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Me and ACA
I tried a bunch of times to get on NYS's health exchange last week. Dead end. The site went down for 'repairs' over the weekend, but as of 8 AM today it was up and running. Some thoughts.
The first step is to get a user ID. For those familiar with this type of registration process the Captchas etc. are not a big hurdle. But two 8 digit codes (no spaces please) are required on step one. My guess is that there are fair number of people who will struggle with this. The same could be said for the password requirements (eight digits, two numbers and one capital letter).
The NYS exchange wants more than the standard ID info of address and SS#. I was asked a series of questions to 'prove' my identity. I was asked to identify a financial institution that I had opened an account with in the past two years. Five banks were listed, and one of them was the bank I had in fact opened a new account.
Another question blew my mind. I have never purchased pet insurance, so this was a trick question that required the response "None of the above" to continue with registration.
These questions prove that the exchanges have access to a great deal of information about who is signing up. I suspect that the need for the servers to go out and gather the individual's data so that these questions can be posed, is the reason that the exchanges went down the first week. The plumbing for this can easily get clogged; the data bases for this type of info are huge. NYS has access to my IRS data, the pricing I got reflected the fact that my income was above the subsidy levels in the prior year.
Once you exist, the rest is straight forward. I'm single, 63; I'm a headache for ACA. Obamacare needs young healthy people to enroll. For every one of 'me' ACA will need a half-dozen twenty-year olds to balance the costs. I looked at the cheapest plan (Bronze - $360/mo) and the richest (Platinum - $620/mo). The difference between the two extremes is the annual deductible:
This pricing structure is flawed. For the Bronze plan I would pay $3,684 per year and face a$5,800 deductible. If I get sick, my all-in cost goes to $10,120. If I pay the high monthly premium I would pay $7,740 a year, but incur no deductibles. Therefore, in the event I need the insurance I would 'save' $2,380 by opting for the Platinum plan. At my age the Bronze plan is a bad bet.
I can easily envisage an age cohort of mine who opts for the Bronze plan, gets sick and then is stuck with a $5,800 bill that can't be paid. These very high deductibles are going to be a disaster for Obamacare. Who is going to eat the losses that will surely come from those with cheap plans and mega deductibles? The taxpayer will foot this bill....
I have medical insurance today that has similar features to the Platinum plan. It costs me $1,100 per month for the insurance. So I'm looking at a real savings of $5,760 per year! This is great news for me, and some will point to this and say that Obamacare is doing what it's supposed to do. The fact that I am now in a group that includes lots of younger people who will not need the insurance has brought down my costs.
This is going to fail. I should not be getting a subsidy from Obamacare. My investment income the past few years (thanks to ZIRP/QE) puts me in the top 2% (Income greater than $175k = top 2%). Why in hell should I be getting a subsidy? And if I'm getting a subsidy, who is going to pay it? Those twenty-somethings are going to save me $5,800 a year?? Why?
In spite of the large savings that I would realize from from signing up for Obamacare (a free one-month trip to Europe!) I did not hit the button. There is a catch in this for me. Can I keep the doctor that I have been seeing (and trust) for the past 25 years? There is no way to determine that. There is a field that allows you to check if your traditional doctor is covered by the plan. But when you ask, you get this:
Okay, this bug will get fixed someday, and when it does I will sign up for Obamacare (provided my Doc is in the group). When I do, I will save a bundle, but there is no way that this should be happening. Why is Obamacare putting big bucks in the pockets of geezers who are top 2%?
My conclusion is that the exchanges are setting the initial cost for insurance at rates that are artificially low. These are teaser rates that are designed to get folks to sign up. A year or two from now the insurance companies will be getting big increases. Whatever you think of Obamacare today, wait two years, you will come to hate it.
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ObamaCare should be called "TreasonCare." Forcing you to send money to a company, fascism, under the threat of violence, is "levying War against them."
"Now time for 'Dancing with the Guillotine!' First up, the 535."
You are a fucking ideot. Tea baggers should be declared seditious and dragged off to gitmo.
LOL, yeah nothing shows your intelligence like "ideot".
