Hey, there! Log in / Register
Despite Republicans' best efforts, Massachusetts residents still have until Jan. 23 to apply for Obamacare
By adamg on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 9:33am
There's one of those cut-and-paste viral things going around Facebook these days that says you only have until Dec. 15 to apply for health insurance via the ACA.
This is only true for people who live in a state that uses the federal system. But if you live in Massachusetts, which has its own health-connector system, you have until Jan. 23 to apply.
The state has "enrollment assisters" to help first-time users.
Health Care for All, which has been fighting for universal health care since long before it was even a twinkle in Mitt Romney's eye, has a hotline at 800-272-4232 to help with insurance questions (you can request help in Spanish and Portuguese).
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Well Adam
Democrats ruined Healthcare in this state. We had a functioning and affordable solution put in place by Romney, destroyed by Obama and Deval.
The ACA wont last, and single payer is a pipe dream. One that would bankrupt this nation.
We have a model single payer
We have a model single payer system in MA already. It's called the VA.
Everyone raves about the quality of care it provides.
Just like everyone raves
about how affordable, convenient, and easy to understand their private insurance coverage is.
Except the people who don't
and more than a few of the people who work there.
The VA got caught keeping two sets of books. You know who else does that? The mob.
Oh, and there's this:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/19/calling-treatment-nothing-s...
At the VA, if you call up to
At the VA, if you call up to establish care, they guarantee you an appointment with your new PCP within 30 days. Period. I recently had to get a new PCP because my company switched our private insurance on us without warning or bothering to ask anyone, and it was going to be 6 months to see somebody.
VA patient population is also older and sicker than the general population, with more co-morbidities, mental health issues, and homelessness.
That was sarcasm, dummy
The comment was clearly sarcastic.
Yeah, and all the flat earthers are just trolls
No one is actually crazy and stupid enough to dismiss millenia of natural science as a conspiracy theory.
Now that's sarcasm.
Not really
There were problems with the old Romneycare (dental insurance wasn't included and costs were continuing to rise pretty fast).
Yeah, the Patrick administration botched the transfer to a sign-up system able to work with the more expansive federal regulations, but as somebody who actually uses the state health connector, I can say it now works fine. And health-care costs have moderated.
Are there still issues with Obamacare? Yes - let's talk about deductibles to start. Are there more people who can now see a doctor? Yes.
It's a start.
Did the Republicans have an actual plan to ensure people would not die for want of insurance? No. Never forget that Obamacare, at its heart, is a Republican plan. The current crop rejected even that. And for all his other problems, at least John McCain was able to give a big thumb's down to screwing over millions of people.
My roommate uses Mass Health
My roommate uses Mass Health and it works great for him. He pays less than I do with my employer provided insurance and gets a very decent level of service. I'd say MassHealth is pretty good from an outsider's perspective.
Two related but separate systems
MassHealth is for people below a certain income; it's basically expanded Medicare.
Plans available through the connector site are for people/families above a certain income level and small businesses.
I don't know about the small-business end of things, but the individual/family insurance also has an income component - below a certain income (which depends on your family size), your premium costs are reduced through a subsidy (the closer you get to that income level, the less your subsidy is).
The Republican component is that you still have to choose a private insurer (two if you opt for dental coverage), and I guess this is part of the way they've moderated costs. We started out with Neighborhood Health Plan, which was good for us because they covered the doctors under the old Harvard Vanguard, which we had when I worked for a company that provided health insurance. But then they screwed up somehow (I think they enrolled more MassHealth patients than they'd planned to) and their monthly premiums for us were going to rise substantially, so we switched to Tufts, which meant we had to find new doctors, but which has otherwise worked out OK so far.
MassHealth is expanded Medicaid, not Medicare
Medicare is the program for the elderly and disabled. Medicaid is the program for people whose incomes are below a certain level.
Yes, you're right
You'd think I'd know the difference, yet I keep mixing them up. Thanks for the correction.
You pay for Medicare as a
You pay for Medicare as a hold back on Social Security , do people pay for Mass Health?
MassHealth
I wish medical insurance was more like mass health.
No copay's
No premiums
No deductible
No questions
No death panels
No "pre authorizations"
Simply, you're sick. Go to the doctor. You're well? Go get a check up?
Very very simple and straight forward.
But no, I just saw thru my company's "open enrollment". All I see is how health carriers are reducing benefits and raises costs.
Except
Insurance for a relatively healthy mid 50's person (high deductible plan) costs about $7k with a $2500 deductible.
Get what you have and the cost probably runs to $12k - but no deductibles - who's going to pay for that?
The country spends $3 trillion plus on health care annually. Make EVERYTHING free and costs will skyrocket.
You need some incentive NOT to go to the doctor for every little sniffle.
Logic Fail
The countries that spend less on profits and have single payer have much lower expenditurs.
Only the US allowed profiteering, and only the US saw the skyrocketing costs.
Nice Tales from Librultarioan Skooul
Woooosh
You completely missed my point and turned into a "who's paying" argument.
My point is the breeze of usage. None of this 234820389878432905 things you need to do to get it and understand it.
Regardless, Health Care should not be this complicated.
And sorry I don't buy your argument, we may spend this much NOW. But the net gain over years of having FREE healthcare will reduce that cost. It will come down OTHER ways. Sorry, we're the only nation in the world with this kind of healthcare system, and we are rated one of the worst now. Yet every other national has socialized medicine and doesn't seem to have these problems. And no, we're not doing something right.
And yeah we should go to the doctor more often. My mom had the "Flu" in the fall of 1991. Would not go to the doctor because of health insurance costs (this was 1991). She delayed and delayed until the point where she was bruising too easily. Then she finally went. Fast forward 3 years later, it's her funeral and she's dead.She died from cancer. The "flu" she had was the start of the cancer taking hold. So please, save your "incentive NOT to go to the doctor for every little sniffle" bullshit argument for someone else. Who knows if my mom would have been alive because she went earlier.
Healthcare should not be like this. We should not have to delay because of cost of insurance. THIS IS MY POINT EXACTLY. We should NEVER have to ask "Food or Medical care" or "going for broke due to medical care". It should not be like this.
But no, we have people like you who constant say (because frankly this is your argument) "why should I pay for someone else if I am not sick". Its attitudes like yours that make costs go up. Sorry its the truth. Until that mentality goes way, we're all going to the poorhouse because of healthcare. We will never change.
I hope to God that every single person who has your argument of "why should I pay for someone else if I am not sick" gets a chronic condition or a terminal illness.. let your healthcare costs skyrocket and you are unable to pay. Let's see how your attitude changes after that. i guarantee you'd be first in line for that free healthcare you hate so much.
(and before you comment.. *I* have a Managed Chronic Condition and I know ALL about the healthcare system and how lousy insurance really is)
Except
Your argument pretty much defies the every law of economics known to man.
Otherwise it's a great idea.
(and for the record - my family is an ENORMOUS beneficiary of the healthcare system - it pains me to write the checks as a small biz person (100% on us), but I never complain - members of my family would be dead 2-3 times over without some of the great care in the area and without insurance we'd be flat broke - I get it - I want universal coverage - but the patient has to have skin in the game or you will end up draining the entire economy dry - skin in the game doesn't mean something that will break you if you decide to go to the doctor, but it should be enough to make sure - depending on income - that you don't end up at the doctor's every month, week or whatever).
I have an urn
"but the patient has to have skin in the game or you will end up draining the entire economy dry -"
Please meet up with me, I'll bring my urn of my mom. Please say that to my face and her grave.
On a related note.. Canada and the UK's universal healthcare do not seem to have this problem with everyone running to the doctor for ever ailment. Your basing your info on our current state of healthcare. Other countries do not have this problem at all. In short, it will level out within a few years of dumping our current system.
Healthier People = Lower Healthcare in the long run. Sorry that BigPharma will lose out, but its a small price to pay for healthier people.
I'd rather pay for someone's preventative care now than have to pay for cancer treatment later. Its a hellva alot cheaper to pay for that than it is for cancer treatment.
