Star Member cali (96,322 posts)
The ACA: Unable to Meet the Deductible or the Doctor
Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.
But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.
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About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums. But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.
<snip>
Deductibles for the most popular health plans sold through the new marketplaces are higher than those commonly found in employer-sponsored health plans, according to Margaret A. Nowak, the research director of Breakaway Policy Strategies, a health care consulting company. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average deductible for individual coverage in employer-sponsored plans was $1,217 this year.
In comparison, the average deductible for a bronze plan on the exchange — the least expensive coverage — was $5,081 for an individual and $10,386 for a family, according to HealthPocket, a consulting firm. Silver plans, which were the most popular option this year, had average deductibles of $2,907 for an individual and $6,078 for a family.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/unable-to-meet-the-deductible-or-the-doctor.html?_r=0
Star Member hobbit709 (32,598 posts)
2. My housemate has that problem. A $6000 deductible when you make $9.75/hr
Means you don't have diddly squat left over pay check to paycheck.
Star Member Algernon Moncrieff (902 posts)
20. You are right, but you miss the point
OK, owing $6K is bad, but it's a lot better than owing $20K or $50K or $100K, which is what was happening before. Before the ACA was passed, there were countless cases of people with no coverage, no hope of paying, and they system passing on the billions in unpaid debt onto those who could pay, which has been a big component of the medical inflation spiral. Mitigating that condition should, long run, help med inflation.
Also, $6K won't drive even the poorest into bonafide bankruptcy. It's an amount that the courts would have worked out through a long term payment plan, and that the provider could comfortably eat, if need be.
nationalize the fed (674 posts)
35. No. Arresting single payer advocates means ARRESTING them. You don't remember this?
Not surprising, most Democrats don't. Or, they have deliberately "forgotten" it. Because it's hard to blame the "Rethugs" for lack of single payer when the lead Democrat in charge of the hearings has them ARRESTED.
as in ARRESTED. Police. Mug shot. ARRESTED. Jeezus. WTF? There is no hope when people deny reality.
Uploaded on May 5, 2009
On May 5, 2009, eight activists were arrested at a health care hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, in the Dirksen Office Building, Room 106. As soon as the Committee Chair, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), opened the proceedings, the activists began in turns to stand and to make comments, like: "Why isnt a single payer at the table?" They were immediately "escorted" out of the room by the Capitol Hill police and placed under arrest.
The demonstrators' press release underscored "how 22,000 people die in the U.S. every year due to a lack of health insurance." This is seven times the number of victims that perished in the 9/11 tragedy.
Dr. Margaret Flowers, one of the eight arrested, added in the press release: "Health insurance administrators are practicing medicine without a license. The result is the suffering and death of thousands of patients for the sake of private profit. The private insurance industry has a solid grip on patients, providers and legislators. It is time to stand up and declare that health care is a human right." The activists are supporting HR 676 and S 703. For background and any updates, see: http://www.healthcare-now.org and
http://singlepayeraction.org and http://md.pnhp.org and
http://www.prosperityagenda.us/ and http://freshaircleanpolitics.net.
Sorry to sound like a broken record.
:ownit:
They're going to disown it on the grounds that they supported single payer only. Ignoring the THOUSANDS of posts ridiculing people who would have trouble paying for anything.
Star Member hobbit709 (32,598 posts)
2. My housemate has that problem. A $6000 deductible when you make $9.75/hr
Means you don't have diddly squat left over pay check to paycheck.
The demonstrators' press release underscored "how 22,000 people die in the U.S. every year due to a lack of health insurance."
Look dummies... this abortion of a law was sold as affordable. As in Affordable Care Act. Remember that? Remember keep your plan, keep you doctor, premiums go down, etc? Remember all that? Turns out it was all a lie. We told you. That abortion of a law was created with one goal in mind: To make sure the winners outnumbered the losers. Well a funny thing happened on the way to obomacare nirvana... seems that mathematical reality intruded and it turns out that the losers now outnumber the winners. Looks like your roomie was one of them. Not a good idea if you want to stay in power. Can't blame it on the GOP either. Not one single GOP rep voted for it in the house and I don't think any GOP senator voted for the final version of it in the senate. You own this mess lock, stock and barrel and you cannot spin reality when it hits people's wallet no matter how hard your talking heads in the MSM try.
