ObamaCare - exchanges ,report your states options!

[Night Strike]

Another tenant of insurance in general (and the healthcare law) is that it be affordable.

Just because you put "Affordable" in the name doesn't make it so. The actual text and implementation of the law makes that determination. When the law mandates unnecessary coverage and places new taxes on medical providers (and top insurance plans), it's impossible for prices to go down, much less mean it's designed to be affordable. If you wanted it to be affordable, you would pass a law to make health insurance a personal market where people shop for the actual coverage they want, not the coverage that the federal government decides fits for all people.

I saw a stat the other day (can't remember where though), that trend is expected to only rise about 2% this year, far less than the average 7-9% per year through the last decade. And I still don't see how the law destroyed the free market, since there are many insurers competing for your business on the exchanges. In my state, there was even a new player in the individual market, and Scotty posted an article a few pages back saying that hospital systems are going to start creating "mini HMO's" and essentially be the provider and insurer, further increasing competition.

What does this mean? Will it eventually enroll more people in health insurance? We will have to find out. Will it eventually cost less than the alternative? We will never know. Will it reduce the rate of increase we have seen over the last decade? Perhaps, the jury is still out.

7-9% per year over the last decade, yet BBS's chart showed most states experienced a 50% or more increase just since Obamacare passed? 2% increases in the future will never happen based on that. And if the law fosters competition, why are many areas of the country only covered by 1 servicer on the exchange, with even more plans cutting off specialty providers like cancer treatment centers? Obamacare has already led to cuts in coverage in actual coverage in order to pay for Obamacare mandated coverage like $9 birth control pills along with taxes on insurance plans.

[AndyDufresne]

--Andy

[Phatscotty]

Oregon is set to become the first state to drop its ObamaCare exchange and transition into the system managed by the federal government.

The decision follows months of severe technical issues that have made Oregon's marketplace one of the worst in the country.

About $130 million has been spent on Cover Oregon, but it is the only ObamaCare enrollment system that won't let registrants buy coverage and qualify for tax credits in one sitting.
It had not enrolled a single person online as of early March, and remains mired in glitches almost seven months after a rocky launch.

Alex Pettit, the state's chief information officer, recommended to an advisory board Thursday that the state hand the reins to the federal government.

Members of the panel appeared to agree, The Oregonian newspaper reported. The board will meet again on Friday morning to further discuss the issue, and perhaps hold a vote.

Pettit will reportedly travel to Washington, D.C. next week to pursue the transition with federal health officials.

Republicans pointed to the shift as evidence of problems with the Affordable Care Act.

“Cover Oregon wasted over $200 million and is the poster child for what’s wrong with ObamaCare’s state exchanges," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus in a statement.

Priebus slammed Gov. John Kitzhaber (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), both up for reelection, as "responsible" for the site's inception.

The Obama administration has urged Oregon and other states with dysfunctional exchanges to integrate them with HealthCare.gov.

If federal health officials agree to the terms, Oregon will join the 34 states that currently plan to rely on HealthCare.gov as their primary ObamaCare enrollment portal next year. The next sign-up period begins in November.

Officials with Covered Oregon confirmed the recommendation from Pettit and released a draft of the his Powerpoint presentation to the committee.

Fixing the site would cost $78 million compared with $4 to 6 million to house the system within HealthCare.gov, the slides said.

The decision is a significant shift for an exchange that was expected to run well.

Oregon is mostly run by Democratic supporters of the healthcare law and known for its innovations in healthcare policy, signs that initially boded well for its ObamaCare enrollment system.

But the website has become an embarrassment for the state, and improving it before the next enrollment period would have been challenging and expensive.

In Congress, requests from Democrats and Republicans have triggered a federal investigation of the broken system.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) agreed last month to probe what happened to the $304 million in federal grants provided to Oregon to build its website.

Two sets of lawmakers had requested the study: Sens. Merkley and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in one letter, and four Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in another.

The agency said it would combine the investigation with a "broader study planned to examine states' health exchanges websites."

"In these unique circumstances GAO will conduct one body of work but issue multiple products," a letter to Merkley stated.

Republican members have raised hopes that some of the federal grant money given to Oregon contractors could be returned.

