Texas House passes bill to stigmatize patients getting insurance through Obamacare

[TexasTowelie]

The uninsured rate in Texas has dropped by nearly one-third since the roll-out of Obamacare in 2013. Since the state did not take the Medicaid expansion, most of those newly insured are in the marketplace, and if they're reflective of the rest of the nation's population, about 87 percent of them get federal subsidies for that insurance. That, Texas Republicans seem to think, is just too damned many people getting health insurance. So what's their plan? Shame them away from getting insured.

Roughly a million Texans with government-subsidized health coverage could see a new label on their health insurance cards, and critics say the designation is akin to a "scarlet letter."

But instead of Hester Prynne's infamous "A," insurance cards for Texans with coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act would bear the letter "S," for subsidy.

Supporters of House Bill 1514 by state Rep. J.D. Sheffield, R-Gatesville, say it's necessary to standardize insurance cards and clarify the type of health coverage a patient has.

The Texas House passed the bill on Friday, with the support of some doctors who say that this will help them to remind patients of their obligation to keep paying their part of the insurance premium. That's the extent to which it's "necessary." As if the insurance companies aren't doing a good enough job of communicating that to their customers. In fact, the insurers don't like this one bit, as Jamie Dudensing, chief executive of the Texas Association of Health Plans, explained. She says that insurers are worried about a "scarlet letter" effect and the likelihood of some doctors deciding they just don't want to treat Obamacare patients. "Right now, providers are not really supposed to be discriminating against consumers if they have a contract with a health plan," Dudensing said, adding that insurers are "very concerned" about the bill.

The only reason physicians could care is if they have a political problem with Obamacare and want to take it out on their patients or to try to sabotage its success.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/11/1384073/-Texas-House-passes-bill-to-stigmatize-patients-getting-insurance-through-nbsp-Obamacare?detail=facebook

[Turbineguy]

1. Apparently they are not aware

that I save enough money from Obamacare to buy a new hand gun every month making my home a safer, happier and healthier place.

[Iliyah]

2. kick

gopers, keep people dumb and sick.

[freshwest]

3. Physicians have been discriminating and turning away patients for years even on Medicare.

Same way with the myth of 'they can't turn an emergency away from an emergency room.' I found it to be more obeserved in not observing the law, regulation or whatever than not. Discrimination is rampant in red states and in red areas of blue states as well.

They are just doing it to shame the poor, make their care less available, so they can kill them off one by one. In the privacy of their own homes, they will die.

It's wrong, inhumane, immoral and unethical. But nothing will put them off their goal. The poor have been determined worthless mouths, nothing new there.

What's great about this is that they are not hiding it anymore behind ideology. So the American people can choose between one of the two big government Democratic candidates, or a no gpvernment GOP candidae who intends to have rule by the best armed.

The soul or heart or whatever one chooses to call of America is worn on its sleeve in every election, presidential or not. And the world sees it. Most of them are not as honest and outright as we are about airing our dirty laundry in front of everyone. And here's another example of the success of the right.

[Javaman]

4. Meh, who the fuck cares what they put on the cards...

they still can't prevent it from happening.

I have 5 friends that now have healthcare because of ACA and they all live in Texas.

so the repukes in the texas legislature can go screw off.

[DhhD]

5. Doctors are upset because the free healthcare screening provided by ACA is different from the

usual private group plans, that employers provide. To me, it seems that the ACA care is more balanced and more intelligent.

One example is that for women who are under 65 and are not sexually active, under ACA, the PCP doctor cannot provide a Well Woman Exam and must send the patient to a specialist, a referred GYN. Most women can claim that to be the case and the insurance plan pays the GYN instead of the PCP. A GYN provides additional testing like protein signatures for ovarian cancer along with the usual cervical cancer cell screening. Now there is a new type of mammogram that does not squeeze that can be prescribed by a specialist. A PCP wants to provide the old services themselves.

*A copy of the healthcare free screenings criteria can be downloaded from Healthcare.gov.*

Another difference is that a person can use Urgent Care to get an EKG and the genetic blood lab work done on the heart before going to see a Cardiologist in case of racing heart or light-headedness. The alternative is for a PCP to give an EKG with no symptoms during a Well Exam and therefore no referral to a cardiologist. Who would pay for the second EKG if needed-you? Having the Well Exam part of the EKG could be done in December at the end of the Plan by the PCP. There is no law against, that parts of the Well Exam can be administered at different times. Express this to the insurance advocate that pre-arranges the Well Care Services. If you skip some test it would be ok with the insurance company so if you word your need just right you can control your health decisions instead of some unfriendly PCP.

In my opinion, doctors do not like it that the care is not totally under their control. ACA Plans from the Marketplace allow YOU to work with the referral person and the pre-arrangement insurance advocate instead of PCP doctor.

This is part of the Patient Protection of ACA.