Litigation

How we?ll get screwed under the proposed health plan for America

By Tracy Coenen

Forget about the massive cost. Forget about the millions that will still be “uninsured.” Forget about the fact that healthcare will be rationed. Forget that those over 65 will be considered more expendable and therefore be denied some care. All that is bad enough…

But now there’s finally a piece reporting on what you’ll lose (or be prohibited from doing or getting) under the new health plan proposed for America.

1. No choice – Currently health plans offer a lot of choices, and participants (or those who are paying for the plans) can make a lot of choices. That saves money becuase they can decline coverage that doesn’t apply. (For example, a woman who plans to never have children doesn’t need maternity coverage, easily saving hundreds of dollars per month.) There’s going to be a huge list of mandated coverages, and it will be massively expensive.
2. No saving money by living healthy – Currently people like non-smokers can pay lower insurance premiums because they avoid behaviors that often have expensive health consequences. There will no longer be an incentive to make healthy choices, as everyone in a community will pay the same cost whether they’re healthy or not, or engaging in unhealthy behaviors or not. Why does this matter? Shouldn’t we all pay the same? I guess that’s a compelling argument if you’re someone who has huge medical bills. It doesn’t look quite so good if you you’re a young person (who pays much less currently because they visit doctors less), or if you’re healthy (eating a good diet to keep your cholesterol and blood pressure low).
3. No high deductible plans – One easy way to save money on health insurance premiums is a high deductible insurance plan. A consumer who takes a plan like this is gambling that they won’t have high medical costs. In my case, it has worked. I’ve been on an individual insurance plan for almost 10 years, and I have only met my deductible one year.  The other nine years, I remained healthy and had relatively minimal out-of-pocket costs. And along the way, I have saved thousands of dollars in insurance premiums.  Look for the government to set artificially low deductibles, which will eliminate this money-saving option for people like me.
4. No existing plans – Our smarmy president keeps saying that consumers will be able to keep their existing health insurance plans if they want to, but the reality will be something much, much different. There will be so many mandates and costs, that employers won’t be able to continue offering the plans, especially if they have self-insured plans under ERISA. Plus the companies offering traditional health insurance plans will have a massive catch…. they can keep their plans so long as nothing ever changes. One change of any sort (coverage, deductibles, etc) and the employer must get a “qualified” plan through the government program.
5. No choosing your doctor – Say goodbye to the days of finding a doctor you like. You’ll see who you’re assigned to see. You’ll pick a primary doctor, and that doctor will tell you which specialists (if any) you’ll be seeing.

And lest you should think you might avoid all of this by simply finding a doctor and paying cash for all services… that’s going to be banned under the government plan. And easy solution to avoiding the government plan would seem to be gathering together a group of people who are willing to pay cash for medical services, and thereby avoid the government runaround. That simply won’t be allowed for the obvious reasons…… it would show exactly what a scam our government is running on us.

Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on July 26, 2009 (boomark / email).