What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about

[Freeper]

Star Member kpete (40,758 posts)

What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about


JOSH MARSHALL – OCTOBER 25, 2013, 2:47 PM EDT13696
What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about from TPM Reader JL ...
.................

About ten years ago when I launched my own business I arranged to do enough part-time work for my old employer to stay on their healthplan (on my nickel). A few years later I developed kidney cancer.
I had the offending kidney removed (at which time I was introduced to the expression "the cut is the cure") and the prognosis is extremely good. At that point of course, in spite of a great prognosis I was in pre-existing conditions land. With two young kids I deliberately kept the part-time arrangement going long after I had any interest and long after frankly it made much sense for them. But the time for me and cost to them was very modest, so it kept going.

Finally, though a couple years ago, the part-time thing finally ran its course. The good news is the company was willing to just keep me on the healthplan indefinitely (again on my nickel). That was great but a bit over a year ago I found out that I have Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) (same thing Phil Mickelson has). Thanks to having one kidney, I was not a candidate for most of the drugs used to treat PsA. Within a matter of months it was clear I needed to take TNF blockers. These are extremely costly "biologics." I knew there was a potential problem with insurance but the risk of untreated PsA is severe, permanent joint damage, so I forged ahead.

Well, within a few days of authorizing me for Enbrel, I got booted off of the healthplan and put onto COBRA. The COBRA will run out on this spring. There is absolutely no way I can get insurance outside of the exchanges, and I've got 11 years before I'm eligible for Medicare. As you can imagine I was EXTREMELY interested in the launch of Obamacare. I went into the Massachusetts exchange the morning of October 1st. It definitely had some problems but I was at least able to do what I wanted, which was to look at options that would allow me to keep my current providers and determine the cost. Although it took a bit of doing to get there, I was absolutely thrilled with the end result. I'll be able to get very good coverage, keep my doctors, and spend a lot less money. I haven't bothered to go back and actually enroll because I've got some time. But it sure put my mind at ease.

................

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/real-lives--2

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023922930

Star Member ScreamingMeemie (61,913 posts)
1. What it's really about for me: being able to purchase affordable insurance

for the first time in 4 years. Being able to provide access to healthcare for my son.

Just wait until you try to use it, you will whine about the deductible and the co pay.

Star Member LiberalEsto (18,002 posts)
2. I'm hoping to stop shelling out huge monthly payments

for my 27-year-old, barely employed daughter. She is a part time waitress whose hours were recently cut down to two short shifts a week. She's got anxiety disorder that makes it very hard to work or attend classes. Thanks to the early part of the ACA, we kept her on my husband's insurance until she turned 26 a year ago. Since then we've been paying for her COBRA coverage because of her pre-existing anxiety problems, but it is expensive. I haven't looked into the Maryland exchanges yet, but hope to start looking soon to see if we can bring down the cost of coverage.

Another DUmmy offspring is a failure at life, imagine that.

[USA4ME]

ScreamingMeemie

What it's really about for me: being able to purchase affordable insurance for the first time in 4 years. Being able to provide access to healthcare for my son.

Except you're lying. You aren't fully purchasing insurance. You have to have assistance via other people's money.

Moocher.

.

[Freeper]

Except you're lying. You aren't fully purchasing insurance. You have to have assistance via other people's money.

Moocher.

.

Don't forget food stamps and section 8 housing is a DUmmy's version of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

The smartest people to ever exist can not figure out ways to support themselves they need the taxpayer to help them, and the democrats are happy to assist them.

[Chris_]

Except you're lying. You aren't fully purchasing insurance. You have to have assistance via other people's money.

Moocher.

.

They're like children.  The end result is what matters to them, not how they arrived at that point. 

[Big Dog]

Star Member kpete (40,758 posts)

What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about


JOSH MARSHALL – OCTOBER 25, 2013, 2:47 PM EDT13696
What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about from TPM Reader JL ...
.................

About ten years ago when I launched my own business I arranged to do enough part-time work for my old employer to stay on their healthplan (on my nickel).

Bullshit. The employer paid the majority of the premium.

I went into the Massachusetts exchange the morning of October 1st. It definitely had some problems but I was at least able to do what I wanted, which was to look at options that would allow me to keep my current providers and determine the cost.

Apparently, this guy was the only person in the entire United States who was able to successfully complete the process on October 1...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/real-lives--2

... or was he? The source is Talking Points Memo, whose name says it all. That's right down there with William Rivers Riefenstahl's TruthOut (whose motto is "Keeping the Truth Out since 2000") and the East County PennySaver and Proletariat Voice as reliable sources.

[marv]

Josh, the TPM "editor", needs to invest in a spell checker; or change careers. No wonder he needs somebody else to pick up his health insurance tab.

[98ZJUSMC]

Star Member kpete (40,758 posts)

What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about


JOSH MARSHALL – OCTOBER 25, 2013, 2:47 PM EDT13696
What 'Health Insurance Reform' and 'Obamacare' is really about from TPM Reader JL ...
.................

About ten years ago when I launched my own business I arranged to do enough part-time work for my old employer to stay on their healthplan (on my nickel).

Bullshit. The employer paid the majority of the premium.

Exactly right.  Evidently,  the rest of the planet is stupid.

I went into the Massachusetts exchange the morning of October 1st. It definitely had some problems but I was at least able to do what I wanted, which was to look at options that would allow me to keep my current providers and determine the cost.

..and you're as full of shit as a Christmas Goose.  Talking Points Memo.

LMAO.

[Carl]

It definitely had some problems but I was at least able to do what I wanted, which was to look at options that would allow me to keep my current providers and determine the cost. Although it took a bit of doing to get there, I was absolutely thrilled with the end result. I'll be able to get very good coverage, keep my doctors, and spend a lot less money. I haven't bothered to go back and actually enroll because I've got some time. But it sure put my mind at ease.

Why the **** would you not enroll in such a gravy train...oh yeah,because it is all a pathetic lie.

[Mary Ann]

I don't believe this. "Pre-existing" would be defined in an insurance policy, and the company I worked for (many years ago) defined it as something for which you had received treatment within a specified period of time, two years, IIRC. If his kidney cancer was 10 years ago, it would no longer be considered pre-existing.

[Maxiest]

Quote
Star Member ScreamingMeemie (61,913 posts)
1. What it's really about for me: being able to purchase affordable insurance

for the first time in 4 years. Being able to provide access to healthcare for my son.

Just wait until you try to use it, you will whine about the deductible and the co pay.

BINGO!!!!  As I stated in another thread I don't think these idiots realize they will have to actually pay money when they visit a doctor.  I don't think most of them are smart enough to understand deductibles and co-pays and I can't wait until they threads start hitting DU about these people being turned away because they didn't haven the money to pay the Co-pay.

[jukin]

Take note DUmbasses, TalkingPointMeme KNOWS how to write a good bouncy.

One question this make believe person is in MA. I thought that ROmney Care was there and dealt with all that? Also If you keep continually being insured, you don't have a preexisting condition. Only when you are uninsured and then try to get insurance is it called a preexisting condition. Now, you will pay premiums commensurate with your condition but you will not be denied coverage.

In the end run it really does not matter how many healthy people will have their premiums, deductibles, and co-pays doubled or tripled as long as one freeloader can get stuff for free.