[quote=flyer] . . . I’m sorry you’re having to deal with the health care situation you’ve described, and I know Medicare & SS still seem far away for those of us still in our 50’s, but we’ll all get there eventually.[/quote]Yeah, I seriously wish I could be a few years older now so I could qualify for Medicare. A nationwide PPO for MC Part B and D (w/brand name drugs, etc) currently costs less than $400 month in our region! In my mind, implementing the ACA was a absolute fiasco and Covered CA is beyond incompetent. It’s unbelievable and wastes so many hours of my time. For the first time in my life, I am made to feel like I’m on “public aid.” And my “subsidy” only covers a little over a third of my monthly premium. I would rather not have it at all and have my old plan back. It would have cost me 3X the monthly premium of my pre-ACA plan to renew my Covered CA plan for 2016 (in it’s 3rd year in existence)! Hence, I had to downgrade a metal level to keep last year’s premium. Meanwhile, as a result of low reimbursements, two of my longtime providers “retired” at the end of last year and a local lab one of my providers always used abruptly quit my plan, leaving me with a $173 “out-of-network” bill which should have been $19 and paid by my carrier! I could go on … and on. Suffice to say, the system is effed up beyond recognition now and there are wa-a-a-ay too many fingers in the pot with the right hand having absolutely no clue what the left hand is doing. Thus, CC customers are receiving letters with conflicting deadlines to “produce documents,” letters retracting previous letters already sent, letters threatening to cancel their plan when they’ve already done what CC asked of them weeks ago, etc, etc. It’s not only me … I’ve seen these letters from several others.
The above is happening all the while these customers have given CC the authority to review their tax return numbers until 2020! CC’s reps have actually stated on my speakerphone with two other witnesses present that they don’t believe the numbers people put on their tax returns! Several people I know have actually “lost” coverage for a period of time after paying their premiums every month. I myself “lost” coverage (I had a Platinum Plan) from 4/20/15 to 4/30/15 while CC was “reviewing” my filed tax return. This is after paying my exorbitant monthly premium for April. I didn’t find out about it until I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and found out I was not covered! When I called my carrier (4/30) to ask why, they told me that CC canceled my coverage. When I called CC and asked why, it was explained to me that they were reviewing my tax return and I was “in the clear” now and they would reinstate my coverage, effective today. How can they legally cancel my coverage mid-month when I paid my premium for the whole month?? There was no apology, no offer to reimburse one-third of my monthly premium …. nothing.
This whole crapfest has really gone wa-a-a-ay too far.
I expect I’ll have to downgrade my plan again for 2017 when my carrier decides to slap me with another $250+ monthly premium increase. We’ll see what happens.
The ACA needs to be scrapped and we need to start all over (making sure those with pre-existing conditions get coverage which is “affordable” for them). That was its main purpose. I’m happy to pay my premium every month but I don’t need or want the grossly incompetent CC in my business and neither does anyone else. Thanks for listening.
