How Is Obamacare Working Out for You?
 

Obamacare has been great for me. Under Obamacare my premium has practically doubled (it's gone from $210 a month up to $367 a month) and none of my doctors will take the insurance. I am still with Anthem Blue Cross but my plan was changed from a PPO to an EPO. None of my doctors take EPOs. I wish Obama would have told us that our premiums will practically double and we won't get to keep our doctors. The Affordable Care Act is one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the American people.

Switch to Cedars-Sinai. They are the absolute best and take Anthem EPO.

yay, virginia. that'll show obama, not expanding medicaid like that. if a few people (well, a few hundred thousand in that one state) have to do without...at least obama's getting his.
what, half the states voted not to expand...so guess who all is affected? all the people who still have coverage, and all the others who will continue to pay higher prices to pick up the slack.

That is sad.

That is funny you should mention that. I just found out about that yesterday (that Cedars is taking Anthem Blue Cross again). That is the only good news that I have gotten lately with regard to health insurance. Cedars stopped taking Anthem for the last year or two but just started taking it again.

That is good news in terms of emergencies if I ever need to go to the hospital. It is also good for certain specialists. They have some very good orthopedic surgeons there.

But in terms of my regular doctors that I have gone to for years, such as my internist, he is not taking the Anthem EPO. He always took the Anthem PPO.

While not as ideal as having your insurance cover him, often you can negotiate insurance prices for cash pay. Unless you have a very low deductible, your out of pocket for the new year would be that anyway.

How is this the fault of the ACA? Does Anthem no longer offer PPOs?

Huh, $367 a month. Back in 1998, as a healthy non-smoker in my 20s, making barely $30,000 a year I was paying $309 a month for an HMO. You'll forgive me for thinking you're getting a deal.

From the article:

"Congress also assumed that states would expand Medicaid eligibility for people like Hedges whose earnings were below the poverty level, Lee said. The ACA requires the federal government pay 100 percent of a state’s expanded Medicaid costs through 2016, and at least 90 percent of the cost thereafter.

But the Republican lawmakers in the Virginia General Assembly (along with legislatures in 21 other states) have refused to expand Medicaid coverage, even though it costs states nothing in the short term and will cost relatively little long term."

Ugh. That's what I really don't understand. These politicians won't expand Medicaid because why? If they think it'll cost them reelection, that indicates some pretty nasty things about the people they represent.

And, the article skimmed over that she has three kids but only receives child support for one. So she's got at least one, maybe two, deadbeat baby daddies out there.

The repubs in those states are more than willing to let people suffer if it means thumbing their nose at Obama. Every state that refused to expand medicaid is republican controlled.

That is correct. Anthem no longer offers the plan I had before. It didn't meet the ACA standards. I think I'm getting a terrible deal. I have a high deductible and Anthem never pays for anything. I don't think they've paid a single penny for any doctor's visits I've made for the last couple of years. I'm spending $4,500 a year for nothing. A couple of times I had some minor running injuries and I needed an MRI. I paid cash. It was much cheaper that way. The only way the insurance will help me is if I get some type of catastrophic illness. I guess the insurance also saves me some money on medication but I'm not on any medication. If I go for a yearly physical it will only save me money if I go with one of their doctors. They don't cover my doctor any more.

I have an Anthem PPO in CA. Deductables have been high with Anthem long before the ACA.

Back in the 1990s and early aughts, I had to switch doctors many times because of having to change insurance plans due to doctors not taking my insurance, and, factoring in inflation, I was paying more for my premiums then than you are. That is not a flaw of the ACA; it's a flaw of the health care being too expensive. I also had to frequently pay cash, like to my lady parts doctor, who I started seeing when I was completely uninsured and had to pay for everything out of pocket. I assure you, the problems you are facing predate the ACA.

So Anthem doesn't offer PPOs anymore? None at all? Or is it that they've raised the cost on the PPO you used to have and you just don't want to pay for it?

I did some more googling, to try to see how this is the fault of the ACA, and I'm just not seeing it. If this plan predated 2010, which is when the ACA passed, and then continued until the start of this year, that means it was one that was grandfathered in, in which case it was Anthem's choice to stop offering it because it wasn't profitable enough for them. As someone on the political right, I am sure you understand and support their need to make a profit off of you. Anthem could have chosen to offer the plan for as long as they were not raising your premiums a lot, or making severe changes to the plan. If they cancelled the plan now, in 2015, it has nothing to do with the ACA and everything to do with it not being profitable, which they could have chosen to do before ACA, too. Currently, grandfathered plans are being honored through 2017, unless your state has elected to enforce the original 2015 deadline, which is your state's choice, not the ACA's.

If you got this plan after 2010, then it has nothing to do with the ACA because the regulations were already in place, and so it's always complied with the ACA.

As to the premiums, that's because in California, unlike many other states, health insurance companies do not have to get rate increases approved by a government regulator. So, insurance companies in California can raise their fees to whatever they want them to be, and trust in the free market to sort out if they're charging too much. Again, as a right-side guy, I'm sure you support and endorse this business model.

