A week ago, like many other New York State employees, I received a letter from the Department of Civil Service stating that it has
contracted BUDCO Health Service Solutions to administer the Dependent Eligibility Verification Project. Translation: there is going to be blood. BUDCO – whose clients includes Fortune 500 companies- will come up with sophisticated technicalities to slash a bunch of dependents of New York State employees from the list of eligible New York State Health Insurance Program beneficiaries.Of course, the Department of Civil Service letter does not tell the reader what BUDCO’s fee is. One can surmise from all of this is that in New York State, the much-needed reforms in health care system will not head in the expected directions.
I have one tip for BUDCO: take inspiration on biased family courts rulings. For instance, my daughters are eligible dependent, who are denied coverage because sicko ex-wife makes a point of not using my insurance. Manhattan family court affixes the stamp of the”law” on this denial of coverage by having me pay for these “un-reimbursed medical expenses”. That’s one way for NYSHIP to explore: eligible dependents shall be custodial parent dependents only.
Seriously, there are better solutions for health care coverage in general, which I presume, Budco is not promoting. Single-payer systems for instance. In a single-payer system, what matters is care, not the caretaker: a waco like my ex-wife could not “choose” not to use my insurance because she has one (with less coverage): there is only one payer and hence one insurance for everybody. Cost of care: down, because the government put ceilings on physicians fees and medication prices. Management costs: down. A big bureaucracy is more efficient that many small ones, public or private. Customer service: better. Employees of private health insurance companies have one thing at heart: maximize the profits of the company they work for and deny your claim. Employees in big public agencies are not necessary caring and nice. But at least, they don’t care whether you are reimbursed or not.
As President Obama said, as far as health care is concerned, change cannot wait. Let’s hope it does not wait too long.
Are you sure your daughters are not eligible? Your ex wife not using the insurance has not impact on the Budco audit. Usually, for dependent children, Budco requires that relationship and financial dependency are established. The documents you would need to verfiy this are birth certificates listing you as the father or a divorce decree listing you as the father. For financial dependency, child support payments or divorce decree indicating you are required to provide health care coverage for your daughters can be used.
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