Bwahahahahahaha...the one silver lining in the event of a catastrophic financial collapse is the 100% death rate of people like you- completely incapable of providing for yourself in any way, shape, or form.
What does it feel like to be a human tick Geruda? To know deep down to the very core of your being that you can only live by feeding on the lifeblood of someone more capable than yourself? To look in the mirror and realize that you are a 100% unadulterated evolutionary dead end, incapable of anything at all without an host to feed on? To know that females utterly despise you for your pathetic weakness and lack of capability?
-14 and counting Geruda methinks you might be on the wrong forum??
Forget rednecks, all the fat inner-city and illegals are already taking plenty out of our healthcare system and are a big part of the problem as well. The "Emergency Room" system of treatment is incredibly expensive already and needs to be changed, but frankly ANYTHING the government touches tends to turn into a big turd, so I think it's wise to be pretty skeptical of all the 'pie in the sky' visions of Obamacare. It's more likely to turn into US Post Office/Amtrack style service (or UK National Healtcare service) than it is to become all things to all people. Bottom line, Americans are the most obese and unhealthy people in the world and all the medical treatment in the world can't save half of the land whales out there - they are going to continue to be sick and unhealthy.
"My wife is a hospital administrator in Dallas. Says they are not going to sign these Obamacare insurances. You're not going to get an appointment. They'll just push you to Parkland hospital (the safety net hospital). Parkland is backed up that you cant get appointment now for 8 months because they already take the Medicaid patients. Says there is no way in hell they're taking these patients with the reimbursement rates so low."
What Catullus wrote is the big thing. From a "middle class person buying insurance" position, the pricing system of Obamacare is too high. But the BIG question is who is going to treat you???? Is this going to be end up being insurance for the desitute, of a variety that no doctor wants to take?
My dad gets together with a group of guys once a week for his hobby. Two of them just retired at age 65; upper level professionals in small town/small city New England. Both of them promptly purchased excellent quality Medigap policies. Nonetheless, neither could find a doctor who was taking new Medicare patients!! ZH has not been reporting on this; it is a huge issue (depending on the region) for people just starting Medicare. Finally a retired doctor in the hobby group cashed in loads of social and professional chips to get these guys doctors. Phew.
If people can't find doctors when they are covered by Medicare, we are going to have this problem in a big way with Obamacare.
""If people can't find doctors when they are covered by Medicare, we are going to have this problem in a big way with Obamacare.""
Ding Ding Ding...100% correct, and the sheep dont even realize it!
Oh, they do, and more so every day.
yeah that's a problem. more people who need health care than people able to provide it. where do we start? kill all the fatass rednecks who smoke, can't see their dicks over their bellies first...I reckon that would thin out the ranks on this hell hole of stupidity
Ya know, a vegetarian can actually die from eating grass that a redneck pissed on?
Moral of the story, don't graze in a rednecks front yard, graze in yours...your ranks won't get thinned so quickly. But you'll still die the slow death of having your head up your ass.
Yes because only "rednecks" are ignorant fatasses who smoke. Everyone in Manhattan, Boston, CT the bastion of the "Northeast Intelligencia" are the picture of health, thin, nonsmoking, non drinking, no drugs and eating rice cakes all day. Replace "Redneck" with any other slur and I wonder how witty you think your comments are. Not sure why you think it's ok to be racially insensitive and condescending and insulting to any people regardless of race, education, religion, creed etc...
Made me laughing. It is so stupids very much the commenter who is Geruda is having.
The only thing one having to understanding when being forcefeedings that kind of driveling: that is a litmus test having providement by a Chinese citizenism group to having the seeing if you fit in, are ready to submittings and admittings some kind of obvious drivelings as the glue of the group, your loyalty to the group being showing by defending passionately that thick packet of non sensing.
Since Chinese citizenism peoples having great revilements self indiction, especially when they are having knowings they are guilty, they always trying to kicking the can.
$360 for a $7.5K deductible is not cheap! A pre-ACA plan would have cost about $100-$200 a month. My Current Pre-ACA Plan with BCBS with a $1250 deductible with full coverage and "out of network" benefits costs less than the new Bronze Plan! Plus if you get sick, they can't cancel your insurance, but they sure can jack up the month premiums to cover your medical costs. Basically you're paying a boat load for imaginary heath insurance. Once you meet the deductable your premiums will rise to meet your medical expenses. You pay everything, it will just be spread out over a year or two. ACA is the perfect scam.
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/10/06/why-is-this-man-with-leukemia-lookin...
Most people will not bother getting coverage as they realize that in any given year they will never exceed the high deductable. ACA will probably reduce health insurance coverage by 20% over the next two years as people drop out.
Everyone will have to get coverage or pay the fine...And if you dont pay the fine you will become wanted. I posted this in another thread a couple days ago, absolutely nobody is talking about the enforcement. After the ACA passed a couple questions were asked "how will you enforce" and an answer was never given other than the IRS blah blah. I want someone to prove me wrong...PLEASE!
It will be enforced! This is the reason podunk law enforcement across this nation has been given federally funded license plate scanners at a cost of $15,000 per patrol car. Im adding this...These things were given out like candy at halloween after the ACA passed, not before it passed, but after.(Your local podunk will tell you its to nab wanted felons and such...thats bullshit though) You choose not to pay the penalty and your driver license will be suspended. You go to your local walmart needing bread for your rug rats and you pass that officer sitting in the median scanning plates and his computer will go off alerting him to the fact you have a suspended license. The officer will not give a damn as to why your license was suspended and if you try to explain to his steroid infused retarded ass he will zap the piss out of you with a taser and bash your skull in leaving your urine soaked shit stained self a vegetable...what will you do?? Dont think you can drive outside your county or state and not get caught...The county I live in is linked with other counties, which means eventually it will all be linked...Im betting by the end of this year, right around tax time. Also, your local law enforcement will be more than happy to comply with the feds, the only fine the feds will get is your penalty for non-compliance with ACA...The local podunk fucktards will get the suspended license fine, car impound fine, court costs etc...
Also, this is the reason states across this country started requiring new driver license standards...federally mandated! Here in Georgia we had to take Birth Certificate, SS Card, two bills showing proof of address and a facial recognition photo is taken after you comply with all that bullshit...The fact I have been a licensed driver in this state since the age of 15 meant nothing. The reason for this is so the feds can send an alert to the local/state agencies which will suspend your license or it could be done at the federal level, not sure.
Now when did the "Real ID Act" pass...2005 And ACA passed in 2010, all this shit was planned...The enforcement is in place and was meant to be in place before all of these tyrannical bills were passed.
And now this...
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-marketplace-personal-data-...
The headline reads "Obamacare Marketplace: Personal Data Can Be Used For Law Enforcement and Audit Activities"
This is about locking our ass down and knowing where each and everyone of us and our bank account is located...why? What is the enforcement?
"Everyone will have to get coverage or pay the fine"
For 2014, is cheaper to just pay the fine! The fine for 2014 is $95. The cost to buy health insurance ~$300 per month is $3600.00. My guess is that many will choose to pay the fine instead since its cheaper. Even in 2016, $695 is cheaper than $3600.00, and its likely ACA plans will get much more expensive. Plus people cutting back, their will be a lot more people showing up in emergency rooms as people wait until they have no choice and when their health issues become critical.
I think ACA is likely to be a major drag on the economy as people cut back on medical care (unable to afford the insurance premium and high deductables), and since companies will have to fork over more money to pay for worker health benefits (since premiums on ACA plans are much higher), that there will be significant layoff and spending cutbacks (corp & personal). I imagine that the economy even as bad as it is will get much worse with ACA.
"It will be enforced!"
They will riot! Once the Average Joe sees how screwed they are People will start revolting. Trucker unions will shutdown deliveries, and there will be daily protests in DC. Unless some radical changes are made ACA is going to result in mass disobedience.
Well stated.
This is about total control; always has been.
Life will not be pleasant for those of us who resist.
Only a brain-stem would have to wait 2 years to hate it, or somebody in suspended animation that hasn't been able to read the original bill.
"Whatever you think of Obamacare today, wait two years, you will come to hate it." ... sorry BK, I hate it now.