In fact, Proposition 45, which was on California's ballot last year, asked voters to approve appointed a regulator who would have to approve increases in health insurance premiums, and it was voted down, 60 percent to 40. Which way did you vote on it, Rupert? (the health insurance industry spend many millions of dollars to get it voted down).

I know this is long-winded, and not as agreeable as durr Obamacare sux durr, but that's the way it goes when you take time to look into an issue.

Yes let's blame it on ACA meanwhile......

http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.co...e/art2914.html

:tro:

darn that obama!

From the article:

"While Cigna paid Hanway over $14 million to oversee the health coverage of 11.9 million people, Medicare's head, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) makes around $140,000 a year overseeing the health insurance coverage of 40 million people. Medicare doesn't have a CEO. It doesn't have stock options or golden parachutes either."

Wow. I'd like to see the stats explaining how really, truly, Cigna provides 140 times better care than Medicare.

What really is beautiful are the Health Insurance companies blaming ACA as the culprit for gouging the public while rewarding CEO's with obscene compensation packages. Equally as beautiful is that many of us can't see through that? Additionally Obama not calling them on it but I guess their money is as good as anyone else's. What a corrupt ****ing country this has become.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/201...-2008-campaign

:tro:

Do you know what Politifact.com called the biggest lie of the entire year? They called Obama's claim of "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" as the biggest lie of the year. There is nothing for you to defend. It was a huge lie. You can try to spin and twist it any way you like, but it's not going to work. It was a total lie.

The plan I had did not meet the requirements of the ACA, so Anthem had to cancel the plan.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-me...-plan-keep-it/

I can't talk about what I know regarding a particular state. Lets just say if they can keep it swept under the rug until 2017 it will be a miracle.

it's a huge problem that nothing has been done about pricing, with us continuing to have by far the most expensive health care....while being behind countries like cuba in delivery of health care-still 37th i think. been a while since i looked. it's too disheartening.
but their compensation is as obscene as with other corporations.

no, they could have fixed the plan, made it match the minimum requirements.

If they fix a plan, it is still a new plan. When a plan is changed, it gets a new title and a new ID number. That is basically what they did. They changed all their plans to fit the minimum requirements.

I have been with Anthem for well over 15 years. Everything was alright until the last 5-6 years. Back in 2005 I was paying around $250 a month. I had about a $2,500 deductible. Starting in about 2008, they started raising the premium pretty much every year. It went up to $300, then $350, then $410, then $470, and finally $520 in about 2011 or 2012. I finally called them and said, "This is ridiculous. You keep raising my premiums by crazy amounts. I can't afford $520 a month. Don't you have a cheap plan with a really high deductible?"

It turns out they did. They gave me a plan with a $8,800 deductible that was only $210 a month. I was thrilled. But after the ACA passed, they switched me to another plan that was $320 a month this past year. Now this year they raised it to $367 a month. I think this might be the first year that it is an EPO. I didn't even realize it was an EPO until I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and they told me that I have an EPO, not a PPO, and they don't take EPOs. Then I called my internist's office to ask them if they take EPOs. They said, "No." So now I don't have any doctors that take my insurance.

Well lucky for you, enrollment is still open and there ARE PPOs available.

I don't want to pay $600 a month. Does Anthem or any other company have a PPO that is affordable? I talked to Anthem on Wednesday and complained to them about my doctors not taking the EPO. The guy didn't mention anything to me about them having a PPO that I could switch to.

Switching to a PPO with a different company won't do me any good unless my doctors take the PPO. I know they take PPOs from Anthem. My internist's office told me that they take a company called Assurant. That could be an option but I don't know if I would want to switch to that if nobody else takes it. I don't know if Cedars takes Assurant.

Then don't get old so you don't need to visit specialists. Really that simple Rupe. I really want to pay $125 that I paid when I was 25 years old but that doesn't seem in the cards. At least now your Health Care Provider won't boot you to the curb when you actually need them to start paying which may be sooner than later for you Rupe. So your rates started going up 5-6 years ago in 2008? You need to break out your calculator Rupe that was 7 years ago and while you have your calculator out you need to Google the ACA timeline and who was president in 2008. ACA was the fall guy for Healthcare CEO's making boatloads of money. This chart and the timeline clearly shows who the WINNERS are and include those politicians from BOTH parties whom they donated to in order to keep up this false war on ACA to keep those too lazy or not bright enough to see through the charade.


http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=U...22linear%22%7D

There is this lovely thing called the internet that will reveal these answers to you. If I can do it, while still recovering from my accident and neurosurgery, surely you can. :zz:

I'm not claiming that the system was great before. For a while my rates were getting raised by 15-20% a year well before Obamacare. That should be illegal for them to raise a person's rates that dramatically. I was foolish at the time not to do my homework. I actually paid $520 a month for that final year of my old policy before finally calling Anthem and asking if they had something cheaper. The reason I didn't call them sooner was because I had always heard that Anthem's prices were very competitive and very reasonable and I just assumed that $520 a month was the going rate at the time. I was actually shocked when I found out I could get a policy with them for $210 a month.

