welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Thursday, June 6, 2013

affordable care act is affordable is it

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
when i was in high school now thats been a long time
ago i wrote my large term paper that year on the
new national health insurance plan that was being
introduced in congress
ed kennedy was the biggest proponent of it at the
time
the democrats would steal the ideas from the republicans
then later the republicans would steal it from the democrats
and back and forth based on political winds

ive never waivered over the years on how i felt about
although i probably wasnt as verbal about it
i actually benefited quite well from the present system

but
that time has come to change and its changing and no one
will stop it because it is going to benefit the majority of us
and maybe bring our standard of health care for all americans
not just those who have the best policies or the most money
to those of the other industrial countries

there will be more care provided by non physician people
and physicians and medical systems will make less money
and maybe will not milk the system as much as before
those who figure out how to use the system correctly will do
well those who dont change will not do well

remember ive been inside the system so i know how things work

my younger son lives in california
hes in his early 30s  is single and is in business for himself
with his older brother

he has to buy his own health insurance policy every year
when he was in college he was kicked off our policy got hit with
preexisting conditions that were not covered but still overall
had a good policy
we got him the best one with insurance company x
this was before the affordable care act or obama care or whatever
you want to call it
otherwise now a days he could have been on my policy or my wifes
policy until he was 26 and would not have had all those restrictions

there is also a $1,000,000 lifetime coverage he has that ticks away
as he uses its so if he were to ever have a major illness
he could easily use all that up and have no coverage

remember medical debt is one of the major causes of bankruptcy

so next year he has a choice
stay on this one or move to one on the affordable care act list in california
if he stays on this one he will still have the million limit on coverage
as its grandfathered in
the aca will not have one

so i went to their website and made up an income of say $80,000 for
a single person
there are 4 tiers of coverage so i picked the 3rd low tier which happened
to match what he has now
and the premiums for the coverage was a lot less
if he has an income level lower than that his premiums start to drop
and if he was married and had kids the premiums go even lower

now this third tier plan is the one that most people will be buying
it has a higher deductible and higher copays but still is as good as a
policy that most people have now

so i moved him to the top tier plan and put in the number
low deductible and low copays and overall lower costs
a much better plan
for just a few dollars more
no life time restrictions on how much is used
yearly physical exam preventative care
much better policy than what i have now on my wife shes plan and
at a third of the cost
also each year we already have to choose those same tiers of coverage
that even have the same names like gold platinum silver etc that will
be on the aca in california

then guess what he can stay with the same insurance company is in on
now with a much better policy at about the same price
his will be a very easy choice to make
and it appears that signing up will be quite easy

i sometimes listen to people complain about the new aca or obamacare
and i just keep my mouth shut now but
sometimes i sit there listening to them badmouth the plan and i
think you or your family are one of those who will be benefiting the most

im sure glad he doesnt live in texas or some of the other states who are
fighting this
california it appears accepted that yes this is the law so lets make the best
of the situation and they appear to have done that
ive not seen what texas is going to do

hopefully texas wont continue to be last like they are in so many other
categories when it comes to health and health care
dead last

the organicgreen doctor

1 comment:

  1. it seems you've already figured out my new insurance policy for me. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete