The Affordable Care Act is Coming Home to Roost

[Nanker]

No subsidy for YOU! The reality:

 

CNN analysis shows that in the largest city in nearly every state, many low-income younger Americans won't get any subsidy at all. Administration officials said the reason so many Americans won't receive a subsidy is that the cost of insurance is lower than the government initially expected.

 

In Chicago, a 27-year old will receive no subsidy to help offset premiums of more than $165 a month if he makes more than $27,400 a year.

In Portland, Oregon, subsidies for individuals making just $28,725 a year phase out for those younger than 35 years old.

 

The sales pitch:

Back in April, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a congressional subcommittee that any individual making under that $45,960 threshold -- or four times the poverty level of $11,490 for an individual -- would qualify for "an upfront tax subsidy."

"Somebody who's making $25,500 would definitely qualify for a subsidy if he or she is purchasing coverage in the individual market," Sebelius added.

 

Again, the reality:

Despite the secretary's assurance, a 25-year-old living in Nashville, Tennessee, making $25,500 will not qualify for a subsidy, for example.

[B-Man]

http://roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/2389210-12/give-back-my-health-care-policy.html

 

by Sharon B. Ingerson . . . .(Ingerson has worked as a Registered Nurse in Salem for fifteen years.)

 

Her column tells a story that has by now become familiar. Mrs. Ingerson liked her health care plan but, President Obama’s oft repeated assurances to the contrary notwithstanding, she is not going to be able to keep her health care plan. Familiarity should not dull the outrage the story elicits. Sharon Ingerson writes:

 

 

I am a registered nurse and I buy my individual policy with Optima Health. I love it.

 

However, seeing all the reports about canceled plans, I called them to ask if I would lose my policy. They said that next year I will.

 

My plan does not qualify under the Affordable Care Act because it does not include maternity coverage. I am a 41-year-old woman with three children (one with moderate-severe autism and mental retardation). I am not having any more children.

 

This is ridiculous. However, it gets worse. Optima gave me my options. Now I have a $2,500 deductible with 100 percent coverage after the deductible is met. The family deductible is $5,000. The plan costs $209 per month. This is not a substandard plan.

 

I have a health savings account where I have saved more than $12,000, so if my family needs health care, I can provide for them.

 

The new Obamacare plans are worse in every regard. They are not better and I do not save $2,500, as President Obama promised so many times.

 

Here is the closest plan to mine: $3,250 deductible (worse), $6,500 family deductible (worse), and the premium is an outrageous $674 per month (far worse). Essentially, I will pay $465 a month or $5,580 a year more for insurance. Obama promised the average family (I’m a nurse; we’re average) $2,500, but I will pay $5,580 more?

 

I’ve tried to log onto healthcare.gov, but it is a total disaster. I have called other insurance companies in Virginia and the plans are worse than Optima. The closest plan was a $4,000 deductible/$8,000 family deductible for nearly $600. That is not a better plan. It is far worse.

 

This will ruin my family’s health care options. I will lose the ability to save any money in my health savings account. Instead of saving for my family’s needs, I will have to give that money to an insurance company.

 

I will have higher out-of-pocket costs and worse coverage.

 

Anger doesn’t begin to describe how I feel. I urge my congressional representatives to support the president’s other promise, that “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”

 

This has to be changed.

[Koko78]

http://roanoke.com/o...are-policy.html

 

by Sharon B. Ingerson . . . .(Ingerson has worked as a Registered Nurse in Salem for fifteen years.)

 

Her column tells a story that has by now become familiar. Mrs. Ingerson liked her health care plan but, President Obama’s oft repeated assurances to the contrary notwithstanding, she is not going to be able to keep her health care plan. Familiarity should not dull the outrage the story elicits. Sharon Ingerson writes:

 

I wonder who she voted for in 2008 and 2012.

[B-Man]

New Republic Editor: Obamacare ‘Is a Threat to Liberalism’

 

The Left is splintering. Not necessarily politically yet, but intellectually at least. One group continues to sell Obamacare as a success-in-waiting; the other is worrying aloud about the potentially deleterious effects that failure could have on the wider progressive movement.

