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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
"I got a better deal through Obamacare"
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 12:53 PM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote: I signed up for health care through the Affordable Care Act last week. I did so for one reason and one reason only: it was a good deal for my family. In fact, it was a better deal than we were getting before the ACA. The website, which received so much (well-deserved) negative publicity when it failed to launch, is now easy-peasy. The options it generated for us were more clearly delineated than those we'd been given in the past by a private-sector insurance broker. The benefits were plainly spelled out, as were the deductibles and co-pays. We are fortunate in that we do not need subsidies, and yet the Obama exchange still found us a better deal than we had found on our own. Let me be clear: this was not a political statement. This is my family's health. If I got the best care by going through Sarah Palin's website I would do so. Besides, the business decisions in our family are made by my wife, who has both an MBA and a Masters in Public Administration. I haven't had a checkbook since the Reagan administration, but because this decision was so personal and consequential, we made it as a team. In the end, it was not a tough choice. On the one hand, we got better coverage under the ACA. On the other, it cost less. I'm not exactly a believer in Republican talking points, but even I was surprised at how obviously superior my choices are under the new law. I knew there were no death panels, and I figured a plan originated by Newt Gingrich, the Heritage Foundation and Mitt Romney couldn't truly be Marxist. But I hadn't taken the time to do the math to figure whether the ACA would be a better deal for me. It is. The federal health exchange served me better than the private sector had. So I signed up. My doc is still my doc. My insurance company is still a private corporation - not (gasp!) a government agency. (Although I'd sign up for Medicare today if they'd let me; the government-run health insurance program for seniors is terrific.) Bottom line is, the ACA works, period. And here's the beauty part: even if you choose not to use the exchanges at all, you stand to benefit from the Affordable Care Act. If you or someone in your family has a pre-existing condition, you are a winner under the ACA. Ditto if, God forbid, you have an illness or an accident that would have maxed-out your pre-Obamacare coverage limit: the ACA outlaws coverage caps. If you're a young adult who can now be covered on your parent's plan till age 26, or a Medicare patient who needs preventive care or has fallen into the Donut Hole, you come out ahead too. All of those rights -- and more -- would disappear if the Republicans repealed the Affordable Care Act. The Republican-controlled House has voted 54 times to do just that. Despite spending millions on ads, the right is losing the debate. The latest Kaiser Family Fund poll shows that, even though the new health care law is still not popular, 59% of Americans want to keep the ACA as-is or modify it slightly. Only 18% want to repeal it altogether, and another 11% want to repeal it and replace it with a GOP alternative. As more and more Americans actually deal with health reform firsthand, as they actually receive new rights and new benefits, and as the parade of right-wing horribles fails to materialize, I suspect support for the ACA will continue to grow. As one of the millions of Americans who benefits from the ACA, I just want to say thanks, President Obama. And thank you, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and everyone in Congress who voted for the Affordable Care Act. (Obviously, each person's individual situation is unique. It may well be that some folks will not share my positive experience. But you have nothing to lose by checking it out.) Thanks also to all the Republicans who voted for it. Wait, there weren't any. That's okay, I suppose. There were no Republicans who voted for the Clinton Economic Plan in 1993, and it led to balanced budgets and 23 million new jobs. The Republicans of that time predicted doom and depression if the Clinton Economic Plan passed. Their successors are predicting the same about the Affordable Care Act. And they're going to look just as foolish in the eyes of history. http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/31/opinion/begala-obamacare-benefits/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 1:27 PM
KPO
Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 1:36 PM
BIGDAMNNOBODY
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:10 PM
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:16 PM
Quote:Last summer Ellen Holzman and Meredith Vezina, a married gay couple in San Diego County, got kicked off their long-term Kaiser health plan, for which they'd been paying more than $1,300 a month. The cause wasn't the Affordable Care Act, as far as they knew. They'd been living outside Kaiser's service area, and the health plan had decided to tighten its rules. That's when they discovered the chilly hazards of dependence on the individual health insurance market. When they applied for a replacement policy with Anthem Blue Cross of California, Ellen, 59, disclosed that she might have carpal tunnel syndrome. She wasn't sure--her condition was still being diagnosed by Kaiser when her coverage ended. But the possibility was enough to scare Anthem. "They said, 'We will not insure you because you have a pre-existing condition,'" Holzman recalls. But they were lucky, thanks to Obamacare. Through Covered California, the state's individual insurance marketplace, they've found a plan through Sharp Healthcare that will cover them both for a total premium of $142 a month, after a government subsidy based on their income. They'll have a higher deductible than Kaiser's but lower co-pays. But their possible savings will be impressive. More