Where the websites work, ObamaCare is doing just fine, which should tell you everything you need to know. It’s tiresome to read all these stories about what a problem ObamaCare is, but this is a transient issue that will do no good to the Republicans going forward. They oppose the law so vociferously, precisely because they know that it will be politically impossible to gain any benefit from opposing subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans. They are throwing everything they have at the law now in a desperate attempt to stop it, and it is working politically for them. Unfortunately for them, the elections are almost a year in the future. And they are hopelessly divided on every other political issue that is current in the country.
For all the sound and fury, we are still in “please proceed” mode.
But who will tell
the childrenChuck Todd?Hopefully the same person handing him a pink slip …..
I was recently informed by my mother that I am distantly related to Chuck Todd. He’s like a second or third or fourth cousin. For years I have been hurling vile epithets when he appears on TV. Now I just think them.
Don’t family genealogists just drive you nuts? Now, instead of thinking “that dope” was from some other planet, now you have to think of him as a cousin.
We’ve got one of those in our family too.
the subsidies aren’t enough for me. I realize other people have different experiences, and different incomes, and different health needs. But for me, given my income and expenses,$200 a month is simply not affordable, especially when it comes out of a single paycheck.
I get paid twice a month, and spread my bills out between those two paychecks. Generally, by the time I paid the bills from each check, I’m left with about $400 to last me till the next paycheck. That is $200 per week for groceries, gasoline in the car, and doing the things that make life worth living. I simply cannot subsist on 50 percent of that to last me the two weeks between paychecks. And I know for a fact that this is true for many people.
they need to bend that cost curve a little bit more. please do not respond by telling me how expensive health insurance was before Obama care: unaffordable is unaffordable, whether its out of reach by a hundred dollars or $500.
I’m happy for those of you who can afford to participate, but for me it means not having a social life at all.
for example, if I was enrolled in Obamacare today my car would not be on the road, because I would not be able to afford to replace the alternator. I would not be able to drive to Canada this weekend to visit my son. I would not be able to support my local economy, because Blue Cross Blue Shield Aetna would be laying claim to all of my discretionary income.
if it was automatically deducted from my paycheck like social security, and spread out over the course of the month, the impact wouldn’t be quite so bad. But I can’t afford to take a $200 hit out of one of my paychecks, for the privilege of seeing a doctor twice a year and getting $10 off my asthma medication.
I am on Medicare and my wife will have to get Obamacare in North Carolina where the GOP hosed the subsidies like crazy.
Our driving radius because of our financial situation, we are both on Social Security, has already shrunk to a radius of 10 miles (groceries are 4 miles away) almost all the time.
We are dreading seeing what the Obamacare options are for us as the deductibles and co-pays on Medicare are such that I have been staying away from the doctor. (Our former provider found a way to bill us for my free Medicare entry checkup. The system is that broken.)
The problem is not Obamacare. The problem is that Obamacare did not totally fix the disconnect between healthcare providers and insurers and patients. There still is too much profiteering and waste in the system.
We are the people that Max Baucus screwed in order to keep his campaign funds flowing in.
A lot of the extra cost we all still pay is based on our inefficient health care system and the bizarre financial incentives that create a lot of that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expe
nditures.html?_r=0
Some of this is fixed in Obamacare. In a couple of years after the dust settles a little more I suspect rates will look even better. Among other biggies, now some critical preventive services are being made available at no extra cost. Some of those services are quite expensive. Someone with colon cancer history in the family will find coverage of colonoscopies damn handy. (And cheaper than not getting the screening done until it is too late.) But the preventive service keeps overall costs down for everyone. As does the extended Medicaid.
Your situation is interesting, but there isn’t much to say about what you’ve written because there are too many numbers to analyze to get close to an accurate cost/benefit analysis. I like that you’re looking at potential benefits though and not just the cost. Most of these discussions never seem to touch on benefits and instead are solely looking at the cost side.
Yet, if you think the only benefits you get for the $2,400 per year you would fork over are the ones you listed at the end, I suspect there may be more to it. How much money do the benefits you would receive under Obamacare save you in one year? Some of the benefits are already in force and we’re already taking them for granted. We forget that they are “part of the whole deal”. Pre-existing conditions, for example.
