Replies to post #213140 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[3Saints]

Where do you get your info? My area...central PA has 4 carriers with a total of 55 plans on the federal exchange. I get paid MORE than I did on the old medically underwritten plans with the exception of single coverage. If there are 2 or more enrolled...I make more...generally speaking.

Highmark Blue Shield has the best deal once you consider plan, pricing, network. Two carriers sell products with severly cut networks but tell us that pricing will be 18-25% under competition. Shitty plans have not gone away...they will continue to be sold to those shopping just price. They will not learn about the plans deficiencies until they go to use it and fins out their hospital is not in th HMO they chose.

The shitty plans you refer to in the past were called mini-meds...they were nothing more than discount networks with annual limits on the major stuff. You get what you pay for.

I am not supporting Obamacare...I am simply making a living. If and when the website works...it is an agents wet dream. You can not imagine how often an agent would write a plan and have it highly rated or rejected...I would estimate 50%. THIS IS GUARANTEED ISSUE...like crack to an agent

[fuagf]

MAP: The 5 Million People The GOP Cut Out Of Obamacare

.. the first, one from the one this replies to ..




AP Photo

Dylan Scott – November 8, 2013, 8:00 AM EST50118

Starting Jan. 1, nearly five million people who were supposed to be covered under Obamacare won't be because their states have refused to expand Medicaid.

[ interactive offering state specific coverage gap information ]

The Medicaid expansion field is tentatively set for 2014, and the nation is split down the middle: 25 states (plus D.C.) are expanding, and 25 states are not, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation .. http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid/.

Ohio became .. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ohio-s-gop-gov-gets-medicaid-expansion-passed-by-legislative-board .. the 25th state to join the expansion last month, and more states could still sign onto it. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) has proposed .. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/pennsylvania-s-gop-governor-accepts-medicaid-expansion .. an alternate form of expansion that would require federal approval, and Terry McAuliffe's election this week .. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/dems-hope-to-use-same-strategy-as-mcauliffe-elsewhere .. as Virginia's next governor increases the likelihood that his state will eventually expand the program. New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) has called .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/10/17/new-hampshire-will-hold-special-session-on-medicaid-expansion/ .. a special legislative session this month to try to hammer out an expansion deal in her state.

[ NH insert .. Democrats call for Medicaid expansion compromise
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131116/NEWS/311160334/-1/NEWSMAP ]

But for now, according to the foundation, 4.8 million Americans won't be covered as the law intended in those non-expanding states. They don't qualify for Medicaid now, but would have under the expansion, and they don't make enough money to qualify for financial help to buy private coverage. They're Obamacare's other losers, while media coverage focuses on those people whose individual policies are being canceled under the law.

A quick reminder of how this happened: Obamacare was written with the intention that every state would expand Medicaid, the low-income public insurance program, to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The expansion would have accounted for about half of the people who would get covered under the law (17 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office) .. http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/03-13-Coverage%20Estimates.pdf . Many of the newly eligible people would have been childless adults who currently aren't eligible for the program in most states.

It was supposed to be a good deal for states, too: the federal government would cover 100 percent of the costs for the first three years and never less than 90 percent after that.

But then in June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, while Obamacare would stand, states would have a choice about whether or not they would expand Medicaid. Since then, half the states, all of them with either a Republican governor or a GOP-controlled chamber in the legislature (or both) that opposed the change, have declined to participate.

The other thing to consider is that it's the poorest people who make up those 4.8 million who are missing out. Because of a kink .. http://www.governing.com/blogs/fedwatch/gov-obamacare-mistake.html .. in the law's language, people between 100 and 133 percent of the poverty level will still be eligible to receive financial help to purchase private coverage on the insurance marketplaces that opened Oct. 1.

But those actually in poverty will be out of luck.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/medicaid-expansion-map-obamacare-losers

See also:

Republicans Deliberately Sabotaged the ACA Website, Hoping the Law Would Implode
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93636682

Republicans All-in With James O'Keefe's Attempt To Discredit Enroll America And Battleground Texas
[ in reply there .. "pro_se, and all -- the direct link for that one:
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/14363/republicans-allin-with-james-okeefes-attempt-to-discredit-enroll-america-and-battleground-texas ]
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94030215

State Sen. Stiles, Mad Tailors, and Medicaid Expansion [New Hampshire]
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93180371

A little known, but potentially fantastic provision of the Affordable Care Act .. two bits as easy to miss ..

Here's the good stuff. The ACA provides funding and guidance for a new way to approach health care. The Comprehensive Primary Care initiative is a program that involves about 500 practices across the country, in several geographic areas. Southwest Ohio/N. KY, New Jersey, Arkansas, Colorado, New York, Oregon, and Oklahoma have participating practices. Practices were selected based on a number of factors, including past willingness to participate in such things as NCQA quality recognition, and patient-centered medical home (PCMH) certification. You can read more here: http://innovation.cms.gov/...

Basically, CMS (center for Medicare and Medicaid services) provides funding outside of the fee-for-service environment for practices to do a better job of chronic disease management. There is/was a detailed application process, and multiple milestones you have to meet, but a lot of it boils down to CMS providing additional monies for practices to use as they see fit in order to help improve the care for their patients, particularly (although not exclusively) those with higher risk chronic illness.

The whole thing is actually really interesting.

[...]

I don't know what the other 490-some practices across the country are doing, but we have used the money to hire more staff, including what we call Care Coordinators for each office, an RN who can reach out to patients before, during and after appointments to see how we can better coordinate care. We try to have labs drawn before folks come for appointments, so we can have already reviewed the results before walking in the room.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93466792

15 Myths The Media Should Ignore During Obamacare Implementation
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93470278

Eight questions that will decide whether Obamacare is a success
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93197173
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Stop The Social Security Stupidity: A Q&A With Bernie Sanders
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93570860