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

[keepthefaith]

full repeal was a goal. 48 times it was a goal. see my politico link. i don't trust any of them but it's gonna be difficult to run on "fix" and then vote to repeal.

 

 

 

It would be much cleaner and simpler to repeal the entire piece of crap and then pass a simple short bill or two to retain the very little in obamacare that is worth saving.

[Azalin]

absolutely. and the tea party is being left on the dock right now. we'll see what develops but it appears the ship has sailed.

 

establishment republicans are taking a huge chance in splitting with TEA partiers. the republican midterm victories from both 1994 and 2010 were both largely due to support from the limited government/fiscal conservative crowd. there's nothing fiscally conservative or limited-government about any federal health care plan.

[B-Man]

In case you have been distracted by all the other scandals: ObamaCare Is Still A Disaster:

 

(APNewsBreak: Data discrepancies in health sign-ups)

 

 

“More than 2 million people who got health insurance under President Barack Obama’s law have data discrepancies that could jeopardize coverage for some, a government document shows. About 1 in 4 people who signed up have discrepancies, creating a huge paperwork jam for the feds and exposing some consumers to repayment demands, or possibly even loss of coverage, if they got too generous a subsidy.”

 

 

.

[Magox]

This idea of repealing the law is not gonna happen. Forget about it. It's embedded, and there many people receiving huge ass subsidies that in many cases are paying for just about the entirety of their policies. I mean we are talking about over $10k a year worth of assistance. Then of course there is Medicaid, the expansion of that has given millions of people coverage for the first time. So the idea that you are going to take away this substantially reduced or free health care from millions of people that in which many of these cases is the first time they have obtained coverage is simply a pipe dream.

 

Sorry, but that's just reality.

 

If they were smart, which they aren't, what they would do is look to repeal portions of the law.

 

1) Repealing a good portion of the minimum essential benefits portion of the law is a great start. The idea that a 60 year old male needs maternity along with children's pediatric coverage is liberal paternalistic douchebaggery at it's finest moment. This would substantially reduce premiums.

 

2) Repeal the individual mandate.

 

3) Repeal many of the surcharges and taxes that make up the price of insurance. I know for a fact that Anthem BC of Ohio lists all the taxes itemized on each policy, and it makes up over 6% of the overall price.

 

4) Repeal the employer mandate

 

5) Add some of the conservative ideas, You guys know which one's they are (selling across state borders, tort reform, HSA's)

 

Just with this alone you'd lower premiums for everyone.

 

In case you have been distracted by all the other scandals: ObamaCare Is Still A Disaster:

 

(APNewsBreak: Data discrepancies in health sign-ups)

 

 

“More than 2 million people who got health insurance under President Barack Obama’s law have data discrepancies that could jeopardize coverage for some, a government document shows. About 1 in 4 people who signed up have discrepancies, creating a huge paperwork jam for the feds and exposing some consumers to repayment demands, or possibly even loss of coverage, if they got too generous a subsidy.”

 

 

.

 

I'm familiar with this. It's not as bad as it sounds. I've signed up tons of people on the exchanges, mostly Latinos, and if someone has a different income today than what they had for 2012 tax returns, then it will ask for you to provide proof of income verifying the stated income on the application. Same goes with someone who didn't have their Green Card number with them when filling out the application. It allows them to continue on with the application and then they have to provide a photo copy of the Green Card. I know my clients, probably 60% had to send in additional information, like what is being referenced in the article above. *fingers crossed* But so far, the first fifty or so have all sent in their required documentation.

[B-Man]

Remember When State Obamacare Exchanges Were the Good Ones?

By Veronique de Rugy

 

 

Do you remember when HealthCare.gov was such a mess that people were praising the state-run exchanges as a model of how things could and should be? Well, things have changed. Some exchanges, like Oregon, had starts plagued with just as many problems as HealthCare.gov, but now five state exchanges – Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada and Oregon – are in need of serious fixes.

 

And it won’t be cheap. According to the Wall Street Journal, states need some $240 million to fix their sites or transition to using the federal exchange. That’s on top of the $700 million in federal money these states have already spent or committed to spending on the exchanges. And whatever amount of new money they spend from the feds will have to be added to the already $4.7 billion in grants the feds made to states overall.

 

Here is a table that may make your taxpayer skin crawl:

 

 

What are the consequences for the states’ incredibly bad performance and high costs? Who’s being held accountable for this mess and the cost overruns that followed? (You can read more details here.)

 

More at the links...............

[KD in CA]

Remember when Obamacare was going to cut the federal deficit? Chalk up another lie on the tote board.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cbo-quietly-drops-forecast-obamacare-180500918.html

[OCinBuffalo]

November is coming.

Normally? I would berate you mercilessly for swiping my sig without giving me my due and proper.

 

However.

 

November is Coming just rolls off the toungue, doesn't it? It's the perfect thing to say, since Game of Thrones is all relevant and stuff, and you know the tools watch it because: no heroes, no viliians. It's morally relative...until one considers that the original main character goes to his grave for what is not relative, at all.

 

I could sooner claim ownership of the wind. It's just too slick to bother with PPP copyrighting rules.

full repeal was a goal. 48 times it was a goal. see my politico link. i don't trust any of them but it's gonna be difficult to run on "fix" and then vote to repeal.

Nah. It'll be more like: "You know we looked at every way we could to try and fix this thing, but, with (3 additional, inevitable major failures between now and 2016) we realized that it costs more to save it then to just go straight to HSAs, and national competition for catastrophic."