(FWIW.. we got a final bill after she died from Blue Cross of Vermont. They paid out 2.3 Million dollars in healthcare for her by the time she died in June of 1994.. In 2018 dollars, that would be 3.8 million. I'll pay for someone's 100 dollar check up over that bill any day)
not to mention how much of
not to mention how much of the cost of "healthcare" is the cost of administrating all these fiscal and insurance and billing companies.... when you go to the hospital and pay 40$ for a dose of tylenol, do you really think you're just paying for tylenol, or are you paying for the small army of desk jockies working in a back office who are going to spend the next three months forcing your insurance company to pay them the 2$ the tylenol actually cost?
Read the post...
In your mom's case - any payments would be in correspondence to her income. So by definition it shouldn't be "unaffordable" - and in the case of medicaid it would be free.
Basically destroys your argument.
Truly sorry about your mom - but in my case she would have had to pay maybe $20 or $100 or the first say $1000 a year for her health care - IF SHE COULD AFFORD that. If not - she gets it for free. My suggestion fixes the exact problem you cite about your mother.
No
Welp this was New Hampshire and it also was 1991. So none of those options were avaliable. Back in those days, medicaid was VERY limited back then. We could only dream of something like MassHealth. We only started getting any assistance when she was out of work for so long and all our money ran out. (this was also the same time I was introduced to free lunch at school and food stamps)
Her employer, a human service company, kept her on the payroll for the entire time she was in and out of the hospital. Why? BECAUSE NO OTHER OPTION EXISTED. LSI continued to pay her 1 dollar a pay period, absorb the healthcare costs and keep her in her plan. I wish I could say many other companies would be as sympathetic... LSI was in a class of its own (plus all the work they did helping the clients become de-institutionalized).
You know what killed my mother? Sure on the death certificate it says "Brain Hemorrhaging (instant)" and "Leukemia (long term)". That's what the MedEx said.. but IMHO it was Blue Cross of Vermont. My mother was in line to get a bone marrow transplant, her sister was as perfect match, and we were ready to go. Chemo stopped working and it was a last resort. BCoVT said no, so 2 months later we watched her die on the sofa in the apartment we rented.
Such is life, I guess. Big corporations don't wanna pay so people die instead. This is what American Health Insurance is all about. It's never about wellness or helping people. Its about the all mighty dollar and how much can we make off of sick, dying people. Its disgusting and your entire argument is in support for this current, broken system because of the attitude of "why should I pay for someone else, fuck them, I got what I want".
But whatever. I'll probably die the same way as my mom. Due to lack of healthcare access and/or inability to pay. My condition will eventually prevent me from working, and there goes my insurance and income. And if I may be bold, I'd rather be dead than drowning in debt because I need healthcare. Its not worth it for me. Just let me die instead.
We should not be like this. I should not feel this way, but I know.. as someone who is a bit older.. and watch costs increase and coverage go down. We're heading (if we aren't there already) for a healthcare disaster. Just wait. It's going to happen. Eventually good health will be only for the rich if we keep this up.
This is 2018
And we are in Massachusetts. and still under Obamacare.
If that happens to you - it means you screwed something up unless they change the rules.
As for you mom - as you note - that was almost 30 years ago. Totally different world on multiple fronts.
And you think "medicare for all" (which is already on the verge of insolvency) will somehow fix this problem. You're a very smart guy. No way you actually believe that myth.
I am all for government universally guaranteeing some minimal level of care and protecting the indigent, but if I want to pay extra for extra services or more advanced treatment - that should also be my right.
Thank you for reminding
Thank you for reminding people that the ACA is essentially a once revered Republican plan and not the satan spawn of Obama.
It's a start people...how about we work together to make it better?
Not single payer
Single pricer
Universal care for all. Everyone gets some level of basic coverage with premiums based on income. Government (medicare, medicaid, VA) sets a base level universal price for minimum care (ER, doctor, hospital, surgery etc.) However some providers get to charge a premium for premium services. Faster, better, more advanced care etc can be paid with higher insurance or private pay. Similar to what we already have or the British model, but ensures we all have basic coverage with incentives built in for thise who wantbto give and receive higher level care. Couple this with some kind of outcomes based incentives and now we are really talking.
