Initial attempts to sign up for ObamaCare go about as well as expected

[boutons_deux]

Michigan Repugs cave on expanding ACA Medicaid, although killing ACA is the Repug's main strategy in 2014 elections.

In Michigan, Businessmen And Politicians Agree On Medicaid

Republican party leaders say opposition to Obamacare is their No. 1 campaign issue for the midterm election.
Yet at the same time, a growing number of Republican states are now embracing a major provision of the law — expanding Medicaid, government funded health benefits for the poor. The Supreme Court made doing that optional for states in 2012 and most Republican-led states said no. But now, some states like Pennsylvania, Iowa and Michigan are trying to forge compromises with the White House to accept the large amount of federal money that comes with Medicaid expansion, since the federal government covers nearly all of the costs.

Snyder argued that if the state didn't expand, the millions of dollars in Affordable Care Act taxes and fees Michigan would be paying would just go to other states, and not come back home as new payments to hospitals and doctors.
Plus, when Pscholka says he took a hard look at Medicaid, he didn't find the broken, bloated government program he was expecting.

Medicaid is a government-funded program, but Michigan has long contracted with private sector HMOs to administer it. The idea was to use private market incentives to increase efficiency.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014...ee-on-medicaid

for-profit HMOs will suck out $10Ms in fees meant to pay for poor people's care, so the Repug strategy of screwing poor people, while shoveling taxpayer dollars to private sector, remains in tact

[boutons_deux]

A duped-by-Repug-propaganda Ohio Obama-hater's story:

From 'I don't want any part of Obamacare' to 'It's a godsend'

Last year, TIME published a massive special report, "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," detailing just about everything that is wrong with the nation's health care system. Central to that story were Stephanie and Sean Recchi, an Ohio couple with two kids who had just started up a new business, and who had just been struck by Sean's aggressive and expensive cancer. The author of that story, Steven Brill, has a an update to their story in the current issue of TIME. Sean Recchi's now in remission, but only after the underinsured family (their $469/month policy was worthless at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston) borrowed from family and maxed out their credit cards. Here's Stephanie Ricci last October:

I don't think Obamacare will help us. I don't want anything to do with it," Stephanie Recchi told me a week after the launch of HealthCare.gov on Oct. 1. "I hear a lot of bad things about it—that it doesn't cover pre-existing conditions and it's too expensive," she added, referring to what she said were "television ads and some politicians talking on the news. Just a lot of talk that this is a bad law."

Did I mention she's an Obama hater? Nonetheless, she tried and tried again to navigate HealthCare.gov, to no avail. That made her hate the whole idea of Obamacare even more, but she needed health insurance, and so went to her insurance agent.

"When they came to my office, Stephanie told me right up front, 'I don't want any part of Obamacare,' " recalls health-insurance agent Barry Cohen. "These were clearly people who don't like the President. So I kind of let that slide and just asked them for basic information and told them we would go on the Ohio exchange"—which is actually the Ohio section of the federal Obamacare exchange—"and show them what's available."

The upshot? Because they're still in basically start-up mode in their business, their income for the family of four qualifies them for expanded Medicaid. If a big contract they are anticipating comes through for them this year, they'll be bumped off Medicaid, but will still qualify for a subsidy that will put their monthly premiums at $566.

What Stephanie soon discovered, she told me in mid-November, "was a godsend." [...]"Here I get full protection for $566, compared to no protection for almost $500," Stephanie says, referring to her old plan that had cost $469 monthly and that MD Anderson had scoffed at. "This is wonderful. [...] No, we don't get MD Anderson, but we do get the Cleveland Clinic and lots of other good care," Stephanie says. "We understand that." Amid the likely attacks from his opponents that he's taking away patients' favorite doctors and hospitals, Obama has to hope that others come to share her at ude.

As Brill points out, if the Recchis had been living in Texas, where Sean got cancer treatment, or in any of the other states that refused Medicaid expansion, they'd still be screwed. They'd be in the Medicaid gap that millions of Americans, many with health issues as critical as Sean Recchi's, have fallen into. That's the kind of situation that the Affordable Care Act was supposed to end for everyone.Thanks to the Supreme Court and an intractable Republican party that has invested more into fighting Obama than into fighting for their cons uents, being able to access and afford health care is still a matter of luck.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/0...d?detail=email

[boutons_deux]

Peace of Mind Is First Benefit for Many Now Getting Medicaid



“I got to the point when I decided I just didn’t want to be here anymore,” she said.

Ms. Mills said she felt as if she could breathe again for the first time in years. “The heavy thing that was pressing on me is gone,” she said.

As health care coverage under the new law sputters to life, it is already having a profound effect on the lives of poor Americans. Enrollment in private insurance plans has been sluggish, but sign-ups for Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the poor, have surged in many states. Here in West Virginia, which has some of the shortest life spans and highest poverty rates in the country, the strength of the demand has surprised officials, with more than 75,000 people enrolling in Medicaid.

While many people who have signed up so far for private insurance through the new insurance exchanges had some kind of health care coverage before, recent studies have found, most of the people getting coverage under the Medicaid expansion were previously uninsured. In West Virginia, where the Democratic governor agreed to expand Medicaid eligibility, the number of uninsured people in the state has been reduced by about a third.

America ranks near the bottom of developed countries in health and longevity, and many public health experts believe that improving that ranking will be impossible without paying more attention to poor Americans. It is still an open question whether access to health insurance will improve the health of the disadvantaged in the long run, experts say, but the men and women getting the coverage here say the mere fact of having it has dramatically improved their mental health.


Waitresses, fast food workers, security guards and cleaners described feeling intense relief that they are now protected from the punishing medical bills that have punched holes in their family budgets. They spoke in interviews of reclaiming the dignity they had lost over years of being turned away from doctors’ offices because they did not have insurance.
“You see it in their faces,” said Janie Hovatter, a patient advocate at Cabin Creek Health Systems, a health clinic in southern West Virginia. “They just kind of relax.”

Chad Webb, a shy 30-year-old who is enrolling people in Mingo County, said a woman at a recent event used biblical terms to disparage Mr. Obama as an existential threat to the nation. Mr. Webb said he thought to himself, “This man is not the anti-Christ. He just wants you to have health insurance.”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/21...?from=homepage

[SnakeBoy]

A duped-by-Repug-propaganda Ohio Obama-hater's story:

From 'I don't want any part of Obamacare' to 'It's a godsend'

Last year, TIME published a massive special report, "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," detailing just about everything that is wrong with the nation's health care system. Central to that story were Stephanie and Sean Recchi, an Ohio couple with two kids who had just started up a new business, and who had just been struck by Sean's aggressive and expensive cancer. The author of that story, Steven Brill, has a an update to their story in the current issue of TIME. Sean Recchi's now in remission, but only after the underinsured family (their $469/month policy was worthless at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston) borrowed from family and maxed out their credit cards. Here's Stephanie Ricci last October:

I don't think Obamacare will help us. I don't want anything to do with it," Stephanie Recchi told me a week after the launch of HealthCare.gov on Oct. 1. "I hear a lot of bad things about it—that it doesn't cover pre-existing conditions and it's too expensive," she added, referring to what she said were "television ads and some politicians talking on the news. Just a lot of talk that this is a bad law."

Did I mention she's an Obama hater? Nonetheless, she tried and tried again to navigate HealthCare.gov, to no avail. That made her hate the whole idea of Obamacare even more, but she needed health insurance, and so went to her insurance agent.

"When they came to my office, Stephanie told me right up front, 'I don't want any part of Obamacare,' " recalls health-insurance agent Barry Cohen. "These were clearly people who don't like the President. So I kind of let that slide and just asked them for basic information and told them we would go on the Ohio exchange"—which is actually the Ohio section of the federal Obamacare exchange—"and show them what's available."

The upshot? Because they're still in basically start-up mode in their business, their income for the family of four qualifies them for expanded Medicaid. If a big contract they are anticipating comes through for them this year, they'll be bumped off Medicaid, but will still qualify for a subsidy that will put their monthly premiums at $566.

What Stephanie soon discovered, she told me in mid-November, "was a godsend." [...]"Here I get full protection for $566, compared to no protection for almost $500," Stephanie says, referring to her old plan that had cost $469 monthly and that MD Anderson had scoffed at. "This is wonderful. [...] No, we don't get MD Anderson, but we do get the Cleveland Clinic and lots of other good care," Stephanie says. "We understand that." Amid the likely attacks from his opponents that he's taking away patients' favorite doctors and hospitals, Obama has to hope that others come to share her at ude.

As Brill points out, if the Recchis had been living in Texas, where Sean got cancer treatment, or in any of the other states that refused Medicaid expansion, they'd still be screwed. They'd be in the Medicaid gap that millions of Americans, many with health issues as critical as Sean Recchi's, have fallen into. That's the kind of situation that the Affordable Care Act was supposed to end for everyone.Thanks to the Supreme Court and an intractable Republican party that has invested more into fighting Obama than into fighting for their cons uents, being able to access and afford health care is still a matter of luck.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/0...d?detail=email

Breaking News...people of all political persuasions like free stuff.

[boutons_deux]

Breaking News...people of all political persuasions like free stuff.

especially the $100Bs of free stuff (tax expenditures, loopholes, subsidies) taxpayers spend on businesses, where even many large businesses game the system so much IRS sends them cash, negative tax rate.

[boutons_deux]

Another deep red state caves

Utah Will Expand Medicaid Under Obamacare

Utah will expand Medicaid under Obamacare, its Republican governor said Thursday.
"Doing nothing ... I’ve taken off the table. Doing nothing is not an option," Gov. Gary Herbert said at his monthly news conference, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The state legislature has endorsed two plans for expanding Medicaid through private coverage, as Arkansas has already done. Under one plan, Medicaid dollars would pay for people up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level to purchase private insurance on HealthCare.gov. The alternative plan would use Medicaid dollars for people up to the poverty level to buy private coverage on HealthCare.gov; those above the poverty level would receive federal tax subsidies to help purchase insurance through the federal website.

It's not clear which strategy the state will adopt, and Herbert didn't express a preference. Medicaid expansion would cover 60,000 Utahans, according to the Tribune. Utah would be the 26th state, along with Washington, D.C., to accept expansion.

A privatized Medicaid expansion plan would require approval from the Obama administration, but federal officials have already signed off on a similar plan in Arkansas.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...+%28TPMNews%29

but of course, the Repugs just have to enrich, privatize/waste taxpayers funds to their for-profit corporate buddies, campaign contributors, pure graft.

[boutons_deux]

Here's yet another upstanding Corporate-American, cheating taxpayers out of $Ms.

Hospital Chain Said to Scheme to Inflate Bills

Every day the scorecards went up, where they could be seen by all of the hospital’s emergency room doctors.

Physicians hitting the target to admit at least half of the patients over 65 years old who entered the emergency department were color-coded green. The names of doctors who were close were yellow. Failing physicians were red.

The scorecards, according to one whistle-blower lawsuit, were just one of the many ways that Health Management Associates, a for-profit hospital chain based in Naples, Fla., kept tabs on an internal strategy that regulators and others say was intended to increase admissions, regardless of whether a patient needed hospital care, and pressure the doctors who worked at the hospital.

This month, the Justice Department said it had joined eight separate whistle-blower lawsuits against H.M.A. in six states. The lawsuits describe a wide-ranging strategy that is said to have relied on a mix of sophisticated software systems, financial incentives and threats in an attempt to inflate the company’s payments from Medicare and Medicaid by admitting patients like an infant whose temperature was a normal 98.7 degrees for a “fever.”

The accusations reach all the way to the former chief executive’s office, whom many of the whistle-blowers point to as driving the strategy.

For H.M.A., the timing could not be worse. Shareholders recently approved the planned $7.6 billion acquisition of the company by Community Health Systems, which will create the nation’s second-largest for-profit hospital chain by revenue, with more than 200 facilities. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

While the lawsuits against H.M.A. provide a stark look at the pressure being put on doctors and hospital executives to emphasize profits over their patients, similar accusations are being raised at other hospital and medical groups as health care in the United States undergoes sweeping changes.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/24...?from=homepage

naturally, Fox/Beck/Limbaugh/Repugs will say nothing, not be outraged, and/or lie that HMA is only a bad apple in The Greatest, Bestest Health Care System In The Universe.

[boutons_deux]

And Another Anti-Obamacare Talking Point Is Destroyed

A new survey from Gallup shows that the percentage of uninsured Americans dropped to 16.1 percent as Obamacare first took effect, down 1.2 percent from the month before. Among the unemployed, the drop was most significant — 6.7 percent.



http://www.nationalmemo.com/and-anot...-is-destroyed/

[TDMVPDPOY]

1st world countries with 3rd world problems

high prices for medical have push locals to go overseas to get done even if its the difference between life and death, while you have people from 3rd world countries who dont believe in their own system willing to travel to get done in a 1st world country...

[SnakeBoy]

And Another Anti-Obamacare Talking Point Is Destroyed

A new survey from Gallup shows that the percentage of uninsured Americans dropped to 16.1 percent as Obamacare first took effect, down 1.2 percent from the month before. Among the unemployed, the drop was most significant — 6.7 percent.



http://www.nationalmemo.com/and-anot...-is-destroyed/

Great News! At this rate maybe we can get back to George Bush levels before Obama leaves office.

[boutons_deux]

Great News! At this rate maybe we can get back to George Bush levels before Obama leaves office.

yep, the Ms of jobs lost to the Banksters Great Depression caused a lot of people to lose health insurance.

That's not Barry's problem or cause, but he certainly has provided the solution.

[boutons_deux]

PA Man Confronts Governor For Refusing To Expand Medicaid: ‘How Many People Have To Die?’

Outside a $1,000 a plate luncheon, Governor Corbett faced a man whose fiancee died at 41 because she had no health insurance.

This week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) had a run-in with one of his cons uents as he was leaving a fundraising event. Scot Rosenzweig — who identified himself as a fellow Republican — showed Corbett a large photograph of his fiancee, Dina Nelson, who died at the age of 41 because she was uninsured and couldn’t afford a liver transplant. “I think maybe we should consider accepting the Medicaid expansion,” Rosenzweig told his governor, explaining that people like Nelson need access to lifesaving health treatment.
“I can’t do that,” Corbett responded.

Corbett is trying to win federal approval for an alternate plan , called “Healthy Pennsylvania,” that would give low-income people subsidies to buy private coverage. But Corbett’s plan has been sharply criticized by anti-poverty advocates, who say it could actually reduce benefits for the state’s neediest cons uents.

Corbett reiterated his desire to implement “Healthy Pennsylvania,” which he hopes to put in place by 2015. He said he can’t both accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and fix the existing problems he sees with the Medicaid program. But that didn’t satisfy Rosenzweig.
“How many people have to die while we work on the problems?” he asked Corbett.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...ter951142&t=13

Will many Repugs say "you denied me and my family Medicaid, but I will still and always vote you."

[boutons_deux]

A blue state trying to make progress against hospital/doctor scammers

Hospitals and Doctors Make More Money When More People Are Sick: Maryland Wants to Stop That

The current US medical system financially rewards hospitals and doctors (particularly highly compensated specialists) for performing more procedures and treating more diseased people, not for prevention (although the Affordable Care Act makes some progress in that direction). It is perverse: The aging of the US population aside, the healthcare system becomes more profitable ins utionally and personally (for medical providers) as the number of diseased patients rise and hi-tech tests and operations are performed.

Furthermore, a recent New York Times article do ented that it is not uncommon for multiple specialists to bill for even standard diagnostic procedures, even if their role was minimal or unnecessary.

The net result is that the US healthcare system does not generally look at improving community health; it looks at marketing services to treat disease. The more disease, the greater the revenue.

In a bold move, the US government has just given the state of Maryland (which has had a federal waiver to impose a uniform pricing system on medical charges) the opportunity to experiment with placing global reimbursement caps on hospitals.

How could this improve the overall medical well-being of individuals and neighborhoods?

As an article in Bloomberg Businessweek notes: "The state will also transform how hospitals get paid, from billing for each service provided—an incentive for doctors to order more tests and treatments—to getting paid for keeping people well."

That is how healthcare is offered in most developed nations, but in the US the current incentives are for waiting for disease to develop and then billing for long-term treatment of the disease -- as well as the latest costly technological testing and medication.

Furthermore, one of the larger causes of death in the United States is the number of people who acquire incurable infections due to hospital borne pathogens. In short, many hospitals are not aggressively attempting to limit the transfer of disease while someone is in a hospital for the treament of another illness!

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/c...s-to-stop-that

[boutons_deux]

Texas Sets Up Roadblock For Health Care Navigators

a federal judge put a strict Missouri law on hold, saying the state didn't have the right to regulate the work of navigators. But in Texas, state officials did just that this week.

This week, he learned he'll have to take 20 more hours of state-mandated training on top of roughly 25 hours he's already completed for the federal government. The new rules also mean he'll have to register with the state, undergo a background check and get fingerprinted. Anthony worries the extra steps will distract navigators at a crucial time. As in other states, enrollment on HealthCare.gov has been slower than expected. This year's deadline is March 31st.

It's a federal program. The state has no right to interfere with burdensome regulations. It's almost similar to blocking someone from the right to vote because of the color of their skin. Now, you're blocking a sick person or a person that is uninsured from getting access to the information.

In the next open enrollment period, which starts October 15th (2014), we're going to get swarmed by people. So it's the first taste, it's not the last taste. And it's going to be successful. In the long run, people are going to remember who was against this and they're going to remember who was for this.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/24/265762...are-navigators

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Cracked Down On A Record Number Of Medicare Fraudsters In 2013

A special task force that targets doctors, providers, and individuals who defraud Medicare had a record year of prosecutions in 2013, according to the Department of Justice.
Since its inception in 2007, the so-called Medicare Fraud Strike Force has prosecuted 1,700 defendants who bilked the public en lement for seniors of more than $5.5 billion.

Medicare fraud usually comes in the form of unscrupulous doctors and medical providers who take advantage of sick seniors and over-bill them for their treatments.

In 2012, the strike force pulled off one of the biggest fraud busts in American history, arresting 91 people across seven cities for perpetrating $230 million in home care billing fraud and $100 million in mental health care billing fraud.

According to new figures released on Monday, the agency continued that trend in 2013, filing 137 cases against 345 individuals. That ultimately led to 234 guilty pleas and 46 jury convictions.

“The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is one of this country’s most productive investments,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the DOJ’s Criminal Division in a statement. “We are not only putting hundreds of criminals who steal from Medicare in prison, but also stopping their theft in its tracks, recovering millions of dollars for taxpayers, and deterring potential criminals who ultimately decide the crime isn’t worth it.”

A 2013 report by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General found that the federal government receives and eight-fold return on every dollar spent by the strike force, lending credence to Raman’s claims about deterrence.

The 2009 stimulus bill and the Affordable Care Act are both likely contributors to the uptick in Medicare fraud busts. For instance, Obamacare allows HHS and the DOJ to coordinate their efforts and encourages new fraud analysis methods that can identify su ious medical claims, typically in regions with a history of abuse such as Houston, Texas and Tampa, Florida.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014...e-record-year/

[boutons_deux]

the greedy, predatory health care industry is one of the prime sinks of Americans' wealth

One In Four U.S. Families Struggles To Pay Their Medical Bills


About one quarter of American families are struggling under the weight of health care costs, according to new government data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC, it’s important to consider family units when studying medical debt because one family member’s bills can negatively impact everyone in the household.

The report, which drew from a large national survey of more than 43,000 families in the United States, found that over 16 percent of families had problems paying their medical bills in 2012. And nine percent reported they had bills that they weren’t able to pay at all:

The issue isn’t limited to American families who lack health insurance, either. About the same number of Americans who have private insurance or public insurance, roughly 21 percent of each group, reported that health care represented a financial burden in 2012. That number rises to about 40 percent for uninsured families — but the families with a mix of insured and non-insured members actually struggled the most, with 46 percent of that group struggling to afford their medical bills:


The rising cost of health care has been squeezing American families for years. The annual medical expenses for a family of four now exceed the cost of groceries to feed them for an entire year. The average ER trip costs 40 percent more than the typical American spends on rent, and even routine procedures in hospitals are often billed at rates far beyond what the services are actually worth.

This has contributed to a society where health costs top Americans’ list of financial concerns, and one in three people skip out on the medical care they need in order to save money. After suffering from a catastrophic event, some desperate Americans now turn to the Internet to attempt to crowdfund the money they need to pay off their large medical bills.

Obamacare will take some steps to address this issue, both by increasing insurance coverage among Americans who previously couldn’t afford it and strengthening consumer protections to ensure that insurance companies aren’t charging exorbitant out-of-pocket costs. But putting an end to medical bankruptcies — by some estimates, health costs are the most common reason that Americans go bankrupt — will require additional efforts to attack poverty and income inequality.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014...medical-bills/

[tlongII]

Coburn says ObamaCare cost him coverage for cancer doctor

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn revealed Tuesday that his ObamaCare insurance plan does not cover his cancer specialist, forcing him to pay out of pocket -- in the latest reminder of complications with the health law as President Obama prepares to address the nation.




The Oklahoma senator, who has been suffering from a recurrence of prostate cancer and plans to retire at the end of the current session, briefly discussed his personal situation in an interview Tuesday morning.

"I'm doing well from a health standpoint, got great docs and fortunately, even though my new coverage won't cover my specialists, I'm going to have great care and I have a great prognosis," he said.

Politico reported that Coburn's office confirmed his coverage was cut and he lost coverage for his oncologist. However, Coburn reportedly will pay out of pocket in order to keep seeing the specialist. Coburn spoke earlier on MSNBC.

Like other congressional lawmakers, Coburn, 65, was required to go on the ObamaCare exchanges. Coburn's case is one of many that will hang over the president as he delivers the State of the Union address Tuesday evening. While Obama plans to focus on economic issues -- and especially agenda items like the minimum wage -- lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are not letting him forget about the widespread and bipartisan concerns with the health care law.

Coburn was one of three GOP lawmakers who on Monday unveiled a sweeping alternative proposal to the Affordable Care Act which would gut the law's mandates and taxes while preserving some consumer protections.

"Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out," Coburn said.

Others are also drawing attention to how the health care law has impacted coverage. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a staunch ObamaCare critic, plans to bring as her guest to the State of the Union a woman with lupus whose plan was canceled due to ObamaCare.

The woman, Emilie, says in a new ad (aired by the conservative Americans for Prosperity) that she lost her prior coverage and now faces her costs rising by more than $6,000 a year.

"I'm worried about losing access to the doctors who have cared for me. President Obama, you broke your promise, and people like me got hurt," she said in the ad.

Obama late last year tried to assuage the concerns of those losing coverage by allowing insurance companies to re-offer canceled plans. Not all states and companies got on board.

And while the administration has worked to address widespread technical problems that impeded the launch of health care exchanges in October, lawmakers are still voicing concerns about the financial stability of the system.

One such lawmaker, retiring Democratic Rep. Jim Moran, told WAMU that he's "afraid that the millenials ... are less likely to sign up."

Insurance companies are depending on such young and healthy customers to buy health insurance, to offset the cost of taking on older and sicker customers -- as required under the law.

Obama is likely to defend the law in his State of the Union address, arguing as he has before that it provides vital consumer protections -- like barring insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. The administration notes that enrollment has improved dramatically through the exchanges since the October launch.

But the president's address appears geared more toward economic and income issues.

He announced Tuesday morning that he's signing an executive order raising the minimum wage for new federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour, from $7.25. He plans to pursue more go-it-alone approaches in the year ahead, though will need congressional support to achieve the broader goal of raising the federal minimum wage for all workers and other initiatives.

[boutons_deux]

Coburn says ObamaCare cost him coverage for cancer doctor

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn revealed Tuesday that his ObamaCare insurance plan does not cover his cancer specialist, forcing him to pay out of pocket

I call bull . If he has a problem, it's with his insurer, not with ACA.

[boutons_deux]

Republican Alternative To Obamacare: Pay More, Get Less, Put The Insurance Companies Back In Charge

Boy, can Democrats have fun with the new Republican alternative to Obamacare. It puts the health insurance companies back in charge and raises costs for almost all Americans. In particular, it substantially raises costs and threatens to cut coverage for the half of all Americans who get health insurance at work. Seniors, the group that Republicans have scared witless about Obamacare, would lose the real benefits they receive under Obamacare. The proposal from three Republican senators is a golden opportunity for Democrats to contrast the specific benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with what a repeal-and-replace agenda would really mean for Americans’ lives and health.

People who get health insurance at work – bottom line: pay more for worse coverage.

Almost half of all Americans (48 percent), or 148 million people, obtain health insurance at work. The Republican plan would tax 35 percent of the average cost of health insurance benefits at work. This is a big tax increase on working people and is extraordinarily unpopular, as the Obama campaign used to devastating impact on John McCain. And while people would pay more, they would get less coverage, as the GOP plan would allow insurance companies to once again limit the amount of benefits they will pay out in one year and return to the day when employers could offer bare-bones plans.

