December 11, 2013, - 5:51 pm
Gays, HIV/AID Activists: ObamaCare Makes It Too Expensive to Fight HIV/AIDS; Deductibles Too Steep, “Discrimination”
And yet another group of Barack Obama’s traditional (or, in this case, traditionally untraditional) allies is upset about ObamaCare: gay and HIV/AIDS activists. They say that the deductibles are so high that those afflicted with HIV/AIDS cannot afford the steep payments for drugs they must take. They say this constitutes “discrimination” against them for a pre-existing condition. Really? Tell that to all the cancer victims who are also now finding out their drugs and treatments will be either too expensive or just won’t happen, because they won’t be able to go to their preferred doctors anymore. That’s discrimination, too, isn’t it? In fact, isn’t the whole ObamaCare program discrimination against middle class Americans, who are now being forced to pay more to foot the bill for the ObamaPhone demographic? Just sayin’.
A coalition of 31 HIV/AIDS organizations is urging the Obama administration to investigate whether some health insurers are trying to discourage HIV-infected patients from enrolling in new policies being sold under the health-care law, a move the groups say could be illegal.
The Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination against people who are sick; insurers can’t deny them coverage or charge them more than healthier peers. But in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius last week, the coalition said it had noticed “a number of disturbing trends” in plans on the insurance exchanges, including plans that don’t cover all available HIV drugs and what it termed “egregious cost-sharing designs.” . . .
Among examples the HIV/AIDS coalition cited:
Aetna Inc. requires patients to pay 50% of the cost, after a drug deductible, for most HIV drugs in Florida. In Florida and some other states, Cigna Corp. CI -1.13% and Aetna’s separate CoventryOne put all HIV drugs—including generics—in a special category, requiring patients to pay 40% to 50% of their cost. That can be thousands of dollars a month.
Humana Inc.’s posted list of covered drugs in Florida and Alabama lists only six HIV drugs; other drugs are on a separate specialty list that shoppers might not know to check, the group says. All require patients to pay 50% of the cost, after a separate drug deductible.
For most drugs, insurers have traditionally required patients to pay only a flat copay, generally $10 to $50. . . . The HIV/AIDS groups haven’t received a response from their Dec. 2 letter, said Robert Greenwald, director of the Center for Health and Law Policy Innovation at Harvard University and co-chair of the coalition. “This matters a lot to people living with HIV,” he said.
Hmmm . . . if only gays took to the streets over this the way they did over Proposition 8 in California (which made gay marriage illegal). But they won’t. They’ll just be like the rest of Obama’s sheep in America: they’ll do nothing to stop it, other than the letter noted above.
Tags: ACA, Aetna, Affordable Care Act, AID ACA, AID ObamaCare, AIDS, HIV, HIV ACA, HIV Obamacare, HIV/AIDS ObamaCare, Humana, obamacare, Robert Greenwald
A harbinger of the death panels, although I hope these groups will condemn some of the behavior that leads to AIDS.
Little Al on December 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm