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joe817 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:41 am Well, that was certainly an eye opener. Thanks for posting Roy. I'm surprised that the article didn't mention even one time United Health Care. If it was there I missed it. If that's the case I claim a senior moment. Lol.

The Forbes article is relatively dated. UHC may not have been involved back then.
I don't fault UHC. IMO, AARP was the lobbying group that pushed obamacare across the finish line.
"Representing" seniors, in their own self interest.

jason812 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:32 pm

RoyGBiv wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:46 am

jason812 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2019 7:56 pmNot Medicare story. I'm not old enough but 5 years ago when my wife was prego with my daughter, we put money in a flexible spending account. What a joke. There was no flexibility. The insurance company took money out of it automatically when I went to the dr or when my wife went for check ups. I only wanted to use it for the birth but didn't get the chance. Trying to navigate that paperwork and do the math to keep track of it all made me feel like I needed to be an astro physicist.

I'm curious about this.... When we had an FSA, it was 100% under our control. Now we have a MSA (with HDHP) and again, nobody can touch that money unless I hand them the Debit card that is attached to it.

Do you know what rules changed to allow your insurer to touch the funds in your FSA without your permission?

I have no idea but it did not work the way we were told by HR. At the time (5 years ago), I was working for a major corporation and they were headquartered out of Illinois. Our health insurance was through United Health Care (who I think are dirty as can be). I never once used the debit card.

Wow. That's definitely a headscratcher.

joe817 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:01 am

KLB wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:22 am

jason812 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2019 7:56 pm AARP lobbied for Obamacare. Why? Probably cause AARP knew it would make billions.

AARP is a left-wing lobbying organization that sells insurance and offers a few side benefits to obscure its true nature. I won't have anything to do with them.

Wrong. AARP does NOT sell insurance. They sponsor. They have nothing to do with the overseeing, administration, execution, etc of the plan. The plan is through United Health Care. It's UHC's health plan, and only UHC's health plan. Google it. Look it up.

AARP gets money from UHC for selling it to AARP members.
AARP lobbied heavily for Obamacare, so they could sell it to their members and make money.
If I said what I thought about AARP, I'd be in violation of forum rules, so, here's a published story about it.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothec ... 9ca0fb5935

Here’s how it works. AARP isn’t your every-day citizens’ advocacy group. The AARP is also one of the largest private health insurers in America. In 2011, the AARP generated $458 million in royalty fees from so-called “Medigap” plans, nearly twice the $266 million the lobby receives in membership dues.

.....

But the AARP aggressively, and successfully, lobbied to keep Medigap reforms out of Obamacare, because AARP receives a 4.95 percent royalty on every dollar that seniors spend on its Medigap plans. Reform, DeMint estimates, would have cost AARP $1.8 billion over ten years.

WTR wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 8:49 amSecond GoodRX. They have an app that you may check Drug prices on. My wife saved her Mom about $350.00 a month by following GoodRX.

I like GoodRx. I recently had a new prescription for a med that my insurance company didn't want to cover. Long story short, it was a higher concentration than what is normally recommended, but was approved by my doctor. Insurance denied it and instead approved the lower concentration version.

The pharmacy tells me that I can pay for the prescribed concentration out of pocket, at a cost of $1,012, for a 2-month supply.
Good Rx had a coupon for the correct (higher) concentration med for $79.

I'm going to try the lower concentration version to see if it works. The higher concentration version worked quite well. My insurance will cover the lower concentration version for a $5 copay. For the name-brand med, not the generic. Lol. I suppose I can just use more if it doesn't work quite as well.

jason812 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2019 7:56 pmNot Medicare story. I'm not old enough but 5 years ago when my wife was prego with my daughter, we put money in a flexible spending account. What a joke. There was no flexibility. The insurance company took money out of it automatically when I went to the dr or when my wife went for check ups. I only wanted to use it for the birth but didn't get the chance. Trying to navigate that paperwork and do the math to keep track of it all made me feel like I needed to be an astro physicist.

I'm curious about this.... When we had an FSA, it was 100% under our control. Now we have a MSA (with HDHP) and again, nobody can touch that money unless I hand them the Debit card that is attached to it.

Do you know what rules changed to allow your insurer to touch the funds in your FSA without your permission?