Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

The main way it's not happening is the state Medicaid gap.

I think it's because the federal poverty level is set way too low, but yeah the people making the poverty level up to 400% of the poverty level are certainly getting the short end of the stick in those states not expanding Medicaid.

Did I understand your original premise correctly? the Medicaid gap is the same as the expansion that states have to approve?

Anyway, I'd argue a family of 4 making 80someoddthousand or a family of 2 making 60someoddthousand aren't really making too much to get a tax credit to alleviate some of their $18K or $12K, respectively, premiums.

Just my opinion...but it probably should be accepted by all. The middle class is getting straight f bombed in this deal.

[IMADreamer]

ACA is a [expletive]. It would have been better to let the Bush tax cuts expire, and waited until the climate was right to go for some real productive change - universal health care.

Congress is sick joke. They pass laws then make it their sole mission to undermine those laws (or whatever their wealthy overlords tell them to do). Governance by destruction.

Universal Health Care would have and will never happen. I want it to happen, it is the answer, but the insurance lobby is too strong, and the right is too fervent against it. It's a sad fact that we will never have Universal Health Care.

That is probably the top reason I want to get out of America. Of course there are others. Interestingly a buddy of mine who is a magazine editor in Australia offered me a job this week. They have UHC. I can't leave though while my Mom and Dad are still around.

[Socnorb11]

Before you disagree with me soc, because I think I know hwat you're going to say, the way universal health care isn't happening is 1. people are forced to pay for it instead of a penalty* and instead of through taxation 2. the government isn't providing the services...which are left open to private companies to manipulate.

*With existing conditions being forced on insurance companies, it makes way more sense to pay the penalty if you're healthy. And, if you get a thing like cancer, then go sign up for insurance.

I really hope your co-worker is doing well, and cancer is the most vile thing on the face of the planet, so I wish her the best.

Well, we're mostly talking about semantics here, but OK.

Our country needed health care reform. Let's just put it that way. This is a start, and it's going to benefit LOTS of people......... far more than it's going to hinder.


Thank you (co-worker). Still very early stages of treatment, so it's hard to say how she's doing.

[Arthur Dent]

Yeah, I agree that the federal poverty level is way too low and that there should be much larger subsidies.

I think America in has long been f bombed as you say by absurdly overpriced health care. Moving to more universal coverage while costs remain out of control certainly makes the problem more acute for a broader population, but I don't know if I'd say the deal itself is responsible, though I certainly agree that the lack of sufficient cost controls undermines the thing seriously.

[docellis]

the countries with the best and least expensive healthcare run at deficiencies. surely there is middle ground.

changing is hard.

[Arthur Dent]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/us/po ... posed.html

[...]

New Hampshire may be ground zero in the political war over the Affordable Care Act, a state where the three Democratic members of the congressional delegation are under serious threat because of the fumbled rollout of the health care law. Suddenly they must balance their loyalty to the White House with the needs of an angry constituency that has had to absorb some of the worst problems with the new law.

The problems are many. The Tea Party-fueled legislature passed a law prohibiting the governor from setting up a state health insurance exchange, so the state must rely on the faulty federal government website, HealthCare.gov. So far, only 269 people have signed up for a plan that way, a total dwarfed by the number of residents whose policies have been canceled.

Ryan Williams, a Republican consultant from New Hampshire, noted that this year, 281 residents were issued permits to hunt moose. “You’ve got a better chance of winning the moose lottery than getting health care coverage through Barack Obama’s broken website,” he said.

What is worse, the federally run exchange for the state has attracted only one insurance provider, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which touched off a furor when it excluded 10 of the state’s 26 hospitals from the health plans it offers through the exchange. Residents in the north of New Hampshire may have to drive an hour to find a hospital or doctor in their network. The Democratic governor, Maggie Hassan, is locked in a fight with the Republican-controlled Senate over how or whether to expand Medicaid as part of the health law.

[...]

[Leroy]

Yep, this is on the Republicans.

[planet planet]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... h/3650243/

[lukethedrifter]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... h/3650243/

HEALTH CARE SPENDING INCREASES HIT NEW LOW
Health care costs rose by only 1.3% a year from 2010 to 2013, a new report from the White House Council on Economic Advisers shows. That's the lowest increase in a three-year period on record. White House officials cite the 2010 Affordable Care Act as a main factor in lowering costs.

don't know if it's a primary cause but I imagine all this recent, ie last few years, talk about healthcare/insurance costs has made the average American a bit more wary of where his healthcare money is going.


Caveat: I AM NOT CREDITING OR BLAMING OBAMA FOR THIS

[Arthur Dent]

Yep, this is on the Republicans.

In case it wasn't obvious, I don't think so either. Seems like a major problem with the structure of the law and its implementation. A worse problem than bad computer programming, though that is bad too.