No kidding

Even Slate magazine is starting to notice the Obamacare failure.  This year's bad news, besides the failure of the non-profit coops and the news that many of them aren't even guaranteed, which is bad enough, is that PPOs are disappearing from the market.  The Slate article concentrates on New York, but the same thing is happening in Texas.  We're stuck in an HMO for 2016, which barely feels like coverage to me, considering that the time we're really going to want to depend on insurance is when we face something really scary, and that is exactly when I don't relish being confined to a puny network.  But we've also applied to one of those non-insurance healthcare cost-sharing organizations, so we'll see how that goes.

4 comments:

Grim said...

Still doing the punishingly-expensive grandfathered plan here. Sky-high deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, so you can't go to the doctor -- but it does at least have a real network in case of serious emergencies.

Elise said...

We're sticking with Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Alabama. The premiums for our 2015 plan went up by 30% for 2016 so we've switched plans. I stayed Silver; my husband went Bronze. I feel fairly lucky in Obamacare terms: I've lost out of network coverage in my new plan but the network is huge, covering - as far as I can tell - most doctors/hospitals all over Alabama plus doctors/hospitals in nearby parts of Florida and Mississippi.

One new wrinkle I hate: this year when a generic med is available, a non-generic is not covered. I get not paying more for a non-generic but it seems weird to not pay at all for a non-generic. Seems more about control than money.

Ymar Sakar said...

Good thing the survival black/grey economies have all kinds of disease prevention resources.

Prevention is easier on the cells than the cure of surgery and strong medicine with side effects. Hospitals have bad blood lately.

Texan99 said...

Ha. Well, I'm checking into a hospital tomorrow, as I just posted! But nothing serious.