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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsINSURANCE SCAM; How Private Insurance Companies Are Using Obamacare FEARS TO RIP PEOPLE OFF

By now youve probably heard horror stories about how the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, has forced so many people to lose their insurance policies. Youve heard that affordable health insurance policies are being canceled and replaced with policies that are far more expensive than the canceled policies. But have you heard that across the country, insurance regulators are cracking down on the private insurance companies, because of the scam they are running on their customers? Probably not.
Insurance companies, whats going on?
Whats going on? Diane Barrette is a good example of whats going on. Barrette, a 56 year old woman from Florida, who claimed on CBS News that her $54 life insurance policy was going to cost $591 a month because of Obamacare, was a victim of exactly the kind of scam that these state agencies are dealing with. Barrette had received a letter from one of the private insurance companies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, telling her that her old policy was canceled. The letter went on to say that the company would be replacing it with the new policy, and quoted a price that was ten times the cost of the old policy. CBS highlighted Barrettes story as if she were the victim of Obamacare. She wasnt. She was the victim of another private insurance industry scam. If CBS had been doing their job and acting as reporters and not right wing spokespeople, they would have known it, too.
Heres how this scam works.
How this scam works is that private insurance companies send out letters notifying existing customers that their current policy has been canceled, because of the ACAs new requirements. They then offer customers a new, ACA compliant policy at far higher rates than what the customer would pay if he went through the ACA marketplace. In most cases the insurance companies do not tell their customers what other options are available or even let them know they have a choice under the new law. Some insurance companies have pressed their customers to sign up for the new policies by a certain date, saying if they dont, their health coverage will be lost.
Consumer Reports found her a policy for $165.00.
On the program, Barrette tells CBS that she has to hurry and make up her mind by November 1st or she will lose out on her chance to buy in. CBS offered her no explanation of her alternatives, but Consumer Reports examined Barrettes story shortly after it aired. They easily found her a policy in the Marketplace for $165.00, not the $591 Blue Cross Blue Shield was shamelessly going to charge her. Whats more, Consumer Reports also looked at her old policy, the one she was paying $54 a month for. They determined that it was junk. In essence, Barrette had been paying one of these corrupt private insurance companies nearly $650 per year, to have almost no real medical coverage, under her previous Blue Cross Blue Shield policy.
cont'
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/11/05/insurance-companies-obamacare-scam/
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INSURANCE SCAM; How Private Insurance Companies Are Using Obamacare FEARS TO RIP PEOPLE OFF (Original Post)
Segami
Nov 2013
OP
Don't worry...Single Payer is coming one day...for now we have to make ACA work.
VanillaRhapsody
Nov 2013
#4
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)1. This should be considered fraud and prosecuted...
CanonRay
(15,032 posts)2. Which is why they should have been cut out of the loop
and single payer become the law of the land. They are doing what corporations do; maximize profits by any means, fair or foul.
tridim
(45,358 posts)3. They are cutting themselves out of the loop...
Which IMO was the only logical path to single-payer in a country with a massive, profit-driven, LEGAL insurance industry.
Our government does not, and hopefully will never have the power to shut down legal industries.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)4. Don't worry...Single Payer is coming one day...for now we have to make ACA work.
let's try to stay focused....
BTW our govt DOES have the ability to regulate legal industries....they also have the ability to call an industry NOT legal anymore....like Junk Insurance.