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.”
Take the case of Donna, who didn’t share her last name because she was publicizing personal financial information. In September, LifeWise, a Washington health care company, sent her a letter canceling her insurance plan but also offering a new, ostensibly similar one. But under the new plan, she would have paid an extra $1,000 a month. There was no mention of an Obamacare plan that would have saved her money, even though such plans were being offered by the same company.
“The info that we were sent by LifeWise was totally bogus. Why the heck did they try to screw us?” she said. “People who are afraid of the ACA should be much more afraid of the insurance companies who will exploit their fear and end up overcharging them.”
The practice of sending out these misleading letters has been brought to the attention of the state insurance regulator in Washington. Officials issued a letter stating, “Don’t just take what your insurance company says, make sure you shop around. You have the right to buy any plan inside the new exchange or in the outside market.” The insurance companies say it’s just the market at work.
Washington isn’t the only state where this is happening. Kentucky officials have fined the insurance company Humana for sending out misleading letters that say that rates could increase under Obamacare plans, and that they should renew their company plans. And regulators in Colorado and Missouri have seen similar letters from health insurance companies.
Some of this can be explained by the birth chart for Affordable Care Act (March 23, 2010, 11:55 AM), starting with the MC degree of 11 Pisces 18 being conjoined by Borasisi (what is real and whose telling the truth?) at 11 Pisces 24. Venus at 20 Aries 02 is conjunct Eris, Pandora and trickster Hermes. Venus rules the 12th house of hospital stays.
Vesta in the 3rd house of data gathering at 22 Leo rx is square (SQUARE!) Pallas-Athene (the Planner) at 22+ Scorpio in the creative 5th house. However, Vesta trines Venus but she also opposes Nessus in Aquarius. A fixed T-square square between Vesta, Pallas-Athene and Nessus will be resolved through Venus sextile Nessus and trine Vesta I suspect because Venus is conjunct the U.S. Sibly chart’s Chiron (first you hurt then you heal).
Speaking of Chiron, in the ACA birth chart he is at 28+ Aquarius and conjunct Neptune at 27+ Neptune, who is conjunct the U.S. Sibly chart’s Moon, symbol of the People. It is also the area where Nessus has been transiting lately. The ACA’s Pluto at 5+ Capricorn is conjunct Karma at 4+ Capricorn (need I explain?) and they oppose the Moon at 5+ Cancer, on the ascendant. (Moon, symbol of the People, is ruler of the chart, so there!) Then there is Nemesis and Hades, both at 27+ Gemini in the 12th house trine Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius who are conjunct the U.S. natal Moon. Nemesis and Hades also oppose the Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius 59. All this will be dealt with eventually.
Jupiter is powerfully placed near the MC at 15+ Pisces, a sign he co-rules, but Pholus and Narcissus are both in the sign he rules by himself, both at 15+ Sagittarius conjunct the irresistible Great Attractor. However, Astraea (I will never leave you) and Amor (what interferes with or blocks the love and acceptance per Martha Lang-Wescott) are both conjunct Jupiter, and Juno in Taurus is sextile Jupiter. Juno is Jupiter’s queen and the perfect wife as well as a defender of the disenfranchised, which this ACA law addresses.
Other contributors to the rollout snafus can be detected in a sextile between Saturn at 1+ Libra (conjunct the Super Galactic Center, a partner that takes and keeps on taking) and Mars at 1+ Leo (conjunct Atropos symbolizing endings) and they form a yod to transiting Neptune, presently at 2+ Pisces retrograde. I’m thinking deceptive practices by insurance companies here. Once Neptune stations direct and moves forward much of the confusion will abate.
I also think Mercury (11+ Aries) conjunct Osiris (12+ Aries) suggests a re-assembling of parts is called for as Mercury rules the Virgo IC, and THAT is the root of the chart. Transiting Uranus was in these degrees in July, August, September and October as he stationed retrograde and will return again in March and April, just before the 5th of 7 squares between himself and Pluto. That will be the square that opposes and squares the U.S. Sibly Sun at 13+ Cancer. Uranus will also be trine Obama’s natal Leo Sun.
The Sun and Uranus are conjunct in this chart, but they are in different signs; Sun in Aries and Uranus in Pisces. Mars trines the Sun and Saturn opposes it. It won’t be easy, still, it’s worth fighting for, don’t you think?
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one friend of mine write to me:
Vermont’s plan, which is a wonderfully optimistic plan should work because it is taking place in a liberal, homogenous state (Vermont is our Sweden) with all the right pieces in place to make it a success. But that won’t be fully in place til 2017. Nothing will happen like that in this country until they see how the VT experiment pans out. And even if successful, how will that translate to the heterogeneous USA at large? I think it’s an exciting venture and one in which we all need to keep an eye on.