Beware: Default new health plans could be worse for passive procrastinators
(Disclaimer:I'm moving from 3-year lurker to contributor, so be gentle, it's my first time.)
As a firm supporter of the ACA, with all of its first-draft warts, I was one of those whose plan was considered inadequate and subject to retirement tomorrow at midnight. I personally refuse to call it ObamaCare, I feel it's pandering to derisive framing by the opponents of caring for our citizenry. By calling it ACA they would have to acknowledge that health care can be affordable, that it is about care and compassion, and that it is an Act of Congress, it's not a choice.
So after procrastinating for months on looking at what plan I needed to choose (or which was being chosen for me), I finally logged in to my insurance website to see the damage....
I found out several things:
- John Boehner bore false witness to me. My plan was not canceled, it was provisionally converted to another plan.
- Cheaper is not better. While the new plan was less expensive, it was not comparable to my existing plan.
- As anatomically impractical as it sounds, I almost screwed myself by waiting to make a choice.
Had I done nothing on this until next year, I would have actually been in much worse shape come January 1 had I needed significant medical attention. Ironic considering all of the rhetoric from the healthcare obstructionists that would have me believe that unregulated corporate benevolence can make better choices than the collective voice of the people.
March 31 isn't a reprieve so much as a safety net. While I'm glad it was extended, in order to protect both the spirit and the effect of the ACA, we should sound the last call alert to make sure we are all covered as we should be, by tomorrow midnight, 12/31.
If you were deferring a choice until March, you, too, may end up with less than you bargained for unless you take a moment to deliberately specify a plan, especially if you are in the good company of the converted procrastinators.
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