You already know this - Oh-bummer-care is broken

Oh-bummer-care - For just me it costs almost $300 a month for the basic (bronze) plan.
If I go to the doctor it costs me $50.00 for the co pay.
If I need tests there are more co pays. There are always tests. Because I have the lowest plan (it's all I can afford) my co pays are high.
The Doctors/Specialists they send me to are 20 miles away with more co pays and more tests.
I have to travel 30 minutes each way back and forth, back and forth from doctors to testing facilities to home.
Something is wrong with this system when I have to travel so far to see a doctor.
Now they want my tax return information so they can re-calculate my monthly share.
I finally got sick of the ridiculousness of it all - it is a burden to try and comply with all of the requirements and then the doctors are just too far away so I found an alternative through some of the members here on the forum and I signed up with them two months ago.
I notified my old ins. co that I no longer needed their services and that I found something better.
They ignored me and kept sending bills.
I notified them in writing a second and third time.
They kept sending monthly bills.
I finally got their attention and they tell me that I have to contact the Federal Marketplace to cancel my insurance with them.
WTF?!?!?!?
More hurdles to jump over.
I called the Federal 800 number last night and waited in queue for 30 minutes and no one picked up the line. They are supposed to be available 24/7 - I guess last night didn't count.
Today I finally got through to them and they tell me that I am still responsible for the last two months of billing because I didn't call them sooner.
WTF?!?!?!?!?
Supposedly it's in the fine print when you agree to have them cover you. I never saw the fine print, my application was made online.
I'm not paying the bill - they can put me in collections. Just another smudge on my credit report. I can prove that I have alternative coverage for the time in question, it just ain't oh-bummer-care...

What kind of stupid runaround lack of customer service mentalities do we have to deal with? I should be able to contact the insurance company directly and tell them to cancel and to back date the cancellation date and NOT have to go through the broke down dumb arse federal system that is rigged to cost me more and more dollars while screwing me!

:af:


Thank you for your tolerance and letting me vent. I can't stand having to deal with systems that don't work! And I have a bad feeling that it ain't over yet - they will find a way to say I owe them more money for something else.

 

Its an industry. They dont care about us. The politicians are paid off by the lobbyists, donors and special interest groups to make the rules to profit the industries. Ever notice how obamacare doesnt apply to the politicians? None of this stuff ever applies to them. The whole system is broken because its corrupt in everyway. There is no accountability for public officials. Besides that, almost all politicians have never actually successfully done anything, managed anything, or engineered anything in real life especially when their own money was on the line. All they do is talk and rub their hands together while we are busy working for a living. We are like dairy cows that get milked every day. I definitely feel for you. You are totally justified for being frustrated.

 

Lee... the first thing is to listen carefully, "As our menu has changed"; Like Ive already memorized 12 trillion phone extensions at the government level. Wait for prompt #2 usually and get a Spanish speaking operator. They are all bi-lingual and will transfer you to an English speaking (kinda) person, that you will be dissatisfied with and demand to speak to a supervisor.

I'm disabled and hold a retiree union pension health plan, blue cross, blue shield; Thank God with Medicaid (I'm 60) as a secondary. Mine is all PPO so I go where I want. My common law wife is disabled and only has a SS income. She has to have a Humana or some other BS plan that's an HMO. So she takes home $1200 per month, the insurance is 500, and her COPD prescriptions run between another 500-1000 a month OUT OF FRIGGIN' POCKET. She's now on the $10 a month plan to repay the doctors and hospitals the $100K that shes into them for. They threaten collections too. Don't even get me on the assistance part; she collects WIC (food stamps in Wisconsin) for an outstanding sum of $16 PER MONTH. That's not even a can of dog food per day.

I honestly had a dream last night (look at the time stamp here) that woke me up and sent me to the crapper; The U.S. Gross Domestic Product is now macdonalds cheese burgers and pseudo tacos. All the "Then Generation" had to worry about was WWII, commie expansionism, and fallout from global thermo nuclear war.