So no other preventive measures are of value to you? Immunizations? Screenings? Sleeping better at night knowing there is a ceiling to the risk you carry in event of illness or injury? Knowing if you develop a chronic condition, you will still always be able to get insurance since ACA eliminated pre-existing conditions?
well I know a couple things. Number one, out of reach is out of reach. Those benefits are wonderful, if you can afford to buy insurance. Which I can’t. So that really doesn’t matter to me. Number 2, I happen to know exactly what my health care needs are. I need to be able to go to the doctor twice a year for a checkup, & I need to be able to afford my asthma medication. I also need some kind of coverage if I get hit by a bus.but again I cannot afford the insurance with or without the subsidy. But it seems to me that 175 to 200 dollars per month for two check ups year and a $10 discount per month on my asthma medication isn’t a very good deal. but then, you’re talking to the guy who always chose the free plan when he had employer-provided insurance. Also, and I don’t believe this has been explored, more and more people my age are free lancers now. We can be fired with no notice at all, and we are not eligible for unemployment. What happens if I sign up for Obamacare, and then lose my job and can’t afford to pay my premiums anymore? Seems I’m just as fucked as I am now without paying premiums at all
If you lose your job, you log onto the exchange website (when that becomes possible) and update your info. If your income has gone away, your subsidy increases. The maximum anyone has to pay is 9.5% of their income. I know that can seem like a lot when you’re just getting by. At the same time, having real health insurance can mean the difference between life and death.
I got laid off in May. If I made only my unemployment wages for the rest of the year (or however long they are eligible for, which in Virginia is through most of December), at that rate I would be eligible for subsidies or maybe Medicaid (unclear).
However, you are supposed to enter the TOTAL amount of wages you earned/are expecting to earn in all of 2013. For at least the federal website (I’m in Virginia), you cannot enter that you were laid off or fired (or are now otherwise unemployed) — and you are only eligible for subsidies or Medicaid after the website pushes your info through the IRS servers (or other servers) to verify this information.
Luckily I get my health insurance through my partner now, and even without subsidies I may save some money for a silver/gold plan through the federal exchange because my health benefits (as same-sex partners) are taxed as extra income to his salary because we are not married (even though we are ineligible to do so in Virginia as of now).
… But Brendan’s point is spot on. I myself now have savings and a partner, and could afford to purchase through the exchange if I didn’t. However, about four years ago I was unemployed and had burned through my savings and was waiting tables and basically broke, and there was no way I could have afforded the extra $200 per month.
The people that write policy have absolutely no actual understanding of what it is to be poor or short on cash or unemployed in this country.
What they SHOULD have done is given every American that does not receive large group health insurance a tax credit to purchase insurance on the exchanges, and allow them to pay more in taxes for plans that go above this credit. (Something similar to the earned income tax credit).
I still think the Affordable Care Act is a step in the right direction, and will eventually lead to the (much needed!) severing of the link between employment and health insurance — including taxing of Cadillac plans.
At the very least, the process should have allowed folks to estimate their next year’s income, purchase coverage with the subsidies included (even if they are wildly wrong), and then reimburse the federal government if needs be when they file their taxes in April or October of 2015.
Between insufficient subsidization at the edges of poverty and Republican dickhead legislatures/governors refusing to expand Medicaid, coverage is still going to be unaffordable for many Americans.
And I actually like that we are trying to implement a hybrid Dutch/French/Swiss health insurance paradigm. But the rube goldberg manner of making it so complicated to appease the big insurance companies and other entrenched interests is a major self-inflicted wound.
Surprisingly, they also don’t seem to understand that up to a third of US workers are freelance. I say “surprisingly” since this is the end result of policies dating back to Clinton. We often have NO IDEA how much we’re going to make in any given year.
And then we have Vermont:
That sounds fucking awesome.
to move to Vermont. I’d take the mud season for none of the hassles of this.
I am certainly all-in for some type of single-payer — I do think it could work administered by companies to maintain some choice.
But like you said, the people writing the law, regulations, and policies don’t seem to understand how it works out here in the real world for folks that are just trying to get by. It’s awe-inspiring (not in a good way).
Good luck to you, Brendan.
Makes sense. Could have been designed better. Hopefully Hillary will have the coattails necessary for corrections to be made. We may have to wait 20 years to get a public option but I believe it will happen.
I know out of reach is out of reach. I’ve had years working for room and board plus $150/month (but not recently). Obviously a major car repair will seriously set you back. Even taking just $175 away from your $800 monthly general funds is a big hit.
