Deadbolt
Well-known member
Trump already declared victory for killing the mandate.
...that the IRS is still enforcing.
Trump already declared victory for killing the mandate.
Because the coverage is not regulated as an ACA compliant plan—the short-term plans are cheaper for a reason: typicaly don’t cover nearly as much, exclude coverage for preexisting conditions, imposed maximum coverage amounts, etc. So if you get sick, when you roll into your next short-term plan they can exclude coverage for your new illness.
It’s just another of many ways to degrade the viability of ACA compliant plans. Thus are their costs/premiums skyrocketing.
Behind a paywall but too much to copy
Health insurance companies initially struggled to make a profit in the post-ACA individual and
small group markets. Insurers were unsure how to price insurance with the new ACA
requirements such as, guaranteed-issue modified community rating, and an expansive
minimum essential benefits requirement. They underpriced their products relative to their
enrollees’ health risks. Many insurers left the market altogether. But the remaining insurers,
despite the expiration over a year ago (2016) of the reinsurance and risk corridors programs
which were meant to financially protect insurers, have started to make higher profits again
(McCue & Hall 2017). Figure 2 shows that, after narrowing in the initial years of ACA
implementation, the gap between individual market premiums and claims payments was
much higher in 2017 than pre-ACA. As of 2017, most Blue Cross Blue Shield regional insurers,
the main insurers left in the ACA-compliant individual and small group markets, have better
profit margins than during the initial years of offering plans in marketplaces and have returned
to pre-ACA profitability (Farrah 2018).
After a year of the White House (and GOP in general) screaming from the hilltops that the ACA was in a death spiral, the White House quietly releases a report from the Council of Economic Advisors that says, well actually, the insurers are doing just fine.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-Profitability-of-Health-Insurance-Companies.pdf
Of course the margins are better now that carriers have years of actuarial data to use when setting premium rates. However, the increased rates have eliminated most people earning between 400%-600+% of the Federal Poverty Level from being able to afford an insurance plan.
Months of gathering signatures by volunteers for the Reclaim Idaho group has come down to this.
The group's organizers, who are aiming to expand Medicaid and provide health care to 62,000 uninsured Idahoans through their Medicaid for Idaho petition drive, plan to submit today and Tuesday more than 60,000 signatures they've gathered to get the measure on the November ballot.
County clerks now have until June 30 to validate the 60,000 signatures. All petitions must be submitted to the Secretary of State's Office on July 6. Volunteers and supporters are planning a large celebration at the Idaho State Capitol when that happens, according to the press release.
If the measure qualifies for the ballot, voters statewide would decide its fate at the general election Nov. 6.
Example 1000 of why our current system is garbage
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/1/17261488/er-expensive-medical-bill
She didn’t get treated at the ER. But she got a $5,751 bill anyway.
Vox’s emergency room database shows that patients can face steep bills even when they decline treatment.
On October 19, 2016, Jessica Pell fainted and hit her head on a nearby table, cutting her ear. She went to the emergency room at Hoboken University Medical Center, where she was given an ice pack. She received no other treatment. She never received any diagnosis. But a bill arrived in the mail for $5,751.
“It’s for the ice pack and the bandage,” Pell said of the fee. “That is the only tangible thing they could bill me for.”
Pell’s experience is not unique. Submissions to Vox’s ER database project found multiple examples of ERs charging patients hundreds or even thousands of dollars for walking through the door. Some never got past the waiting room. Some were triaged, but none received treatment from a doctor.
Pell left the ER when she discovered the plastic surgeon who would see her was out of network for her insurance. She decided to go to an in-network facility instead. She thought this was a smart way to avoid the costly fees that came with seeing a provider that wasn’t included in her health plan.
“I decided to decline treatment because I can’t really afford any surprise bills right now,” she said. “The bill I’d probably incur would not be worth saving my ear, which was sad but a choice I had to make.”
Pell’s health insurance plan paid the hospital $862, what it deemed a “reasonable and appropriate” fee for the services the hospital paid. That left Pell with a $4,989 bill that she received on February 28.
Providers are gouging. We need a medical usury law.
In another thread, rj was saying that medical providers often wreck people's credit. These types of charges seen in the vox article and Time magazine's A Bitter Pill article put people in unnecessary financial hardship. If they cannot pay, they get sent to collection agency. That's how unscrupulous providers have become - they'd rather sell "debt" of inflated, BS charges for ten cents on the dollar and ruiin someone's credit than negotiate a reasonable rate.
60 Minutes with a good piece on drug pricing:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-problem-with-prescription-drug-prices/
The underlying problem we have with prescription drugs in this country is that every single actor has the potential to make money when drug prices go up. Remember that for drugs that doctors give to their patients, they make more money when they give expensive drugs than less expensive drugs. It's true of hospitals, too. It's true of pharmacies as well. And so this ever-expanding pie is serving everyone.
People need to vote for (reward) politicians (if we can find them) that advocate for reasonable solutions, not politicians who champion inflammatory, demagogic, or empty sloganism.