Dear GOP - the collective you are an Idiot

[orlacarey]

Originally posted by ladyqkat at Dear GOP - the collective you are an Idiot
(Post originally seen in this post by

Comments

[isabelladangelo]

Sorry, but I agree with the republicans. When the leader of the house says that you need to pass the bill in order to read, you know somethign is dangerously wrong with it

[stevie_stever]

This past time, November, it cost me out of pocket another $100. Even if I can't afford that for some reason, the hospital is always willing to do payments in installments.

Only two provisions of the New Healthcare Bill had gone into effect by this time. Not a one of these would have affected the different pricing of your healthcare. So, in short, the price changes you are weathering are due to your healthcare as was, not as is under the new Healthcare Bill

I have a libertarian friend

[bunnyjadwiga]

Who didn't have health insurance yet through his new job.
He got an ear infection.
$50 for the minute clinic, plus $200 for antibiotics.
That's my gas money for the MONTH, and I have a 45 minute commute.

[orlacarey]

I love how often the response to "I can't afford it" brings the response of "oh that's not true here's how". Unless you know what a person's budget, bills and credit history is there is no way to judge what can be afforded. Even then it's a bad idea to compare one persons "can afford" to another's.

[luscious_purple]

The freelancer is single -- it's someone else in that statement who has a husband with government-retiree benefits. OK, so it's not the most well-written thing, but still.

Incidentally, the person I got it from is a widow, so spousal benefits aren't in the picture.

[luscious_purple]

I'm sorry ... the widow is not in the anecdote, the widow is the person who passed this statement along to me. I posted it in my LJ, and Orla did, and one of my West Coast friends posted it with additional commentary, etc. etc.

[apollonia]

I agree with the above posters and the Republicans. Here's my story:

No problems with my insurance until they passed this healthcare bill. All of a sudden, my nice United Healthcare plan went away, and was replaced with a micro medical plan, simply because these plans are specifically allowed under the new healthcare bill. Now I have a $250 limit (for a family of four) on prescriptions per month and many less services covered.

Now, my prescriptions are not $250 a month. But my husband and oldest child are allergic to cillans, sulfas, and ceftins. So when they get sick, their drugs are very expensive. We are now having to track to the penny how much we spend on prescriptions in a month in case one of them gets sick, so we can afford medicine.

I don't even want to think about what will happen if my RA flares up.

Here's a list of 2010 provisions that went into effect

[stevie_stever]

I don't really see how any of them affected your insurance, nor why you attribute the change in insurance to the healthcare bill.

2010 Provisions of the New Healthcare Act:

- Would provide a $250 rebate this year to Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries whose initial benefits run out.

90 days after enactment:

- Would provide immediate access to high-risk pools for people with no insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Six months after enactment:

- Would bar insurers from denying people coverage when they get sick.

- Would bar insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.

- Would bar insurers from imposing lifetime caps on coverage.

- Would require insurers to allow people to stay on their parents' policies until they turn 26.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/21/90794/when-health-care-bills-provisions.html#ixzz1DD16V3k3

Re: Here's a list of 2010 provisions that went into effect

[apollonia]

Interim regulations have been put in place for a specific type of employer funded insurance, the so-called "mini-med" or limited benefit plans which are low cost to employers who buy them for their employees but which cap coverage at a very low level. Such plans are sometimes offered to low paid and part-time workers, for example in fast food restaurants or purchased direct from an insurer. Most company provided health insurance from September 23, 2010 may not set an annual coverage cap lower than $750,000,[153] a lower limit which is raised in stages until 2014, by which time no insurance caps are allowed at all. By 2014 no health insurance, whether sold in the individual or group market, will be allowed to place an annual cap on coverage. The waivers have been put in place to encourage employers and insurers offering mini-med plans not to withdraw medical coverage before the full regulations come into force (by which time small employers and individuals will be able to buy non-capped coverage through the exchanges) and are granted

[luscious_purple]

Would your employer have changed insurance companies/plans without the passage of the bill?

I know my most recent employer sought new bids every single year for health insurance for its 125 or so employees. They would change providers every two or three years. Some providers were OK and some were cr*p. Under one of them I had to pay hundreds more dollars for PT than I thought I should have paid.

[pedropadrao]

Honestly, I was worried about doctor's bills before my current medical adventure began. This nation's attitude towards doing what the rest of the industrialized nations have done does nothing but enrich a bunch of middlemen.

[luscious_purple]

Oh, but we Americans aren't supposed to MAKE anything anymore! Factory work is for THOSE people! We're all supposed to go to COLLEGE and then sit in a cubicle for several decades and push paper and data around! And middlemen companies are the perfect place to do it! [end sarcasm]