By now, everyone knows the lie of the year was given to President Obama’s promise, “if you like your plan, you can keep it.” But for Senator Udall here in Colorado that lie didn’t go far enough. Instead, Udall was compelled to reassure Coloradans that they could not only keep the plan they liked, but their doctor and hospital as well. Here’s the exact quote Udall gave Fox 21 News’ Christina Salvo:
“If you have an insurance policy you like, doctor or medical facility that provides medical services to you, you’ll be able to keep that doctor or that insurance policy.”
You can bet with each passing day and every new news story, Republicans are trying harder to hunt down that video clip than a seeker going after a Golden Snitch (look at us, using references to court that youth vote).
A new story by the Gazette yesterday states quite explicitly how much Coloradans will not be able to keep the doctors they like:
“Across the nation, an increasing number of insurance carriers are narrowing their physician networks, hospitals and other health care facilities. The trend is particularly evident in health insurance marketplaces, including Connect for Health Colorado.
… In Colorado, at least three health insurance companies on the exchange, including Anthem, are offering narrowed networks, and insurance carriers across the industry say the trend will become more prevalent in the coming years.
Insurance companies frame the strategy as a means to control insurance prices – a priority, they say, in light of federal requirements mandating 10 “essential” benefits in each plan, including behavioral and maternity care.” [the Peak emphasis]
With the narrowing of a health network to control costs comes the inevitable moment when a Coloradans’ new insurance plan does not include the doctor they have been seeing for years. While some think the problem will be minor since it is the uninsured who most likely don’t have doctors right now who are using the exchanges, the Gazette is right in pointing out the more than 250,000 Coloradans who are losing their plans because Udall and Obama lied:
“The issue, though, could become a focus for the 250,000 Coloradans who faced cancellation letters this year from their insurance carriers.”
Hey lefties, it’s not the New Coke name that we’re fighting against, but how they made the formula worse.
Obamacare never has been about healthcare. It is about making government bigger and having more control over the proletariat.
Just wait until that specialist across town is not available because he's not in your insurance area and your gatekeeper won't let you out. Obamacare is trying to revive the old HMOs except now they will call them "accountable care organization." HMOs were rotten in the 1990's and they will once again be rotten. Ninety percent of the offerings on the Colorado government exchange are HMOs. People have no clue what they're signing up for.