We just got a notice in the mail telling us that our health insurance is now being rationed to my family

[MarkInOregon]

Self righteous much?
The OP was bemoaning the rationing. Rationing the OP did not have to go through before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Healthcare has always been rationed–this is nothing new. Peoples health insurance coverage has always been subject to change. Employee’s have often been asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of their health insurance by their employers. Employees have often seen their deductiblbes go up as their employers attempt to maintain a reasonable premium in order to continue to provide health insurance to their employees. Finally you can always find employees who lost their insurance because it simply became to expensive for their employers to provide and too expensive for them to fund out of pocket. For example to add my wife to my company’s pre Affordable Care Act insurance policy would be over $700 per month–pushing $9,000 per year in out of pocket cash flow that we do not have.

It is time that we stop trying to blame everything that is wrong with healthcare in America on The Affordable Care Act. An act that has been obstructed by some of those opposed to it. If you were trying to build a house and at every turn–you were met with people trying to stop you…what kind of house would you end up with or would you even be able to end up with a house at all?

Is The Affordable Care Act the solution to our nations very real healthcare problems–I don’t think it is, but the problems with healthcare in America did not start with it either–there were and are problems with healthcare in America and only those with their heads in the sand won’t acknowldge that.

The Peace of Christ,
Mark

 

[Rohanfan]

Healthcare has always been rationed–this is nothing new. Peoples health insurance coverage has always been subject to change. Employee’s have often been asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of their health insurance by their employers. Employees have often seen their deductiblbes go up as their employers attempt to maintain a reasonable premium in order to continue to provide health insurance to their employees. Finally you can always find employees who lost their insurance because it simply became to expensive for their employers to provide and too expensive for them to fund out of pocket. For example to add my wife to my company’s pre Affordable Care Act insurance policy would be over $700 per month–pushing $9,000 per year in out of pocket cash flow that we do not have.

It is time that we stop trying to blame everything that is wrong with healthcare in America on The Affordable Care Act. An act that has been obstructed by some of those opposed to it. If you were trying to build a house and at every turn–you were met with people trying to stop you…what kind of house would you end up with or would you even be able to end up with a house at all?

Is The Affordable Care Act the solution to our nations very real healthcare problems–I don’t think it is, but the problems with healthcare in America did not start with it either–there were and are problems with healthcare in America and only those with their heads in the sand won’t acknowldge that.

The Peace of Christ,
Mark

Thank You

 

[Rence]

My wife informed me that we got a notice in the mail saying that my family can only use the emergency room a limited number of times before they start charging us for it. This must be what they mean by the “affordable care act”.

As a nurse working in a hospital, I’m all for this. Too many people use the emergency room as a walk-in clinic, and many times the same ones do it over and over. If this was added to all the policies, more people would use the emergency room for true emergencies and go to clinics, the health department or their health care provider’s office for non-emergent situations. How many times are they allowing per person per year?

 

[livingwordunity]

As a nurse working in a hospital, I’m all for this. Too many people use the emergency room as a walk-in clinic, and many times the same ones do it over and over. If this was added to all the policies, more people would use the emergency room for true emergencies and go to clinics, the health department or their health care provider’s office for non-emergent situations. How many times are they allowing per person per year?

Or cut costs by covering real medical issues instead of forced coverage for elective abortions and $80,000 so-called “sex-change” operations.

 

[Barbara_Ann_Bau]

I found that when I had health insurance. I abused it badly. I actually went to the ER more often than to my primary care physician. Why because I thought "Well I have a good health insurance ( I also bought a very large life insurance) so I don’t have to take care of myself. I only went to the doctor when ordered to by my employer and that was usually a visit to the ER because I had passed out at work and was running a fever of 102 or greater. I didn’t have the choise of going to Urgent Care because my insurance didn’t cover it. Before I married I did not watch what I ate and managed to end up in the ER with food poisoning. I also knew of people who abused the health insurance by running to the Dr. with every little sniffle. What I am saying here is that there will be abuses no matter what. I actually believe that I am in poor health now because of the times in my life when I was insured but those were choises, that **I made. ** Not the Government

 

[kozlosap]

Healthcare has always been rationed–this is nothing new. Peoples health insurance coverage has always been subject to change. Employee’s have often been asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of their health insurance by their employers. Employees have often seen their deductiblbes go up as their employers attempt to maintain a reasonable premium in order to continue to provide health insurance to their employees. Finally you can always find employees who lost their insurance because it simply became to expensive for their employers to provide and too expensive for them to fund out of pocket. For example to add my wife to my company’s pre Affordable Care Act insurance policy would be over $700 per month–pushing $9,000 per year in out of pocket cash flow that we do not have.

It is time that we stop trying to blame everything that is wrong with healthcare in America on The Affordable Care Act. An act that has been obstructed by some of those opposed to it. If you were trying to build a house and at every turn–you were met with people trying to stop you…what kind of house would you end up with or would you even be able to end up with a house at all?

Is The Affordable Care Act the solution to our nations very real healthcare problems–I don’t think it is, but the problems with healthcare in America did not start with it either–there were and are problems with healthcare in America and only those with their heads in the sand won’t acknowldge that.

The Peace of Christ,
Mark

Excellent post! My 29 year old daughter had 2 heart procedures at age 25 and as soon as she graduated from law school was unable to obtain any health insurance. Luckily, California had already implemented a pre existing insurance plan in preparation for ACA, so she was able to purchase a plan. 18 days after the plan took effect she had an emergency appendectomy which cost over $60k. Thank goodness for that plan. As a retired teacher, my health care plan has not been affected. Someday single payer will appear and everyone will be covered.

 

[livingwordunity]

Excellent post! My 29 year old daughter had 2 heart procedures at age 25 and as soon as she graduated from law school was unable to obtain any health insurance. Luckily, California had already implemented a pre existing insurance plan in preparation for ACA, so she was able to purchase a plan. 18 days after the plan took effect she had an emergency appendectomy which cost over $60k. Thank goodness for that plan. As a retired teacher, my health care plan has not been affected. Someday single payer will appear and everyone will be covered.

As someone who is retired, I’m surprise that you aren’t concerned about the ACA death panels. That’s how the current White House admin reasons that it will be “affordable” because they plan on there being fewer people (abortions, the elderly and disabled). In addition, a lot of women deeply regret their abortions which often leads to depression which makes them more likely to commit suicide. Regrets for having the so-called “sex change” operations can also make someone more likely to commit suicide which means, again, fewer people.

 

[livingwordunity]

As a nurse working in a hospital, I’m all for this. Too many people use the emergency room as a walk-in clinic, and many times the same ones do it over and over. If this was added to all the policies, more people would use the emergency room for true emergencies and go to clinics, the health department or their health care provider’s office for non-emergent situations. How many times are they allowing per person per year?

Couldn’t that argument about people abusing the system be expanded to argue against the need for mandatory health insurance?

 

[WarriorQueen]

I thought I was going to go right by this thread and not say anything, but then I noticed something that was, i am sure accurate when the person was dealing with their situation, but has changed drastically in the last years.

The extremely poor have had access to medicaid, as long as they were not on social security. I know because I survive on social security disability. I worked for 15 years until I was nearly killed in a car crash that left me disabled. The way the insurance worked, I got medicare, which was suppose to pay 80% of costs, but that was not very accurate. Despite having medicare, I had huge bills and no way to pay them. I was not eligible for medicaid unless I literally spent every penny of my disability stipend on medical bills. If I did that, I would have no roof over our heads (I am a single head of household) and no way to feed us. As you can imagine, that was never a good option.

Before Ronald Reagan gutted the medicare program, it covered a lot more. This is probably when the person who started the thread was covered by insurance that was more comprehensive. I can also tell you, since I volunteer with a population that is very impoverished, that only some people have actually been eligible and covered by medicaid. A good friend of mine, for example, in a two parent home, with 4 children, could not afford coverage that she has badly needed. She is finally getting the medical treatment she has needed as long as I have known her.

The affordable care act is not a permanent solution for the problems. It is just a start at addressing very important issues that have been ignored until now. Part of the problem too, is that instead of doing the ethical thing, and adding what was missing to existing plans, insurance companies cancelled everything, and made it much more difficult than it needed to be. I actually still have yet to sign up, because I didn’t know I qualified for additional help until talking to my doctors office the other day. I decided I am reserving judgement until after I see how it goes. I know it won’t be perfect, but it is bringing costs down, and I was actually told that my needed physical therapy will not have a maximum number of visits, so that sounds good.

Hoping for the best

 

[Sunbreak]

Rationing is nothing new. Insurance policies in general have cut down on things that are covered before you have to pay yourself. It used to be that insurance was affordable for the employers so they provided it to you and sometimes even your family. The deductible was low so you would not have to pay very much yourself. The cutting down on what you get before you have to pay more yourself has been happening for over 20 years at least.

