Related: Breaking News: Democrats Hammer Home Health Tax
Want it or not, you are getting it.
And THEN they OVERCHARGE YOU for the crappy care, kiddo!!!!
"Report blasts student health plans; Says less of premium goes to medical care" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | November 6, 2009
Insurance companies rack up much higher profits on health coverage sold to nearly 100,000 Massachusetts college students than on plans available to the general public, according to long-awaited data released late yesterday by the state. The figures also show that college-student plans also have higher administrative costs.
The result is that less of the premiums paid by students goes toward medical care.
The report by the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy shows that, on average, 30 cents of every premium dollar goes toward profits and administrative costs, compared with 12 cents for plans sold to the general public. The remainder of the premiums is what’s used to pay medical bills. Students at state schools faced the greatest disparity: 45 cents of every insurance dollar they pay goes to profit and administrative costs, according to the report.
Yeah, but WE CARE ABOUT OUR KIDS, blah, blah, blah!
The HEALTHIEST GROUP is getting GOUGED!!
Well, I guess you KNOW WHO WILL BE FOOTING the bill for Obamacare, kids.
This what you wanted when you "voted change?"
For more than a year, students at several campuses have pushed state regulators to investigate because, they said, the lower-cost insurance products marketed to them offer limited coverage, leaving many vulnerable to enormous medical debts after accidents or serious injuries.
Yeah, the GOVERNMENT DIDN'T DO a DAMN THING in "looking out for you," kiddo! So WHY SHOULD YOU BELIEVE THEM about ANYTHING?
They SEND YOU OFF TO WAR on LIES or SCREW YOU when they MAKE YOU get "health" care. The ONLY HEALTH BEING CARED FOR is THE BULGING POCKETS of the LEGISLATING LOOTERS and their insurance company masters!
For the LAST TIME: SINGLE-PAYER! Pick a country, pick a plan -- although, with THIS GOVERNMENT I DO NOT WANT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE!
They can't manage a clunker program or find where all the missing war loot went? I don't want them taking this on. Look at the shambles the VA is in!
“These profit margins for student health insurance are appalling,’’ said Vivian Haime, a 21-year-old junior at Tufts University and a lead organizer of the Student Health Organizing Coalition. “We know students that, on top of school loans, also have thousands of dollars of medical debt.’’
Sets you up to be a slave when you graduate, kid!
Although students are free to buy more expensive policies, many are covered by plans that cap payments at $50,000 a year per injury or illness. Some plans place significantly lower limits on prescription drugs and doctor visits....
And WE ARE GOING NATIONAL with it!!!
I feel SO SORRY for the PARENTS of AmeriKa's teens.
They have NO IDEA what awaits them!
After heavy lobbying by the student coalition, Sarah Iselin, commissioner of the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, in February announced that the state would start requiring schools to track and report data they had never before collected.
Yeah, they AREN'T going to STOP the LOOTING -- just going to watch it for a while. But LOOKING OUT FOR YOU as they do it, kiddo! Now go get your flu shots!
Iselin, who is stepping down from office today, said it was “too soon’’ to say whether the division would step in with proposed regulations to rein in profit margins. Instead, she said, the division would probably continue to monitor the programs and collect more data.
Does the phrase rats deserting a sinking ship mean anything to you?
“This report suggests that there may be an opportunity for the state to work with and support schools in being the most effective purchasers, to make sure they are getting the best value on behalf of their students,’’ Iselin said. She also said the division would study whether the Connector Authority, the agency that oversees the state’s landmark health insurance law, could create a better product for the student market.
Pffft!
Twenty-year-old state regulations require college students to have health insurance, but allow insurers to substantially limit coverage, even if the coverage fails to meet the minimum standards set for other plans as part of the state’s 2006 near-universal health law. “We are requiring students to have insurance and offering them no protections from these predatory carriers,’’ said Carol Pryor, policy director of the Access Project, a Boston nonprofit....
And we are taking this on the BIG STAGE!!!
Brian Rosman, the Health Care for All, a large consumer group’s research director: “It’s clear now that students are being gouged by these out-of-state, for-profit companies that are making enormous profits, way out of proportion with the rest of the health insurance market in the state.’’
Just wanted you to know what to look forward to as the castor oil of a healthcare bill is shoved down your throat, kids. Do you even care out there?
Most of the 14 insurance companies that sell to students are from out of state. The local ones, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Tufts Health Plan, had substantially smaller profit margins and administrative costs, according to the report. Blue Cross, which sold to just 1.4 percent of the student market, had a 2 percent profit margin, the same as that of the private market, according to the report. Tufts Health, with 1.6 percent of the student market, actually reported a 2 percent loss on its student product.
Just the THOUGHT of PROFITING of SICKNESS makes me SICK -- but WHEN it is RIPPING OFF the KIDS.... !!!!!!!
But you know who we bend over backwards for around here, right?
"As his stunned family gathered on Oct. 19 around his bed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for their final goodbyes, hard questions about his medical care swirled around them. How long had he been sick? Why was he taken to three hospitals? What had caused the rapid decline of an otherwise healthy 49-year-old man?
--more--"
That was a front-pager, folks.
And while the STATE WILL NOT ACT on the STUDENTS, they are concerned about ONE GROUP!
