topic Re: United Healthcare in Medicare & Insurance

United Healthcare

JimG454455 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:09:46 GMT

Just curious when you guys are going to address and speak to this issue. My guess is many of your members are negatively affected by Advantage plans and more specifically the ones AARP endorses - United healthcare. I am currently living the nightmare of dealing with UHC. Their denial, delay and defend strategies have all been applied to my care which has had a significant negative impact to my care and recovery. I joined AARP because of your advocacies for seniors. What is currently in the news about the horrors of our healthcare system that are affecting seniors most needs to be talked about.

The fact that AARP has been mostly silent on these matters AND endorses the worst offender is a disservice to your members. You lend your respected name, which I know your are paid handsomely for, at the peril of your members.

The exposure and pressure to reform their cruel practices needs more coverage, not just a silent endorsement.

Please step up and help us on this issue.

Regards

Jim Groll

Re: United Healthcare

robin24 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:10:16 GMT

I also brought this up in a post last week, but my post was removed.

Re: United Healthcare

GailL1 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:17:07 GMT

@JimG454455

What endorsement? You need to read the fine print.

The thing is the AARP is NOT endorsing anything that bears their branded name. It is purely a financial arrangement between the organization and the third party vender and they do seem to reintegrate this on their benefits page and the venders do the same on their AARP-branded products.

In fact, these deals are initiated by the profit making arm of the AARP -

AARP Services, Inc.

Now perhaps the “endorsement” is implied or so it is interpreted by members by the use of the branded name but ALL of the disclosures I have read from the AARP does not support that implication.

Like this:

AARP.org - Medicare Related Options

quote: Paid for by funding provided by companies that make available AARP-branded products and services for AARP members. Content is managed by AARP Services, Inc.

Then further disclosures on all the different Medicare related plans:

[quote]

DISCLOSURES

AARP commercial member benefits are provided by third parties, not by AARP or its affiliates. Providers pay a royalty fee to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. Some provider offers are subject to change and may have restrictions.

Plus, these type of product - specifically insurance products - should not be purchased based on any recommendation - they should be purchased based on the needs and pocketbook of the beneficiary or member.

Re: United Healthcare

SusanM664094 — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 19:52:32 GMT

Another post recently removed...That's how they're dealing with it....

"DwightH318517 (Newbie) posted a new reply in Medicare & Insurance on 12-12-2024 10:34 AM:

Re: Stay Away From United Healthcare"

Re: United Healthcare

b118512t — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 21:57:19 GMT

I commented on several posts on this topic yesterday (12/12), and today they are all gone.

Re: United Healthcare

CBtoo — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 21:57:05 GMT

I clicked on the Re:Stay away from uhc link in your post and got "access denied". LOL I guess they don't want to hear about negatives about one of their money makers for them (eg from royalties).

Re: United Healthcare

CBtoo — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 01:14:39 GMT

Hmm I discussed royalties in a reply today. I wonder when that post of mine will be taken down. AARP owns these forums so freedom of speech is not our right when we post here. AARP though might find it useful to read about complaints and then think about how they can make folks happier or discuss it with UHC (and others they get royalties from) to see if they can get them to fix issues. That certainly would be in the mission of AARP if they so choose.

Re: United Healthcare

SusanM664094 — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 15:05:10 GMT

Maybe some of us are suggesting we'd like to see other options available. The "AARP" name on products does carry some intrinsic weight. Otherwise it's just another marketplace without much value as intellectual property....it's somebody else hawking their wares.

Re: United Healthcare

CBtoo — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 16:10:02 GMT

Regardless of whether or not AARP is endorsing UHC (or Oak Street Health or anything else for that matter) is sort of a technicality (yes a legal technicality but I am using the more general use of the word). Most people assume AARP wouldn't associate themselves with the dregs of the earth companies so to speak and would want their name associated with something that is good.

