I think the Blue Cross Blue Shield companies operate as separate entities in each state. And they aren’t any cheaper despite operating a company in each state. The rates of Blue Cross Blue Shield NY are commensurate with other NY insurers, not other BCBS companies.
I want to thank anyone and everyone who went to a rally or called a member of congress or tweeted at them or took any action at all around the health care fight. Yes, even if you were on the opposite side from me. This was a big fucking deal. Thank you to those who chose to speak up and speak out.
Big fights ahead, maybe soon. But thank you for doing democracy.
They used to, but then Anthem and a couple others came up with a legal shell that could own multiple state-level entities.
Of course not, because for the most part people living in NY have to purchase insurance in NY. But when someone living in NY can whenever they want buy insurance from, say, Wyoming then you’ll see a race to the bottom.
and in the fine print it says that any provider outside of Wyoming is out of network…
Yeah, that’s the thing …the disadvantage to me buying an insurance plan “as is” from a Wyoming insurer is that all the doctors and hospitals and providers would be in Wyoming. So they’d have to offer some sort of plan tooled to the New York market and that would probably be priced like the plans currently for sale in New York, because it costs a lot more to operate a doctors practice or hospital in NYC than Wyoming.
Now it is possible that all the insurers will flock to some state that’s favorable to really crappy policies. But it sounds like, from the brief description of the bipartisan that they will be keeping essential benefits requirements which would mitigate that somewhat. Now if they start letting the states screw with the essential benefits then that’s a different story.
And from a practical point of view, I’m not sure that there is any single magic wand that could be waved so “insurance can now be sold across state lines”. There may be multiple laws and regulations that would need to be changed and some of those may have been enacted at the state level. Or I may be wrong, maybe there is a magic wand.
But I’m not sure the insurance companies would play along. They’d have to heavily restructure and invest in a lot of new products. They may not feel that it’s worthwhile to negotiate provider networks in every state.
So I’m not convinced it’s a serious threat, I think it’s just one of those things Republicans having been saying because it’s a good sound bite but I’m not sure it’s even workable.
I am pretty sure they wouldn’t. In many (most?) states policies and networks are county based - not even an entire state network. I’m sure that the main reason behind narrow networks is the pain and cost of negotiating wider provider networks.
Plus cross-state is permitted by the ACA and has been tried, it just didn’t work very well. IIRC, a few states allowed it before the ACA but no companies jumped into the market.
As one article I read concluded - “Selling insurance across state lines” is a slogan, not a policy.
Yep. It’s like someone running for office saying they’ll allow you to park your car across town. I can already do that but why would I want to?
Something encouraging! A few grown-ups showed up for work in Congress. This should kick off a Trumpian twittertantrum.
Republicans in Congress Bypass Trump to Shore Up Health Law
About. Fucking. Time.
The thing is, even as Democrats and sensible Republicans get together to fix Obamacare, Trump can keep on stomping his feet and screaming that HE WANTS it repealed (maybe replaced, maybe not) for the benefit of his dwindling support base. That’s all that matters anyway: he tried, but all the other kiddies took his stuff away and wouldn’t play with him and put a toad in his PBJ sandwich and wouldn’t let him have the nap mat HE wanted. As long as he kept his campaign promise, they will love him and stick up for him.
But he can’t admit failing. He’s a winner, he always wins, at least in his own mind, and that’s what it’s all about.
Are you tired of all this winning yet?
He won’t admit failing, and the point is that in his eyes and the eyes of the deplorables, he won’t have failed. He never fails in his own eyes. He kept his promise. Whether or not it came to pass doesn’t matter. And if his constituents lose their medical care, they’ll just blame Obama and Hillary’s emails, and Trump will have changed the subject by then.
Winning or Whining?
“We’re going to whine. We’re going to whine so much” We’re going to whine at trade, we’re going to whine at the border. We’re going to whine so much, you’re going to be sick and tired of whining, you’re going to come to me and go “Please, please, we can’t whine anymore”.
Now THAT is actually true, so you know that’s not what he really said.
Yes, I know. Depressing isn’t it.
You know how with bacteria if you don’t kill em all well and truly, you just breed stronger ones? It might work the same way with laws.
Well, we already know Trump fails at spelling and pronouncing words… maybe this explains a lot.
Don’t forget that the so-called Freedom Caucus is still trying to force millions of Americans off their health insurance.
I tell ya, it’s getting to be like stomping cockroaches around here - you can’t keep up with the distractions and as soon as you step on one bad idea another two scuttle out of the shadows.
They’re back. Graham-Cassidy is the latest abomination that is getting some traction.
Short summary:
Block grants expansion Medicaid and ACA subsidy dollars to states, ends after 2026, but not guaranteed funding before that.
Per-capita caps Medicaid.
Massive loss of coverage predicted (and predictable). Massive loss of dollars to states.
They appear to have 46-48 votes right now. They need 50, plus Pence.
Whoa! That is way more than I had heard reported. Is anyone a definite “no” other than Sen. Paul?