Less Than One-Third Of Obamacare Exchange Enrollees Were Previously Uninsured

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Hundreds of State Lawmakers Ask Congress to Let States Opt Out of Obamacare
Alec Torres
January 24, 2014

Over 200 lawmakers from eight states are calling on Republicans in Congress grant their states the ability to opt out of the president’s health-care law.

 

Joining what they call the “Health Care Compact,” these eight states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah — want the ability to suspend federal health-care laws so that they have the primary responsibility to regulate health care within their borders.

 

(Snip)

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NPR: Debate: Is The Affordable Care Act Beyond Repair?

 

 

 

Note; Audio/transcript at link

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http://youtu.be/biwNaEy2GkE

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A Blast From the Past

 

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Covered California: If this is a success story ...

U-T San Diego Editorial Board

Jan. 25, 2014

 

The Golden States version of Obamacare has gotten more positive coverage than the federal version, but its hardly thriving.

 

Covered Californias problems start with its failure to meet the Affordable Care Acts central goal: increasing the number of people with health insurance. Last week, Covered California reported it had signed up 625,000 residents, with about 500,000 having paid their first premium. But according to state regulators, about 1.1 million Californians had their 2013 policies canceled because they didnt meet Obamacare standards.

 

Meanwhile, a national survey of insurance officials found at least two-thirds of Obamacare enrollees were people who previously had coverage. If that holds roughly true for the nations largest state, the Affordable Care Acts main effect in California hasnt been to bring coverage to the previously uninsured. Its been to create churn in the marketplace.

 

(Snip)

[clearvision]

Success will be cleared up Tuesday night. And I'm sure we will hear it is right on target.

[SrWoodchuck]

Success will be cleared up Tuesday night. And I'm sure we will hear it is right on target.

 

I will be quite put out....if Obarky's mad ramblings & lies interfere with the next episode of Justified......just my perspective as an irrelevant conswervative.......

[Valin]

Success will be cleared up Tuesday night. And I'm sure we will hear it is right on target.

 

Was there ever any doubt?

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Breitbart TV: Dem Rep: Without Young People ObamaCare Is Unraveling and We Don't Have a Solution

 

WAMU 88.5 NEWS: Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) "I'm afraid that the millennials, if you will, are less likely to sign up. I think they feel more independent, I think they feel a little more invulnerable than prior generations, But I don't think we're going to get enough young people signing up to make this bill work as it was intended to financially."

 

"And, frankly, there's some legitimacy to their concern because the government spends about $7 for the elderly for every $1 it spends on the young."

 

"I just don't know how we're going to do it frankly, If we had a solution I'd be telling the president right now."

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California: Only One-Third Have Regained Insurance Lost Through Obamacare

Joel B. Pollak

27 Jan 2014

 

California has long been the flagship for Obamacare. It was targeted last fall by President Barack Obama's own activist group, Organizing for Action, for precisely that reason: given the strength of their volunteer efforts, they hoped the state could be a symbol for the success of Obamacare as a whole.

 

That is one reason that there is so much loud cheering by the media's left-wing commentators every time Covered California, the state's Obamacare program, announces that it has achieved something, no matter how modest--or how exaggerated.

 

Yet many of Covered California's "successes" are only relative to the failure of the program as a whole, and most of them are overblown. For example, on the day Obamacare enrollment started, Covered California reported that it had received 5 million web hits. In fact, however, it had received only 645,000--roughly 10% of what was initially reported.

 

The latest version of such inflation is Covered California's jubilant announcement last week that "500,108 Californians enrolled for health insurance and selected plans through the end of 2013."

 

(Snip)

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Consumers With Canceled Insurance Plans Shifted to New Ones Without Their Permission

BCharles Ornstein, ProPublica

1/27/14

 

When California pharmacist Kevin Kingma received a letter last fall notifying him that his high-deductible health plan was being canceled because of the Affordable Care Act, he logged into his state's health insurance exchange and chose another plan beginning Jan. 1.

 

Thanks to a subsidy, Kingma's monthly premium went down, from about $300 to $175, and his benefits improved.

 

But this month, Kingma logged into his bank's website and saw that his old insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, had deducted $587.40 from his account and had enrolled him in another of its insurance products for this year -- he says without permission.

