• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Need advice on health insurance

Status
Not open for further replies.
#21
An amusing thought is that health care is a complex system, and according to conventional wisdom, complex systems run in constant failure mode, meaning (typically) that they require someone to be capable of bypassing normal processes when needed. Mainstream insurance doubtlessly worked that way, and the new exchange based system will evolve towards such a state of equilibrium too.

The idea of completely hassle free service from the health care system is a pipe dream. Probably the only way to make it work better is to make it simpler.

Systemantics - Wikipedia
 
  • Like
Reactions: TOOL460002, hbarcat and petrus61
#22
Re-apply and re-do everything based on a qualifying life event (of which there will be several for you to choose from)

A change in income can be real or projected and you are allowed to be wrong about it without penalty.
 
#29
GregC said:
Right, just insurance premiums, fees, etc.
Click to expand...

GregC said:
Yes, this type of issue never happens when you're dealing with businesses.:rollno:
Click to expand...

It's no use. Some people will excuse anything, pay any amount, as long as it's private owned. A clerical mistake in a private business is just a mistake. A govt error of the same kind is a evil plot to take over Joe Smith's HC and ruin his life, and no amount of persuasion will convince otherwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HaphAsSard, GregC, bassguppy and 1 other person
#30
jdthebassman said:
but at least you have a choice you don't have to buy it oh wait government took care of that they force you to buy it does the insurance company?
Click to expand...
Having no health insurance is a life-endangering deal for a lot of people. And if they didn't know that already, they may soon find out.
 
#33
57804468.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: yodedude2
#35
hbarcat said:
I'm paying BCBS of IL but I have to do it over the phone using my member ID#. I still can't do anything online yet.
Click to expand...

I had that problem with them before the ACA. And their CS people on the phone sucked. I liked my policy quite a bit though.

Anyway - I found the only way to get anything done with them (and it tends to be the case with most CS telephone help) is to be tenacious and NOT get off the phone under any circumstances. When you run into a brick wall with the first moron on the phone, who is likely reading form a script, ask for am manager. Be firm, insistent, and unflinching. It could literally take an hour or more on the phone, but if you are paying them $$, and they are applying it to a policy/account, man, no way I'd get off the phone until I had the answers I needed.
 
#36
It's worth remembering that health care, and health insurance, are two different things.

I suppose that a consequence of ACA is that millions of people who had no health insurance before, now get to learn how much health insurance sucks. Remember that the purpose of the ACA wasn't to involve the government in health care, but to involve people in health insurance. The cost and complexity of the health care system, imposed on us by the insurance business, is a battle that hasn't been fought yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GregC and hbarcat
#37
. . . . millions of people who had no health insurance before, now get to learn how much health insurance sucks.

The cost and complexity of the health care system, imposed on us by the insurance business, is a battle that hasn't been fought yet.
Click to expand...

This is very true. America is the only country on Earth where we buy our routine ic health care services via a complex buroughcratic insurance system.

If we were smart, we'd have a system where routine annual checkups and cheap prescriptions were paid out of pocket and we'd. have insurance policies reserved for catastrophic medical emergencies that would otherwise overwhelm monthly household finances. That is what insurance is for.
 
#40
hbarcat said:
If we were smart, we'd have a system where routine annual checkups and cheap prescriptions were paid out of pocket and we'd. have insurance policies reserved for catastrophic medical emergencies that would otherwise overwhelm monthly household finances. That is what insurance is for.
Click to expand...

You are exactly right. The Affordable Care Act made exactly this arrangement illegal, period.

Funny thing about it is, the thing was, in part "make insurance pay for regular, preventative coverage, in full, and people will go to the doctor regularly and as a result, will be healthier....blah blah....."

But in reality, and I have literally seen this play out in my own family, we simply cannot afford to be sick.

Big deal if an annual checkup is free when the cost of being sick will be out of pocket, for my family, $13,500.

So when my wife has trouble with her knees, and I say "you should go to the doctor", she says "and what, pay $150 for a visit, be referred to a specialist for another $300, only to be told that I need a new knee, for what, $8,000 that we don't have"?

And you know what - I have ZERO answer for that. And I see her walk around in pain.

And for this, I pay $1,200/month.

Before the ACA, I paid $500/month, and my deductible was $3,500. Oh, and the doc visit would be a $35 co-pay, the specialist visit was 80/20%. Surgery would have been OOP up to the $3,500, then 80/20%.

So yeah, not a fan of the "you can keep your plan" ACA. It was a lie, and it has had a significant, daily impact on my family. And we are healthy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back