Isn't that what President Obama promised when they passed Obamacare in the middle of the night? I wondered why they had to bribe the people of each state with bennies in order to justify their representatives voting for it. You can keep your doctors and prices won't go up.
Well, I have to dispute that. I have government health care. I have Tricare Prime, which is for military people. We opted for Prime 10 years ago when my husband got out of the Navy (after 20 years in) because it was better for us. The difference between Prime and Standard, is with Prime, you pay a set amount each year, and then only pay a co-pay for each doctor visit, no matter whether it's your primary or a specialist. With Standard, the government pays 80% of WHAT THEY ALLOW and you pay the rest. No yearly fee. We have a special needs son who would possibly need a heart valve replaced (thank God, he hasn't yet).
We learned a couple months ago that Walgreen's would be not carrying our prescription insurance (Express Scripts) any longer. We would have to switch over to a different pharmacy. We've been going to Walgreen's for the 6 years we've been in Texas. So, we switched to CVS. The store is nicer, I'm out faster, so I was pleased. They also have different lanes (inside and out) for drop off and pick up, as well as inside they have a consultation line. At the same time that we switched, our co-pay went up. I thought at first, it was just CVS charging more because they accept our insurance. I've run into that before.
As an explanation, I got an eye exam ($65) and they wouldn't reimburse me. They said I didn't go to a provider that accepted my insurance. So I called one of the ones that take Tricare Prime (which didn't exist 3 years ago, the last time I got glasses) and they charge $160 for the same eye exam. I can't say as I blame them. When Obamacare got passed, I checked out the reimbursement rate. They were reimbursing MRI's at 19%. I just recently rechecked it and it's fallen to about 12%. How do they exist? What will they do if the government goes to a single payer option? As in they force other insurance companies to close down and all you have is government insurance.
So, at first I wasn't that upset over the increase. I mean, it's still really low. We used to pay $3 for generic, $9 for non-generic and $22 of ones they don't approve. I am now paying $5 for generic and $12 for non-generic. That's still low, but I did the math. The generic went up 60% and the non-generic went up 75%. Would you like a 60% increase on your co-pays? The cost of living only went up, what, 5%? And we had NO warning that this was going to happen, just that we had to change pharmacies. I have one son on 3 meds, another son on 3 meds (2 are non-generic), I'm on 4 meds (one of which is non-generic) and my husband is on about 5. That's about $31 a month. It adds up. Right now my husband is not getting a paycheck because he broke his leg.
We must repeal Obamacare before it drags this country down to the bottom. I guess the government wants everyone on Medicaid.
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