SocraticGadfly: Could Obamacare be worse in some ways for the now uninsured?

January 05, 2013

Could Obamacare be worse in some ways for the now uninsured?

Many of those who are now uninsured may well have little experience dealing with the for-profit health insurance industry, something that can be daunting even for an educated major newspaper columnist.

You think a person with little experience with health  insurance, and perhaps none as an adult outside Medicaid, if they're now making just enough money not to qualify for Medicaid, is going to understand how to contest claim denials?

Yeah, right.

The health insurance world lives on the intimidation of a blizzard of paperwork written in a bastard offspring language of medical legalese. Obamacare has no provisions for a "Medical Paperwork Simplification Act" or anything else. Nor does it provide any money for training people how to better read medical paperwork.

It was enough of a tussle in Congress to get credit card statement paperwork simplified a few years ago.

Imagine being, say, working poor, misreading statements, and having medical creditors hassling you day and night while you remain ignorant of your rights.

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