Obamacare Patients Denied Access to Doctors, Hospitals, Cancer Centers
20th March 2014
Obamacare patients are discovering that many doctors, hospitals, and top cancer centers do not accept the plans they purchased.
“It’s so frustrating,” Terri Durheim of Enid, Okla., told CNN. “It’s not doing me a lot of good.”
Durheim is not alone. Obamacare’s so-called “narrow networks” are designed to limit customer choices to push patients into cheaper choices in an effort to control costs. Earlier this year Washington Post health writer Sarah Kliff warned that “Obamacare’s narrow networks are going to make people furious – but they might control costs.” A McKinsey and Co. study finds that more than one in three (38%) Obamacare plans permit patients to select from just 30% of the largest 20 hospitals in their geographic region.
That’s why they call it the Affordable Care Act. Care you can’t get is always affordable.