important than that was knowing that they couldn't be turned down for coverage come Jan. 1. "We felt we didn't have to panic, or worry," Holzman says. "If not for the Affordable Care Act, our ability to get insurance would be very limited, if we could get it at all." Holzman and Vezina are exactly the type of people Obamacare is designed to help--indeed, rescue from the cold, hard world of individual health insurance of the past. That was a world where even an undiagnosed condition might render you uninsurable. Where your insurance could be canceled after you got sick or had an accident. Where your financial health was at risk as much as your physical well-being. These are the stories you're not hearing amid the pumped-up panic over canceled individual policies and premium shocks--many of which stories are certainly true, but the noise being made about them leads people to think they're more common than they are. Let's hear from a few more. David Shevlino, 51, is an artist in Delaware. Between the COBRA policy that extends the coverage his wife, Kathy, received at a former job and the bare-bones policy that covers himself and their 15-year-old son, they've been laying out $1,000 a month in premiums. Next year they'll pay $650 a month, after the government subsidy, for a plan through Blue Cross of Delaware that covers the entire family and provides many services that have been excluded up to now. That makes a big difference, especially for Kathy, who is still dealing with injuries she suffered in a cycling accident and that would have made her uninsurable once her COBRA ran out less than a year from now. "She had already been turned down by Aetna and Blue Cross, the very company that will now insure her," Shevlino says. "This is a really significant thing--to me, the fact that insurance companies could turn you down didn't make sense in terms of what healthcare is supposed to be for." And Judith Silverstein, 49, a Californian who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007. Her family helps her pay the $750 monthly cost of her existing plan--which she only had because of federal law requiring that insurers who provide employer-based insurance continue to offer coverage if the employer goes out of business, as hers did. Next year she'll get a subsidy that will get her a good "silver" level plan for $50. For Silverstein that coverage is indispensable. Her case is relatively mild, but MS is a progressive condition that typically has made its sufferers pariahs of the individual insurance market in the past. "I researched the options," she says. "Nobody's going to sell you insurance in the individual market if you have MS." But these customers can't be excluded or saddled with big premium markups any more. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/25/business/la-fi-mh-obamacare-success-20131125
Quote:Scott Brown Is Running in a State Full of Obamacare Success Stories Scott Brown's Obamacare-is-bad campaign hit a bump when one voter — a Republican state representative — said that Obamacare had actually helped his family a lot. Given the success of the policy in the state, Brown might have more uncomfortable encounters like that before Election Day. Brown's strategy as he considers running for Senate has been to bash Obamacare and tie the Democrat he'd be running against, Jeanne Shaheen, to the law. Last week, when he announced that he was formally looking in to running for Senate, he spent almost as much time critiquing Obamacare as he did establishing his ties to New Hampshire. On Saturday, the day after that announcement, Brown visited the home of Republican New Hampshire state representative Herb Richardson. When the conversation turned to the health care law — which Brown called it a "monstrosity" — his host said Obamacare is actually saving his family $1,000 a month. Richardson's pre-Obamacare premium was $1,100 a month. "Richardson said he only received some $2,000 a month in workers' comp. payments, however, leaving little for them to live on. "Thank God for Obamacare!" his wife exclaimed." Brown didn't respond to that, because what can you really say? The Richardsons now pay only $136 a month. In a way, this is the Republican party's Obamacare horror story — every person who enrolls in Obamacare is one more person who would lose insurance if the law was repealed. For Brown specifically, this might be a sign that his adoptive home isn't as anti-Obamacare as he is. Once Healthcare.gov was reliable, enrollments in took off in the Granite State. Last week a former New Hampshire GOP chair acknowledged that his family's new Obamacare premium was $12,000 less than his old one. As the Concord Monitor reported earlier this month, about 17,000 New Hampshire residents have purchased plans through Healthcare.gov by February 1 — exceeding targets. The Monitor spoke to three individuals and families, who has all saved money with Obamacare plans but run into delays caused by the website and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the only insurer selling exchange plans in the state. Enrollments are now up to 21,000 as of March 1, according to New Hampshire Public Radio. http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/03/scott-brown-running-state-full-obamacare-success-stories/359378/
Quote:The high bar for Obamacare success stories Here’s the challenge the White House faces in telling Obamacare success stories: Try to picture a headline that says, “Obamacare does what it’s supposed to do.” Somehow, the Obama administration and its allies will have to convince news outlets to run those kinds of stories — and to give the happy newly insured the same kind of attention as the outraged complainers whose health plans were canceled because of the law. That’s a complicated task. Loud and angry usually trumps contented and grateful when it comes to sound bites, and news organizations will have a high bar for anecdotes that reflect well on the new law, given the prevailing narrative surrounding its disastrous debut. And yet, the success stories do exist. For all the problems with the health care rollout and the disruptions the Affordable Care Act has caused, from canceled plans to “sticker shock” from people who are disappointed with their choices, there are also people who are getting exactly what they’re supposed to get: better prices and more stable coverage of their pre-existing conditions. The catch, of course, is that the problems with the rollout are sure to continue, and they’ll get plenty of attention when they do. It’s also a rule of storytelling that the unexpected always makes a better story — and “people couldn’t keep their health plans because of Obamacare” is always going to be a twist that commands more coverage than “people gain health coverage because of Obamacare.” Even if the Obama administration succeeds in steering more attention to the successes, like the people with pre-existing conditions who are getting better deals now, that may not make a big difference to the mindset of the majority of Americans who already have health insurance through the workplace, who just want to make sure their own coverage won’t be affected. Middle-class Americans have now “gotten the impression, rightly or wrongly, that they’re going to be worse off” because of the effort to help sick people, said Robert Blendon, an expert on health care public opinion at Harvard University. “The stories have to be about middle-class people who have better coverage, who are paying less, and who already had coverage prior to Jan. 1. … Those stories may be less exciting, but those are the stories that are going to move the needle.” “It’s like the ACA and its benefits have been the best-kept secret in the world,” said Rita Rizzo of Akron, Ohio, who recently gained health coverage with her husband, Lou Vincent, who has been uninsured for nearly a decade because of his pre-existing conditions. “They should have given it to [Edward] Snowden — then we’d get the word out.” Now that the health coverage is starting, some media outlets are starting to pay more attention to Rizzo and others who have gained coverage. But to be a compelling enough story to compete with the “victims,” the law’s supporters say, these anecdotes have to highlight some major new protection of the law — like the end to denials of insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, and the elimination of lifetime limits on people’s benefits. Rizzo and Vincent, for example, are a self-employed couple who run a management training business in Akron. Before they got their ACA coverage, Rizzo had her own health insurance — but with a premium of $400 a month and a $6,000 deductible to pay out of pocket, she says, “I didn’t want to use it … I haven’t been to a doctor in three years.” And when Vincent’s premiums were about to triple because of his high blood pressure, “foolishly, I dropped him” from the plan, Rizzo said — and then he couldn’t get anyone else to accept him. That’s why he’s been uninsured for nearly a decade. Now the couple has a premium of $184 a month, after the subsidy, and a $2,500 deductible through the Obamacare plan, which Rizzo says they signed up for in October through — believe it or not — the clunky HealthCare.gov website. “I was just extremely persistent,” she said. “I think I submitted it 12 times before it went through.” Another example is Mitch Grussing, a piano teacher and composer in St. Paul, Minn. who tweeted about the lower premium and better benefits in his new ACA coverage. The 28-year-old Grussing might seem like one of the “young invincibles” who would barely ever use health insurance, except that he had been in Minnesota’s high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions, with higher premiums and skimpier coverage. The reason? Grussing has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and is taking a generic medication for it. That was enough, under the old rules of health insurance, to qualify as a pre-existing condition. So now that Grussing can get regular health insurance under Obamacare, he says he’s getting a better deal than he did in the high-risk pool. Under the old insurance, Grussing says he had to pay $215 a month, with a $2,000 deductible, and had to cover all expenses — including doctors’ visits — out of pocket until he had paid off the whole deductible. Now, he’s paying $185 a month, with a $1,000 deductible, and he gets to see the doctor with just a $35 copayment. He says he didn’t apply for a subsidy because the process was “kind of hard to figure out.” “I was just kind of counting down the days” until he could get the new coverage, Grussing said. He hasn’t seen a mental health professional in more than a year, he said, because “I just haven’t had that kind of cash lying around.” Excerpts from http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/obamacare-affordable-care-act-success-stories-101854_Page2.html#ixzz2xevqOr5u
Quote:Millions and millions of Americans have gained health insurance in the last five months, if you’re wondering why Republicans are so pissed According to political lore, Lyndon Johnson spread a rumor during a congressional campaign that his opponent was pig-f*cker. When his campaign manager asked him why he was spreading such a vile falsehood, Johnson allegedly said, “I just want to make him deny it.” This is the strategy behind Republicans’ torrent of often fake Obamacare “horror” stories — one of which is still on the air here in Michigan even though the claims in the ad have been debunked ( http://www.eclectablog.com/2014/02/terri-lynn-lands-campaign-crashing-and-burning-before-she-even-makes-a-public-appearance.html). By forcing Democrats to deny them, they’re helping to spread the stories. Now, there is some virtue in this for Democrats. The fact that Julie Boonstra — the cancer patient in the ad — had her premiums cut in half is a reminder of one of the key virtues of a law that ends discrimination against the millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. Most of these “horror” stories get debunked because nearly all the people who are being inconvenienced by this law are healthy, relatively affluent people being asked to pay a bit more with the guarantee that if they get sick or destitute, they will become one Obamacare’s winners. http://www.eclectablog.com/2014/03/how-many-millions-of-obamacare-success-stories-are-there.html
