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Actually, this kind of stuff is NOT possible under Obamacare. Health insurance companies can't discriminate based on your medical history, the premium only depends on your location, age and smoking/non-smoking status.

Then why does the insurance industry spend money on ever-more intrusive ways of gathering medical underwriting data that it ostensibly doesn't need? Like the robocalls I've been getting from Inovalon. (Instead of seeing your own doctor, the insurers have an outsourced robocalling firm call every customer and tell them to call the data broker for a Personal Health Assessment, up to and including in-home visits from insurance-company-hired physicians.)

They're certainly not doing it for the sake of my health.

The hospital is taking marketing data and using it for pseudo healthcare related reasons.

This seems as good a place as any to bring this up. Have other people been getting creepy robocalls from people claiming to be affiliated with their insurance companies?

CSB: Robocall from a 'bot that knows my name, and it claims I need to fill out a survey for my health insurer. I ignore it. Bot calls back a few months later and says it just wants to be sure I'm getting the health care I need, etc.

I do some digging and discover a company called Inovalon (formerly MedAssurant). The deal appears to be that because the insurance companies can't do medical underwriting anymore, they give their customer data to Inovalon. Inovalon then tries to harass customers into getting a "personal health visit" either at a physician's office, or at your home (small PDF of FAQs for physicians).

Of note from the PDF: "What are the qualifications of the medical professional who will be evaluating my patient if they have a Personal Health Visit with someone else? The assessment is limited to a physical exam; treatment will not be provided. The medical professional will be a licensed physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant hired to perform this service. It is important to note that this exam is in addition to any regular visits the member has with you and is not a substitute for the memberâ(TM)s annual physical examination" / "Will I be paid? No. We have contracted with Inovalon to perform these visits. Since there are no additional resources required from you or your staff, no compensation will be provided to you. After the examination is complete, the documentation from the exam will be sent to you so you can better coordinate your patientâ(TM)s care."

Translation: Medspeak: "Go see your doctor, a doctor, any doctor, because an annual checkup is a good idea." Marketspeak: "It'll keep you healthy!" Truth: "See a doctor that your insurance company chooses, so that it gets all the data and we know who to drop from coverage when/if PPACA is repealed. We can't do medical underwriting anymore, but we can ask nicely and maybe get the data anyways."

CSB: Zero health problems for 15+ years, annual physicals every 3-5 years, I take my own vitals because blood pressure and blood sugar levels are trivially cheap to measure at home. Zero claims to insurance. Zero contact with insurance company for that entire time until this year when I switched from employer's expensive gold-plated plan to cheaper bronze ACA plan. Since then, six robocalls. Next open enrollment period, I'm seriously considering calling them up and telling them in most cordial fashion to go fuck themselves.

$1k per month for health insurance? Jeezus, what kind of policy is that? I'm in my 40's and BCBS quoted me about $250 per month (actually slightly less) for a moderate ($2,500 deductible) policy with prescription coverage. I could cover that with unemployment insurance, and not even have to touch the $30k plus in my savings. Do you have an artificial heart or something?

Anthem Blue Cross health insurance for a 50 year old male:

$288/mo = $3500/year
$6000/year deductible
$3500 out of pocket maximum (after deductible)

As long as you don't need healthcare services, it's "only" $3500/year. But if you need to use your insurance, then you could be paying $9500 just to get to the deductible where insurance starts paying... then you could be paying up to $12,500 for the year.

I did some quick searching a month back. In Maine, for private single person health insurance, there is very little choice, and what few choices there are, are very expensive. Also, for insurance companies that do operate in Maine, they offer limited plans.

There is no Aetna, little Anthem/Blue Cross/Blue Shield, little Assurant, no Cigna, no UnitedHealth/Golden Rule, no Humana. A health insurance searcher doesn't work, either: no eHealthInsurance.

While a humorous comment, it highlights what makes the American health care system so unique. We are so fiercely independent, that a good majority of Americans don't like having the government telling us what to do, and this includes how we take care of our body and our health. This system allows for many benefits as well as problems. The most visible problem is the ever-increasing cost of health care, and the number of people like yourselves who are falling through the cracks because good health insurance is only available through employers who can command group rates. On the flip side, because the state is not dictating how health care is conducting itself, American health care is a hot-bed of new procedures and techniques that push the limits of health care because people are willing to pay for an unproven technique even if it has even a small chance of success if the alternative is not acceptable. For example, the second son of a friend of mine was diagnose with Spina Bifida and instead of accepting that his child would be born paralyzed, was able to find a surgeon who was willing to perform surgery on the child while he was still in the womb! (notice that of the four hospitals in the world that perform this unique and complicated surgery, all of them are located in the United States)

As a graduate student, I am faced with paying for a cut-rate, we-don't-pay-for-anything-unless-you-get-hit-by-a- bus student plan, or a much more expensive individual plan. There are very few national health care providers, and you would be well suited to search for and find a regional health insurance company. In the mid-west, I have been leaning towards Anthem as my insurance provider, and hope to have a plan from them to help me start off the new year.

You're listening to too much talk radio.

The "ever increasing" cost of health care is largely a result of the law not permitting Medicare/Medicaid to do things like implement fraud control systems and negotiate for drug pricing. The lack of primary care also tends to crowd expensive emergency rooms with patients that have to be treated without regard to their ability to repay.

If we had a coherent national health system, costs would be much more reasonable.

While a humorous comment, it highlights what makes the American health care system so unique. We are so fiercely independent, that a good majority of Americans don't like having the government telling us what to do, and this includes how we take care of our body and our health. This system allows for many benefits as well as problems. The most visible problem is the ever-increasing cost of health care, and the number of people like yourselves who are falling through the cracks because good health insurance is only available through employers who can command group rates. On the flip side, because the state is not dictating how health care is conducting itself, American health care is a hot-bed of new procedures and techniques that push the limits of health care because people are willing to pay for an unproven technique even if it has even a small chance of success if the alternative is not acceptable. For example, the second son of a friend of mine was diagnose with Spina Bifida and instead of accepting that his child would be born paralyzed, was able to find a surgeon who was willing to perform surgery on the child while he was still in the womb! (notice that of the four hospitals in the world that perform this unique and complicated surgery, all of them are located in the United States)

As a graduate student, I am faced with paying for a cut-rate, we-don't-pay-for-anything-unless-you-get-hit-by-a- bus student plan, or a much more expensive individual plan. There are very few national health care providers, and you would be well suited to search for and find a regional health insurance company. In the mid-west, I have been leaning towards Anthem as my insurance provider, and hope to have a plan from them to help me start off the new year.