2 days ago: "oh noes, lots of folks are losing their shitty insurance"
yesterday: Obamz sez insurance companies can continue to sell shitty insurance
today: "oh noes, I'm so upset, he didn't follow the constitution"
me: ha ha ha fuckin ha...
Lots of folks lost insurance that was working just fine for them.
How on earth is anyone comfortable (or worse, gloatingly-ecstatic) poking fun at those who have been fucked by this? Those who have legitimate health and financial worries?
"I came out OK, so fuck you and your whining" - that's what it's come to? Really?
(and if so, then my apologies for being so misguided)
My own insurance is in place for now, and I'm thankful for it; the increase is ultimately inconsequential to our wallet. Don't know what's going to happen with coverage for my husband though; his COBRA is up in a month, the cost to add him to my policy is prohibitive, and we can't get solid, secure information on what's involved with obtaining his own separate policy.
God or whatever help us when his PKD goes into overdrive, or he needs another lung surgery.
Recently former Federal Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote that “Barack Obama is guilty of fraud — serial fraud — that is orders of magnitude more serious than frauds the Justice Department routinely prosecutes” which in the private sector is a punishable crime.
live and let live...unless it violates the pearligious doctrine.
...you will not see this on liberal media. Expected though.
STUDENTS AT HISTORICALLY BLACK UNIVERSITY LASH OUT AT OBAMACARE AFTER THIS SURPRISE SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT
Students at a historically black Maryland university spoke out this week against President Barack Obama’s signature health care law after the school announced it had cancelled a student insurance policy because of the Affordable Care Act’s regulations.
“It’s stupid and it’s Obama’s fault,” one Bowie State University student told website Campus Reform Thursday. “You haven’t done anything, Obama, and I’m disappointed in you.”
The historically black school had previously provided coverage to students for $50 per semester, but stopped and placed blame on Obamacare.
“I can’t afford anything right now,” one student said. “I can’t even afford my loans.”
“We don’t have that money,” another said. “We can barely afford books.”
live and let live...unless it violates the pearligious doctrine.
Obamacare ‘success story’ says she can’t afford new health plan
A single mom from Washington State who was cited by President Obama as an Affordable Care Act success story now says she’ll go uninsured and calls the program a “treadmill of bureaucracy.”
Washington State Wire reports that Jessica Sanford, 48, discovered that she is no longer eligible for a large subsidy that would have lowered her monthly premium to $169 per month. Instead, Sanford would now be forced to pay nearly four times as much, $621, for coverage.
Sanford told the paper she believes the government should shut down the entire healthcare.gov site until the site’s issues are resolved. “In my opinion they ought to shut it down and just get all of it straightened out.”
That's a complete 180 from what Sanford thought she was signing up for last month when Obama touted her as an Affordable Care Act success story.
During a White House Rose Garden ceremony on Oct. 21, Obama read an email from Sanford in which she thanks the president for offering her help in obtaining a low-cost, high-quality coverage plan.
"I recently received a letter from a woman named Jessica Sanford in Washington state,” Obama said. “And here's what she wrote: 'I am a single mom, no child support, self-employed. And I haven't had insurance for 15 years because it's too expensive. I was crying the other day when I signed up, so much stress lifted.' "
Sanford works as a court reporter and says she makes just under $50,000 a year. Her 14-year-old son requires a monthly prescription that is expensive because it must come from a compounded pharmacy. She said she thought the originally promised $452 monthly premium subsidy would help her close the financial gap.
“To think I would finally be covered if anything happened – I was so relieved,” she told the Washington Wire.
However, CNN reports that in the days following Obama's Rose Garden ceremony Sanford received a letter telling her that her tax credit had been taken away, meaning she won’t be able to afford coverage. Officials reportedly told her that they made a mistake in calculating her benefits. Sanford is reportedly one of 8,000 people in Washington State who have received letters informing them that their promised subsidies have been reduced or removed.
“This is it. I'm not getting insurance," Sanford told CNN. "That's where it stands right now unless they fix it."
....
Nothing to worry about ... they still have ten days to fix it.
Hey, at least dogs aren't having a problem getting on Obamacare.
Shane Smith of Fort Collins, Colo., recently found a little surprise when he signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. After proceeding through all the registration hurdles with Connect for Health Colorado, he learned that his dog Baxter had gotten insured, not Smith himself.