Getting a gas voucher for those 100 mile trips to the doctors office? ILL BET NOT. The rant on this end is Why Doesn't the Government Regulate what doctors get paid? Not what insurance pays or pro-rates but actually pay every stinking saw bones and specialist say, $30 an hour, PERIOD. Could you imagine getting that $1000 oil change next time? Theres no end in site! ws

 

Screw ins and Obamacare. I elect to pay the fine. For my family the fine is = to 2 months of the ins premiums.If I get sick or hurt I'll pay cash rate at the hospital or doctors office.

 

It can all be summed up easily. Sooner or later, the Affordable Health Care Act is going to run out of other people's money.
More likely sooner than later. http://www.wsj.com/articles/unitedh...ing-its-insurance-exchange-segment-1447933310

The largest insurer in the US is 'threatening' to back out of the exchange, and only a fool would think that the .gov wont force (by mandatory participation) the taxpayers to shell out more $$$ in inflated premiums to keep them in the game.

The 'Affordable' Care Act is as big an oxymoron as The 'Patriot' Act.

 

I believe they (United Healthcare) announced yesterday that they were dropping about 90% of the exchanges they participated in after incurring about a billion in loses.
QUOTE=Storm1;2570314]It can all be summed up easily. Sooner or later, the Affordable Health Care Act is going to run out of other people's money.
More likely sooner than later. http://www.wsj.com/articles/unitedh...ing-its-insurance-exchange-segment-1447933310

The largest insurer in the US is 'threatening' to back out of the exchange, and only a fool would think that the .gov wont force (by mandatory participation) the taxpayers to shell out more $$$ in inflated premiums to keep them in the game.

The 'Affordable' Care Act is as big an oxymoron as The 'Patriot' Act.[/QUOTE]

 

I will agree that some doctors draw excessive salaries, but to become a doctor is a fantastically expensive proposition. You first need four years of college; if you are bright enough there may be some scholarship money available, but four years of your working career are gone. You then must attend four years of medical school where there is almost never financial aid - they know that if you become a doctor, you will be able to pay the medical school loans back (a little north of $265,000 for my niece). Now eight years of working for a living have passed. A year of internship (very little pay - many crazy hours of on-duty time), and at least two years of residency. Eleven years out of high school before you reach any real earnings potential. My niece wanted to do a few years of semi-volunteer medical practice on an Indian reservation, but with a total of more then $300,000 in college loans due, it is just not possible. She can't work cheap.

 

Yep, break the system, then build it back the way they want it.

 

I have/had Keiser platinum. last december I was send enrollment info for 2016 online. I filled it out and was told my premium would go up to 1000+ for me and my two kids. agreed and submitted. I never get the new bill. I call in january and they told me I didn't need to re-enroll, it would carry over. OK. bring on the bill. february, insurance still good yet no bill. told to go online to make a payment. online shows returned premium for 8 months back and put on medi-care. three months of new premiums paid from the credit. Keiser terminated for non payment. how does this make any sense at all. I have been trying to get this put back together for two months, hours on the phone. they don't have a clue whats going on. I can't believe they let us go uninsured for this long. we can't get prescriptions unless we pay full pop. that's thousands monthly. And I never get a return status update. I even agreed to pay for the two month we weren't covered to get it reinstated. clueless wonders running the circus. And the people suffer. I did print the screen showing all the credits and payments before they locked me out of my account. I must be one of thousands in this same mess.

 

That's part of the conspiracy... so they get you for and extra $100 here and there; no biggy, but times that by a million people, Oh Well. Then theres Joe Average that cant begin to figure this out and he gets a bill for a grand and just goes ahead and pays it. I had a shoulder job done, pre-approved et al for 75K. After all is said and done it was denied as "pre existing". My wife submitted a PHONE BOOK sized affidavit with bills and receipts 3 times to the Wisconsin insurance adjudicator in Madison and all of a sudden they waived all but $3500. I had considered bankruptcy, the gas pipe and the .45 ACP... she saved the day!

