That’s the bad news. The good news, though, is that they’re set to receive a better plan — in which they receive even broader benefits while paying less, which their own doctors will happily accept as part of the new health care reality — because math as an intellectual or logical currency only gains primacy under the outmoded beliefs of Enlightenment thinkers with their rigid adherence to a conceptual framework without the vision to see that simply dictating something, and then getting people to buy into it, makes it so, and as a result, alters reality in ways that number crunching or quaint ideas about debt or spending simply refuse to do.
So ignore them.
Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.
[…]
[…] the cancellation notices, which began arriving in August, have shocked many consumers in light of President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their plans if they liked them.
“I don’t feel like I need to change, but I have to,” said Jeff Learned, a television editor in Los Angeles, who must find a new plan for his teenage daughter, who has a health condition that has required multiple surgeries.
An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs. Calls to insurers in several states showed that many have sent notices.
[…]
Some receiving cancellations say it looks like their costs will go up, despite studies projecting that about half of all enrollees will get income-based subsidies.
Kris Malean, 56, lives outside Seattle, and has a health policy that costs $390 a month with a $2,500 deductible and a $10,000 in potential out-of-pocket costs for such things as doctor visits, drug costs or hospital care.
As a replacement, Regence BlueShield is offering her a plan for $79 more a month with a deductible twice as large as what she pays now, but which limits her potential out-of-pocket costs to $6,250 a year, including the deductible.
“My impression was …there would be a lot more choice, driving some of the rates down,” said Malean, who does not believe she is eligible for a subsidy.
Regence spokeswoman Rachelle Cunningham said the new plans offer consumers broader benefits, which “in many cases translate into higher costs.”
“The arithmetic is inescapable,” said Patrick Johnston, chief executive officer of the California Association of Health Plans. Costs must be spread, so while some consumers will see their premiums drop, others will pay more — “no matter what people in Washington say.”
To which I must strenuously object: the people in DC are noble caring creatures that look upon the masses with great kindness and affection, constantly dreaming up ways to make them more uniform and equal, even if that means some must suffer in the short term in order clear the space for our Great March Forward.
But even then, those are only numbers — statistics, percentages, etc., which are the kinds of things rightwing reactionaries dig out of their hoary philosophy books and outdated modernist science requirements in order to frighten the herd into fearing its benevolent Capitol shepherds.
And one day they’ll shut up. Just as soon as we can figure out the best way to turn fiscal calculations and projections that break from the visions they promote as a form or hate speech.
Rest assured though, we’re working on that. For freedom.
Why oh why couldn’t these people find an outlet for their “create your own world” urges in building model train dioramas?
Why?
“The fault, dear Harry, lies not in our stars but in our political opponents.”
I formally denounce the racist Patrick Johnson for declaring we’re all slaves to math.
They have already started calling those that use math as “economic traitors” and one Democratic House member referred to the TEA party as “those domestic enemies we swore to defend against”. Neither one drew any surprised looks from media.
The move has begun. The trigger has been pulled. The hammer is falling.
Where will you be when you hear the ‘bang’?
Because it’s more fun to make other people’s trains run on time Di?
How can that be, Drum? After all der Fuhrer says “all economists” agree with him.
Over 500,000 so far… in just two states (California and Florida).
This is the story that’s going to just keep getting bigger.
And should the O-care website prove unworkable (should that be “when”?), and Obama makes the decision to delay, what happens to the previously-insured millions that are now without?
FUBAR won’t even begin to describe it.
Gayle, we need to get in touch with Squid about torches and pitchforks.
If it’s a supersonic round, I’ll never even hear it.
OT, but I can’t even find a box of 357 Sig anywhere. What’s up with that ?
serr8d, I suspect the ammo manufacturers are only making the most popular calibers right now. 45 acp and 9mm are readily available. As are .308 and .223.
I would love to get my hands on some .22 WMR, but it’s impossible to find right now.
Over 500,000 so far… in just two states (California and Florida).
– The two most retireree popular states, which just amplifies the probability that the one demographic that absolutely must sign up in droves for OCare to have even a whisper of a chance, namely the youth, is going MIA and I don’t think its just the unlimited glitches. They’re finding out immediately there is zero incentive for them to do so.
I was pissed about this when the Harridan of the House(TM) delivered this mess to the public good and hard.
And now, I find that, if I want to keep something close to my current deductable, the rate change is going to eat up pretty much but not quite all of the raise my employer managed to squeak out this year.
What really pisses me off about this is not my situation–that just rankles. What really pisses me off about this is that I’m one of the lucky ones.
– So the administration runs with a nationally hated bill whose success depends on buy-in by a large army of responsibility avoiding slackers.
– Yeah, thayts going to work.
Fear not, citizen.
We have it on good authority that the chocolate ration is being increased from 30 grams to 25 grams.
So we’ve got that to look forward to.
…what happens to the previously-insured millions that are now without?
Oh, that’s easy. The President signs an Executive Order stating that all Americans are “deemed” to have health insurance, which must be accepted by all health care providers if they want to maintain their licenses. Then John Roberts says it’s all peachy, and Boehner puts up a weak fight against it with each year’s budget.
PROGRESS!
Very good, Squid.
After which, they make disease a crime against the state.
Thereafter, all sick people will be criminals in need of institutionalization. For the Public Good.
We’ll be just like Iran then –only without any sickness instead of any homosexuals.
No worse. They will be giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the State. The sick shall all be traitors, death penalty. And just think of the savings!!