ACA (Obamacare) updates for 2014

GreatGran wrote: Entire article worth the read. You can't fix stupid no matter how hard the bleeding liberals try.
Obamacare's problem: You can't fix stupid

Our Constitutionally guaranteed freedom in this country isn't just a slogan. It means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. The freedom to be smart, and the freedom to be stupid. And just because you can't fix stupid, it doesn't mean we should try to fix or amend freedom.
Unfortunately, that's just what Obamacare does by taking money from the responsible portion of society in an attempt to force feed responsibility to another. That's the thing about responsibility: It can't be imposed or transferred from one to another.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101492996

That's a brilliant quote right there, thanks for the link. :ThumbsUp:

Your welcome Rick. The article does sum it up nicely. Here's another quote from the article.

We spend a lot of tax money in this country trying to stamp out stupid with varying degrees of success. But no matter how much we spend and how hard we try, millions of Americans will still smoke, drink to excess, drink and drive, eat unhealthy food, and refuse to be responsible enough to tend to their health and health coverage. And there isn't any website, commercial, or funny viral video on Earth that will change their minds.

Rick wrote:

GreatGran wrote: Entire article worth the read. You can't fix stupid no matter how hard the bleeding liberals try.
Obamacare's problem: You can't fix stupid

Our Constitutionally guaranteed freedom in this country isn't just a slogan. It means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. The freedom to be smart, and the freedom to be stupid. And just because you can't fix stupid, it doesn't mean we should try to fix or amend freedom.
Unfortunately, that's just what Obamacare does by taking money from the responsible portion of society in an attempt to force feed responsibility to another. That's the thing about responsibility: It can't be imposed or transferred from one to another.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101492996

That's a brilliant quote right there, thanks for the link. :ThumbsUp:

Obamacare barreling right along...

Five million people have now signed up for health insurance on the state and federal online exchanges, the Obama administration said Monday — a number that suggests a big-last minute surge to get coverage.

The goal is not only to sign up at least 6 million people, but to get the right mix of young and healthy enrollees versus older and sicker people, so premiums don’t have to spike next year.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-ca ... are-n54961

But wait... they said Obamacare was put into law to help how many people who needed health care insurance?

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges.

http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/12/how ... -companies

5 million is rather short of that goal, or is my math wrong?

A new report finds that one in three Americans who do not have health insurance plan to remain uninsured.

According to the survey done by Bankrate.com, of the 34 percent who say they won’t purchase Obamacare, 41 percent said it was too expensive, 17 percent were against the Affordable Care Act and 13 percent said they were healthy enough not to need coverage.

“It’s hard to generalize, but for some of these folks, it’s a case of, ‘I’m in pretty good health, I don’t think about these things, I know I can’t afford it now,’” Michael Morrisey, professor of health economics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, told Bankrate.com. “I think it’s just rolling past them, and they’re not giving it a whole lot of attention.”

Only 56 percent polled said they plan to purchase health insurance.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/03/ ... obamacare/

Oops.

So, we go through all this expense to set up the federal exchange (which is still not working to it's fullest, and functionality is still not even been coded yet, see: financial back end software), states have spent local and federal money to set up exchanges (and a number of those exchanges have not been able to sign up a SINGLE person through the exchanges websites) and we have hire thousands of "navigators" (read: community organizers, nee: ex-ACORN members).

And out of the new 5 million number, we have thousands of people who already had insurance and their insurance was canceled and they had to go to the federal exchange. We have people who were ready in their life cycle to sign up for Medicare anyway and then we have some people who really needed the help.

The Democrats produced a terribly flawed and unworkable law. And it is going to cost everyone billions of dollars that could have been spent directly on the people in this country who really needed the help.

Instead all of this money has been going into the pockets of federal contractors, federal employees, part time contract navigators, support personal, wasted time and money in congressional committee hearings, hundreds of software companies that have help screw this up... in short... crony capitalism, brought to you by the Democrat Party.

And if any liberals around MMT that can disprove ANYTHING I have said in this post, go for it.