Smith said he guessed the mistake happened when he gave Baxter's name as one of the security questions. “It was pretty funny," Smith said. "Typical Obamacare, that they would insure your dog by mistake.”
Smith indicated that the error was resolved fairly quickly. (We like to imagine the insurance coverage discussion with Baxter went something like this.)
Connect for Health Colorado released the following statement: "In general, our letters to customers are generated according to information that is provided by the customer into the system either online or over the phone. In other words, our system does not make up a name when generating a letter. As with any new system, mistakes are possible and when notified by customers, we work quickly to resolve the situation.”
.
Supporters and critics of Obamacare will surely go to great and absurd lengths to paint this understandable clerical error as evidence of the program's total failure. But there's another way to look at it: Obamacare is taking care of your pets, too!
Of course, you'll have about as much trouble explaining their policy to them as signing them up, but that's the price we pay for universal pet care coverage.
Another day, another big, bad black eye for HealthCare.gov.
A crucial system for making payments to insurers from people who enroll in that federal Obamacare marketplace has yet to be built, a senior government IT official admitted Tuesday.
The official, Henry Chao, visibly stunned Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) when he said under questioning before a House subcommittee that a significant fraction of HealthCare.gov—30 to 40 percent of it—has yet to be constructed.
"We still need to build the payments system to make the payments [to insurance companies] in January," testified Chao, deputy chief information officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that operates HealthCare.gov.
That so-called financial management tool was originally supposed to be part of HealthCare.gov when it launched Oct. 1, but officials later suspended its launch as part of their effort to get the consumer interface part of the site ready. The tool will, when it works, transmit the subsidies that the government is kicking in for many enrollees to offset the costs of their monthly premiums.
Well, just to give a final update on this cluster fuck. Our insurance policy did indeed terminate on Dec. 31st. When I was finally able to browse the market place plans I saw no policy that was as good as what I had for the same price or cheaper...NONE. They all had either shitty coverage, my doctors weren't in their covered network, and most still had ridiculously high deductibles and max out of pockets.
I found a couple of plans through BCBS that actually had my wife's doctors in their network and it's a PPO in case we are out of network for some reason we don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops or get stuck paying. The plans I did find were more expensive than what I already had, and the max out of pocket wasn't that much different...not enough to warrant the increase in costs. Again, I didn't mind having a bigger deductible and max out of pocket, because it kept my premiums lower and we hardly use our insurance except for emergencies. A concept that some here didn't quite grasp.
So as a self employed person, and not wanting to spend even more money than I already was and just generally being pissed off at the way the whole thing has gone down...I took advantage of what was available. I simply stripped mine and my wife's pay. This allowed us to get hundreds of dollars in tax credit towards our insurance. The benefits of which are compounded because A) I just slashed our yearly Tax bill by a lot I REALLY slashed my company's payroll tax burden C) I qualify for these tax credits towards our health insurance.
So now instead of $600 or $700 a month their shitty insurance was going to cost me...I was able to get a better plan and it will cost me about $300 mo. I guess it really pays to be poor?
The upside is, I have everything I own paid off. I don't need anything. So cutting my pay really doesn't affect us much. I could have paid ourselves less if I wanted. I have plenty of write-offs within my business for the excess cash, and this actually may be a good thing because I can roll a lot of that excess back into the business and help it grow even more. I guess if nothing else...at least we are covered again. We had to jump through a million fucking hoops just to keep some sort of insurance and not pay more and have less benefits than we already did before this stupid shit got started.
So basically this horrific screw up will also penalize people for improving their station in life by taking away the incentive to increase their salary since they will lose those increases in higher premiums.
The only people we should try to get even with...
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
So basically this horrific screw up will also penalize people for improving their station in life by taking away the incentive to increase their salary since they will lose those increases in higher premiums.
DING DING DING --- we have a winner --- That's EXACTLY what it does. I just saw on the news this morning (on CNN) right after I posted my update that there's already reports of people planning on cutting back their hours at work, and possibly even quitting, because the benefits received, they specifically mentioned the tax credit towards healthcare, exceed what they would make in the work place.
I can't help but think this is some way to make people more dependent...not less dependent...on government. This isn't just helping out for the good of humanity. The way it's structured you have no real incentive to improve your financial standing. I can afford to experiment around with this shit, and not pay myself and see the rewards I reap. So far, in the long run...on paper at least...it appears I will be better off financially by paying myself a pittance than I was when I paid myself a decent salary. Go figure.
