@dumdristig Bingo. Now ACA, insurance, and health care delivery are things I happen to know a thing or two about. In my case, RN doesn't mean Royal Navy. People without insurance would go to the ER for their primary care, basically waiting until they are ill: no wellness visits, no physicals, no vaccinations. If they can't afford to pay, they still get treated, courtesy of the Hill-Burton Act. This is why health care can be so expensive for everyone else. It costs a lot less to prevent illnesses than it does to treat them. Clinic visits with a primary care physician doing wellness care, vaccinations, annual physicals to track patients' health over time and catch conditions before the patients are in a severe state costs a lot less.
When someone gets laid off, they could continue the insurance from their job through COBRA, but that is so horrifically expensive as to be a damned joke. Until the ACA, it was go broke spending your savings on COBRA or go on Medicaid if you can qualify. That coverage and the timeliness of approvals leaves a lot to be desired. With the ACA, it's easier to get coverage similar to what you had at your job but at a premium that's easily doable. It does cover pre-existing conditions, but before this, insurance would cover pre-existing conditions if there has been continuous insurance coverage. So, change from the job's insurance in a timely fashion, and everything stays covered. With the ACA, that panic isn't necessary (but do it anyway to be sure because who knows what Trump will do with the ACA).
I was a case manager in a home health agency having to fight Medicaid to get some of my patients the proper level of coverage for their care. We got it, but government bureaucracy made me go home and swear every night I had to fight. My family has also been on Medicaid when I was in high school and college. It took rather too long in my professional opinion for my stepdad to get his insulin pump.
As for the ACA example? We're living it now. Hubby got laid off. I'm grateful for the ACA.
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@dumdristig Bingo. Now ACA, insurance, and health care delivery are things I happen to know a thing or two about. In my case, RN doesn't mean Royal Navy. People without insurance would go to the ER for their primary care, basically waiting until they are ill: no wellness visits, no physicals, no vaccinations. If they can't afford to pay, they still get treated, courtesy of the Hill-Burton Act. This is why health care can be so expensive for everyone else. It costs a lot less to prevent illnesses than it does to treat them. Clinic visits with a primary care physician doing wellness care, vaccinations, annual physicals to track patients' health over time and catch conditions before the patients are in a severe state costs a lot less.
When someone gets laid off, they could continue the insurance from their job through COBRA, but that is so horrifically expensive as to be a damned joke. Until the ACA, it was go broke spending your savings on COBRA or go on Medicaid if you can qualify. That coverage and the timeliness of approvals leaves a lot to be desired. With the ACA, it's easier to get coverage similar to what you had at your job but at a premium that's easily doable. It does cover pre-existing conditions, but before this, insurance would cover pre-existing conditions if there has been continuous insurance coverage. So, change from the job's insurance in a timely fashion, and everything stays covered. With the ACA, that panic isn't necessary (but do it anyway to be sure because who knows what Trump will do with the ACA).
I was a case manager in a home health agency having to fight Medicaid to get some of my patients the proper level of coverage for their care. We got it, but government bureaucracy made me go home and swear every night I had to fight. My family has also been on Medicaid when I was in high school and college. It took rather too long in my professional opinion for my stepdad to get his insulin pump.
As for the ACA example? We're living it now. Hubby got laid off. I'm grateful for the ACA.