Illustration credit: Svilen Milev

I just saw another commercial about signing up for a National Health Care Plan. They use clips of Obama talking about insuring more Americans and warn "only 2000 new enrollments allowed daily!" That it is setup to cover all uninsured! Noone turned down!

The problem? It's all a lie!

Why do I think it's a scam?

1) There is no national health care plan setup by the Obama legislation.

2) The site the commercial directs you to (or call the 800 number to be scammed in person!) is run by HealthcareOne, which is not an insurance company or a government agency (if you'd like to see for yourself, I'm not going to give them the benefit of a live link, it's hcobiz [dot] com)

3) The small print on the website says: "HealthcareOne is NOT HEALTH INSURANCE AND IS NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE INSURANCE. Plan not available in: IL, KS, MD, MT, NH, NV, and VT. Plan provides discounts at participating healthcare providers for medical services. Discounts vary based on provider type and service provided. Plan members are obligated to pay the discounted rate for all healthcare services at time of service."

4) It's one of those pay now and maybe you'll get something later deals. Also in the fine print: "Member can cancel membership within first 30 days after receipt of membership kit for full refund of membership dues less the non-refundable enrollment fee."

So basically, a discount prescription program only available in some states due to commerce laws is advertising itself as a national health plan, even using Obama's image, speeches, and recent legislation, to get more customers. Isn't this selling under false pretenses? How many people have been scammed, thinking that they're getting legitimate insurance under the current legislative changes, only to find out when the "membership kit" arrives that they're not really getting anything they wanted (check out RipOff Report). Their parent corporation, Careington International, also seems to have a number of subsidiaries that do similar advertising if online complaints are any indication.

Yes, prescription discount plans have their place (and HealthcareOne runs a health discount service in their network of providers for ~$70 a month, which may also have a place for some people). But they should be sold for what they are, not scammed for what they aren't. People who call the 800 number don't get the benefit of the small print or big pictures saying it's prescription discounts. Instead they're stuck paying the nonrefundable enrollment fee (though the site says it's free!!) and have their phone number and information on record with a company that doesn't seem to have any problem twisting the truth to sell more.