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Old 10-02-2013, 09:00 AM   #21
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Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 View Post
That would be amazing if the insurance companies were spot on in their pricing.
Yes, that would be amazing. But it would not be amazing that CBO and others, including insurance companies, could predict the general makeup of the uninsured and estimate within reasonable bounds what the subsidies will cost. Will they be spot on? No, of course not. Will the costs be so wildly off that the republic as we know it is doomed as the heated rhetoric proclaims? No, of course not.

But even more germane, the ultimate cost to taxpayers for subsidies will not effect insurance company pricing for the policies. The companies get paid the full price whether the holders are subsidized or not. Policy prices are driven by the health status of the pool members. That is why the ACA saboteurs are trying to scare away the young -- to drive up costs for everyone else and undermine support for the program.
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Old 10-02-2013, 09:32 AM   #22
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Originally Posted by donheff
Yes, that would be amazing. But it would not be amazing that CBO and others, including insurance companies, could predict the general makeup of the uninsured and estimate within reasonable bounds what the subsidies will cost. Will they be spot on? No, of course not. Will the costs be so wildly off that the republic as we know it is doomed as the heated rhetoric proclaims? No, of course not.

But even more germane, the ultimate cost to taxpayers for subsidies will not effect insurance company pricing for the policies. The companies get paid the full price whether the holders are subsidized or not. Policy prices are driven by the health status of the pool members. That is why the ACA saboteurs are trying to scare away the young -- to drive up costs for everyone else and undermine support for the program.
I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm just surprised that there are so many of us on the receiving end. Is this a great country, or what?!
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Old 10-02-2013, 09:43 AM   #23
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I signed up for Covered California this morning with no problems. The only problem I'm having is with the Doctor and Hospital search. I get the same answer with every single doctor or hospital I type in... "No Results Found". I'm hoping it's a glitch.

There must be a way to access each Insurance Company's full provider lists, but I haven't found it yet.
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Old 10-02-2013, 10:20 AM   #24
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I think this explains the overloading of the web sites.

Personally, I knew there was no rush to apply and it would be better to wait for the kinks to be worked out, but if your premiums were going to go from $900 to $29, wouldn't you want to sign up as soon as possible?
Ah, if only that were true for many of us. I got on the CA site late yesterday. $1423 per month to get even close to my current/likely soon to be former plan. 60 percent increase! Income is above the threshold to get an entitlement-subsidy. No thanks.
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Old 10-02-2013, 10:51 AM   #25
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Ah, if only that were true for many of us. I got on the CA site late yesterday. $1423 per month to get even close to my current/likely soon to be former plan. 60 percent increase! Income is above the threshold to get an entitlement-subsidy. No thanks.
What will you do for health insurance then?
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Old 10-02-2013, 01:25 PM   #26
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OK, I finished the enrollment. There were a few glitches and annoyances. They really need to just ask you for information on lines of your tax forms, if you filed. Why don't they do that?

They also needed Lena's Naturalization Certificate number, which required a nervous trip to the safe deposit box (it was there, but we weren't sure).

The process would be easier for someone who just has monthly income.

Their estimate of $29/month was off, it will be $66/month with a $1,221 subsidy. That's OK with us!
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Old 10-02-2013, 02:39 PM   #27
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Were you able to check to see which doctors and hospitals will be in your new network?



Quote:
Originally Posted by TromboneAl View Post
OK, I finished the enrollment. There were a few glitches and annoyances. They really need to just ask you for information on lines of your tax forms, if you filed. Why don't they do that? They also needed Lena's Naturalization Certificate number, which required a nervous trip to the safe deposit box (it was there, but we weren't sure). The process would be easier for someone who just has monthly income. Their estimate of $29/month was off, it will be $66/month with a $1,221 subsidy. That's OK with us!
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:03 PM   #28
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General web site comment:

I'd love to hear from any web designers on this. This kind of thing drives me nuts. It's the same with phone numbers, and CC numbers. I've actually been on some sites that don't show you what format they want the phone number in, until you enter it 'wrong', and then you get an error page that tells you to enter it as follows:

(AAA)EEE-XXXX

Phone numbers and SSNs are only numbers. Isn't it easier for the programmer to just strip any non-numeric from the input and accept it? I'm pretty sure that is only one command, something like INPUT(1234567890)? Isn't that easier than writing a separate error handling routine for this? CC numbers are kinda hard to enter and keep straight w/o spaces or dashes to help make sure you got it right. Just throw out the spaces and dashes.
What are(n't?) they thinking?

-ERD50
The separators in numeric fields can be a PITA. I don't think that non-numeric data should just be indiscriminately thrown away, though. I do think they can be edited out of a properly formatted entry, like nnn-nnn-nnnn or (nnn)nnn-nnnn for phone numbers, but not nn-nnnn-nnnn or nnn n nn-nnnn, and mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd for dates, but not mm-dd/yyyy or mm dd/yyyy. If you just throw away all non-numeric data, you may change what would have been an invalid entry to something that may be valid, and also be incorrect. I have also seen separate segments of different numbers entered into separate fields, and this works well, as long as there is room for the whole number, thinking of phone numbers out of the US and credit card numbers that are longer than 16 digits.

