Name:   copperline - Subject:   So Lifer Date:   10/7/2016 12:59:40 PM

No, Lifer, you couldn’t be more wrong.  As I explained to you some months ago, a “certificate of credible coverage” was not a statement from one insurance company to all others saying that they could not use pre-existing conditions to refuse you insurance.  You are completely mistaken. 

The Certificate was the same as the Proof of Insurance form you keep in your car, nothing more… it did not guarantee coverage across insurers and prevent pre-existing conditions from being used against you.  The new rules of the ACA did that for you.

You are probably confused by the complexity of insurance company plans & provisions…. If you had a BC/BS policy and transferred to another BC/BS policy…  then the company had the option not to enforce the ban on pre-existing conditions on you or your employees.  However, if you left BC/BS and signed up for United Healthcare, then the pre-existing condition clause would have prevented you from getting coverage.    Of course, the ACA stopped that practice.   Since we live in state with a 95% marketshare held by one insurer (BC/BS), many Alabamaians never had to experience refusals due to pre-existing conditions.   But then, we never experienced the benefits of a free-market competition between insurers, either.......

Educational debt for MD’s, Nurses, and a variety of healthcare professionals has gone up drastically.  It is highly doubtful that medical school debt would ever be free… and this is certainly not what has been proposed by Democrats.   You exaggerate.   

If you want to look into the reasons for increases in premiums and deductibles, you should look at the following points, too:

-          Your premiums and deductibles are set by for-profit insurers, not the government.

-          Your premiums may be going up because your employer is shifting more of the cost of health insurance to its employees, essentially cutting back on an employment benefit you had.  Many people are not even aware that a portion of their monthly premium was paid by employers, and thought what was deducted from their paycheck was the entire premium.  Not true at all.

-          Up to now, the US insurance system has been employment based, meaning that insurance has provided thru employers.   This set several things in play, first and foremost, it allowed insurance companies a way to eliminate people who needed insurance most (those with chronic conditions).  When they were able to eliminate those people, they were able to tell employers that they could keep their costs down in that way.     A system that does not tie health insurance coverage to employment status covers more people, more effectively… and has the added advantage of portability (that is, you are free to change jobs without fear of losing your family insurance).

-          Ultimately the goal of national healthcare policy is to keep the maximum number of people insured, to maintain & increase the health of the workforce, to prevent healthcare costs from being the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US, and to slow the growth of healthcare costs nationally.       

-          While it is true that premiums & deductibles are going up, this is most likely attributable to pent up demand for healthcare among people who have been uninsured or underinsured for years.   It also points to the need for the ACA to continue to be developed and improved instead of opposed by people who have no idea what they will replace it with.  

BY THE WAY, mocking a father's concern & dismissing his daughter's medical condition in that way is a new low... even for you.