Signs from the UAW’s unsuccessful campaign in Chattanooga.We’re No. 10, We’re No. 10!
So, Chattanooga is ranked 10th by the Kaiser Family Foundation among the cheapest markets to purchase individual health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Bully! That is, unless you don’t want to use Erlanger hospital or as long you don’t mind choosing from a narrow provider network provided by low-cost provider BlueCross BlueShield. In other words, that “keep your doctor” thing the president once trumpeted? That’s out the window in this instance unless your doc is in the narrow network.
And judging just from the disparity in the early roll-out, the whole schmear seems to smack of the unfairness it was supposed to alleviate.
Because of the way the insurance companies have played by the Obamacare rules, for instance, someone in North Georgia would have to pay $200 for a health care plan that someone in Chattanooga could get for $168. And someone in high-cost-of-living Hawaii pays less than in low-cost-of-living Chattanooga given the same coverage parameters. And what about the fact unhealthy, prescription-happy residents of the Scenic City pay only $8 more than the tee-totaling, healthy-diet Mormons of Salt Lake City?
And who pays for Chattanooga to be No. 10? The already insured, among others. As Mark White, president and chief executive officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Arkansas, said matter-of-factly in a magazine to that company’s insured recently: “The cost of this [previously] uncompensated care is [now] paid by all of us in higher health insurance premiums.”
Sour grapes could poison UAW whine
Whatever reputation the United Auto Workers had before Volkswagen workers voted 53 percent to 47 percent against allowing the union to represent them now has sour grapes added to the mix.