Slashdot Mirror
Medical Costs Bankrupt Patients; It's the Computer's Fault
nbauman writes "Don't get cancer until 2015. The Obama health reform is supposed to limit out-of-pocket costs to $12,700. But the Obama Administration has delayed its implementation until 2015. The insurance companies told them that their computers weren't able to add up all their customers' out-of-pocket costs to see whether they had reached the limit. For some common diseases, such as cancer or heart failure, treatment can cost over $100,000, and patients will be responsible for the balance. Tell me, Slashdot, how difficult would it be to rewrite an insurance billing system to aggregate a policyholder's out-of-pocket costs? 'A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said: "We knew this was an important issue. We had to balance the interests of consumers with the concerns of health plan sponsors and carriers, which told us that their computer systems were not set up to aggregate all of a person's out-of-pocket costs. They asked for more time to comply."'"
As long as the payers for service and consumers of it are different entities, this sort of nonsense will keep happening.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Forcing people to pay higher premiums just before the election would look bad, hence the delay.
All you really need to know about Obamacare's costs are that, just before going on vacation, Obama granted Congress a waiver so that they no longer have to participate in the system.
It's too costly for our elected officials to pay for, so his Obamaness has decided that they don't have to.
I sure can't wait for the next George Bush administration to decided what medical procedures I'm allowed to get.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.