Oh and just as an additional update...when I tried to get an updated policy through my last insurance provider, the one that cancelled us, the same policy with the same deductible was going to be almost $1,100 per month!!! Up almost $700 from what I was paying before! Some had mentioned my high deductible / max out of pocket was the problem with my old policy but that is bullshit. I've seen policies in the market place that have up to a $9,500 max on them. No...I found out the real reason my policy got cancelled is that we didn't have some mammogram coverage and something to do with child birth. I would have gladly paid for my wife's fucking mammogram if it meant keeping my insurance...and she can't have kids so we don't need anything more to do with anything related to child birth. It's over now though.
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,759
Well, just to give a final update on this cluster fuck. Our insurance policy did indeed terminate on Dec. 31st. When I was finally able to browse the market place plans I saw no policy that was as good as what I had for the same price or cheaper...NONE. They all had either shitty coverage, my doctors weren't in their covered network, and most still had ridiculously high deductibles and max out of pockets.
I found a couple of plans through BCBS that actually had my wife's doctors in their network and it's a PPO in case we are out of network for some reason we don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops or get stuck paying. The plans I did find were more expensive than what I already had, and the max out of pocket wasn't that much different...not enough to warrant the increase in costs. Again, I didn't mind having a bigger deductible and max out of pocket, because it kept my premiums lower and we hardly use our insurance except for emergencies. A concept that some here didn't quite grasp.
So as a self employed person, and not wanting to spend even more money than I already was and just generally being pissed off at the way the whole thing has gone down...I took advantage of what was available. I simply stripped mine and my wife's pay. This allowed us to get hundreds of dollars in tax credit towards our insurance. The benefits of which are compounded because A) I just slashed our yearly Tax bill by a lot I REALLY slashed my company's payroll tax burden C) I qualify for these tax credits towards our health insurance.
So now instead of $600 or $700 a month their shitty insurance was going to cost me...I was able to get a better plan and it will cost me about $300 mo. I guess it really pays to be poor?
The upside is, I have everything I own paid off. I don't need anything. So cutting my pay really doesn't affect us much. I could have paid ourselves less if I wanted. I have plenty of write-offs within my business for the excess cash, and this actually may be a good thing because I can roll a lot of that excess back into the business and help it grow even more. I guess if nothing else...at least we are covered again. We had to jump through a million fucking hoops just to keep some sort of insurance and not pay more and have less benefits than we already did before this stupid shit got started.
Re. the bolded above, in these economic times, that is probably one of the smartest things a person can do.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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hedonist
standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
The bolded part, in ANY time, is the smartest thing...even if it takes awhile and some major cutting back.
Shawshank, glad it worked out for you, finally. My husband pretty much gave up on the clusterfuckery when searching for coverage and is currently without. That is fucking scary. Upside, he's pretty close to getting a position with full coverage.
Congressional Budget Office reports that ACA will force 2.5 million jobs out of the work force ... and the White House amazingly put a positive spin on that outcome.
Over the longer run, CBO finds that because of this law, individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods, like retiring on time rather than working into their elderly years or choosing to spend more time with their families. At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.
So when corporations do mass lay-offs, we can now classify that as corporation setting people free to pursue their dreams????
Congressional Budget Office reports that ACA will force 2.5 million jobs out of the work force ... and the White House amazingly put a positive spin on that outcome.
Over the longer run, CBO finds that because of this law, individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods, like retiring on time rather than working into their elderly years or choosing to spend more time with their families. At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.
So when corporations do mass lay-offs, we can now classify that as corporation setting people free to pursue their dreams????
if you think that the conservatives in gov't don't secretly love the ACA you are thinking on the surface. Ins. companies are the big winners, and they fund campaigns it's the same old story. conservatives and liberals alike voted to ban price negotiations for prescription drugs under medicaid part D.
this is 50 billion a year. given away. by paul ryan, eric cantor, john boehner and many others.
the "cut welfare and spend on defense" method hasn't been working on the american people since the disillusionment of a decade of unpopular war and a financial collapse followed by bank bailouts for the mega-rich. stunning how closely it mirrors vietnam and the recession of the 70's. what happened next? "liberal" governments that continue to funnel money into corps (banks, oil companies) and give lip service to progressive causes (environmentalism, gender equality) to appease the citizens.
healthcare today was a great opportunity for both sides of the aisle to find new and growing campaign donors, while affecting change, and taking the heat off the banks and energy guys. who knows whats next, TPP, net neutrality, there's some ugly stuff happening.
