Originally published January 7 2014
Just as Natural News predicted: Obamacare unleashes mass confusion as patients walk out of hospitals
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) We hate to tell you we told you so, but we did. Or, more specifically, our editor, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, did.
In a column published Oct. 6 - just five days after the official epic fail launch of Obamacare's federal and state online insurance exchanges - Mike made this bold and, as it turns out, prophetic prediction, regarding customers' inability to sign up for plans:
This is going to create a nightmare scenario with doctors and hospitals, where Obamacare enrollees show up demanding health care services but they don't actually have insurance. This mess is going to be dumped right in the laps of medical clinics and hospitals, both of which are already suffocating under a tar pit of health insurance paperwork. Add to that a failed, incompetent system of non-coverage courtesy of the Affordable Care Act, and you get a system infested with so many critical failures that it just can't function.
Yep, we saw this coming
Sure enough, Americans have begun showing up at hospitals and clinics, assuming that they have Obamacare, but they don't. And as such, they are being turned away, frustrated and angry.
As reported by Britain's Daily Mail:
Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they've signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren't taking their word for it.
In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can't afford.
"They had no idea if my insurance was active or not," Maria Galvez, through coughing fits, told the paper outside the Inova Healthplex facility in Springfield, Va., as she was leaving the building without getting a needed chest X-ray.
"The people in there told me that since I didn't have an insurance card, I would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray," she continued as she headed for her car with her young daughter in tow. "It's not fair - you know, I signed up last week like I was supposed to."
She was told that the X-ray and visit would cost about $500.
Galvez told the Mail that she had enrolled in a Carefirst Blue Cross bronze plan at a cost of about $450 per month through the glitch-prone Healthcare.gov federal online exchange, three days before Christmas.
"No one has sent me a bill," however, she said.
Some may have paid, some not
In congressional testimony on Dec. 11, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a panel that the federal government has no clue how many new enrollees have actually paid for their first month's premium.
"Some may have paid, some may have not," Sebelius said.
Who knows?
Even so, it wasn't clear that an insurance card would have made much difference. You see, Galvez is one of millions of Americans whose premiums and deductibles rose dramatically, thanks to Obamacare; her Carefirst plan, identified on the Obamacare site as BlueChoice Plus Bronze, comes with a $5,500 per person deductible for 2014.
More from the Mail:
A similar situation frustrated Mary, an African-American small businesswoman who asked MailOnline not to publish her last name. She was leaving the Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia with two family members.
"I had chest pains last night, and they took me in the emergency room," Mary said. "They told me they were going to admit me, but when I told them I hadn't heard from my insurance company since I signed up, they changed their tune."
She said a nurse informed her that her bill would rise by at least $3,000 if she had been admitted for just one day.
Sometimes, it is no fun being right, huh, Mike?
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://nypost.com
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