RR,
You are just being mean. The ACA is all about good intentions. Amazing to see that a President with no executive or hiring experience can't manage one of the overreaching pieces of legislation ever.
Just because no one wants to sign up to pay more than last year so that others can get health care isn't the fault of Barack Obama.

It would be interesting to compare the increases per year in health insurance costs compared to this first year of ACA. One year of Obamacare price hikes equal to eight years of pre-ACA increases?
And what happens next year when far fewer youth sign up than planned? The premiums and/or deductibles will have to increase again.

FredHayek wrote: It would be interesting to compare the increases per year in health insurance costs compared to this first year of ACA. One year of Obamacare price hikes equal to eight years of pre-ACA increases?
And what happens next year when far fewer youth sign up than planned? The premiums and/or deductibles will have to increase again.

What are you going on about Fred? All of the eligible youth have to sign up by March 31st, 2014.

Oh wait, it seems that this has slipped under the radar.

But amid the post-rollout political backlash, last week the agency created a new category: Now all you need to do is fill out a form attesting that your plan was cancelled and that you “believe that the plan options available in the [ObamaCare] Marketplace in your area are more expensive than your cancelled health insurance policy” or “you consider other available policies unaffordable.”

This lax standard—no formula or hard test beyond a person’s belief—at least ostensibly requires proof such as an insurer termination notice. But people can also qualify for hardships for the unspecified nonreason that “you experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance,” which only requires “documentation if possible.” And yet another waiver is available to those who say they are merely unable to afford coverage, regardless of their prior insurance. In a word, these shifting legal benchmarks offer an exemption to everyone who conceivably wants one.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/13/obama ... ayed-but-i

Oh.. .that takes care of that. The power of the mandate has been reduced to about nothing. Thank ObamaGod.

Here's some more food for thought. First of all, the most transparent administration in history still won't tell us how many people have actually paid their first premium.

And assuming someone has paid a health insurance premium for the first time, how long will they continue to pay? Some young healthy guy decides he should get health insurance for the first time... then down the road his priorities change... new high maintenance girlfriend, blown motor in his pickup, or maybe he just breaks his arm and remembers he has a 5k deductible. And with the tough job market combined with rising prices of everything, which monthly payment will be eliminated first?
Car payment?
Rent/mortgage?
Cell phone?
internet?
Utilities?
Auto insurance?
Clothing? Food?
Entertainment?

I remember those young years and I remember what my priorities were... my health was definitely not one of them even though it should have been. It wasn't until I got married that I decided health insurance was a must, and only because we knew kids were in our plans.

The hospital bills are hitting Larry Basich’s mailbox.

That would be OK if Basich had health insurance. But he doesn’t.

Thing is, he should be covered. Basich, 62, bought a plan through the state’s Nevada Health Link insurance exchange in the fall. He’s been paying monthly premiums since November.

Yet the Las Vegan is stranded in a no-man’s-land where no carrier claims him, and his tab is mounting: Basich owes $407,000 for care received in January and February, when his policy was supposed to be in effect. Instead, he’s covered only for March and beyond.

Basich said he began trying to enroll on Oct. 1, the day the exchange website went live. Like many consumers, he fought technical flaws during multiple sign-up attempts. In mid-November he finally got through and chose his plan: UnitedHealthcare’s MyHPNSilver1.

“It was like reaching the third level of Doom,” Basich said of the torturous sign-up process.

Basich paid his first premium on Nov. 21, and within days the exchange withdrew the $160.77 payment from his money-market savings account. Because Basich paid a month before the Dec. 23 deadline, his coverage was to begin Jan. 1.

Weeks ticked by, but Basich received nothing to confirm he had insurance. Nevada Health Link kept telling him he was enrolled, but UnitedHealthcare said he wasn’t in their system.

Basich’s predicament went critical on Dec. 31, when he had a heart attack. His treatment, which included a triple bypass on Jan. 3, resulted in $407,000 in medical bills in January and February that no insurer is covering.

Why have four months passed without a resolution?

Read more: http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/obamacare-leaves-las-vegas-man-owing-407000-doctor-bills

If that's how well Obamacare works no wonder no one wants any part of it.

Obviously the guy is lying... just ask Harry.