Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label congress. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2013

Affordable Care Act "It ain't over until it's Over"

If you are reading this blog and waiting for me to tell you what is going to happen in health reform, you have come to the right place.  I know as much about this as Kathleen Sebelius or Barak Obama.

I am certain that makes you all feel better.

I know that is reassuring to my readers, because Obama and Sebelius had access to and heard many learned opinions on developing the affordable care act. However they were not listening and the elephant in the room was political intrigue, and 'what's in it for me ?"

Today my spouse received the magic letter from Covered  California stating that she has qualified, and now all she has to do is go to the website  log-in and pick her (Silver plan) That is no small task.



Among many other things, the subsidies make no logical sense to me (or others)  I need all of my funds to support myself and my disabled wife who has been unable to work for over ten years.  $250 USD would help pay for the pain medication she takes as a result of a bad wrist injury in 2002. After that she was uninsurable, so I am grateful that the ACA now affords her the ability to become insured until she reaches age 65 and  will be eligible for Medicare.

 It seems that my user id and/or password is incorrect, and I do not remember any of the questions, or answers for the security questions. Small wonder....their selection of Q&As is quite a mystery to me. I am so old I don't remember who my best friend in high school was, no the color of my first car, nor my favorite food (I like them all). Whatever happened to my mother's maiden name?

I called the telephone numbers listed on Covered California for lost user ids/passwords, and was either greeted with a busy signal or a 'we are busy right now, go to our web site, coveredca.com. Now would anyone call them if they had not already tried to use the web site.  The live on line chat room brings up a blank white screen.

The ACA has created stress for all of us, not knowing the eventual outcome...success or failure or some point in between  For those whose former policies  have been cancelled I say let's let them get to the front of the line.


It makes a lot of sense......they are already paying customers and the system needs their premium dollars now.

Everyone else should wait several weeks. Another month won't make much difference to those who have not been insured for the past decade or so.

Although I have never liked insurance companies, I do feel empathy for the mess the affordable care act has produced on top of the measly 15% margin they must operate upon now, and all those pre-existing condition patients waiting in the wings.

As Yogi Berra (byname of Lawrence Peter Berra) once told me, "It ain't over, until it's all over"  (Yes, he did tell me that personally when I was a sprite living in Connecticut.)  My Dad took me to at least a hundred Yankee games in the Bronx. I also have a signed Mickey Mantle original photo of the "Bronx Bomber"

So what does that have to do with the ACA? Let's listen and take seriously what Yogi had to say. I trust him, after all he was a Yankee on a team that broke all records winning  7 world series' back to back.

Would you rather trust President Obama, our Congress, or Secretary Sebelius?  After all Yogi batted left handed and threw right handed. (source Wikipedia)/