Average Obamacare Enroll - Age 50+ Game Set.

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theeedude

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,787
6,197
126
Part of your coverage as a male is maternity care. Are you going to get pregnant as a male? Are you going to get testicular cancer as a woman?

Its not price discrimination based on gender its how you write an insurance policy.

In this case, at least before Obamacare banned it, it's both.
 

OverVolt

Lifer
Aug 31, 2002
14,278
89
91

The article ends with a question right.
Finally, how is the smoking surcharge enforced? What if I’ve polluted my lungs and bloodstream with Marlboros for 30 years but quit smoking the day before I sign up for a plan? Am I a nonsmoker? What if I say I quit but didn’t? Or what if I go back to the habit a month after signing up?

I raise you...

http://news.yahoo.com/break-smokers-glitch-may-limit-071436839.html

A glitch involving President Barack Obama's health care law means smokers may get at least some relief next year from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable.

Hmm...

The underlying reason for the glitch is another provision in the health care law that says insurers can't charge older customers more than three times what they charge the youngest adults in the pool. The government's computer system has been unable to accommodate the two.

How much you want to bet this means they charge the young arbitrarily high next year so that they can get their premiums from the 65y/o smokers? The 'mandates' have no sound statistics to back them. If a 65 y/o smoker is 3x as risky as a 21y/o non smoker they should be charged 3x more. So many arbitrary mandates. A couple are a good idea, places the government must step in for the greater good. Like how people got dropped for preexisting conditions. Thats obviously wrong.
 
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sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,649
2,925
136

Here's the glitch: The age curve only permits a 3:1 ratio based on age. The tobacco surcharge allows an insurer to increase premiums up to 50% of the age-rated premium. When healthcare.gov was coded, it was (again) coded poorly so that the age curve calculation was done after the tobacco surcharge, not before. It's been promised to be fixed by 2015...
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
174
106
The article ends with a question right.

Finally, how is the smoking surcharge enforced? What if I’ve polluted my lungs and bloodstream with Marlboros for 30 years but quit smoking the day before I sign up for a plan? Am I a nonsmoker? What if I say I quit but didn’t? Or what if I go back to the habit a month after signing up?

Every time I've seen the smoking question asked they've asked about it for like a 5 year period.

Lying would be damn stupid for most smokers. If you've ever used your CC to purchase cigs they have that data. If you lie they don't have to pay your bills is my understanding and I don't think you get a refund of premiums either.

I raise you...

http://news.yahoo.com/break-smokers-glitch-may-limit-071436839.html

Hmm...

How much you want to bet this means they charge the young arbitrarily high next year so that they can get their premiums from the 65y/o smokers? The 'mandates' have no sound statistics to back them. If a 65 y/o smoker is 3x as risky as a 21y/o non smoker they should be charged 3x more. So many arbitrary mandates. A couple are a good idea, places the government must step in for the greater good. Like how people got dropped for preexisting conditions. Thats obviously wrong.

I don't know what it means for (some?) smokers other than there's a temporary glitch that will be fixed.

Fern
 

trenchfoot

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
15,842
8,433
136
The time clock to the 2014 elections is ticking faster and faster for Obama. Seems to me the rollout was in part rushed so as to get the bugs out of the system ASAP, to correct oversights and unfair circumstances and to definetly get it all done before voters headed for the polls with a sour taste in their mouth over the ACA.
 

OverVolt

Lifer
Aug 31, 2002
14,278
89
91
I don't know what it means for (some?) smokers other than there's a temporary glitch that will be fixed.

Yea I remember reading it somewhere and figured it was a huge oversight. Its is pretty bad glitch imo... :p

Fixed by 2015... oh geez lol.

The more they legislate the more likely their own laws are going to conflict. This is one of those times.
 
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Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
174
106
Yea I remember reading it somewhere and figured it was a huge oversight. Its is pretty bad glitch imo... :p

Fixed by 2015... oh geez lol.

The more they legislate the more likely their own laws are going to conflict. This is one of those times.

I know that for at least in accounting (and things like auto or home repairs) fixing mistakes takes a heckuva lot longer than getting it right the first time, and also highly increases the likelihood of additional errors. So I agree, their fixes are likely going to result in conflicts and cause even more problems. That's just the nature of things.

Fern
 

sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,649
2,925
136
Every time I've seen the smoking question asked they've asked about it for like a 5 year period.

Lying would be damn stupid for most smokers. If you've ever used your CC to purchase cigs they have that data. If you lie they don't have to pay your bills is my understanding and I don't think you get a refund of premiums either.

IIRC (and that's not guaranteed), CMS declined to elaborate on the tobacco question such that the time period and/or definition of tobacco use can vary by insurer.

If you lie about tobacco use they can't cancel your policy but they can back charge you for the unpaid premiums. They can't fail to pay claims but they can withold the unpaid premiums from the claim payments.