I’m just trying to see if you’ve really determined all the benefits and how they might pay for themselves. You also need a flu vaccine every year which is a very small cost, but sometimes you can find those free somewhere (although I wonder if many of those are funded via Obamacare.) You’ve obviously had the pneumonia vaccine.
It’s no real comfort now, but I really think costs will come down as some financial efficiencies kick in via Obamacare. Maybe not sign up this year and check later? Don’t know.
I don’t “NEED” a flu vaccine, actually. I haven’t had one in years.
Out of reach is out of reach. PERIOD.
Two trips to the doctor for checkups don’t cost anywhere near $2400/year. the discount on my asthma meds amounts to a whole $120.
I know for a fact that albuterol isn’t covered. Already asked. So the $54 (oh I’m sorry, $44 with copay) cost still stands. The plans I’ve been offered have a hefty co-pay for MH services, about $80/visit IIRC. So not much of a savings there.
I have said this a few times before, but even with the subsidies, Obamacare forces me to choose between insurance and eating. Or insurance and having a car. Or insurance and paying my heating bill during the winter (as most Philly residents can tell you, it’s not uncommon to have a $400 gas bill in January-March).
Not trying to be a dick here. As THD mentioned below, it’s really Baucus’s fault I’m part of the substantial population that got fucked.
Out of reach is out of reach, PERIOD. When it takes away ALL of my discretionary income, that’s not a good deal for me, or my community. Maybe if I was 85 and got all my entertainment for TV and the senior center, that would be OK. But I have a life to live. A better analogy than insurance vs eating might be “Obamacare has me purchase health insurance…but forces me into a life that’s not worth living.”
Sheesh. I apologize for giving a shit about another human being. After what I last wrote you don’t think I get what “out of reach is out of reach” means?
As a fellow asthma sufferer I say, get a flu shot – free ones are available in some places.
http://www.flu.gov/at-risk/health-conditions/asthma/index.html#
I know you mean well Jeff. I didn’t mean to come off as a dick. I’m really concerned -terrified, really- about what this means to me.
I just can’t afford it unless I become a shut-in.
It’s got to be a huge disappointment to wait for this moment and find the numbers aren’t going to be there for you. Through the info you gave, I’m trying to understand more accurately and broadly what is going on here. Thanks for sharing your situation here. I really hope that it gets better soon.
It is extremely disappointing.
When you want to know why people throw up their hands, look at me.
And meanwhile there is this rather hokey parallel “discussion” going on about people who actually have existing policies and say they they’re being charged more for the new ones. It’s mostly being driven by the media circus because “Obama was caught in a lie”.
But if we could get good numbers I would bet there are 5 folks like you for every 1 of those who had plans cancelled and end up paying more (assuming an apples to apples comparison). It’s a drastically undercovered issue.
What I mean by the apples comparison is for that those who can afford it, the built-in mandated improvements of Obamacare are worth something and need to be in the comparison: no “life time caps”, no pre-existing conditions, no cancellation because policyholder actually gets sick, included no-cost preventive care.
And the challenge you’re dealing with seems to be hurting 1-2 person households more than 4-5 person households in part because of how subsidies are structured.
It seems to me that there are numerous things that could happen that might make health insurance an affordable reality in 2-4 years. Small comfort and a bit iffy, but a restructuring of subsidies and lower premium costs due to system efficiencies might kick in.
I don’t think that progressive policy activists are giving up at all. Some are going to be looking harder at the Vermont model while others tackle other issues. Even a few red states will bite the bullet and accept some form of medicaid expansion. And eventually someone somewhere has to tackle the absurd notion that healthcare coverage must be tied to our current employer.
If Dem Reps would take on some of this advocacy instead of hiding under a rock every time ACA gets a little criticism, it would help.
I’m 43, I don’t need immunizations. My son lives in Canada, his immunizations are paid for. I don’t need colon and prostate screenings for another few years. I already know my cholesterol level.
As for “Sleeping better at night knowing there is a ceiling to the risk you carry in event of illness or injury”, it’s hard to sleep when you can’t afford to eat or heat your home.
Someone really has to speak up for those of us who slipped through the cracks.
Just fyi:
http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-individual-mandate.php
What state do you live in, brendan?
Pennsylvania. AKA, the stupidest state in the mid-Atlantic.
We have to deal with the federal exchange because our governor was too stupid to set up a state exchange.
