Obamacare ? Anyone?

[pj]

So Colin, all of these folks who are losing their policies, that the incredible caring naive President has said are sub-standard are better off without them? For if you listen to Washington, all these people five million plus of them did not know how poorly they were covered, which I believe is what you infer.

One would also get by the Washington condescending tone that these 5 million plus people are just not savvy enough to know that they have been snookered by their former insurance carriers. Well, how lucky we are to have such caring, technocrats, bureaucrats, and autocrats looking out after us poor dumb Americans, who are unable to cipher out insurance contracts.

It will be some time before I and millions of other Americans will believe Washington when it says: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

[glasseye]

That said, Obama is some kind of idiot, a brilliant caring naïve idiot.
Colin

Idiot, maybe. Caring and naive? I don't think so. His rhetoric would have you believe so, but his actions speak otherwise.

Guantanamo, drone strikes, unquestioning Israel support, drug policies, Wall Street accountability, financial services reform, departmental appointees, privacy violations, secrecy...

Change we can believe in? From here, I see little.

Obamacare is a good attempt at fixing a corrupt system against intolerable odds. I wish you all the best of luck in that endeavor.

[Jivermo]

But wait...

[Lanval]

So Colin, all of these folks who are losing their policies, that the incredible caring naive President has said are sub-standard are better off without them? For if you listen to Washington, all these people five million plus of them did not know how poorly they were covered, which I believe is what you infer.

One would also get by the Washington condescending tone that these 5 million plus people are just not savvy enough to know that they have been snookered by their former insurance carriers. Well, how lucky we are to have such caring, technocrats, bureaucrats, and autocrats looking out after us poor dumb Americans, who are unable to cipher out insurance contracts.

It will be some time before I and millions of other Americans will believe Washington when it says: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Historically, change is painful. The more it changes, the more people it affects, the more pain there is. Broadly speaking though, change most often (not always) results in better circumstances for the majority (not for everyone). Some examples of change that were difficult:

End of slavery
End of legalized discrimination (I'm talking about the Civil Rights movement of the 60s here)
Social Security
Workman's Compensation
Voting for:
*Non-land owing males (1824)
*Non-whites (1865)
*Women (1921)
End of child labor
Limits on monopolies

And many more. Monarchy didn't die easily; they went out fighting. And frankly, some things were lost. (as an academic and would-be writer, I WISH some Duke would hire me as his child's tutor/poet/chronicler). Overall, though, the world is better without the kings and emperors of the world at the helm.

5 million people lost their health insurance. That's not awesome. You know what's worse? That there are 46 million who never had it anyway, because insurance companies kept their profits high by only insuring healthy, low-cost people. Some will suffer that all may benefit. It's in the nature of the social contract (see: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu and others). In time, though, and given some will on the part of the people to care about someone besides themselves, this too will become a part of the world we live in, and... I hope a good part of the world. If not, let us change and improve it. While no solution may not be perfect, the world of today is vastly superior than that of even a few generations ago.

Be the change in the world you want to see.

ML

[hambone]

Great points.

[Bleyseng]

The 5 million who lost their insurance could have it in a minute "IF" the GOP controlled states expanded Medicare with the available Fed Funds for it.
Now that's the real crime here not this BS about the Healthcare.gov website snafu's. In WA we spent out Fed $$ to build a working Healthcare website instead of blocking access to the "People". Again, BS GOP antics that criminal to delay, deny, stall laws from being available to the "People".

The State of Washington is great as we have:
1. A working Healthcare website
2. Legalized pot
3. Gay marriage

haha, now if only we had less rain and people I could enjoy it more

[hambone]

If the people want it, anything can change.
If we are the ONLY "1st world" country without universal coverage for it's citizens, how is this even an argument? We are the fucking United States. I just can't get my head wrapped around this situation. There is a giant purple pig in the living room!

