ACA Running Thread
- Thread starter Wrangor
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Wrangor
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It's the marketplace. Humana is the only reason I had a chance. The agent stayed on the line with me the whole time. We were 'disconnected' from the marketplace three times during the 2 hour call since she was still on the line she was able to get me another representative who consequently put me back on hold.
Well, you can always go back to your old plan.....right?
ONW
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I should clarify. It's not the crappy customer service I'm curious about, but rather the practice of sending out cards and premium bills to people who have requested quotes. Is Humana reporting you as a new customer to the exchange just to get a quote? I know you are super excited to discuss the subject after your experience btw!
My guess is he completed an app and the app was submitted to the carrier. Because of the technical issues at play insurers have to issue bills with the enrollment files. However coverage won't start until that first payment hits the door.
The real world impact of GOP governors refusing ACA $$:
http://orlandoweekly.com/news/the-perils-of-florida-s-refusal-to-expand-medicaid-1.1665144
"Dill’s death was not unpredictable, nor was it unpreventable. She had a documented heart condition for which she took medication. But she also happened to be one of the people who fall within the gap created by the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, which was a key part of the Affordable Care Act’s intention to make health care available to everyone. In the ensuing two years, 23 states have refused to expand Medicaid, including Florida, which rejected $51 billion from the federal government over the period of a decade to overhaul its Medicaid program to include people like Dill and Woolrich – people who work, but do not make enough money to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies. They, like many, are victims of a political war – one that puts the lives and health of up to 17,000 U.S. residents and 2,000 Floridians annually in jeopardy, all in the name of rebelling against President Barack Obama’s health care plan."
I'm sure there are cases like this in every state where governors put their hatred of Obama over the well-being of their citizens.
http://orlandoweekly.com/news/the-perils-of-florida-s-refusal-to-expand-medicaid-1.1665144
"Dill’s death was not unpredictable, nor was it unpreventable. She had a documented heart condition for which she took medication. But she also happened to be one of the people who fall within the gap created by the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, which was a key part of the Affordable Care Act’s intention to make health care available to everyone. In the ensuing two years, 23 states have refused to expand Medicaid, including Florida, which rejected $51 billion from the federal government over the period of a decade to overhaul its Medicaid program to include people like Dill and Woolrich – people who work, but do not make enough money to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies. They, like many, are victims of a political war – one that puts the lives and health of up to 17,000 U.S. residents and 2,000 Floridians annually in jeopardy, all in the name of rebelling against President Barack Obama’s health care plan."
I'm sure there are cases like this in every state where governors put their hatred of Obama over the well-being of their citizens.
Wrangor
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To be honest I am not sure what I did. I had a Humana rep talk to the marketplace for me to quote me the plan. I never signed anything it agreed to a plan verbally. My guess is that Humana is told to submit everyone that talks to them and then send a bill in hopes they pay.
But I am not certain. Either way I would expect the paying customer total to be much less than the 7 million reported earlier this month.
In general, I think a lot of the blame does fall back to the states. But, a cogent argument can be made that in an era where state budgets are tight and Medicaid expenses are hard to manage, fixing Medicaid before expanding it is a legit position to take so long as you demonstrate the good faith by fixing it and not sitting on your hands and doing nothing. I don't think this is as black/white issue as the article suggests. I think NCs legislature denied expansion purely for political reasons though McCrory is in part dedicated to reform and once they do agree on a revised model, I fully expect them to hit the feds up for the $. And remember you cant grow your way out of the shared responsibility as medical trend has been much higher than growth rates...
Of course, some of the blame falls onto the drafters of the ACA who created the coverage gap. Why didn't they drop the FPL to 0% if the State didn't expand Medicaid. They did drop it from 138% to 100%...Why not further? Im not convinced Medicaid is the right answer. Its odd that a few hundred $ make the difference between private cheap (or free coverage) vs. Medicaid.
Again, not as simple as some suggest.
Why didn't they do it? They didn't think states would turn down free money for years to "punish" a POTUS. The biggest problem for the authors of the bill is they couldn't conceive of a governor of a state (much less two dozen states) hate a POTUS more than they care about the people of their state. It was inconceivable to them that governors and legislatures would rather have people get sick, get sicker and die than to give Obama a victory.
The blood of this woman and others is squarely on the souls of Rick Scott, the Koch Brothers, Ryan and other Republicans.
The blood of this woman and others is squarely on the souls of Rick Scott, the Koch Brothers, Ryan and other Republicans.
Which route? Delaying expansion then adding it later once system is fixed? If so, not that I know of since expansion kicked in 1.1.14. Id expect to see more move in this very reasonable direction. As I said, its certainly not a black/white issue and I think its far from accusing politicians of killing people.
FWIW, i think the pro ACA crowd did fathom this as they had a provision that dropped the subsidies from 138% to 100%...Why not more is a legit question to ask. Again, I think expansion was the right thing to do but I do understand the non political reality of why some didn't do it.
Spot the Wonder
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I may be wrong, but didn't the court ruling create the gap? The law required expansion, the ruling made it optional, isn't this correct? What am I missing?
I thought the law was drafted in such a way that allowed for the drop down to 100%. Id need to look at the specifics but Im pretty sure it was in the law itself.
The one I saw talked about subsidies being lower than originally projected based on lower premiums in 2014. Thats good news in theory but I think the jury is still out on what premiums will do over the medium term. The CBO just plugs in new assumptions so each time we get a new data point, I suspect we will get both good and bad news depending on the data point.
The red herring here is the "if you like your plan you can keep your plan" decision. Insures priced for this book coming into the the ACA pool which kept rates lower than they needed to be. Most insurers will play catch up in 2015 so we might see higher than expected increases than the CBO thinks. That and an older/sicker pool will also drive rates up. Rates go up, subsidies go up. CBO issues "bad" news.
Time will tell. Im highly suspect that thus will be cheaper than planned over the long run...
Racist.
ONW
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Will it be cheaper than if it wasn't implemented over the long run?