But hey! They have valet parking!
Posted on 01/02/2014 3:06:08 PM PST by kristinn
Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.
In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't afford.
'They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!' a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.
She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.
'The people in there told me that since I didn't have an insurance card, I would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray,' Galvez said, her young daughter in tow. 'It's not fair – you know, I signed up last week like I was supposed to.'
The x-ray's cost, she was told, would likely be more than $500.
Galvez said she enrolled in a Carefirst Blue Cross bronze plan at a cost of about $450 per month through healthcare.gov, three days before Christmas.
'No one has sent me a bill,' she said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified in a December 11 congressional hearing that the federal government can't say how many new enrollees have written checks for their first month's premiums.
'Some may have paid, some may have not,' she conceded.
It's unlikely that a valid insurance card would have changed Galvez' fortunes, however.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Next prediction is that our Dear Leader will issue another decree, er, regulation, requiring the hospital to treat at its own financial risk if it turns out the alleged Obamacare signer-upper didn't actually sign up. And/or, if they thought they signed up but didn't pay the premium, the insurance company will be forced to cover anyway.
The morning of their discontent arrives for the LIV’s!
Didn’t On High issue an edict that forces hospitals to take patients and trust the insurance companies to pay up later?
On High needs to come down off Olympus and fix this Obamacrap.
It's unlikely that a valid insurance card would have changed Galvez' fortunes, however.
Her Carefirst plan, identified on the Obamacare website as BlueChoice Plus Bronze, carries a $5,500 per-person deductible for 2014 – an amount she would have to pay out-of-pocket before her coverage would apply to medical expenses.
The Inova radiology department wouldn't speak with MailOnline, and Carefirst did not respond to a request for comment.
And...
GALLUP: MOST AMERICANS HAVE OBAMACARE HORROR STORIES
Fifty-nine percent of Americans told Gallup pollsters that they have had negative experiences with the Affordable Care Act, according to the public opinion giant's latest survey.
Just 39 per cent said their experiences were positive.
Only 7 per cent called their Obamacare journeys 'very positive,' but 29 per cent said their interaction with the new system has been 'very negative.'
Gallup interviewed 1,500 uninsured Americans in December, 450 of whom said they had visited health insurance exchange websites.
As dismal as those numbers are, they represent a slight improvement: In November, Gallup found that 63 per cent of uninsured Americans had negative experiences with the president's new health care overhaul.
The hits just keep on coming!
But it would likely be at a negotiated rate -- possibly much lower.
Welcome to the Soros and Obama orchestrated New World Order where you are a number, not a person. Kind of ironic that all the me, me, me morons that put him in office will no longer receive any the attention they think they deserve, don’t ya think?
It shouldn’t be the end of the world if you pay, and then your insurance company reimburses you.
Here, though, there’s a second problem in addition to the fact that the hospital can’t tell if she’s insured. Because she’s documented as being in an insurance pricing club, they hit her with the “list” price of $500. The insured cost—even if it’s not covered by the deductible, might be $100 or $150.
Yes it sated that in the article but I don’t think she understood that.
These 2 people noted in the story think when they receive their insurance they will get the service for free they are not thinking about the deductibles and out of pocket they have to pay.
Probably not. If the insurance is active they usually charge you the full price for deductibles.
> See what happens - when people who know nothing about one-sixth of an economy - monkey around with it?
I see what you did there H. Cosell Jr...: )
Sorry, could be my eye-sight,,,,but on the picture is Barak Hussein shi.ting golf balls ?
News you won’t see at the MSM fishwraps or networks (except maybe Fox News).
As soon as he gets back he is going to focus like a laser and punish those insurance companies. Who else in America has had 20 weeks of vacation?
Pray America is Waking
Ya think? Welcome to the party, pal!
Somewhere a president is playing golf under the warm Hawaiian sun.
She hasn’t paid the premium but it’s the insurance company’s fault. /s
If these people would look up important stuff on the internet and stop watching American Idol and the letter networks, they would have known this was going to happen. Now they’re shocked that they’re not covered.
They’re going to be even more shocked when they get their insurance cards and will hear about, for the first time, about the deductible.
Also, many plans have a separate deductible for ER, sometimes as low as $250. I haven’t read the article to see if this is applicable. Probably not, since it would be the case only for higher-metal plans, at least in my state.
How many Americans will die?
I thnk we are seeing the beginning of the end for a lot of Americans.
Bump
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