Yes the fine print says legally what they are doing but many don't read the fine print - or can't read it as it may be in tiny type or hard to find. And a very well done International research study documented that if you are German or Japanese you are most likely to read instructions, fine print, or anything else before you even took the laptop computer out of the box (they were rigged to have a self fixable problem where how to fix it was in the user manual). And...if you were American you were the least likely of all first world countries in the study to read that stuff prior to trying to use it. This means companies need to design what they do around that since this is a society thing and they will get less blow back from consumers if they take that into account when they do something.

Certainly I'd suspect there'd be fewer complaints if AARP made that obvious with their relationship with UHC. And people would be less likely to jump to conclusions, Many would then realize that AARP likely (and I don't know this as a fact) allowed UHC to use their name as a marketing device (rather than another insurance company) as they were willing to pay them more in royalties than other insurance companies. I'd guess (and again I don't know this for a fact) that likely some of what they get is also dependent upon how many sign up, or share of the market for the person's age (or some other metric) and so it gives incentive for AARP to put what they do on their website even though we are then directed to the UHC site (this way UHC can see how we got there to pay AARP IF IN FACT this is part of their royalty agreement. As that one article I posted already indicates both AARP and UHC are pretty secretive about the details of their relationship.

But before people trash AARP and UHC for this (despite it does, in my opinion, imply a conflict of interest with respect to what AARP's mission although the money goes to their for profit arm and not their non-profit arm), what they both are doing is VERY common in the business world and not an anomaly. Do I think AARP should be far more upfront and open about getting paid to advertise UHC's products - YES!. We need to trip over it because of AARP's mission and what can easily be implied, and not have to find it in the fine print - if we even were to go looking.

.This next bit only read if you care about details of risk pools and other more technical things (inclosed in === lines, final more general comment on the other side of the second === at the end).

======

If there had been more than one community rated supplement company in my state I would have compared them critically and not been influenced by AARP's advertising of UHC's products (but I know many are). BUT there is only this one it is what it is. And in some degree it is a mixed product for it's "price" pool. The underlying risk pool is community (eg all of us in one risk group so generally healthier younger people keep the overall price down) however the rates are more like age attained - eg what they call their "discount" structure which makes the full price premium more expensive due to giving discounts to younger people (up through 75 or 80 depending on when you first turned 65 - I also wonder if they have separated us into two different risk blocks as well but I have no way to find out).

But they have to give the discounts so younger people will even sign up. Many don't think to ask what their premium would be if they were 80 or older and see that community rated risk pools are generally cheaper at that stage of their life. However the pot of money needs to be the same to meet expenses regardless of how the company structures their premiums. As a result if some pay less others have to pay more to meet the needed amount.

Based on how the discount has now been changed for newer signees to get a discount through basically the average of men and women's average life span (eg 80 vs the earlier 75 - so averaging the male and female life span and rounding) it really is driving up older people's premiums the same way age attained risk pools do even though the underlying risk pool is community. The advantages of this being a community risk pool is diluted that way for older people. When I checked when I first signed up I did see that other companies tended to charge more if I had been 80 or 90 (ages I asked about) and found those companies/agents were really reluctant to give me those figures.

Of course if you don't pass medical underwriting (and don't live in some of the states that allow you to switch every year without medical underwriting) and can bail to a different plan if you are ticked enough then it is what it is. You can switch to an advantage plan (and suffer the consequences of networks (which exclude places like the Mayo, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and many others for out of state advantage plans even those that are PPO, HMO, or SELECT) out of pocket maximums that tend to be more than premiums plus supplement deductible than an advantage plan premiums (if any) plus out of pocket minus money saved by dental, etc (well unless you have a supplement with those "extras" then that part is closer to break even).

If you get an advantage plan and the move such that it isn't accepted in that state then you have guaranteed rights to switch supplement insurance companies with no medical underwriting (and I do NOT know the situation with UHC's advantage plans across state lines other than your premium may change) and you can get a supplement back without medical underwriting (some states say it has to be with the same company others don't have rules about that).