At 63/64, you are the 'perfect' age; ACA for the next two years and Medicare thereafter. Bottom line, the working young person gets screwed, paying for you now and forever. I can't blame you,but I sure as hell can blame the DEMOCRATS for slipping the shiv to the next generation (only one of many death by a thousand cuts for the under thirty crowd) ... we, as a nation, as so, so stupid
And you don't even know what it is yet you stupid fuck!@
The name "Obama" is the tipoff it's really bad
what kind of return are geezers getting on their life savings?
Every responsible person will end up paying for this mess, the young the old and the in between. The only ones that aren't paying are the ones that should be.
That is a great point
Always interested in your viewpoints.
Re: Health Insurance premiums and their relevance,
Approximate, 2013 BlueCross/Shield MONTHLY prems for Fed retirees [FERS, not Civ Service]:
STANDARD Option, self+family,Gov pays $990, u pay 490, TOTAL=$1480.
STANDARD Option, self only, TOTAL= $655.
BASIC Option, self+family, Gov pays $900 , u pay 300, TOTAL=$1200.
BASIC Option, self only, TOTAL=$515.
Compared to ACA, the mismatch highlights the daunting complexity of what citizens are supposed to understand to make correct decisions.
As a metaphor, consider the four, new 650-ton Steam Generators that caused the permanent shut-down of the 2 San Onofre Nuc Power Plants. That's a loss of 2200 Megawatts of 24/7 electricity. Instantly and irrevocably. All due to deliberate non-transparent design and approval schemes that any competent Processs Engineer would have questioned. And secretly did. That's over $12 Billion of working plant nullified. Gone in an instant.
ACA is just more of
Keep calm,
Swindle on.
Everywhere one turns, calamity ... one might think there's a plan afoot
Here in Georgia, a state using the Fed Marketplace, there is virtually no one getting into the system.
Being 63 also, I have decided to pay the penalty for the first year and go on my own for healthcare for now.
I hate the idea of all my information being linked together. It must be a boon for the NSA.
Why would anyone pay $360 per month for a $5,800 deductible?
The deductible is more than the annual premiums!
In other words, $10,120 spent for nothing!
Fuck you people to hell!
PONZI NATION!!!
Cause if you need 3 Tylenol at the hospital, it's 20K, so you're pre-buying your pills.
Fuck that. I'm not buying that shit.
I'm broke, moving to cash and PM's, getting on the dole.
I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, and it is clear if you work you are NOT working for yourself.
Same thing for me Bruce- I get savings but at whose expense. Ridiculous
I wish we could get people to refrain from calling it "savings"
In other words, a gang of thugs comes and collects $400/month from you each month for their "services".
A new mobster takes over and now only charges you $300/month. Congrats, you saved $100/month - not.
Where were the Republicans and the conservatives when we really needed you? If you really cared about healthcare costs, you could have stood and fought with many on the left who wanted single-payer healthcare. The old system was stupid, Obamacare is stupid, and everyone who complains now, but didn't speak up for universal, single payer healthcare is stupid.
MDB, is that you?
Only a moron would want the United States Government to be the single payer. Can you name one successful program that .gov has achieved in BK's life?
The US military, the food inspection program, the National Park system, Social Security, the Highway system, the Space program , just about anything they involve themselves in until greedy fucking corporate moles bribe enough bought and paid for politicians, mostly republicans, to corrupt and undermine what starts out to be good so they can gorge themselves on the profits. Think you stupid bastard. Did we get more bang for our buck in Iraq from the Army and Marines or from Haliburton and Blackwater.
You pathetic brainwashed turds who hang out here with no active braincells of your own just regurgitating the right wing shit you let them shovel down your throats. Don't get me started dumb fuck!
The military (which costs you $700B per year), SS (near bankrupt), the highway system (subsidy for gas and tire salesmen at best), the space program (you don't have anymore), and a food inspection program practically run by Big Agra?
Your "the government would be awesome, if it wasn't for the government" rant is just as brainwashed, but along a different axis.
Can we ban Geruda already? His abusive vitriole is just plain awful, enough with the personal insults - what a jerk.
