Off the top of my head, I was thinking about the several young people I know who received antibiotics (with at 3-4 refills) to treat acne. In some cases, if the antibiotic didn’t work, they got a prescription for another one and the old one (and all its refills) hasn’t expired. Several of these types of drugs are very similar to one another.
All I was trying to say was that a twentysomething can probably make it through their twenties without health insurance. Women can actually self-pay at a standalone birthing center and/or get temporary CMS if they’re pregnant. Lots of people do. If they get into a vehicle accident, hopefully one or both of the parties has adequate insurance to pay their medical bills.
Back in my day, and probably up until 1996 (when the welfare reform laws were enacted and CA’s “Healthy Families” came about), young people who were not minors and had jobs with no benefits didn’t typically have any health coverage. And most of us are still alive to talk about it.
I just think “Obamacare” coverage is overblown (too comprehensive) and too expensive for the masses. For example, most people will never use mental health coverage and a LOT of the people with HDHPs were happy with their coverage and PPO choices and could easily pay the deductibles and co-insurance if something major should happen to them. And segments of the population who can’t get pregnant (children, males and sterilized and older females) shouldn’t be charged in their premium to subsidize maternity benefits, IMO (since coverage in this area is now the law in CA).
“Obamacare” is having the effect of dismantling a “system” that, IMO, wasn’t really broken. It is only broken for the people who couldn’t get coverage. That segment could have been served with state risk pools already in place. A program with the risk pools could have been put in place which charges premiums based upon income (or a combination of assets and income). A lot of that segment is the self-employed, who I feel, could have paid a $600-$800 mo ~reasonable health premium (in light of their health condition) at the expense of vacations, consumer spending, newer cars, etc. A lot of these people HAVE the money every month for ~reasonable premiums but they want to spend it on something else instead. I don’t feel sorry for most of these folks because I’ve been a single mom the entire time I paid my own health premiums and know exactly what I had to do every month to keep them paid. We’ve all got the same problem.
The Medi-Cal/CMS segment was ALREADY GETTING healthcare services, mostly with the contracted providers for these state and county plans. Except for low hospital reimbursements, it wasn’t broken. No doctor who didn’t want to accept Medi-Cal patients has been forced to. I knew one person on CMS who had to wait 9-10 months for eye surgery but them’s the breaks when you’re “indigent.”
If a person is otherwise healthy now, i.e. achieved a remission from cancer, they shouldn’t be considered to have a “pre-existing” condition. For the most part, I agree that “pre-existing conditions” should not be considered in the underwriting process.
Sometimes, when an individual has a terminal illness or has (self-inflicted) cirrhosis, the result is death. Yeah, folks, that’s what happens. Whether that person is me, you or a longtime homeless person, the result is the same. I just feel, as a society, that we can’t (and shouldn’t) try to fix everyone’s medical problems on the backs of others who take personal responsibility for their health.
I’ve posted before here more than once that if I’m diagnosed with Stage 4 or “terminal” cancer, I’m going to accept it and enjoy whatever life I have remaining. It isn’t worth it to me to undergo treatment which might prolong life for two weeks or two months if the quality of that life will be very poor. At that point, I won’t even care if my taxpayer-supported health plan is willing to send me to clinical trials all over the place.
There comes a time when a terminal (or nearly terminal) patient has to realize they are just unlucky (have bad genes) or did it to themselves and gracefully accept their fate.
The next thing we’re going to hear is that “Obamacare” is going to pay $45K+ for gastric-bypass and lap-band surgery for *new* signups because this group refuses to try to lose weight on their own. Then we’ll have to hope they don’t have expensive post-surgical complications or won’t gain any of the weight back.
You may think the above paragraph sounds judgmental, but I know two people who have lost well over 100 lbs each ON THEIR OWN. And they both accept full responsibility for exactly how they gained it all. It can be done. Accepting full responsibility for one’s health is the key.
Back over nine years ago, I obtained my present health coverage for a $92 mo initial premium (which only lasted six months) through a lengthy underwriting procedure where I:
-had to provide all my medical records;
-had to sign a waiver stating that I understood I would have no maternity care;
-had to provide my family history
They then sent a local nurse to my home where she:
-looked closely at the condition of my skin, hair and eyes and made a report;
-took my blood pressure;
-listened to my heart and then took an EKG reading;
-moved my limbs around to determine my range of motion;
-took five vials of blood and wrapped it up in a special refrigerated box in front of me to mail it off to an east-coast lab;
-brought her own scale which she used to take my height and weight; and
-took several photos of me top to bottom in front, side and rear view.
It then took two more months for them decide if they wanted me and to confirm the premium that was quoted to me.
***
Now, here we are in 2013 and nothing’s changed, except that I’ve been lifting weights several times per week for 4.5 years and am in better shape. I haven’t used the plan anywhere near the degree of what I paid into it and now they are “dropping me” because it’s not profitable enough for them to do biz in CA anymore. I now pay them nearly 4X the premium I did when they first covered me. Most of my rate hikes were since “Obamacare” was announced in 2010 where our President, in trying to “sell” the PPACA to to the public, told the nation, “If you like your insurance plan, you can keep it.”
We all now know the outcome of that (infamous) statement.
I know I’m not alone and won’t be alone. I reread this thread and discovered Pigg Hatfield got a similar letter to my recent termination letter back in February from Pacificare (part of United Healthcare). This is really everyone’s problem now.
Since none of us can control the speed and direction of this train wreck, I’ve decided I’m going out with a bang. Since I may never be able to see my (renowned) doctors again, I’ve scheduled three (expensive) “preventative” exams/tests for 2013 and will schedule the fourth by the end of the week. At least I will have all these results by EOY (for just $50 out-of-pocket, folks) and KNOW the exact condition of my health before I subject myself to the watered-down vagaries of semi-socialized medicine for 65-80% more in monthly premium :=]