What you're talking about is
What you're talking about is similar to the German model. Basic care for all, private insurance is still available for purchase for those wanting a higher level of whatever.
But americans are myopic and can't be assed to look around the world for how pretty much every other 1st world nation has lower costs and better outcomes than we do.
Dear anonymous coward
Just come out and say that you jack off about people going bankrupt from health care bills.
Holding time
In MA, you have until Jan. 23 because the 250 million dollar website is often crashed, is incompatible with one of the two main browsers, and if you call them on the phone you get high school educated pleasant folks that don't know anything about health care, after waiting on hold for 20 to 40 minutes or days. So you need extra time, like at the mani/pedi salon.
Sort of like the Boston Globe, except when you call you get Philippine operators.
Another excellent reason to marry up so you don't have to deal with socialized medicine. Before I was married I had to deal with these low cost plans and it was like worse than shopping off the rack at TJ Maxx.
#Worldclass!
#marryrich
Misogyny is Hilarious!
Is it all women you hate, or just Linda?
What do you consider a main browser?
Because I use Firefox and don't have any problem with the site.
Safari for example
Only because I love you Adam, a real mensch. The operators will tell you when you call that 'the website is down', or try another browser because it doesn't work with some', because so many people call in with problems with the website that they are used to those calls. They even cover it in the troubleshooting part of their website, pasted below. So Universal Hub which has Adam has solely educated himself to work on all platforms, works better than the 250 million or so we taxpayers spent on the website. That money could have been much better spent on tax breaks for daddy or Jeff Bezos. :) I will say that once you, somehow, get set up with the system that it works pretty well, but you might as well be shooting darts at short bald men looking for a billionaire than the chances you have of getting good advice from the operators on call about a plan that fits your needs.
This is from their website:
First, make sure that you are using a recommended browser. If you use a web browser that does not support the online Payment Center, some functions may not work as they are supposed to and can result in difficulties when browsing the site or completing your application. You should update the browser you are using now to the latest version or install one of the following browsers to take full advantage of this website:
Chrome version 30 or later
Firefox version 30 or later
Internet Explorer 10 and 11
Please note the website is not fully supported on mobile phone and tablet web browsers. If you are using the website on a smartphone or tablet and are experiencing difficulty entering information or accessing some pages, try using a laptop or desktop computer, if available, with one of the recommended browsers above.
#C++isdead
#Adamisamensch
Safari?
Might as well use Opera - neither are major browsers on the desktop.
What's wrong with high school
What's wrong with high school educated folks? I know your goal on UHUB is to usually speak gibberish which is why I normally ignore you but a good portion of our government doesn't know anything about healthcare either. So I am not sure of your point...unless it was to say that they are less than those fine college educated folks?
Interesting
Kind of outing your novelty account, don't you think?
If you do sign up for
If you do sign up for Obamacare before 1/23, please remember to thank a taxpayer.
I'll thank myself, then
Remember - working people didn't get a tax cut - people who live off investment income set up by their dadsey and mumums did!
Oh, bite me
I pay taxes, too. Incredible yet true. And, unlike miserable misanthropes who like to see their fellow Americans suffer, and the more the better, I like knowing at least some small part of what we pay goes for a worthwhile program that keeps Americans from dying for want of health insurance.
But I do have to thank Republicans for getting me onto Obamacare.
After I was laid off from my job with a company that paid most of the cost of health insurance, and after the six months of coverage they paid for as part of my severance (yes, it was good to work for a company that handled layoffs so well), we paid full price for health insurance for quite awhile. Was quite the deduction at tax time, but still a lot of money.
But I got so pissed off at Republicans trying one of their 97,000 attempts to gut Obamacare even before it launched, that I finally applied for Romneycare (this was before Obamacare went fully into effect), rather than just using the Connector to pay full freight on insurance. We qualified and, man, what a difference! So thanks Republicans, for getting me to sign up!
That’s a strange way of
That’s a strange way of saying thank you. You are welcome.
Facebook in 2018
lol