"If You Like Your Doctor, You Can..."--Whoops! Again!
Affordable Care is neither affordable nor consistent care for many people.
Stephanie Armour writes in the WSJ about the hundreds of thousands of "Affordable" Care Act consumers whose health plans are being discontinued for 2017.
Imagine the time suck and stress of having to find a new health plan and doctor -- especially if you have any sort of condition of any seriousness. Continuity of care? Bwa-ha-ha!
Also, prices are going up, mofos!
WASHINGTON--Hundreds of thousands of consumers whose health insurance plans are being discontinued for 2017 will get some flexibility when signing up for a new plan during the Affordable Care Act's open enrollment, a sign of continued turmoil in the exchange markets.In addition, the Obama administration on Monday acknowledged that monthly premiums on the exchange's benchmark silver plans will rise on average 25% before subsidies are factored in. Consumers in many areas will also have fewer plans to pick from.
...Individuals who lost coverage can attest to their situation and sign up as late as Dec. 31 and request coverage to begin on Jan. 1. If they miss that deadline, they may be able to wait until as late as March 1 to sign up for 2017 coverage under the special enrollment rules--although that would mean a lapse in coverage.
The flexibility is necessary because of the unprecedented number of consumers who are seeing their current health plans canceled as insurers curtail their exchange participation. It means many returning consumers could conceivably wait until the last minute to sign up--a scenario the Obama administration is trying to avoid--or even enroll weeks after the official end of the open enrollment season. The flexibility may delay ability to assess the success of sign-ups for 2017, and could create headaches for some insurers if they have to process an influx of applications just before the start of the year.
Major insurers such as United Health Group Inc., Humana Inc., and Aetna Inc. are withdrawing from some exchanges, and scores of consumers have gotten notices informing them their policies will be discontinued as a result. Premiums are also rising in many states by double digits, and other consumers are losing their coverage because smaller insurers have shut down.
How's this ACA thing working for people? Here's a WSJ commenter:
Andrew Warner
I've been paying for ACA and my insurance company has yet to provide me with a Primary care Physician since no one takes my insurance. It's funny because I'm paying for other people's health insurance but I cannot receive healthcare myself..
I agree with this guy:
William Seth
I truly believe that the Democrats intent all along was to so thoroughly screw the private insurance market as to render it inoperable to the point that it collapses and they get to ram the single-payer solution down our throats. Fingers crossed the Republicans hold the senate and house.
And here's what you're paying for and what you're actually getting:
james wright
I have the same doctor as I had before Obama care. The problem is I never get to see him. If I want an appointment with him I generally have to wait two months or more. Since this is not practical I "agree" to see a PA. There are three or four PAs that my doctor evidently supervises. I had a 8 am appointment and the PA walked in disheveled and with wet hair, looked like she just got out of the shower. Another time a PA walked into the appointment eating a doughnut.Bottom line is my insurance rates went up about 25% and when I'm sick I don't get to see a doctor I see a glorified nurse. I also now have the privilege to sit in a waiting room with a bunch of people who see the same providers I see, the only difference is I am paying my bill and their bill.
Most Obama voters won't look into their insurance options and be shocked until after the election.
I love nurses -- they are the people who really ease patients' suffering, day in and day out. However, there are times you just need to see a doctor and not a PA or a nurse.
Obamacare ruined my formerly affordable care, and after decades paying -- as a freelancer, no employer -- every month, myself for my care, I resent paying high prices (and a big deductible) to cover all the people who gambled and went without healthcare.
I got in in my 20s and paid into the system for years -- using very little care at all. Now my healthcare involves hoping I don't need any care -- and not getting the few doctor-ordered tests I need to, because they now come with a hefty deductible.
I bitterly resent how my healthcare -- which I, yes, still do have -- is now unaffordable to actually use.
Andrew Warner: "It's funny because I'm paying for other people's health insurance but I cannot receive healthcare myself."
Well duh. That's how it's supposed to work. It's the only way it will work.
There have to be a lot of people paying in who aren't getting anything out.
They accomplish that by:
- conscripting healthy people who don't need medical care;
- making it more difficult to access medical care, mostly by restricting supply, but eventually by directly restricting access;
- making deductibles so high that most people who need medical care end up paying the full cost themselves (on top of the cost of their premiums);
- financially penalizing people who don't participate (and making the penalties not so high that there won't be a significant number of people opting to go that route);
- subsidizing the system with tax and penalty money taken from people who don't get anything out of it.
If premiums are paid to the insurance companies, and penalties are paid to the government and used to subsidize the system, then the government has an incentive to not enforce the mandate too harshly while increasing the power of the IRS to collect the penalties.
Ken R at October 25, 2016 4:16 AM
Well, since the Dems forced (voted) that down your throat please explain why Republicans, Tea Party, and yes the Donald are, according to MSM, so EVIL.
Is the right to an abortion, or avoiding the responsibility to get an id for the very few that need one, or the maintaining of the status quo for Unions (esp. the Teacher's Unions) so important that you give up your ability to see the doctor of your choice (liar liar pants on fire)?
