health insurance rant

[JoeH]

DavidS wrote:
[quote=AllGold]
Kaiser is not available in much of the country.

Correct. Northern and Southern California, Seattle and Portland areas, Georgia, Colordo, MD/VA/DC, and Hawaii (b/c Henry Kaiser had a vacation home there).

At one time, we were also in NC, MA, TX, and OH (Cleveland area).
...and NY and CT, maybe RI. I don't recall any expansion into southern VT or NH, but it was under consideration as some of the organizations they provided health plans to in MA had employees who lived in those areas.

The health care locations Kaiser had acquired in NY and CT were sold off to other health care companies at the time they exited the Northeast. The ones in MA were not.

P.S. They announced their exit late in the afternoon on the last Friday in June of that year. From what the MA State AG determined at the time, Kaiser was in violations of several statutes related to required notifications that they were going to exit as a health care provider. The AG required them to continue coverage longer than announced for a number of contracts Kaiser had signed already before the announcement. The state however pulled all of its contracts and had state employees that had selected Kaiser go through another selection period in the Fall after everyone had just finished going through the process in May for plans that ran from July 1 to June 30.

[wowzer]

As doctors become employed by larger groups and hospitals, we lose our voice in advocating for patients. As an ED doctor, I have decided to leave the NY area because it has gone completely corporate. It’s an awful mix of understaffed and overwhelmed ED’s dominated by a few bad non-profit players who are entirely focused on the return on investment. Many questionable decisions have been made during the pandemic and has upended the practice of medicine. It’s a bad time.

[Fritz]

"It’s a bad time."

that it is.