We have finally (almost, sort of) reached the end of Obamacare signups. The White House is claiming over seven million people have signed up with several million more now on the Medicaid rolls. Democrats are desperate to find a success somewhere in the Obamacare narrative, so reaching seven million is the story of the moment. However, as bad as the open enrollment period and its infamous healthcare.gov website was, the real problems are about to begin. Now people are going to try to use their new insurance. The problems that will create the next headlines will come in three main flavors: lack of access to doctors, failures of the system to verify coverage and pay claims, and the incredibly high deductibles and co-pays on many of the exchange insurance policies. Insurance companies believed that people shopping for health insurance on the government exchanges were very price sensitive so that low prices were needed to attract buyers. Thus, the insurers only signed up doctors and hospitals willing to agree to low reimbursement rates to their exchange-offered plans. That means that many of the plans, especially the silver and bronze ones, come with much more limited networks than Americans are used to. The newly insured are likely to find that, similar to Medicaid patients, it will be hard to find doctors who accept their new insurance. Having health insurance does not mean you can get care; you actually need a doctor for that, and a lot of people are in for a nasty surprise when they realize how limited their choices of providers are. U.S. Senator Tom Coburn finding out his cancer doctors were not part of his new Obamacare plan is just one famous example of this access issue. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