While taxing health benefits would apply to all employer-provided coverage, the Republicans would give the 30 percent of people who work for businesses who employ fewer than 100 workers a tax credit. That might balance out the increased taxes for some people. However, doing so would create a huge set of economic distortions, as employers might seek to keep firm size under the 100-employee threshold.

Individuals who buy coverage on their own or who are uninsured – bottom line: insurance companies could again deny coverage for pre-existing conditions and offer bare-bones coverage, while the cost of decent coverage would go up for most people.

This is the group that the ACA is most aimed at helping, including the 5 percent of Americans who buy private health insurance and the 15 percent who are uninsured, totaling 64 million people. The ACA offers income-based subsidies to these people when they earn between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) and enrolls people under 133 percent of FPL in Medicaid, when states agree.

The Republican plan is toughest, in comparison with the ACA, on the lowest-income people and on the higher-income middle class, compared with Obamacare. But many families in between will do worse too.

The Republican plan would wipe out the expansion of Medicaid to people earning less than 133 percent of FPL, a provision the Supreme Court has made optional. It would cut back on Medicaid, ending the federal government’s offer to pay 90 percent of the cost of expanded coverage and replacing that with the federal government paying what it has paid historically, which is between half and three-quarters of the cost of Medicaid, with poorer states getting a bigger share. Crucially, the funding would only be for pregnant women, children and parents with dependent children who earn under the poverty level, as opposed to the ACA’s funding of all adults up to 133 percent of FPL. That means many fewer people covered and states getting less Medicaid money. Republican governors may not complain, but you can bet hospitals will. Adults without dependent children would not be covered by federal Medicaid, which means millions will stay uninsured or lose coverage they now have, unless states pay for coverage without federal support.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/republic...s-back-charge/

[boutons_deux]

Insurance giant WellPoint enrolls 500,000 in Obamacare coverage

Health insurance giant WellPoint Inc. has signed up 500,000 people for Obamacare policies across the country, and it struck an upbeat tone Wednesday about early enrollment trends under the healthcare law.


WellPoint, which runs Anthem Blue Cross plans in California and 13 other states, said new enrollees tend to be older than current customers but that enrollment is in line with its projections and pricing for the new policies.

"We do feel good about what we’ve seen in the exchanges so far," WellPoint Chief Executive Joseph Swedish said during an earnings conference call with analysts and investors.

"The changes that are facing our industry are admittedly very substantial, and it still remains very early in the year," Swedish added.

In California's exchange, Anthem has staked an early lead through Dec. 31, 2013, with 155,146 enrollees, or a 31% share of the market. The Indianapolis-based company said that figure was a "reasonable proxy" for its performance in other states where it sells exchange policies.

WellPoint said it didn't know yet how many of its enrollees were previously uninsured. The company did say that about 80% of those customers were new to WellPoint.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/17.../p2p-79087581/

[boutons_deux]

Gohmert, Bachmann, and King tell Hannity they’ll ride Obamacare ‘repeal train’ to bitter end

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/3...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Obamacare’s Benefits Are Its Least Known Features


This may help explain why Obamacare remains unpopular even after HealthCare.gov has been fixed.


A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows that the uninsured are less informed about the law than the insured. But the biggest problem for supporters of health care reform is that the part of the law that is most unpopular — the individual mandate — is the best known. Meanwhile, far fewer people know about the benefits of the law — the ban on pre-existing conditions, tax credits and Medicaid expansion.



Misinformation continues to be rampant, with delays of parts of the law compounded by negative and confusing press coverage. People reported seeing more coverage of stories where someone was harmed by the law than helped.


http://www.nationalmemo.com/obamacar...s-least-known/


“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

[boutons_deux]

U.S. says results encouraging for healthcare delivery reforms

The Obama administration on Thursday reported what it called encouraging results from efforts to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of care for more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries under Obamacare

As part of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, the efforts center around more than 360 accountable care organizations (ACOs), which are networks of doctors, hospitals and other providers specially organized to help move Medicare away from traditional fee-for-service medicine.


The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said preliminary data show that the ACOs produced $380 million in savings vis-a-vis traditional Medicare in 2012 by giving doctors and other healthcare providers the incentive to focus on improved outcomes for patients instead of fees from tests and services.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...e=domesticNews

[SnakeBoy]

[Winehole23]

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/201...ype=blogs&_r=1