its interesting if people are asked
do you like obamacare
they say no
if asked
do you like the affordable care act
they say yes
excuse me they are they same
could we just call it something like
the
american healthcare insurance plan
for those of you in these two red states
kentucky and arkansas
and
if your income level is low enough
then you are lucky to live in these two states
why
you get a private insurance plan instead of a
medicaid plan
we all know which of these you get better care from
these two states are an example of what could happen
if the democrats and republicans would really work
together to compromise on an issue
however if you are in that income level in texas
you are simply screwed
you cant get medicaid
you make too less yes thats right you make too less
to qualify for subsidies
you get screwed
in texas
we are number one in not providing health care to folks
leading the nation with 25%+_ in uninsured folks
and
that number will climb if the supreme court votes
against subsidies to those who qualify
now for me
i am
on medicare
a medicare supplement plan with bcbs
a medicare d plan for my drugs with bcbs
it costs me about $300 a month
i am quite pleased with the coverage
its ease of use
its website
why dont they run the healthcare.gov website
i think that all providers and hospitals should be
required to accept assignment
no opting out
then give us all a chance to get medicare
medicare for all
recently i got a shingles shot
now my drug plan covers the shingles shot
but
it has a deductible equal to the cost of the shot
so when i got it at my provider i knew i would
have to pay for it
$250+ but i figured it was worth it
i have seen too many old folks get shingles
and
then dwindled away from the severe pain
i watched my wife get it on her face with the marked
tooth pain jaw pain facial pain as the nerves got
inflamed
she got her shingle shot later as she dont want
that pain again
just a side bar for getting the shingles shot sorry
now last year i helped folks in 5 different states decide
what american healthcare insurance plan to get
arkansas texas utah california colorado
so i revisited the sites again
the hardest to navigate was the texas site as it had so
many choices
and
many of them were bad choices
i found a blue cross blue shield policy ppo that was similar
to what you could buy on the private market and had
the same providers also
eg if you use the austin regional clinic for your care
then this is a good one for you to choose
some of the plans had very restrictive providers
well one in particular didnt have many specialist on the list
the other i looked at was the scott and white health plan
an hmo plan in an organization known for providing
overall quality care
much like the kaiser permanente in california
the best site to use was the california website
covered california
they make it so easy
maybe they could run the federal site
remember if you qualify for subsidies you need to pick
a silver plan
there are so many people who qualify for subsidies who
dont realize it
eg if you are married with two kids and make $90,000
you qualify for a subsidy
if you can get insurance through an employer you
dont qualify for a subsidy
what i like is that california
rates the insurance companies like medicare d does
eg where my sons live in california
kaiser gets 5 stars
blue shield of california gets 3 stars
they only have 3-4 choices of insurance companies
i also noted on all the sites that the premiums for the plans
i recommended to folks last year really didnt change much
so
in summary
remember if you dont qualify for a subsidy you can either
buy your insurance through the exchanges
or
go to a private companies website and buy it yourself
one policy a friend bought last year was actually cheaper
on the exchange as on the private website
weed out the bad guys
its hard if you dont know they are bad
watch out for names of companies you have never heard of
and hmo or pos or epo
unless the hmo is like scott and whites or kaiser permanente
or mayo clinic
they do make it hard to sort through the options though
they need to standardize things like they do with medicare d plans
or medicare supplement policies
they all have to be the same really
they are star rated
i chose blue cross because i wanted all mine ran through the same
company
and
bcbs has a good reputation in the state
so
we just need it to be like medicare
with just one choice medicare
and
not the medicare disadvantage plans
then choose a supplement plan
then chose a drug plan
oh lets just put them all together so we have
just one choice
the american healthcare insurance plan
then you have a better plan than most of you have now
and
most of you get on the exchanges
and
via private sources
yes lets start calling it the american healthcare insurance plan
ahip
thats the solution i think
the organicgreen doctor
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