{"id":71591,"date":"2013-11-04T13:59:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T18:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=71591"},"modified":"2013-11-04T13:59:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T18:59:37","slug":"dont-be-fooled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/dont-be-fooled\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Be Fooled!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/em><\/p>\n

Health Insurance Companies’ Latest Scam to Scare Off Customers from Obamacare<\/h3>\n

By Alex Kane for Alternet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The botched rollout of the health insurance exchange websites has commanded the bulk of the media\u2019s attention over the past few weeks. But a Talking Points Memo investigation<\/a> shows that there are other important problems with the advent of the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

\"medical-insurance-scam-468-x-324\"<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re an insurance company, you’re trying to hang onto the consumers you have at the highest price you can get them,\u201d health policy analyst Laura Etherton told TPM. \u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Take the case of Donna, who didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe info that we were sent by LifeWise was totally bogus. Why the heck did they try to screw us?” she said. \u201cPeople 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cDon’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.\u201d The insurance companies say it\u2019s just the market at work.<\/p>\n

Washington isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}