<p>Nah… Texaspg. It is ok. You have let hundreds of our questionable posts stand. </p>
<p>I am just teasing you. </p>
<p>It is an interesting story. Outside my field. </p>
<p>I dont have a problem with the link and even if I did, that is ok. I read it.</p>
<p>I guess I am wondering what news agencies we can link to that are completely non-partisan. </p>
<p>Serious question.</p>
<p>I agree with Calmom’s interpretation of what the incomplete modules are supposed to be doing. They are the remissions to the long suffering insurance companies. </p>
<p>"As we have said, CMS prioritized essential functionality to be live on Oct. 1 to ensure that consumers would be able to apply for eligibility and select a plan. Other functionality will come online over time. This is a complex project with a short timeline—and as such issues were prioritized to meet the Oct. 1 launch date. "</p>
<p>I have to say I am bewildered by mid-November there is still so much uncertainty around the project schedule. You’d think there would be a common understanding of what the deliverables are in each phase. If these were Phase 4 (or whatever) deliverable that arent due until January then its easy to do the oversight. </p>
<p>I wonder if there really is a master project plan or if every company has their own? It seems like everybody is constantly surprised at the status of this thing and that is perplexing. </p>
<p>The other thing that stands out is the “prioritizing”- usually means security will be gotten to when they have time.</p>
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</p>
<p>Which basically means that it is not going to be really addressed. I said it before and I will say it again, you cannot build security after the fact. You have to start building it from requirements phase.</p>
<p>Hope this isn’t partisan,</p>
<p>[Some</a> cyber security experts recommend shutting Obamacare site](<a href=“Some cyber security experts recommend shutting Obamacare site”>Some cyber security experts recommend shutting Obamacare site)</p>
<p>Anyone have some ideas for my friend? Her insurance policy was cancelled, and she’s having a hard time finding one that she is interested in. Her last policy was very expensive, but covered a large network of doctors and apparently excellent care anywhere she wanted to go. This is important to her, as she is well off (but doesn’t want to waste money), and has specialized health care concerns that she wants covered. She wants access to the best doctors, at whatever the price. </p>
<p>That policy is gone. Now she can’t find any insurance company that will offer the same thing, for any price. She said the insurance companies are saying that they are required to only offer highly discounted providers (this is not ACA insurance, this is private individual insurance).</p>
<p>She says that apparently this is only applicable to new policies, not old ones, and has hired an insurance broker (at an hourly rate) to research this. I am surprised at all this, as it seems for a high enough cost, you could get an insurer to offer you a policy you want, with your providers…but apparently not.</p>
<p>I suggested finding a way to be a “group”, as apparently this doesn’t apply to group policies. Are there ways you can join a group, even if you aren’t in one yourself? She is thinking of hiring some people to work for her, can two people be a group? I also will suggest getting the cheapest policy, considering it catastrophic, and just suck it up and go out of network for whomever she chooses. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Has she looked into getting a concierge group?</p>
<p>We took the bronze with the widest network. But, we are interviewing for a young concierge doc to work for us.</p>
<p>I don’t know about that poetgrl, I’ll have to ask her. She seems to be looking for specific doctors that she already has, and hospitals that she would want to go to. Including, I think she said Sloan-Kettering, if needed. This is not just a well off person, but a specialist with her own practice, who is very knowledgeable about whom she thinks is important to be in her network. I think she rarely has even used her insurance, but is paying big bucks for the “just in case” possibility. Seems like a great deal for the insurers!</p>
<p>I don’t know what to tell you.</p>
<p>Honestly, they just seem to be totally screwing the individual market. It’s restricted networks, no choice, more money. I don’t understand what’s going on, unless it’s that there are 12 million of us expected to hold up the uninsurables and the pre existings.</p>
<p>Tell her I wish her good luck. If she finds something like that, let us know.</p>
<p>A broker is charging her to research plans? That is not how I understood how that worked.</p>
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</p>
