bron constantly hawking products he doesnt use like staying in school and govt healthcare
― rhyme heals all goons (m bison), Saturday, 15 March 2014 20:26 (ten years ago) link
that'll end now that he is past his prime and unlikely to get future endorsement deals.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, 15 March 2014 20:27 (ten years ago) link
haha
― balls, Saturday, 15 March 2014 21:07 (ten years ago) link
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/obamacare-deadline/obamacare-website-fails-deadline-arrives-n67666
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/03/31/obamacare-fails-to-collapse-time-to-move-on-folks/
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_03/waiting_for_the_obamacare_alte049701.php
― curmudgeon, Monday, 31 March 2014 21:13 (ten years ago) link
there's no secret to what the gop will offer as an aca "alternative," right? they will impose caps on med/mal suits; emphasize, as a bipartisan measure, new steps to further prevent and prosecute health-care fraud; propose "high-risk" pools; and propose allowing insurers of one state to sell policies to citizens of another state (on the theory that competition reduces prices and increases consumer-choice).
these are humdrum or totally regressive ideas. and they're all stale, across the board (except for further fraud-busting measures, which should be bipartisan and should be applauded).
― Daniel, Esq 2, Monday, 31 March 2014 21:18 (ten years ago) link
A friend was trying to go online yesterday to make sure they had an extended deadline and it was too busy all day.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 16:28 (ten years ago) link
I'm still waiting on snail mail from the regional center...
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 16:29 (ten years ago) link
nice article talking about how enrollment will continue during non-open enrollment parts of the year: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/obamacare-enrollment-is-far-from-over
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 19:05 (ten years ago) link
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obamacare-cuts-kentucky-uninsured-rate-by-40-percent
Impressive
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 14:07 (ten years ago) link
The governor was on Chris Hayes' show last night touting this phenomenon.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 14:09 (ten years ago) link
LOL @ POTUS-BO for sending this out on April Fool's Day. suck it "conservatives"
Hello everyone,
Last night, the first open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act came to an end.
And this afternoon, we announced that 7.1 million Americans have now signed up for private insurance plans through the new Health Insurance Marketplaces.
7.1 million.
That doesn't count the more than 3 million young adults who have gained insurance under this law by staying on their families' plans. It doesn't count the millions more who have gotten covered through the expansion of Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. It doesn't include the more than 100 million folks who now have better care -- who are receiving additional benefits, like mammograms and contraceptive care, at no extra cost.
Now, millions of our fellow Americans have the comfort and peace of mind that comes with knowing they're no longer leaving their health and well-being to chance. For many of them, quality health insurance wasn't an option until this year -- maybe because they couldn't afford it, or because a pre-existing condition kept them locked out of a discriminatory system.
Today, that's changed. And while our long-broken health care system may not be completely fixed, it's without question a lot better. That's something to be proud of -- and there's no good reason to go back.
Regardless of your politics, or your feelings about the Affordable Care Act, millions more Americans with health coverage is something that's good for our economy and our country.
At the end of the day, that is what this law -- and the other reforms we're fighting for, from a 21st-century immigration system to a fairer wage for every American who's willing to work for it -- are all about:
Making sure our country lives up to our highest ideals.
I am thankful to be your President today, and every day. And I am proud that this law will continue to make life better for millions of Americans in the years to come.
Thank you.
President Barack Obama
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 14:51 (ten years ago) link
Great responses to Ted Cruz's FB poll about Obamacare:
https://www.facebook.com/SenatorTedCruz/posts/517779935000978
― nitro-burning funny car (Moodles), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 15:07 (ten years ago) link
ahahahaha
― coops all on coops tbh (crüt), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 15:19 (ten years ago) link
According to Byron York, if you are getting Medicaid benefits or you are 26 years or younger and getting coverage on your parents’ health insurance plan, you simply do not exist. There are an estimated seven and a half million people in this country that fall into one of those two categories and now have access to health care that they would not have enjoyed if John McCain had won the 2008 election, but they don’t count.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2014/04/if_obamacare_helps_you_you_don049707.php#
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 15:56 (ten years ago) link
am i wrong in thinking that there are millions still without coverage because they 1) can't afford even the most basic plans & 2) their states have rejected medicaid expansion? so they fall into a doughnut hole of sorts, where they're too "rich" for classic medicaid but too poor to afford a plan?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 17:25 (ten years ago) link
That sounds about right. Heard someone suggest that the White House should allow in the long-term more basic cheaper plans, but it concerns me that they could get caught in a Republican race to the bottom bind that way with insurance plans that don't really provide anything. Not sure where the happy medium is. There is also so much variance between states-- with so many Republican southern states opting out of the Medicaid expansion. Plus the cost iof insurance plans are varying widely across the country. I heard a cynic say US healthcare costs will remain higher than those of Canada and Germany, no matter what (even if Obamacare changes do limit the rate of increased costs here somewhat).
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 17:41 (ten years ago) link
that "doughnut hole" points to the fact that ACA didn't really address the root issue plaguing US healthcare: the exorbitant and often times arbitrary costs involved relative to what the rest of the world pays. Yes, more people can now have access to outrageously price-gouged healthcare, super.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link
Theoretically, getting more more folks with insurance and medicaid who are not just showing up in the ER will help push down healthcare costs a bit. But it will take more.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 17:51 (ten years ago) link
yep. they tackled the one problem which can be addressed in a pro-business way, and ingorned all the rest. Shocking.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 17:56 (ten years ago) link
so the most recent conservative talking points re: ACA seem to be
1. The bulk of the 7 MIL sign ups had been kicked off their previous plans in 2013 and forced to sign up for new plans under ACA, so the net gains are minimal.
2. No one who's signed up for ACA has actually paid for their plans yet, so those numbers aren't even real.
My assumption is that both points are complete BS, not even sure what #2 is supposed to mean really. Has anyone seen these addressed anywhere or do they only exist in the fevered minds of republicans?
― nitro-burning funny car (Moodles), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:27 (ten years ago) link
the latter. no one's paid yet because premiums aren't due yet. grasping at straws, Repubs are.
re: #1, people didn't get kicked off old plan and then just told to go sign up at healthcare.gov. They were mapped onto new ACA-compliant plans, which didn't happen via the exchanges (though some could've decided on their own they wanted to actively shop for their new plan rather than be passively placed on one)
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:31 (ten years ago) link
I mean my employer represents 1 company working in 5 states and we have 9 million members. Roughly 75% of those 9 million had non-grandfathered plans and so had to be mapped onto ACA ones. That's 6.75 mil right there who "had to sign up for Obamacare cause got kicked off old policy". ie the 7 mil figure mostly doesn't include these people.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:36 (ten years ago) link
Mapped on to a new ACA-compliant plan, or had to seek out a new plan from the marketplace? I think the numbers are marketplace-only.
― have a nice blood/orange bitters cocktail (mh), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:38 (ten years ago) link
My numbers there are out of date, just checked and we have 14 mil members. So that's 10.5 mil that got "kicked off" their old policy.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:40 (ten years ago) link
that "doughnut hole" points to the fact that ACA didn't really address the root issue plaguing US healthcare: the exorbitant and often times arbitrary costs involved relative to what the rest of the world pays. Yes, more people can now have access to outrageously price-gouged healthcare, super.― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, April 2, 2014
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, April 2, 2014
i think the admin knows this. it has used the aca to begin creating an atmosphere less friendly to fee-for-service reimbursements (which is what keeps health care costs, and utilization, so high) and more friendly to alternative approaches (which reward efforts to keep patients healthier and with less utilization (like "ACOs")).
― Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:40 (ten years ago) link
I'm more worried about the high deductibles I keep reading about (and a relative who's not an Obama hater told me about).
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:41 (ten years ago) link
No one with an existing plan had to seek out a new plan from the marketplace
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:42 (ten years ago) link
Good to know
― nitro-burning funny car (Moodles), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:46 (ten years ago) link
Without a fundamental reconfiguration, you can either have a system that allows insurance companies to avoid risk via declining to offer coverage to certain people, in turn allowing for lower premiums or deductibles... or you can have a system that forces insurance companies to offer coverage to all and take on all that risk, which gets transferred to the consumer in the form of higher premiums or deductibles. Can't have both.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 18:51 (ten years ago) link
eh, not sure that's true. prohibiting insurers from rejecting applicants because of pre-existing conditions won't raise premiums and deductibles, if everyone's forced to buy insurance (the pool of money from premiums swells, allowing insurers to cover the increased costs from high-risk insureds). but your broader point was true; the current incentive system in healthcare is all screwed up. it rewards constant, duplicative utilization. it should be moved to a system in which groups of physicians are rewarded, with bonuses, for keeping patients healthier, and using less medical resources. that's the idea behind these ACOs, if they can ever really get off the ground.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 19:34 (ten years ago) link
true, forcing everyone to get health insurance is a way around some of that transferrence of risk from insurer to consumer. I don't know the numbers (and not sure I would 100% trust any "expert" "estimate" anyway), but as ACA is being and most likely will be practiced, not enough healthy people will sign up to fully defray those costs of insuring higher risk people. What would do the trick is single payor system, ie "fundamental reconfiguration".
