The Affordable Care Act II - Because Mr. Obama Loves You All

[meazza]

Not only would he, he already has. This administration has trumpeted the increase in food stamp enrollment as a success.

 

 

 

In other words, your opinion is based on complete ignorance.

 

Birddog #checkyourprivilege

[OCinBuffalo]

You know what talking to Obamacare suppoters is like for me?

 

It's exactly like this(from the Sammy Watkins thread):

Now just stop and actually think for a minute. At the start of today's draft, we had a 1st round pick this year, a first round pick next year and a fourth round pick next year. At midnight tonight, we had Watkins, but no longer had any of those three picks.

 

How do you conclude that the Bills invested something other than 2 first round picks and a fourth round pick in Watkins?

There is 0 tangible difference for me(I am sure many others can see it too), between this post, and the crap I read from the Obamacare supporters in this thread. And, notice: we are the ones being implored to "stop and think" Just like: we've been told to "think" in this thread.

 

And, the best? I am sure that ICanSleepWhen is as sincere as can be. He simply does not get it. And, if you observe that thread, you'll see that my response to him is about the 5th time somebody has tried to explain it. Just like we have to keep saying the same things over and over here.

 

I think it's sorta funny, and interesting: my response to Obamacare is precisely consistent with my response to the above. That is the honest truth. I feel no differently about the above, than when I read a leftist Obamacare post. My reaction is practically identical "WTF is this absurd schit now?"

 

Both Obamacare, and the above, are built on absolute absurdity, and require me to unkown what I know, and abandon my logic, in order to draw the "conclusion" this poster/Obamacare supporters want.

Edited May 9, 2014 by OCinBuffalo

[Koko78]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/05/10/new-mckinsey-survey-74-of-obamacare-sign-ups-were-previously-insured/?partner=yahootix

 

New McKinsey Survey: 74% Of Obamacare Sign-Ups Were Previously Insured

 

One of the principal flaws in the coverage of Obamacare’s enrollment numbers to date has been that the press has not made distinctions between those who have “signed up” for Obamacare-based plans, and those who have actually paid for those plans and thereby achieved enrollment in health insurance. A new survey from McKinsey indicates that a large majority of people signing up are now paying for their coverage. This is progress for the health law. But the survey still indicates that three-fourths of enrollees were previously insured.

 

...

 

Only 22% of Obamacare sign-ups are paid, previously uninsured enrollees

However, the proportion of individuals purchasing ACA plans who had been previously uninsured remained low. In February, McKinsey reported that only 27 percent of those selecting a new 2014 plan were previously uninsured; in April, the proportion was 26 percent.

 

 

Combining that with the payment figures: of the people signing up for new ACA plans in 2014, only 22 percent were previously uninsured individuals who have paid for coverage and therefore enrolled in health insurance. That’s a meaningful improvement from February’s 14 percent figure, but it’s still low.

 

...

 

Bottom line: Exchanges are having modest impact on the uninsured

Obamacare is beginning to expand coverage to the uninsured; however, it’s far from clear that the exchanges specifically are a primary engine. About 1 million people have gained coverage from Obamacare’s under-26 “slacker mandate” (not 3 million, as is commonly suggested); another 3 million or so have gained coverage from the law’s expansion of Medicaid. Of the 8 million sign-ups on the exchange, we can only be confident that around a quarter—2 million—were previously uninsured.

 

...

 

Of course that means that other people are paying more. “My old plan was canceled under Obamacare,” an exasperated Californian told me last week. “The new Obamacare plan costs twice as much, and the deductibles are higher. And yet Obama is counting me as one of his 8 million people!” But hey—at least he has maternity coverage.

[Doc]

Ouch. Another ouch:

 

While the Obamacare debate has so far focused on who’s paid their first premium, a better question may be who can afford to keep paying for health insurance month after month.

 

Christine Wagner, the executive director of a Catholic health care community center in New York called the St. Joseph Neighborhood Center, warns that many low-income people that have signed up won’t be able to keep up paying for their health insurance.

[3rdnlng]

http://news.yahoo.com/insurance-ceo-shut-down-hawaii-021453745.html

HONOLULU (AP) -- The chief executive of Hawaii's largest health insurance company is calling on Hawaii to shut down its beleaguered health insurance exchange, which was set up as part of President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Michael Gold, president and CEO of Hawaii Medical Services Association, says the state shouldn't keep spending money on the Hawaii Health Connector, a system that he says is financially unsustainable and does not work.

"I think there's an alternative that Hawaii needs to pursue immediately," Gold said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Hawaii should ask the federal government for an exception to the part of the Affordable Care Act that requires states to set up and run their own insurance exchanges, Gold said. He thinks businesses should buy approved plans directly from insurance companies, as they have done in the past. Individuals would do the same, or the federal government could take over that part of the exchange, he said.

[birdog1960]

http://news.yahoo.co...-021453745.html

 

HONOLULU (AP) -- The chief executive of Hawaii's largest health insurance company is calling on Hawaii to shut down its beleaguered health insurance exchange, which was set up as part of President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Michael Gold, president and CEO of Hawaii Medical Services Association, says the state shouldn't keep spending money on the Hawaii Health Connector, a system that he says is financially unsustainable and does not work.

"I think there's an alternative that Hawaii needs to pursue immediately," Gold said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Hawaii should ask the federal government for an exception to the part of the Affordable Care Act that requires states to set up and run their own insurance exchanges, Gold said. He thinks businesses should buy approved plans directly from insurance companies, as they have done in the past. Individuals would do the same, or the federal government could take over that part of the exchange, he said.

of course he does. read between the lines. it's often where the truth lies: http://www.huffingto..._n_5299307.html. more simply, follow the money. Edited May 11, 2014 by birdog1960

[B-Man]

 

Small business to take the HIT from Obamacare

 

ObamaCare is settled law, you see. It’s the law of the land and you all need to learn to simply move on with your lives. At this point, for better or worse, we surely must know everything there is to be known about the Affordable Care Act. (After all, we had to pass the law to know what’s in the law and we passed it, right?) As it turns out, there may still be some bits and pieces to come which, while not entirely unknown, have not received the same level of scrutiny as the mandates and cancellation of plans and such. One of them is known as the Health Insurance Tax, or HIT. Dan Danner, in a piece for Fox, explains the rather insidious nature of this wrinkle.

To add insult to injury, a hidden tax within the law is coming to light that threatens the very livelihood of thousands of U.S. businesses and millions of American workers. Known as the health insurance tax or HIT, this is a new discriminatory tax on small businesses and their employees that will raise the premiums by as much as $500 per policy per year.

 

Main Street enterprises are now being faced with the choice of eating the costs, passing it on to their employees, ending coverage altogether or other unexpected decisions impacting their operations and workers.

 

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the cost of the tax is only going to grow over time – collecting an estimated $145 billion from small businesses in the first ten years alone and making it that much harder for business owners to prepare for the future.

 

Ironically, during one of the ACA’s many back door deals, large corporations and unions received a carve-out from the HIT, leaving the full burden of the tax to fall on the fully-insured marketplace, where nearly 90 percent of small businesses, their employees and the self-employed purchase their insurance.

 

Read that last paragraph again. The idea that there are more hidden taxes coming which will negatively impact small business and job growth shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who has been paying a modicum of attention to this debate for the past few years. But the way that the unions and major manufacturing interests were able to grab themselves an emergency parachute while small businesses were left holding the tax bill is instructive. The construction of this bill largely took place behind closed doors with crowds of well funded special interests in on the decision making process. If you lacked a seat at that table, the results are now becoming obvious.

 

 

 

It's not like we didn't tell them: 9 Obamacare Predictions That Have Come True.

 

It directly affects the personal life of every American, and it controls or regulates a complex sector of the American economy that is slightly larger than the entire economy of France.

 

If you guessed Obamacare, you’ve been paying attention for the past four years.

 

Four years ago, many health policy analysts predicted some of the effects this law would have on Americans. These are all coming true.

 

Continues at the link:

[B-Man]

Notice Not Obamacare :Why the president wants you to look away.

by Ramesh Ponnuru

 

Whenever somebody says that an argument is settled, you can be sure that it is not. If it were settled, there would be no need to say so. No president will hold a press conference to announce that the argument over the prohibition of alcohol is settled, precisely because it truly is settled. So when President Obama declared the debate over his health-care law “settled” and “over,” as he did at an April 17 press conference, his performance was self-refuting.

 

The president was declaring victory in the Obamacare wars because more than 8 million people have enrolled in an insurance plan through the law’s exchanges — at least if we use the administration’s loose standard for enrollment. (How many of those enrollees will ever pay their premiums is unknowable.)

 

Supporters of the law, very much including the president himself, made three principal claims on its behalf while getting it through Congress and defending it afterward. First, it would dramatically expand coverage. In February 2013, the Congressional Budget Office projected that in 2014 the law would provide coverage to 14 million people who would otherwise have lacked it. That estimate, note, was made even after the Supreme Court, on a 7–2 vote, ruled that states had to be given more leeway to refuse to participate in the Medicaid expansion that is one of the law’s main tools for expanding coverage.

 

 

Second, the law would control costs, reducing both premiums and deficits. President Obama said that premiums for the average family would drop by $2,500. And third, the plan would leave existing insurance policies alone. You’d be able to keep your plan, and your doctor, if you wanted.

 

The critics argued that the law would instead increase costs, retard innovation, and lower the quality of care. Premiums would increase for many people. The law would prove more disruptive to existing insurance arrangements than the president and his allies were saying. Jobs would be lost. And the critics made additional claims — that the law would unconstitutionally expand governmental power and violate conscience rights — where the dispute didn’t so much concern the effects of the law as how to characterize those effects.

 

What the critics rarely said in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, or most of 2013 was that nobody would sign up for coverage on the exchanges, or that the law would fail to increase the percentage of Americans with coverage. They said that much of the increased coverage would be of low quality, and that the coverage expansion could be accomplished at a lower cost.

 

 

more at the link:

[boyst]

Update

 

so because I wasn't able to pay thru the ACA site and because I did not realize I was sent a letter (I know this is my bad, but I get lots of letters!), well, I did not make a payment on my first month of coverage, nor know my second months coverage was due pretty quickly after the first. So, I have to make a payment, according to the letter I did get, ASAP to get coverage June 1st.

 

This is all so very confusing, and before you mock me for not realizing I got a letter addressed for me - how many of you actually look at all of your mail? How many of you see a letter you don't recognize or one that is obviously spam and don't open it? I got mailers from BCBS every month because I have used them several times for health care and while my former company was closing I got two or three legal notices a day from their bankruptcy. It is my bad, I get it. But, when I had tried to pay early and then took the "oh well, it'll get fixed they'll let me know attitude" even after speaking with them on the phone after 90 minutes of waiting - well, yeah... it didn't get fixed and if I had an accident it is definitely an "oh stojan" moment.

[B-Man]

Obamacare Insurers: ‘We Have to Break People Away from the Choice Habit’

 

Critics of Obamacare have argued its heavyhanded government intervention will mean less choice for consumers — now we know it’s true, since we’re hearing about itfrom the New York Times rather than “extremists” like the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon. Obamacare may be able to expand insurance, but the insured are going to get fewer choices for to use their insurance, no matter what. Here is a tidbit:

In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear:

No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want.

These so-called narrow networks, featuring limited groups of providers, have made a big entrance on the newly created state insurance exchanges, where they are a common feature in many of the plans. While the sizes of the networks vary considerably, many plans now exclude at least some large hospitals or doctors’ groups. Smaller networks are also becoming more common in health care coverage offered by employers and in private Medicare Advantage plans.

 

But hey, consumers, don’t worry; insurers are just breaking you out of a bad habit:

“

We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,

” said Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, an insurer in Golden Valley, Minn., that is owned by two health systems and a physician group. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”

 

This article is a perfect illustration of what people get when the government and private corporate interests (here, the insurance industry) team up to produce such a wide-reaching piece of legislation. You end up with cronyism at its worst, and consumers lose.

 

more at the link

Edited May 14, 2014 by B-Man

[Azalin]

 

This is all so very confusing, and before you mock me for not realizing I got a letter addressed for me - how many of you actually look at all of your mail? How many of you see a letter you don't recognize or one that is obviously spam and don't open it?

 

I live in an apartment complex, so I get other peoples' mail all the time. my own mail has been delivered to neighbors in the past on a number of occasions, so it's real easy for me to receive something late, or to miss it altogether. in addition, I pay all my bills online and the only time I get any mail from family is around my birthday and Christmas. I usually throw 95% of all my mail directly into the trash, so I tink what you're saying is pretty reasonable.

[OCinBuffalo]

Update

 

so because I wasn't able to pay thru the ACA site and because I did not realize I was sent a letter (I know this is my bad, but I get lots of letters!), well, I did not make a payment on my first month of coverage, nor know my second months coverage was due pretty quickly after the first. So, I have to make a payment, according to the letter I did get, ASAP to get coverage June 1st.

 

This is all so very confusing, and before you mock me for not realizing I got a letter addressed for me - how many of you actually look at all of your mail? How many of you see a letter you don't recognize or one that is obviously spam and don't open it? I got mailers from BCBS every month because I have used them several times for health care and while my former company was closing I got two or three legal notices a day from their bankruptcy. It is my bad, I get it. But, when I had tried to pay early and then took the "oh well, it'll get fixed they'll let me know attitude" even after speaking with them on the phone after 90 minutes of waiting - well, yeah... it didn't get fixed and if I had an accident it is definitely an "oh stojan" moment.

Dude, I'm on the road a lot. Thing have calmed down some, but, I'm moving again. In all cases, people are F'ing high if they think I will respond to them in terms of snail mail.

 

So, no, this isn't even close to unreasonable.

[boyst]

Dude, I'm on the road a lot. Thing have calmed down some, but, I'm moving again. In all cases, people are F'ing high if they think I will respond to them in terms of snail mail.

 

So, no, this isn't even close to unreasonable.

well, i wasn't going to add this bit but it does add some gravitas.

my now exgf normally took care of the water bill. my water provider is a stickler for late fees, and my parents normally grab all my mail because they're too silly to have all their stuff forwarded and notify senders. well, my ex was to have put 3 months down on the water bill before she moved out, she said she would. i didn't bother checking, i guess she mentioned to me she was going to save money, it's not much - like $12/month - so she didn't pay.

 

I never check my mail to see the May bill arrive Monday to say shut off date was last night. No big deal but I truly felt like a schmuck for not realizing I didn't pay the $25-26 something I knew. A lot of getting over the break up has me doing anything but being in the house. It sucks. Either way, I had to pay a rehookup fee or something - and got it back on quickly. When I called them this morning they only do direct draft from your checking account - something I have but do not have any checks and haven't had checks since 2008 when I wrote the last one. They don't do auto-CC...wtf.

 

Yeah judge me all you want for being a moron, it's been 6 weeks and yeah, I'm getting it mended...20somethings sure are fun.

[TakeYouToTasker]

well, i wasn't going to add this bit but it does add some gravitas.

my now exgf normally took care of the water bill. my water provider is a stickler for late fees, and my parents normally grab all my mail because they're too silly to have all their stuff forwarded and notify senders. well, my ex was to have put 3 months down on the water bill before she moved out, she said she would. i didn't bother checking, i guess she mentioned to me she was going to save money, it's not much - like $12/month - so she didn't pay.

 

I never check my mail to see the May bill arrive Monday to say shut off date was last night. No big deal but I truly felt like a schmuck for not realizing I didn't pay the $25-26 something I knew. A lot of getting over the break up has me doing anything but being in the house. It sucks. Either way, I had to pay a rehookup fee or something - and got it back on quickly. When I called them this morning they only do direct draft from your checking account - something I have but do not have any checks and haven't had checks since 2008 when I wrote the last one. They don't do auto-CC...wtf.

 

Yeah judge me all you want for being a moron, it's been 6 weeks and yeah, I'm getting it mended...20somethings sure are fun.

...

 

You let a woman near your finances?

 

Idiot.

[boyst]

So, spending yesterday and today trying to straighten this out - aka yesterday frustration with barely speaking english obviously Indian dude and nothing solved - well, tonight I get told a million stupid ways by an Indian woman that I cannot sign up because I did not pay but I have coverage according to the ACA site. So, I am covered by ACA terms but not covered in real life is what she broke it down to meaning. Before that I spoke to a woman in Eastern Kentucky who basically told me what I need to say to get this fixed when I talk to the next person. That next person was stupid as hell, and mind you I spoke to a woman from Eastern Kentucky before that who said "awe schucks" when we were on the phone.

 

I guess that sounds good for politics, as I am one of the how many unmillions? I am enrolled...but didn't pay and therefore not eligible unless I have a special exemption which lets me reapply.

 

I tried calling BCBS finally tonight, even though the letter I had said I need to contact Healthcare.gov. They were closed by that time and I will call again tomorrow and likely have to pay full price.

 

Seriously, !@#$ you Obama.

 

...

 

You let a woman near your finances?

 

Idiot.

she is good at it, was good at it, whatever. i just put my stuff on autopay, the water bill i couldn't so i just let her do it because she would actually check the mail.

[3rdnlng]

So, spending yesterday and today trying to straighten this out - aka yesterday frustration with barely speaking english obviously Indian dude and nothing solved - well, tonight I get told a million stupid ways by an Indian woman that I cannot sign up because I did not pay but I have coverage according to the ACA site. So, I am covered by ACA terms but not covered in real life is what she broke it down to meaning. Before that I spoke to a woman in Eastern Kentucky who basically told me what I need to say to get this fixed when I talk to the next person. That next person was stupid as hell, and mind you I spoke to a woman from Eastern Kentucky before that who said "awe schucks" when we were on the phone.

 

I guess that sounds good for politics, as I am one of the how many unmillions? I am enrolled...but didn't pay and therefore not eligible unless I have a special exemption which lets me reapply.

 

I tried calling BCBS finally tonight, even though the letter I had said I need to contact Healthcare.gov. They were closed by that time and I will call again tomorrow and likely have to pay full price.

 

Seriously, !@#$ you Obama.

 

she is good at it, was good at it, whatever. i just put my stuff on autopay, the water bill i couldn't so i just let her do it because she would actually check the mail.

 

So Kelly is kaput?

[DC Tom]

So Kelly is kaput?

 

And if she is, can you post pictures of her now?

[3rdnlng]

And if she is, can you post pictures of her now?

 

Already did, months ago. Seriously, if that's the case JB, you have my sympathy. Woman are hard.

[Deranged Rhino]

Already did, months ago. Seriously, if that's the case JB, you have my sympathy. Woman are hard.

 

That's why I stick with men.

[boyst]

So Kelly is kaput?

And if she is, can you post pictures of her now?

Already did, months ago. Seriously, if that's the case JB, you have my sympathy. Woman are hard.

No, not yet. And she's met many here so that's a little bit too dark. Catch me in a good mood and I'll post another random of mine.

 

She is amazing but the mesh wasn't right right now. We still hang out and talk, but not like before or often. There is a small chance we get back together but I don't hold my breath for anyone.