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pointster
Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 376
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 Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:52 pm Post subject: |
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| mrgybe wrote: | | Regardless of the utter ineptitude displayed in the formulation, the enactment and the implementation of this law, and the staggering cost, there remains a fundamental question for which I have seen no satisfactory answer. We were told that about 15% of the legal population had no health insurance..........so about 45 million. This is a disgrace we were told and unthinkable for any civilized country. After four years of front page coverage, and six months of availability of insurance subsidized by the taxpayer, only 6 million have signed up. It is well known that a significant percentage of that number were not previously uninsured. Where are all the rest? Why aren't they rushing to take advantage of this opportunity for which they have been waiting for so long? |
A good portion of the uninsured were supposed to gain coverage under Medicaid expansion. However, due to the Supreme court ruling, some of the states with the highest number of people eligible for Medicaid expansion chose not to participate in the expansion. This explains part of the shortfall. |
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mrgybe
Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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| 4.8 million would have otherwise been eligible for Medicaid according to Kaiser. It's nearly 2 years since the SCOTUS decision. Has the Administration given up on those people? |
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17748
Location: Berkeley, California
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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CB--thanks for a bit of analysis, entirely missing in the right wing screams of hyperbole. Interesting to consider, as I help teach 4th graders about the literary use of hyperbole in allegories for the taming of the west like Paul Bunyan, how ill-suited a literary device hyperbole is for analytical or persuasive writing. Comments like "utter ineptitude", "staggering cost", particularly when accompanied by self-congratulatory prose, do not replace the value of analysis.
I am particularly interested in the interplay between the constant attempts of the GOP to sabotage the law in any way, and the ability of the Administration to carry out the rule-making envisioned in the law. It is my understanding the Republican efforts go well beyond the efforts to repeal the law in the House, and not implement the expanded Medicare provisions, to include harassing grantees who were hired to implement parts of the law. At the State level, a number of Republican controlled states have passed laws to prevent State officials from assisting with information and outreach about the program. Here is an example from that left wing rag, USA today:
| Quote: | On the same day that officials at Little Dixie Community Action Agency in Hugo, Okla., won a $580,000 federal grant to help consumers sign up for coverage under the federal health law, they received a warning from the state's top insurance regulator.
Commissioner John Doak said that if the new insurance guides known as "navigators" perform any of the duties of state-licensed insurance agents, "we will put a stop to it." He also called the $1.6 million award to hire and train navigators in Oklahoma — part of $67 million nationwide — "a waste" because it would duplicate the work of better-trained agents.
Oklahoma is among at least 17 Republican-controlled states that have taken steps to restrict navigators, a special category of workers created under the health law to help consumers learn about their options in the new online insurance marketplaces. Proponents of the law fear that actions will dampen enrollment. |
Or from Moyers' organization, comes this:
| Quote: | The media have been buzzing with stories — many of them wildly exaggerated — of people facing higher premiums as a result of Obamacare. But there’s a story about rates you may not have heard: According to Jonathan Gruber, a leading health care wonk at MIT, all private insurance premiums in the 25 red states that are refusing to expand their Medicaid programs will be 15 percent higher as a direct result of that decision.
But those numbers don’t capture the human cost. The reality is that conservatives are complaining about insurance policies being cancelled and the ACA’s error-plagued exchanges at the same time as they actively work to keep millions of poor Americans from gaining coverage under the law’s Medicaid expansion.
The victims of Obamacare’s implementation problems being hit the hardest, by far, are those whose incomes fall between the federal poverty line and the eligibility cutoffs in those 25 states rejecting Medicaid expansion. Not only will they be left uncovered, they won’t even be eligible for the generous subsidies that people earning slightly more than they do can use to buy insurance. It’s brutally unfair. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 4.8 million poor adults may fall into that coverage gap — about twice the number of people expected to pay more for their insurance when their substandard policies are cancelled.
And it gets worse. In 40 states, adults without children are ineligible for Medicaid regardless of their income level. In 30 states, the parents of children who qualify for Medicaid may not be eligible themselves. All of these people would be covered under Medicaid’s expansion, but they’re being left high and dry in the 25 states who have rejected expansion. And while the problems plaguing healthcare.gov result from mismanagement and a contracting boondoggle, those red state lawmakers who refuse to expand Medicaid are inflicting this harm intentionally, based solely on their ideology.
In other words, they’re actively working to maintain America’s shamefully high rate of uninsured. And that comes with deadly consequences. Because, in this country, we do ‘let ‘em die’ – we let the poor and the uninsured die from treatable illnesses every day. |
Then there is this, which looks at the overall strategy by REEPS to sabotage the law:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/23/3417482/gop-opposition/
It is not clear to me how much of the problems at the agency have to do with the lack of capacity, the lack of funding due to GOP efforts which have not been totally successful, or the organized effort by the GOP and some members of the medical establishment to bury the Department under tons of comment letters on each aspect of regulation.
Commentary on this would be more helpful than another tall tale about how Pecos Bill's spur is responsible for the Grand Canyon. |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| nw30 wrote: | | It never had enough support from us subjects to begin with, it was rammed through, and nothing more. |
And now not only is only 24% of the population for it, but a majority of young people (under 32, I think the cutoff was) are against it.
We elected them to be the party of NO to the socialist or fascist planks of the Democratic platform, coboardhead. That's their job. The ones who refuse will, we hope, be replaced. And as the Democratic Party keeps shifting ever farther off the Left edge of the planet in the footsteps of Pelosi, Reid, Obama, et.al., THEY will be replaced by more rational Democrats. Otherwise the nation is doomed to follow most other nations with those extremist values right down the toilet. |
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nw30
Joined: 21 Dec 2008
Posts: 6485
Location: The eye of the universe, Cen. Cal. coast
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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I also forgot to mention with my last post, mac's slamming of the GOP reminded me of it.
This bill was rammed through wrapped up in a bunch of deliberate lies. BHO can try to explain away his deliberate lies but it doesn't fly, hence the only 24% still in favor of it, they forgive the lies. mac must be forgiving those lies as well, sad, truly sad. |
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pueno
Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 2807
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| nitwit30 wrote: | | This bill was rammed through wrapped up in a bunch of deliberate lies. BHO can try to explain away his deliberate lies but it doesn't fly, hence the only 24% still in favor of it, they forgive the lies. mac must be forgiving those lies as well, sad, truly sad. |
And the Supreme Court validated it.
Amazing how SCOTUS was also bamboozled.
. |
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mrgybe
Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:54 am Post subject: |
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Now that we have established that the endless embarrassing problems with the Obamacare implementation are the fault of the Republicans, I ask again........why have 30 - 40 million uninsured not bothered to sign up? This was the number one priority for the President. It required urgent action which justified a tawdry passage of the bill. According to AP, $684 million has been spent on advertizing and outreach programs to persuade the uninsured to buy Obamacare despite it being touted as a such a great opportunity for them. Where are the results?
Separately, the President promised, and continues to promise, affordable health insurance for all Americans. So, I ask again.......what has he done about the 4.8 million Moyes refers to above? |
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nw30
Joined: 21 Dec 2008
Posts: 6485
Location: The eye of the universe, Cen. Cal. coast
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:36 am Post subject: |
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| pueno wrote: | | nitwit30 wrote: | | This bill was rammed through wrapped up in a bunch of deliberate lies. BHO can try to explain away his deliberate lies but it doesn't fly, hence the only 24% still in favor of it, they forgive the lies. mac must be forgiving those lies as well, sad, truly sad. |
And the Supreme Court validated it.
Amazing how SCOTUS was also bamboozled.
. |
I know you're just trying to be funny, as usual, nwodeno, but you may have just swerved into the truth. |
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mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17748
Location: Berkeley, California
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:41 am Post subject: |
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After suggesting that hyperbole is appropriate for tales of Pecos Bill, but does not constitute an actual substantive argument, the witty rejoinder repeats hyperbole. Something about old white men angry about losing power doesn't manage to make a coherent case for anything.
It is entirely possible that many of the problems with the ACA stem from lack of ability, or resources, within the Department of Health Services. Certainly that was true about the web site--but then similar problems have been identified with the Veterans Administration. Some of those difficulties stem from senior managers lack of understanding of technology, some from the difficulty in hiring top-notch tech staff--and some from the privacy provisions of the HIPAA.
As I have said many times, only CB makes an actual credible case that goes beyond GOP hit piece talking points. |
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mrgybe
Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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Federal and State governments have spent several billion dollars of taxpayer money on building and advertizing insurance exchanges. To date they have succeeded in attracting only a small fraction of the targeted customer base. A taxpayer asks what happened?.........which in any context is a legitimate question........and it is characterized as a "hit piece". An electorate filled with unquestioning sycophants will get exactly the government they deserve.
If anyone has a more intelligent response, I would be interested to hear it. It is not the web site. |
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