OT ?

[ROBO Pop]

Probably over-reacting but... A few weeks ago I had a call from a number I didn't recognize and the caller ID just showed the state. I let the call go to voicemail and later learned it was supposedly from my supplemental insurance. Left a message they wanted to ask some questions and please return their call. Something about the whole thing didn't smell quite right so I called my insurer.

They were sure that was not one of their numbers and they had no idea what was going on. I ignored several more calls over the following weeks from the same number and got the same message on voicemail.

Today I got a lengthy (5 pages) questionaire from my insurer that I find unsettling. Those of you on Medicare and supplemental know they are not allowed to ask health questions and cannot refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions as long as we sign up during the signup period...bla bla bla. In fact when I signed up three years ago my agent admonished me not to provide any information that would hint at pre-existing conditions.

This questionaire is quite disturbing. Every question is geared toward identifying whether you have a debilitating condition and I can see no purpose other than to use it against me. Things like your general health, are you limited in physical activities, how many days a week do you exercise, have you fallen in the last year. How fast do you bounce back, and so it goes.

Now I know there are some major insurance changes afoot but have mostly ignored them as I have no intention of changing my coverage and as long as I pay the premiums there should be no issues.

I hope this post is somewhat coherent. I just wanted to ask if anyone else has gotten a similar list of questions from their insurance and any thoughts?

[garya]

I have not seen such a questionnaire. As for eliminating pre existing conditions as it is known

No politician who wants to be reelected would ever vote for such a thing. Get real!

Thus we have that from the highest authority. You are over reacting. For the reason of being re elected, this country would never give astronomical tax breaks to the richest, lock immigrant children in cages, alienate our closest ally, start a trade war over a reason that doesn't exist, meet with a barbaric dictator that starves his people. Get real.

The questionnaire does seem appropriate if implementing death panels. No way, never happen. Sleep well.

[Ozchrissy]

[mykidsmom]

If we had an award for best post...garya it would be yours...

"sleep well" hahahhaaaaahhaha.....robo may never close his eyes again

[TruckerRon]

I have not seen such a questionnaire. As for eliminating pre existing conditions as it is known

No politician who wants to be reelected would ever vote for such a thing. Get real!

Thus we have that from the highest authority. You are over reacting. For the reason of being re elected, this country would never give astronomical tax breaks to the richest, lock immigrant children in cages, alienate our closest ally, start a trade war over a reason that doesn't exist, meet with a barbaric dictator that starves his people. Get real.

The questionnaire does seem appropriate if implementing death panels. No way, never happen. Sleep well.

Because this is labeled OT I'm not only allowing it, I'm going to offer some opinions of my own.

"Astronomical tax breaks to the rich" immediately resulted in bonuses and raises for the working folks. A certain female politico called those long-awaited increases "crumbs" -- which I guess they would be to a multimillionaire like her. And being from California and no longer able to write off state taxes, she may have seen a personal federal tax increase!

"Immigrant children in cages" is an embarrassment -- but not to Trump's people. That was in 2014 during another president's tenure. http://www.businessinsider.com/migrant- ... ned-2018-5

Alienate our closest allies? Trump's style is abrasive, but he's already got foreign tariffs reduced by China and concessions from them and other countries, including some allies.

Start a trade war? Where is that happening? Again, a lot of hype, some threats made, but nothing of substance has gone down.

As for meeting with a barbaric dictator... The ink has barely dried, but aren't they actually talking? Signing a historic agreement to end their nukes? Setting up inspections? Yet the media is doing everything they can to make people think Trump lost on every point and that nothing of substance has or will happen. What did Trump's predecessors accomplish with North Korea during their time in office?

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in ... rize-after

As for insurance companies looking for ways to cut services, what's new about that? And how is that the president's fault? I dealt with that with my trucking company's HR department back in 2008 that did their best to fire employees with actual health problems because like most big carriers they were self-insured (they used an insurance administration company to handle the day-to-day processing of claims). A chat with the company's CEO put an end to that.

[RUHLEN]

Well said Trucker Ron

[ROBO Pop]

No, not well said.

This is/was a legitimate concern I had and wondered whether others were seeing similar inquiries.

In retrospect were I at the top of my game, I'd have realized once again it would turn to bull s... politics which was not my intent.

We here in the US are saturated with divisive politics 24/7. This should be a safe haven.
I regret asking

[TruckerRon]

This is/was a legitimate concern I had and wondered whether others were seeing similar inquiries.

In retrospect were I at the top of my game, I'd have realized once again it would turn to bull s... politics which was not my intent.

We here in the US are saturated with divisive politics 24/7. This should be a safe haven.

As long as we don't use this forum to attack one side or the other, I don't mind the issues being raised and discussed.

This questionaire is quite disturbing. Every question is geared toward identifying whether you have a debilitating condition and I can see no purpose other than to use it against me. Things like your general health, are you limited in physical activities, how many days a week do you exercise, have you fallen in the last year. How fast do you bounce back, and so it goes.

Those are the questions asked by the LPNs and such that my insurance companies have sent around each year for a home visit. Again, most of that data can be, and probably has been, gleaned from the records they've created while processing my claims for services and prescriptions, right?