Your (Dems/Libs) choice has been made repeatedly so yada yada yada (see Harry Reid and Obama who have screwed the overall population so very badly).
Bob in Texas at October 25, 2016 4:19 AM
I think "Affordable Care Act" doesn't mean more affordable for you and me. I think it means more affordable for the giant insurance companies and giant healthcare companies who supported the passage of obamacare thinking that through mandate of government (i.e. force) they would be taking more money in and paying less out. And a whole lot of ordinary citizens favored it because they, too, thought "Affordable Care" applied to them, and by force of government they would be getting a lot more at the expense of someone else.
They made a greedy deal with the Demo... I mean... the Devil, and now they're getting screwed.
Ken R at October 25, 2016 4:30 AM
james wright: "I had a 8 am appointment and the PA walked in disheveled and with wet hair, looked like she just got out of the shower. Another time a PA walked into the appointment eating a doughnut."
This reflects an unprofessional attitude that I, as an unglorified nurse, think we'll have to tolerate a lot more of when there's a single payer system and/or single provider. And the fewer alternatives you have the more service providers you'll have to deal with who sincerely feel they have better things to do than deal with you. Better things like shop for a new handbag on Amazon, or engage in texting with their BFF about plans for the weekend.
Recently there was a 911 operator in the news who responded to hundreds of calls with, "Ain't nobody got time for this!" and hanging up.
Ken R at October 25, 2016 4:50 AM
Just an aside: I "glorify" nurses -- and did in the post!
My boyfriend had shoulder surgery at St. John's in Santa Monica, and when I called to get the last name of the wonderful nurse who took care of him in recovery so I could write her a thank you note, the nurse who I spoke to said that few people ever do that.
I find that incredible.
These are people who take care of you when you are at your most helpless -- basically, when you're like a big drunk baby in pain, after surgery. It is their job to do that -- they choose that: caring for people in deep need. This woman, Caitlin, was just amazing, as are so many nurses I've encountered when friends (Cathy Seipp, for example) have been seriously ill.
They really are the ones who ease patients' suffering.
Amy Alkon at October 25, 2016 5:44 AM
Taking away Congress' ability to exempt themselves from everything onerous would be a start.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/26/congresss-obamacare-exemption-itself-ok-judge-rule/
Bob in Texas at October 25, 2016 6:05 AM
You know there's someone running who will end the ACA, right?m
momof4 at October 25, 2016 6:21 AM
So the Weimar conditions are already setting in. Hyperinflation is occurring, with costs rising over 50% per year in some areas. Shortages and unofficial rationing are occurring, and official rationing is probably right around the corner. Insurers are taking all kinds of measures to recover losses. Some of these are official, in the form of premium, deductable, and co-pay increases.
Some of these measures are unofficial. They designate all but one or two doctors in a region as out-of-network. They aggressively challenge claims, to the point where some doctors give up and write off some claims. (And then those doctors quit accepting that insurance, which adds to the shortages.) They make it so difficult to file a claim that some doctors throw that job back on the patients, and the patients, lacking knowledge or experience on how to navigate the system, give up and pay out of pocket. They delete drugs from the formulary, to the point where for many conditions, there is no longer any formulary drug available that is effective for the condition. They drag their feet on paying claims.
Make no mistake: From the point of view of the ruling class, everything is going exactly according to plan.
Cousin Dave at October 25, 2016 6:54 AM
As long as people keep voting for the same ol' same ol', they'll continue to get the same ol', same ol'.
We've had socialised medicine in this country for a while. It's called the VA. Eventually, that's all we're going to have.
I R A Darth Aggie at October 25, 2016 6:58 AM
"There have to be a lot of people paying in who aren't getting anything out."
Nope. I get that you're describing the status quo, not advocating this yourself - but the stupidest notion about this is that anyone should pay for something they do not get.
The public has been totally confused from the beginning. "Insurance" is not to pay you - it is to pay doctors. And other associated professionals who treat you.
Instead, you got a system that pays countless thousands of people who do NOT treat you. Even when, in fact, you are not being treated, as our hostess points out.
STOP THIS.
Choose a system that lets you pay for yourself until you can't.
Radwaste at October 25, 2016 8:43 AM
I feel no pity for any of the "never Trump " crowd. He may be able to actually repeal and replace it. If Hillary gets in it will just get worse in so many ways.
BOO FUCKING HOO to anyone who votes Hillary or Johnson etc.
David H at October 25, 2016 10:39 AM
Love your stuff Amy but please stop conflating "insurance" and "healthcare". The former is supposed to be protection from ruinous costs resulting from receiving the latter, as you know. Not (just) pendantic: the conflation is how the D's were able to sell this horses**t law.
Sam at October 25, 2016 11:12 AM
Amy, after all you've written about Obamacare, I find it very strange that you would "crawl through broken glass" (your words) to vote for Mitt Romney, the man who brought the prototype for Obamacare to Massachusetts when he was governor there.
Rex Little at October 25, 2016 10:35 PM
And yet you are voting for Hillary, no?
The cognitive dissonance, it burns.
Chester White at October 26, 2016 6:22 AM
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