Anthem CA Ceo: AHCA could return us to a time when people who became sick could not afford insurance

[flamingdem]

http://californiahealthline.org/news/blue-shield-ceo-says-gops-flawed-health-bill-would-harm-sicker-consumers/

The chief executive of Blue Shield of California, the largest insurer on the state’s insurance marketplace, issued a blunt critique of the Republican health care bill, saying it would once more lock Americans with preexisting conditions out of affordable coverage.

In an interview with California Healthline on Wednesday, Paul Markovich said the GOP’s American Health Care Act is “flawed” and “could return us to a time when people who were born with a birth defect or who became sick could not purchase or afford insurance.” The bill is set to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

An amendment to the bill would allow states to roll back key consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, including the popular provision that prohibits discrimination against patients with a history of illness. Some Republicans say that flexibility will help lower premiums overall and expand coverage choices for consumers.

Markovich, however, said “it’s a moral imperative” to guarantee coverage regardless of medical history. “The discrimination, whether on price or just on the ability to access insurance at all on preexisting conditions, is unconscionable. As a country, we are better than that,” he said.

The CEO’s comments carry weight because he leads a major Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. They also break with conventional wisdom, showing that some in the insurance industry have strong reservations about returning to the practice of scrutinizing people’s medical histories to determine rates.

[moondust]

1. That's the plan.

GOP: Please die quickly. The important thing is that we don't make the billionaires wait any longer than necessary for their tax cuts.

[madokie]

8. You nailed it

Peace

[SunSeeker]

2. It takes $1TRILLION that the ACA would use for healthcare subsidies, and spends it on tax cuts.

And the vast majority of these AHCA tax cuts would go to the richest of the rich. As Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said tonight on MSNBC (on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell), "the richest 400 people in the country would get an average tax cut of $7 MIILLION DOLLARS A YEAR EACH. That's what this bill REALLY does."

[BigmanPigman]

3. I have Blue Shield via ACA and subsidies

and I have a chronic disease that is so extremely painful that 50% of patients kill themselves within 7 years of being diagnosed. Expensive surgeries are necessary to help lesson the pain I will have until I die. I can't afford insur without subsidies. I hope every congressman suffers my pain throughout their eternity and even into their future reincarnated lives. I called all 50 senators 9(twice)and 100 congressmen and told them about my situation. I also told them that I have already made plans to commit suicide and video record it. After I am dead my family has been told to post my video everywhere. I want everyone to see what happens to real people who can not afford it. If Jimmy Kimmel's message didn't sway them I doubt my video will cause them to lose even a minute less sleep at night since they are heartless, greedy inhumane cretins.

[flamingdem]

5. I hope your story is being heard

and will be heard. One person can make a massive difference, there are some rational people left, they even have some empathy, some are even Republicans but not many.

[Warpy]

4. Well, that's rather the point, isn't it? If you get sick, you're damaged

and damaged worker ants have a duty to die as quickly as possible.

The American Health Cruelty Act is there to see that we do. We'll have insurance just long enough to get a diagnosis, then it's off to the boneyard after years of dying slowly from neglect.

[flamingdem]

6. That's what Ryan calls

a plan!

[spanone]

7. simply put, republicans don't care. it's a WIN!!!

fuckers

[flamingdem]

10. Collective suicide for the Rs

But along the way they'll take many of us down with them

[WillowTree]

9. The time to purchase health insurance is *before* you get sick.

After you're already ill, I don't know what to call it, but it isn't insurance.

[athena]

11. So you would let people die because they have a chronic condition?

Most illnesses are chronic. You want us to go back to the days when insurance companies would routinely deny people coverage for having stubbed their toe a few years earlier.

In fact, you probably don't realize it, but you are making the best argument that can possibly be made for treating health care as a basic human right, and against the idea that health care is something that insurance companies should have anything to do with. Being human is not something for which one should have to buy insurance.

[flamingdem]

12. You misunderstand - the point is if you develop a condition, or have had one it's pre-exisiting

and you will not be covered for it even if you're paying for insurance.

This is how it worked before Obamacare

[WillowTree]

15. If you "develop" a condition after you purchase insurance, it's not pre-x.

If you had a pre-existing condition when you purchased insurance, there are a few different ways that it was handled. Having had a cold or the flu or other common illnesses that most people get and recover from was rarely considered to be a pre-existing condition. For other things that tend to be chronic or recurring, either coverage would be declined outright and no policy would be issued, or a policy might have been issued but excluding coverage for that condition. In a lot of cases with group insurance, a condition that you had been treated for within a specified period of time before the coverage went into effect would be excluded for a specified and limited period after the coverage became effective.

Also, if there was a condition that existed prior to purchasing the insurance that was not disclosed upon application, that would usually void the policy entirely.

And yes, I've heard the stories about someone who reported that their insurer tried to deny coverage for.....say.....ovarian cancer because the patient had reported having had a yeast infection 5 years before they bought the policy and yes, that's totally bogus.

[boston bean]

16. Umm you don't always have the same policy and they can increase your costs so as to mak it

unaffordable and voila, you have a pre existing and no one else is mandated to cover you.

That is how this shit works in real life.

No one gets to keep their health insurance policy at a fixed cost for ever!!!!!!!!

[WillowTree]

17. I never said that people "get to keep their health insurance policy at a fixed cost". Never said it

In the first place, rates go up over time because medical care gets more expensive over time.

And there were cases and companies that would raise your rates if you developed a newly-diagnosed condition that would be expected to be chronic and expensive. And I never tried to justify that, either.

But again, a condition that you did not have and were not treated for before you purchased a policy is not and was not considered to be pre-existing if it begins after you became insured.

Insofar as "no one else is mandated to cover you" is concerned, when discussing privately purchased insurance, that was the case. You pretty much had to stick with the carrier that you had or do without. But with group insurance, if you changed jobs and had insurance through your prior employer, so long as the new employer had 20 or more employees, and so long as you applied for coverage under their insurance as soon as you became eligible to do so, they had to take you at the same rates as everyone else in the group and cover the pre-existing condition without any extra limitations. That was mandated as part of HIPAA 1 back in the 90s.

[boston bean]

18. "But again,a condition that you did not have and were not treated for before you purchased a policy"

But again, a condition that you did not have and were not treated for before you purchased a policy is not and was not considered to be pre-existing if it begins after you became insured.

No kidding.. no one is talking about that...

[WillowTree]

20. I was responding to someone who began by saying.......

.......".......the point is if you develop a condition, or have had one it's pre-exisiting"

Try to keep up.

[boston bean]

21. when you are unable to have insurance for whatever reason... not while you have it..

and this bill if you do have the condition and also have insurance... there is no mandate they cover you for it.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

13. I think it could be harmful to the insurance industry. You make it too expensive for people

and they won't buy insurance at all. That's how it used to be. These republicans are so stupid.

[flamingdem]

14. They're only thinking about paying off their uber wealthy Masters

by offering up a tax cut - approx. 7 million per in that very top tax bracket.

That is the setup for tax reform.

McConnell will be pushing hard in the Senate if this passes.

[HughBeaumont]

19. "As a country, we are better than that"

Er . . . have you SEEN who this country's been putting in government these past 35 years?

No. We're NOT.