Another Obamacare surprise coming…
…unless, of course, Obama decides to change the rules in midstream.
The deadline for coverage is March 31, which means that if a person doesn’t have Obamacare-compliant health insurance after that, he/she is liable for a penalty. We’ve had that drummed into our heads.
But what has not gotten nearly enough publicity is that, if a person (ineligible for employment-based insurance) without individual insurance doesn’t get it by that deadline, he/she is out of luck for this year. No insurance policy (other than temporary catastrophic ones, a very special—and temporary—market) can be purchased on the individual market after that until next November 15, and if you buy one then it won’t start till January 1, 2015.
That’s how they’re dealing with the need to cover pre-existing conditions. The penalty was supposed to force people to buy insurance or pay it, but the penalty was set so low that it really doesn’t offer enough incentive. What most people are unaware of is that if they don’t get insurance by March 31 and then they have a need for coverage at some point during the rest of 2014, the answer is “Tough; you should have thought of that before.”
It’s ironic, isn’t it? And I’m not just talking about buying on the exchanges, I’m talking about the entire individual insurance market, the one Obamacare was supposedly going to fix. According to the insurance agents I’ve asked, even off the exchanges, paying full freight, and without a pre-existing condition, you can no longer buy an ordinary individual health insurance outside of those periods.
Here more:
Before Democrats “fixed” the health insurance marketplace, people buying their own coverage in the individual market could do so any time of the year. In addition, if a person had purchased coverage but decided he or she didn’t like dealing with that insurer or the network of doctors, or whatever, that individual could cancel the policy and buy a different one””again, any time during the year.
Well, you can kiss that economic freedom goodbye, thanks to Obamacare…
Look for news stories in April about Americans who want to get coverage””maybe they just got a raise or extra work and feel like they have enough extra money to pay the premiums””but can’t because Obamacare slammed that door shut.
If there are enough of those stories Obama will surely extend the deadline…
To be sure, the law does allow for health insurance changes in certain circumstances, such as moving to another state, a job change, getting married, etc. But for the uninsured who failed to get coverage and for those dissatisfied with what they have, their economic freedom has been taken away.
That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Taking away economic freedom.
Here are more facts about how open enrollment works, and what life-changing circumstances would allow you to apply at other times of year.
Dostoevsky said money is “coined freedom.”
A wise friend once told me that the best thing about having money was that you didn’t have to accept what the man handed out.
That’s a good definition of freedom.
That’s going away rapidly, isn’t it?
I am not convinced the closed-window barrier will hold. The law is being honored by its multiple Executive Branch breaches, waivers, non-enforcements.
We already have the “hardship” copout allowing folks to buy in after 3/31. More breaches are sure to follow.
Not on point, but too good not to quote:
Seen today on Lucianne
“Arguing with liberals…it´s like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock over the pieces, crap on the board and strut around like it´s victorious.” — Anonymous
previously cited on line as a quote by Putin about Obama.
That’s how Medicare works too. I had an AARP Rx plan for my late mother but it could only be changed in the December to March window. Canceling the plan had to be done through Medicare. Many drugs were heavily discounted on the plan. It never made sense to me except as a way to lock in customers for AARP. No doubt the justification was to prevent people from buying a plan when they got sick and then dumping it afterwards. Why that required time windows isn’t clear to me. An initial annual policy would prevent that too.
Fun fact to know and tell: AARP’s managing editor was none other than Andrea Dworkin’s (gay) husband, John Stoltenberg, an out Marxist.
So, maybe Mark Levin is right and we should look at patriotic alternatives!
Re Obamacare: “even off the exchanges, paying full freight, and without a pre-existing condition, you can no longer buy an ordinary individual health insurance outside of those periods” — The Walls Are Closing In.
Which is, of course, the whole point of the exercise. Those of you who haven’t yet been forced into the shredder will find that it’s even more Orwellian than you fear.
/Cassandra, over and out
Meanwhile, I’m having to run with the pinkos (under Sheldon Silver’s aegis) to evade this mess.
But have I?
I see on the Freelancers’ Union website that there are portals for donating to radical Red causes. It don’t pleasure me none to be sending these boyos money.
Why shouldn’t we get off the computers we all complain on (and heck – who doesn’t know what’s going on by now?) and start a 24/7/365 massive civil disobedience presence in the sullied Capitol city of our republic? These arrogant men and women must be held to account or the arrogance grows into immutable tyranny. We’re just watching ourselves slip beneath the waves while talking about the tidal flows.
Beverly, the coming Revolution or war will need inside operatives.
That’s why people in California shouldn’t focus too much on their voting strength or lack of it. What really matters are ground level operatives in Leftist associations, ready to open up the information pathways. Because down those ways will go the bombs of devastation.
The only way to achieve a power capable of holding their power to account requires Death. Protests are as meaningful as the Ukraine’s.
Every anti war protest was merely a smoke screen to cover up the black ops going on behind the scenes. A way to launder money to the right operatives and terror squads.
It is impossible not to think BO “wins” regardless of how his policies turn out, including the disastrous consequences.
His pettiness is gratified – – maybe especially gratified – – when bad things happen to America and Americans.
As I started to say in 2008, Obama gets a big fat smile on his face whenever he sees Americans tortured or killed.
And that was no joke, neither back then nor now.
I like this quote: “America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot {-in some versions it’s ‘hang’-} the bastards.”
By my lights, though, it’s not too early to THINK about hanging / shooting the bastards (– reference to Ymarsakar’s “big fat smile” –).