 

The editor of the New Republic, Franklin Foer, is in the latter camp. In a piece simply titled, “Obamacare’s Threat to Liberalism,” Foer yesterday outlined the case. Rejecting the derisive term that the Obama administration has contrived for dissenters — “bed-wetters” — Foer explains that “two months into the dysfunctional life of healthcare.gov. . . that seems a perfectly appropriate physiological reaction.” With the disastrous launch,

the administration has badly injured that cause, confirming the worst slurs against the federal government. It has stifled bad news and fudged promises; it has failed to translate complex mechanisms of policy into plain English; it can’t even launch a damn website. What’s more, nobody responsible for the debacle has lost a job or suffered a demotion

.

 

This is not merely a problem for this president, Foer explains, as, say, Katrina was for President Bush. Nor it is it just a temporary threat to the perceived competency of the Democratic party. Instead, the whole progressive project is on the block. Why? Because:

Liberalism has spent the better part of the past century attempting to prove that it could competently and responsibly extend the state into new reaches of American life.

 

And now it looks as if it can’t.

more at link..............

 

 

 

Re: New Republic Editor: Obamacare ‘Is a Threat to Liberalism’

 

There are two crucial points to make about this.

 

First, the “50-state public-private hybrid” represents the compromise that was necessary to get enough Democratic votes to pass the bill. Not even with the largest Democratic congressional supermajority you will ever see in your lifetime were there enough Democratic votes for the progressives’ fantasy of universal, single-payer health care. But, as the experience of Massachusetts’s 1990s-era reforms suggests, when the partial socialization of medicine fails, the socialists will cry out for more socialism. That’s why many Democrats, and perhaps the president himself, may seem relatively unconcerned by Obamacare’s disastrous rollout. They don’t want a hybrid solution to succeed completely. They would much rather capitalize on its failure — or at least its problems — to make the case for universal, single-payer healthcare.

 

Second, Foer laments that, “fortunately for the New Deal, Twitter didn’t broadcast every farmer’s sad encounter with the Agriculture Adjustment Act.” Well, the real problem with the Agricultural Adjustment Act was not its impact on farmers, who benefited from the cartels created by the Act, but rather its impact on everyday American consumers, who had to pay much more for food than necessary during very hard times, and never even realized that they were being gouged by one of the New Deal’s many disguised forced-transfer schemes.

 

And here’s the cardinal point. The main problem with progressive policies is not that they end up hurting their intended beneficiaries, which they usually do, but rather that they impose massive, hidden social losses on everyone else. And Twitter still doesn’t broadcast those sad losses, which is why Americans still support so many of these terrible policies.

 

 

.

Edited November 26, 2013 by B-Man

[OCinBuffalo]

I assume you follow mw through this thread because what I post is reality and factual, and you don't care for that since it threatens your position. I do enjoy the discussion, even if we rarely agree.

Threaten? Dude come now, you are talking to me here. Threaten? IF you can destroy my position? Go ahead. Perhaps I will learn something. But...threaten?

 

You want factual? Getting Medicaid reimbursement, but paying full cost of care(which you still don't actually know, because you don't collect the data to know)...for a brand new 20-30% increase in your patient day? That runs your hospital( 3% margins on average), right into the ground. And, the age-old release valve? "Charge the private pay more, and offset our losses in Medicaid!" Nowhere near enough this time. Factual.

 

Dude! It runs the Cleveland Clinic into the ground. See Here. Hey, if you're better than these guys? I will learn something. Do tell.

We know we're going to get paid differently and reimbursed less to do more,

At least before, you could grumble, and call your state association. Now? Every day you're going to learn what BOHICA means = Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.

 

Here's the best part: If I wasn't so stupid-averse, I'd be supporting Obamacare all day. That's because I've lucked into having the only antidote for the Obamacare disease. The antidote was done on purpose, and the fact that it is applicable is no accident. The luck part? Spreading the disease to the whole country.

 

In the entire history of disruptive change to regulation causing massive software demand: Obamacare is bigger than the de-regulation of Utilities.

