Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

"For some, like Ms. Pineman, narrow networks can necessitate footing bills privately." Um, what? She didn't want to drive 14 miles to see a doctor so she was forced to foot bills privately? If someone said that was a problem Obamacare was trying to fix, they'd be Chinaskied out of the room.

Whole thing sounds like an argument for single payer. That would be less complex.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Do you think people in the city can get to all parts of Ct? And was that the only problem raised in the article? It seemed too long for that to be it all.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

This comment applies universally to all health care discussions.

I had the same thought about 14 miles, but she's from Manhattan, no? Stamford may actually be an unreasonable distance away, especially if she does not have a car.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Yes, Stamford may be highly inconvenient. And I am completely shocked - Shocked I tell you! - that Obamacare has not eliminated bureaucracy in health insurance companies.

There were amble horror stories before ACA as well as after. About a year ago, I was lying in a hospital totally out of it while my wife argued against an insurance company denial of a drug that would likely save my life. The appeals process was longer (3-4 day minimum) than my anticipated life without the drug (hours). I am sure there is a way to blame that process on ACA - I am sure I could figure out two or three ways to spin it -- but, guess what, to the extent ACA had anything to do with it increased the chance of me getting the drug (because it eliminated lifetime caps).

But let's not make system-wide health care decisions based on convenience or inconvenience. Let's make it based on life and death needs.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

people who had insurance have worse now, as I predicted.

my daughter just turned 26. she is very broke. the health care she got, as a broke person, comes with a $3000 deductible. How is that possible? That is (other than my checkbook) practically the same as having no insurance. I hope really poor people are covered w/o deductible, because if you wrecked the system for most and didn't even really help the truly poor that is fucked up.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Unless, of course, she gets sick.

What a blockhead!
 

Every policy that had a life time cap (which for many carriers was every policy) or a carve out of preexisting conditions is now, per se, better.

So, for the 1257th time, that is a false statement.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

she had a urinary infection. let's ask a woman if that would indicate seeing a doctor.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

That articles features some really sloppy thinking. Consider:

What does it mean to "usher in an era" of health insurance products if "commercial insurers had already begun to shift toward such products"? What does mean that the ACA "gave" these products "added legitimacy"? They were kinda "legitimate" before, but it made them 'more' "legitimate"? Experts say. Total gobbledegook.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Can someone provide an actual answer to the question? not-ggg speak, an actual answer. If my daughter isn't poor enough to get health care, who is? Or are we telling those poor families that couldn't afford anything before they have to meet a $3000 deductible? And if so are we sending them back to the emergency rooms?

Re: What a blockhead!
 

so you are saying plans said "once you've been provided X, no more for you?" That must be one high ass X, because I've never heard of it as a concept.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

It only affects 105 million people. The cap that had been on otherwise good policies around here before elimination was usually $1 million in aggregate lifetime benefits. Lower caps for lesser policies.

But if you were reviewing policies for purchase, you should have understood this concept. Capped limits essentially mean you're not going to have coverage for a lot of chronic or catastrophic illnesses. It is a big issue.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

2.

It's like the editor just ordered up some generic whining about ACA. Would editors do that?

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Speaking as someone who has purchased an Obamacare insurance policy through the New York State of Health (the state exchange) twice, I find it hard to believe that that is the only policy she could get. For New York County, there were many plans (including bronze and silver, the lower cost options) that had very low deductibles. And office visits to a physician that did have a $10 to $40 co-pay but the deductible didn't apply to that or to most Rxs.

Get online at the state exchange website with her - she might be able to switch plans before 2/15. (This "might be able to switch" advise is based solely on my reading of recent subway ads for a few of the exchange plans.)

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Some kids stole two bikes off my front porch, but other than that, I didn’t need the cops all year.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Constitutional geek question:

According to this article, the four plaintiffs in the challenge to HCR pending in the Supreme Court all have Article III standing problems. One of them may not live anymore in a state with a federally run exchange. And so on. Apparently it's hard to find plaintiffs to challenge the case. So one might expect the Supreme Court to dismiss the case for lack of standing.

