BCBS health insurance renewals

Canis,

Yes competition does drive down prices but our state decided not have it. If you will Google it you will see that states that went with the federal assistance have more competition thus lower pricing. Also, the items above go into more detail on how states going forward with this get jobs and lower costs.

Sherry

P.S. 2nd grade economics....

 

Yes it does, ask the poor, ask the hospitals, ask the doctors.

Sherry

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/12/3272904/without-medicaid-expansion-no.html

Health care rests in the hands of North Carolina politicians. She is among a half-million state residents who would have been eligible for Medicaid in January had officials here opted to expand that government program for the poor and disabled.

Since North Carolina, like 25 other states, rejected Medicaid expansion earlier this year, many of the state’s poorest residents will go without insurance despite the national health insurance law that was intended to slash the number of uninsured Americans.

Because so many Southern states rejected Medicaid expansion, two-thirds of poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of low-wage workers who are currently uninsured in the United States are left without insurance, according to an analysis by The New York Times. The government will not penalize people for not having insurance if they could have been covered by Medicaid in states that aren’t accepting the expansion.

Republican legislators in North Carolina and the Republican governor, Pat McCrory, agreed to reject the Medicaid expansion earlier this year, citing concern about the cost of offering Medicaid to a half-million more people.

North Carolina’s Medicaid program cost $14 billion last year. The state’s portion was $3 billion, and the federal government paid the rest.

McCrory also expressed concern about whether the federal government would pay its share of the cost to expand in light of the budget deficit, which has exceeded $1 trillion in each of the past four years.

Medicaid in North Carolina currently covers children under 18, some pregnant women, people with disabilities, select low-income parents and elderly poor.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Republican from Cary and a vice chairman of the committee, said the current state Medicaid program, which has experienced cost overruns and chronic billing delays, needs to be fixed “before consideration can be given as to whether you add an additional 500,000 people to the system.”

He added that the people who would be covered under Medicaid expansion are “relatively healthy and not the ones in most need. If somebody has an emergency and they go to the emergency room, they will always get care.”

Linker, from the Health Access Coalition, countered that insurance companies have repeatedly found that the people who would be covered by the Medicaid expansion are less healthy than those with insurance. He said it’s a myth that “anyone can stroll into an emergency room and get free, comprehensive care.”

Hospitals are obligated to stabilize patients who are acutely ill or injured, he said, but they can also pursue patients for payment, which can wreak havoc on the finances of the uninsured.

In North Carolina, about 1.5 million residents are uninsured, and about half of them are expected to qualify for insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

About half a million of the uninsured earn less than 100 percent of the poverty level – $11,490 for a single person and $45,960 for a family of four. They are not eligible for insurance subsidies, and therefore are not subject to a penalty for not buying health insurance. That’s because authors of the Affordable Care Act assumed this group would get benefits through the Medicaid expansion.

Mostly these people who earn too little to get subsidies are healthy adults without children. They are “literally too poor to be eligible,” said Madison Hardee, a lawyer with Legal Services of the Southern Piedmont.

Hospitals across North Carolina had embraced Medicaid expansion. It meant they would be reimbursed for treating poor people who are unable to pay hospital bills.

“This was integral to implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” said Joe Piemont, president and chief operating officer of Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte.

“These (uninsured) folks are here, and we’re taking care of them now, but it certainly would have been a benefit to have them qualify for the Medicaid expansion.”

The annual cost to North Carolina’s hospitals of not expanding Medicaid is estimated to be as much as $660 million, based on an analysis conducted for the N.C. Institute of Medicine by N.C. Division of Medical Assistance.

Citing the state’s decision to reject Medicaid expansion, Vidant Health System recently announced plans to close its 60-year-old community hospital in Belhaven, a Beaufort County town.

“Many of these institutions operate close to the margin,” Piemont said. “You just wonder how much they can absorb.”

 

NC recipients need to dig deeper into their BCBS letters

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/11/3273010/nc-needs-to-dig-deeper-into-those.html

 

Indeed. Thanks for this.

Most telling:

Premiums are also steeper in North Carolina because Gov. Pat McCrory and the legislature fought reform at every turn. According to Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, defaulting to the federal government to run a portion of our insurance marketplace has resulted in less competition and less competitive pricing.


And, as a brief by the American Academy of Actuaries showed, by refusing to expand Medicaid, more costs are shifted to people who purchase private insurance.

Some people are pointing to the letters from BCBSNC as evidence that people cannot keep their plans if they like them. That is not the case here. After health reform passed, BCBSNC offered its customers the option to “grandfather” or keep their plans. If members chose to alter plan benefits then BCBSNC warned that the policy would lose its grandfathered status. It’s true that most people don’t read everything sent to them from an insurance company, and often what they do read is not clear, but there was an option for BCBSNC customers to retain their plans.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/11/3273010/nc-needs-to-dig-deeper-into-those.html#storylink=cpy​

 

Inside the Fox News lie machine: I fact-checked Sean Hannity on Obamacare

 

Thought I'd provide an update - the Obamacare plans offered by BCBS & Coventry all proved to be unaffordable. I found that some companies are still offering 12 month plans to be effective before the end of this year, so we're cancelling our BCBS policy as of November 30, and on December 1 will be doing a 12 month policy with Coventry. The cost is actually about 18% less for similar coverage than what we were paying BCBS (with the same deductible for my wife, and a higher deductible for me), and less than 1/2 the price of the Obamacare options.

As of January 1, it will become an ACA-compliant plan, meaning I'll still get my useless maternity coverage, but the rates will remain the same, and we won't be paying a penalty for 2014. This may not be a long-term solution, but it at least gets us through next November.

 

I am a bit confused, if it is ACA compliant (as of 1/1/14) how is it not an ACA option plan?

 

Because it has an effective date of 12/1/13. Coverage for December is not ACA-compliant, but that will change on 1/1/14. Rates are based on the initial coverage and are guaranteed for 12 months. If I had asked for an effective date of 1/1/14, the price would have more than doubled.

 

It took me 35 minutes to sign my daughter and me up on the Healthcare.gov site. Coverage will be through Coventry and for less than what is currently offered. No problems at all with our process finished just a few minutes ago.

Thanks to all put this together!

Sherry

 

I am hearing reports that the Healthcare.gov site is getting better. It still has some issues though.

I wonder how much news coverage that will get?

 

Yes, I heard it on the radio this morning too. However, I do not think that it will get the 'round the clock coverage as it did a month ago. We love to see things fail here.

 

Now that's just down right silly.

That's like expecting a four hour report on the winning of the Daytona 500 because there was four hours of reporting of the race.

 

Considering the cumulative amount of coverage the race results would get on just about every news channel's sports segment, specialty sports channels, etc. I would imagine the amount of coverage a 4 hour race would get would be proportional. Your point is moot.

 

I will tell you guys that when I logged onto the ACA site I was a little skeptical. I logged on mid afternoon on Sunday. I got right in. I followed the steps and thought through every area. I compared what my employer is offering to what I could get through the ACA companies and found that those companies offered our family a lower cost for a bit more on the deductible. I will be paying around $300.00 less per month using the company I picked and the plan through the ACA. I was pleased.

I was pleased, not because of politics, but because it will save our family much needed money and we will have health insurance, dental and vision all starting January 1, 2014. We are in dire need of all of these items and will be using them as soon as possible.

Good luck,
Sherry

 

You're welcome.

 

Thanks. I'll take it any day. :lol:

Sherry

 

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram apologizes for Obamacare story

 

Mine was up $400/month. I'm thrilled.

 

Well,, how nice.. Maybe the NY Times will take this same route and apologize. LOL,, won't be happening though.