I see a lot of places using dotted decimal notation for phone numbers, now that IP is so popular. It seems to have become accepted, but very few people realize that any segment with other than three digits, or any number greater than 255 is invalid in that format. I guess it would be better to see this as decimals being used as delimiters. Edit to add: I'll never understand how dotted decimal came into use for IP anyway. Hexadecimal seems like the logical choice for IP addresses, as they are so much easier to convert to bit patterns.

Actually I could live with just about any format numbers if the world would learn when to use then and than, and you're and your.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:10 PM   #29
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Were you able to check to see which doctors and hospitals will be in your new network?
I didn't try. I'll go to a witch doctor if it means saving $850/month, so I figured it didn't matter.



Both our current plan and our new one will be with Anthem Blue Cross, so it's a pretty good bet that we can keep the same doctor.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:21 PM   #30
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I didn't try. I'll go to a witch doctor if it means saving $850/month, so I figured it didn't matter.



Both our current plan and our new one will be with Anthem Blue Cross, so it's a pretty good bet that we can keep the same doctor.
I didn't know Alternative Medicine was part of the ACA. Must be why California got bipartisan support on setting up an exchange.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:21 PM   #31
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Which doctor?
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:51 PM   #32
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A lot of the Bronze plans in Minnesota have the max allowable deductible and very low premiums.

So they don't cost much for young people, but they aren't likely to have to pay much out, since most young people will be very unlikely to hit the deductible.

As long as enough of those young people are reasonably health, that is.

Whether it works is all going to boil down to how effective the subsidies and the individual mandate are in getting everyone into the pool.


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I was watching CNN and their " doctor reporter" stated that 6 out of 10 of the individuals buying into the exchange will be paying around 100 dollars a month for coverage. With those rates, I'm not so sure that they won't run out of policies. If not this year, then next.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:56 PM   #33
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I didn't know Alternative Medicine was part of the ACA. Must be why California got bipartisan support on setting up an exchange.
The cheapest plan available to me under ACA is the Chinese Community Health Plan. Some alternative medicine like acupuncture is covered.
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Old 10-02-2013, 06:41 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by TromboneAl View Post
I didn't try. I'll go to a witch doctor if it means saving $850/month, so I figured it didn't matter.



Both our current plan and our new one will be with Anthem Blue Cross, so it's a pretty good bet that we can keep the same doctor.
We've missed you, Al!
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Old 10-02-2013, 08:28 PM   #35
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There are reports of DDOS attacks on ACA web sites.
I believe those were excuses. I didn't see anything credible regarding DDOS's. I think it was just too many customers.

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Originally Posted by ERD50 View Post
Phone numbers and SSNs are only numbers. Isn't it easier for the programmer to just strip any non-numeric from the input and accept it? I'm pretty sure that is only one command, something like INPUT(1234567890)? Isn't that easier than writing a separate error handling routine for this? CC numbers are kinda hard to enter and keep straight w/o spaces or dashes to help make sure you got it right. Just throw out the spaces and dashes.

What are(n't?) they thinking?

-ERD50
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Originally Posted by Rustward View Post
The separators in numeric fields can be a PITA. I don't think that non-numeric data should just be indiscriminately thrown away, though. I do think they can be edited out of a properly formatted entry, like nnn-nnn-nnnn or (nnn)nnn-nnnn for phone numbers, but not nn-nnnn-nnnn or nnn n nn-nnnn, and mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd for dates, but not mm-dd/yyyy or mm dd/yyyy.
On a scale of 1 - 10, dealing with the dashes are probably a 3, so I can see why some (really bad) developers don't get it right. But my pet peeve is when a phone number or SSN is broken up into 3 fields, but the cursor doesn't automatically jump to the next field. At this point I can only assume they're eff'ing with us on purpose.
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Old 10-02-2013, 10:00 PM   #36
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Old 10-03-2013, 07:06 AM   #37
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I don't need ACA yet, but I don't plan to go online to even look for a while. No surprise that the initial traffic is overwhelming the new sites. Funny, MSNBC "observed" the federal exchange site had 4.7M hits the first day, 4.6M were media who then reported how slow/frozen the sites are. They even showed footage of some local reporters online while reporting...hello?
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Old 10-03-2013, 07:55 AM   #38
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Guess that's the reporters being the news story
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Old 10-04-2013, 11:09 PM   #39
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FYI to anyone attempting to use the Covered CA site, I saw this on the top page:

------------------------------
Announcements
We will be performing regular maintenance beginning Saturday, October 5, at 8 pm through Monday, October 7, 2013, at 3 am.
------------------------------


One can only hope
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Old 10-05-2013, 05:37 AM   #40
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FYI to anyone attempting to use the Covered CA site, I saw this on the top page:

------------------------------
Announcements
We will be performing regular maintenance beginning Saturday, October 5, at 8 pm through Monday, October 7, 2013, at 3 am.
------------------------------


One can only hope
You would think someone would have the common sense to phrase that simply "maintenance" rather than "regular maintenance."
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