Obamacare number 23,028

[Buckrub]

I swear. I yelled, I screamed, and I was told (here) that I was an idiot and this was good for us.

What a joke.

Two guys at deer camp lost their insurance and can't get more for less than $1,200 a month.

Son lost his job, found another. The new one won't provide insurance, and works every employee 38 hours a week to keep from having to provide it. They said they could afford to provide group before Obamacare, no longer though. Son hurt his foot.......broke something, bone sliver broken off, and pulled away from tendon. Hard to do paramedic work! Finally goes to ER (and is billed a ton of money, unlike every other person in there with him that day), and they xray it. Big mess. They refer him to an Orthopedic doc.

Sorry, doc will NOT see him or make an appointment. He has no insurance. (I don't blame the doctor). Son calls around to get personal insurance. Lowest premium is over 1/4 of his salary. So he can't get it.

Meanwhile, one of our Tuesday "Lunch Bunch" is shacking up with an illegal alien lady. She had emergency appendectomy surgery while on trip to Mississippi, and they found complications. After 2 weeks in hospital, her bill was a big fat zero.

Don't even fix your lips to tell me that the system we had was more broken than this fiasco. This is going to destroy this country.

[Niner]

http://nypost.com/2014/01/05/4-biggest-lies-about-obamacare/

[Thumper]

... one of our Tuesday "Lunch Bunch" is shacking up with an illegal alien lady ...

If she really is an illegal, why don't you do your civic duty and turn her ass in to INS? ;)

We're kind of sweating bullets here also. Lynn found out last month that her hotel is up for sale. Evidently, Hyatt has a block of something like 30 hotels that they are selling as a package for elebenty-bazillion $$$. So far, about 5 groups of prospective buyers have toured the hotel ... I think ALL were named Patel.

We have no clue what the future holds. She has so much time there that she gets 3-weeks vacation/year. That will probably go out the window with a new owner. Heck, as far as I know, her job will go out the window along with her vacation time. That's one reason we're trying to use her vacation time up by the end of the year, because she has no idea if she'll even get paid for accrued time if the place is sold. Then comes the question of insurance ... we have no idea what's in store for us along those lines. EVERY company she's worked for in her lifetime, has ended up selling out and she has to find a new job and start over with benefits. To make matters worse, finding a new job and starting over gets tougher as she gets older (she's in her late 50's now). The days of working for a company and retiring after 30 years of service are long gone I'm afraid.

[Captain]

If she really is an illegal, why don't you do your civic duty and turn her ass in to INS? ;)

If they didn't "catch" the fact that she was illegal in the two weeks that she was in the hospital, I'm sure INS can't figure it out....

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[Buckrub]

Why point her out? So they will give her a voter ID and Supplemental Social Security?

That's not the point of my post, however.............

[BarryBobPosthole]

The problems you're talking about were not caused by Obamacare. I know you don't want to hear that and I know you won't even try to see it that way. You honestly think before Obamacare someone could hurt themselves and THEN go buy insurance and expect to have their expenses covered? You really think before Obamacare that many companies didn't work employees part time to avoid paying health benefits? You really expect me to believe your son was the lone person in the ER that got billed for the service he got? He should have thought about insurance before he got hurt. For a young person it isn't that expensive. Did he try? Are you saying you thought Obamacare was supposed to care for bad decisions?

there's a lot wrong with it. Not much of what you've described here is what is was even supposed to handle.

Calm down.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Geez.

Read better.

He tried and it costs (now) 1/4 of his gross salary.

I listed several problems, and they are all caused by Obamacare. His employer told him that. They "wished" they could provide insurance but can't. They did NOT do this in years past.

My friends lost their insurance due to letters that stated, in black and white (I read them) "Obamacare has caused us to go out of business, sorry". I do not expect you to ever believe anything I say, so no........but yes, he was. He got billed, for sure.

I thought Obamacare was to ensure that 100% of Americans had health insurance coverage. It seems the opposite is the case.

You need to calm up. Just because YOU weren't affected doesn't mean these problems are not real. I'm glad for you. Honest. But the rest of us are suffering, and we didn't before.

And let me know what "bad decisions" you are discussing here. I think you need to eat a bite off of the Reality Tree. I know you don't want to hear that and won't try to see it that way............. but I've got dozens upon dozens of examples. My cousin makes her living selling/brokering private health insurance, medicare supplements, Part D's, etc. You should hear HER get started.

You just don't have anything direct to base your beliefs on, so you assume it's all wonderful. One day you will see.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Obamacare was never meant to provide insurance to 100% of e people. It was targeted at people like your son who couldn't buy insurance at work. If he decides not to buy insurance, I'm not sure how that is Obamacare's fault. And I DO call bullshit on companies who claimthey're out of business because of Obamacare. Those expenses have hardly gone up at all for companies. It is plain bullshit.

But that's fine. Believe who and what you want and rant to the skies about how obamacare has made your life a misery

I'm out of this one.

BKB

[Thumper]

Well, standing back and looking from the outside in ... I have to agree to a point with P-hole. I know TONS of companies that would hire two part time employees to work one 40 hour week (BEFORE Obamacare) so that they didn't have to provide medical insurance/benefits. I believe to be considered full-time, one must work a minimum of 30 hours/week (going by memory here) and the company have 50 or more employees. So 38 hours is "full-time" as far as I know. The only way they can get by without offering medical is if they are under that 50 employee mark. Again, it's been a while since I had to deal with this stuff, but I don't see anything new here. I will say that when I had my business, I would have had to close the doors if I'd been required to provide medical insurance for my employees. When I'd do interviews, I'd try to hire veterans with VA coverage or someone whose spouse had medical insurance through his/her employer and had coverage for both of them.

The way your post is written, it sounds like he hurt his foot, THEN called around for insurance. That ain't gonna happen! Heck, I even tried that with a boat I owned once. I had a boat parked in N. Florida with no insurance and we had a hurricane building up and headed this direction. I couldn't go get it because the trailer needed work and I was afraid it wouldn't make the 300 mile trip home. I called to purchase insurance and was told if there are ANY hurricanes in the tropics, a freeze was immediately put on all new policies. Heck, that was BEFORE anything even happened and the hurricane had barely left African waters! I was so worried about my boat (a 24' Stamas) blowing through someone's house that I called a boat mechanic I knew up there (who loved my boat) and GAVE it to him, then over-nighted the title which I'd signed over to him. It does no good to close the barn door after the horses have escaped so-to-speak.

As for your claim:


Finally goes to ER (and is billed a ton of money, unlike every other person in there with him that day) ...

I have no clue how you OR your son would know that. It sounds like a bit of "embellishment" to me.

Insurance has ALWAYS been an expensive proposition. There were a few jobs in my early years when I couldn't afford it either and I thanked my lucky stars I had VA coverage (but I "paid" for it). In later years, I always had company insurance until I became self employed, then I paid through the nose for private medical insurance for 15+ years. I really couldn't afford to pay it ... but on the other hand, I couldn't afford NOT to pay it either.

I'm sorry for your son's plight and it's nothing all of us haven't faced at one time or another. I don't know everything there is to know about Obamacare ... but I really don't believe it is the REASON for your son's situation. Face it, he got caught with his pants down and it's a painful and expensive lesson learned. We've all learned lessons the hard way somewhere along the line.

[Thumper]

I just re-read my post above and a thought comes to mind. Isn't this the boy who was in the military and went to Granada or some such place a few years back? I don't know what kind of money he makes, but you make it sound minimal. Why doesn't he go to the VA? Or am I totally cornfuzzled?

[Captain]

Most if what I hear is along the lines of what Bucky is talking about. I know personally ours has gone through the roof. Can't comment on the particulars of others situations but I know a BUNCH of small and large business owners and they all have horror stories about what this has cost them personally and what it has cost their employees. Less coverage for more money.
Perhaps I don't run in the group that has had positive impact from this law? Who knows? But what I've heard and experienced has been very negative

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[Buckrub]

Obamacare was never meant to provide insurance to 100% of e people. It was targeted at people like your son who couldn't buy insurance at work. If he decides not to buy insurance, I'm not sure how that is Obamacare's fault. And I DO call bullshit on companies who claimthey're out of business because of Obamacare. Those expenses have hardly gone up at all for companies. It is plain bullshit.

But that's fine. Believe who and what you want and rant to the skies about how obamacare has made your life a misery

I'm out of this one.

BKB

I respect you greatly.

But your view of this, and in fact most things political, is so far-fetched, so rooted in Ivory Tower Thinking and so off-base, that I too am done trying to discuss politics of any kind with you. What I said is true, all of it..........and you are basically calling me a liar, in a nice way. I can show you the letters. I can let you talk to active sales people. But I doubt you'd believe. You are truly the Doubting Thomas. If it doesn't fit your political agenda, then it must be some made-up, mean old Conservative email-driven B/S. Your reality is simply not mine.