=======
But I'd guess for most of us if we don't pass medical underwriting (and eventually most won't if they live long enough) we are "stuck" with our UHC supplement and the AARP royalty (which no doubt is added to our premium costs) and it is what it is. And it is a shame AARP doesn't take a more active roll in addressing complaints about what UHC does regardless of the technicality of a royalty and no responsibilities with respect to that. One would have hoped that AARP's larger mission of elder concerns and protecting senior citizens would mean they would become involved to address repeated complaints either with their for profit arm (where the royalties go) or their non-profit arm (the organization we pay membership to). By the way after you sign up for a supplement and are accepted you can drop your AARP membership and keep your supplement (medicare rules; by the way you don't need a membership to sign up for an advantage plan). In the end some of the people reading this can bail from UHC and some of us can't and for those of us who can't it is what it is.

Re: United Healthcare

GailL1 — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 17:54:38 GMT

@CBtoo

If you and others in your state have a problem

with the way Gap plans are rated
or when a disabled beneficiary may obtain a Gap plan or not
or when added GI rights are added

Then solicit your state’s legislature to change it - there are plenty of states at present that have done such things, albeit premiums are higher in those states since they added to the risk involved by offering such lenient plan designs.

What about if we got rid of both Medicare Advantage plans and Medigap plans - beneficiaries would then have to become much more frugal where they spend their part of their healthcare dollars.

I guess since I was self-employed my entire working career, I am use to reading contracts down to the last minute detail and discount things I don’t need for my dollars.

Yes, it is a selling point to offer these auxiliary benefits - anything to set themselves apart from the rest of the pack in completion for your dollars - like loss leaders, so to speak.

Of course, they know the buying habits of many Americans to want something for nothing - but that nothing really never exist.

I do get upset at beneficiaries when they use these extra things as a decision making tool rather than their own medical or financial needs.

In most metro areas, one can find a great MAPD plan - harder to do when there are fewer providers. Many will not chose a Medigap plan where they don’t have as close to 1st dollar coverage as possible. But just like CMS cancelling the sale of Medigap plans H, I, E, J (in 2010) and plans C & F (2020), the next one to go will be G - then they become closed book plans (by the government) and premiums will rise and rise since there will be no younger and healthier added into the plans - and the plans will continue to pay out more and more because those left in it will keep getting older and older, and most likely sicker and sicker.

Re: United Healthcare

CBtoo — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:37:34 GMT

As much as I'd like to get our state to change I doubt that will ever happen. We are last in the nation for health care, didn't expand medicaid, and our university medical center is joint commission D rated and the people who run this state don't think that the poorer people in the state deserve anything because, acording to them, the poorer people brought their problems on themselves (adults not working at least half time can't get snap, there is no medicaid for adults under 65 even if they are working, etc.). Unfortunately the state insurance commission has their own issues as well. The voters likely won't vote for a change as, I believe it was last year, voters no longer have any way to get anything on the ballot to be voted on. Our state government outlawed that as a way for voters to make changes. Too bad global warming won't bury the entire state under the Gulf of Mexico, only just part of it and that won't include the capital.

I have no clue what you are talking about with respect to how gap plans are rated. I know insurance companies are rated for customer service, paying bills in a timely manner, denials, etc, but I didn't know each and every gap plan has a rating. I don't know how this works for the disabled under 65 either other than they eventually get medicare. That wasn't part of anything I was talking about anyway though.

And I never said anything about getting rid of either supplements or advantage plans so not sure why you are addressing that in a reply to me either. Personally I'd never ever get an advantage plan due to network limitations, changing networks, the problems with denials, the max out of pocket that you get hit with if you actually have medical issues where you actually need to use your plan (and then likely will fail medical underwriting where you'd save money with original medicare and a supplement), etc. I'd rather have the freedom to go to any practice in any state that accepts medicare. And if you look at places like the Mayo and MD Anderson Cancer Center - good luck to people with nearly all advantage plans if you want to go to either or them (or a number of other top places).

