Colleagues
It is truly interesting that many people focus on having insurance and not whether the doctor is going to accept your insurance. It really does not matter if you have insurance especially when trying to find a good or highly recommended doctor in New York City and Westchester area who is willing to take any insurance. Many refuse to accept insurance.
When you call for an appointment, they ask you what kind of insurance you have.? If it is Medicare or Medicaid, they tell you that they do not accept this insurance. So, unless you are willing to pay the fee for cash without any reimbursement, you continue to look. If you have private insurance you are told, that you must pay the fee with your credit card and they will give you the reimbursement that they receive from the insurance company. (My daughter's experience)
Please remember you cannot force a doctor to work or to treat patients since that would be
slavery.
The doctors are not refusing you treatment but merely refusing to accept your insurance. Cash is king. Many doctors are carrying medical school debt, large malpractice insurance, and the cost of setting up and maintaining a practice. (My neighbor is a doctor.) There are not enough doctors to treat everyone especially the increase in the number of NEW Medicaid patients in the New York area.
The doctors refuse to take Medicare or Medicaid patients especially since if they take a Medicare patient, a doctor is legally required to take a Medicaid patient and receives much less from the government for Medicaid patient even if the Medicare and Medicaid patient have the same illness. Does this make sense? For this reason, many doctors refuse to take Medicare and Medicaid patients.
So just because one has insurance especially Medicare does not mean, you are going to be able to fine a good doctor or specialist when he is needed. You
will find someone although he might not be consider good or one of the best. There are not enough doctors to treat everyone.
I wonder if the ACA rules will lead to more doctors refusing to accept insurance.
Regards from an IBM retiree who has experienced the above.
----- Original Message -----
From: Sheila Beaudry
Date: Friday, December 28, 2012 8:12 pm
Subject: Re: [ibmpensionissues] Re: Health care law(PPACA) may help Baby Boomers
To: ibmpensionissues@...
> Considering the high cost of the IBM insurance the private
> exchanges will probably be cheaper.? Within?9 years our costs
> went from $60 to $1400/month for just the 2 of us.? ACA makes
> them give free preventive care so over time this should lower
> costs as people take care of things before conditions worsen and
> become more expensive to treat.? If right wingers hadn't
>
made?such a fuss inaccurately claiming "death panels" there
> would be doctor sessions where the doctor could explain about
> palliative care as opposed to extreme measures for those who are
> terminal.? There was a good article in Money magazine saying
> that palliative care was not only cheaper but actually extended
> the patient's life.? The ACA also requires that the insurance
> companies spend more money on actual patient care and less on
> overhead like the millions to the CEO.? Those companies
> that?spent too much money on overhead?had to give money back to
> the people or in the case of
> company provided coverage, to the company.?In August $1.1
> billion in all was suppose to be returned.?I wonder if IBM used
> any of the money to lower premiums or just used it to increase
> their profit?
>
??
> --- On Fri, 12/28/12, Don Mininger wrote:
>
>
> From: Don Mininger
> Subject: Re: [ibmpensionissues] Re: Health care law(PPACA) may
> help Baby Boomers
> To: "ibmpensionissues@..."
> Date: Friday, December 28,
> 2012, 1:42 PM
>
>
>
> ?
>
>
>
>
>
> Anyone who thinks the ACA is going to reduce medical care costs
> is living in a dream world. ?There is a Reason why many of the
> provisions are being phased in over a period of several years.
> ?If all the rules in this legislation kicked in at once, the
> nation would go into Sticker Shock. ?Any fees, etc., added to
> the health care providers will Surely be passed along to the
> consumers and patients. ?The Private Insurance companies have
> their needs well protected under this
legislation, and any costs
> they incur will be passed along to their subscribers in the form
> of higher premiums and co-pays. ?For Seniors, this combination
> of Medicare, and the IBM Supplemental plans, are probably one of
> the best deals out there....let's hope the government doesn't
> screw with them too much. ?
>
>
> Ultimately, the medical costs are going to keep rising at a pace
> that makes care unaffordable for much of the nation....and we
> will be forced to adopt some form of a SP-UHC system similar to
> what most of the other nations have been using for years. ?I see
> that happening before this decade is out. ?We cannot keep paying
> twice as much for care, as most other nations...and continue to
> be ranked way down the list in terms of value received for that
> money. ?The data at the CDC indicates that over
80% ?of this
> nations medical costs are expended upon less than 15% of our
> population. ?Much of that is spent on the elderly in the last
> weeks of their lives, as our Health Care Industry uses them as
> Lab Rats to sustain life with every possible heroic measure.
> ?Then, we have to overcome the practice of Defensive
> Medicine...where doctors are having to order multiple, expensive
> tests...so as to protect themselves from the army of ambulance
> chasing lawyers that are
> just looking for an excuse to bring a multi-million dollar
> lawsuit for every perceived error in treatment. ?Many doctors
> pay well over $100K a year for Malpractice Insurance, so as to
> be protected from these Legal Buzzards....and you KNOW who pays
> for that. ? ?
>
>
> Our current health care system is destined to implode under its
> own weight...and the ACA is going to only hasten the day when
> that happens. ? ? ? ? ??
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: "zimowski@..."
> To: ibmpensionissues@...
> Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 11:35 AM
> Subject: [ibmpensionissues] Re: Health care law(PPACA) may help
> Baby Boomers
>
>
>
> ?
>
> The more interesting snip is the following: "Health insurance
> will not necessarily be less costly. It will be operated by
> state health insurance exchanges, which will offer a competitive
> private health insurance market that should provide one-stop
> shopping."
> Can anyone explain how the ACA benefits those IBM retirees that
> are lucky enough to have IBM subsidized health care coverage? I
> don't see it.
>
> --- In
ibmpensionissues@..., "teamb562"
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2012/12/27/boomers-obamacare-health-reform/1717009/
> >
> > snip:
> > The ACA is likely to spark many more changes. Employers that
> still offer retiree health benefits may decide to provide
> something different. For example, instead of a health insurance
> plan, they may give Boomer retirees a fixed amount of money,
> called a premium reimbursement, Fontanetta says. Retirees could
> use that money to select insurance at their state exchange
> marketplace.>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
