I just read that Anthem Blue Cross is preparing to raise rates up to 25% for its independent subscribers. Sophie has an independent policy with Anthem Blue Cross, separate from The Husband, who carries the boys and me on his. I'm not sure people realize that despite the terrific improvements of the Affordable Care Act, it didn't do much to address the serious problems that those with independent policies have in affording them. Basically, Big Insurance and Big Pharm kept all the perks and continue to rake in the profits at our expense. It does look like California is addressing this latest travesty, but God forbid we should have universal healthcare coverage, or what the right calls socialized medicine ( I think I'll take to my grave someone I heard with the thickest redneck accident saying pre-Affordable Care Act that she didn't want no government comin' between me and my doctor.
I guess the 630,000 individual policyholders here in California, including Sophie, Henry, Oliver, The Husband and myself, need to get off our lazy asses and work harder.
I'm more inclined to raise a posse.
How about you?
This has just got to stop somehow.
ReplyDeleteDid you read what happened to Rebecca L today?
It's so appalling. It's...it's criminal.
The government coming between me and my doctor? I can even begin to describe the ignorance of this statement. That is not at all how it works. Not at all. If anything, that opposite is true. I have never, ever not been approved for any type of healthcare that my doctor has recommended nor has it happened to anyone I know.
ReplyDeleteActually, the only time we ever get denied it if we opt to purchase insurance on top of what we already have. Fucking insurance companies.
DeleteIn my sweetest southern voice, I scream loudly at the stupidity of not having universal healthcare and do my best to explain that the only people benefiting from keeping our current system are big insurance companies and big pharma. Who ARE coming between people and their doctors; daily, hourly and with life changing consequences. The number of people denied medications and treatments from private big ins in the chronic illness group I am in is appalling. Not new, unproven or radical treatments but regular medications and treatments widely used. The state of our insurance and healthcare makes me sick. Sorry for the rant. :)
ReplyDeleteI too received a shocking and outrageous Blue Cross notice---and until 2014, we're helpless. I'm so tired of being over a barrel in this way. Blue Cross basically just laughs at the California Insurance Commission's slaps on the wrist.
ReplyDeleteSo freaking insane! I'm in for the posse. My cousin, who lives not too far from you, just got denied insurance because she TOOK PRENATAL VITAMINS. God forbid she do something her physician recommended she do to stay healthy. Apparently her healthy pregnancy now constitutes a pre-existing condition. UGH!
ReplyDeleteMe and my mount are ridin' your way.
ReplyDeleteNoticed your rather marvelous Freudian slip:
ReplyDelete"...someone I heard with the thickest redneck ACCIDENT saying pre-Affordable Care Act that she didn't want no government comin' between me and my doctor."
And, re: independent healthcare plans, can you hear me screaming from up in Seattle? I pay 100% for insurance for me and my son, and I can't afford to go to the doctor.
Oh, brother. A posse indeed.
ReplyDeleteJust curious: What is the advantage to Sophie having her own policy, as opposed to being on your family policy?
Sophie wasn't eligible on our policy because of her "pre-existing condition." She can now go on our policy, but Anthem would probably jack up the rate so high, we couldn't afford it . We were able to get her a policy here in CA designed for the "uninsrable" coming off COBRA, but the rest of the family wasn't eligible. We recently downgraded our policy to basically catastrophic so that we could afford it.
DeleteI am so sorry to hear of the increase in Sophie's premium. Really, it is insanity. I support the Obama's healthcare plan but was sad to see our flexible medical savings account cut from $5000 to $2500. My husband's company explained that the larger savings limit wasn't needed because it was mostly used by people who had two teenagers in braces. Really? I said - because we use that savings every year for the first $5000 of our daughter's medical bills.
ReplyDeleteIs Sophie not eligible for Medicaid? Won't that be easier than your current insurance?
ReplyDeleteSophie does have MediCal as secondary insurance. And no, it's no easier.
DeleteI'm still seething right now about Anthem Blue Cross. They straight cancelled my policy here in Idaho (after i'd spent mounds of time and energy researching policies and companies when i got booted off my parents' plan.) It had something to do with a discrepancy in reimbursements from county to county within the state of Idaho(?) I still don't entirely understand it. Such a racket. And as you know, if your coverage lapses you're fucked. Fortunately for me, i was able to snag up some insurance through school, otherwise i woulda been a sad, sad, angry panda.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, i'm so ready to take up arms with you. Literally (isn't that terrible?) My pacifist, idealist self is drowning disbelief and disgust in a bar somewhere (probably a gay bar with drag queens) or maybe a beach with a hip flask and a surfboard.
I just got that damned letter yesterday; Anthem is raising our premiums by 22.3 percent. This for two people who hardly ever go to the doctor and have no health problems at all. I hate them. We're now going to have to shop around and try to get on a new plan with a new provider, attached to my new(ish) husband. Underwriting should be some fun, since if you sneezed back in 1985 they count it as a pre-existing condition and charge you double. Something has got to give. I feel for you. We are all captives of a crazy, unfair system. The only thing that makes any sense is single payer; one cannot depend on the "free market" to do anything but gouge.
ReplyDeleteExactly: "one cannot depend on the "free market" to do anything but gouge."
Delete