As someone who lost her job over 2 cancers in one year and had to buy health insurance on the open market (I didn't make enough for ACA care and this state didn't expand medicaid) I am well aware of just how expensive health insurance is for crappy coverage when you are buying an individual plan outside of ACA, an employer, etc. I went through most of my retirement money paying for that so I wouldn't die of cancer. Most seniors wouldn't have the money to do that year after year after year. The life span in the USA would drop even lower as many seniors would have to do without at least some of their needed health care for financial reasons (some are already doing that, especially with meds) so I am not advocating for dropping that.

I do think that there needs to be some sort of action on the part of AARP to make sure that their royalty relationship is in line with what they state is their mission and that they step in if there are issues or drop UHC and get their for profit arm money from some other endorsements that create less issues for the users whether or not they are AARP members. I think the issues are likely more on the advantage plan side since on the original medicare side there isn't the approval/network issue, although likely there are premium issues that include a significant amount of money tacked on to premiums due to the need for UHC to pay for the royalties.

I don't know if UHC has figured out how to put us into community rated blocks which will drive up costs as they close blocks (rather like is happening with F with no younger people in that - which is why I didn't join even though I was the last year that had that option as I knew what would happen in a community rated plan). My understanding, talking to someone in the USA (USA fortunately as talking with many in their foreign customer service operation can be frustrating at times) several levels up the UHC hierarchy is that G, without extras, was also an attempt to get the healthier (thus more likely to be younger too) people into that one rather than the original G with extras, so that premiums would be lower (not just lower because they didn't have to pay the fees when users used the extras - which many don't, but also lower due to healthier people in there - and those who can pass medical underwriting may want out of G+ into straight G which would make those in G+ collectively less healthy and so costs would go up). They used a different subsidiary to do that.

Re: United Healthcare

DirkB349973 — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 13:24:19 GMT

I didn't choose an Advantage plan for some of the reasons you mentioned. Here is an article on the pros and cons of Advantage plans.

https://www.consumerreports.org/money/health-insurance/pros-and-cons-of-medicare-advantage-a6834167849/

Re: United Healthcare

shamit — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 19:41:05 GMT

@GailL1 . I also don't know where the following from you came from:

"What about if we got rid of both Medicare Advantage plans and Medigap plans - beneficiaries would then have to become much more frugal where they spend their part of their healthcare dollars.

My mother spent a lot of time in the hospital and had 3 surgeries to save her life back in 1994. The hospital cost was over a million dollars. I hate to think what it would cost now. Most seniors wouldn't have that kind of money to pay the 20% that Medicare does not cover. I guess to be frugal the only solution was for her to refuse surgery and die.

I usually agree with you on a lot of things but I simply can't agree with this.

Re: United Healthcare

GailL1 — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 20:27:24 GMT

@shamit

Think about it - you are right, most seniors wouldn’t be able to handle their part of the cost. Thus a few things might happen:

1. Providers would have to modify their pricing so that these multitudes of seniors would still be their clients - or maybe they would just have to accept what Medicare pays now for that negotiated rate.

2. Seniors would think twice about getting some care - The reason that CMS has discontinued some of the more lucrative Medigap plans - the ones that allowed for 1st dollar coverage like Plan F, Plan C or even a longer time ago, Plan J, is because they know that when there is some out of pocket cost, it saves health care dollars for Medicare because beneficiaries think twice about getting some care. Yes, I am talking more about Part B coverage. Utilization of Part B coverage makes our Part B premiums go up. Part A which covers inpatient hospital care and skilled nursing facilities is already paid for during a senior’s working years - that’s where the payroll contributions go along with the employers match - to the Medicare HI Trust Fund.

