Even if the Obama administration manages to fix HealthCare.org (the Affordable Care Act website) by the end-of-November deadline they’ve given themselves, issues with (and attacks on) the program are going to continue developing — likely for a couple years. We haven’t heard the last from rabid Tea Party Republicans trying to repeal it — not by a long shot; and what about a true Universal Single-Payer system? The first wrinkle, however, seems to be coming from insurance companies themselves scaring and scamming their own customers. If you get one of these letters, investigate it thoroughly! — Amanda
Health Insurance Companies’ Latest Scam to Scare Off Customers from Obamacare
By Alex Kane for Alternet
The botched rollout of the health insurance exchange websites has commanded the bulk of the media’s attention over the past few weeks. But a Talking Points Memo investigation shows that there are other important problems with the advent of the Affordable Care Act.
Talking Points Memo reporter Dylan Scott found that health insurance companies are attempting to hold on to customers by sending them misleading letters encouraging them to stay with the companies’ own health plan. The missives sent to customers state that their current health plan is being axed to comply with Obamacare, but that a new health plan offered by the company would be similar to their old ones. The letters sent to customers don’t mention the health care exchanges they could look into to get cheap health plans. The insurance offers Scott investigated were considerably more expensive than what customers would obtain under Obamacare. While it’s unclear how many of these letters have been sent out, the media outlet has confirmed the existence of misleading letters in at least two cases.
“If you’re an insurance company, you’re trying to hang onto the consumers you have at the highest price you can get them,” health policy analyst Laura Etherton told TPM. “You can take advantage of the confusion about what people get to have now. It’s a new world. It’s disappointing that insurance companies are sending confusing letters to consumers to take advantage of that confusion. The reality is that this could do real harm.”