"The catastrophic breakdown of Cover Oregon is unacceptable, and taxpayers deserve accountability," the GOP lawmakers, led by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), wrote to the GAO.

State officials have blamed the contractor primarily responsible for the website, Oracle. The exchange was reportedly pursuing Deloitte as a replacement earlier this month.

Many top officials have also resigned, some as recently as this week.

“[Cover Oregon] is the worst financial failure in information technology in state history-and it was completely avoidable. Today's admission of failure underscores the need to stop the waste and get the truth,” Walden said in a statement Thursday.

“How did this happen? Who was in charge? That's why I've sought and secured a federal investigation into Cover Oregon. Taxpayers deserve answers and demand accountability."

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/he ... z2zqIiMywV

[jj3044]

Everyone involved with building the site in Oregon should probably be fired. That's not an indication on the law, but an indication of the ineptitude of the people running that exchange.

[Phatscotty]

Everyone involved with building the site in Oregon should probably be fired. That's not an indication on the law, but an indication of the ineptitude of the people running that exchange.

They were a lot like us in Minnesota. They had a lot of support for Obamacare, and a lot of money, and both wanted to be the shining example of something working that they truly believed in. My state held back no expense. Governor Dayton is ALL about Obamacare. Needless to say we had a lot of problems too, our biggest one is the state website builders failed to even make a portal for insurance companies to access. We aren't as bad a Oregon, but we are NOWHERE near what we thought we would have.

and btw, they are claiming to have 7 million sign-ups? sorry if someone addressed this already, but #1, aren't about 4 million of those people who signed up through Obamacare only to be put in other government programs? That's not a bad thing or nothin, but it's not a signup for Obamacare, and #2, as was pointed out here many times over the last year, they needed 7 million young and healthy people to sign up, and they got roughly 600,000.

The whole thing is a mess. For the trillions that will be spent/have already spent we really could have just bought everyone a policy for the next few years. But that wouldn't give the government a bunch of new power or make the government bigger and bigger over the next decade or let the government have all the control, now would it.

[Phatscotty]

Information received just today, from the administration of transparency, so that we are just now knowing what was really going on in early October.

Judicial Watch on Monday announced it has a copy of a report from the Obama administration that shows there were just two enrollments in Obamacare after the first day of operation on October 1.

The government watchdog group said a senior official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent an email to staff with a subject line celebrating “2 enrollments!”


President Barack Obama’s administration tried to dodge questions about Obamacare enrollment numbers. A confidential report found by Judicial Watch says there were just two enrollees after the first day. (AP Photo)
The report confirms GOP suspicions that very few people were signing up for Obamacare in the early days. In the early days and weeks of implementation of the healthcare law, administration officials dodged questions about how many people had signed up for health insurance premiums.

According to the report obtained by Judicial Watch, there were just 30,512 enrollments by the end of October.

The report says on October 2, there were 70,000 page views, but only 5,000 unique visitors — the large number of page views was the result of people hitting “refresh” while on the site.

Judicial Watch noted that in mid-April, the administration announced 8 million enrollees.

“That figure, however, may be substantially over-inflated,” the group said in a statement Monday. “According to testimony in May by the America’s Health Insurance Plans association before the House Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight, ‘Because of the challenges that surfaced with the launch of the Exchanges in October 2013, some consumers were advised to create a new account and enroll again. As a result, insurers have many duplicate enrollments in their system for which they never received any payment.’ ”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said his group was able to get information that even congressional committees were not able to get.

“The Obama administration tried to cover this up, Congress failed to follow through, but we managed to get the truth…” he said. “Imagine what would have happened to Obamacare if the American people knew only one person was able to enroll on its first day? What other Obamacare failures is President Obama hiding?”

The group obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

[Phatscotty]

Clear, coherent, concise and cognizant argument of opposition against Obamacare

[Night Strike]

Just as we suspected.....as soon as the feds took over the health care industry, they would proceed to base every other illegal executive action on doing so to better people's health. That's their justification for their massive end-run around Congress to enact cap-and-trade and other environmental policies that Congress specifically voted against. Great time to destroy the country! Told you so!