 

So, why should I complain? Easy: it's still stupid.

[OCinBuffalo]

Apparently, OFA is telling it's drones to discuss Obamacare at Thankgiving. Many are all over this, including The Onion

 

I think this is abhorrent. Especially because my liberal aunt/uncle and my cousins are better than this: they don't need to be told by OFA to attempt to dominate the discussion and shout down dissent, personalize every issue, and offer more non sequitur than there is mashed potatoes.

 

They've been doing this on their own. I resent that OFA thinks they need to be told to do it.

 

So, they play their games? And, I play mine. Here's some one liners/short stuff that might come in handy this week....

 

Arts and Crafts:

"Obamacare should have been written in crayon.(pregnant pause...don't say anything if they don't ask...it's great if that just hangs out there like a bad fart) Why? Because creating it required a child's understanding of health care, health insurance, business, and big systems..." You gotta giggle at the end = daggers.

 

Uncle Joe:

"The 4 little kids from the commercial sat around the table for 4 days with Joe Biden(or Max Bachus if they know who he is), and they made the transcript of that into Obamacare......Grapes!" ("Grapes" has the added benefit of being a "say at random times for the rest of the day, just to piss them off" candidate.)

 

Bloatware:

"Obamacare is exactly like you forcing your technically challenged (insert person X here) to buy Microsoft Word, when all they need is email."

 

(Continuation if necessary)

"And, to make it worse, you threaten (X) that unless he overpays for what he doesn't need, it's the IRS? Meanwhile, this was all supposed to help (person Y), but (Y) doesn't qualify for subsidies, and rather than let him sign up for something actually affordable, he either pays the danegold(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danegeld) for Obamacare, or pays the relatively miniscule fine? Honestly, what do you think is going to happen? Who pays the danegold when they can pay a parking ticket instead? (The Danegold will throw them off, because it sounds weird, and then it's just landing your punches...)

 

Liberals love to help:

Who exactly are you "helping" in this? 2 million people(whatever they use)? So the other 348 million don't matter, and screwing them over is fine, as long as 2 get what you want. Genius. I didn't realize Absurdity Appreciation was part of the core curriculum at (your college). Was that your minor?"

 

Money:

"Oh so now 100k(whatever # they say for pre-existing) are now on insurance, because they extended Medicaid. If that's what this thing accomplished, why not just extend Medicaid to (number) people? That could have been done in a day. No. Your clowns bought an entire car, just to use the cigarette lighter and listen to the radio some days?"

 

The Trap:

"Young millenials are not refusing to sign up for Obamacare because they don't like it, there's plenty to like. It's also not because they see it as an awful value for their money. I'm so tired of people saying that. The plans haven't even started yet. (Get the heads nodding...wait for it...)

 

....they are refusing to sign up because they are racist. I mean, that's what this is about, it's what it's always been about. These millenials are no different than anyone else who has obstructed this President. They are only doing it because they don't want to see a black man succeed, and I'm tired of it!"

 

(Requires skill and situation to pull off properly. Know your audience. Works great if nobody knows your political stripe.)

 

I am sure you guys have more...all ready to go.

 

These are my drafts. If I'm missing something, say something.

Edited November 26, 2013 by OCinBuffalo

[B-Man]

 

Today's screw-up.............

 

ID Verification Lagging on Health Care Website

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/us/id-verification-lagging-on-health-care-website.html?hp&_r=1&

 

 

 

The Fallout of Obamacare's Rollout

 

http://spectator.org/articles/56764/fallout-obamacares-rollout

[IDBillzFan]

Today's screw-up.............

 

ID Verification Lagging on Health Care Website

 

http://www.nytimes.c...e.html?hp&_r=1

 

Impossible to say how much of a full-blown kool-aid drinking fool you must be to upload your driver's license and social security card to a website roundly reported as one of the most embarrassing federal failures in decades.

 

And as a side note, welcome to the stupidity of liberal thinking: you must produce verifiable ID to buy a government product, but to require a verifiable ID to vote disenfranchises minorities.

