Man switches from Obamacare plan to Trumpcare junk plan, gets himself tested for Coronaviru$$$$

theeedude

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,787
6,197
126
Testing revealed Mr Azcue had the flu, not the coronavirus. But his limited health insurance left him with a bill of $3,270 two weeks after his test. He will be responsible for $1,400 of that bill.

Mr Azcue previously had insurance through the Affordable Care Act. He picked that insurance as he makes $55,000 through his job at a medical-device company, and it does not provide a health insurance plan.
Once he first purchased the plan, he was paying $278 per month. These premiums then shot up to $400 once his full salary kicked in, forcing the man to cancel the coverage and pay $180 per month for a limited plan through National General Insurance.

This decision comes as the Trump administration rolled back the Affordable Care Act regulations in 2018 and allowed "junk plans" on the market.

These junk plans offer short-term, low-benefit coverage for people, but they also are not required to meet the law's standards for health coverage, meaning the plans could avoid covering pre-existing conditions or offering protections from large out-of-pocket expenses.

Mr Azcue discovered that not only does he owe $1,400 out of pocket, but he also needs to provide his insurer with three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn't relate to a pre-existing condition. If for some reason the flu related to a pre-existing condition, then the insurer would no longer pay a portion of the man's bill.

Just a friendly reminder that Republicans are currently suing in Republican controlled courts to repeal Obamacare and throw people off insurance in the middle of a global pandemic. Do you think people are going to pay thousands out of pocket to get themselves tested when they have flu symptoms, or wait until after they feel sufficiently bad to head to the hospital at which point they would have been infectious for a couple weeks? If I were health care providers, I would stop profiteering off this, or they could find themselves in a universal single payer system in the not too distant future.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,291
9,650
136
This is kinda a weird one.

I mean, the guy went from paying $278 to $400 for his health insurance, then switched to the $180 option since $400 a month is a bit much. Can't say I blame him. Of course, the $180 coverage was crap.

This guy got fucked by everything that's wrong with healthcare. Luckily the bill is only four digits and not five or six.
 
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Nov 8, 2012
20,842
4,785
146
This is kinda a weird one.

I mean, the guy went from paying $278 to $400 for his health insurance, then switched to the $180 option since $400 a month is a bit much. Can't say I blame him. Of course, the $180 coverage was crap.

This guy got fucked by everything that's wrong with healthcare. Luckily the bill is only four digits and not five or six.

Honestly the whole pricing scheme is a load of bullshit.

Anytime I've ever had something like - say - an out of network doctor... My insurance will say "They are charging $6k. We deem that this service is only worth $3k"... so basically, the insurance only covers $3k - but likely that $3k isn't enough to hit my deductible, so essentially the insurance company still pays nothing.

So whenever I have those cases I call up the billing company and basically say "I'll only pay 25% of that". They usually backfire with "Most I'll do is 50%".. then from there I usually meet in the middle at 30-40%. The reality is this: They know the pricing is bullshit. They know their services are worth much less. The problem is that plenty of people see numbers on a fancy bill that is mailed to you and they believe that it's carved in stone.


Just because you receive a bill for $33,435,653.55 doesn't mean you owe $33,435,653.55 or that you're expected to be able to pay that.





In the case of this story though - it's likely not an out of network issue and more along the lines of just a bunch of expensive bullshit of a hospital emergency room or whatever they ran him for.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
99,954
17,801
126


Just a friendly reminder that Republicans are currently suing in Republican controlled courts to repeal Obamacare and throw people off insurance in the middle of a global pandemic. Do you think people are going to pay thousands out of pocket to get themselves tested when they have flu symptoms, or wait until after they feel sufficiently bad to head to the hospital at which point they would have been infectious for a couple weeks? If I were health care providers, I would stop profiteering off this, or they could find themselves in a universal single payer system in the not too distant future.


You must be new to America.

I would be surprised if they don't jack up the cost of testing. Like Uber.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
33,245
12,775
136
i'm surprised that his company did not offer a health insurance plan. startup?

all the more reason to have national, single-payer healthcare. your healthcare is independent of your employer (which hey, improves your economic mobility too!)
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
8,120
3,556
136
So his options were $180 per month plan or $400 per month plan. The $400 plan costs $220 per month more. He will have to cover $1,400 of this bill. Assuming his entire bill would have been covered under his ACA plan, then he will make up the cost over 7 months in savings from the lower cost of his current plan. Of course if he has to use the insurance for other things, results may vary.
 
