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Message
New challenge for Obamacare: Enrollees who don’t understand their insurance plan
Posted on 7/21/14 at 5:03 pm
Posted on 7/21/14 at 5:03 pm
quote:
Nonprofit organizations across the country are being swamped by consumers with questions. Many are low-income, have never had insurance and have little knowledge of the health-care system. The rampant confusion poses a potential hurdle for the success of the health law: If many Americans don’t understand how health insurance works, that could hurt their ability to use their benefits — or to keep their coverage altogether.
A federal program to help consumers has also run out of money.
Julio Herrera, 63, a construction worker, bought what he thought would be the most affordable plan when he enrolled through Maryland’s new insurance exchange this spring.
But he does not understand why he is getting charged for hospital bills when he already pays the insurance company every month. And he did not grasp this thing — a deductible — that was $4,000.
The foundation surveyed an estimated 4,400 such consumer assistance programs shortly after sign-ups ended in the spring. Ninety percent of those programs had been recontacted by consumers and 44 percent had seen people who did not understand how to use insurance, according to a foundation report released Tuesday.
Language and cultural barriers are adding to the confusion. Many clients also struggle to read and write in their native language, predominantly Spanish, making for a steeper learning curve, said Elizabeth Colvin, director of Insure Central Texas, an Austin-based nonprofit working on enrollment. The majority of the 5,647 residents the group enrolled had never had insurance before, she said.
LINK
It's weird to think that the American underclass for decades and decades was non-existent in the health insurance market. These people from the article grew up without insurance, their parents grew up without insurance, and their parents' parents grew up without insurance.
These obamacare bronze plans are absolute shite for poor people. 6,000 dollar deductibles are not what the poor need.
When all is said and done with this law, I think the people that will benefit most are the rich people who were uninsured due to previous sicknesses. They can afford the deductibles.
This post was edited on 7/21/14 at 5:07 pm
Posted on 7/21/14 at 5:05 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
he did not grasp this thing — a deductible — that was $4,000.
He believed them when they said it was free.
Sucker.
Posted on 7/21/14 at 5:06 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Many clients also struggle to read and write in their native language, predominantly Spanish
and people ask why the immigration issue is a major issue. add 40k people to these rolls. we can afford it!
Posted on 7/21/14 at 5:35 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Enrollees who don’t understand their insurance plan
Sorry, this is not an Obamacare problem. This is a general health insurance problem.
I would estimate (generously) that only 30% of patients truly understand their benefits and the limits of their coverage.
Insurance 101 is a standard diatribe to patients for my financial counselors. Co-pay, deductible, covered benefit, co-insurance, etc... may as well be f***ing greek. But the common refrain is that I'm trying to screw them. Nevermind that your EOB clearly states that money you owe me is your deductible...I'm just being greedy.
This post was edited on 7/21/14 at 5:36 pm
Posted on 7/22/14 at 1:05 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
These obamacare bronze plans are absolute shite for poor people. 6,000 dollar deductibles are not what the poor need.
So what do they need?
Posted on 7/22/14 at 8:13 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Enrollees who don’t understand their insurance plan
Is that really anything new?
The health care providers themselves can't even understand my health insurance plan - even though they have people who are paid for that very purpose. This has been true before and after RomneyCare. They are always double billing me - asking for co-pays then taking the same from my HRA. Then I have to make them cough up the difference. Its a pain in the butt.
When we went to our "insurance counselling" meeting before having our son - they couldn't even tell us for sure how much it would cost us out of pocket with no complications, and forgot to mention that the patient co-pay applies to the number of patients leaving the hospital (2) - not the number entering (1). The meeting was really more to assure them we had insurance than to provide us any useful information at all.
This post was edited on 7/22/14 at 8:16 am
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