BlueCross BlueShield pulls out of Obamacare in Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville Areas (2015, health insurance)

[CountryGirl2b=]

Hmm, bad news for me . . .

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee leaves Obamacare in Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis | WKRN News 2

[septimus]

bad news for me too.

[Hey_Hey]

I'm afraid the Affordable Care Act is getting ready to implode. There are going to increasing numbers of places that have no options for individual insurance plans. For people not covered by their employees, they will be a in a worse situation than before the ACA went into effect. The young, healthy members of society simply aren't paying for insurance which makes premiums rise faster. It's a vicious feedback loop. The employee health plans are doing very well and have had record low increases in costs and premiums the last few years. Unfortunately, if your employer doesn't offer insurance you're going to be paying more and more.

[Serious Conversation]

Back in 2013, I was on an ACA silver plan because my employer didn't offer insurance to the part-time staff (I was 36 hrs/week).

For the small towns and rural areas in TN that lack employment opportunities that come with health insurance, this is going to be really really tough.

[High Altitude]

Is anyone really surprised?

ACA was a terrible idea.

[BOBNCHI]

The idea is good, the implementation was bad.

[septimus]

Originally Posted by BOBNCHI

The idea is good, the implementation was bad.

It is mostly working in Massachusetts. It will never work in TN because we still have too many sick people and uninsured folks. The ACA relied on states expanding medicaid and TN didn't. We still have tens of thousands of sick and uninsured TNs showing up in emergency looking for free care and that cost has to be absorbed and passed along somewhere.

Honestly, I'm surprised they left Nashville as Nashville is probably one of the healthiest areas of the state but then again our health care costs may be higher too because we have easy access to so many good hospitals unlike the rest of the state.

What good is having insurance if you have to drive 2 hours to your closest hospital because your regional hospital has now closed like some have in rural parts of the state (and something like 40 regional hospitals are in danger of closing).

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by septimus

It is mostly working in Massachusetts. It will never work in TN because we still have too many sick people and uninsured folks. The ACA relied on states expanding medicaid and TN didn't. We still have tens of thousands of sick and uninsured TNs showing up in emergency looking for free care and that cost has to be absorbed and passed along somewhere.

The Republicans in this state purposely imploded the ACA and then stand around gloating. Meanwhile, the sheep believe what they are saying, having no idea what is really going on here. Oh Lamar, the depths of your ingenuousness leaves me reeling.

And then there is Andrew Ogle, the other bozo in the article. Ogle works for "Americans for Prosperity." It should be called "Filthy Rich Corporate Owners that Don't Care about YOU." Just to be clear, AFP was started by the Koch Brothers. They are each worth about $44 Billion and their company is the second largest privately held company by revenue. They are against any regulation of the oil industry and they fight HARD against workers rights, pollution standards, healthcare reform, etc. Yet - get this - AFP is considered a non-profit organization. They have been instrumental in turning politics on its ear - it can be argued that the Koch Brothers are Dr. Frankenstein to Trump - yet they pay no taxes. Even if you don't know them, they affect you.

[shinestx]

Oh brother!! Do you even know what you are talking about? I don't recall Alexander, or any Republican being involved in the creation of Obamacare. Because they clearly knew it was NO solution to the real problem. So what are they supposed to do now that Obamacare is entrenched in the Healthcare Delivery System? Republicans have been told that any attempt to change Obamacare will be DOA by the president. The problem is Obamacare is unfix-able, and BCBS(TN) is just the latest of those in cahoots with the administration to throw in the towel. But it's not just in states with GOP representatives.

Someone mentioned Massachusetts:

Obamacare has already failed in Massachusetts, and many other states where leftists rule the legislature from gov to state house. Notwithstanding the disgraceful, anti-democratic way it was pushed through Congress, it has been shown in virtually every state to be a dismal failure (from the original 23 co-ops, fewer than 8 still exist!).

This was foreseeable... "The ACA’s impacts will be widely felt in Massachusetts – from the premium rollercoaster ahead for small businesses to the largely non-functional exchange website, run for by the state-based exchange known as the Connector. Due to the ACA, a majority of small companies will see “extreme premium increases.” As a result state leaders have been reduced to begging the federal government for last-minute waivers and grace periods.

Obamacare in MA has already failed. The question is: Which of the parts will fail next? And without a Republican in sight.

Press Release: Whistleblowers

Forbes Welcome

Forbes Welcome

And others in states where leftists are in total control.

State Experience with ACA Exchanges | U.S. Health Policy Gateway

http://ushealthpolicygateway.com/vii...lems-by-state/

Why Isn’t Obamacare Working the Way It Should? All Your Questions, Answered.
Why are we here? Obamacare is starting to look a little wobbly. Big insurers are bailing on the public insurance...


And yet, you want to continue with this debacle? Perhaps you're looking to the government to fix what they broke? I can't think of anything more absurd. ACA/Obamacare was a typical government cluster-F of a "solution" for a problem the government foisted onto Americans. The problem we all were told was "the problem" was not the real problem. It was not access to healthcare via insurance. It was not even access to health insurance. By preexisting laws, it was not even access to healthcare. Affordability of healthcare was the real problem, and that was in all forms (not the least of which was inflation)! The past three years of insurance premium increases have shown that to have been a complete disaster.

Naturally, the government packaged Obamacare as a "solution" and some (but not a majority) bought the promo/hype. That was why it had to be forced by a single party through Congress with a suspension of time-honored Senatorial rules.

Healthcare (overall) is not a typical good/service, as it's not bought in the conventional consumer marketplace. Pulling out the proverbial "table cloth" under the insurance industry was not a solution even to the professed problem (unless one wants to kill it and then have the government take it all under its control). We can have a discussion on the experiences of the NHS some other time, but complete destruction of the health insurance industry appears to have been the aim of many on the left from the "get-go". The negative impact of Obamacare on the economy could fill a book (e.g. on GDP growth; Middle class disposable income; Full-time employment, et.al.).

But the point remains. Don't blame Lamar Alexander or anyone who disagreed with this disaster from the start for the failures in his home state. It's a flawed law that never addressed the real problem; and if you're a cynic you'll believe it was never intended to fix anything (but make things worse). Looking back over the last few years, I can't blame those cynics now.

[Pintail07]

Obamacare has been a disaster from the get go. Most of us tried to explain but nope. Praise the Lord we didn't expand medicaid check out the states that did b ig mistake. I've been in this market as a broker for 35 years, there are inexpensive options for folks with no health issues.