[quote=SK in CV][quote=bearishgurl][quote=SK in CV][quote=La Jolla Renter]
What about the biggest Obama care lie of all…
“I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”
I have seen nothing but increases of my individual plan.[/quote]
How is this relevant to the discussion?
(Premiums have increased at the slowest rate in more than 3 decades since the law was passed.)[/quote]sk, you’re joking … right?? Do YOU have “obamacare?”
Oh, and this issue is extremely relevant to this discussion. The “obamacare debacle” is the biggest gubment scam of the 21st century and actually the biggest scam on our country’s people that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The ACA is a horrible hodgepodge collection of ill thought-out muck and mire that should have never seen the light of day, let alone actually become law![/quote]
No, I’m not joking. If you’re asking whether I have qualifying insurance, the answer is yes. Almost all medical insurance sold today is “Obamacare”, whether it is purchased on a state exchange, the federal exchange, bought on the open market, or through employment. You may think it’s a debacle. Believe it or not, what you think of it, doesn’t actually change the data much. And the data is that the uninsured rate is down substantially. No measurable number of people have lost their jobs as a result of the law. And premiums have risen at the slowest rate in decades. Your single experience is pretty much irrelevant.
And the discussion that brought it up had to do with socialism. So no, it is not any more relevant to the discussion than your experience.[/quote]I am aware that plans on and off the exchanges have to be “ACA compliant.” One large insurer that left SD at the end of 2013 returned in November of 2015 to offer two 2016 Bronze PPOs on the open market. Besides paying $2200+ month for a United Health PPO offered by my retirement assn, those open-market Bronze PPOs and my current exchange PPO are the only choices I have for PPOs in SD County. Those are all terrible choices but I have to take one and can’t afford the one my retirement assn offers.
I don’t know if the residents of AZ have more choice than we do but the “system” is really “sewed up” in CA. Essentially, there is just ONE PPO available in each of the 19 CC regions in CA.
SK, if you actually drill down to the facts, you will find that the reason there are so many more people “insured” today than were covered in 2013 is because they are on (expanded) Medicaid/Medi-Cal in the states which adopted it. In addition, more of the truly “poor” were rustled up and signed up for Medicaid/Medi-Cal by hundreds of “outreach groups” around the nation. In CA, somewhere between 65 and 75% of newly-covered (since 2013) individuals are now Medi-Cal recipients. Covered CA wants many more of their enrollees to be on Medi-Cal, ESPecially those currently accepting “subsidies” who are over 55 years old. CA very badly wants this population to be on Medi-Cal ASAP so the “clock” can begin running on their “managed-care premiums” for Medi-Cal (whether they ever visit MC providers … or not). This is the sole reason for many thousands of MC “forced placements” behind a CC enrollee’s back.
I don’t know if AZ (where you live) adopted expanded Medicaid or if they did, they will exercise their right to “estate recovery” on Medicaid managed care premiums as CA has done. CA has been gearing up for nearly a year now (mainly the AG’s office) to begin slapping open-ended liens on everyone over the age of 55 who owns real property in the state and has been on Medi-Cal even one month (and had one month of “managed care” premiums paid on their behalf) whether “forced placed” on Medi-Cal … or not. Of course, no property owner over the age of 55 and in their right mind wants a Medi-Cal lien on their property, ESPecially if they were “force-placed” into Medi-Cal against their will and/or without their knowledge.
You’re over 55, aren’t you SK? What does 12 months x $634 equal? That is currently the approximate monthly “managed care premium” (incl “admin fee”) for a monthly Medi-Cal managed care premium for the 55+ set in CA. Raise that by $12-$30 month per year and start tallying your lien beginning at age 55. 120 months = ten years. How much will the lien on your propertie(s) likely be by the time you reach 65 and are Medicare-eligible?
In essence, the ACA has taken away all our choices (caused multiple major carriers to leave our market) and “mandated” we buy a certain kind of healthplan. We must have a “comprehensive ACA-compliant” plan which, in CA, covers maternity services, autistic child services and a host of other services which a great many of us will never use or need. The “paternal” gubment has also declared that we are no longer allowed to have the (perfectly decent & affordable) HDHP plan we used to have because it had a $5K deductible and a $12K OOP maximum and we are all too stupid (and too “broke”) to “budget” for such an occurrence. It has also arbitrarily decided that some types of our pension income don’t count towards income for the purposes of qualifying for a subsidized healthplan on CC, knocking many middle-class and even upper middle-class CC enrollees over the age of 55 in the “Medi-Cal eligible” category weeks or months AFTER CC ALREADY determined their eligibility to sign up for a plan and their subsidy amounts for the year!Even though we will receive that pension every month for the rest of our lives! All these machinations have been done by CC/Medi-Cal for the sole purpose of future estate recovery.
Suffice to say, I have assisted 7 other individuals and families (besides myself) with signing up for a plan on CC and the story is always the same. All of these people (over-55 head of household) are homeowners (except one) and all are hounded mercilessly by CC 2-3 times per year to “prove” their incomes to CC over and over and over again in order to keep their plan.
Completely unbeknownst to me, I myself have been “bumped” from my plan by CC/Medi-Cal (after paying my premium on time every month automatically) 3 times in 2015 for a total of about 49 days. One time, I was on a 15-day road trip and only found out I had no coverage when I arrived home and found a letter from Medi-Cal in the mail. Thank G@d, I did not need to use my plan on my trip! I did manage to get the problem straightened out with Medi-Cal (for now) but NONE of the premiums I paid for the “uncovered” periods were ever refunded to me and my carrier refused to refund them to me and they rec’d my subsidy as well for those “uncovered” periods. They claim they didn’t disenroll me so they are not at fault! I am not alone but am one of tens of thousands of “moving targets” in CA for CC to incessantly hound in hopes of eventually turning into force-placed Medi-Cal recipients so the state can “lien” us forthwith to mark their rights to our estate.
I can’t imagine in my wildest dreams how non-computer savvy, non-former bureaucrats, and/or possibly English-challenged individuals are successfully “fixing” their forced Medi-Cal placements. It’s extremely difficult to do even for CC enrolled agents and the most savvy, ex-gubment bureaucrats (such as myself) with a full command of the English language!
CC enrollees under the age of 55 very likely wouldn’t even be bothered to “prove” their incomes and are able to keep their plans and file their tax returns …. in peace. Especially those with W-2 income as CALHEERS has access to the CA EDD records. Why is this so? No estate recovery is legally possible if they are on Medi-Cal so why bother?
It’s that simple. If you could put yourself in our shoes for even one moment, SK, you would think twice about signing up for “obamacare” in CA. I’m glad to hear that you found an acceptable off-exchange healthplan to purchase in your state. I am in hopes that at least one off-exchange carrier will offer at least ONE silver (or greater) PPO plan for 2017 in SD County this fall. We’ll see what happens.
And yes, this discussion is ALL RELEVANT to this thread!