 

Hundreds of other consumers are caught in the same predicament, insurers acknowledge. And the California Department of Insurance said it is exploring whether any laws were broken when insurance companies withdrew money from consumers' accounts for plans they didn't select.

 

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Im Calling It Kafkacare: One Readers Obamacare Experience

 

From reader J. M., a healthy, 26-year-old Midwesterner who is married with one child:

 

In mid-summer, I realized that my family should be eligible for an insurance subsidy. I experienced cautious optimism mixed with frustration that our existing coverage would be canceled for not complying with new regulations.

 

(Snip)

 

I just spent 30 minutes on hold while the representative tried to find out something new he can tell us that will almost certainly be contradicted by the next employee we speak with. The result? The representative told me that someone will need to enter the change in status manually because it doesnt work on the website yet for us to do so. She told me shed call us with a week and that it would take 30 days to resolve. I was told exactly the same thing two weeks ago, but no one ever called. I am now on the phone, and getting the same drivel. It is completely unreal.

 

Short version: We met with our broker the second week in October. Its nearly February. We still dont have our coverage figured out. From now on, Im calling it Kafkacare.

[clearvision]

California: Only One-Third Have Regained Insurance Lost Through Obamacare

Joel B. Pollak

27 Jan 2014

 

California has long been the flagship for Obamacare. It was targeted last fall by President Barack Obama's own activist group, Organizing for Action, for precisely that reason: given the strength of their volunteer efforts, they hoped the state could be a symbol for the success of Obamacare as a whole.

 

That is one reason that there is so much loud cheering by the media's left-wing commentators every time Covered California, the state's Obamacare program, announces that it has achieved something, no matter how modest--or how exaggerated.

 

Yet many of Covered California's "successes" are only relative to the failure of the program as a whole, and most of them are overblown. For example, on the day Obamacare enrollment started, Covered California reported that it had received 5 million web hits. In fact, however, it had received only 645,000--roughly 10% of what was initially reported.

 

The latest version of such inflation is Covered California's jubilant announcement last week that "500,108 Californians enrolled for health insurance and selected plans through the end of 2013."

 

(Snip)

 

If you liked your plan we will keep charging you for it, even if it is different....

[Valin]

43 California ACA Navigators Have Criminal Convictions, Including for Forgery and Welfare Fraud
Jillian Kay Melchior
January 29, 2014 1:01 PM

California has released some disturbing statistics on criminal backgrounds of its navigators, I report today.

A few findings:

At least 43 convicted criminals are working as navigators in California.

One navigator committed forgery twice in twelve years and was also convicted of burglary in between.

One navigator was convicted for committing welfare fraud and had also been caught shoplifting on at least two occasions.

Another navigator had two more forgery convictions, as well as a domestic-violence charge.

At least seven navigators had multiple convictions but were still approved.

Even though applicants are required to self-report prior offenses, records show that 21 prospective certified enrollment counselors failed to do so — and were approved anyway, even though their background check revealed criminal convictions.

In other states, a forgery, welfare-fraud, or other financial-crimes conviction automatically disqualifies applicants from becoming navigators. But in California, that’s not the case.

 

(Snip)

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The uninsured don’t like Obamacare either

Paul Mirengoff

1/30/14

 

A new Kaiser poll finds that just 24 percent of uninsured Americans have a favorable view of Obamacare, while 47 percent of the uninsured view it unfavorably.

 

Thus, two uninsured Americans dislike Obamacare for every one American who likes it. And the ratio becomes slightly more damning when the question to the uninsured is whether they see themselves as better or worse off due to Obamacare. 30 percent say they are worse off; 13 percent say better.

 

Kaiser’s numbers represent an erosion of support of Obamacare among the uninsured. In December, 36 percent of the uninsured favored Obamcare while 43 percent viewed it unfavorably.

 

(Snip)

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Unions, Uninsured More Skeptical of Obamacare Than Ever

1/30/14

 

wo union bosses are responding to the State of the Union by slamming the Obama administrations refusal to meet their demands regarding the Affordable Care Act. As the WSJ reports, the presidents of UniteHere and the Laborers International Union of North America wrote an open letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, urging them to pressure the administration to extend subsidies to union insurance plans. They argued that without these changes the ACA could end up harming their lower- and middle-class members:

 

 

Since 2012, union leaders have complained that many of the laws requirements will drive up costs for union-sponsored health-care plans managed jointly by unions and mostly small employers, potentially causing unionized employers, or even unions, to drop the plans that cover more than 20 million people.