[Phatscotty]

We aren't even able to take care of our Vets properly, who are without a doubt the most deserving. Tell us again how you guys think Obamacare is going to be able to handle the rest of the 290,000,000? Oh well, at least it's permanent.

Good intentions, poorly thought out (if thought about at all) are the cause of most of the world's evil.

[saxitoxin]

Obamacare - "We can't afford that!"

A town hall for liberal activists featuring two Democratic presidential candidates was interrupted by dozens of demonstrators on Saturday who shouted down the contenders and demanded they address criminal justice issues and police brutality.

Tia Oso of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, who represented the demonstrators, climbed onto the stage, secured a microphone, and delivered a speech while O'Malley looked on.

When Sanders cited the Affordable Care Act as a law he supported that helped people of color by making health insurance more accessible, one man shouted, "we can't afford that!"

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/ ... index.html

[Fruitcake]

So here's a thing.

I decided some years back to rewrite the standard global medical Policy for the industry I am involved in (a specialist sector of the marine industry).

I realised the Insurance companies had been raking it in for years as the sector I am in tends to have very fit, healthy, younger adults. Even those over 40 are in the top tier of health and fitness.

I hooked up with a couple of Insurance industry friends and we went into retreat on a Mediterranean island for a week or so and unpicked the present Policies available (some ran to 82 pages ffs!)

With their input and advice I then wrote a completely new Policy giving unlimited cover worldwide (including USA) to those who work in this marine sector. We worked out a premium rate (based on the evidence I have from various insurers for claims etc etc).

I then hawked this risk around the insurance markets in London until I found one who was interested in taking on the risk, and the potential book (members - policyholders & premium annually).

We then sat down with this market and went through the Policy I had penned. Once we had got complete agreement, we then issued.

I then sent the message to everyone I could in the sector telling them about this new Policy. Of course, it has flown off the shelf such is the dynamic way it is structured.

In essence, I have given better cover, including cover for pre-ex, standard dental and optical care etc etc. All for a lower premium than has ever been charged.

3 years in, we are showing a very healthy book, with claims rates still in the lower percentile that any underwriter would be pleased to have. In fact, we are now negotiating a profit share with the market as they are making such great numbers.

Why do I mention all this?

A lot of clients who have staff, employ Americans. They are wringing their hands that they have to buy special cover for the Americans at up to 5 times the premium we are charging, for less cover! The net result, American staff numbers globally are getting less on a weekly basis. I did an analysis from June of last year, to June of this. American staff have reduced from around 17% to under 10%

I went to Washington, got the right lawyers and we have presented our case to the bods in Govt there. They would not believe we could provide this kind of cover at the prices shown. They rejected our application to be granted compliance with the ACA. Meanwhile, a USA based competitor has much the same but US centric, for around 7 times the cost and has got ACA compliance, problem is, their market is steadily diminishing as US crew are employed in ever lesser numbers.

Obama care? Nonsense.

[Lootifer]

Good intentions, poorly thought out (if thought about at all) are the cause of most of the world's evil.

While I don't really care about the American health system (seriously Obamacare or no Obamacare you guys live in a very weird world), but I cant let that statement pass by.

My correction:
Good intentions, that are subsequently butchered and morphed by both the democratic process and the demagogues in power, are the cause of most of the world's poor policy outcomes.

[Phatscotty]

Good intentions, poorly thought out (if thought about at all) are the cause of most of the world's evil.

While I don't really care about the American health system (seriously Obamacare or no Obamacare you guys live in a very weird world), but I cant let that statement pass by.

My correction:
Good intentions, that are subsequently butchered and morphed by both the democratic process and the demagogues in power, are the cause of most of the world's poor policy outcomes.

I could think of a million instances where one has good intentions and acts on them and ends up doing more harm that involve no democratic process or demagogues in power. The statement I made goes to pushing for/doing something yet having very little to no understanding at all about the issue/product/person/reason. Good example, Obamacare. I am pretty darn sure I heard not only Obama but many who supported Obamacare concerning the number of people who remain uninsured. Yet, covering the number of uninsured people was the battle cry for passing the bill and guilt-libeling opposers of wanting poor and old and sick people and newborn babies to die in the streets. Even those wretched creatures along more than a handful of entire states which have completely given up on Obamacare and as well as hundreds of billions totally wasted are included among the many who now say

Well, we had good intentions

Hey, George W. Bush had good intentions when pre-emptively invading Iraq.

