Thanks Obama (ACA)

The BBQ Pit
1

Thanks President Obama! I have health insurance! Now I’m fucked!

So back in January I was 6 weeks into a temp contract. I decided, as my civic duty, to sign up for health insurance through the Marketplace. I enrolled through the website, picked my plan and paid the first premium for coverage starting Feb 1. I paid $87 on a plan based on my income of $12 an hour at 30 hours a week. The coverage seemed decent, considering I had no coverage, so I wasn’t too terribly upset.

Fast forward 2 weeks. Now into the first week of February, with life looking good in case of illness my body couldn’t handle on its own, I lost the job. Not a shock, as it was a temp position, but still a pain in the ass. Now I’m thinking “Well, better use up some insurance coverage while I have it”, except without any income I couldn’t afford the copay, making it a moot point. And no, the clinics are not required to let the copay slide. Only in emergencies.

So now I have insurance, but really no coverage for non-life-threatening issues. I haven’t found work since then and obviously can’t pay the premiums, which Molina is dunning me for. I live with a friend right now because I can’t afford rent, my cell phone was shut off yesterday for non-payment and there are no other friends or family to ask for help.

So what’s the answer? Cancel the insurance? Then I’m in violation of federal law. Keep the insurance? Can’t. They are going to cancel it and report me delinquent to the credit bureaus (SP?) Avoid the credit hit by cancelling? Then I’m in violation of federal law. (see a pattern?)

I called the toll free number after not being able to get a response from the website. I was transferred to some department and sat on hold for (literally) an hour and a half. I finally hung up and called back and was told I’d just have to wait. On a cell phone with pre-paid minutes. That I couldn’t afford when I bought them.

I then went for a Hail Mary trying to get some kind of benefit and scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist to at least get a stock of my meds. (Bipolar with Major Depressive Disorder.) Guess what? Can’t do it without a $40 copay and whatever the meds will cost.

So now I sit here, unmedicated (for 4 weeks), facing federal fines, damaged credit rating, calls from Molina’s billing department (which will end today since the phone will be shut off thankfully), being shunted or completely ignored by those putting me in this position.

Enough to make ya drink.

Thanks Barry.

2

The penalty only kicks in if you are without coverage for three months. Plus you can get an exemption for financial hardship.

Sorry that things are rough for you right now, but you’re picking the wrong target for your anger.

3

According to this link, losing your job counts as a qualifying event (like marriage or having a child), which allows you to change your insurance policy prior to the next annual enrollment period. And now that your income is zero, you should qualify for medicaid in every state.

You’re welcome.

P.S. If you can’t afford a copay, you can’t afford to drink.

4

Can you find a sliding scale clinic that will write the prescriptions for you at a much lower cost?

I started a thread here about costs related to a consultation with a psychiatrist. There were lots of good suggestions about how to lower costs for medications and treatment.

You are not in violation of federal law if you cancel the insurance- it’s not like anyone’s being hauled off to jail for not having insurance. And due to your circumstances, as stated above, you would without a doubt qualify for an exemption to the tax penalty.

As an aside, depending on your state, you may qualify for the expanded Medicaid coverage depending on your income and if your state did in face expand Medicaid.

Best of luck finding another job and sorting out the health insurance problem. And- are you able to file for unemployment?

5

Just having a low income isn’t enough to qualify for Medicaid in states that didn’t expand it.

6

Of course you have coverage; you just can’t pay for it. And that isn’t President Obama’s fault.

Sign up to be a task rabbit and take some odd jobs until you can find something full time. Be willing to do anything, including laundry, running errands, or washing someone’s car.

So, go on, grab those bootstraps your party is always claiming are so easy to pull yourself up by, and PULL, soldier! Hope you find work soon!

7

Fair point. I live in New York so I based my statement on my experience. I have a few single, childless friends working part-time who qualified for Medicaid this year.

8

Thanks Obama!

Thanks Republican Governors!

9

It’s a measure of our society’s cognitive dissonance that a guy who has only sporadic employment, who makes $360 a week when he does work, and who has major ongoing medical needs, feels that the main source of his problems is a Democratic President.

I guess if we left everything up to Romney and Wall Street, duffer would be fine.

10

Well yeah under a Republican President anyone motivated can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be a millionaire in no time, don’t ya know. If you’re poor under a Republican President it’s because you are lazy and morally destitute.

11

As another doper pointed out, now the OP has SCOTUScare.

12

Lame. Take some fucking personal responsibility and stop blaming the government for everything. I am so sick of people like you that look to the government for everything and can’t take care of yourself.

13

Couldn’t agree more. OP should pull himself up by his own bootstraps, go out and get a degree in chemistry and pharmacology and manufacture his own damn meds.

Happy Fun Ball here is known to have removed his own acute apendix. With a rusty spoon and a bottle of Jack Daniels to numb the pain.

14

OP seems to be a whole lot of angry “Wait, I have to pay something? The OUTRAGE! The GALL of them asking me to pay a co-pay!”.

Yes. Yes you do.

Without the insurance you’d have to pay the whole thing.

And don’t even walk down the whole “I have to pay a penalty if I don’t have it!” road, that’s a whole bunch of bullshit. If you make that little money, you’re not paying any damned penalty.

15

Exactly. If the OP is in a state that took the Medicaid money, then his rant’s moot - he can go on Medicaid.

But if he’s not in one of those states, then the target of his rant shouldn’t be Obama, who did his damnedest to ensure that the OP would be insured, but rather (a) John Roberts & Co., who invented practically from thin air a legal justification for states to be able to refuse the Medicaid expansion without any other consequences, and (b) the GOP governor and/or legislature of the state he resides in, who took Roberts & Co. up on that opportunity to deny insurance to poor people.

16

Actually, not every state provides medicaid for able-bodied childless adults, so he may not qualify even with a zero income, depending on where he lives. He should still ask, though - I’ve found that even if social services has to say “no” on one item they might be able to refer to something else that can help.

And this is yet another example of why we need truly universal, single-payer health care in this country without the intermediary of private industry.

17

How do insurance companies compete? Isn’t competition the very source of all our Free Market (blessings and peace, etc.) crunchy goodness? So, how?

Actuarial tables are known science, Greedco’s health insurance uses the same arithmetic as the one used by the Mammon Group. Notice I don’t say the “same math” because it isn’t even math, its arithmetic. The formula is risk, benefit, and premium. So, what efficiency can one offer that the other cannot? An Iphone app? Better calenders?

Giving the insurance companies a slice of the pie is corporate welfare, no real competition is possible. Feh!

18

Congratulations on finding a new, utterly uniformed way to blame Obama.

Benghazi!!!
Benghazi!!!
Benghazi!!!
I am getting so sick of dipsticks that are too lazy and stupid to even learn about an issue before blaming the person who is trying to help them. I pit your unfounded hate. No wonder you have trouble finding work. You ain’t moving the needle very far on the smarts meter.

19

No fair. Lot of really smart people can’t find work. Tighty righty assholes love that theme, that if you can’t find work, you must be stupid or lazy. Let’s not help them, even in the service of snarkasm.

20

Unless he’s moved in the last year or so, i believe the OP is in Wisconsin.

Maybe Scott Walker will be willing to help him. Walker is well known for his sympathy towards the plight of the poor.