3. Medigap isn’t health insurance - it is financial protection insurance that works with Traditional Medicare to pay or help pay the beneficiary’s out of pocket cost. If it were not available, beneficiaries, who don’t have some other type of help with out of pocket cost, would have to make some other arrangements to cover their part of the cost. In 2022, over 3 MILLION seniors did not have any outside help with paying their part of these cost. They didn’t have a Medigap, they didn’t have Medicaid, they didn’t have some other type coverage that filled the bill in paying these cost - they either paid them themselves, using their credit or made a payment plan with the provider or they cashed in or borrowed against some of their investments to pay these cost or they got hit with a delinquent notice and damage to their credit standing.

4. OR perhaps with only having Medicare, the Traditional program, and nothing else to lessen the financial blow of an illness or disease, it might force the powers that be to change the program of Medicare to allow for AT LEAST an annual or even a lifetimes limit on Traditional Medicare’s out of pocket cost.

Many beneficiaries have gone thru a life time of not planning for what happens when they can no longer work. Then they are hit with the realization that they have had a misconception of Medicare -

What happens if the powers that be decide to end Medicare Part C - it sounds to me that is what many on this board and others which I frequent want - to get rid of Medicare Advantage.

Then we will be hit with many beneficiaries coming over to Traditional Medicare. It will probably be a tremendous medical cost because in many states those that are disabled who are less than 65 years old, and high users of medical care only have a choice of a Medicare Advantage plan.

We are all gonna have to understand how Medicare works and what we can do to help the system last for those who come next. I have lots of ideas to which some may agree and others who will think I am a bit crazy - which could be because I am pretty old.

I am glad that your mom got the care she needed - but for me, I would rather have some other choices than to have a long, excruciating illness or disease if surgery and a long hospital stay are my only options especially if there was a question about how my life would be after treatment.

We probably aren’t gonna end Medigap or Medicare Advantage plans but there are changes made to Medicare that could be very beneficial finance-wise which we are gonna have to face sooner rather than later.

Re: United Healthcare

GailL1 — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 21:08:19 GMT

@DirkB349973

Good article and I will add a bit more in describing how Medicare, the whole program works.

i work as a volunteer patient advocate and I will say that prior approvals and denials of services are usually cleared up with some work.

1, Sometimes the provider of the service had their codes mixed up. OR their records haven’t been fully updated with the patient’s diagnosis and plan of care and the procedure or treatment looks like it is just pulled out of thin air.

2. The reason for a denial is important because both Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage insurers should be working from the same best practices info. So initially, that’s where the investigation has to start - with the CMS.gov - Medicare National or Local Coverage Determination.

3. Then if the procedure is definitely not covered - it isn’t covered under either Traditional Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan. Then comes the explanation to the patient as to why something isn’t covered- and that is probably the hardest part.

Many times the process is long and detailed. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the government entity that makes all the rules for both Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. They are also the ones that pays the insurers in the managed care part of Medicare - Medicare Advantage plans. CMS supports utilization management in Medicare Advantage plans - but sometimes they do leave an opening when the insurers can add to the amount they are paid be that a bonus for a high star rating or a higher payment if the MA beneficiary brings with them a higher risk.

As with anything government, it is very complicated and personally I think it could be simplified but even more than that, there is a need for beneficiaries to understand how Medicare [all parts of it] actually work.

Re: United Healthcare

GailL1 — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 22:17:00 GMT

@CBtoo

Just a few corrections in what you said

MEDICAID:

You wrote: . . . . there is no medicaid for adults under 62 even if they are working, etc.

Of course people less than 62 can get Medicaid. In Federal law they can get Medicaid IF THEY ARE LOW income disabled people or elderly or blind with few assets.

The ACA only widened the scope of MEDICAID to childless, abled bodied adults that meet the (MAGI) low income threshold.

Even then most states have increased their Medicaid coverage to children under the CHIPS program and to pregnant women, some even cover the woman and the child after birth for an extended period like 12 months.

