By Kenton Henry
If you have ever been covered on an employer’s group health insurance plan, you may have had to select your medical providers from a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). If you were enrolled in a plan of this type – it was probably because it was your only option or because you were young and thought yourself bullet proof. And the reason is – most older people would not elect an HMO if given a choice. Because if your plan utilizes one – you either see a provider within the network or you have no coverage at all. Most older people know that when your health problem is anything more than a common runny nose (which is all young people believe they’re ever going to suffer from) – a person wants to be able to select their own doctor or hospital.
Has your income ever been at the poverty level or below? If so then you probably qualified for Medicaid. That’s the government’s health plan administered by the states for the poor. And if you were covered by Medicaid, you know how difficult it was to find doctor’s to take Medicaid, get into an appointment or see a specialist.
Now comes Obamacare. And when the premiums for the new health care compliant plans become available for individuals and families to choose from October 1 for a January 1 effect date – be prepared for sticker shock. Without going into projections of an unknown quantity, suffice it to say, the word on the insurance street is the cost of these plans is going to make people in most states “have a cow”!
So naturally, you’re going to review the lowest cost plans – the bronze or “catastrophic” options and hope they meet your needs. And when you do – you best hope you ARE young and bullet proof because you are probably going to find your selection of providers is going to be what you had available in a larger group plan HMO divided by 10 . . . or more. Be prepared to wait a long time for appointments and heaven forbid you need to see a specialist or a special procedure because–if you do–you are probably going to have to get the President to issue another of his executive orders to make it happen.
And what if you’re not young and bullet proof? Get used to rationing. Because Obamacare doesn’t like specialists and who do you want to see when you have a serious problem? Who do you think is going to authorize a more sophisticated (expensive) procedure? I love my family doctor but when he thinks I need a more expensive procedure – he refers me to a neurologist or an orthopedic surgeon, etc. But be prepared for your new health plan pre-certification department to tell you – “There must be a pill for that.”
In conclusion, you’d better hope you qualify for the subsidy so you can add all or a portion of your premium to the national debt. If not . . . be prepared to pay Cadillac prices for what at best will be an Oldsmobile.
(For more a perhaps more objective take on this – go to:
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; BUSINESS AUGUST 14, 2013:
Many Health Insurers to Limit Choices of Doctors, Hospitals
By Anna Wilde Mathews @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323446404579010800462478682.html
healthandmedicareinsurance.com 