<p>It certainly makes a difference when people have to pay the bill themselves, you start paying attention. It has to be pretty egregious for someone to question the bill to the insurance company. Generic meds are almost always the way to go. I also get a good discount by getting mail order in bulk. I would probably die if I ever got pregnant again, from horror and misery.</p>
<p>I just went over to CVS to get a price on the birth control pills my daughter uses and the cost under ACA is zero. :)</p>
<p>This bc was the price I mentioned earlier. It wasnt even on Anthem’s list until I Asked them to put it on the list. Then it became a tier 3 drug. There isnt a generic for this bc. </p>
<p>Now the cost is zero. I asked the pharmacist 3 times. “Are you sure?”</p>
<p>The pharmacist was getting annoyed so I stopped after 3 times. :)</p>
<p>I am glad we had these posts today. :)</p>
<p>Who knows, if you keep asking, he might give them to you for zero, plus a rebate, just to get you out of the store.</p>
<p>Lol…</p>
<p>Dstark, I’m picturing what was going through the pharmacists head unless you gave perspective…a father pricing birth control gives rise to the notion of “naw, too pricey…she can go without” ;)</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood is indeed comparatively awesome in the US but it was also the first anecdotal glimpse I had as an uninsured newcomer to the country what was in store for me with the US healthcare system, so my own run in with them wasn’t pretty.</p>
<p>I had just fallen off the turnip truck, had not yet found coverage due to son’s preexisting condition, and did not have a doc, and was not yet a PR as my status was still temporary. But since I am a cervical cancer survivor there are some health services I don’t skip. So PP seemed like the route to go until I had the system sorted. My income at that point was pretty modest.</p>
<p>So I had my pap, then some anemia testing and five bucks of iron, and an IUD replacement with followup. In retrospect, it was good value, but at the time I was absolutely shell shocked by the $900 bill I got. I’d never gotten a healthcare bill in my life and could not fathom how the hell it cost so much…we’re talking about 30 minutes of time here. </p>
<p>So I hated PP for not warning me that i’d be full pay or how much it would cost for a while…until i was exposed to the fact that the local hospital charges $900 for a five minute transverse pelvic ultrasound (arguing that they perform TWO screens, one external and one internal, ergo twice the cost.) Then I figured out who was literally screwing me :)</p>
<p>“When my son hurt his ankle, the cost was $4,000 uninsured. $800 insured.”</p>
<p>See my experience has been the opposite. Anyway, insurance means no-one knows or cares about actual costs so they don’t even ask. Poor Sandra Fluke. </p>
<p>"a father pricing birth control gives rise to the notion of “naw, too pricey…she can go without” "
Lol.</p>
<p>Kmcmom13, I love your post. Thanks for sharing. How did you deal with the precondition issue when trying to buy insurance?</p>
<p>“See my experience has been the opposite”</p>
<p>Tall is cheap. So why dont you do this because healthcare is cheaper without insurance. Dont buy insurance for yourself or your kids . Rely on the kindness of strangers. ;)</p>
<p>Where did I say that? Twisting what I said is not helpful. The cost of healthcare is in no way market driven and seems very random as the BC discussion illustrates. No need to be snippy. Geez.</p>
<p>“Bingo. Women can go to clinics like Planned Parenthood, get their birth control, well woman checkups, and even maternity vitamins for next to nothing, if their income is low. Which is why I’m a huge supporter of Planned Parenthood, they are awesome.”</p>
<p>They can’t go to PP or other similar clinics is lots of states anymore. And the few that may remain in these states can be 100’s of miles away. You all have obviously not been paying attention to the news about what is happening to these clinics around the country. I will let you all figure out which states where this has been happening. </p>
<p>Pre-ACA, Medicaid covered pregnant women up to 250% of the poverty line (about $29K/yr). Pre-ACA, 40% of all births in the US were covered by Medicaid.</p>
<p>Putting those two facts together suggests that there are a lot of women of low income for whom we’d do well to make contraception as easy as possible. Everyone is talking about the pill, but for many young women with chaotic lives, the implant is a better choice. But it has a high initial cost.</p>
<p>Oooh, dstark, give us quick highlights. Any news on #s of off-exchange enrollments?</p>
<p><a href=“http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140321&id=17455526”>http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140321&id=17455526</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140321&id=17455992”>http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140321&id=17455992</a></p>
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</p>
<p>Insurance covering erectile dysfunction drugs pre-dates the ACA. This is not an issue about Obamacare. </p>
<p>These two links say a lot.
Right now… Anthem is projecting 300,000 to 400,000 new medicaid customers. Only nine states that Anthem is involved and that includes Calif are expanding medicaid. I am pretty sure Calif is more than half of the increase.</p>
<p>Wellpoint’s narrow networks are 40 percent of the regular sized network. That cuts costs double digits.
