Comment: As New Mexicans flock to favorite choices, Obamacare kills ‘em. Sorry ma’am, it’s cattle-car care for everyone! Oh, and if you believed the malarkey about being ‘covered’ if you have a preexisting condition, JOKE’S ON YOU.
“Starting in January … no company in the state is offering individuals a health insurance option for 2016 that’s known as a PPO, or preferred provider organization, where patients can pick a doctor outside a contracted network.”
““I am going to just pick the best of the bad lot,” said Katie Stevenson, 59….”
Obamacare is costing two-thirds of BCBS individuals their plans this year. Again.
“Of the 52,358 individuals who purchased a policy on the exchange for coverage this year, 35,000 went with Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, and 22,000 of those are now in a PPO, said a Blue Cross spokeswoman.”
The BCBS spokeswoman explains how their PPO offerings–their most popular–met with an untimely Obamadeath: sick people liked them, so BCBS had to stop offering them.
“What did happen with the individual insurance market is that more people with chronic conditions chose a Blue Cross PPO.”
““The populations they got were healthier than ours,” Shipley said of other insurance companies. “It’s typical. … You’re probably going to pick Blue Cross if you have a lot of health care needs.””
New Mexicans are not pleased.
“New Mexico consumers say the state has essentially taken away their right to choose.”
““What was supposed to increase all of our options has ended up shrinking them massively,” said former business owner Stevenson. “Frankly, I would have paid for a PPO, but they wouldn’t give people like us an option. It’s terrible and its bad for me, someone with a lifelong chronic illness.””
And finally, one of the commenters offers their testimonial:
“”[M]y wife and I are in exactly the same boat… We also purchased BCBSNM, and had a good choice of physicians. And we paid through the nose for it, not being eligible for the tax credits. I have already checked and some of my doctors are NOT in network for Presbyterian. I absolutely despise HMO’s, but apparently that is where we are headed on a nationwide basis. So one of the big selling points of the ACA was that [if] we liked our doctors we could keep them? BS!! The ACA may be helping a lot of people, but it is certainly NOT helping my wife or I.”"
Plan changes put squeeze on choices for patients in N.M.
By Bruce Krasnow, The New Mexican
Updated: 9:06 am, Sun Oct 18, 2015.