Chuck Schumer today said the ACA is great because it allows the single mother of 3 to be able to stay home and not work to cover the cost of health care.
Hmnnn....what about the costs of living? Oh yeah, the government will cover that too.
But damn those rich people for not paying their fair share!
i definitely see your point, but it's a shame the machine is able to make us turn on each other...to side with a greedy billionaire over a struggling single mother. we all make mistakes and deal with adversity. I would rather see a billion "welfare mothers" live on the US taxpayer dime, than to see a single billionaire living on the corporate welfare system the way they do. if that single mother robs a bank she goes to jail, if the bank owner robs her he gets a million dollar bonus and immunity from indictment. the sad thing is people who make between 80k and 500k (the doctors, professionals, and entrepreneurs who REALLY create jobs) get taxed the heaviest to make up the deficit of the truly wealthy and truly poor. sadly they are deluded into thinking "conservatives" will cut their taxes if only the "progressives" will let them. then the tax cuts come through and guess what, the upper middle class gets reamed and both ends get cuts. sad sad sad to see intelligent successful people taking up for the criminals who oppress them
Chuck Schumer today said the ACA is great because it allows the single mother of 3 to be able to stay home and not work to cover the cost of health care.
Hmnnn....what about the costs of living? Oh yeah, the government will cover that too.
But damn those rich people for not paying their fair share!
3 kids of a single mom who wasn't working would've been covered by Medicaid before ACA, and still would be on medicaid after ACA.
The ACA is a bait and switch for most people, allowing them to have insurance, but with such high deductibles that most will pay most of their expenses out of pocket.. For those who are poor enough to qualify for subsidies, this is a good deal seemingly. However, the cheap plans have high deductibles, so they will still end up paying most of their medical expenses out of pocket. I suspect that many if not more folks will end up in the ER for care.
The rest of us will be paying the same or higher premiums for less coverage.
The only people who really benefit are people with preexisting conditions. The insurance compaines are passing the cost of their care onto the rest of us.
. The insurance compaines are passing the cost of their care onto the rest of us.
this is a good point. i get people being angry at the government, that makes sense, i am too. but not holding the ins company to blame when they choose to drop you rather than add a few inexpensive items to coverage, this makes no sense. in this country the slave takes up for his master when the abolitionist comes to help him. be mad at welfare moms and not welfare billionaires, mistrust black/white people but trust the people who steal your money. we mistrust the govt which, ostensibly at least, is there to take care of us, and we trust in "the market" which corrupts the govt. we are the worst. but PJ fans, even blind ones, now theres some hope as long as theres some PJ
The White House delayed mandates on business for the second consecutive year. Once again placing the funding of this "law" on the shrinking middle class that is increasingly being "set free" to pursue their dreams.
Obama's "Year of Action" more resembles "The Summer of George" ....
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hedonist
standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
The White House delayed mandates on business for the second consecutive year. Once again placing the funding of this "law" on the shrinking middle class that is increasingly being "set free" to pursue their dreams.
Obama's "Year of Action" more resembles "The Summer of George" ....
Been shaking my head at this. Such piss-poor planning. No business operating like this could continue...could they?
rgambs - As for the government taking care of us? No thanks and not its intent. I'll take care of myself, thank you.
At this point, the majority of the people representing us are corrupt by design and in action...kind of - and sadly - reminiscent of the Three Stooges.
If part of the government under a conservative leader had said that losing your job or quitting because you can't afford health insurance would allow you to be free to pursue your dreams, they would be crucified by almost everyone. That comment has gone widely unmentioned.
The only people we should try to get even with...
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
The White House delayed mandates on business for the second consecutive year. Once again placing the funding of this "law" on the shrinking middle class that is increasingly being "set free" to pursue their dreams.
Obama's "Year of Action" more resembles "The Summer of George" ....
Been shaking my head at this. Such piss-poor planning. No business operating like this could continue...could they?
rgambs - As for the government taking care of us? No thanks and not its intent. I'll take care of myself, thank you.
At this point, the majority of the people representing us are corrupt by design and in action...kind of - and sadly - reminiscent of the Three Stooges.
