Do you think Obamacare has caused insurance policies to be cancelled or is it a myth?

I think so. If your insurance policy isn’t in compliance with the regulations of Obamacare, it either gets canceled, or you get a fine for not having insurance with Obamacare. And that’s even if your insurance is better. Nice folks, huh?

Where did you get this information, snowberry? I haven’t heard anything like that. I have heard that certain policies have been altered to comply with the new laws. Several people I know complained about their policy rates going up and then looked to discover that their policy was changed as well. It covered more than it used to—but the rates went UP so I can see why they are ticked. I’ve also heard that YOU WILL NOT BE FINED FOR NOT HAVING INSURANCE UNLESS YOU MAKE OVER 75K.

I’m not a fan of the current system—nor am I a fan of how ACA is unfolding, but I am getting tired of people just pulling stuff out of their butts and stating it as fact when it comes to ACA.

Not sure where I read it.Time will tell. Of that we can all be sure.

Several insurance companies are changing their policies to match standards. The rates of many policies have gone UP because of this instead of DOWN like we were led to believe.

But no one is going to get their policy cancelled and then turn around and get charged for not having insurance that very same day. In fact, most people who will get their policies altered make less than 75k so they won’t be charged at all even if it were cancelled.

Maybe it’s because I am in a State that refused to make it’s own insurance plan, but everyone I know around here has insurance rates go UP. It covers more when it goes up, but my current plan was fine as it was. I don’t like paying more for stuff I never used. But I don’t know anyone that got their plans cancelled. The plans just changed and are now costing big money.

I’m not really mad at the ACA for this yet. Because the states next door to my state who DID set up their own exchanges and stuff pay about ¼th for the same policy offered in my State. That leads me to believe that the problem isn’t with the ACA but is with the shoddy “default” service your State gets when the legislatures are too busy trying to get the law repealed than making something decent out of it.

290k people in Washington State had their insurance policies cancelled according to this lady on the news right now. Her new policy is $1,048 per month for two persons.

I think @snowberry is correct. If you have insurance that doesn’t meet the minimum standards of the ACA then my understanding is that you need to improve the coverage. Not entirely sure, though.

Our government is famous for, and really good at fining people for no decent reason at all. Obamacare is one more opportunity for that.

If you make under $75K you won’t be fined, but if the insurance companies offer plans that don’t include the mandated coverage required by ACA, they can be fined.

HHS makes grandfathering of the plans so onerous that insurance companies can’t continue to offer the same policy if the premiums go up by as much as $5. That figure comes from the testimony of Kathleen Sebellius.

It’s not “no reason at all”. You’re underinsured and therefore an increased cost to the healthcare system.

@Rarebear If that’s the case, why is it that when the people least able to afford it are forced to buy insurance, it will cost 25% more in one state than in the next? I’d rather pay the $5 increase! http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/09/29/the-5-states-where-obamacare-costs-the-most/

Yes, these folks have it together all right.

@snowberry I’m not saying they have their act together. I’m just saying that in a public health and overall insurance coverage point of view it makes sone sense.

@Rarebear I keep reading in the news of rumors that many doctors signed up with Obamacare will stop practicing either because it won’t be profitable enough for them or that the burden of paperwork would become overwhelming to them, making it harder to care for their patients. I also read in news that many doctors plan to go to just cash only (no insurance at all), like the doctor I go to now.

Obamacare demanded that Insurance companies change their actuarial tables, and then blamed the companies for not being able to afford underwriting the risk at the old rate.

Sort of like demanding that local restaurants give away food and being surprised when they can’t afford it, and refuse.

I think some of it is true and also Obamacare is an easy scape goat right now.

I heard on the news that NY already had all the same requirements that people are bitching about that are driving up costs, so none of the NY insurance companies should be affected if that is correct.

What I think is irreverent. After hearing a few laments and a few praises from people I know, it has come down to taking a step back and looking at the big picture.

Please correct me if I am wrong on this. National healthcare seems to be working in the UK and in Canada. For the US, this is a time of change that impacts all of us in one way or another. We, as a democracy, voted for Barack Obama into position, not once but twice, knowing his stance on national healthcare. It has passed approval by the majority.

