Finally got my quote for my new insurance policy, via my insurance agent, who had special access and still needed two weeks to get into the system. I currently pay just under $1000 a month for my wife and me (hers is twice mine because of a pre-existing condition). That’s $5,000 deductible, self-employed people’s crappy insurance. We are the people the ACA was supposed to help: people over 50 without employer-provided coverage. It was supposed to improve our benefits (by giving us a lot of stuff we don’t need, like maternity and drug rehab), while lowering our costs by $2500 a year.
Actual results: The only thing even close to what we currently pay is a lousy HMO plan with a $6,000 deductible, and even that is $40 a month more than we pay now. To get anything close to what we now have will cost us $1292 a month, a $300-a-month increase, or $3600 MORE a year than we were paying before.
THANKS, OBAMA, you incompetent socialist moron!!!
Speaker Boehner is asking you to “SPEAK OUT.”
http://www.speaker.gov/contact
Send him what you just wrote.
Spoke to friend, who relayed a story about another friend who tried to sign up for ObamaCare®.
He got the cheapest plan he thought he could afford and turns out he can’t even afford that.
He and his wife will be charged a bit over $500.00 per month, have a $10,000 deductible and a huge list of disallowables.
I laughed and asked how much money he would be out if he ended up at the hospital next year and the bill due was $4,000.
Lamely, he asked what I meant but, that was before he qualified his question saying that he can how people need this insurance and “What would happen if they needed medical care?”.
I laughed pretty hard and then said “Hey, you’re a doctor. You ought to know and understand the laws here in the US and further understand the disctinction between insurance and healthcare, medical necessity, treatment, etc.
You understand those terms right?”
He answered in the affirmative.
“So” I began my response “Let’s say your friend, next year, needs to go to the Emergency room or requires a small outpatient procedure and it costs $4,000.
He will pay $6,000 dollars for his mandated insurance no matter what next year and on top of that, with a $10,000 deductible he will pay a total of $10,000!”
“That doesn’t get into the disallowables, which in this case don’t matter as he has to overcome a $10,000 hurdle.
So, no matter what, your buddy pays $10,000 next year for insurance and actual medical care”
He responded that they guy couldn’t afford that and wondered what would happen.
“So, he gets a broken arm and goes to the hospital. They xray him, give him pain killers, set the arm, cast it, etc and then prescribe Vicodin.
Bottom line, the laws are such that the hospital must deliver medical care.”
He then wondered what would happen to his friend if he had catastrophic medical care.
“Well, if he can’t afford some crap insurance plan and $10,000 bucks would be more than he could financially bear, then we have do-overs in Murrica.
He can file Bankruptcy or Medical Bankruptcy if need be.”
He then acknowledged that the costs are built into our system.
“Yep” I said “Eff your friend and lets have another drink”
he was resigned to certain facts about life and life in Murrica.