 

[livingwordunity]

I’m seeing a lot of the Tu quoque (“you too”) logical fallacy being repeated in this thread by supporters of the so-called “affordable care act”.

Tu quoque (“you too”). This is the fallacy of defending an error in one’s reasoning by pointing out that one’s opponent has made the same error. An error is still an error, regardless of how many people make it. For example, “They accuse us of making unjustified assertions. But they asserted a lot of things, too!” (Source)

 

[Mickey_Finn]

As a nurse working in a hospital, I’m all for this. Too many people use the emergency room as a walk-in clinic, and many times the same ones do it over and over. If this was added to all the policies, more people would use the emergency room for true emergencies and go to clinics, the health department or their health care provider’s office for non-emergent situations. How many times are they allowing per person per year?

I think that the people who use the ED as their GP would simply not seek healthcare when their visits were used up. Education on how to use our system would make more sense.

ATB

 

[Mickey_Finn]

Or cut costs by covering real medical issues instead of forced coverage for elective abortions and $80,000 so-called “sex-change” operations.

We could do without these.

ATB

 

[Mickey_Finn]

I thought I was going to go right by this thread and not say anything, but then I noticed something that was, i am sure accurate when the person was dealing with their situation, but has changed drastically in the last years.

The extremely poor have had access to medicaid, as long as they were not on social security. I know because I survive on social security disability. I worked for 15 years until I was nearly killed in a car crash that left me disabled. The way the insurance worked, I got medicare, which was suppose to pay 80% of costs, but that was not very accurate. Despite having medicare, I had huge bills and no way to pay them. I was not eligible for medicaid unless I literally spent every penny of my disability stipend on medical bills. If I did that, I would have no roof over our heads (I am a single head of household) and no way to feed us. As you can imagine, that was never a good option.

Before Ronald Reagan gutted the medicare program, it covered a lot more. This is probably when the person who started the thread was covered by insurance that was more comprehensive. I can also tell you, since I volunteer with a population that is very impoverished, that only some people have actually been eligible and covered by medicaid. A good friend of mine, for example, in a two parent home, with 4 children, could not afford coverage that she has badly needed. She is finally getting the medical treatment she has needed as long as I have known her.

The affordable care act is not a permanent solution for the problems. It is just a start at addressing very important issues that have been ignored until now. Part of the problem too, is that instead of doing the ethical thing, and adding what was missing to existing plans, insurance companies cancelled everything, and made it much more difficult than it needed to be. I actually still have yet to sign up, because I didn’t know I qualified for additional help until talking to my doctors office the other day. I decided I am reserving judgement until after I see how it goes. I know it won’t be perfect, but it is bringing costs down, and I was actually told that my needed physical therapy will not have a maximum number of visits, so that sounds good.

Hoping for the best

Excellent post. I think the insurance companies which by the way are not founded on the concept of helping folks in need. Had a bone to pick with President Obama, and his staff. This has lead to some hurdles being placed, and it’s something we have to endure I’m afraid.

ATB

 

[Contarini]

Insurance is even more prohibitive for us with the so-called “Affordable” Care Act. I don’t know where to turn now. I am a Veteran and on Medicare so I don’t need ACA. But my wife has no health insurance so I have to do something for her. I don’t like what I’ve seen about the ACA, so I cant bring myself to sign her up for it.

So how can you say it’s gotten worse?

It’s only gotten worse because you refuse, for reasons you do not explain, to sign up for it. If your reasons are reasons of conscience, then I respect that, even if I disagree. But as someone whose situation has been greatly improved by the ACA (my family will be paying several hundred dollars a month less for what is on the whole significantly better coverage), I want to take seriously the experiences of people like the OP. The problem is that sometimes, when people say their situation has been made worse by the ACA, it turns out that, like you, they haven’t given the ACA itself a chance. So it’s hard for me to ascertain how many people are really suffering due to the ACA, and how much of this is just political propaganda creating fear and suspicious of the ACA, which causes people not to give it a chance and then complain that they are worse off because of it.

One glaring example of what I’m talking about at the state level: many states have refused to set up their own exchanges, much less establish health insurance cooperatives at the state level as the legislation recommends. This has put a huge burden on the national website, which has not been able to handle it, and this has been used as an example of the failure of the legislation. But it’s a failure in large measure engineered by the legislation’s opponents.

Edwin