B-Man Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 MEGAN MCARDLE: ObamaCare Initiates Self-Destruction Sequence. Yesterday, we had a more official announcement from the administration: Anyone who has had their policies cancelled will be exempt from the individual mandate next year. The administration is also allowing those people to buy catastrophic plans, even if they’re over 30. What to make of these two statements? On the one hand, the administration is trying to minimize the number of people who have been affected by cancellations, and on the other hand, it is unveiling a fix to the problem of cancellations. And these are not minor changes. As Seth Chandler points out, Healthcare.gov doesn’t even let you see catastrophic plans if you’re more than 30 years old. Is now the time to be making technical changes to the website? As Avik Roy points out, catastrophic plans aren’t that much cheaper than the so-called bronze plans. They’re also not eligible for subsidies. This is unlikely to be much help to folks who lost insurance; all it does is introduce some much-unneeded complexity to Healthcare.gov. As Aaron Carroll points out, insurers calculated their premiums for this year on the expectation that the relatively healthy folks who were already buying insurance would be buying policies on the exchange. The insurers are not happy about this latest change, and Carroll predicts that they will ask the administration to push more money to them through the “risk corridors.” I think he’s right. As Ezra Klein points out, this seriously undermines the political viability of the individual mandate: “But this puts the administration on some very difficult-to-defend ground. Normally, the individual mandate applies to anyone who can purchase qualifying insurance for less than 8 percent of their income. Either that threshold is right or it’s wrong. But it’s hard to argue that it’s right for the currently uninsured but wrong for people whose plans were canceled … Put more simply, Republicans will immediately begin calling for the uninsured to get this same exemption. What will the Obama administration say in response? Why are people whose plans were canceled more deserving of help than people who couldn’t afford a plan in the first place?” Arnold Kling put it more pithily: “Obama Repeals Obamacare.” I’d ask this: What do you do for an encore? Will the administration force these folks to buy insurance next year? Or will they keep allowing special exceptions rather than take the political heat for changing health insurance that people liked? . Plus: “However incoherent these fixes may seem, they send two messages, loud and clear. The first is that although liberal pundits may think that the law is a done deal, impossible to repeal, the administration does not believe that.”
TakeYouToTasker Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 This would all be absolutely !@#$ing hysterical if it didn't represent the decimation of middle-class health care.
Nanker Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 I agree. It's an object lesson in how to !@#$ up a wet dream. Obama as President is more incompetent than the last six Head Coaches of The Buffalo Bills were in running their teams. I wonder what people are doing to get health care coverage for themselves and their families. It's only going to get worse - much worse when El Presidente's mandate hits employer-based coverages next fall. These idiots have done real damage to the American people, and I can only hope that in the end, everyone gets what they deserve from this fiasco.
Nanker Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 NY Times Interactive Map of where the "uninsured" live. I hope they put up a before and after view again two years from now.
boyst Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 My GF's insurance, which was $198 last year has gone up 4 times since she enrolled. They same exact benefits and package is now $291. NY Times Interactive Map of where the "uninsured" live. I hope they put up a before and after view again two years from now. screw the NY Times and NYC media. They do whatever they can to **** on the rest of the country to show their "eliteness"
3rdnlng Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 My GF's insurance, which was $198 last year has gone up 4 times since she enrolled. They same exact benefits and package is now $291. screw the NY Times and NYC media. They do whatever they can to **** on the rest of the country to show their "eliteness" Yes, but it now includes maternity and pediatric care.
boyst Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 Yes, but it now includes maternity and pediatric care. 4 times in 36ish days... $280?!? A month? It almost makes me think like a liberal. How is a struggling mom who made mistakes getting knocked up at 19 and going to school part time while working full time at Belk is going to be able to afford this?
