Trump's Junk Plan Leaves Florida Man Holding The Bill For Coronavirus Testing

[babylonsister]

2/25/20 6:59am
Trump's Junk Plan Leaves Florida Man Holding The Bill For Coronavirus Testing
It would be a wildly ironic lesson in why the ACA matters, and it is. But it's also a warning about the public health crisis facing us.
By Karoli Kuns


Remember when Trump decided he'd get rid of the ACA by approving junk plans that could impose pre-existing conditions restrictions and don't pay for benefits that qualified ACA plans are required to cover? Remember how the right wing celebrated that and Trump crowed about how people could buy these crappy plans and tell themselves they had health insurance?

Well, have I got a story for YOU, courtesy of the Miami Herald. Osmel Martinez Azcue came down with flu-like symptoms after he visited China as part of a work trip. While he said he'd ordinarily just go get some cold and flu medicine from CVS, he thought he had better be tested for coronavirus, given the possibility he could have gotten it on his trip.

What happened next? This:

He went to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he said he was placed in a closed-off room. Nurses in protective white suits sprayed some kind of disinfectant smoke under the door before entering, Azcue said. Then hospital staff members told him he’d need a CT scan to screen for coronavirus, but Azcue said he asked for a flu test first.

“This will be out of my pocket,” Azcue, who has a very limited insurance plan, recalled saying. “Let’s start with the blood test, and if I test positive, just discharge me.”

Oh. So the hospital did that. And he had the flu. What a relief for him!

Well, sort of. Right about the time he was recovered from his bout of the flu, he was slapped with a bill for $3,270, all of which was denied by his insurance company.

But wait! It gets better!

Hospital officials at Jackson told the Miami Herald that, based on his insurance, Azcue would only be responsible for $1,400 of that bill, but Azcue said he heard from his insurer that he would also have to provide additional documentation: three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn’t relate to a preexisting condition.

Yep, that's right. Some genius at the crappy for-profit insurer who was happy to take Azcue's money but cover nothing and then come up with the bogus argument that somehow a bout of the flu related to some mysterious pre-existing condition (What? He had a cold 3 years ago?) is EXACTLY why the ACA exists.

more...

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/02/trumps-junk-plan-leaves-florida-man

[irisblue]

1. Medical bankruptcies are going to rise, again.

[CaptYossarian]

2. The pre-existing condition belongs to the jackass who didn't wash their hands and came in contact

with Mr. Azcue.

[SunSeeker]

3. This should be against the law.

Insurers need to be frog marched out of their offices in handcuffs for this bad faith behavior. This is theft of premium money, pure and simple. A few of these unscrupulous insurance executives sitting in prison would stop this behavior.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. If this country gets seriously hit with the coronavirus

With our current healthcare "system" being what it is, it could be truly catastrophic.

Imagine people not getting early treatment or testing for fear of unaffordable medical bills. Imagine sick people continuing to work for fear of losing their jobs or incomes. Imagine millions of people facing financial ruin due to inadequate, or lack of coverage.

On the bright side, maybe people would finally begin to see the sense in having a system of universal coverage.

[Coventina]

5. This is exactly what WILL happen. n/t

[Retrograde]

6. If this was a work trip

why wouldn't it be covered under workers' comp? I've been out of the workplace for a while, but in the management law class my company ran all its managers through we were told that injuries occurring at company events even outside of normal work areas were covered (the reasoning being that while it wasn't part of the normal job description, attendance was "strongly encouraged" and tacitly mandatory). If he went to China on his employer's request, I would think that the employer would bear some liability. But then I don't live in Florida.

[democrattotheend]

7. I was wondering about this

I read that the insurance company was looking for a way to call this pre-existing, but that didn't make sense because under Obamacare they had to cover pre-existing conditions. I forgot that Trump weakened that by allowing non-compliant plans.

What do you want to bet the media will forget that too and blame Obamacare for this debacle?