Obamacare does not provide patients or doctors or hospitals any way of finding out who is in or out of network.
Not finding out what’s in it: Obamacare does not provide patients or doctors or hospitals any way of finding out who is in or out of network.
“In many cases, consumers are shopping blind when it comes to what doctors and hospitals are included in their Obamacare exchange plans,” said Josh Archambault, senior fellow with the think tank Foundation for Government Accountability. “These patients will be in for a rude awakening once they need care, and get stuck with a big bill for going out-of-network without realizing it.”
All of this represents a larger problem with the Affordable Care Act, said Archambault, who has extensively studied the law. “It reflects deeper issues in implementation,” he said. “Some hospitals and doctors don’t even know if they are in the network.”
In addition, this story indicates that many major hospitals are opting out of Obamacare, with no way for patients to find out beforehand.
Aren’t you glad the Democrats and President Obama shut down the federal government earlier this month to make sure Obamacare went into effect?
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Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Not finding out what’s in it: Obamacare does not provide patients or doctors or hospitals any way of finding out who is in or out of network.
“In many cases, consumers are shopping blind when it comes to what doctors and hospitals are included in their Obamacare exchange plans,” said Josh Archambault, senior fellow with the think tank Foundation for Government Accountability. “These patients will be in for a rude awakening once they need care, and get stuck with a big bill for going out-of-network without realizing it.”
All of this represents a larger problem with the Affordable Care Act, said Archambault, who has extensively studied the law. “It reflects deeper issues in implementation,” he said. “Some hospitals and doctors don’t even know if they are in the network.”
In addition, this story indicates that many major hospitals are opting out of Obamacare, with no way for patients to find out beforehand.
Aren’t you glad the Democrats and President Obama shut down the federal government earlier this month to make sure Obamacare went into effect?
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I know I am asking a stupid question around here.
But why in the world did the administration take such a drastic plan when trying to solve the simple problem of insuring the uninsured?
All they really had to do was find a small start up company to provide a “market place” for insurance like they now have for airline tickets and hotels?
They could have just passed a law ordering insurance companies to fully provide information about their policies to the new service company.
Information like who is in and or out of its network, covered services, pricing quotes, and any other thing you can think of that’s legal.
They could have raised the Medicare/Medicaid to help cover the uninsured.
They could have offered tax rebates to help cover those who have a hard time affording insurance normally.
They could have done a thousand things better and less intrusive.
The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.
Some theorize that Obamacare was always intended to fail, that the real goal of the people who wrote it was for it to fail and thus force the implementation of the plan they really wanted: full nationalization of the U.S. heathcare industry.
This might be so, but I don’t really buy it. What I think happened here is what always happens when you try to do complex things by legislative and governmental degree. The process and the ideology overrides reality, and you get a mess that isn’t focused on the problem itself.
The less the government is involved in this, the better. Which is why I don’t want Obamacare revised or fixed, I want it repealed, in toto.
You’ve got that right, Robert!