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 19:39 (ten years ago) link
obv the more healthy people that do sign up, the better it will be as far as premiums/deductibles go. Which is why the efforts to sabotage that aspect of ACA rollout specifically is so heinous.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 19:41 (ten years ago) link
those efforts will fail, tho, especially as the law begins to just be part of the netting of the state's support systems. plus the admin built protections into the law, to prevent a cost "death-spiral" in the event that fewer-than-needed "healthies" signed-up early in the process.
anyway, i agree: a single-payor system (or, absent that, a public-option) is better than the ACA. but the ACA is better than what we had before. it's a big, big deal.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 19:49 (ten years ago) link
oh for sure, I agree. It's laughable that a) ACA is being painted as a "government takeover" of healthcare and b) that an "employer takeover" of healthcare (which, if you want to stretch things characterizations in the same way conservatives are so fond of doing, the prior system was) is preferable!!
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 20:13 (ten years ago) link
the ACA is also having the effect that a number (not sure how significant overall) of people are actually filing income tax returns in order to qualify for subsidized care who previously just did not file.
― sarahell, Thursday, 3 April 2014 00:24 (ten years ago) link
is it helping your business? I hope so!
― have a nice blood/orange bitters cocktail (mh), Thursday, 3 April 2014 00:30 (ten years ago) link
when i took my continuing education last fall, one of the main units was about the ACA and taxes and the opening infographic said "congratulations, you are now part of the health care industry!"
― sarahell, Thursday, 3 April 2014 16:17 (ten years ago) link
ballpark dollar figure on all the effort wasted trying to discredit the ACA? hundred$ of million$? billion$? ten$ of billion$? hundred$ of billion$? good thing we have fiscal conservatives around to keep costs down
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 3 April 2014 22:22 (ten years ago) link
Hey, without spending that kind of money, where would we get the kind of top talent we have now?
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 3 April 2014 22:25 (ten years ago) link
with so many Republican southern states opting out of the Medicaid expansion.
well this is the crux of it, isn't it? the ACA was counting on this not being an option. but the Supreme Court said states could opt out. so suddenly there's no provision for people between the cut-off for existing Medicaid means-testing and the lowest rung of the bronze plans.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 April 2014 23:03 (ten years ago) link
in tennessee there was a bill that would have made it against the law for schools to provide information to parents about the ACA. it almost passed.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 April 2014 23:13 (ten years ago) link
i love how states have the right to ensure that more of their own citizens needlessly suffer and die
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 3 April 2014 23:22 (ten years ago) link
if there was a dude with a giant gun roaming the state killing thousands of people he'd be a legendary mass murderer, but when it's politicians refusing to pass legislation their adoring fans beg them to run for president
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 3 April 2014 23:26 (ten years ago) link
Hey, let's not bring the fossil fuel companies into this.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 3 April 2014 23:31 (ten years ago) link
jesus hated the sick and the poor. vote GOP
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 3 April 2014 23:31 (ten years ago) link
So, I sent off my ID to the local processing center a month ago. I was told I should expect to hear back from them in 2 weeks.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 15 April 2014 14:55 (ten years ago) link
Still haven't heard a peep.
how all the bastards let their healthcare industry overlords write it
In one TV ad, Obama blistered Tauzin for the kind of inside corruption that's made Washington famous.
"The chairman of the committee, who pushed the law through, went to work for the pharmaceutical industry, making $2 million a year," Obama announced to the camera, his sleeves rolled up for action. "That's an example of the same old game-playing in Washington. You know, I don't want to learn how to play the game better; I want to put an end to the game-playing."
A year later, he would find that game not so unpleasant after all.
After he became president, Obama would indulge Tauzin in the same closed-door dealings he once lambasted. The drug industry agreed to taxes and rebates involving $80 billion in savings over 10 years. In exchange, Obama reneged on three crucial promises: to speed generics to market, to allow the importation of cheaper drugs, and to retain the right to negotiate Medicare drug prices.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/04/obamacare-sabotage.php?page=all
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 10:26 (nine years ago) link
maybe when we elect hilary, she'll enact single-payer, right guys?
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 1 May 2014 10:34 (nine years ago) link
fuck presidents and forget em
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 10:43 (nine years ago) link