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.
I'm single, no kids, fair health in my mid-40's, seldom need to see a doctor. I should be the poster child for minimalist coverage with a catastrophic safety net. At first blush, I saved $50 a month by going from my "inadequate" plan to the "suggested" plan provided by my insurance company. Woohoo! Take that O'Reilly!
But on closer inspection, the suggested plan would have knocked out my alternative care option, doubled or tripled my office visit co-pays, and upped my out of pocket by more than 25%. Prescription drug would have gone up 10X for value drugs, and any ER visit would be 50% out of my pocket.
This doesn't make this a bad plan for those who need to save the $50 a month, but I can afford a better plan that more closely matches my current provisions. Which is what I did, I selected a good plan, and still saved a few dollars a month. Without any tax subsidies. So much for the health care apocalypse I keep hearing about.
But it made me wonder, how many other procrastinating people are going to get a big surprise in January when they assumed that they could defer their decision until March 30th?
The March 31st extension is not automatic, at least in my state with my insurance company. So if you or anyone you know has been putting off making a choice on a new plan, and believe that President Obama's extension has given 3 more months to think about it, I would urge you to verify that you are in good stead, by EOD tomorrow, 31 December.
The last thing that I want for all of us is to have one more bit of fodder for the naysayers to crow about while nursing their January 1st hangovers. It would seem to me that among the unequivocal ways you judge the advancement of a society are the manners in which it takes care of its sick, its poor, and its honored citizens. The fact that we have the means and don't rank #1 in those categories is an indefensible abomination that transcends politics and rhetoric, it really is just plain immoral.
The ACA can succeed, it just needs all of our help, actively. Thanks to all of you for helping make it happen.
Onwards in 2014.