<p>I have a question about the uninsurable and pre-existing conditions. Some pages back it was put forth that people who had had serious illnesses like brain tumors could not get insurance in the previous system. But I was listening to NPR and I think (my kids were being loud) the story said that one state or maybe several were deciding whether to close the state’s high-risk insurance pool as scheduled on January 1. So it sounds like at least some states were filling in the gaps with special pools for high-risk people. Am I misunderstanding this–it seems like if there was that option, why do we need this whole new system?</p>
<p>Busdriver11,</p>
<p>Your friend has or had cancer?</p>
<p>Here is a number to call…maybe this will help.</p>
<p>[Hospital</a> Information: Health Insurance Exchanges/Marketplace | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center](<a href=“http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/hospital-information/health-insurance-exchanges-marketplace]Hospital”>Insurance Information)</p>
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</p>
<p>Depending on how she organized this practice (S-corp), she might be eligible for small group insurance.</p>
<p>See this post: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16582997-post4550.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16582997-post4550.html</a></p>
<p>MathildaMae,
California had a system like that. Not sure if continuing.</p>
<p>MathildaMae, in Cal, There were waiting lists. The premiums were expensive for some people. The amount of insurance was capped. I dont know. Maybe, a surgeon could stop the operation after 20 minutes so people with a brain tumor could afford the operation, the prep work, the days in the hospital. :)</p>
<p>I agree with calmom. Journalism today is very poor.</p>
<p>I will let you know what she finds poetgrl, thanks.</p>
<p>Samurai, the broker is charging her $100 per hour, he was recommended through her accountant. I feel this is way too much. What if he says, hey, it took me 27 hours to find these couple of things that she could google.</p>
<p>No dstark, she doesn’t have cancer. But her mother died in her thirties of breast cancer, and her father died at a fairly young age also. With that family history, I’d be worried too. I’ll send her that link, thank you.</p>
<p>I’ll look at that link, lerkin, thanks.</p>
<p>Payroll companies (for instance Paychex) provide group health rates to employers.</p>
<p>And there are also professional associations.</p>
<p>Okay, I just googled Sloan-Kettering and ACA, and here’s what I found. Anyone care to dispute this, and tell me how they got it wrong? This is sad.</p>
<p>"Millions of Americans with cancer and other chronic illnesses will wind up paying more for lifesaving care, if they can get it all.</p>
<p>To keep costs down, the White House designed ObamaCare plans as cut-rate HMOs. The low profit margins have forced insurers to downsize the number of doctors and hospitals in their networks — and to slash what they cover for out-of-network treatment.</p>
<p>So most ObamaCare plans don’t include the vast majority of the best cancer doctors and cancer centers.</p>
<p>Millions of Americans with cancer and other chronic illnesses will wind up paying more for lifesaving care, if they can get it all.</p>
<p>So most ObamaCare plans don’t include the vast majority of the best cancer doctors and cancer centers. That’s a huge problem for these patients. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Medicare official, writes: “Cancer patients often need the help of specialized doctors and cancer institutions that won’t make it into many of these cheapened networks.”</p>
<p>All across the country, leading cancer centers — including New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering — are excluded by the largest plans. In Washington state, the largest exchange plans exclude world-class cancer care for kids such as the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. California’s state-of-the-art Cedars-Sinai cancer center isn’t in any ObamaCare plan. Only a few plans include the Mayo Clinic."</p>
<p>[Death</a> by Obamacare: ?Reform? reams cancer patients | New York Post](<a href=“http://nypost.com/2013/11/12/death-by-obamacare-reform-reams-cancer-patients/]Death”>Death by Obamacare: ‘Reform’ reams cancer patients)</p>
<p>What’s your point? That a Google search led you to a clearly labeled “Opinion” column by a known right leaning publication? (New York Post)</p>
<p>Seems to me to be a very poorly disguised effort to stir up the political-argument pot.</p>
<p>Don’t know if NYPost is acceptable BD. :p</p>
<p>I think we have worked through this already and verified it. It seems to be the current beef for most people working with specialist hospitals that they are losing access. There is a dance going on between the big names and ACA plan providers in negotiations but it is true very few seem to be participating unless the State law mandates it (MA, MD).</p>