Originally Posted by
Hockey Guy
Shouldn't at least some of the blame be put on these clinics that have just decided that they won't accept these plans?
Kind of.
The geniuses who developed Obamacare didn't bother to consider that, in order to make coverage of all those sick people (who previously didn't qualify for insurance) cost-effective, they would just pay doctors less than they did before.
And then, of course, most doctors said, "WTF? We're not working for peanuts here. We just won't accept these plans."
And that was their right to do, and that's what happened.
The problem was the fact that the architects of Obamacare got so obsessed with the concept of "exchanges" (basically making individual plans mimic group insurance) that they overlooked the obvious situation that adding a lot of sick people to individual insurance plans (at the same premium as healthy people) would be a major financial burden on insurers. They engaged in a mental shell game, believing that the increased number of healthy buying insurance (young people who before just skipped having it) would somehow offset the sick people. It didn't. It didn't come close, especially with some young people just opting to pay the penalty for not having insurance.
I don't blame the providers for refusing to accept inferior payment for people on those plans.
I do blame them for not making this REALLY CLEAR to every new patient who comes in. Some of them just let you come in, and inform you of the bad news moments before you're about to be called in.