So you are an anarchist? We don't need a government to protect our rights and lives? I wish humanity could respect each other, and not violate each other's rights but clearly that isn't possible yet. To say you will take care of yourself sounds fine, but it means nothing in a civilization like ours. Every facet of our lives is dominated by the rule of law that the government upholds. We can't get rid of it so we have to make it benefit us.
Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
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hedonist
standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
The White House delayed mandates on business for the second consecutive year. Once again placing the funding of this "law" on the shrinking middle class that is increasingly being "set free" to pursue their dreams.
Obama's "Year of Action" more resembles "The Summer of George" ....
Been shaking my head at this. Such piss-poor planning. No business operating like this could continue...could they?
rgambs - As for the government taking care of us? No thanks and not its intent. I'll take care of myself, thank you.
At this point, the majority of the people representing us are corrupt by design and in action...kind of - and sadly - reminiscent of the Three Stooges.
So you are an anarchist? We don't need a government to protect our rights and lives? I wish humanity could respect each other, and not violate each other's rights but clearly that isn't possible yet. To say you will take care of yourself sounds fine, but it means nothing in a civilization like ours. Every facet of our lives is dominated by the rule of law that the government upholds. We can't get rid of it so we have to make it benefit us.
An anarchist? No.
Perhaps I mistakenly took your referenced comment as all-encompassing. Government has certain limited roles - but making personal decisions for me - ie, taking care of us (under the guise of supposed altruism) - is not part of it. I'm pretty sure I know what's best for me, and will take responsibility for my actions AND mistakes, vs. the Keystone-Kop-like dipshits who seem to be in charge.
I don't think the suck it up mentality in your last sentence would work for me, rgambs. I'd rather change it.
Comments
How on earth is anyone comfortable (or worse, gloatingly-ecstatic) poking fun at those who have been fucked by this? Those who have legitimate health and financial worries?
"I came out OK, so fuck you and your whining" - that's what it's come to? Really?
(and if so, then my apologies for being so misguided)
My own insurance is in place for now, and I'm thankful for it; the increase is ultimately inconsequential to our wallet. Don't know what's going to happen with coverage for my husband though; his COBRA is up in a month, the cost to add him to my policy is prohibitive, and we can't get solid, secure information on what's involved with obtaining his own separate policy.
God or whatever help us when his PKD goes into overdrive, or he needs another lung surgery.
Or when LIFE happens.
To any of us.
"oh noes", my ass.
Recently former Federal Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote that “Barack Obama is guilty of fraud — serial fraud — that is orders of magnitude more serious than frauds the Justice Department routinely prosecutes” which in the private sector is a punishable crime.
STUDENTS AT HISTORICALLY BLACK UNIVERSITY LASH OUT AT OBAMACARE AFTER THIS SURPRISE SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT
Students at a historically black Maryland university spoke out this week against President Barack Obama’s signature health care law after the school announced it had cancelled a student insurance policy because of the Affordable Care Act’s regulations.
“It’s stupid and it’s Obama’s fault,” one Bowie State University student told website Campus Reform Thursday. “You haven’t done anything, Obama, and I’m disappointed in you.”
The historically black school had previously provided coverage to students for $50 per semester, but stopped and placed blame on Obamacare.
“I can’t afford anything right now,” one student said. “I can’t even afford my loans.”
“We don’t have that money,” another said. “We can barely afford books.”
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7InS-xW1LCI#
Obamacare ‘success story’ says she can’t afford new health plan
A single mom from Washington State who was cited by President Obama as an Affordable Care Act success story now says she’ll go uninsured and calls the program a “treadmill of bureaucracy.”
Washington State Wire reports that Jessica Sanford, 48, discovered that she is no longer eligible for a large subsidy that would have lowered her monthly premium to $169 per month. Instead, Sanford would now be forced to pay nearly four times as much, $621, for coverage.
Sanford told the paper she believes the government should shut down the entire healthcare.gov site until the site’s issues are resolved. “In my opinion they ought to shut it down and just get all of it straightened out.”
That's a complete 180 from what Sanford thought she was signing up for last month when Obama touted her as an Affordable Care Act success story.
During a White House Rose Garden ceremony on Oct. 21, Obama read an email from Sanford in which she thanks the president for offering her help in obtaining a low-cost, high-quality coverage plan.
