Obamacare Schadenfreude - Another Satisfied Customer

A foggy morning in Pismo. But the sun is trying to come out

Timothy P Carney: How Obamacare makes my family less financially secure

. . . We have a high-deductible health plan and we pay our medical expenses through a health savings account. This year, even before our baby was born, we reached our deductible — for in-networkcare. After the deductible, the insurer pays 90 percent of costs. Plus my out-of-pocket max is $5,000, which includes my deductible. So once I hit the deductible (and thus got halfway to my out-of-pocket max), I Iooked in our HSA, saw there was more than $2,500 and thought, "Good, we can afford any health care expenses that might come with a new baby."

But then my wife reminded me that some of the doctors or specialists who see us at the hospital might not be in network. And we have a totally separate (and higher) deductible for out-of-network care. We'd pay every penny for doctor out-of-network.

My wife called the hospital. The hospital said that some specialists are in network, some are out. Can we request an in-network anesthesiologist? Nope. We get whoever is on duty at the moment the contractions get too painful.

Obamacare has contributed to the narrowing of networks. This can be, on net, a good thing for health care in cases where people can shop around. But in other cases, where you can't shop around — like which specialists are working at the hospital when you're admitted unexpectedly (or where your doctor sends your bloodwork) — narrower networks are a huge threat.

The program was never designed to help people like you who are financially thoughtful, and willing to work for your own health insurance. It was designed to make you help pay for those who aren't.

Case in point: Crist To Feds: Don’t Kick The Undocumented Off Obamacare Coverage

Charlie Crist, the Democratic nominee in Florida’s governor race in November, says the Obama administration shouldn’t require proof of immigration status for Obamacare sign-ups.
“We need to make this law work for the people depending on it, and the President should suspend this requirement so that no American citizen loses their health insurance due to a bureaucratic requirement,” Crist spokesman Brendan Gilfillan told Politico Thursday.

Over 310,000 Obamacare customers have failed to provide proper documentation on their citizenship or immigration status to the Obama administration, after the federal government contacted them between five and seven times about discrepancies in the documents they submitted with their applications for health coverage. Close to 94,000 of those customers are located in Crist’s home state of Florida.

Gee, I wonder what the political payoff could be for giving illegals subsidized health insurance? One of the best moves the Republicans ever made was running Crist out.