Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Reactionary politics is using rhetoric to seek to destroy the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a campaign slogan.

My heart sank (click here) when I got an email late last month from my friend Robert, who has been battling multiple sclerosis for the past decade. He wrote to tell me that he was among the many Americans who in recent weeks received letters from their insurance companies saying that their policies won’t be available next year.

Insurance companies are sending those letters primarily because the policies they will no longer offer don’t provide enough coverage — or have deductibles that are too high — to comply with the Affordable Care Act. In many cases, however, the policyholders getting those letters are simply victims of a business practice insurers have engaged in for years: discontinuing policies because they’re no longer sufficiently profitable....

...Considering his very serious and costly preexisting condition — his medications alone cost more than $5,000 a month — Robert was nervous as he started looking for a replacement policy. How much more would he have to pay to stay insured?...

...He could barely believe what he heard: he could get better coverage than the policy being discontinued — and pay less — thanks to Obamacare.
“The overall cost of the plans I’m considering is cheaper than the plan I am currently paying for,” he wrote me this week. “My total cost for coverage now, including premiums and out of pocket costs, is about $9,800. Two of the plans I’m seriously considering for next year have total costs of $8,400. I’m shocked, but in a good way.” 

So not only did Robert not experience the sticker shock he had been expecting, he will save $1,400 next year on health insurance.
The plan he is leaning toward — a top-of-the line “platinum” plan — will have a higher monthly premium, but he will still save on average about $117 a month because of the way his out-of-pocket costs will be calculated....

Mr. Potter's friend is an American that can run up against a one million dollar lifetime maximum in the previous health care industry. Now, that has been eliminated. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is proving to own up to it's name for most if not all Americans. The initial reaction is always one of worry and surprise, but, the worry and surprise is never going to match what was occurring in the USA without this law.

Thank you, Wendell. There are people with a conscience that care about this country.