MEDIGAP plans rating options

You wrote: I have no clue what you are talking about with respect to how gap plans are rated.

Premiums for a Medigap plan can be rated in one of three ways to set the initial premiums and then as part of the increases in premiums going forward.

1. Community Rated

2. Issue Age

3. Attained Age

You wrote: I don't know how this works for the disabled under 65 either other than they eventually get medicare.

People who have been declared disabled who are less than 65 get access to Medicare after receiving a SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) payment for 24 months or have a diagnosis of ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) or ALS (Lou Garrett Disease or ) for which they get immediate access to Medicare.

Federal law does NOT give people less than 65 years old access to any Medigap or Medicare Supplemental policy. So these folks are either forced into a Medicare Advantage plan to protect themselves financially OR the state where they live passes a state law giving them access to SOME Medigap plans usually Plan A and/or Plan B - which are both less than the lucrative benefits in Plan G or the others. Even when they, as disabled folks, are given access to certain Medigap plans by a state because of the high utilization they have of health care, their premiums are pretty astronomical in some states. I am talking $500 - $ 1000 a month just for a Medigap plan over and above the Medicare Part B premium.

So in many states, these disabled folks opt for a Medicare
Advantage plan to save in premium, and medical cost.

When they turn 65 years old, they get a “do-over” with Medicare and can re-enter the program under their 65 year old guaranteed issue period and enroll in a Medigap plan without underwriting under their initial Enrollment Period (IEP).

Yes, having Traditional Medicare with a lucrative Medigap plan, at present, gives a beneficiary access to a lot of providers that accept assignment or even some that have signed up as “non-participating). “Non-participating” providers can charge a beneficiary up to 15% more and some Medigap plans cover this too. Those providers who have “opted out” have to do so for a minimum of 2-years and the only way they will work with you as a Medicare beneficiary is under a contract basis - Providers who have opted out, do not bill Medicare and neither do they get any reimbursement from Medicare either. Opt-out providers are on your nickel and under contract which usually has their cost outlined.

Yes, MOST AARP/UHC Supplemental plans are community rated. However, in those states that have expand their guaranteed issue rights in some way - all of their premiums are much higher than in other states because the insurers in those states have to contend with a much higher risk.

There are (4) states where a beneficiary can pretty much sign up for a Medigap plan at any time, at any age and without underwriting - these are the states with the highest Medigap premiums - and they are all, I believe, community rated.

CT, MA, ME and NY.

Then the other states that have expanded GI rights let the beneficiary CHANGE plans without underwriting during some set time of the year. (i.e. around ones’ birthday so some of them are known as birthday rule states). Premiums are still high in these states too - CA, MO are a few of them but there are others. In these states, if one wants to switch a Medigap plan it’s has to be to an equal or lesser (in benefits) plan.

I hope I have just added to your knowledge of the program of Medicare. I do know that an Independent Medicare Plan broker in your state and area will know better than anybody else which insurers are likely to rate you during underwriting more or less leniently based on your health.

Sometimes BCBS (and perhaps others) might open up their Medigap coverage with no underwriting if they are wanting to build their Medigap business. Again, an independent Medicare plan insurance broker will be aware of these types of offerings.

Also know, you might already know this, that a Medigap insurer can refused coverage to a beneficiary outside of IEP and the surrounding period, they can also charge a beneficiary more out side of that IEP and the surrounding period, or they can not cover any preexisting condition for around 6-months.

If there is anything different in your state about Medigap plans, your state’s SHIP office or the state Dept of Insurance should know about it and they usually have it somewhere on the states website all the particulars.

Goo Luck in finding and getting the coverage that you need and want.