If it does, what happens to the circuit court decision (mis-)construing HCR in a way that eliminates the subsidies? If no plaintiff in it had standing, the Supreme Court could vacate it, I suppose. But what if one plaintiff had standing at the of that decision (say s/he was in a state with a federally run exchange then, and later moved). There must be some way to get appellate review.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Didn't I read about this on your Nextdoor page? kids from "another neighborhood?"

Re: What a blockhead!
 

My firm never had them. But I grew up in a working class union rich neighborhood and I have never heard of anyone hitting the limit. That isn't to say it didn't happen on normal policies, just that it rarely happened.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

Ty, the Brian Williams thing, precedent? Let's suspend GGG for 6 months?

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

What do you think they were doing when they were unisured?

Re: What a blockhead!
 

You remeber when Ty got HSA wrong? This that level of unawareness.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

That's rather hard to believe. But even if true, you know you aren't typical. Why are all of your health care questioned premised on pretending you are?

Too bad you never spent time around some cancer patients or something. Maybe an AIDS organization.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

A UTI checkup probably will be covered as preventative care if she combines it with a well woman exam, and the office visit may be free because preventative care is free through Obamacare. She should, though, look at the schedule and determine what the coverage for non preventative office visits is, and if worse comes to worse, call the insurance company to find out how much it would be. My guess is no more than $50, plus whatever the cost of amoxicillen.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

The same thing they will do when "insured?" That was what I'm asking.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

No it isn't.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Duh.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Sounds like a case for single-payer.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

If the party lacks standing, the action is invalid. It's like it never occurred.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

My old policy at work had a $2 million cap. I was about $170 shy of capping out when I was switched to Medicare.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

Thanks. How did you become eligible for Medicare? There is little evidence of the real lifetime caps on the net. mostly there are just articles about how wonderful it is they were eliminated. the one example I found was $30,000, which has to be some bad insurance. There are examples or yearly caps, which apparently can continue under some circumstances. But the examples are $1-2 million.

Re: I want to drive a Lincoln and spend my evenings drinking the very best Burgundy.
 

Purnt taken.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

From the article:


So the main purposes have been fulfilled, and the system is so complex and bureaucratic -- especially because Obama recognized the need to work within the existing insurance framework -- that it will take some time to make it work better. The horror, the horror.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

It's an hour train-ride from Manhattan to Stamford, and people make that commute daily.

So, yes, this is inconvenient, and there are deficiencies in the system. But hardly a crisis.

Re: What a blockhead!
 

Mass. eliminated them before the Feds did, as part of Romneycare. It was a big issue for most of the cancer societies, for example, because cancer patients regularly hit them. Also for people dealing with cronic diseases. You can check some of the ACA testimony from those sources for facts and figures.

And, yes, often Medicare or Medicaid then would step in. Many employers didn't care because they wanted to push people that sick off the payrolls anyways.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

When I was 22, I had no insurance. I was hit by a car, shattering my leg. I was picked up by an ambulance. I spent ten days in one hospital, five in another. I needed an external fixator (metal rods outside the leg, with pins going in to hold the bone in place), bone graft, several tissue grafts. And about a year of follow-up care and therapy. For many years, until California law changed, any health insurance I could get excluded anything that might happen to my right leg.

So, I would suggest that your daughter's situation is not remotely similar to having no insurance.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I'm not dogging on her insurance. I asking about the family with no money to pay a doctor who was the strawman for ACA. That family went to the emergency room as it had no choice. If that family has a $3000 deductible are they not going back to the emergency room? I thought a goal of ACA was to reduce waste like that?

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

There you go again, with all of your "facts."


Hank's daughter has a UTI, the woman in the article had a broken leg, and both have the same issue: It's easier to find the extra money and bitch about it than it is to figure out how to deal with the system.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

You said this: "the health care she got, as a broke person, comes with a $3000 deductible. How is that possible? That is (other than my checkbook) practically the same as having no insurance." I was pointing out that a $3000 deductible is very, very different from having no insurance.

As to the above question -- I think RT answered it.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

time for me to go. one cannot even ask a simple question, now my daughter is lazy, or dumb.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

RT gave a way that perhaps my kid could have gotten a free consult, whether that would work inNYC I do not know, but the question was broader than that one procedure. I presume the strawman poor family will have other medical issues. when the baby gets an ear infection won't they show at the emergency room?