The Truth About Those Canceled Health Plans

[UCmeNdc]

I'm one of those people! Why would Obama make health insurance companies cancel my plan? Seems mean.

The fact is, some health insurance on the market today is just lousy. That's a big reason why even people who have insurance can go bankrupt when their medical bills start piling up.

Health insurance you bought for yourself before might have been (or seemed) perfectly okay, but there's a good chance it had big holes in it -- the kind people tend to only find out about when they incur expensive doctor and hospital bills. And if you have a pre-existing condition, or you're older, or you're a woman, you have been paying more for that insurance.

But not all the insurance plans being canceled are lousy. Some people really do like their plans, and they're losing them because of relatively small differences in new Affordable Care Act rules.

The law standardizes health insurance plans by mandating that they cover a basic set of benefits, including hospitalizations, prescription drugs and maternity care, that many insurance products on today's market don't. Obamacare also limits total annual out-of-pocket expenses to $6,350 for a single person, in order to protect people against going broke when they get sick.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/health-insurance-cancellations_n_4192079.html

[Thinkingabout]

1. K & R

Thanks for your post.

[Sunlei]

8. that's like playing the lottery. you get cancer it's say ~500k to treat.you're ruined after that!

with a real insurance plan..you pay 10k out of pocket- and you're not ruined and homeless.

[lancer78]

14. Its not age discrimination

Its just old people are more likely to be sick. The only way that no one falls through the cracks is a national single payer system that takes out the premium as a payroll tax.

[Sunlei]

15. I don't get the same prices you do. much lower. here's price page without discount

In texas for two people the price bronze without tax credit is between 300-400 for 2 people. I checked the over 50 age range.

https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/

[quadrature]

3. if cancelled plans are good, wait till next year...

LOTS more like that coming,
with group plans getting the axe.

Enjoy!

[GeorgeGist]

5. Got reason?

[Justice]

6. so if group plans get the axe - will it be the fault of the group or the ACA?

Pointing out that group plans may get the axe means that companies will stop providing insurance and shift even full time workers over to the exchanges. Opponents of the ACA point this out as a failure of the ACA. However, these opponents place no responsibility on companies at all -- in fact, they they excuse the companies entirely. They say the law gives companies the incentive to drop workers or drop worker hours and thus opponents think that is okay. In fact, it is a perversion of the law.

Companies who are dropping part time workers they previously covered under the group plan should not be excused - they should be called out. Companies who drop their group plans should be called out. They should be called out and boycotted.

[davidpdx]

4. I feel bad for those who are in states that are choosing not to cooperate with implementation

The law is not perfect, but it is what we have. We need to continue to push for single payer. People need to focus on the 2014 election and knock off all the BS rambling about 2016. If we don't get the House and Senate there will be no changes made.

[appacom]

7. You are SO right. Thank you.

[davidpdx]

12. Yeah there's no doubt about that

I just hope we can get to the point that we have the means to fix somethings. It's going to be an uphill battle to get to that point. I'm not very hopefully it will happen in the next cycle.

[BlueDemKev]

18. Tell me about it!

I'm in Georgia, and supporting Obamacare here is equivalent to bending knee to Allah according to this state's leaders.

We must first get Terry McAuliffe elected in Virginia this Tuesday. After that, we need to focus on the 2014 midterms and MAKE 100% SURE that the turnout of Democratic voters is at least as high as it was in 2012. No more sitting at home for midterms, which are just as important as presidential election years.

Let's get to work!!

[davidpdx]

19. Speaking of Georgia...

It would be great if we could get that senate seat flipped. What do you think about Michelle Nunn? She's def a bit on the conservative side, but then again that's probably the only way she has a shot in Georgia.

[BlueDemKev]

20. Michelle Nunn

She definitely has name recognition, but given how conservative this state has become I don't think she'll be able to pull it out. Her father has been out of the public eye for over twenty years now.

[davidpdx]

21. I'm not too familiar with Georgia politics

so I'm way out of my league on being able to understand the dynamics of the race. I remember who her father is as he was in office when I was able to vote and from following politics way before that.

[BlueDemKev]

22. Georgia used to be a conservative-leaning, Democratic state...

...but that all changed in the 2002 elections. That year an unknown Republican candidate upset the incumbent Democratic governor, kicked Max Cleland out of the U.S. Senate, and handed the state Senate over to the GOP (two years later the House flipped also). Politics, for now, seems hopeless for us liberals in Georgia.

[davidpdx]

23. Nah, never hopeless

I have to think the demographics are changing there as they are in most other states. Maybe not as quickly, but they probably are changing. More minority voters will favor the Democrats. It probably won't happen next year or even 2016, but there will come a point when things will swing.

[Sancho]

16. No plan has to be cancelled...all plans before 2010 are grandfathered in....

the insurance company makes the decision, just like they always do, to cancel or change a policy.

All plans in effect can still be offered without change IF the company wants to continue offering it and if people continue buying it.

The ACA grandfathered in all plans unless the company wanted to cancel it.

That's the law and what Secretary Sebelius has said over and over. The ACA did not force companies to change a plan or cancel one...it just mandates that all new plans had to be minimally compliant.