The problem with Obamacare and psychiatry; most psychiatrists do not participate in your plan.

A recent article in the NY Times discusses the problem with Obamacare and psychiatry in that most psychiatrists are no longer taking insurance. Perhaps that is good for psychiatrists who have figured out that as a group, if you do not participate in any plans, and neither do your fellow doctors, you can demand your own prices (regardless of how ridiculous they are) because those who are desperate and need their services will have no choice but to pay cash and forgo insurance.

Many years ago, psychiatrists were doing talk therapy with their clients; an important means to helping someone with their problems. Unfortunately, their practiced has morphed into the people who prescribe psychiatric drugs, rather than try to figure out how to help you with your problems. For some, the drugs do help but for others, many of the drugs are merely an expensive placebo and the psychiatrist is merely the gate keeper, who now, by the way no longer participates in your plan.

Of course, talk therapy is widely available through your psychologist, which is good to know since many of them do participate with your insurance. The question is; will more people opt out of psychiatric drugs and opt in with in network psychologists? That is soon to be seen since many newer plans through Obamacare no longer have out of network benefits, and smaller networks of providers. For most of us, we would want to be able to get at least some compensation for our medical needs if they are not provided by the health plan we are trying to afford.

A new wrinkle is that many more people will now be finding themselves pushed out of their plans that, due to provisions in Obamacare, are no longer in a plan that meets the provisions of Obamacare (read more about this here). Some of those folks are well compensated professionals so nobody is immune (except our senators and congressmen of course!)

Read the article from the NY Times here

Fewer Psychiatrists Seen Taking Health Insurance

By ROBERT PEAR Published: December 11, 2013

Many in New York’s professional and cultural elite have long supported President Obama’s health care plan. But now, to their surprise, thousands of writers, opera singers, music teachers, photographers, doctors, lawyers and others are learning that their health insurance plans are being canceled and they may have to pay more to get comparable coverage, if they can find it.

They are part of an unusual, informal health insurance system that has developed in New York, in which independent practitioners were able to get lower insurance rates through group plans, typically set up by their professional associations or chambers of commerce. That allowed them to avoid the sky-high rates in New York’s individual insurance market, historically among the most expensive in the country.

But under the Affordable Care Act, they will be treated as individuals, responsible for their own insurance policies. For many of them, that is likely to mean they will no longer have access to a wide network of doctors and a range of plans tailored to their needs. And many of them are finding that if they want to keep their premiums from rising, they will have to accept higher deductible and co-pay costs or inferior coverage.

“I couldn’t sleep because of it,” said Barbara Meinwald, a solo practitioner lawyer in Manhattan.

Ms. Meinwald, 61, has been paying $10,000 a year for her insurance through the New York City Bar. A broker told her that a new temporary plan with fewer doctors would cost $5,000 more, after factoring in the cost of her medications.

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