I Have To Laugh ~ Ruth Ann Satchfield

My employee-insurance management company reported year-over-year double-digit percentage growth in operating income which was 30.0 percent, to $7.1 billion in third-quarter 2013. They made $16.6 billion in the first nine months of 2013. I want you to realize the size of the company we are talking about.

I have carried insurance on both my husband and myself for over 25 years. In January, they stopped covering my husband's bills. Why? A software glitch. They had changed companies for management of their insurance program. The new management company lost many dependents in the transfer. If my husband had not been a service-related disabled veteran, we would be up the proverbial creek. The company has been telling us not to worry, that he is covered, and that they will pay us back. This has been happening since January, 2013.


I just received my new packet of information, and it has "dependent" checked just as it should. The packet also includes information about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for younger employees, about saving money in the Marketplace established by ACA with this statement: "In the Marketplace, you could be eligible for a new kind of tax credit that lowers your monthly premiums." They left the choice up to each employee to decide what is best. This is a massive company that had good rates, but evidently our insurance advisers feel that at least the people on COBRA might do better with the provisions of the ACA. 

When we hear the people in Congress posturing about the failure of the ACA website, I want to laugh. Many of these people never supported the ACA in the first place. When we hear them complaining about the failure of the website, I wonder where they were when the drug program (for seniors) became law. Did they not hear of all the problems that the program had? One more thing: the ACA is a lot more complex - with many more plans and options - than my employee benefits, and I have been waiting for 10 months to be reimbursed. So, when some say that the private sector could do it better, I have to laugh.