"Immigrants face hurdles with new care coverage; Network changes, delays vex clients" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | November 5, 2009
Yeah, well, SINGLE-PAYER would TAKE CARE of ALL THAT!!
The Patrick administration has trumpeted its salvaging of health insurance for 28,000 legal immigrants, but the company hired to cover this group has been late assigning doctors and sending enrollment information to many patients, health and immigrant advocates say.
Yeah, they are WAR REFUGEES and VICTIMS of the WARS WE STARTED, America!
You will NEVER, EVER STOP PAYING for these things and the COSTS WILL ONLY INCREASE as you CONTINUE!
BRING the TROOPS and CONTRACTORS HOME and DISMANTLE this FOOLISH ATTEMPT at WORLD DOMINATION!!!!
And as the state is ALL WORRIED about IMMIGRANT ACCESS it is ALLOWING the SCREWING of STUDENTS!!
Even some patients who received the necessary information are facing significant hurdles connecting with the doctors CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts assembled in its new network, which sharply limits the community health centers and hospitals available to patients.
“Often the new providers are a long way from where they live, and this is a problem for immigrants who have to use public transportation,’’ said Franklin Soults, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, the state’s largest immigrant group. “The new places,’’ he added, “don’t have the translator services that their former providers do.’’
*********************************
CeltiCare, which is being paid $36.5 million over nine months, defended its performance....
In Belmont, Brazilian dancer Rosangela Santiago said she tried, in vain, for an hour earlier this week to reach CeltiCare’s customer service department.
Been there, done that!
Related: Brazilian Killer Strips Boston Bare
So the Brazilian girls come here to be strippers, huh?
Why does the phrase "organized crime gangs" pop into my head?
Santiago has been sidelined by a foot injury that requires cortisone shots and physical therapy for rehabilitation. Her CeltiCare coverage is not scheduled to begin until Dec. 1, but she received a letter Oct. 1 from her caregivers at Cambridge Health Alliance saying they would be unable to provide care after Oct. 31, because CeltiCare did not contract with them. Now the 35-year-old does not know where to turn.
“I get a recording that says . . . ‘Your call is important to us,’ and I wait on hold for over an hour,’’ she said of CelticCare.
Yup.
When Santiago looked on the company’s website to find a doctor, she said it showed none available in her ZIP code.
Yeah, I KNOW! I did that one, too!
So the WHOLE PLAN is like that, huh?
Legal immigrants’ coverage under the Commonwealth Care plan, the centerpiece of the state’s landmark 2006 health care overhaul, expired Aug. 31, after lawmakers eliminated $130 million for their care to help balance the state’s budget. Ultimately, legislators restored $40 million, and CeltiCare stepped in to offer a reduced-rate package that will keep core medical services, such as routine doctor visits and hospital treatment, but excludes more comprehensive care. Some patients will also have to pay significantly higher copayments for medications and other treatments.
This the REFORM YOU WANT, America?
CeltiCare’s list of health care providers is largely composed of lower-cost community health centers and a small number of hospitals. The network excludes many medical institutions that specialize in treating immigrants, and that is leading to disruptions in their care, said executives at several Boston-area hospitals that were not offered CeltiCare contracts.
And WHAT ABOUT the COLLEGE KIDS, huh?
The state’s contract with CeltiCare requires the company to provide at least one hospital in each county and provide each patient with a choice of at least two primary care physicians who are accepting new patients, are “appropriate and culturally sensitive,’’ and are located within a 15-mile radius or 30 minutes travel time. Last week, a state agency blocked the company from offering health coverage to the public until April, saying CeltiCare does not have an adequate number of medical providers in its network for that product. But it did not make any determination about the adequacy of the company’s network for immigrants or for other lower-income patients who also receive state-subsidized health insurance from CeltiCare.
Many of the CeltiCare patients live in Lawrence, which has a large Spanish-speaking population, but Lawrence General Hospital and its affiliated community health center did not get a contract with the company, forcing more than 1,400 patients to make new care arrangements. Among them is Amparo Villa, a 51-year-old Dominican immigrant who through a translator said she takes 16 medications for chronic illnesses including diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and arthritis. She will now have to take a taxi to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen every time she needs to see a doctor, a $14 round trip. “It’s expensive for me to go to Methuen,’’ said Villa, who takes home just $220 a week from her custodian’s job.
Hey, BANKSTERS and WAR LOOTERS made BILLIONS, 'kay?
--more--"
- The Massachusetts Model: Working Or Not?
- The Massachusetts Model: Comes At a Premium
- The Massachusetts Model: Screwing Small Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Going Out of Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Crazy Coverage
- The Massachusetts Model: Immigrant Insult
- The Massachusetts Model: Profit and the Paycheck
- The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
- The Massachusetts Model: By the Numbers
- The Massachusetts Model: Treasurer's Assessment
- The Massachusetts Model: Care-Keeping Costs
- The Massachusetts Model: Mass. Hospitality
- The Massachusetts Model: Lessons Learned
- The Massachusetts Model: Non-Compliant Complacency
- The Massachusetts Model: Office Visit
Is it working for you, Bay Staters, or is it BANKRUPTING YOU?