Now that it is coming into effect, the nay-sayers are vocal. They are looking at it from a personal point-of-view. From all that I have read and heard, there are few of us, and this includes some political representatives, that have any clue how this will all play out.

This may be overly optimistic, but if we just stay focused on the vision of providing healthcare to all US citizens in the best and most affordable way, then we will end up better than we are now as a country.

Tweaks will be need to be made to the policy in order to bring about the ideal situation for the general public, but that is always the case in change. The last two weeks have been filled with blanket statements that everyone’s insurance price is going up or insurance is cancelled or “While it doesn’t affect me, but it will to my grandchildren”. Why don’t they share their concerns with their local/state politicians who represent them instead of those that listen with an open ear, yet do nothing to support their stance, or just brush it away?

By the way, my husband, who is a democrat, but who also works in benefits says Obamacare definitely pushes up some costs for some plans.

@Pied_Pfeffer I agree that change is always scary and if it is going to work it will need tweaks. We can’t expect such big changes to not have bumps and bruises along the way. But, I don’t know if it is comparable to other nations who have gone through the change. From what I understand Canadian many citizens were reluctant to nationalize healthcare when it was first enacted, but I think it went full on socialized. Our system in America is a big hodge podge right now. I could be wrong about how Canada went about changing over and I have no idea about England.

Snowberry. It would be a good time to STFU or actually back-up up what you say with sources. Your racist Aunt on Facebook doesn’t count.

Where did that come from? Racist aunt on facebook???

My friend mr. johnpowell, if you haven’t noticed this is in SOCIAL. If you don’t like this question or my remarks please make one of your own, and put it in general.

Extra lurve for being polite about it too!

@snowberry wrote “I keep reading in the news of rumors that many doctors signed up with Obamacare will stop practicing either because it won’t be profitable enough for them or that the burden of paperwork would become overwhelming to them,”

Not only that but obamacare doesn’t allow some doctors to participate even if they wanted to. My mom’s friend is a very popular vascular surgeon and he was denied participation because he was charging too much money. Insurance companies don’t need expensive doctors.

I don’t understand how people can expect good quality service for cheap prices. it is like wanting a mercedes for the price of a toyota corolla.

You know, @annabee, it’s possible this surgeon might do better than ever because he’ll get the people who can afford to pay to have their work done out of pocket. It might take a little time to fill the pipe so to speak, but it could happen. The other guys are going to have such long waiting lists that people will go to him anyway.

If I had to pay even one dollar for healthcare I’d be spewing. America can do it too.

@trailsillustrated Our medical system is so wacked out that I cheerfully pay out of pocket- no insurance- to get my needs met. I’ve lost patience with doctors who insist I’m “making it up” or “Gee, I dunno. Anyway, that’ll be $100 ma’am!”

For people in Europe and elsewhere who think the ACA is similar to your systems—forget it. It’s not like it at all. If it were, I’d be a bigger supporter.

In theory, it’s supposed to work like car insurance. In the 1970’s a serious problem was starting with car insurance. People who considered themselves to be “good drivers” wouldn’t bother getting car insurance. People who were “very bad drivers” wouldn’t get it because it was too expensive. When someone got into a bad accident with an uninsured motorist, usually their insurance company would have to pay all the damages and that person’s rates would go up—making that person drop their insurance because they couldn’t afford the new rates. Not having car insurance mandatory was costing a lot of money.

So State by State, and finally nationally, car insurance was made mandatory. Because everyone who drove was required to get it, rates really did go down. You could get good rates for good driving habits. Bad drivers could get insurance because insurance companies were forced to take high risk people by law. The bad drivers went into a pool and insurance companies would randomly get assigned the bad drivers so the risk was spread evenly. And if you were caught driving without insurance, you could get a heavy fine or even serve jail time. This worked at the time, and still works today. Car insurance is affordable because of these laws.