Re: United Healthcare

CBtoo — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:39:29 GMT

Think twice about getting care? So I choose not to get chemo and die? (I've had 3 major cancers close together). I choose to puke 24/7 because I can't afford full price for anti nausea drugs? I just deal with having a UTI until it turns into a kidney infection and have to go the ER at a place that won't turn you away if you can't pay your copay up front? Around here there are 4 "systems" that 90% or so of the doctors are part of (as employees, At 3 of the 4 if your bill goes to collection care is cut off and you are sued. I already go without some of my meds.

I don't think providers can modify some of their prices that much simply because of the costs of things they have no control over. And hospitals are paid more for the same services that doctor offices are paid for so maybe, for starters they need to even that out.

The people who have the most problems, even with insurance, paying their medical bills are those who are above the income to get medicaid help on premiums and drugs through about 400% oft he poverty line for their family size. Those are the people who will die younger because they can't afford care. I am in that group. I saved a fair bit for retirement and then what happened was the cancers. This state did not expand medicaid so I had to spend all my retirement money to pay for that. Now I am broke. I guess that is my fault and I don't deserve medical care if I can't afford it?

I have no clue what "other arrangements" I can make to pay for my care. Dumpster drive? I am already working. Either you have enough money or you don't. People in other civilized first world nations have universal health care. Yes they have some problems too and some countries the system is better than in other countries ( worked and lived in 6 countries). At least people can get care and don't go bankrupt due to the cost of health care.

Re: United Healthcare

SoulSurvivor61 — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 23:08:05 GMT

Regardless if it's United Health Care or what ever medical plan you have and how benefits are severely cut each year. The truth of the matter is, The United States does not and never has, properly cared for Seniors and/or disabled citizens. It's shameful... a disgrace compared to other countries. This country was built on capitalism, greed and it is a detriment to survival. Dare I say, I wonder who will be shot next?

Re: United Healthcare

GailL1 — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 23:35:31 GMT

@CBtoo

So what kind of healthcare coverage do you have now?

Re: United Healthcare

CBtoo — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:36:30 GMT

IN MY STATE THERE IS NO MEDICAID for "regular" (eg non-disabled) people under 65 because it was not expanded. Not even if you work 1/2 time. I live in one of the states who won't give out food stamps to people under 62 not working 1/2 time either. Apparently their goal is to kill the poor to solve the poverty problem.

I am not disabled so this is not relevant to me. Not to mention your entire post is irrelevant to what myself and shamit are talking about which you are sidestepping by changing the subject.

I don't have minor children so CHIPS and pregnant women are irrelevant to me as 20 years after menopause if I were to have a child at my age that would be a miracle. I am sure if that happened the Catholic church would be interested and I'd be set for life. LOL

Rating. I thought you were talking about number of stars rating. What you are talking about is the RISK POOL. That is not a rating. That is a risk pool (community, etc.). They are entirely two different things.

I am well informed about medicare for 65+. I am sure most of us are aware of network issues and accepting medicare. Most insurance you have when you work is that way too.

Brokers have a financial incentive to steer to people to the plans where their commission is higher (usually advantage plans give the highest commissions - often twice what supplements do and D is the least with some now not giving any). I am on an insurance forum for agents and am floored at what some of them post. While not all do that many do. I am not sure I'd trust an unknown to me broker because of that. And brokers usually don't write for all plans available in a state.

On medicare.gov I put the zip code in for a nice residential area in a major city in each of the states as I was looking for which states offered G and G+ (15 of them) that also had a birthday rule or equivalent (a total of two of them: IL and OK) because moving there and back would also solve my problem if I fail medical underwriting to switch. The rates were NOT higher in each and every one of those states, only some of them. One was lower and several were within a couple of dollars. I saw the rate for someone my age, sex, etc. in medicare.gov as I checked it in each state. I also checked on UHC via the AAPR link to get over there. Same results. So that is not correct information. Sure the odds of them being higher would be there as sicker people could move from advantage plans where now that they actually needed care they couldn't afford the out of pocket and limited networks so that would increase the number of sicker people in medigap but it is NOT true rates are higher in all those states. I was surprised at that.