 

You will start a thread, and we will mix it up for a few weeks. Then, it goes out with a whimper.

absolutely. and the tea party is being left on the dock right now. we'll see what develops but it appears the ship has sailed.

When are you going to accept the reality that the TEA party won a long time ago?

 

The objective was never what you thought it was. That's why the left has had such a terrible time with it. They don't understand their enemy. They keep attacking the wrong people, for the wrong things, with the wrong tactics.

 

Meanwhile, the TEA party's will keeps being done, often right under your nose.

 

And you still want to pretend like it's been left behind. When everyone in America is speaking to TEA party issues, whether they want to or not, you are calling that a loss?

 

Do me a favor? Don't bet on football unless you PM me first.

[Doc]

What we already knew would happen: ER Hospital Visits Mounting Because of Obamacare, Studies Show.

[birdog1960]

"tar babies" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/20/frank-ruff-tar-baby_n_4999779.html. this may just accomplish medicaid expansion in Va. if nothing els it's a freudian slip with real political consequences.

[Alaska Darin]

Let's just give everyone the access to the VA!

[Gary M]

Let's just give everyone the access to the VA!

 

+1

[DC Tom]

"tar babies" http://www.huffingto..._n_4999779.html. this may just accomplish medicaid expansion in Va. if nothing els it's a freudian slip with real political consequences.

 

What the !@#$? "Tar baby" is racist now?

[Nanker]

Only on Mondays.

[birdog1960]

What the !@#$? "Tar baby" is racist now?

http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1221764,00.html

[TakeYouToTasker]

What the !@#$? "Tar baby" is racist now?

When you're looking for political weapons, rather than working to look past race, you can frame anything as racism.

 

Everything is racist to the race-baiters.

[B-Man]

http://www.nytimes.c...-thecaucus&_r=0

 

Thousands to Be Questioned on Eligibility for Health Insurance Subsidies

NY Times, by Robert Pear

 

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is contacting hundreds of thousands of people with subsidized health insurance to resolve questions about their eligibility, as consumer advocates express concern that many will be required to repay some or all of the subsidies.

 

Of the eight million people who signed up for private health plans through insurance exchanges under the new health care law, two million reported personal information that differed from data in government records, according to federal officials and Serco, the company hired to resolve such inconsistencies.

 

 

more at the link

 

Good luck with getting "re-payments"

[OCinBuffalo]

The VA represents 1 of 3 additional massive failures between now and 2016(I had another in mind, but this works just fine). The next 2 are the 2015 inevitable rate hike, and the final #s on how many people aren't paying a thing, and the emergency room visits/skyrocketing cost that comes with not having a personal, fiscal stake in your own health care(and if one of these don't happen, there are 3 more)

 

What does this mean?

 

The poltical will to protect Obamacare, as is, will be completely eroded. The normal screaming and howling about "entitlements", the "Ryan pushes grandma off a cliff" commercials....simply will not work this time.

 

That's because everybody, wether they will admit it or not, knows its a mess. Who cares if you are pissing off 20-30% of the country by "fixing" Obamacare? You're pleasing 50-60%(possibly even 70% if you do it right) of the country in doing it. That's an easy political win waiting to happen, by any definition, and for every politician of every stripe, except far-left. Again: they only represent 20% of Congress and people.

 

"San Franciso shouldn't be dictating the how health care system works for every other city and town in the country. The majority of this country knows Obamacare is broken. Therefore, the majority of Members have been sent here to fix Obamacare, including me, and we won't be deterred by a small minority of people in a few isolated districts." See? Isolating them, and then marginalizing them, is easy, hence, clear lane to the hoop for an easy political dunk.

 

That is why even if Hillary wins, she will be no different than any other R president. "Fixing Obamacare" will be on the agenda.

 

And, as Magox says: Fixing = literally chopping out Obamacare's legs pretty much along the lines he's described.

 

This is pretty much inevitable.

Edited June 18, 2014 by OCinBuffalo

[Dorkington]

Wait, the VA scandal is connected to the ACA now? I thought the VA nonsense had been going on for years now.

[OCinBuffalo]

Wait, the VA scandal is connected to the ACA now? I thought the VA nonsense had been going on for years now.

Of course it is.

 

The average dude, already having been shown government's scintillating capacity to manage and deliver a working system in Obamacare, then gets exposed to their capacity to manage health care via the VA?

 

Double whammy. All Rs have to do is come out and link the 2 in every sound bite. Not hard. Which Democrat is going to come out and defend against that? None: because no Democrat is going to be caught dead talking health care right now, or for the next 3 months at least. All the Rs have to do is hit the wide open hole.

 

Then, in a few months, it comes down to, as I asked you in the other thread: "How many of you believe the government can manage health care?"

 

As of today, the VA scandal has done massive damage to that answer, because now, Obamacare is no longer a "one-off". Now anybody with a brain can accept the argument from the Rs that a pattern has formed. Then, let's modify the question: "How many of you believe the government can manage health care...by itself?" You'll get 80% no. Then ask "Should the government be in charge of health care, or, should they merely be one of many participants"?(or something like that, I don't do marketing/polling for a living). You'll get 70% the latter....and then you run to the media with the results.

 

And, then you've just opened the door for "Fixing Obamacare" to be what Magox listed above. ALL of it.

 

This is Politics 101. Now, it does remain to be seen if the Rs will execute properly.

Edited June 18, 2014 by OCinBuffalo

[Dorkington]

Ah, connected politically, but not connected in function.

 

Had me confused a bit.

 

Anything can be connected politically these days, but the VA and ACA are two totally different fumbles. One is Obama's, the other has been a fumble for a good 20+ years.