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/