health benefits for the Austin Independent School District, paid the hospital $55,840, records show. Despite the difference of more than $100,000, with the hospital's prior assurance, Calver believed he would not bear much, if any, out-of-pocket payment for his life-threatening emergency and the surgery that saved him.

Then the bills came.
LOL
Editor's note: Shortly after this story by Kaiser Health News and NPR was published and broadcast on Monday, St. David's said it was now willing to accept $782.29 to resolve the $108,951 balance because Drew Calver qualifies for its "financial assistance discount." In a statement, the hospital said this offer was contingent on Calver submitting his application for a discount based on his household finances. Calver disputed that he owes any additional money to St. David's and said this situation should have been resolved long before now.
Hospitals just make these bills up and hope they can trick patients and insurance companies into paying them. Our entire system of private insurance is total, complete BS and everyone knows it. You can have a full-time job with what you think is "great insurance" only to still get stuck with ridiculous bills. Nobody can be expected to navigate the insane landscape of medical billing and the minutia of insurance, least of all when they are sick and need treatment ASAP.

Medicare for all is the way to go.

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