"I recently received a letter from a woman named Jessica Sanford in Washington state,” Obama said. “And here's what she wrote: 'I am a single mom, no child support, self-employed. And I haven't had insurance for 15 years because it's too expensive. I was crying the other day when I signed up, so much stress lifted.' "
Sanford works as a court reporter and says she makes just under $50,000 a year. Her 14-year-old son requires a monthly prescription that is expensive because it must come from a compounded pharmacy. She said she thought the originally promised $452 monthly premium subsidy would help her close the financial gap.
“To think I would finally be covered if anything happened – I was so relieved,” she told the Washington Wire.
However, CNN reports that in the days following Obama's Rose Garden ceremony Sanford received a letter telling her that her tax credit had been taken away, meaning she won’t be able to afford coverage. Officials reportedly told her that they made a mistake in calculating her benefits. Sanford is reportedly one of 8,000 people in Washington State who have received letters informing them that their promised subsidies have been reduced or removed.
“This is it. I'm not getting insurance," Sanford told CNN. "That's where it stands right now unless they fix it."
....
Nothing to worry about ... they still have ten days to fix it.
http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-%e2%80%98success-story--says-she-can-t-afford-new-health-plan-225839697.html
Shane Smith of Fort Collins, Colo., recently found a little surprise when he signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. After proceeding through all the registration hurdles with Connect for Health Colorado, he learned that his dog Baxter had gotten insured, not Smith himself.
Smith said he guessed the mistake happened when he gave Baxter's name as one of the security questions. “It was pretty funny," Smith said. "Typical Obamacare, that they would insure your dog by mistake.”
Smith indicated that the error was resolved fairly quickly. (We like to imagine the insurance coverage discussion with Baxter went something like this.)
Connect for Health Colorado released the following statement: "In general, our letters to customers are generated according to information that is provided by the customer into the system either online or over the phone. In other words, our system does not make up a name when generating a letter. As with any new system, mistakes are possible and when notified by customers, we work quickly to resolve the situation.”
.
Supporters and critics of Obamacare will surely go to great and absurd lengths to paint this understandable clerical error as evidence of the program's total failure. But there's another way to look at it: Obamacare is taking care of your pets, too!
Of course, you'll have about as much trouble explaining their policy to them as signing them up, but that's the price we pay for universal pet care coverage.
http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-signs-u ... 50233.html
http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=http://ww ... gCg&wsc=bf
A crucial system for making payments to insurers from people who enroll in that federal Obamacare marketplace has yet to be built, a senior government IT official admitted Tuesday.
The official, Henry Chao, visibly stunned Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) when he said under questioning before a House subcommittee that a significant fraction of HealthCare.gov—30 to 40 percent of it—has yet to be constructed.
"We still need to build the payments system to make the payments [to insurance companies] in January," testified Chao, deputy chief information officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that operates HealthCare.gov.
That so-called financial management tool was originally supposed to be part of HealthCare.gov when it launched Oct. 1, but officials later suspended its launch as part of their effort to get the consumer interface part of the site ready. The tool will, when it works, transmit the subsidies that the government is kicking in for many enrollees to offset the costs of their monthly premiums.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101211556
The hits keep coming
This one suggests <1% will pay more for insurance (refers to actual data, too):
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101218418?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=101218418|Study:%20%27Tiny%20fraction%27%20wi
I found a couple of plans through BCBS that actually had my wife's doctors in their network and it's a PPO in case we are out of network for some reason we don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops or get stuck paying. The plans I did find were more expensive than what I already had, and the max out of pocket wasn't that much different...not enough to warrant the increase in costs. Again, I didn't mind having a bigger deductible and max out of pocket, because it kept my premiums lower and we hardly use our insurance except for emergencies. A concept that some here didn't quite grasp.
So as a self employed person, and not wanting to spend even more money than I already was and just generally being pissed off at the way the whole thing has gone down...I took advantage of what was available. I simply stripped mine and my wife's pay. This allowed us to get hundreds of dollars in tax credit towards our insurance. The benefits of which are compounded because A) I just slashed our yearly Tax bill by a lot
So now instead of $600 or $700 a month their shitty insurance was going to cost me...I was able to get a better plan and it will cost me about $300 mo. I guess it really pays to be poor?
