The message will be intense the next nine days. March 31st is the last day to sign up for an ACA health insurance policy. You won’t be able to legally buy ANY health insurance policy at any price until November 15th 2014, to take effect January 1st 2015.
There are only a few exceptions like adding a spouse or newborn, or losing existing coverage from a job – or if you qualify, you can try to get onto Medicaid. Now the reality check begins.
My BCBS of NC policy that I paid for the first week of December – they finally mailed my welcome packet on March 14th, 2014.
What is the best estimate of hos many will sign-up? The initial estimate was it would take 7 million paying the monthly bill for ObamaCare to remain viable, or is there better info out there?.
Ah, here is where it gets fun.
Way back at the start of this, I explained “Risk corridors”.
http://streamingradioguide.com/startingover/?p=8546
For Blue Cross to agree to jump into this quicksand on the very last day the law allowed, HHS has agreed to pay 50% of the health care costs in excess of a few percent over the actuarial assumptions. Of course, that money will just be pulled out of HHS’s arse. Expect before this is over, BCBS will get 100%. If Blue Cross withdraws or goes Chapter 11, Obamacare becomes a full fledged emergency.
But the big problem is happening soon – I think it is May 1st. Group health insurance has a routine schedule – remember that insurance is still regulated by the states. Very early in the year, the insurers have to look at who is in the risk pool and what their expenses are. Based on that data which is getting firmer, the insurers have to say soon what the rates will be that people can sign up for on November 15th (after the election). If the risk pool lacks healthy young people and the pool has lots of really sick people, the rosey projections get replaced with real numbers. I would not be shocked if the insurance companies demand a 50% increase for 2015. If that happens, more and more people will bail, leaving only the million dollar a year people, and the death spiral makes the thing fall apart.
At which point, everyone will welcome their “free” nationalized health care, with insurance companies being the boogy man. Take it to the bank.
The government run schools don’t teach the basics of economics because they are run by politically active unions.
The facts are these – the doctors, nurses, and drug companies are each paid about 100% more in this country than any other, and forcing everyone to funnel their money through an “insurance” company to pay for birth control pills just adds to the costs – the “insurance” company’s employees don’t work for free.
I saw a headline that doctors in Cuba are getting a raise to $67 a week
Oops, per month
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/21/cuba-hikes-salaries-for-doctors-nurses-to-as-much-as-67-month/
Wow. I don’t remember Michael Moore suggesting that as the solution in his “documentary”. Did I miss that, or he he and the liberal reviewers of his film miss it?
The $67 a month is for a doctor with multiple specialties. A nurse now gets $25 a month. So even Cuba has income inequality
If you have a valid US permit to visit Cuba (journalists and visiting family, for example) and get sick there, will Obamacare reimburse your doctor visit? It’s probably under your out-of-pocket office visit cost.
An interesting question, in a twisted sort of way. I’ll answer it as if it was a personal question. Blue Cross Blue Shield does have provisions for paying for care when you’re out of the country. I believe it is treated as out of network and may require preapproval or using a facility they specifiy I’ll have to crack open my BCBS Welcome packet.
The problematic part is I doubt Cuba has any ability to bill anyone, since the service is “free”. Maybe this is the way that Cuba can convince an end to sanctions – allow medical tourism and bill the hell out of Medicare. Sounds like win-win to me.
Furthermore, it may be illegal for Blue Cross Blue Shield to make a payment to Cuba.
Back in the 1980s, phone calls from Florida to Cuba went through Canada or Mexico since ATT was unable to legally pay the phone company in Cuba for completing the call. (There was an experimental phone cable between Florida and Cuba that did handle some calls, but it was not upgraded because of the money transfer issue.)
No doubt the low payroll costs for most developing nations is partly the reason why health care outside of the developed nations is very affordable. The developing nations do not offer the best health care, but it is still adequate for most people.
Back in the day when my income was substantially higher, I donated a nice sum of money to a group that carried medicine and some equipment to treat childhood leukemia to Cuba once or twice a year, depending on how much resources they could accumulate. The doctors in Cuba are mostly competent but they have very little money for medicines to treat the children.
Cuba recruiting low income black Americans with free medical education
http://www.elnuevosol.net/entrevistas/cuba-offers-american-students-a-free-education
One of the formative events in my religious education was the missionary project of the all white affluent Presbyterian church I was taken to.
The “49ers” decided it would be useful to bring an unfortunate poor person from India to the United States to become a doctor and then return to India (or was it Pakistan?) to help the poor people doing missionary work. Surprisingly after he became a doctor here working in a rich suburb, he didn’t return home.
For the record, in the US, the average family doctor, general practitioner makes $183,940 per year. Specialist make more per the US government.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/03/Top%2020%20Jobs.jpg
Here is the raw data from Uncle Sam
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm
Shockingly, Dietitians and nutritionists are the lowest paid diagnostic specialists by a wide margin. We all know what you eat has nothing to do with your health.
Landscaping and groundskeeping workers……………………………………. $26,300 per year. Making them legal will reduce the costs for the physicians to have their yardword done…. and forcing them to buy Obamacare will give physicians more money to pay for their yardwork.
This doctor must have been working more than 40 hours per week to help the poor. lol
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/9/sen-menendez-pal-salomon-melgen-collected-20-milli/
“Hit the Road, Kat” parody from Mumbly’s weekend talk show:
http://www.frequency.com/video/pags-parody-hit-road-kat-words-jp-vocals/161942122/-/5-541