IDBillzFan Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 How is a struggling mom who made mistakes getting knocked up at 19 and going to school part time while working full time at Belk is going to be able to afford this? She's not. Other people will pay it for her. Errrr, I mean, subsidies.
boyst Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 She's not. Other people will pay it for her. Errrr, I mean, subsidies. this country is !@#$ed up
IDBillzFan Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 this country is !@#$ed up It's not !@#$ed up. It's just a messaging problem from the WH. If only they did a better job explaining things...
Nanker Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 Oh, please. The country isn't !@#$ed up, it's being run by a liberal mafia that knows better than simple folk like you and me.
boyst Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 She is applying for a subsidy credit because she may be able to get a tiny bit. She is talking out loud "am I Hispanic? No" "am I disabled? No" "veteran? No"... And I am not paying attention. She gets to "pregnant?" Says "yes." what? "just seeing if you are paying attention.". "Yeah, not funny." She rrrrrreeeeeaaaally is good at !@#$ing with me Oh, please. The country isn't !@#$ed up, it's being run by a liberal mafia that knows better than simple folk like you and me. I'd rather be simple then as knowledgeable as Gator or Jaun. I could not carry the burden of knowing what's better for everyone else. It's not !@#$ed up. It's just a messaging problem from the WH. If only they did a better job explaining things... I have no problem with ambition but I have a problem with whatever this could be termed. He is not a leader worth a ****.
IDBillzFan Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 Terrific video. http://youtu.be/xSX49qfPFo4
B-Man Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 This is what it has come to............. Cover Oregon: If you haven’t heard from us by Monday… you should probably look for alternate coverage by Erika Johnson How did Oregon manage to go from one of the most enthusiastically pro-ObamaCare, gung-ho exchange-builders in the country to these shambles of lost administrative dignity? Two of their highest-ranking officials in charge of coordinating what they for months advertised as what would be a smooth, online, and hipster-friendly insurance-buying experience are already on the outs, and the 400 or so navigators they hired when they realized (too late) that they were in over their heads haven’t been quite enough to cope with the logistical struggle of signing people up for government-run insurance minus a functional website. Ergo, reports The Oregonian: Oregon’s troubled health insurance exchange began robocalling applicants Friday, warning them that if they don’t receive enrollment confirmation by Monday, they should seek coverage elsewhere for Jan. 1. “If you haven’t heard from us by Dec. 23, it is unlikely your application will be processed for Jan. 1 insurance coverage,” a woman’s voice on the pre-recorded call from Cover Oregon says. “If you want to be sure you have insurance coverage starting Jan. 1, you have other options.” It’s yet another sign that the health insurance exchange’s technological breakdowns will prevent some — perhaps many — Oregonians from getting subsidized coverage Jan. 1, despite Gov. John Kitzhaber’s previous assurances otherwise. Out of more than 65,000 applicants, the exchange reports enrolling nearly 30,000, but only about 11,000 of them in private insurance plans. The calls also suggest the exchange’s problems will prevent many of those individuals from receiving tax credits or subsidies in January, even though they qualify for them. Er… why are they just telling insurance-seeking Oregonians this now? If they really have 11,000 people now enrolled in private plans, then they have been making some very slow but steady progress on the larger heap of applications they have going over the past week or so — but they must have known for awhile now that there was no way in heck they were going to be able to process the lot of the applications submitted by December 23rd in time to begin coverage January 1st, what with the slow and often erroneous processing that is part and parcel of doing things via paper application. This really is turning into an unmitigated logistical nightmare — and just in time for Christmas!
Alaska Darin Posted December 22, 2013 Posted December 22, 2013 Don't worry about it. It's a good law that will eventually get fixed and become great. Like the tax code. Sincerely, Liberals
Nanker Posted December 23, 2013 Posted December 23, 2013 Maybe Santa Claus can save Obamacare! He can give everyone a present of health care on Christmas, and best of all - it'll be FREE! After all, B. O. won reelection by impersonating Saint Nick. Or was that Kris Kringle, or maybe Father Christmas. Okay, it was Peter Pan.
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