So now she just came back from her ortho about the shoulder she had done 6 months ago. Limited range of motion and "RELIGIOUS" therapy denied and the doctor now wants to cut her again to remove scar tissue next Tuesday. It can only get better! ws

 

I definitely feel your pain as I try to do anything in "compliance" at the Federal level. I think we are supposed to try to come up with viable solutions,but WTF? I see the problem as very basic,so I will try to explain. The other day,I am at an auto repair facility and a lady walks in with trans fluid leaking from her car. They pull it in and after thirty minutes they explain to her that with the "extreme" high pressure of the cooler lines,she will have to replace both of them for a total of $387.00 in parts and $127.00 in labor. She wanted to know if there was an alternative and was told that was the only way to fix the issue. I recognized the owner of the shop was standing there as she walked out. He knows me and saw that I just stood there silent during his patrons conversation. After she left he said that he knows it is a lot of dough to throw on a couple metal lines(especially when a piece of hose and four clamps would have got her by). He said the problem is overhead,taxes,insurance,workers comp,snow removal,heating fuel,etc....and he said the list goes on and on.So,back to the point,my family doctor died last year and before he did there were some stories told. He explained that there are not many doctors out there anymore. Most people are coming out to specialize in cosmetic or other areas not historically relevant to the medical field. He also wanted to know how many engines that have blew up on me in the past thirty years. I asked him why,and he said because when you are a real doctor you have a lot of patients that die. I never really gave it that much thought but this guy had done a lot for me over thirty years and he was basically telling me why everyone is now sent off to a specialist. It is just a way to dodge the responsibility of saying"I built that engine".....Now,if every time you needed work on your car or house...you were referred to a specialist,how much would that cost? You are basically at the mercy of a doctor who knows little to nothing of your history every time you go for a new visit. The beauty of their new system is that there are so many places to point the finger,if you do croak,that no one can be held accountable. So at the end of the day,does the industry serve you,or the insurance companies that lobbied it into practice. Unless you can find a real doctor that accepts payments or trade in other form,you are just in the system like me(still looking for an old school doc).

 

Man does that sound familiar! As a kid getting 1st grade Vacs etc we went to the doctor that delivered me and knew my mom since childhood as well. There was a Chesterfield burning in the ashtray and a bunch of crumpled up packs in the can as well. This guy had a beautiful brass microscope on the counter and a bunson burner. He did a childhood diabetes test right there... a little wee wee in a test tube on the burner and it turned cloudy. He gave me a shot and I was off to 1st grade. At age 9 he did refer me to a surgeon for an appendectomy though with 4 days post op in the hospital. Now its a scope and go home. BTW... the birthing expenses were $110.00 in 1955. So at a $2.00 an hour pay scale, that was 55 hours worth of work for dad. Do the I.M. (inflated math) for today and have a chuckle... ws

 

how many hours worth of work for dad is todays birthing expense?

 

The government is totally BROKE.

The Obamacare fiasco was designed to tax the payers to pay for the non payers.

All of the uninsured that sign up have to be subsidized somehow.

The working people paying the big premiums are the ones who foot the bill.

I closed my company last year after 13 years due to insurance costs.

My plan was up to almost $2,400 per month.

That is a lot of money every month.

 

Obummercare is just another step toward socialism. Wife and I feel lucky to be on Medicare with supplemental United Healthcare.

 

Jim Lore will chime in soon and tell us how great it is and how us pee-ons don't see the greater good picture. Vote, people, vote!

 

Why do I feel like voting is as good as farting in a hurricane? I don't trust the politicians or their system, it's crooked and stacked against the middle class.

 

Without becoming too darn political, that's why Id like to see a business oriented person of interest in the ovary office, and it aint Shrillary. ws

 

That is too funny because both of my previous doctors had the large microscope,large poster of the periodic table,their own test lab(a small room where you could hardly fit a nurse to play with)...and a whole lot of experience. They would have been PO'ed if someone told them to send you to get a second opinion. That was their choice,not the insurers. A real doctor is much harder to find than a real lawyer,and to find one of either is a real job.