Betsy McCaughey
Investors.com
5/28/2013
If you live in California and purchase health insurance on the newly created exchange called Covered California, don’t expect care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the prestigious academic hospital in Los Angeles. That top-drawer care won’t be covered by exchange plans. Many Californians will have to give up doctors and hospitals they currently use if they want subsidized coverage.
That’s one of the truths omitted from last Thursday’s fanfare when Covered California unveiled the plans it will offer starting Oct. 1.
Covered California will be the largest exchange in the nation. So the unveiling attracted nationwide interest. ObamaCare boosters declared victory. But the truth gap between what they claimed and what exchange consumers will actually get is wider than San Francisco Bay. Setting the record straight is important, because the problems in California will be repeated elsewhere.
Maine, for example, hasn’t officially announced its exchange plans yet, but already consumers are outraged to learn that they too will have to give up their current doctors and hospitals if they enroll on the exchange…
…Insurers everywhere are concluding that low cost will be king on exchanges. Most exchange customers will be low-income, sensitive to price differences and dependent on a federal subsidy. To compete on cost, these insurers are limiting networks to hospitals and doctors willing to accept lower-than-customary fees.
This is Wal-Mart style health care, similar to Medicaid. Only a small fraction of doctors are willing to accept these fees…
…Take the case of a healthy single man in California who earns $29,130 per year ($14 an hour). This is the customer the Obama administration is targeting. If he buys the cheapest bronze-level health plan, after a federal subsidy he will still have to write a check each month for $137. The federal government says that’s “affordable.” But how many months go by before he decides to spend that $137 on a car payment instead?
Read the entire article at Investors.com
Update: Up To 75% Could Be Hit By Obamacare Tax
The so-called “Cadillac Tax” facing employers who offer premium healthcare plans to their workers already is affecting employees, even though it doesn’t kick in until 2018. Employers say they have to get started bringing down costs now, The New York Times reports, so employees who are used to $20 co-pays at the doctor’s office and $500 deductibles are learning a new reality. Many now are looking at deductibles as high as $6,000 for families….
AP: Many Will Have Insurance Cancelled Due to Obamacare