People thought this law would work for healthcare. If you made EVERYONE get health insurance, rates would go down. All of the healthy people who don’t use health insurance would be chipping in so the really expensive sick people wouldn’t have to pay so much.

I don’t think it’s working out that way. First of all, people forgot about some serious differences between healthcare and driving. If you are too poor to pay for insurance thesedays, you don’t drive. If you don’t want to pay for car insurance, you can choose not to drive.

The requirements for healthcare are—if you are alive and a US citizen, you need insurance. You can’t choose not to be alive if you can’t afford it. So they put a minimum salary cap on who has to pay for insurance. 75k. If you make less than that, you don’t have to get insurance. So already, there are a huge number of people exempt from the law. The pool of healthy people has diminished. So rates won’t go down the way they did with car insurance.

Another difference if you are a REALLY bad driver, you lose your licence. You also no longer pay car insurance. So if you truly are a horrible risk, you are out of the pool altogether. This doesn’t happen in healthcare. You can’t put someone in jail for getting cancer too many times. You can’t forbid them life. So they stay insured. So unlike car insurance, you have a lot more people at the “bad” end of the scale because you can’t kick them out if they get too sick.

Another big difference is—good drivers and bad drivers tend to stay that way. A good driver has control over whether or not they stay that way. They can obey all the traffic laws and do everything right. It’s mostly in their control whether or not they get in an accident.

It’s not that way with healthcare. You can go to the gym and eat healthy, not smoke and still get cancer and wipe out your “good” track record overnight.

Another way health insurance and car insurance are different. When people get older, their reflexes slow down. Their eyesight isn’t as good. People tend to stop driving when they get older. With healthcare, they tend to use it a lot more as they get older.

Honestly, I don’t think the ACA is a workable system. I guess it’s better than nothing and it’s probably all we’ll get in my lifetime. Even though it sucks, I think it’s been overly demonized. People have been raving lunatics talking about death panels and people going to prison. It’s just ludicrous.

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As an aside, the first time I heard about the ACA, it was 2007 and four different conservative republicans came to me saying this was the great solution to our problems. Obamacare was thought up by the Heritage Foundation—a conservative think tank. It was first enacted by Mitt Romney—a conservative governor. It was considered the best free market option available. I think the only reason people are screaming now is because a democrat put it into effect.

@keobooks Maybe that is a reason to be suspicious of it. It is actually created by Republicans. LOL.

@JLeslie Created by Republicans perhaps. But re-written and scammed to us by the Democrats. If I weren’t living it, it would be funny.

@snowberry I’m not blaming the republicans, it was a little joke, sort of half joke. Both sides have a hand in it. I never was very on board with Obamacare, honestly I never looked at the details of Obamacare, because I either think we should go all the way socialize or let in real competition, and some more regulation if competition doesn’t cure the scams in the system. I am against healthcare through the employer, I have a lot of complaints with our current system, and I think Obamacare doesn’t address many of my complaints, but it does address some of them.

When the HMO’s were created the politcians and businessmen knew it would be a financial extravaganza, and they sold it to the American people and the misinformed politicians (some knew exactly what was going on) as being the greatest thing for healthcare since penicillin. HMO’s are the opposite of competition, but still run by for profit companies andnit was a horrific combination and part of the reason healthcare is so expensive in America in my opinion.

What exactly was re-written and scammed? Seriously. If you know let me in on it. Because it looks like the same shoddy system I heard about in 2007.

@keobooks Who sold it to us? Who is taking credit for it? Whose name is on it? Hint: (Obamacare). Seriously, does it matter WHO wrote it? Obviously more than a few people, and apparently it’s a bi-partisan effort. But we’ve got it now, don’t we? In politics as is with the rest of life, the theme is, and always has been, “If you don’t like it, blame it on the other guy”.and “If you DO like it, take full credit for it!”

And I do appreciate the reference to Obamacare being a giant Ponzi scheme.

There IS something here that we may learn about in the future. I would expect more participation by the companies to provide coverage. But why are some sitting it out?

This just looks like more Republican dirty tricks. But how could they manage it?

I didn’t ask who wrote it. I asked what was changed.