Tavares, FL - July 1, 2014
I am old enough to get Medicare. However, I enrolled in a separate "Medicare Advantage" Plan run by an independent insurance firm called PUP.
They just were shut down by the Federal government because they had used up their reserves and were running large losses.
Obama Healthcare rules are screwing people again, so be sure to THANK all your Democrat "friends" for screwing up health insurance coverage again. READ this if you want to know what can, or may happen to you on Oct. 1 when all Medicare plans change rules again.
My Medicare Advantage firm, PUP, was just shut down by the Feds who said there were not enough assets to try and rebuild them, and PUP was "dissolved". I am pretty healthy, so with PUP, I got a plan where they reimbursed me for the normal Medicare charges of about $104 per month in trade for higher deductibles, but that meant I had no monthly payments for health insurance. Now that benefit is now gone. I had only been with PUP since January, and the first Doctor I had dropped out of PUP in May, forcing me to another Doctor.
Word is that Obama is reducing payments to Doctors for Medicare/Medicaid patients so they are dropping those patients.
So, the Feds took over PUP in the last two weeks, and shifted all PUP clients to standard Medicare retroactive to June 1, then sent out letters YESTERDAY, July 1 saying I would have the standard Medicare payment of $104 taken out of my Social Security payments for June, and now July. AND, it may take the Social Security Dept. 2-4 months to actually process the charges, so there is no certainty when they will charge those retroactive fees. They said if I enrolled in a new Medicare Advantage program, it would not be effective until the first day of the NEXT month, ie. Aug. 1.
I enrolled in PUP through a broker, rather than online, and she said today it is a huge mess. The Feds took over PUP like they do failed banks, and she lost all her customer records, phone numbers, etc related to her PUP clients because the Feds took them. She said that PUP's cash balances were $90-million less than required by the State (or Feds - not sure which). She said Wellcare may be next - "they haven't paid their bills in two months".
In my opinion, Obama's health rules are bankrupting insurance firms, moving everyone closer to Obama's (& Hillary's) dream of one big government health plan that subsidized non-working people by raising rates to others. She recommended I enroll in Freedom which is one of the only Medicare Advantage plans left in the Tavares, Eustis, Mt. Dora areas, but only for 5 months. But Freedom does not reimburse the Medicare fee, so my healthcare insurance costs go up $104/month for the future. That will hit a lot of retirees. She says rules and payments and plans will change again and go up in Oct. 1 and many people will be left dangling.
As a cynical former internal auditor, I can't help thinking that the Feds have a plan to bankrupt many Medicare Advantage insurance companies by reducing reimbursement rates so they shut down. Then, magically, everyone has to move to a Federal Government run plan like Medicare, which has death panels and other rules.
So, be sure to thank all your Democrat "friends" for voting for Obama & his socialist friends who are tearing apart the health coverage industry and ruining any ability to count on consistent coverage. And, start planning for drastic health insurance payment increases in Oct. 1, OR that your health plan may shut down like PUP with little notice.
PS: Expect 2-3 month waits to get doctor appointments. With Obamacare adding insurance coverage for millions of patients, the supply of doctors and healthworkers is really short. Thus, if you designated a Doctor as your primary physician, and he is not available for 2-months, expect him to have "associates" that can see you earlier. In my case, one Doctor had four "associates" who could see me quickly, and not one was educated at a US medical college, and none had internships at major hospitals. So, costs for health care is increasing, waiting times are increasing and quality of health care providers is dropping. Again, be sure to tell those Democrats what you think about their President and his socialist programs.