And by the way all the things Geruda mentioned above are pretty messed up. The military is an out of control spending machine completely propped up by the government and a subsidised military industrial complex. Our highways often suck and are not well maintained (see California's, or NYCs, not to mention the sad state of our infrastructure (and go to Germany, or even Belarus to see great highways)). Social Security? You have to be joking - it's a mess.
Plenty of well known failures now too - Fannie & Freddie, US Post Office, Fed Reserve, Amtrack, etc. etc. Acting like government is always the solution is just ridiculous in this day and age. While a 'noble goal', extending 'healthcare to everyone' in the backhanded way it was done with Obamacare is not much of a solution. But not unexpected coming from the party of crooks like Harry Reid, Al Sharpton, Barney Frank, Cynthia McKinney et al.
Sure greedy corporations take their toll but how can anyone seriously be supporting governement and politicians these days? I think in some ways the Democrats and Labour parties in the US and UK should be charged with Crimes against Humanity given the failed policies they have followed over the years. To say otherwise is naive and foolish at best, and pure party line following lunacy at worst.
Ban? Why?
It's alot funnier watching these types flail about while foaming and shrieking the same few catch phrases and names... kinda like intellectual Tourette's.
Batshit crazy bipolar/schizos like him and the other one above are amusing, don't ban the idiot. View them as negative example poster children and cautionary tales- "Look kids, this is your brain on total governmental and pharmaceutical dependence."
It is interesting how the Left believes that logical points are best made through denigration and ad hominem
Not unique to the left in the least (and kudos on refuting yourself in your own post!).
Or demanding their political opponents are either killed (eg. his/her "kill fat rednecks" desire or his/her "send them to GITMO" rant). Very illuminating on the hard left's base desires. One wonders if they haven't thought through those threats make civil war the only logical response?
The brown-skinned children murder program has been extremely successful. I read somewhere a year or two ago that Bush and Obama between them have murdered about 400,000.
Government you can be proud of.
Gee, Boompi, single payer NHS in the UK kills far quicker that the current system. Why do you hate people so?
FORWARD OBAMA the ASS NAPKIN
Cash based system is the only way you get costs under control.
Get rid of the damn public/private paper pushing insuracne companies.
I'm stupid for not wanting the entity who administers Social Security and Medicare (both headed for cliffs) to be intimately involved in whether I live or die.
Duly noted.
It would seem Obamacare is also going to enroll the worst customers an insurance company would want. No, just the sickly and diseased, though they will get them in very large numbers, but the irresonsible and deadbeats. They will be similiar to those who buy auto insurance and let it lapse. People who didn't buy health insurance before are just not the most prudent people around. My guess is they will buy it and as soon as they get copays they will let it lapse and not pay the deductible. Its not like auto insurance where the body shop won't give your car back till the bill is paid. Here they can go to the doctor/hospital get patched up and leave the bill behind. How they are going to deal with that issue when the same person gets hurt or sick again is a big question in my mind.
Insurance companies only wanted healthy people that pay ever increasing premiums but never file a claim. FUCK THEM.
"No, just the sickly and diseased, though they will get them in very large numbers, but the irresonsible and deadbeats."
Nope, They can just raise the premiums to match the medical costs, or jsut wait until you can't pay the premiums anymore. Not a problem at all for them!
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/10/06/why-is-this-man-with-leukemia-lookin...
Remember that by signing up also gives the IRS total access to all your bank accounts, 401K's, savings and anywhere you may have money stashed and your entire personal history. They can and will make deductions from your accounts you have no recourse what so ever! There is no bargaining with them no arbitrator all their decisions are final. Oh we took $20k to much out of your account TO FUCKING BAD, ITS OURS NOW!
I say bring the motherfucker on.....I hope it fucking smashes the system to smithereens....and it will.
Fuckin ObamaCare....asinine.....from a douchebag that bullshitted and race-baited his way to the WH, replete with a fucking asshole as his hair-plugged/smirking noggin Veep...
...and to the commies and cunts that wrote the fucking law.....FUCK YOU!
That would include your repubican hero's who helped write the health care reform legislation. Then they didn't vote for it... lol, pussies. So all your hero's are RINO's, son.
They didn't actually HELP write it. They made sure they fucked it up enough to cause problems it shouldn't have.