Anthem worked 2 1/2 years to get the premiums the way they wanted.</p>
<p>The hep C drug we talked about is an issue. 100 people with Wellpoint insurance took that drug in Feb. Wellpoint wants the cost of the drug lowered. The drug is a good drug. It works.</p>
<p>The private exchanges for small and large plans are expected to increase membership from 1.1 million to over 20 million in 5 years.</p>
<p>90 percent of people who have premiums due are paying. That is up from 85 percent. The paid number has been rising for months. The expectations are 90 percent or higher will pay. One reason the paid numbers were lower was people were signing up just to see what it was like to sign up. And in the beginning there werent that many people signing up.</p>
<p>I think the CBO numbers are going to be really close to who enrolls. </p>
<p>This wasnt on the call…</p>
<p>Kaiser has said they think their premiums are correct. Others are too low. Kaiser might be right.</p>
<p>"Swedish said that while the rollout of the public exchanges had been lumpy, it had signed up 500,000 new members in January. “It’s clear that we have been a winner with respect to how that has played out,” he said.</p>
<p>WellPoint’s president of its commercial business, Ken Goulet, said that its new exchange customers’ profiles looked as expected, and that therefore the company believes it priced the plan premiums correctly. Some national competitors have said the population was older than it had expected and said they are losing money on the business.</p>
<p>He said that age, predictive models on spending, and the number of prescriptions for the new customers were showing that the members are not sicker than it had forecast.</p>
<p>WellPoint is on target for enrollment after a very slow start to sign-ups last fall due to the broken exchanges, he said.</p>
<p>“At the end of November we had triple-digit numbers across all markets. But that grew substantially in December and has been growing since,” Goulet said.</p>
<p>The government recently said that it has signed up 5 million people for health coverage through the exchanges, which sell insurance with income-based subsidies to individuals. The exchanges began selling insurance in October but were ridden with technology problems that slowed sales in most states.</p>
<p>WellPoint Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said that based on numbers released in February by the Congressional Budget Office, the health insurer could add 3 million members through the public insurance exchanges by 2018.</p>
<p>DeVeydt said that the insurer could add 1.5 million new members through the expansion of Medicaid for the poor. The exchange growth represents $16 billion in revenue while the growth in Medicaid health coverage for the poor would add $6 billion, he said.</p>
<p>From the prior link…
"March 21 (Reuters) - A top WellPoint Inc executive said on Friday during an investor conference that he expects double digit rate increases in premiums for 2015 public exchange plans.</p>
<p>WellPoint commercial division head Ken Goulet said that the insurer is finalizing its number for the trend in medical spending and expects a “slight uptick” in 2015.</p>
<p>He also said that premium rates would increase because some government payments that are part of the public exchange program created under the Affordable Care Act will decrease in 2015 compared with 2014. (Reporting by Caroline Humer, Editing by Franklin Paul)"</p>
<p>Wellpoint does not make 2 percent on revenues. It was 5 to 7 percent. It is going to be 4 to 6 percent going forward. </p>
<p>I am not thrilled with these projections. There are 7.5 percent premium increases built into the system. I was hoping for lower than 10 percent… Not going to lie. :)</p>
<p>I think almost everything else looked good. The govt is over 50 percent of Wellpoint 's business. I dont know about off exchange sign ups. A lot of people reenrolled and that includes people with cancelled plans. ;)</p>
<p>I dont think off exchange enrollments are super high. I dont know how those that just accept the plans that were offered to them are counted. </p>
<p>Anthem cancelled almost, maybe all their plans, in Cal.</p>
<p>I only heard the last 3 hours of the conference call. I dont know if I want to hear the first two. Lol.</p>
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</p>
<p>Not always. </p>
<p>Target, for example has a whole list of generics for $9/10 for which it requires zero insurance (or used to prior to ACA). Ditto Costco.</p>
<p>My local Walgreens accepts – or used to – AAA cards, and I’ve found paying cash for some scripts, including D’s bc, less expensive by using my AAA card than processing through my national insurer.</p>
<p>Several pages on b/c and PP- but remember, the insurance premiums cover more than well-woman and reproductive related issues. Btw, we don’t know how or why b/c came to be covered in the way it is. </p>
<p>Blue bayou, don’t have time to get into – short lunch break – but just google what’s even going on with Michigan “rape” petition to get a sense of where there is indeed controversy around coverage of (misnomer) "women’s health :)</p>
<p>Dstark, re:
– BCBS pooled group in Michigan would cover us, via the company, which opted into a small biz group to be able to do so. In year one, my family premiums were about $750/mo. In year 5 $1122/mo.</p>
<p>This year, on exchange, no subsidy and with only $400 difference in deductible, premiums are $979 for a silver PPO. But it’s only cheaper because its 2 people instead of 3 …otherwise it’d have been a wash.</p>
<p>Ergo, IME, exchange premiums with no subsidy for individual coverage on robust network (PPO) are roughly equivalent under ACA as to what true pooled care premiums were under BCBS. Formulary is basically the same, but the difference is that its part of deductible. Had I been willing to do HMO, I actually would have saved about $3500 a year.</p>
<p>“Anthem cancelled almost, maybe all their plans, in Cal.”</p>
<p>dstark, is this statement true? What do you mean they cancelled almost all their plans in Ca.?</p>
<p>“A top WellPoint Inc executive said on Friday during an investor conference that he expects double digit rate increases in premiums for 2015 public exchange plans.”</p>
<p>Don’t try to spin this; it is a huge problem. Double digit increases on top of 50 to 100% increases from this year for many middle class people is going to be an enormous burden.</p>