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ACA Running Thread

Whatever. The truth is you thought the ACA was disastrous before today. I hope it succeeds in making our healthcare system serve our society better over time. It may be possible that our perspectives on the program will color our impressions of the rollout (that is the noun, I see). And yes, I'll wait a bit to see what the data and analysis may show. We don't even know how many have signed in or up today yet.
 
Whatever. The truth is you thought the ACA was disastrous before today. I hope it succeeds in making our healthcare system serve our society better over time. It may be possible that our perspectives on the program will color our impressions of the rollout (that is the noun, I see). And yes, I'll wait a bit to see what the data and analysis may show. We don't even know how many have signed in or up today yet.

I think it WILL be disastrous. I have no idea whether I will be right. You are correct in that the proof will be in the pudding. Neither of us at this point has any clue. Despite what it will do to the Republicans, I honestly do hope that it works, or at least leads us to a single payer system that will better hold price in check without putting nearly the burden on businesses. I am not a free market healthcare kind of guy. I don't think it applies because the foundation of free market is choice. We have no choice but to treat people in hospitals. We aren't going to leave them on the doorstep and refuse care. Thus free market goes out the window. I think Obamacare sucks because it doesn't address the issues in our system (in my opinion).

If it actually does address the issues, and I am wrong I will be a happy man and one that eats a lot of crow (but will do so gladly as our economy and general well being increases).
 
Meh. I just went through the Virginia site and it was fine. Very simple and straightforward.

Plus it's not like today is some kind of make-or-break day. Coverage starts January 1 - there are over 180 days to select coverage. The initial iPhone launch by Apple and AT&T was a far bigger disaster than the sketchy availability of the Exchange sites on day one, and they didn't lose all their customers.

On top of that, it's not like the government built healthcare.gov. It's a cutting edge open source-based project headed up by private companies and based on Drupal/JSON and agile methodologies. Teal Media, Development Seed, and some other private contractors for infrastructure are even releasing the code to the public.

It routinely cracks me up to hear anti-government people slamming the work that's actually done by private companies as evidence of government failure.

Well said. Great post.
 
Question for people who keep using terms like "disaster" for the ACA. What does that look like? People get health care but costs are too high? People everywhere try to get health care but can't? Hospitals have lines running out the door with 24 hour wait-lists? Death panels for Grandma?

I don't think the ACA has it all figured out by any means, but I have such a disconnect with the doomsday talk folks.
 
I think it's a bad law because it will exacerbate undersupply of care and do nothing to drive down actual healthcare costs, nor does it do anything real to fix the coming insolvency of Medicare when the Boomers are fully enrolled. I think the costs will be wildly greater than estimated.
 
I'm honestly curious how this is possible. Nothing I'd like more than a 32 win basketball team, eight win football team and affordable health care, but there are very few things I believe are less plausible.

How does this law actually bring costs down, when it essentially forces uninsurable risk on insurers? How is the individual mandate actually going to get enforced? On the tax returns of...people who don't pay anyway? Half of the country doesn't pay any income tax at all...how can cost go down when demand is going to sky rocket against static supply?

My health insurance at work came down as well. Not a lot (like $20/month) but it still came down. I have no idea how any of this works.
 
Was this posted?

http://www.journalnow.com/business/...cle_2a4a506a-25ee-11e3-b216-0019bb30f31a.html

"For example, a Triad family of four with a $50,000 household income would pay an average of $282 a month for mid-level coverage.

That would represent a 66 percent premium discount once tax credits are applied, compared with the $826 that family would have paid on average before the health exchange, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Statewide, the discount would be 68 percent for that family of four."
 
I think it's a bad law because it will exacerbate undersupply of care and do nothing to drive down actual healthcare costs, nor does it do anything real to fix the coming insolvency of Medicare when the Boomers are fully enrolled. I think the costs will be wildly greater than estimated.

Which costs? Serious question. People are paying for the insurance, and we're already paying for the uninsured to get treatment in ER's and hospitals. Is it just the subsidies you think will add up? Because there's a lot of revenue.

Undersupply of health care and boomer Medicare are problems regardless of whether we insure the uninsured or not, aren't they? Does the ACA prevent continued efforts to help correct those problems?
 
Question for people who keep using terms like "disaster" for the ACA. What does that look like? People get health care but costs are too high? People everywhere try to get health care but can't? Hospitals have lines running out the door with 24 hour wait-lists? Death panels for Grandma?

I don't think the ACA has it all figured out by any means, but I have such a disconnect with the doomsday talk folks.


Because it's such a disaster! It's a train wreck! It's going to damage 'merica beyond any repair! It just IS! It's "OBAMAcare"! It's "overreach"! How can you doubt it???
 
Charles Lane (WP): What the GOP has missed on Obamacare


Explains a bit about why organized labor is nervous about the ACA.

Quote:
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...In truth, there was always tension between the interests of organized labor and the goal of universal health coverage, regardless of employment status.

A 2009 AFL-CIO resolution backed government-run single-payer health care — as long as it did “not diminish the hard-fought benefits currently enjoyed by our members” and permitted unions “to collectively bargain supplemental coverage.” Translation: Unions want health care for all, plus more for them.

In reaction to the unions’ clash with Obamacare, Republicans offer little but rhetoric, the gist of which is “we told you so,” and continue demanding total repeal, as if the unions’ objections were additional valid reasons to oppose the law.

What they seem not to grasp is that the features of the law that the unions hate are those that many Americans, including many who do not currently vote Republican, might like: the end of health insurance “job lock,” say, or bending the cost curve through limits on Cadillac plans.

If Republicans were smart, they might support those aspects of the law, instead of total repeal. But, as we have seen in recent days, that is a very big “if.”
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Ten Questions About Obamacare You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

Seems a decent enough primer. Love the Kaiser Cartoon.



Quote:
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The angriest people—those looking to provoke a national economic default over Obamacare, comparing the law to the Fugitive Slave Act, or calling it the “the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed”—are worried Obamacare will cost too much and also harm the quality of doctors’ care. They believe the existing system had problems but worked well enough for most people. Unfortunately, many vocal Obamacare opponents regularly misstate facts. Their vitriol is best understood not as based on rational policy disagreement but as political theater.

Still, it’s true most Americans don’t like being forced to buy insurance, though paradoxically they also hate excluding people who are already sick from buying insurance. Obamacare supporters counter the “mandate” spreads risk more widely and thus allows insurers to stop discriminating based on pre-existing conditions.
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2,000,000 ACA website visits from NY state alone today.....
 
CH, it's 5:30 on D Day - how did it go from your perspective?

Hard to say. We found virtual none of our customers or prospects were able to get onto the FFE.

We also got a lot of calls today about the new rates. Lots of confused people when they see what the minimum coverage requirements are. The law has some good features BUT floors of coverage aren't one of them.
 
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"Hard to say. We found virtual none of our customers or prospects were able to get onto the FFE. Heck, most of them couldn't even register. These were the same issues we saw in test when just a small handful of people were hitting it. I don't know what the volumes to the FFE were today BUT Im suspect todays issues were volume related. I suspect there are a lot more issues."

NONE -that is such crap. NONE-that's totally unbelievable.

MILLIONS of people across the country got onto the site today, but NONE of your people did.

Do you really think everyone here is that gullible?
 
Two of my friends signed up for health care today via their state exchanges with no glitches and seemed pretty happy about it.
 
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