Iowa man continues to go blind, thanks to #obamacare.
I admit, I was wondering how this administration was planning to implement one of the key tools of British/Canadian healthcare – to wit; delaying ‘non-life-threatening’ procedures for long enough for a certain percentage of patients to die from something else and another certain percentage to simply give up* – but I should have realized that you can always find a way to bureaucratically obfuscate. In this particular case? Why, there’s nothing like a good state/federal paperwork mismatch:
An Obamacare computer-system snarl means Bill Douglas will wait for weeks or months for the eye surgery he needs.
Douglas thought he’d finally have health insurance this week to pay for the procedure, but his application and those of nearly 16,000 other Iowans are snagged in a last-minute foul-up between the state and federal governments.
Douglas, 62, was discouraged by a notice last weekend that it could take another six weeks for state officials to deliver an answer about his application, which he initially filed in November. With his insurance situation still in limbo, he called his ophthalmologist’s office to cancel an appointment for an initial assessment for the laser procedure, which would treat his glaucoma.
Basically: Bill Douglas may qualify for Medicaid. I say ‘may’ because Mr. Douglas doesn’t know, and neither does the state of Iowa – and if the federal government knows, well, they won’t tell anybody. Including the state of Iowa, which understandably would like to know whether or not to put all of those people on the state Medicaid rolls. The federal government missed a key deadline – WOW! That’s NEVER happened before! – and so Iowa has to go explain to Mr. Douglas (and every other person in his boat) that it’d probably be best if they all reapplied. And no, Mr. Douglass cannot simply go buy a plan on healthcare.gov until this is all resolved.
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Maybe, just maybe, this is the time for us to man-up, that procedure is not a bank breaker. And there are medical credit card resources that are interest free if paid off in 12 months.
Given the choice, I’m borrowing the money.
Posted the story to Dr. Rand Paul. Please join me.
http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=contact
Everything is better under Comrade Obama!
Clearly, the old man is an agitator who should be shipped to a FEMA camp.
I started saying this the minute the concept of Obamacare was announced, and I’m STILL saying it:
“Obamacare will not give us more health care, or better health care. It will only give us more bureaucracy.”
tweeted 😉 @Mr_Pinko
Stories of patients not getting treatment
suggest a new name for the program: BAR-CARE
ObamaCare is going to reduce people to going to the vet.
I beleive the proper credit for obozoscare goes to all the Obozobots that wanted “free” stuff.
Totally agree, Annie. Money can be found somewhere, somehow but an eye is forever.
Besides which, if he checks the terms of his Obamacare policy, he might find that his deductible is higher than the cost of the procedure so he’d be out of pocket anyway.
News article this am about a woman who went to a hospital with chest pains. A chest x-ray, costing $500, was ordered. But – ooops – no proof of insurance. The woman left the hospital untreated because she could not afford $500.
Again I point out, the cost of the x-ray would hardly make a dent in her deductible so she would have to pay it anyway.
While the uproar right now is getting enrolled and making the first payment to get proof of insurance – a very serious problem indeed – wait until the treatment is provided and the hard reality of the deductible hits home.