Money Matters March 20, 2014

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Money Matters March 20

KVMR FM RADIO
or Moneymanagementradio.com

Tune in and listen to all the markets fundamentals and what is going on in the world of your money.

My experience with the ACA

(Obamacare)

My first visit to the Covered California official Obama care website a few weeks back looked promising.

I decided to meet with an insurance specialist to see if the AHCA (Obama care) would help my family reduce medical expenses.

I thought an insurance specialist would help as I had trouble discerning just what I would get if I signed up for one of the Obama care health plans.

The specialist, my wife and I compared our current Blue Cross Anthem plan to the Obama plan called SILVER and upon first glance, I was encouraged.

That encouragement soon turned to discouragement as we plowed through the details.

Although my monthly premium would fall by about $200.00 and my out of pocket would also be reduced, we started searching for our current doctors to see if they accepted the plan.

That’s where the problems started.  Not one of our doctors, neither my wife’s nor mine would accept Obama care.  In fact, in Nevada county there were only about a two dozen or so who were listed as “within the network”  on the site.

We called a few to see if they would take new patients. Unfortunately none would. The only one we found that might was charging a $1500 membership fee. I guess this was their way of making up for cost of servicing Obama care patients and the reported low fees it pays to doctors.

Even if I wanted to change doctors, which I don’t, there wasn’t a doctor in my county who would take new patients under Obama care, nor any of the specialists that I had gone to in the past few years.

This meant if I had signed up for the plan, my only option would have been to go to hospital for every doctor office visit I required and my wife’s as well.  Obviously not time effective for me and certainly not cost effective for national healthcare or its balance sheet.

I don’t know how far I would have to travel to find a doctor that accepts Obama care and would also take a new patient but with a 30 mile range there were none I could find.

This meant any doctor I had to see here or any specialist I might be referred to would be “out of the network” meaning I would pay FULL price for their services and my out of pocket deductible would skyrocket to over 10 grand. 

At least on my own plan I get a negotiated rate. On the new plan, the way it was explained to me, I would pay full list price which would probably be exorbitant. The health care plan would not kick in. 

Compare that to my current plan. I have never seen a doctor that wouldn’t accept my plan and all the specialists I have seen over the years have also accepted it. On the Obama care system, I can’t find a doctor here who would accept new patients and the plan together.

My insurance specialist told me the list of doctors accepting Obama care was growing smaller by the day, and today’s visit left us finding not a one.

In summary, we left our specialist as we found him. He had warned us the plan was onerous to doctors and that he had to continually turn away potential customers due the simple fact you cannot find a new doctor who will accept it if your current doctor wont.

This left anyone signing up having to resort to going to the emergency room for any and all ailments.

After my experience, Obama care from my stand point is a mess. You can’t find a doctor,

none of the specialists I might use accept it, few people are signing up to average out its eventual cost and many of my friends are losing coverage or finding their new coverage much higher in price.

Despite what Washington tells us, it’s not working in my county, not even a little bit.

If you had any experience with signing up for Obama care, I would like to hear about it. Send me an email at Moneymatters@kvmr.org.

This article expresses the opinions of Marc Cuniberti. Mr. Cuniberti hosts “Money Matters” on KVMR FM 89.5 and 105.1 FM on Thursdays at noon and syndicated on over 30 radio stations throughout the US. He has been featured on NBC and ABC television and on a host of made for TV documentaries for his economic insights. His website is www.moneymanagementradio.com