So far all of the problems relate to structural issues in the existing private insurance system: failure to fully implement the HIPAA data transactions, narrowing the PPO networks on Obamacare plans, nonparticipation of companies operating in the state market, incorrect information about reasons for cancellation of policies, attempts to continue to sell junk insurance.
Or about how GOP governors attempted to sabotage the rollout: sudden changes in whether states were going to create their own exchanges, failure to provide extended Medicaid coverage, and so on.
“Please proceed” mode indeed. The state of the public’s experience of Obamacare next summer could well be a major factor in the 2014 election. And poor experience with Obamacare will not accelerate the political momentum toward repeal. Quite the contrary.
It is possible, if the anti-tax fever can be broken, for the President to leave office in 2017 with a single-payer health care system in place. The major hurdle is public acceptance of the method for financing coverage.
I love Obama. I consider myself a strong supporter, having donated money to both his campaigns and having volunteered for him. I’m also a huge supporter of Obamacare.
That said, I’m having trouble signing up. And I’m in Washington, one of the states that has its own website. I need to talk to someone about an error in my application but there’s no way to get through. There are serious implementation problems.
I’m hopeful this will all blow over. I don’t see how the Republicans can repeal it (even if they had the majorities to do so) as it would dump so many people back into an unworkable condition.
Given that I earn too much for subsidies and given that my wife and I have no major health issues, our cost will go up. I don’t mind because it also means many people not as fortunate as us will be able to receive coverage. It also means we won’t get sick and find our policies cancelled. Medical bankruptcy was a risk all of us faced. Obamacare, if it survives, will change that. That alone is well worth the extra $100 to $150 a month it might cost us for insurance.
That’s a drag. I thought Washington’s site was working. Better than Oregon’s though. They’ve just about given up on the website and are going all paper – at least for now. I would imagine that causes a lot of anxiety for those who need to be covered on January 1.
Pre-Obamacare, individual policies basically didn’t cover major chronic illnesses because the company could just cancel your policy. So, yeah, Obamacare policies are far more valuable than pre-Obamacare policies with the same nomimal deductibles/caps/etc.
I’d be better off with an Obamacare policy than the ones I could have gotten on my own, although I don’t need one due to my husband’s work. However, we’re still really happy because both my husband and I have pre-existing conditions and we’re no longer locked to his job to keep good insurance. We’re very happy to now have the option of early retirement.
Having been through medical bankruptcy, I will say it is no picnic, and I am still picking up the pieces years later. Changes that reduce the risk of experiencing that particular form of hell are welcome. Although I would have preferred something a bit less reliant on the for-profit side of the medical system (I still prefer the models for healthcare used by our neighbors to the north, or in a good deal of Europe), but the ACA was at least a step in the right direction.
I’m sure we all feel this way. A public option is just what the doctor ordered. Or perhaps a Medicare buy-in (same difference). I think it will come.
If Obamacare works, it will be only the first step. And once it’s in place, tacking on a public option should be far far easier than rolling the whole thing out to begin with.
That’s about how I am looking at it – big picture, the long game.
The short term glitches with the website interface will go away, although I am sure the occasional cyberattack on the website will surface from time to time. For a while the Insurance execs get their bailout (which realistically, they were going to require from us when their sorry “too-big-to-fail” asses got burned from the lack of customers who had been priced out of the current system).
Long-term, if this step toward universal health care gets more people asking the right questions about why we don’t do some sort of single-payer approach and making the right demands, we’ll be better off as a society.
The way I look at it, as an old white guy, is it will mainly take enough old white people dying off. We’re the ones who keep voting Republicans into office no matter how badly they behave. Fortunately, demographics are on the side of the public option.
Probably doesn’t hasten a move to UHC. May even extend the life of the current dysfunctional health care system as the “winners” will have a more vested interest in voting and voting for Democrats to preserve their gain.
What it will do is make UHC even more expensive when all other options have been exhausted and healthcare consumes more than 20% of GDP and there is no other choice. Why? Simple the PPACA further destroys the financial viability of the remainder of the low-cost US Public health care system.
And if we view universal, federal health insurance as being synonymous with UHC, classic Medicare with its annual deductible, 20% co-insurance, and no annual out-of-pocket cap isn’t viable.
I personally would like all progressive/liberal writers to stop using the words “debacle”, “calamitous” and “disastrous” in response to a glitchy website.
Personally, I have never found dealing with ANY institution – the bank, the cable company, the insurance company – to be anything be frustrating and time consuming.