So true. Interesting that we haven't heard much about this year's enrollment that Obummer conveniently postponed until Nov. 15th.
Being lib means having a fine sense of selective acknowledgement.
Star Member Algernon Moncrieff (902 posts)
20. You are right, but you miss the point
OK, owing $6K is bad, but it's a lot better than owing $20K or $50K or $100K, which is what was happening before. Before the ACA was passed, there were countless cases of people with no coverage, no hope of paying, and they system passing on the billions in unpaid debt onto those who could pay, which has been a big component of the medical inflation spiral. Mitigating that condition should, long run, help med inflation.
Also, $6K won't drive even the poorest into bonafide bankruptcy. It's an amount that the courts would have worked out through a long term payment plan, and that the provider could comfortably eat, if need be.
OMG. :rotf: like they were going to pay that off :lmao:
Star Member Algernon Moncrieff (902 posts)
20. You are right, but you miss the point
About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums.
Can't blame it on the GOP either. Not one single GOP rep voted for it in the house and I don't think any GOP senator voted for the final version of it in the senate.
Nope, not a single Republican vote. Not one and it still passed. This was/is the argument I use with a couple of my lib friends. They cry because it wasn't what they wanted. I tell them that's their fault, they could have passed anything they wanted because they did it with ZERO Republican support.
They have no answer for that.
KC
Which is shocking when you consider that they all read the thing really carefully before voting on it.
I wonder why none of them ever sat down and said, SHIT, I have to pay 6 large before the G covers a penny? How is THAT "affordable" healthcare? NO ONE ON DU SAID THAT,. EVER. It was always, "shut up, you'll be insured and it's better coverage than what you had." Which is a lot like saying the leather in the Bentley 0loser requires you to buy is better than the leather in the Lexus you already couldn't afford to buy.
Maybe kpete and CalPig can help subsidize a little more?
I asked one of my lib friends about those huge deductibles the other day. I asked if he knew of we were going to be subsidizing those too and he said he would have to check and get back to me because he wasn't aware of any $6,000 deductibles.
It took him over a week to get back to me. He said that the big deductibles were only for the lowest of plans and that it should matter because that isn't what people were buying. LOL I told him that was what a large percentage of them were buying and it was because they couldn't afford the other plans. Since they couldn't afford the other plans AND they are being subsidized, HOW are they going to be able to use the plan?!
He still hasn't gotten back to me and that was months ago.
KC
Quote
The demonstrators' press release underscored "how 22,000 people die in the U.S. every year due to a lack of health insurance."
I would think that that figure is absolutely impossible to discern.
But then, I am not a (D)Marxist.
Also, $6K won't drive even the poorest into bonafide bankruptcy. It's an amount that the courts would have worked out through a long term payment plan, and that the provider could comfortably eat, if need be.
| Persons in family/household | Poverty guideline |
| 1 | $11,670 |
| 2 | 15,730 |
| 3 | 19,790 |
| 4 | 23,850 |
| 5 | 27,910 |
| 6 | 31,970 |
| 7 | 36,030 |
| 8 | 40,090 |
About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums.
What a great deal for them, except that the subsidy doesn't affect a dime of that crushing $6,000 deductible, it just reduces the monthly premiums.
What a great deal for them, except that the subsidy doesn't affect a dime of that crushing $6,000 deductible, it just reduces the monthly premiums.
I seem to recall them seeing value in two words: "I'm INSURED." As usual, that was all they looked at.
The DUmmies take the number of DUmmies that have died and assume that none of them had insurance because insurance isn't free. Then they extrapolate that number to 300 million plus for the US population, then they reach around and pull the number 22,000 out of their ass.
Some Employers Seek to Shift Employees to Medicaid
With companies set to face fines next year for not complying with the new mandate to offer health insurance, some are pursuing strategies like enrolling employees in Medicaid to avoid penalties and hold down costs.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/companies-try-to-escape-health-laws-penalties-1413938115
Gee, those two words and $6,000 is all you need to get that antibiotic, tetanus shot, or wound suturing, then!
:rotf:
UKstylequality health care is just around the corner.
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