A Really Stupid Thing will happen soon – Medicare will drop telehealth services! Contact your legislators now!

Telehealth is popular because it’s convenient and often the best option for people living in “transit deserts” – rural and even urban areas without public or private transportation options, or places that have become healthcare deserts. It also helps caregivers and those with full-time jobs where taking off a day of work for an appointment is problematic.

However, for millions of disabled Americans, telehealth is not just a convenience – they rely on these services for doctors appointments, prescriptions, and other medical needs. Some patients do not have specialists for their disease located in their area, and for many patients, leaving home at all can be too risky to contemplate.

Lawmakers from both sides have called on the DEA to issue a two-year extension of the telemedicine benefits first put in place in 2020, and some have proposed legislation making the changes permanent. Although these bills are related to Medicare, they will affect telehealth access through private insurance indirectly, as private plans tend to follow Medicare when setting coverage.

Call your legislators in both chambers to act quickly on these bills and tell your friends and relatives in RED states to do so too! This BIPARTISAN issue may get swept away by the unelected robber-bros in DOGE.

Action #1 – Contact your representative – you have (1)! Yes, you can email on the weekend!

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Thursday 4/19 – Today’s word is “CHOICE”, just not yours. Healthcare comments (4/23 deadline) and calls.

We’re heading back to the dark old days …

Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), our “choice” in health care was often determined by where we worked or by cost. However, insurance companies had many more “choices” available to them – to outright reject us, retroactively cancel policies, apply caps, limit coverage and charge us whatever they could. In 2009, 1 in 7 applicants with pre-existing conditions could not get insurance at any price from the four largest insurance companies. In 2016, an average of 27% of adult Americans under the age of 65 had health conditions that would leave them uninsurable pre-ACA. In case we’ve forgotten what it was like, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois published their pre-existing conditions list here, (including a 25% upcharge for being overweight!), which will be immediately reinstated if the ACA is repealed.

“…informed decisions” doesn’t equal health insurance coverage.

Although Seema Verma, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices (CMS), says she “is committed to empowering patients to take ownership of their healthcare and ensuring they have access to the resources they need to make informed decisions,” she tweeted her approval of an article that called for “turning away patients based on their health status, or charging older, sicker patients more than three times what they charged younger, healthier ones — two valuable strategies for keeping costs down.”