And secondly, what happened in the Philippines is a disaster, a calamity. What is happening with the website is a nuisance.
It’s pretty amazing to me how many people still haven’t noticed how many times we’ve been through this cycle already. The image below was created for a reason, after all, and it was created way back in 2008. As you can tell by the absence of gray in his hair, Obama hadn’t even been elected president yet.
Which is not to say that everything is fine with ObamaCare, but the predictions of electoral doom are a bit premature and, more importantly I think, lacking in perspective. Let’s see, the Republicans shut down the fucking government, they’re blocking all action on important issues like gun control and climate change, they still hate gay people and are still trying to outlaw abortion, and they’re prepared to send millions of Americans “back” to a country they never knew. And that’s just a partial list. But we’re going to vote for them because there are some problems with ObamaCare. Right.
Except for the shut down which I promise you will be forgotten if they avoid another, how is this much different than 2010?
Well, one thing you can do is compare what just happened in Virginia to the election results there in 2009. Or you could note that the Republicans didn’t control the House in 2010, and they hadn’t yet killed widely popular bills like ENDA and la reforma migratoria. Nor were Ted Cruz and Rand Paul their poster boys in 2010.
I’m not saying I know what’s going to happen next year, but there are plenty of differences with 2010.
The Chicken Little contingent of the Big Tent has never left my sight. They are with us always.
As with all these “scandals” the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot by having a Congressional hearing about it right off the bat. My perception is that Congressional hearings come at THE END of a scandal and not in the first day or two of it “erupting.”
It’s almost like they’re putting the matter to rest instead of letting it stew for months and months. It’s a desperate, short-term strategy.
I’m guessing come Dec 15 when there needs to be a budget on the table or a CR to pass, the GOP is going feel emboldened again to start up with their ACA defunding crusade. If there’s a silver lining to the shitty roll out, watching the GOP fucking that chicken once again will be well worth the last 6 weeks of hand wringing.
GOP “F**king that Chicken Again”
Love that. I’ve never heard that one before and I’m going to add it to my lexicon.
And you are 100% correct, Ted Cruz is duty-bound to do it all over again. He has no choice – if he doesn’t, he’s a weak-kneed little squish (by the terms of his own rhetoric).
You’re right Booman. But the backup procedures better be running smoothly because by mid-December there is another flood of activity on ALL the websites.
Back in July, the administration signed contract with ehealth sites:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100925732
I read that they’re waiting on hooking up to the data hub, but the sooner they get that running the better. Best would be they do it before the crush in December and take some of the pressure off.
I remember that but hadn’t heard anymore of it until now. Anything that helps keep the info and applications flowing helps. Thanks.
However, understanding that the byzantine nature of some of the choices made re: how to qualify for subsidies was made by Max Baucus and his staff, etc., I do remain floored that the White House hasn’t figured out how to better communicate these issues.
You and I might not like it, but the President needs to be a better explainer-in-chief of these issues to the citizenry at-large because of how ridiculously bad the establishment media is at reporting on these issues in the typical he-said/she-said way.
I believe you wrote a post of how the White House should be putting on roadshow-style sign-up conventions for people that need insurance. And then they should be explaining how they want to fix it so people like Brendan (above) or me (four years ago) are better able to purchase insurance, if Republicans would work with them.
Well, honestly, this is the first time I’ve read something good Obamacare or even Obama. You were right in saying that everybody has a negative thing to say about it because we only focus on it and not the other side of the coin. I just hope it will really work though.
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physical therapy business
Just how I view it, as a possible previous white dude, would it be will probably mostly carry sufficient previous white individuals passing away down. We are the approaches who retain voting Republicans straight into office irrespective of the way terribly they respond. Thankfully, demographics are usually on the side of the community selection.
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The 15% of Americans who don’t currently have health insurance will either have to obtain health insurance, get an exemption, or pay a per month fee on their tax returns for every month they are without health coverage starting in 2014.
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30 million people will be left unisured by Obamacare even if it works as expected by Obama. You could have bought Jane Doe and John Doe catestrophic health insurance policies for most of the 40 million uninsured, most of whom are healthy young adults, for about $25 billion. That is less than 1% of the current budget of $4000 billion or the 2008 budget of $3000 billion.
Obama is intellectually inferior. He is surrounded by intellectually inferior people. They have given us an inferior system.
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