Feb 4, 2009
35,862
17,403
136
Better question is how much should an emergency room visit & Coronavirus test cost?
$50 or $200 or $350 or $25,000?
Seems like we have all been conditioned to expect cost of care being insane.

Great example, Sunday I had to pick up some steroids for my pooch. I went to Walmart 20 pills cost $4 and some change total not per pill. I was expecting it to cost somewhere in the $60 to $80 range. Even animal medications we expect to pay a lot of money for.
Manufacturing and marketing wise 25 cents per pill sounds like a good number.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
33,245
12,775
136
So his options were $180 per month plan or $400 per month plan. The $400 plan costs $220 per month more. He will have to cover $1,400 of this bill. Assuming his entire bill would have been covered under his ACA plan, then he will make up the cost over 7 months in savings from the lower cost of his current plan. Of course if he has to use the insurance for other things, results may vary.

it's a great financial analysis in retrospect, but no one really expects to get sick or injured unless they have a preexisting condition.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,842
4,785
146
Better question is how much should an emergency room visit & Coronavirus test cost?
$50 or $200 or $350 or $25,000?
Seems like we have all been conditioned to expect cost of care being insane.

Great example, Sunday I had to pick up some steroids for my pooch. I went to Walmart 20 pills cost $4 and some change total not per pill. I was expecting it to cost somewhere in the $60 to $80 range. Even animal medications we expect to pay a lot of money for.
Manufacturing and marketing wise 25 cents per pill sounds like a good number.

When you ask "How much should an emergency room visit & Coronavirus test cost?"

You have to understand HOW you answer that. The answer isn't based on what your perceived "out of pocket" costs should be.

The answer is how much do you think it costs to hire all the services of the employees (nurses, doctors, admin staff), the cost of all the materials (hospital bed, gowns, masks, sterilization, fluids, etc.), and the cost of all the actual services (surgery, tests, cleaning, etc.)


So with that being said - How much do YOU think it should cost?
 
Feb 4, 2009
35,862
17,403
136
When you ask "How much should an emergency room visit & Coronavirus test cost?"

You have to understand HOW you answer that. The answer isn't based on what your perceived "out of pocket" costs should be.

The answer is how much do you think it costs to hire all the services of the employees (nurses, doctors, admin staff), the cost of all the materials (hospital bed, gowns, masks, sterilization, fluids, etc.), and the cost of all the actual services (surgery, tests, cleaning, etc.)


So with that being said - How much do YOU think it should cost?

Total cost not out of pocket, how much should it cost? How much should previously mentioned bed cost? how much should gowns, masks, sterilizations, fluids ect cost?
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
25,964
12,229
136


Just a friendly reminder that Republicans are currently suing in Republican controlled courts to repeal Obamacare and throw people off insurance in the middle of a global pandemic. Do you think people are going to pay thousands out of pocket to get themselves tested when they have flu symptoms, or wait until after they feel sufficiently bad to head to the hospital at which point they would have been infectious for a couple weeks? If I were health care providers, I would stop profiteering off this, or they could find themselves in a universal single payer system in the not too distant future.
At least it was affordable. /s
 

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,443
4,139
136
Smells like Bootstraps to me. Let FREEDOM Reign! Ain't no evil red commies gonna pay for HIS bills.

He should move in with this guy to save money.

Karma, it's what's for dessert!


Handyman who would rather go blind than sign up for Obamacare begs for money in crowdfunding appeal after his eyes started bleeding
  • Republican Luis Lang refused to get Obamacare and health insurance
  • Now blames Obama because he's going blind and cannot pay medical bills
  • Can no longer work and is upset the Affordable Care Act won’t bail him out
  • Lang has launched online fundraising appeal to raise money for surgery
A Republican who refused to get Obamacare or healthcare insurance while he was healthy now blames President Obama after discovering he is going blind and cannot afford his medical bills.

Luis Lang, 49, a self-employed handyman from Fort Mill, South Carolina, has bleeding in his eyes and a partially detached retina caused by his diabetes.

Mr Lang refused to buy health insurance and instead over the years prided himself on paying his medical bills as they came in.

1582700331828.png

But when he discovered a headache he suffered for 10 days in February was actually a series of ministrokes, he finally went to the emergency room and racked up $9,000 in bills - and was forced to use all of his life savings to pay the bills.

