Legal Threats to Medical Insurance?

[OregonDeb]

Medicare Advantage Plans and Medigap plans existed before the ACA [I worked at an insurance company 10 years ago]. Only time will tell what is going to happen and even without the Texas judge, any law can be 'tweaked' at any time so one cannot rely on the current law to be around next year, 5 years from now or whenever in the future.

I currently have Medicare and insurance through my work so I don't have an Advantage or Medigap plan though I will look into them when I decide to quit.

 

[SLB_SA]

Medicare Advantage Plans and Medigap plans existed before the ACA [I worked at an insurance company 10 years ago].   Only time will tell what is going to happen and even without the Texas judge, any law can be 'tweaked' at any time so one cannot rely on the current law to be around next year, 5 years from now or whenever in the future.

I currently have Medicare and insurance through my work so I don't have an Advantage or Medigap plan though I will look into them when I decide to quit.

I understand that Medicare Advantage was around before the ACA was enacted and medigap is private, unsubsidized insurance.  As the article notes, some laws like HIPAA might disappear because the law establishing HIPAA was superseded by another law; from the article we find
"However, when Congress wrote the ACA, it incorporated HIPAA safeguards into the pre-existing-condition provision. That means if the ACA is struck down, the HIPAA protections might disappear as well."
Of course, any law can be tweaked; should we never plan because "things might change"?  Actual laws and actual legal rulings, legislation that has a reasonable chance of being passed, etc. are the things that I consider.

 

[SLB_SA]

Maybe I can formulate one of my questions as follows; what is the legal basis of the (approximately) $10,000 per person per year subsidy that MA plans receive and is this affected by a repeal of the ACA?

 

[Blanch]

An important thing folks who are low income should know:

If you go to a hospital that accepts public funds you can get part of your hospital bill written off. I don’t have/can’t get a Medicare supplement. I do have regular Medicare. If I am hospitalized I owe 20%. With my low income that 20% is usually written off by the hospital. I’ve done it. I filled out forms and proved my income and the hospital wrote off my portion.

So there are options other than purchasing insurance you can’t afford or can’t get.


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[rvwandering]

I have deleted the posts that edged into politics. Sorry if doing that destroyed some of continuity in the thread.

 

[Moxadox]

An important thing folks who are low income should know:

If you go to a hospital that accepts public funds you can get part of your hospital bill written off. I don’t have/can’t get a Medicare supplement. I do have regular Medicare. If I am hospitalized I owe 20%. With my low income that 20% is usually written off by the hospital. I’ve done it. I filled out forms and proved my income and the hospital wrote off my portion.

So there are options other than purchasing insurance you can’t afford or can’t get.


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The Hill-Burton Act is the underpinning of what you're referring to. It was established in 1946. It's intended to relieve the burden of hospital charges on the indigent, but there is no universally accepted definition of "indigent," and it's nearly impossible to get the hospital to write off charges via Hill-Burton.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[Blanch]

I’ve done it twice, so it isn’t virtually impossible. You go to the business office and ask for their requirements to write off your share of the bill. You fill out the paperwork and provide the necessary documentation, and it is done.

Like I said, I have done it twice. I also told a friend about it and she was able to do it. It is a sliding scale, depending on where you fall on the poverty table.

Here is the link for one hospital I was able to do it at.

https://www.sutterhealth.org/for-patients/caring-for-uninsured

Here is the relevant information:
“A write off of the Patient Responsibility amount for Hospital Services to insured patients earning 400% or less of the FPIG and with high medical costs (medical expenses over the past 12 months exceeding 10% of family income).”

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