And Obamacare's PRIME mission was to insure all Americans. Your statement to the contrary is enough in and of itself for me to discredit your views.

So, I'm done with it.

Go Cards.

[Thumper]

Ummmm, again, wasn't he in the military? Or did I dream that? I think that's an important question here?

[Chicken Dinner]

If anyone is interested in what's going on with health insurance costs, employee contributions, employer contributions, etc., here's a good article regarding a recent survey by the Kaiser Foundation:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/family-insurance-premiums-rise-modestly-for-3rd-year-survey-finds/2014/09/10/738bcb52-38f6-11e4-a023-1d61f7f31a05_story.html

Interestingly, the average single plan now costs a little over $6k and the average family plan is a almost $17k/year. (There's also information on what employee contributions typically are if you're interested.) The bottom line is that either you, your employer or the government have to pay that for health insurance. Either way, it's not cheap.

[Buckrub]

CD, that's just premium costs. Copay way up. Drugs moved to higher tiers. All costs are skyrocketing.

[Thumper]

Well heck, nevermind ... it looks like you're totally avoiding what I thought was a pretty dang important and relevant question. I guess I won't bother asking a 3rd time.

Carry-on ....

[Buckrub]

I'm sitting in doc office waiting on physical.

I got it and will pass it on. My guess is that he is avoiding VA.

[Thumper]

Ummm, lemme see here ... busted up foot and can't work with busted foot ... has no insurance and can't afford to fix foot ... yep, I can see why he'd avoid it. WTF??!!

Oh well, I guess he can always just sit around and bitch about Obamacare. ;)

[Thumper]

Get him this information Buckster ... have him AT LEAST sign up whether he uses it or not. Seems like a no-brainer to me. What has he got to lose? All he'll need is his DD214.

On-line application.

http://www.va.gov/HEALTHBENEFITS/apply/index.asp


http://www.va.gov/HEALTHBENEFITS/apply/veterans.asp

Partial highlight:

Basic Eligibility

If you served in the active military service and were separated under any condition other than dishonorable, you may qualify for VA health care benefits. Current and former members of the Reserves or National Guard who were called to active duty by a federal order and completed the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty may be eligible for VA health benefits as well.
Reserves or National Guard members with active duty for training purposes only do not meet the basic eligibility requirement.

Minimum Duty Requirements

Most Veterans who enlisted after September 7, 1980, or entered active duty after October 16, 1981, must have served 24 continuous months or the full period for which they were called to active duty in order to be eligible. This minimum duty requirement may not apply to Veterans who were discharged for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, for a hardship or “early out,” or those who served prior to September 7, 1980. Since there are a number of other exceptions to the minimum duty requirements, VA encourages all Veterans to apply so that we may determine their enrollment eligibility.

http://www.va.gov/HEALTHBENEFITS/apply/application_process.asp

Partial highlight:

Getting an Appointment

You may request a doctor's appointment at the time you apply in person, or by checking 'yes' to the question asking if you want an appointment on the application. An appointment will be made with a VA doctor or provider and you will be notified via mail of the appointment. If you need health care before your scheduled appointment, you may contact the Enrollment Coordinator, Urgent Care Clinic or the Emergency Room at your local VA.

[Buckrub]

Send that to my email.

I said I was guessing why. He knows the medical scene there. I'm sure he has a reason, even if you disagree with it. Makes sense to me. But I ain't him.

[Thumper]

Done.

[Chicken Dinner]

For those of us lucky enough to have decent employer provided plans (even though we contribute), the thing to really focus on is the 40% excise tax on "Cadillac" plans. It doesn't kick in until 2018, but employers are making changes to health plans now in order to be prepared. It's estimated that without changes 75% of current employer plans would be hit with this tax and employers just aren't going to pay it. It's main purpose is to drive us all into high deductible plans (like those offered by Obamacare) so that we'll be better health care consumers.

Cynthia Weidner, an executive at the benefits consultant HighRoads, agreed that the tax appeared to be having the intended effect. “The premise it’s built upon is happening,” she said, adding, “the consumer should continue to expect that their plan is going to be more expensive, and they will have less benefits. ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/business/cadillac-tax-health-insurance.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[Buckrub]

All pigs will be squealing soon.