Now his vision is so poor he has not worked since December.

When he finally turned to the Affordable Health Care exchange – which he had previously chosen not to do, in violation of the law - he thought help would be available in an emergency. But he found out he was a month too late to enroll for ACA 2015, and he does not have enough money to get a federal subsidy to buy a private policy. Now he and his wife blame President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats for passing a 'complex and flawed bill'.

Mr Lang, a smoker who admits he has been inconsistent in controlling his diabetes, said he has sought help from charities but found he was either too young or too old for them to help him. Dr Malcolm Edwards, the ophthalmologist who examined Lang, said: 'He will lose his eyesight if he doesn't get care. He will go blind.'

His wife Mary does not work and instead takes care of their $300,000 home in the Legacy Park subdivision. She told the Charlotte Observer: 'My husband should be at the front of the line, because he doesn't work and because he has medical issues. We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act.'

The ACA was designed to provide Medicaid coverage for those people whose income falls below the poverty line. The federal government pays 100 percent of the ACA expansion to cover low-income, able-bodied adults - but 21 Republican-led states, including South Carolina, chose not to participate.

As a result Mr Lang only qualifies only for a South Carolina Medicaid plan that covers checkups and family planning. He also says he has not applied for Social Security disability benefits because 'it takes too long'.

In the meantime South Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing whether or not he qualifies for a vocational rehabilitation program. If he is successful – and if he can find a surgeon who takes Medicaid – South Carolina taxpayers will share the cost with the federal government.

'He's in a very bad situation,' Dr Edwards told the Charlotte Observer. 'The longer he waits, the poorer his results will be.' The doctor said he will provide care at no cost, but Mr Lang requires extensive surgery and follow-up treatment that is beyond his expertise.

Mr Lang has now set up a GoFundMe.com page where he explains his situation.

His fundraising page, which had no donations in the first 24 days, raised more than $6,795 just a couple of days after his situation was first reported.
 

pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
22,306
4,966
136
The really screwed up part is that his life savings at age 49 was only 9,000 dollars.

WOW.
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
39,744
20,313
146
Pretty damn sad.

I'm not up on it, but it does seem really low to me.

There's been many articles posted on this very forum regarding the financial state of affairs for the majority of Americans. Tons.

There's also the internet, awaiting you to enter a few simple words to broaden your knowledge on the topic.

I also encourage watching Requiem for an American dream.
 
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interchange

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
8,026
2,879
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Refusing to sign up for healthcare you can afford out of protest isn't the wisest decision.

As for the OP, the minimum standards for plans was the best thing about Obamacare. Opening the market to purely predatory insurers just doesn't make sense. For some of these plans, there exists basically no scenario where you could save money over being completely uninsured. Free market is a great thing in a lot of ways, but I don't think this is one market where consumers have much potential to make informed choices. And that's really only of importance if all the choices provide value. I don't think the risk of being swindled is a benefit of the free market. Lots of industries have laws and regulations which protect consumers from scams, or at least try to.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,511
46,033
136
A possibly underrated consequence of our health insurance scheme could be that sick people won't go to hospitals if they think they might have the virus lest they end up with huge bills and simply wander around in the wild infecting lots more people.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,055
2,271
126
"The federal government pays 100 percent of the ACA expansion to cover low-income, able-bodied adults - but 21 Republican-led states, including South Carolina, chose not to participate."

And still he's blaming Obama... :(
 
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Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,443
4,139
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There's been many articles posted on this very forum regarding the financial state of affairs for the majority of Americans. Tons.

There's also the internet, awaiting you to enter a few simple words to broaden your knowledge on the topic.

I also encourage watching Requiem for an American dream.

"He also says he has not applied for Social Security disability benefits because 'it takes too long'."

This implies he's mostly just a lazy fuck. Time is not a factor when your eyes are bleeding. If the money comes too late, you can always use it on a good dog.
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
39,744
20,313
146
"He also says he has not applied for Social Security disability benefits because 'it takes too long'."

This implies he's mostly just a lazy fuck. Time is not a factor when your eyes are bleeding. If the money comes too late, you can always use it on a good dog.

I mean, he's also sitting in a 300k home, which I can only imagine what that will get ya in SC.

The common theme, however, is that the .01% has increased their wealth vastly more than the rest of the population over the last 50 years. State run capitalism, socializing losses, let's the plebes squabble over their little ideological convictions while the rape and pillage of Americans continues