More Obamacare insurers in Louisiana reject AIDS patients

[Splashdown]

(Reuters) - The only three insurance companies in Louisiana that sell healthcare policies under President Barack Obama's healthcare law throughout the state are rejecting payments from a federal program intended to help low-income HIV patients, advocacy groups said on Thursday.

The Louisiana Health Cooperative and Vantage Health Plan, two smaller insurers, made the move following a decision by the state's largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, late last year to reject the payments.

Lambda Legal, a non-profit group, filed a civil rights complaint about the two smaller carriers' action with the Obama administration on Thursday, following a similar complaint about Louisiana Blue last week.

"Additional carriers are jumping on the discrimination bandwagon," said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, which works to protect the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV. "The worst nightmare for people with HIV-AIDS is coming true in Louisiana: they're being turned away in what's become a race to the bottom by insurers."

The issue involves the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program which, for 23 years, has made grants to states, cities and nonprofit organizations to help low-income people with HIV purchase health insurance.

link

Maybe lawmakers SHOULD have read it before they foisted it upon us?

[Mr Mannn]

Well. So much for pre-existing conditions. Yet another lie.

[JohnnyReb]

It's because most of the HIV patients there are black.....racist insurance companies.

....and I'm sure Lambda Legal will make a lot of money off this.

[thundley4]

It's because most of the HIV patients there are black.....racist insurance companies.

....and I'm sure Lambda Legal will make a lot of money off this.

And the patients will still be screwed.

[DLR Pyro]

I'm guessing it won't be 24 hours before the left blames this on the GOP for being homophobic and insensitive.

[Wineslob]

Considering that this will raise the ire of the ghay lobby, this should interesting.

[Lacarnut]

What did these queer freaks think when they voted for Obama? Now they get to see what is in the bill, and it not going to be pretty. Higher costs and lesser care.

 

[obumazombie]

Getting a pre existing condition is paramount now.

[ExGeeEye]

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks.

[Splashdown]

I'm guessing it won't be 24 hours before the left blames this on the GOP for being homophobic and insensitive.

I posted this article on my FB page, and a lefty blamed the eeeeevil corporations.

[Ptarmigan]

Obamacare should be called Quixoticcare.

[Dori]

A woman (Obama voter) on FOX this morning said her insurance went from $57 a month to $378 a month.  She has lupus.  She had to get a weekend job to pay for the premium, has a huge deductible and can't get her lupus meds (no generics for lupus) on Obamacare.

No wonder medical centers don't want their patients watching FOX. 

[Carl]

It is a compliance issue,the regulations are so sweeping and vague that they were protecting themselves.

From the article...

The insurers told healthcare advocates that guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the lead Obamacare agency, prevented them from accepting third-party payments for the new health plans, even when the funds came from a government program.

That guidance, issued in November, was meant to prevent self-dealing or even fraud. "The worry was that a hospital, for instance, would sign up and pay (Obamacare) premiums for their uninsured patients," said law professor Mark Hall of Wake Forest University. If a hospital also steered patients toward an insurer that includes it in its network, the hospital would turn a charity patient into a paying one, something CMS regards as a form of prohibited self-dealing.

Last week, CMS said the ban on third-party payments "does not apply" to those made on behalf of Obamacare enrollees by "state and federal government programs or grantees (such as the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program)."

Over the weekend, CMS went further, said it "is considering amending the rules to require," and not merely allow, "issuers to accept these (Ryan White) payments."

On Thursday, Louisiana Blue nevertheless said it will stop honoring Ryan White and other third-party payments for premiums beginning March 1. The policy, it said, is "a safeguard against ... patient steering and other fraudulent activity," adding that it knows "from experience that there are people who want to game the system."

In essence they are just making up the rules as they go along.
This horror story of a clusterfuk is just starting to be written.

[Dori]

In essence they are just making up the rules as they go along.
This horror story of a clusterfuk is just starting to be written.

Something else I heard the other day.... if an employer has a low wage employee, but the employer provides insurance for that employee, (even if the employee pays part of it) that the employee can't get an exemption, even if he qualified for one had he signed up on Obamacare.

Some employers are telling their employees that they would be better off financially getting their insurance from Obamacare.

[thundley4]

Something else I heard the other day.... if an employer has a low wage employee, but the employer provides insurance for that employee, (even if the employee pays part of it) that the employee can't get an exemption, even if he qualified for one had he signed up on Obamacare.

Some employers are telling their employees that they would be better off financially getting their insurance from Obamacare.

It's possible the way the law was written for an employee to pay more for his employer provided insurance than they would have to pay on the exchanges where they might get a subsidy. The DUmmies believe it's a good thing for the taxpayers to subsidize their insurance rather than having to pay for it themselves.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024512997

[Lacarnut]

And the patients will still be screwed.

In most cases, screwing got these Aids perverts into this predicament. Low informed voters will find out that the Repubs were correct in predicting that the ACA death panels are alive and well.

[vesta111]

In most cases, screwing got these Aids perverts into this predicament. Low informed voters will find out that the Repubs were correct in predicting that the ACA death panels are alive and well.

Does this mean a new born with a heart defect has a precondition so no insurance ?

How can the abortion advocates say a pregnancy is NOT a precondition ?

Anytime one goes to the doctor, unless just a check up but ill in some manner, a precondition.

Oh yes this precondition can be twisted into the realm of the stuff that gives you nightmares.

