Obamacare guts health insurance reform for autism

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Despite promises that autism would be deemed an "essential health benefit" covered under the PPACA (and therefore state exchanges, federal workers insurance, etc.), the government has announced that it will not be.

Instead the states will decide if they want to mandate autism coverage, or even recognize autism as a disorder or health issue.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/advocacy/ad ... ort-autism

So now we have essential health benefits being removed from Obamacare as the final rules are written (things like prostate cancer screening, etc.). People forced to go on the health insurance exchanges will find they have poor policies that cover virtually nothing. The president will then be able to claim that he has extended health coverage to millions, while in reality, we are no better off than we were 6 years ago (and maybe worse off).

All I can say is I am not surprised.

Not related directly to Obamacare, but what I expect many will soon see...I had to change from one health insurance carrier to another and was very saddened to see that even though I had health insurance, I was no longer able to afford to go to the doctor. Most labs and tests are not covered, so you have to pay separately, so that means I can't go. I make way too much to receive public assistance, pay into "health insurance," and can't go to the doctor because I can't afford it.

Lovely.

A short detour: I am a big advocate of H S A's, at least once the kids get past the toddler ages. Between creating the account any paying monthly insurance premiums, we are going out of pocket about the same as if we had a lower deductible insurance plan, but here is the thing: as long as we stay relatively healthy, we come out way, way ahead, being able to fund braces, etc. with pre-tax dollars. Everything gets paid from that H S A: all prescriptions, doctor visits, tests, etc., PLUS stuff like braces and things insurance is not covering. If we get really sick, we'll only come out marginally behind ... I've run the numbers. But in a normal year, we're ahead. And since you've already set the money aside, there is no reason not to use it; I don't let the fact that "we" have to pay for all medical items drive our decisions. Medical services tend to let us choose the lower of the insurance negotiated rate, or their special plan (if they have one) for uninsured patients (the later not going into our deductible at the insurance co, but since yesterday that meant I got an RX for a 10th of the price, who cares?).

As for Obamacare ... I'm sitting back. I want to see how it all plays out. Something needed to be done, and we won't know how some parts are going to work until we've tried them. As for some decisions being state by state ... that is just more politically palatable.

And it sounds to me like the president didn't actually gut anything ... but he is, in a way, allowing states to if they really want to.

We have insurance through our jobs and even though we have a fairly good PPO, it covers nothing autism related We use our FSA (flexible spending account) for most things. So basically we are using our pre-tax income to pay for everything. Obamacare, for us, will allow the kids to stay on our insurance, for longer, if the need to.

Obamacare is a sham. It was virtually written by the big insurance companies.

Link-fact sheet-obamacare

Well...it really doesn't matter what the cap is if you are living from paycheck to paycheck, ykwim? I used to have an FSA, but I can't afford to have the money missing from my paycheck. Having recently gone from the mid- to- upper-middle class to mid- to lower-middle class, what I am finding is that all of the "solutions" that used to work for me--and that I assumed would work for everyone--simply stop working when you need every penny in your paycheck to pay your bills and put food on the table.