Way back during the primaries one of the deciding factors for me in choosing between Hillary and Barack was mandates being required to provide affordable medical care. She was in favor and he wasn’t. It was an issue for me. I felt if someone offered me a medical plan I could afford, I’d take it and wouldn’t need to be coerced.
Like many others, I wanted Medicare for AllTM. I wanted the single-payer “Public Option”. As the legislative process in Congress proceeded to create the Affordable Care Act, I was appalled by what I saw as Obama caving into the insurance industry and his 180 on mandates. I felt betrayed and abused–yet again–by a politician.
But, guess what? Holy Tao! Obama-Care WORKS!
Every couple of years for grimaces, guffaws and a dose of outrage, my husband and I hit the rate estimator on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina website. In exchange for their “free quote” they do exact payment in the form of your name, email address and phone number. Without knowing more than our ages (63) and the fact that we had unspecified preexisting conditions, it tossed up a rate that was more than half of our income.
As we shouted, “Blood-sucking Bastards,” yet again, the page we were viewing blinked over to a website for a couple of BCBSNC agents in Raleigh AND that page promised an alternative. Say what? Then it got a little spooky as one of them promptly dispatched an email into our inbox and followed it five minutes later with a phone call! Meta sales techniques in the 21st Century–O.M.G.
I got over gasping at the invasive transfer of data from one hand to another fairly quickly because the agent smoothly told me we probably qualified for the High Risk Insurance Pool the State of North Carolina had created in compliance with the Affordable Healthcare Act. I was also pretty darn impressed by how on-the-spot responsive he was.
I gushed, “What do you do? Sit in front of your computer, get alerts and launch a stock email then punch in the phone number?”
“Yep,” he admitted. “Nine to five. You hit the rate estimator during business hours and I wasn’t on another call when your data came up. Cool, huh?”
“Creepy actually.” I told him but didn’t hang up because he proceeded to state the obvious, “The rate you just got quoted is outrageous and you would still be declined if your preexisting conditions are serious. But thanks to the Affordable Care Act, you now have an alternative. How long have you been without insurance?”
I’ll skip the personal tale of woe and the details of how damn sick we both are and get to the pertinent information. Different states have set up different criteria and many of them are foot-dragging but in North Carolina they’ve set it up and it’s called “Inclusive Health Federal Option”. Here are the rules:
- You must have gone without insurance coverage for at least six months.
- You must have current diseases or conditions that will cause your application for regular insurance to be declined.
- If your application IS accepted BUT the cost of the policy exceeds the amount you would pay for similar coverage under Inclusive Health then you STILL qualify.
The program offers several “packages” with options and deductible variations. Naturally, the higher the deductible the lower your monthly payment. It’s a typical insurance Chinese menu and he emailed it to us. We studied it and went into shock. Good Lord! We could afford it!
Sure the plan we picked has a deductible of $3500 but, heck, that’s the cost of one of my husband’s recent ER visits that we’ve been self-paying in full with no end in sight but bankruptcy. After meeting the deductible, ER goes down to a mere $150 out of pocket. The plan includes a complete annual physical at NO CHARGE. The medication he’s been paying $280 per month to get goes down to 40 bucks; generic meds will be $10. Visiting the doctor will cost a whooping $20 instead of $125.
Here let me cut to the bottom line: The same policy with BCBSNC–if they would accept us–costs $1400 each. Under Inclusive Health, the cost drops to $500! The whole process, applying and being declined by BCBS, applying and being accepted by Inclusive Health took two weeks. As of May 1st, we will be insured. The shiny membership cards are already in our hands. We’ll get medical services as often as needed, seeking answers to all those “little complaints” we couldn’t afford to investigate out-of-pocket. My husband will take medications we haven’t been able to afford that might improve his condition and friggin’ prolong his life!
So, yeah, I’m gonna work to re-elect Barack Obama and I’m telling everyone I meet locally, “You CAN afford insurance thanks to Obama and the Democrats!” Inclusive Health has discounts off their rates for people in lower income brackets. It’s not my ideal national health care solution but, golly gee whiz, it’s the best compromise we were going to get at this time and it’s AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE!