'Bare bones' insurance policies really only work for people who are healthy

[DonViejo]

By Lenny Bernstein and Paige Winfield Cunningham July 15 at 4:29 PM

Before the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies could offer any combination of benefits in most states and legally call them a health insurance policy. A huge deductible? Coverage for only one night of hospitalization? Nothing for maternity care, mental health or medication?

If consumers were willing to buy such “bare bones” plans — and some people did, usually at very low prices — those policies were considered health insurance coverage.

“If they sold you a policy that covered [only] a toothbrush, that qualified,” said Karen Pollitz, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The ACA did away with that, mainly by requiring that all health plans on the individual and small-group market include certain “essential benefits” for everyone: prescription drugs, lab services, even maternity care, to name a few.

Now Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) wants to again allow insurers to sell whatever bare-bones coverage they desire and consumers to purchase it. To qualify, insurers would just have to offer one plan that complies with the ACA’s comprehensive benefits standard.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/bare-bones-insurance-policies-really-only-work-for-people-who-are-healthy/2017/07/15/4f8e9e7c-68b0-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_barebones443pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.09054eff6872

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. ...Until they aren't healthy.

You're young, healthy, haven't had so much as a cold in years, and all of a sudden you fall off a ladder and break your neck, or you get cancer or you're diagnosed with diabetes or lupus or MS. And all you have is a cheap policy with huge deductibles and copays that runs out of coverage long before you run out of medical expenses. You use up your coverage and you can't buy another policy you can afford, or more likely at all, because of your serious pre-existing condition. So maybe you or your family can open a GoFundMe campaign or hold a raffle or a benefit concert, and that might buy you a new wheelchair or a few months' supply of insulin or a couple of chemo treatments, but how often can you go begging? Basically you're screwed...

[Solly Mack]

4. Exactly.

Live and learn becomes live, learn, and die all within a few weeks.

[Gothmog]

2. These policies are a disaster for people with pre-existing conditions

[leftyladyfrommo]

14. You can't get approved for anything at all

if you have a pre existing condition.

I got turned down because I had gone to the doctor for a UTI. I just needed antibiotics.

I was healthy and had no pre existing conditions. The only thing I could get was $600 a month with a $5,000 deductible.

Until the year before I went on Medicare. Then I was able to get a cheaper monthly premium.

[Hoyt]

5. If GOPers pass this junk, hope they make a buyer explicitly refuse a better policy.

Also hope some non-profit organizations work to educate people they aren't buying decent coverage if they take the cheapie model.

Still hopeful Congress will reject the current Bill.

[DefenseLawyer]

6. Everyone is healthy

Until they're not.

[Demtexan]

7. Or have a accident.

Could happen to anybody.

[Doreen]

8. I was young and healthy once.

Then one day while on my moped I got hit head on by a Pinto station wagon. Not healthy anymore. Go figure.

[Demtexan]

9. At my mother's nursing home there were several younger people.

I say between 20 and 45.

Accident victims.

[Doreen]

10. Young and dumb. Well, at least that went for me.

[Demtexan]

11. I almost got killed more then once.

I think I used up all my 9 lifes.

[Doreen]

12. I used all of mine in that one accident. I am lucky to be alive....very lucky.

[Demtexan]

13. I never got hurt.

Used to play in a railroad yard as a kid.

A busy yard.

All of us made it.

I was young and stupid.