Anyway, my whole point is not that the system was great before. My point was simply that that Obama totally mislead people about what was going to happen under ACA. He never said that rates would go way up in many states and that many people would not only not get to keep their doctors, they would also have to get new plans. I finally had a plan that I was happy with, that was only $210 a month and almost all my doctors were taking it. Now I have a plan that is $367 a month that none of my doctors take.

I'm not claiming that ACA is bad for everyone. It is actually very good for some people and there are certain things that I like about it. But I think it was totally wrong the way we were lied to about it. Obama should have told us the good and the bad and then let people decide whether they would support it or not. It would have never passed had he been totally honest about it.

As I said before, I don't think the old system was great. I think reform was needed. But I think the ACA went way too far and has had very negative consequences for a lot of people. It has obviously helped some people too.

Business or Life doesn't happen in a vacuum Rupe. It is fluid what I say TODAY based upon all the intelligence I have may not be valid 2 days from now but hey I get it you hate Obama.

They mislead people on purpose. The architect of Obamacare admitted it:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepa...eople-n1916605

By the way, you have it backwards with regard to my views about Obama. You think I criticize Obama's performance because I don't like him. It is the opposite. I don't like Obama because he does a poor job. I'm not stubborn with these types of things. For example, there was a woman running for president of my homeowner's association that I did not vote for. I absolutely did not want her to win. She ended up winning and I was very disappointed. I thought she would do a lousy job. Anyway, I ended up being pretty pleased with the job she did. She wasn't prefect but overall she was pretty good. I ended up voting for her in the next election. If someone does a good job, I'm going to give them credit, regardless of whether I voted for them and regardless of whether I had a negative opinion of them going in.

With regards to Obama and the ACA, I agree with you that there were some things that they didn't necessarily lie about. They just didn't foresee some of the things that would happen. But when you have a plan, you are supposed to be able to foresee obvious unintentional consequences. It's not as if the critics didn't predict these things. Most of the negative things that have happened as a result of ACA were not hard to foresee. It was incompetence on Obama's part to be so ignorant about what the consequences of his plan would be.

I agree with you that if you make a sound decision based on good intelligence that you had at the time you made the decision, then I'm not going to criticize you if you end up with a bad result. But with regard to Obama and the ACA, the whole thing was simply not well thought out, not to mention the parts that they intentionally mislead people about.

Just to refresh your memory, they intentionally lied. NBC News reported it:

"The Obama administration has known for at least three years that millions of Americans would not be able to keep their current health care plans, despite repeated promises to the contrary made by President Barack Obama, NBC News reports, citing sources “deeply involved” in Obamacare."

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...sed-it-anyway/

This isn't a lie like, "I didn't have sex with that woman". This is a major lie that was going have major implications on the lives of millions of Americans. How can anyone defend that?

I know how lucky i am in regards to insurance. $32 a month covers myself and my daughter.

to clarify...policies in effect when ACA was passed could be grandfathered in. so, if your insurance company opted to cancel, that's on your company, not obama.
if your plan wasn't offered til after the ACA was passed, then it could not be grandfathered obviously.

To clarify, Obama kept announcing that if you liked your policy, you could keep it. He kept announcing that even though he knew it wasn't true. He knew that millions of people were going to get cancellation notices.

To clarify about being grandfathered, "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."

sorry. you're blaming the wrong people.
i guess back in the day, you'd have been complaining when seat belts got forced into autos.
he didn't make them get rid of those policies, they opted to do so. so, i guess he should have said if you like your plan you can keep it as long as your health care co will keep it on the books.
it was anthems call, not obamas

First of all, that is not true. The Department of Health and Human Services made it so that if any significant part of an insurance policy was changed, even if it was just the deductible or co-pay, the policy would not be grandfathered. So right there we know millions of policies won't be grandfathered.

You are right that Obama should have said that there is a very good chance you will not be able to keep your plan because those plans will be cancelled. As the NBC investigation found, the Obama Administration knew that millions of people's policies would be cancelled, yet he kept saying in his speeches that you will be able to keep your policy.

I don't know what we're arguing about. Obama got "Lie of the Year" from Politifact over this. And NBC News did a big story about how Obama intentionally lied. Did you read the article? Maybe you missed this part:

"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.” "

"Robert Laszewski, a consultant with Health Policy and Strategy Associates, told NBC News that the administration repeatedly made a promise that officials knew couldn’t be honored."

no, you're right. health care was all just fine til obama came along and lied, and made those sweet, angelic health insurers change their oh so wonderful plans that covered everything.

Yes being taxed an extra 1% of my income so useless eaters can have subsidized coverage is great and fair.

Hail Obama and Arkansas democrats acting as independents.

And the Cuban Health Care system!!!

Finally, with the lifting of the travel embargo, some Americans might have access.

F#$k the Mayo and Cleveland Clinics.:wf