The upside is, I have everything I own paid off. I don't need anything. So cutting my pay really doesn't affect us much. I could have paid ourselves less if I wanted. I have plenty of write-offs within my business for the excess cash, and this actually may be a good thing because I can roll a lot of that excess back into the business and help it grow even more. I guess if nothing else...at least we are covered again. We had to jump through a million fucking hoops just to keep some sort of insurance and not pay more and have less benefits than we already did before this stupid shit got started.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
I can't help but think this is some way to make people more dependent...not less dependent...on government. This isn't just helping out for the good of humanity. The way it's structured you have no real incentive to improve your financial standing. I can afford to experiment around with this shit, and not pay myself and see the rewards I reap. So far, in the long run...on paper at least...it appears I will be better off financially by paying myself a pittance than I was when I paid myself a decent salary. Go figure.
Shawshank, glad it worked out for you, finally. My husband pretty much gave up on the clusterfuckery when searching for coverage and is currently without. That is fucking scary. Upside, he's pretty close to getting a position with full coverage.
Fingers crossed.
Over the longer run, CBO finds that because of this law, individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods, like retiring on time rather than working into their elderly years or choosing to spend more time with their families. At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.
So when corporations do mass lay-offs, we can now classify that as corporation setting people free to pursue their dreams????
forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/02/05/white-house-its-a-good-thing-that-obamacare-will-drive-2-5-million-americans-out-of-the-workforce/?partner=yahootix
He's convinced people that it's not the government's place to ensure everyone has health insurance!!!
56% of people now believe that to be true vs. 28% when he started this misguided regulation/law/IRS overseer debacle.
That's quite an accomplishment. Maybe, he's smarter than we think. Very clever.
this is 50 billion a year. given away. by paul ryan, eric cantor, john boehner and many others.
the "cut welfare and spend on defense" method hasn't been working on the american people since the disillusionment of a decade of unpopular war and a financial collapse followed by bank bailouts for the mega-rich. stunning how closely it mirrors vietnam and the recession of the 70's. what happened next? "liberal" governments that continue to funnel money into corps (banks, oil companies) and give lip service to progressive causes (environmentalism, gender equality) to appease the citizens.
healthcare today was a great opportunity for both sides of the aisle to find new and growing campaign donors, while affecting change, and taking the heat off the banks and energy guys. who knows whats next, TPP, net neutrality, there's some ugly stuff happening.
Hmnnn....what about the costs of living? Oh yeah, the government will cover that too.
But damn those rich people for not paying their fair share!
we all make mistakes and deal with adversity. I would rather see a billion "welfare mothers" live on the US taxpayer dime, than to see a single billionaire living on the corporate welfare system the way they do.
if that single mother robs a bank she goes to jail, if the bank owner robs her he gets a million dollar bonus and immunity from indictment.
the sad thing is people who make between 80k and 500k (the doctors, professionals, and entrepreneurs who REALLY create jobs) get taxed the heaviest to make up the deficit of the truly wealthy and truly poor. sadly they are deluded into thinking "conservatives" will cut their taxes if only the "progressives" will let them. then the tax cuts come through and guess what, the upper middle class gets reamed and both ends get cuts. sad sad sad to see intelligent successful people taking up for the criminals who oppress them
The rest of us will be paying the same or higher premiums for less coverage.
The only people who really benefit are people with preexisting conditions. The insurance compaines are passing the cost of their care onto the rest of us.
i get people being angry at the government, that makes sense, i am too. but not holding the ins company to blame when they choose to drop you rather than add a few inexpensive items to coverage, this makes no sense. in this country the slave takes up for his master when the abolitionist comes to help him. be mad at welfare moms and not welfare billionaires, mistrust black/white people but trust the people who steal your money. we mistrust the govt which, ostensibly at least, is there to take care of us, and we trust in "the market" which corrupts the govt. we are the worst.
but PJ fans, even blind ones, now theres some hope as long as theres some PJ
Obama's "Year of Action" more resembles "The Summer of George" ....
rgambs - As for the government taking care of us? No thanks and not its intent. I'll take care of myself, thank you.
At this point, the majority of the people representing us are corrupt by design and in action...kind of - and sadly - reminiscent of the Three Stooges.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
Perhaps I mistakenly took your referenced comment as all-encompassing. Government has certain limited roles - but making personal decisions for me - ie, taking care of us (under the guise of supposed altruism) - is not part of it. I'm pretty sure I know what's best for me, and will take responsibility for my actions AND mistakes, vs. the Keystone-Kop-like dipshits who seem to be in charge.
I don't think the suck it up mentality in your last sentence would work for me, rgambs. I'd rather change it.
Now...how to do that? Not sure.