Crowley, Texas - Newborn Baby Denied Insurance Due To Heart Defect

[luckytxn 2,264]

Back up, cowboy. We're talking about Medicare beneficiaries here that use private health insurance plans on Medicare's dime. The Feds pay these companies 115% of what the feds pay Medicare for the beneficiaries that have their claims handled by Medicare directly (whether Medicare outsources paperwork makes no difference since they still manage to get it done for less). There's a premium on the private insurance plans and that premium is getting the axe.

They are not getting the axe. They are getting a huge trough to gorge at now. Of course a certain percentage will be directed to the politician piggies to gorge on. The Socialists were bought and paid for beforehand and will be getting their cut as long as the public monies keep coming.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

They are not getting the axe. They are getting a huge trough to gorge at now. Of course a certain percentage will be directed to the politician piggies to gorge on. The Socialists were bought and paid for beforehand and will be getting their cut as long as the public monies keep coming.

No, they are getting the axe. We're talking about Medicare Advantage here. No more premiums for the insurance companies for handling Medicare beneficiaries.

[luckytxn 2,264]

No, they are getting the axe. We're talking about Medicare Advantage here. No more premiums for the insurance companies for handling Medicare beneficiaries.

Oh no they will get it just more of it.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Oh no they will get it just more of it.

President Obama has described Medicare Advantage as a "waste," and Congress has agreed, proposing $132 billion worth of cuts to the program over 10 years in the health reform package.

...

Under the Medicare Advantage cuts planned in reform, the first payment cuts would occur in 2011. Health insurer CEOs are advised to begin now to "absorb reduced payments," according to one health plan expert.

...

These cuts could cost insurers to drop Medicare Advantage and seniors to leave the program. In fact, CBO estimates that Medicare Advantage enrollment would drop by 4.8 million members by 2019.

[luckytxn 2,264]

They will. The insurance just bought and paid for the right to consume a lot of public monies.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

They will. The insurance just bought and paid for the right to consume a lot of public monies.

Facts be damned, eh?

[SMR 368]

Insurance, health insurance, as we have it in this country is a bad thing. Only someone with no understanding of economics, and reality, could possibly defend it.

As individuals we can't possibly individually pay the cost of national defense, nor could we pay as individually for the roads and infrastructure we all use. As individuals we form a collective to pay for things we might not otherwise be able to afford individually. Some things are costly, and not for profit. That is the concept it appears you fail to appreciate. Most of us pay into health insurance but can never really know if we will actually be covered should it be needed.

Maybe Texas is different, but in our state newborn children have a right to health insurance out of the gate. Something like a 30 day window of actually forced coverage under their parents health plan.

The whole system though is retarded on its face, nobody pays more for, and gets less out of, health care than all but the wealthiest Americans verses how other systems across the globe perform. You fail to understand that the system is collapsing on itself and it isn't "we would all be screwed," we have been getting screwed. I bolded the one statement you made I agree on to some extent, however I just don't believe we should collectively play Russian Roulette when it comes to the distinct possibility of catastrophic health problems so that for profit industry can continue to generate said profit. I am unsure how you come to the facts you come to with regards to the original story, and certainly don't comprehend how the parents were irresponsible.

Read the story again. The parents didn't have health insurance. In your state, newborn children have a 30-day window of forced coverage under their parents plan. Actually, the story refers to this. It doesn't apply because the parents chose to not have health insurance. Yes, the child is covered under their plan. Since they don't have a plan, neither does the infant.

I'm not denying that there are problems with health care. There are some serious problems. But most of the anecdotal evidence brought to discredit the health insurance industry doesn't hold intellectual or economic water. This story falls firmly in that category. Read the OP again if you missed it. The parents didn't have insurance. That is the key.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Explain the need to have lobbyist from insurers in DC.

[Minya's wife 24]

Explain the need to have lobbyist from insurers in DC.

Explain the need for lobbyists.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Very true.

Explain the need for lobbyists.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

UPDATE: Insurer IS going to cover the baby after pressure.

Oh and the article from earlier was full of bullshit saying the baby died. That was true liberalism at its best lying out their #### to try and make a point...

http://cbs11tv.com/local/houston.tracy.blue.2.1601063.html

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― On the first day of his life, Houston Tracy was already fighting for it.

The baby was born with a heart defect called D-transposition, where the two major arteries that carry blood away from the heart are switched. Doctors performed a life-saving surgery to repair the defect which was first discovered after he was born.

"I could probably say this was the worst thing I've ever had to encounter," said Doug Tracy, Houston's father.

Ten days later the family learned things could get worse.

"It was awful," Houston's mother Kim Tracy said.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas denied the newborn health insurance, claiming he had a pre-existing condition. It was first reported by CBS 11 Wednesday, and picked up by media outlets across the country the next day.

"With you and your story... it went national by Thursday afternoon," Doug Tracy said. "By Friday Blue Cross Blue Shield was tired of the phone calls, tired of the emails."

State Representative Chris Turner and State Senator Wendy Davis also backed the family and sent a letter to BCBS of Texas urging them to reconsider their decision to deny coverage.

"That didn't happen until after the media," Tracy explained.

"We understand what an emotional time this is for the Tracy family," said BCBS representative Margaret Jarvis in a statement issued Sunday, "and are pleased to report that we've proposed a solution that addresses his and his family's concerns."

"It's probably a bad experience turned really good," Tracy said.

The Tracy's have now learned they'll be taking their baby home soon and that he's going home insured. All of his medical expenses from day one will be covered in full by insurance.

"It's been the best news I've had besides Houston's going home soon," Tracy said. "That's the best news, the second best news is that Blue Cross Blue Shield stepped up to the plate and did what they needed to do."

Now with one fight finished, the Tracy's can focus solely on their son.

"We're hoping to have him home by Easter," the proud father said, "that would be the best Easter I've had in my life!"

Friends of the Tracy family started up a website for baby Houston.

It was to help raise money to cover the medical expense but since he now has insurance, the family says all the money donated will be given to Cook Children's Medical Center, the hospital that saved their son.

[Teacher Mark 53]

Damn kid made a liar out of me.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

UPDATE: Insurer IS going to cover the baby after pressure.

Oh and the article from earlier was full of bullshit saying the baby died. That was true liberalism at its best lying out their #### to try and make a point...

No, it's not "true liberalism." It was one site either making $#it up or failing to employ a fact-checker. And all "sides" (if you can call them that) are guilty of this sort of thing...all the time.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Hmm...

I pray for all Republican offspring to have a genetic defect

that's just offensive, consolemaster.