We-Have-To-Pass-It-To-Find-Out-What’s-In-It Fact of the Day
A chain of events would create a two-month period during which a family has medical coverage but no insurer must pay its claims.
Nonpayment of premiums for subsidized policies would trigger the oddity: Federal law provides a three-month grace period before cancellation – but insurers are responsible only for the first month.
Doctors say the liability might keep many physicians from participating in next year’s program. A single prostate cancer patient’s course of treatment can cost $93,000, they say.
More from Jim Sanders.
“A loophole in California’s upcoming health care overhaul could be exploited by families gaming the system or responding to hardship in a way that doctors say could leave a pile of unpaid bills.”
Unpaid bills…doesn’t this country run on “unpaid bills”?
More loopholes, irresponsible spending, etc. Not sure how we can keep this up in the long-term.
Shame! It’s crazy to see the terrible effects of Obamacare!
People may not find out about the loophole; not everyone has tax lawyers.
“Betsy Imholz, of Consumers Union, said it’s “far-fetched” that many low-income families would research federal regulations to intentionally game the system. “Most people don’t even have time to read their mail,” she said. “It’s highly unlikely.””
This sounds like something that would get taken to court. Doctors sue every party involed, and the court fixes it.
Still a bad law though
Mitigation ensues:
“Covered California cannot alter the three-month grace period for canceling subsidized policies, but it has tried to ease the impact on physicians by requiring insurers to provide notification when policyholders are late in paying premiums, Dooley said.
Doctors must be informed of delinquencies between the 30th and 45th days of the three-month grace period – in other words, within 15 days after insurers no longer are obligated to pay claims.
Even if that notification works perfectly, however, it does not remove doctors’ fiscal risk and it retains a two-week window in which they could be providing care without knowing insurance is in limbo.”
If doctors are leaving the program, then that will create a small to large deficiency (depending on how many doctors leave) in medical care need for citizens of the U.S.
I agree with Baker, law suits will fix it, but still the opportunity cost of the money going to law suits is just to high to justify the law.
Man, all these news about about how Obamacare is going to mess most of us up. Do you think some elements of fear is something similar to how we reacted to Y2K?
@Patel
Yes, although there may be more foundation here.