[B-Man]

 

“Sellin’ hope’s like sellin’ soap, son I’ll tell you why — you can’t make either one without a little bit of lye.”

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kodcKUkd2Rg

[Joe Miner]

 

Impossible to say how much of a full-blown kool-aid drinking fool you must be to upload your driver's license and social security card to a website roundly reported as one of the most embarrassing federal failures in decades.

 

And as a side note, welcome to the stupidity of liberal thinking: you must produce verifiable ID to buy a government product, but to require a verifiable ID to vote disenfranchises minorities.

 

I eagerly await the ACLU's intelligent opinion on this.

[Chef Jim]

And as a side note, welcome to the stupidity of liberal thinking: you must produce verifiable ID to buy a government product, but to require a verifiable ID to vote disenfranchises minorities.

 

Because the IRS isn't involved in elections.

[IDBillzFan]

Because the IRS isn't involved in elections.

 

It is with this administration.

[IDBillzFan]

Here's some good news for progressives: According to Paul Krugman, Obamacare is a lot like Benghazi in that the only people who care about its problems are the GOP.

 

The party of delusion. :lol:

 

New York Times columnist Paul Krugmaninformed his audience on Tuesday that the problem-plagued Affordable Care Act has turned a corner. Based on “upbeat” statements from the White House and a shift in the media’s coverage of the implementation of the ACA, Krugman sees the law’s roll-out evolving from a failure into an unmitigated success.

 

Krugman added that the problems will continue, but not in their present form. “Obamacare will turn into a Benghazi-type affair where Republicans are screaming about a scandal nobody else cares about,” Krugman predicts.

 

“White House officials are sounding increasingly upbeat,” Krugman wrote on Tuesday, linking to aWashington Post summary of Tuesday’s update from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “They could be deluded or spinning; but after what happened two months ago one suspects that the last thing they want is to inflate expectations unduly.”

Edited November 26, 2013 by LABillzFan

[Joe Miner]

Here's some good news for progressives: According to Paul Krugman, Obamacare is a lot like Benghazi in that the only people who care about its problems are the GOP.

 

The party of delusion. :lol:

 

That line of thinking will serve them well come midterms.

 

Most people didn't like obamacare before it was law, hence Scott Brown.

 

Now that those 60% who were initially against it are being validated, and the people undecided are being swayed against it by the bumbling and lying during the rollout, the bar for political incompetence will be raised to unprecedented levels when the GOP !@#$s up the upcoming midterms.

[B-Man]

Apparently, OFA is telling it's drones to discuss Obamacare at Thankgiving. Many are all over this, including The Onion

 

I think this is abhorrent. Especially because my liberal aunt/uncle and my cousins are better than this: they don't need to be told by OFA to attempt to dominate the discussion and shout down dissent, personalize every issue, and offer more non sequitur than there is mashed potatoes.

 

They've been doing this on their own. I resent that OFA thinks they need to be told to do it.

 

 

 

 

In response to the Obama Healthcare Talking Points for Thanksgiving,....................................... Ace Of Spaces offers an alternative set.

 

Sample: “Hey remember when you said that Obamacare was going to work great, and then, when people asked you how it actually worked, you sort of implied they were stupid for not knowing, and yet you never provided any evidence that you had any idea of how it was supposed to work yourself? Yeah, you were wrong to do that.”

 

 

 

Still, it makes sense people would talk about ObamaCare at Thanksgiving — it’s the biggest legislative turkey of the century!

 

.

Edited November 26, 2013 by B-Man

[Keukasmallies]

Man walks into a bar and says to the bartender, "My company just dropped our health care benefits, so now I have to get my own insurance for more money!"

Bartender says, "Obamacare?"

Man says, "Not that I can tell!"

[B-Man]

Spending tax (re: people's) money to influence the media to influence the people....makes perfect leftist sense.

 

 

‘Non-partisan’ group paid $1 million to produce positive Obamacare stories

 

With the roll out of Obamacare being as disastrous as possible for the Obama administration, one group was given a $1 million grant to help lead a rebranding effort with hopes of salvaging the law in the eyes of the American people.

 

Families USA (FUSA) — an organization that describes itself as a “national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans” — was given a $1.1 million grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on October 4, 2013, to gather “success stories” of Americans dealing with Obamacare and distribute them to the media who often refer to them as an “independent” group. This is part of a greater upcoming effort to bolster the perception of the lowly health care law.

 

 

 

.http://capitolcitypr...enroll-america/

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES TARANTO: Excuses, Excuses: The dog ate Obama’s health-care reform.

Who Will Treat Those New Medicaid Patients From the Obamacare Exchanges?

“Health care providers are showing a certain lack of enthusiasm about the Affordable Care Act. Because of low reimbursement and bureaucratic headaches, both state and national surveys showing physicians unenthusiastic about seeing patients who get coverage through the Obamacare exchanges. And that’s for private insurance.

But Healthcare.gov and the state exchanges have been more successful so far at signing people up for Medicaid than private plans—and many Medicaid patients are already having trouble finding doctors.

So…Who is going to see these new Medicaid enrollees?”

[DC Tom]

Spending tax (re: people's) money to influence the media to influence the people....makes perfect leftist sense.

 

 

 

 

.http://capitolcitypr...enroll-america/

 

Where does it say they're not an independent group? And where does it say they received tax dollars?

 

They're partisan, yes. And they're shilling for the ACA. But the only scandal there is that they get tax-exempt status without the IRS crawling up their ass like they would for a Tea Party organization.

[B-Man]

 

Texas Enroll America official resigns after proclaiming Obama loyalty in video

 

The Texas communications director for Enroll America has resigned after a conservative watchdog group posted a video of him discussing his Democratic leanings.

 

A spokesman for the self-proclaimed non-profit, non-partisan group, which is leading efforts to enroll Americans in ObamaCare, confirmed to FoxNews.com Chris Tarango has resigned after the video by

was posted online.

 

In the video, Tarango tells an actor posing as a Democratic operative that he is helping out with a Texas House race on the side, “so that’s about as partisan as it gets.” He says that many people who worked for Organizing for America, the grassroots arm of Obama for America during the 2012 campaign, ended up working for Enroll America.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/26/texas-enroll-america-official-caught-suggesting-involvement-in-partisan/

 

 

and yes..we all know that "thats the way it works", but it needs to be pointed out once in a while to the L.I.V..

[OCinBuffalo]

OMG!!

 

Now, it's "workaround" time? http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/healthcaregov-tech-team-scrambling-to-create-workaround-for-site-before-deadline/2013/11/27/f5affc7c-577c-11e3-ba82-16ed03681809_story.html

 

Summary:

They couldn't get the main component to work, so they threw up a quick hack to basically fake like it's working.

 

This isn't really a workaround at all. A workaround delivers the same functionality, but, it deviates from the intended design, and the assumption is that you will go back and correct it later. Think: a temporary bridge, while the main one is being worked on. You still get from one side to the other. It may take longer, but the basic function is identical.

 

That's not what is happening here. Instead, this EZApp thing will NOT get you from one side to the other. Instead, it takes you from one side....to the "estimated" other side.

 

Would you put your car anywhere near that bridge?

 

(EZApp? Wow, what a name. They spent 5 whole minutes on coming up with a name that is countered not only by its own reason for existing, but by it's own dubious functionality. Irony. I bet they think they are being clever, and "helping" the less than informed, with this. None of that will end up being true.)

 

Obama's team of fools is dreaming if they think this hack is going to work, or solve any of the political problems. It's only going to expose them to further ridicule.

 

The insurance companies will REFUSE to take EZApp enrollments, once they get burned by the first one that overstates the subsidy. Who can blame them? You are asking them to essentially sign, not a blank check, but one with ($(<X),(>Y)0,000.00) on it, representing the yearly premiums they will get for the policy. Where X and Y are variables to be determined later.

 

The day the insurance company says "no mas", is the same day that EZApp dies.

 

What's the O/U on how many days from today that will be? 60?