Until you asked about the implications of it, I hadn't given it too much thought. Under the current law they are certainly permitted and maybe even required to get that data. The question is how are they using it? Asking Google about it generated links to numerous articles which all took the paranoid (or realistic?) view that nothing good can come of either allowing the nurse to visit or, in your case, answer a questionnaire. The only non-suspicious link coming from that query was this one provided by an insurance company I don't use:

https://www.humana.com/medicare-support ... ssessments

And then there's this article, apparently written by someone based in Arizona, which ascribes a profit motive to the insurance companies:

https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/06 ... tage-plans

So, I have participated in those visits now for 6 years since I was moved from Medicaid to Medicare after being on SSDI for 2 years. During those years I have used 3 different insurance providers for my Medicare Advantage plans. To the best of my knowledge no bad consequences have come about from those visits. Maybe I'm too naive, too trusting of pretty young nurses?

OTOH, my GP has refused to participate in doing those assessments himself. He sees them as counterproductive for his practice since he's not nearly as well reimbursed for doing them (or having a nurse do them) as he is a standard office visit or for doing a full physical.

So, what do you think?

[mrag]

Now I'm afraid to go outside certain I will be struck by lightning: I agree with T-ron. But only as so far as legitimacy of issues being raised and discussed.

The US is now, at least as far as I can ever remember, in the most tenuous/divisive of times. And as I am retired, on a fixed income including a dependency on social security and (medically) unemployable, I have a particular interest as to what may happen to me. And since a portion of what is being politically decided today will impact my children and grandchildren, I have a greater interest than ever in trying to understand what the hell is happening and why others can be so confused.

I did not get a questionnaire. Could your questionnaire personally identify you? Or was the insurance company just testing the waters? Everyone is turning 65 and everyone is joining Medicare. What are they going to have to cover?

There are 75 million baby boomers who are on the verge of retirement. For the next twenty years, an average of 10,000 people each day will reach age 65, which has historically been the retirement phase of life

[TruckerRon]

I did not get a questionnaire. Could your questionnaire personally identify you? Or was the insurance company just testing the waters? Everyone is turning 65 and everyone is joining Medicare. What are they going to have to cover?

If, as the article I mentioned claims (https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/06 ... tage-plans), the companies are using the home visits/questionnaires to "upgrade" their profitability from specific patients by proving they're in worse health than others so they can justify higher fees from Medicare (the government), it makes financial sense. And maybe Robo's insurance company is experimenting with cutting its costs by using the postal service instead of sending people into the field? Or if he's not responded well to telephone inquiries they're following up by mail?

[TruckerRon]

Here's another OT question, but I think it's related to our health issues today: What's causing the increase in suicides?



As this political cartoon presents it, many of the traditional reasons people give for suicide are not happening in the US yet the number and rate of suicides, especially by adults, are rising. So, to what would you attribute that rise? What is causing adults to give up on life?

Here's a column by a writer whose life has been affected generations later by a suicide:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0618/zito061318.php3

[TruckerRon]

Let's try that political cartoon again but from another source:



And, as a link to a page on another website:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/toons/ ... yITOS_MwWp

[garya]

This thread is not going to age well for a few folks here. In case any want to adjust their published views.

[mykidsmom]

well im just sorta wondering who pissed in whos cornflakes...

while were at it...why dont yis have universal care for all......

[TruckerRon]

well im just sorta wondering who pissed in whos cornflakes...

while were at it...why dont yis have universal care for all......

The long answer to that is in this link:

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/short-hi ... insurance/

The short form would be:

• Hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies were making a fine mess of it all with the involvement of the IRS as directed by Congress, but things were still reasonable until the 1960s when LBJ started selling the nation on Medicaid and Medicare.

• Each of those groups reacted in extremely schizophrenic ways, sometimes supporting, sometimes fighting the same things over time.

• Decade by decade, the fight continued and medical science introduced new pressures by finding ways to keep us living longer... and Congress failed to make any meaningful adjustments to anything that they thought was too politically dangerous to touch. GWB's proposal to change the money flow in Social Security was instantly shot down without anyone seriously studying how well or poorly such systems had worked in other countries.

• During those years with no real change in retirement age or eligibility rules, the pressure mounted to provide the modern treatments (like the one in my chest) that have extended our average lifespans into our 70s and beyond. Cracks in the system were patched by increasing deductibles and copays. Monthly premiums were becoming a burden.

• Then came the grossly misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was sold by BHO and his supporters as the cure to all healthcare ills. "We will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthcare plan. Period." (Barack Obama, June 15, 2009, with variants repeated many times since).

I could bore you with details of how my daughter's EpiPens costs have skyrocketed (with some reduction after the FDA was forced to allow competitors to bring that price back down a bit). Or I could horrify you with how insulin costs have risen.

But please note the one group that once drove pricing wasn't mentioned in all this: Patients. The idea that we should be able to shop around for doctors, hospitals, and even treatments the way we do for everything else has been missing since the first health insurance plans were introduced. We have been told that making those choices ourselves would somehow be too dangerous, even though we are considered bright enough to choose everything else.

So, that's why the US doesn't have universal, single-payer healthcare: Too many powerful groups fighting over the money flow with the patients having virtually no say in what happens. How do you fix that?