Thursday, October 03, 2013

My First Experience With Obamacare

I have a screwed up back.  People tell me I have an awesome butt; the reason for it is that my spine curves in and then out at the bottom so my butt protrudes more than it would if my spine were ideal.  Because of this situation I periodically get low-back pain and my monthly trip to the chiropractor works wonders for me.  Add in the hot yoga and my back feels awesome.

Today was my monthly chiropractor appointment, and the office was a zoo.  Everything behind the counter was chaotic; there were people back there I'd never seen. 

"Can you give us just a second, Darren?  We have an all-new system because of Obamacare."

They handed me a tablet on which I had to fill out a questionnaire.  I don't want to answer these questions for my chiropractor, and they don't want me to have to answer them!  My doctor spent our entire visit telling me how silly it is, all the hoops and hurdles they have to jump, and the repercussions for him if he doesn't jump.  There are also repercussion for him if I don't jump.  He said that if he doesn't do this, though, he's not allowed to get paid by the insurance companies.  Think of all the paperwork doctors and dentists had to fill out for insurance companies before Obamacare, and now double or triple it.

He was very blunt.  "They're trying to end private practice."  I asked for clarification; "they" is "the government."

All you liberals who want Obamacare so much--I thought you believed that medicine was best kept between a patient and his/her doctor without interference from the government.  My bad.

3 comments:

KauaiMark said...

Our chiropractor quit taking insurance a couple years ago. Just like the old days, we pay out of the wallet or the HSA account.

His looking very prophetic at present.

...Mark

Anonymous said...

I just talked with someone who recently attended a medical meeting in IL. One of the panelists was the man in charge of IL's Obamacare exchanges, who refused to discuss the differences between bronze, gold, silver and platinum coverages. One of the meeting attendees said privately that he'd been told that in "some level" (his source wouldn't say which), the Obamacare insurance wouldn't kick in unil the "covered" individual had spent$50,000 - yes: $50k. If that's true, no wonder the admin doesn't want info to get out. Did any thinking person really think the whole idea would work?

Ellen K said...

My oldest son, while pursuing his dream of being a rock star, is piecing together two part time jobs into living expenses. He doesn't make much, but he pays his bills on time and has a good credit score. Because of his low income, he went online out of curiosity to explore the alleged low cost insurance. He was quoted at the lowest quality end a rate of $200 a month, double what he paid last year per month. On top of that his deductible would be $12,000 which when combined with premiums would require an outlay of $14,400 before insurance kicked in. He's a pretty smart cookie about money (drum aspirations aside)and says in talking to people he works with NONE OF THEM realize that the deductible must be paid first. Since Jack Lew avoided giving hard numbers on enrollment, now given at a mere 51,000, this means that millions of people looking for cheap insurance are going to suddenly realize how much "free" is going to cost. I don't expect that to be a good outcome for Democrats politically.