[mrswdk]

Good intentions are responsible for more deaths than Christianity, but fewer than Islam.

[saxitoxin]

I kinda detect a ... ahem, theme ... in "Prager University's" classes ...

- Is the UN Fair to Israel?
- Israel's Legal Founding
- BDS: The Attempt to Strangle Israel
- Aznar on Europe, America and Israel
- A Black South African on Israel
https://www.prageruniversity.com/Political-Science/

I didn't go to their other departments, but I'm suspecting it's something like this:

SPORT 102 - Sandy Koufax Studies
ENGLISH 180 - Did Shakespeare really write in Hebrew?
MUSIC 120 - How to Build and Burn an Effigy of Richard Wagner
BIOLOGY 120 - Arguments For And Against Circumcision
MATH 101 - Israel Invented Algebra in 1948
MATH 102 - Algebra: a Gay Black Man in a Wheelchair Admits It Did Not Exist Before 1948
MATH 103 - Algebra: a Communist Mexican Buddhist Also Admits It Did Not Exist Before 1948
MATH 104 - Algebra: With all the evidence it didn't exist before 1948, why are people still lying?
PSYCH 101 - Survey of Dr Ruth's Research with All References to Sex Removed

[WILLIAMS5232]

There was a Jewish law that dictated pi=22/7, or so I heard from somebody who read it on the internet or something (I literally "learned" that in public school, but have yet to find a source)

I think I need to attend Prager to learn more.

that's close enough for me.

[Phatscotty]

I kinda detect a ... ahem, theme ... in "Prager University's" classes ...

- Is the UN Fair to Israel?
- Israel's Legal Founding
- BDS: The Attempt to Strangle Israel
- Aznar on Europe, America and Israel
- A Black South African on Israel
https://www.prageruniversity.com/Political-Science/

I didn't go to their other departments, but I'm suspecting it's something like this:

SPORT 102 - Sandy Koufax Studies
ENGLISH 180 - Did Shakespeare really write in Hebrew?
MUSIC 120 - How to Build and Burn an Effigy of Richard Wagner
BIOLOGY 120 - Arguments For And Against Circumcision
MATH 101 - Israel Invented Algebra in 1948
MATH 102 - Algebra: a Gay Black Man in a Wheelchair Admits It Did Not Exist Before 1948
MATH 103 - Algebra: a Communist Mexican Buddhist Also Admits It Did Not Exist Before 1948
MATH 104 - Algebra: With all the evidence it didn't exist before 1948, why are people still lying?
PSYCH 101 - Survey of Dr Ruth's Research with All References to Sex Removed

LULZ!

or

1 - problems stemming from society vs. problem stemming from ourselves
2 - common sense
3 - non-importance of race
4 - good intentions and the normal people who may be good people but believe in and/or practice bad ideas, or actions vs. motives
5 - higher powers

[Phatscotty]

[Phatscotty]

I hear reports that many states have only a single option from which citizens may choose health care. It seems in many states every health provider option has jumped ship or closed shop for good. Let's hear some reports from posters on their states status of the wonderful options they can 'choose' from

[WILLIAMS5232]

Im not sure if it was ACA related or not, but the deductible on my company insurance just went up +/- x4 ($750 to $2500), also the cost to have your family enrolled doubled. If it was an effect of the ACA, it kind of takes away some of the affordable part.

[warmonger1981]

I hear it's a system to put smaller insurance company out of business as only the largest health care companies can compete.

[Symmetry]

I hear it's a system to put smaller insurance company out of business as only the largest health care companies can compete.

Surely the basic idea of insurance is a large pool of people betting, hoping against being unlucky? I'm not sure I'm with you on the "oh, won't you think of the little insurance companies" front.

[warmonger1981]

I'm more worried about monopoly instead of the little guy.

[Symmetry]

I'm more worried about monopoly instead of the little guy.

An interesting shift. What concerns you now?