2801

Alabama sucks. Nuke 'em.

2802

If you are uninsured by choice, you’re still going to face disastrous financial consequences if you need emergency (or even urgent) care. You’ll get treated, but you’ll owe a lot of money. You can’t be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, but you’re not going to be able to sign up for immediate coverage in the ER.

You might be able to game the system by putting off getting insurance until you are diagnosed with some costly chronic illness. The financial consequences of that choice in that situation will be alleviated. However, you’re still running enough of a risk that insurance–especially at the subsidized rates–will be a wise choice over no insurance and paying the fine.

2803

Start with North Alabama. Then the rest will get the picture.

I do wish the alcoholic, obese, smokers could get extra penalties. We have more than our share. However, as my cousin visiting from Ohio stated, the women are more attractive. So I guess we are compensated in that way.

2804

Also, I forgot to mention, but I do believe there are some controls over rate increases in the new exchanges (I’m not sure if that also applies to employer provided insurance). The insurers will have to justify their rate increases.

Q.
Is there anything to limit the insurance companies from extreme rate hikes on individually bought policies, particularly in the immediate future?
— AVC, NM

A.
In 2014, once the state-run insurance exchanges are up and running, people who earn up to 400 percent of the poverty level (or $88,200 for a family of four) would not have to pay more than 9.5 percent of their income on premiums. People with low incomes could pay as little as 3 percent. The government would help subsidize the rest.

But ultimately, premiums will still reflect the medical care costs in your geographic area, according to Sara Collins, vice president for the Affordable Health Insurance Program at the Commonwealth Fund. That said, insurers would have to adhere to new rules.

For one, older people cannot be charged more than three times as much as younger people. The legislation also includes provisions that could help bring down premiums, but it’s still to early to tell how well they would work. For instance, large group plans that spend more than 15 percent of your premiums on items other than medical costs (or more than 20 percent, in the case of individual and small group plans) must provide a rebate to consumers beginning in 2011. Details are still fuzzy.

Moreover, the legislation would immediately create a process for review of increases in health care premiums and would require plans to justify those increases, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And once the state-run insurance exchanges are up and running, states would be required to report premium increases and recommend whether any plans should be excluded due to unjustified premium increases, according to Kaiser.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/send-us-your-questions-on-the-health-care-overhaul/

2805

So Obama is signing the bill right now. Wanna see the pre-signing Republican press conference?

I’m not joking.

http://www.daylife.com/photo/08Kc3Rz46b9bk?q=pence

2806

You got 15 minutes to get out of there, Bob. Starting… now.

2807

Ink to paper right now. Wow.

2808

So many pens!

2809

The internet is going to be -awesome- today.

2810

Maybe someone here knows, since I haven’t been able to find and answer.

My SO’s insurance recently stopped covering a prescription that he has to take every day to cover a chronic condition (he has chronic vertigo.) I have another friend with asthma who also had his inhaler dropped by his insurance. Does the health care bill help with that in any way? I tried doing some searching, but my Google Fu failed me.

2811

I was wondering about that. What’s the story behind all those?

Wendelius

2812

I think they must give them out to people involved. So they can take a part of history with them? That’s my best guess.

2813

Yep, they become special, magical pens that they distribute to important people. It seems like the number has grown since the olden days when everything was not such a media spectacle.

2814

I thought he just wanted to make really, really, really sure he didn’t run out of ink.

2815

Yes, almost certainly. It depends on why they’ve been dropped, but if it is because of pre-existing condition, yearly cap, or lifetime cap then the bill helps. If it is some other reason such as the particular drugs being replaced by other drugs, it wouldn’t address it at that level, that’s where you would get an ombudsman involved with the insurance company.

H.

edit: And if it just their insurers being dicks, then it helps with that, too, since they can now comparison shop without having to fear not being accepted by anyone else.

2816

Kaiser is actually made up of the KP Health Plan, KP hospitals and it’s regional medical groups. 2 out of 3 of those are non-profit (the regional groups are “doctor owned” and operate for-profit, but they have to conform to the standards of the non-profit health plan so they still operate under very different constraints than a purely for-profit doctor accepting PPO plans). But yes, just like everything Kaiser isn’t perfect. As I’ve already disclosed I’m currently dealing with an additional health problem that they aren’t covering. That’s pretty personally annoying on one hand, but on the other hand I still have to say that Kaiser has done a pretty tremendous job of treating my cancer and I can see a definite difference in the motivation and effectiveness of my doctors from when I was on a PPO plan and dealing with doctors who made more money if they didn’t treat me cheaply and effectively.

2817

So did all of the reported lawsuits get launched? The bill is signed…

2818

I may watch Beck, just in case he sets himself on fire. Fingers crossed ;)

2819

A proud moment for all left-handed people.

2820

They dish them out as souvenirs. Apparently they used to get annoyed at Carter because he signed stuff with his own felt tip, rather than go through the rigmarole.