Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Obamacare and Single Payer

For some reason, many think they want a single payer health care system. What they don't know is, Obamacare has already created that in some situations.

I had a call today from a lady looking for health insurance with maternity coverage. I told her how her options were limited to one carrier. When she asked why, I said this was due to Obamacare.

She became annoyed and said this is why we need single payer so the carriers won't hold us hostage.

At this point I had no desire to give singing lessons, so I thanked her for calling and went back to the business at hand. But that got me thinking.

If you consider states like Maine that have intense regulation and mandates with regard to health insurance then it doesn't take long to figure out the only choice other than a government plan is Blue Cross.

If you don't like or don't qualify for the taxpayer funded plan you buy from Blue Cross . . . and you pay some of the highest health insurance premiums in the country.

Obamacrap has come to Georgia already in a sense. Last spring if you wanted maternity benefits you could pick from about a half dozen health insurance companies and different kinds of maternity benefits.

Thanks to Obamacrap, now you have one choice.

Blue Cross.

If you want maternity coverage in Georgia you buy from Blue Cross. The additional premium (in addition to the regular premium on this "Cadillac" plan) is about $200 per month. You must pay that premium for 12 months before you conceive and then you can start to access the benefits.

Over a two year period (your one year waiting period plus another 9+ months waiting on the baby) you will pay in over $2,000 in additional premiums. Once the baby arrives and the bill is totaled, your share of a normal delivery will be about $5,000 and Blue Cross will pay less than $1,000.

Once Obamacrap became law every carrier but Blue Cross pulled out of the maternity market making them, in effect, a single payer.

Many will remember the days of Ma Bell when you got your service from AT&T (or one of their subsidiaries) or you didn't have phone service. Your phone came in a basic black (although they later added different colors for the Princess line), but your choices were limited.

And everyone complained . . .

Now we have phone service in all sizes and packages, and people still complain, but at least you have a choice. If you don't like your current phone company you can go somewhere else.

But in Georgia, if you want maternity coverage you pick Blue Cross. If you don't like what they have to offer you do without because Obamacrap has made them a single payer when it comes to maternity coverage.

So for those who think they want single payer, how is this working for you?

blog comments powered by Disqus