[RussellK]

As one who has been writing a monthly check to an insurance company for the last 29 years the idea of a plan being dropped or changed is nothing new. Every year about this time I read the offers and decide which plan will offer the most with the least pain and every year the cost has gone up. In fact to the best of my recollection the only time I saw a premium go down was during the Clinton Administration when Hillary was making her stab at healthcare reform and as soon as the threat was past the insurers made up for lost time by taking a healthy increase the following year. President Obama misspoke when he promised you could keep your plan but anyone experienced in the purchase of health insurance should have just shrugged knowing historically it never worked that way anyway.

I'm reserving judgment on whether this will be better for me economically until I get on the exchange and actually see what is available. But up to this point the changes have been fortunate for my family and me. As an aside my private plan notified me at the end of October my plan would end since it was non compliant and they would be sending alternative plans for my review. Then two weeks ago I received a letter stating my plan was compliant but surprise, surprise it would be increased 23%. Sounds like business as usual.

[RussellK]

. In WA we spent out Fed $$ to build a working Healthcare website instead of blocking access to the "People". Again, BS GOP antics that criminal to delay, deny, stall laws from being available to the "People".

Careful you might be talking about the Missouruh Legislature, who's favorite mantra is "less federal government because we know best how to run our own affairs". Then when the federal government wants to gift them the millions to set up a Missouri exchange and retain Missouri control over it they decline because that would look too much like cooperation forcing the Federal Exchange into the lives of the unwitting Missouri citizenry. So much for idealistic purity.

[yondermtn]

President Obama misspoke

He lied to your face multiple times to sell Obamacare.

[RussellK]

President Obama misspoke

He lied to your face multiple times to sell Obamacare.

Really? Other than his "you can keep your plan" what other lies has he told.

[wanderer]

President Obama misspoke

He lied to your face multiple times to sell Obamacare.

Really? Other than his "you can keep your plan" what other lies has he told.

Just a few of the other lies MSNBC and CNN and ABC and NBC and PBS are reporting are:

"If you like your Doctor you can keep your Doctor"
"Your plan will go down in price"
"This is not a tax"
"I've been on this since day one"
" I was not informed of the website problems"
"Unemployment has gone from 10% to 8.5% since I took office"
" I had no intention of replacing Biden on the ticket"

[hambone]

You guys are crazy. Every politician does it. Every honcho, everywhere. It's a necessary part of business.

[glasseye]

Really? Other than his "you can keep your plan" what other lies has he told.

I won't go after pot smokers.

[RussellK]

President Obama misspoke

He lied to your face multiple times to sell Obamacare.

Really? Other than his "you can keep your plan" what other lies has he told.

Just a few of the other lies MSNBC and CNN and ABC and NBC and PBS are reporting are:

"If you like your Doctor you can keep your Doctor"
"Your plan will go down in price"
"This is not a tax"
"I've been on this since day one"
" I was not informed of the website problems"
"Unemployment has gone from 10% to 8.5% since I took office"
" I had no intention of replacing Biden on the ticket"

Really? Other than his "you can keep your plan" what other lies has he told.

I won't go after pot smokers.

Whether Obama plays fast and free with the truth might make a subject for another thread but relative to his selling Obamacare to the public his statements sound to me more like someone with limited experience negotiating their way through health insurance. i.e. "You can keep your plan" ignores the fact that insurance plans are dropped every year typically pushing customers into either higher priced or a higher deductible plans, many times both. Woefully out of touch politicians lacking that awareness doesn't strike me as particularly surprising. The only difference I see between the past and this year's excuse is the ACA, which the insurance companies are gleefully using as their reason for cutting staff, sales commissions and less profitable plans. "You can keep your doctor" Doctors and Hospital Groups negotiate reimbursement rates regularly. Providers dropping from a network is nothing new. Last year UHC tried to leverage their size against BJC Healthcare threatening to eliminate coverage if BJC didn't agree to lower reimbursements potentially sending thousands of patients scrambling to find replacement doctors and facilities. I do think Obama's reassurances were unfortunate given their inaccuracy but I'll back away from outright duplicity. Why did he feel compelled to make repeating simplified statements that turned out being not wholly accurate? I don't know. Maybe he should have said something to the effect of notwithstanding prevailing market conditions, other influences and the determination of your insurer and provider under the ACA you will be able to keep your current plan and doctor. Then we could just slam him for being vague and showing weakness.