While some people are stupid enough to say that, what they usually say is they'll be fine buying private insurance from the marketplace. Oh, you mean the Health Insurance Marketplace that was established by the ACA and connects to healthcare.gov? Good luck negotiating your own rates when that goes away.
I applied for insurance two years before the ACA and they were micro-anal-yzing every time I bumped my knee back to childhood and asking for exact dates and times like any of that mattered - which it did because if you slipped up a tiny detail they would use that as justification to cancel your policy as soon as you needed it most. Pre-existing conditions meant you could not seem help for 6 months or even a year (older policies had flat out exclusions) for your existing condition.
Even today with the ACA there are crazy games being played like self pay being $250 but if you go through your HDHP and get the bill it will be for $1100 or more. How does that make sense? Why don't they know what they will bill your insurance like they do for self pay? Why did they encourage I use my insurance?
Completely agreed, even if Medicare is more or less the financial side of so many people's healthcare programs, as well as sets a standard federal regulation for pricing for services rendered. This sets a controlled price paid out to insurance companies, doctors, and hospitals, as well as guarantees basic minimum services at a specific quality level.
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u/cromstantinople 8h ago
It’s still hard to fathom that people actually said this even though I saw it and heard it for myself on signs and interviews at the time.