Susan G. Komen for the Cure defunds Planned Parenthood

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

That "fact" was debunked back in '08 after it was brought up during the election season. IIRC the major insurance companies (BCBS, Aetna) have never covered Viagra or ED medications and the ones that did cover it when it was originally introduced ended up dropping it because it ended up being too expensive*. That being said, it's my understanding that birth control is pretty much covered by all insurance companies these days.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile..._n_914818.html


*Side note- I'm sure there are some fat cats who had their Viagara covered by their awesome insurance but generally speaking the 99 percenters insurance never covered it.

"Coverage" for birth control varies considerably depending on the type of pill you are on. One insurance company I had in recent years paid $3 toward my $50 pill pack. That's not coverage. Anyway, for most programs all drugs are on a schedule so you get a variable co-pay depending on the expense of a drug (which usually depends on whether or not it is generic.)

Originally Posted by AGDee

Whether birth control is included depends on the rider your employer purchases. Ditto for Viagra and every other drug. The insurance companies have different formularies that your employer can choose from (along with different co-pay levels). All part of my beef at being at the mercy of your employer when it comes to your benefits. If employers gave us vouchers and we could shop for our own insurance, we could tailor our riders to meet our needs and select the plan that balances our needs with our budget. We could also choose to purchase it from a different company.

As for EOBs.. Vandal Squirrel, BCBS of Michigan still does them by mail. This varies greatly by plan and having electronic EOBs is not a requirement by the BCBS Association. I would imagine that the elderly, who are not comfortable with electronic methods, would not be happy with electronic EOBs.

Trust me. You do NOT want a voucher system. As much as you think it would be better not to have to be at the mercy of your employer, in our system, the only thing that protects you from being dropped from your policy when you have a claim is the fact that you are in a group policy through your employer. That's why the voucher system for Medicare is dumb (as well as for the fact that insurance companies won't take high risk individuals with multiple medical problems. What do you think you'll get with the elderly population?)

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Trust me. You do NOT want a voucher system. As much as you think it would be better not to have to be at the mercy of your employer, in our system, the only thing that protects you from being dropped from your policy when you have a claim is the fact that you are in a group policy through your employer.

This is also an unfortunate side-effect of insurance regulation at the state level - the inability to sell across state lines, along with state DOIs effectively dictating certain terms of coverage, means that the voucher would be markedly less useful and flexible than most people think (there's very little wiggle room in the effective market). Certainly not flexible enough to offset the danger of being dropped that you note.

[DaffyKD]

Karen Handel resigned from SGK.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by DaffyKD

Karen Handel resigned from SGK.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Good, but she's just a symptom of the SGK disease. They looked for someone to handle (pun not intended) their PP problem. That's why they hired Karen Handel in the first place. Handel just couldn't handle it! (pun intended that time.)

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Trust me. You do NOT want a voucher system. As much as you think it would be better not to have to be at the mercy of your employer, in our system, the only thing that protects you from being dropped from your policy when you have a claim is the fact that you are in a group policy through your employer. That's why the voucher system for Medicare is dumb (as well as for the fact that insurance companies won't take high risk individuals with multiple medical problems. What do you think you'll get with the elderly population?)

Under my system, they wouldn't be able to do that BCBS of Michigan is the only insurer of last resort in Michigan currently but under the new health care reform, all of them will have to take people regardless of pre-existing conditions, claims history, etc. BCBSM is very happy about that because they take the whole burden now.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Under my system, they wouldn't be able to do that BCBS of Michigan is the only insurer of last resort in Michigan currently but under the new health care reform, all of them will have to take people regardless of pre-existing conditions, claims history, etc. BCBSM is very happy about that because they take the whole burden now.

That is if the affordable care act is upheld. The other problem is that despite the requirement that they not discriminate against people for pre-existing conditions, it doesn't mean they can jack your costs up significantly. They can't do that with a group policy.