(Snip)

 

Still, the last numbers in that summary show that Americans by and large want universal coverage, whatever they may think about the ACAs way of going about it. And here the pervasive dysfunction that had been driving up costs and restricting access in U.S. health care before the ACA has yet to be addressed. The more expensive the system is, the harder it is to expand access. Its past time for a more robust conversation on how to make health care itselfnot just health insurance premiumscheaper.

[Valin]

GREAT NEWS!!!

 

Obamacare 2.0: More regulation

JASON MILLMAN

1/31/14

 

The presidents health care law may finally be up and running, but the regulatory lift to get the Affordable Care Act working at full capacity is far from over.

 

Four years after the laws passage, some major provisions still await regulatory action or have been delayed because of the Obama administrations struggles to get core elements in place in time for the start of enrollment last October. Large businesses havent seen final rules for the employer mandate, and insurers are waiting for more details on the benefits theyll have to offer in the future.

 

More than a dozen rules, ranging from technical to significant, are slated to come out this year or later. That count, detailed in a Congressional Research Service report this month, doesnt include several dozen proposed and final rules that were expected during a 12-month period dating back to last July. Pending changes like new nondiscrimination standards for health plans will broadly affect the health care industry. Others, such as new calorie-count requirements on menus and vending machines, will be felt in the business community.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Because 22,000 pages are not enough.

[clearvision]

Bad for Dems when Stewart laughs at them.... Laughs in Pelosi's face about O'care.

 

[Valin]

Bad for Dems when Stewart laughs at them.... Laughs in Pelosi's face about O'care.

 

 

 

Grrr ya beat me too it!

 

God Bless San Fran Nan! Between her and Slo Joe we'll never run out of material!

[Valin]

The Chart That Could Sink Obamacare
Chris Conover

Health policy wonks are likely familiar with a chart that got wide circulation in the blogosphere in late October (especially among progressives)–characterized by David Weigel at Slate as “The Chart That Could Save Obamacare.” Originally created by Brookings fellow Justin Wolfers and Tweeted on Halloween, the chart was based on estimates provided by Jonathan Gruber in an interview with Ryan Lizza that appeared in The New Yorker. Here’s the “bottom line” as summarized by Lizza:

Gruber summarized his stats: ninety-seven per cent of Americans are either left alone or are clear winners, while three per cent are arguably losers. “We have to as a society be able to accept that,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, that’s a shame, but no law in the history of America makes everyone better off.”

(Snip)


The Harsh Reality of Obamacare

Jon Gruber is not exactly an impartial observer. After all, he was an architect of both Romneycare in MA and Obamacare who has avidly championed the plan from the op-ed pages of the New York Times and Washington Post, in media interviews on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News, among others. In the words of ABC News, “Gruber has been a go-to voice for reporters seeking a respected academic view on health care reform costs.” But he also has been criticized for not disclosing that since March 2009, he had been a paid consultant to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, to the tune of nearly $400,000 paid for his work in modeling health reform options. As one critic aptly summarized the situation: “Gruber has an obvious professional interest in seeing Obamacare implemented and in arguing for it.” So let’s unpack his rosy claims with a more critical eye keeping in mind that his figures (and my alternative estimates) are intended to serve as “an extremely rough approximation” of a very complicated reality.

My version of the chart is a little more fine-grained since I wanted to distinguish between “ big” winners and losers (for whom the impact of Obamacare might be measured in thousands of dollars) versus “small” and “minimal” winners and losers for whom the impact would be much less profound.

 

 

(Snip)

[SrWoodchuck]

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

[Valin]

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

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[SrWoodchuck]

 

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

?

 

 

@Valin

 

Cloward-Piven Strategy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward%E2%80%93Piven_strategy

[Valin]

 

 

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

?

 

 

@Valin

 

Cloward-Piven Strategy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward%E2%80%93Piven_strategy

 

 

 

 

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

?

 

 

@Valin

 

Cloward-Piven Strategy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward%E2%80%93Piven_strategy

 

 

 

AH! Thanks.