Lacar, I care that any Aids victims, those over weight, who drink or smoke  or just live too long cannot get the same care as the rest of the population, they pay taxes also.

We no longer have a paupers wing in our hospitals.   Everyone wealthy or a street person should be treated the same, given the same care, respect and dignity.

People in jail or prison for unbelievable crimes are given proper care, Mass. will even give someone who wants to become another sex on the tax payers dime the drugs they need and an operation to boot. 

This precondition stuff will not go good for the healthy gays that may be considered a risk for getting the disease.   

Life insurance Company's have always had some kind of exemptions to escape paying out the full insurance claim.   Most refuse to pay out if a person commits  suicide with in 3 years of the policy.   Life expectancy is taken in to account, a person of 90 years with a one million dollar policy for example will leave their family tied up in court for years as the Insurance Company will insist that a person that age regardless of their paying for insurance for 80 years was long past their due date.   

Say you are shopping and Terrorists come in and kill you, check the small print on your policy, most state you will not be covered if you die due to an act of war, a civil uprising, or any number of other facts. 

Medical care cannot be treated the same, we are as a society judged on how we treat the very old, the very young and the in between helpless.

Aids is a disease that spreads to the non Gay community, Baby's are born with the disease.

Soon this will migrate to anyone with a non curable STD and there are plenty of them out there.

[Carl]

The issue was not about preconditions as far as a medical issue...it is a payment issue that cropped up due to no exclusion of preconditions.

My take is that they thought a person with no insurance could wait until needing hospitalization...take a broken ankle as an example.
The way the law is written a person could then take out insurance and be covered.
The fear was that a medical establishment would pay the premiums,provide the service and get the insurance reimbursements.
Then the patient would be turned loose,not pay premiums and go on as nothing happened.

This issue here is not AIDS but the fact that government was the third party payer in the case and to be certain of compliance the insurance companies said they could not accept that.

[SaintLouieWoman]

I believe the insurance companies have always had that 3rd party payer condition. Years ago a friend who was an insurance agent for a large company took pity on a woman who couldn't pay her premium that minute and really needed the insurance. My friend didn't think and offered to lend the woman the money, to be repaid within a week. Her company found out and she was fired.

The devil is always in the details. She was only trying to help her client, who was a nurse who had fallen on hard times. This agent was the kindest person I ever knew. She was in my greyhound group of friends and dogsat for me at times.

I think the purpose of the law was for eager sales reps/agents paying an initial small fee and getting sales credits. I knew of a copier rep at one company who paid a small initial fee for clients, signed them up to buy a copier, collected all the commissions and bonuses, then left the company after all the clients said that they either didn't know they had bought a copier or didn't want it.

[Lacarnut]

Does this mean a new born with a heart defect has a precondition so no insurance ?

How can the abortion advocates say a pregnancy is NOT a precondition ?

Anytime one goes to the doctor, unless just a check up but ill in some manner, a precondition.

Oh yes this precondition can be twisted into the realm of the stuff that gives you nightmares.

Lacar, I care that any Aids victims, those over weight, who drink or smoke  or just live too long cannot get the same care as the rest of the population, they pay taxes also.

We no longer have a paupers wing in our hospitals.   Everyone wealthy or a street person should be treated the same, given the same care, respect and dignity.

People in jail or prison for unbelievable crimes are given proper care, Mass. will even give someone who wants to become another sex on the tax payers dime the drugs they need and an operation to boot.  

This precondition stuff will not go good for the healthy gays that may be considered a risk for getting the disease.  

Life insurance Company's have always had some kind of exemptions to escape paying out the full insurance claim.   Most refuse to pay out if a person commits  suicide with in 3 years of the policy.   Life expectancy is taken in to account, a person of 90 years with a one million dollar policy for example will leave their family tied up in court for years as the Insurance Company will insist that a person that age regardless of their paying for insurance for 80 years was long past their due date.  

Say you are shopping and Terrorists come in and kill you, check the small print on your policy, most state you will not be covered if you die due to an act of war, a civil uprising, or any number of other facts.  

Medical care cannot be treated the same, we are as a society judged on how we treat the very old, the very young and the in between helpless.

Aids is a disease that spreads to the non Gay community, Baby's are born with the disease.

Soon this will migrate to anyone with a non curable STD and there are plenty of them out there.

As usual you can not stay on topic. You are all over the place. You need to preach to Obama and the Democraps for passing this f.....d up bill. BTW, those that have never worked a day in their lives, have 6 or 7 bastard children and the lazy should not have the same standing as someone that has paid Federal Income taxes and paid Health Care Premiums. I am all for helping the old and those that have fell on hard times and can not help themselves.

Let me back up a little with the Aids issue. I would estimate that over 90% have gotten the disease from screwing or shooting drugs up. Whose fault is that; certainly not mine. They made a choice and have to live with it and that includes the bastard babies.

You want to talk about society fine. Many years before LBJ, we had a country that individuals took responsibility for their actions. Here is another clue for a bleeding heart like you. My dad grew up in the depression. Got his leg cut off in an accident at 12 years of age. However, that did not stop him from selling papers on crutches. He could not go to high school because he could not afford to buy books cause his family was too poor; the money he made helped put food on the table for his 3 sisters. Now all of a sudden, everyone is a victim including the queers and liberals. This country needs to quit giving things to people that do not earn them. Do you understand?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[obumazombie]

Hope makes libs feel so good...