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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Daily Beast: Who's Screwed If Obamacare Gets the Axe
Debt-Strangled Young 20-Somethings:
By design, many provisions of the Affordable Care Act were not set to trigger until years after the laws passage in March 2010. But one of the laws biggest changes went into effect in late September of that year: all Americans could stay on their parents health insurance until they turned 26. If the law is overturned, it will be up to insurance companies whether to allow this continue, and they will be under no legal obligation to do so. Many could revert to their old practice of kicking kids off their parents insurance plans once they turn 19. The result, particularly for young adults with expensive health conditions, could be financially ruinous.
SNIP
People Who Are Bad at Paperwork: Dont laugh. Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, many insurance companies were extremely trigger happy about rescinding coverage when their customers got sick. Like a persnickety English teacher, they would snatch away a sick patients insurance for even the slightest blunder in the application paperworkif they thought it would save them money. As an example on the governments pro-ACA website points out, a breast-cancer patient could have her coverage dropped for failing to mention having visited a shrink years ago. The ACA changed that by banning the practice in most circumstances. If its overturned, well have to go back to watching what we say.
Southerners: Many consumer-protection provisions of the ACA have already been passed at the state level, and will stay in place even if the act is overturned. But a map from the Progressive States Network shows that the degree of protection varies hugely from state to state. If you live in the right state, there are laws protecting you from the whims of your insurer; if you dont, they can bat you around like a piñata. Its the South, as well as a good chunk of the Midwest, where health-insurance consumers appear to enjoy the fewest protections. In the absence of the ACA, the fallout could hit Texans much harder than New Englanders.
SNIP
Fans of Non-Procreative Sex: Those few Americans who like having sex just for the pleasure of it (wherever you are) will be in for a surprise if Antonin Scalia and his buddies ax the Affordable Care Act. There was a recent firestorm of controversy over the ACAs mandate that insurance plans provide free birth control, but Obama offered up a compromise shifting the burden away from religiously affiliated employers. The end result was that starting Aug. 1 the pill will be free to all American women who are insured. Without the law, many womenincluding those without a huge amount of disposable incomewould be forced to pay for birth control out of pocket. Organizations like Planned Parenthood argue this would lead to far less consistent use of the pilland more unplanned pregnancies.
Insurance Companies: It might come as a surprise, given that their shady practices were a large driving force behind the Affordable Care Act, but health-insurance companies arent necessarily rooting for SCOTUS to knock the law down. Depending on the precise nature of the ruling, they could be in for a rocky time. For example, if, as many are predicting, the court knocks down the individual mandate but keeps in place the ban on preexisting conditions, it would be a costly situation for insurance companies, who would be forced to cover sick people without the cushioning of a larger pool of enrollees provided by the mandate. This is the one that would present us with the most and immediate concerns, said Kimberly Kockler, vice president of government affairs at Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice. This would increase the risk for insurance companies, making costs astronomical. A decision that angers consumers, Democrats, and insurance companies alikethat would be quite a feat, even by this courts standards.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/27/who-s-screwed-if-obamacare-gets-the-axe.html
SNIP
People Who Are Bad at Paperwork: Dont laugh. Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, many insurance companies were extremely trigger happy about rescinding coverage when their customers got sick. Like a persnickety English teacher, they would snatch away a sick patients insurance for even the slightest blunder in the application paperworkif they thought it would save them money. As an example on the governments pro-ACA website points out, a breast-cancer patient could have her coverage dropped for failing to mention having visited a shrink years ago. The ACA changed that by banning the practice in most circumstances. If its overturned, well have to go back to watching what we say.
Southerners: Many consumer-protection provisions of the ACA have already been passed at the state level, and will stay in place even if the act is overturned. But a map from the Progressive States Network shows that the degree of protection varies hugely from state to state. If you live in the right state, there are laws protecting you from the whims of your insurer; if you dont, they can bat you around like a piñata. Its the South, as well as a good chunk of the Midwest, where health-insurance consumers appear to enjoy the fewest protections. In the absence of the ACA, the fallout could hit Texans much harder than New Englanders.
SNIP
Fans of Non-Procreative Sex: Those few Americans who like having sex just for the pleasure of it (wherever you are) will be in for a surprise if Antonin Scalia and his buddies ax the Affordable Care Act. There was a recent firestorm of controversy over the ACAs mandate that insurance plans provide free birth control, but Obama offered up a compromise shifting the burden away from religiously affiliated employers. The end result was that starting Aug. 1 the pill will be free to all American women who are insured. Without the law, many womenincluding those without a huge amount of disposable incomewould be forced to pay for birth control out of pocket. Organizations like Planned Parenthood argue this would lead to far less consistent use of the pilland more unplanned pregnancies.
Insurance Companies: It might come as a surprise, given that their shady practices were a large driving force behind the Affordable Care Act, but health-insurance companies arent necessarily rooting for SCOTUS to knock the law down. Depending on the precise nature of the ruling, they could be in for a rocky time. For example, if, as many are predicting, the court knocks down the individual mandate but keeps in place the ban on preexisting conditions, it would be a costly situation for insurance companies, who would be forced to cover sick people without the cushioning of a larger pool of enrollees provided by the mandate. This is the one that would present us with the most and immediate concerns, said Kimberly Kockler, vice president of government affairs at Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice. This would increase the risk for insurance companies, making costs astronomical. A decision that angers consumers, Democrats, and insurance companies alikethat would be quite a feat, even by this courts standards.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/27/who-s-screwed-if-obamacare-gets-the-axe.html
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The Daily Beast: Who's Screwed If Obamacare Gets the Axe (Original Post)
boxman15
Jun 2012
OP
Oddly, those who will benefit the most are fighting it the most to get rid if it,
SoutherDem
Jun 2012
#1
SoutherDem
(2,307 posts)1. Oddly, those who will benefit the most are fighting it the most to get rid if it,
It may be they get what they deserve.