Remember when the Democrats crowed about the fact that ObamaCare will ensure that those who couldn’t afford insurance before will now be able to afford it? Or the fact that now the poor will be able to get wellness visits when prior to the passage of ObamaCare they couldn’t?
If you buy one of the less expensive insurance plans sold through the new health law’s marketplaces, you may be in for a surprise: Some plans won’t pay for doctor visits before you meet your annual deductible, which could be thousands of dollars.
“This could be the next shoe to drop, as people don’t realize that if they’re buying a bronze plan, they may have to pay $5,000 out of pocket before it contributes a penny,” said Carl McDonald, senior analyst with Citi Investment Research, speaking at a conference last month in Washington.
…Experts are worrying that some new enrollees will be discouraged from seeing doctors if they have to pay the full charge, rather than simply a copayment. In Miami, for example, 40 percent of bronze plans require consumers to pay the full deductible before coverage kicks in, according to an analysis by online broker eHealthinsurance.com, a private online marketplace, for Kaiser Health News. The average deductible among the examined bronze plans in Miami is $5,735.
Patients in those plans who haven’t yet met their annual deductibles would have to pay the full cost of the visits, unless they were for preventive services mandated by the law. A typical office visit can run $65 to $85, while more complex visits may cost more.
Prior to ObamaCare many insurance plans covered wellness visits. Now, because ObamaCare makes the risk pool so much higher its all changed.
…The law forces people to pay higher premiums for largely unnecessary comprehensive coverage — especially the middle class — and then forces them to pay for the routine care out of pocket anyway. Health-savings accounts that might have shielded consumers from the pain are now being discouraged, which means this comes out of their checking accounts, right along with the higher premiums.
The result? People will pay more for less coverage, and then spend thousands of dollars before seeing the first dollar in benefits, except for certain preventive tests that HHS deemed mandatory. This will discourage people from getting normal wellness care and quick intervention on illnesses, forcing them to wait until they’re very sick to see a doctor. And even that might be not so bad, considering how often people fill waiting rooms for cold and flu symptoms that could easily be handled with over-the-counter treatment, but it’s not what the Obama administration and Democrats promised. And it’s certainly not “affordable care.”
The coming sticker shock is going to be huge.
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Actually I have enjoyed the reactions from some of my die hard Liberal friends who thought O care was a blessing for all. With sticker shock and all the rest it has been entertaining to hear the bitching. All I do is smile and say you got what you asked for.
It baffles me why so many people really are surprised costs aren’t plummeting.
Add 30 to 40 million new drivers to the road tomorrow who put an average of 1000 miles per month on their vehicle. Then do absolutely nothing to increase the refinery capacity in this country, would you expect gas prices to go down?
Democrats just did the exact same thing with healthcare, they dumped 30 to 40 million new users into the system while doing nothing with the supply side of the equation. There never was any chance that costs could go down, simple common sense should have told at least some of them that. I really think that too many people only heard the words “FREE” healthcare and they were on board without ever thinking about whether that could be possible.
Bottom line is that every person in this country is going to pay for this one, whether its thru increased taxes, higher deductibles, rationed care etc, nothing in life is free regardless of what politicians tell you.
Bobachek#2
Why Bobachek didn’t you know…
The Liberals “depend” on that “false fallacy” of the pot of gold at the end of their “RAINBOWS” and when their “UNICORNS” take a dump they crap out $10,000.00 bills….so WHY should they look at supply and demand side economics??? Surely that’s a waste of time… They need only look to their RAINBOWS and UNICORNS to see where the MONEY for all their stupid policies and ‘FIXES’ actually comes from…. Of course they believe the money certainly wouldn’t have to come out of “their” pockets now would it???….CAN’T FIX STUPID!
Yeah, lets go back to told method where insurance companies charge us little and cover less.
Of course, public reaction to that sticker shock will be toned down dramatically by the media handmaidens of the Democrat Party. And all will be blamed on greedy doctors and insurance companies.
@This one: Back then, they covered less than… nothing?
@This one:
Prove your stupid, leftwing agitprop, you disgusting troll.
Obamacare is based on nothing but lies, the true currency of the left.
Over 5 million people have been thrown off their policies, even though Obama repeatedly promised people would be able to keep their plans PERIOD.
The cost of obamacare plans, which Obama repeatedly said would be on average $2500/year LOWER than what people were paying pre-obamacare, are between 40% and 200% higher than people paid before – and that doesn’t count the 2-5x increase in annual deductibles.
Obama has illegally delayed portions of obamacare for political expediency due to the building outrage over the higher costs and total incompetency of this socialist power grab. If obamacare was going to be so good for the economy, then why did Obama delay the employer mandate…until AFTER the 2014 elections?
The obamacare website is a total disaster – despite having over 3.5 years to get it up and running. What sane person, seeing the colossal incompentency of these government leftists in the healthcare.gov rollout, would EVER think these same idiots should be given any decision-making powers over medical systems?
Anyone who proposes obamacare needs to be replaced with socialist healthcare (single payer) has no credibility as anything other than a marxist propagandist.