Quote:Kevin Drum wonders whether there's a single genuine Obamacare horror story out there, given that virtually every yarn promoted by Republicans or conservatives about people hurt by the Affordable Care Act has deflated like a pricked balloon on the merest examination. It's a very good question, inspired by the latest horror story bloomer -- the tale of one Julie Boonstra of Michigan, wholesaled by the Koch-founded conservative organization Americans for Prosperity. In a political ad being run by AFP against a Democratic senate candidate in Michigan, Boonstra asserts that "Obamacare" has made her leukemia treatment "unaffordable" and "jeopardized" her health. But when Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post checked out her story, he found it didn't hold up ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/02/20/a-hard-hitting-anti-obamacare-ad-makes-a-claim-that-doesnt-add-up/). The Affordable Care Act provided her with cheaper coverage than she had before, while allowing her to keep her doctor and maintain her treatment. Kessler didn't mention it, but Boonstra plainly benefits from another provision of the ACA: the ban on exclusions for preexisting conditions. Patients living in the pre-ACA world of individual health insurance with conditions like leukemia were constantly in danger of losing their coverage and becoming uninsurable. That's not legal anymore. Boonstra's case is just the latest of a very long line of deflatable horror stories. We've debunked a passel of them here, from Florida resident Diane Barrette ( http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/30/business/la-fi-mh-healthplans-20131030), who didn't realize she'd been empowered by the ACA to move from a costly junk insurance plan to a cheaper real insurance plan; to Los Angeles real estate agent Deborah Cavallaro, whose "unaffordable" premiums turned out to be eminently affordable ( http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-debunked-20131030,0,6010994.story); to San Diego business owner Edie Sundby, whose cancer coverage was safeguarded by Obamacare after her insurer bailed out on her for financial reasons ( http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-horror-story-20131105,0,6361694.story#axzz2jwCNGSO0); to "Bette," the supposed victim trotted out by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) in her response to the State of the Union message last month, and who turned out to be an ACA "victim" because she couldn't be bothered actually to investigate her options for affordable care on the Washington state enrollment website ( http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-bette-20140130,0,1703947.story#axzz2tpkb3Tin). And there are many more ( http://www.cjr.org/the_second_opinion/why_didnt_nbc_fox_news_or_cbs_2_examine_this_obamacare_insurance_cancellation_story_before_they_aired_it.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_me&page=1), including the extremely dubious personal narratives of House Speaker John Boehner ( http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-obamacare-premiums-20131125,0,5241856.story#axzz2xeqgAWTx) and Sen. Tom Coburn ( http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-did-sen-coburn-20140129,0,3998892.story#axzz2xeqgAWTx). What a lot of these stories have in common are, first of all, a subject largely unaware of his or her options under the ACA or unwilling to determine them; and, second, shockingly uninformed and incurious news reporters, including some big names in the business, who don't bother to look into the facts of the cases they're offering for public consumption. (I'm talking about you, Maria Bartiromo... http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-debunked-20131030,0,6010994.story#axzz2xeqgAWTx)http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-obamacare-horror-stories-20140220,0,3801120.story#ixzz2xer7zx8a
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:18 PM
STORYMARK
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:24 PM
6IXSTRINGJACK
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:36 PM
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:42 PM
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:57 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Storymark: What bigdamndouchenozzle leaves out is that almost all of those anti-ACA stories have been shown to be either outright lies, or from people who didn't actually check into the plans they were now eligible for. (ETA: Ah, Niki beat me to it.) But then, no one expects anything factual from that nobody.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:01 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Storymark: Dude, just go to the ACA site, go to log-in, put in your email, and click "Forgot Password". They'll email a reset code. Just like any other site. I did this for my Mom yesterday.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:07 PM
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:14 PM
Quote:Originally posted by BIGDAMNNOBODY: Quote:Originally posted by Storymark: What bigdamndouchenozzle leaves out is that almost all of those anti-ACA stories have been shown to be either outright lies, or from people who didn't actually check into the plans they were now eligible for. (ETA: Ah, Niki beat me to it.) But then, no one expects anything factual from that nobody. Bigdamndouchenozzle hahaha! You're so witty Marky.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:16 PM
Quote:Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK: Quote:Originally posted by Storymark: Dude, just go to the ACA site, go to log-in, put in your email, and click "Forgot Password". They'll email a reset code. Just like any other site. I did this for my Mom yesterday. Thanks brother. You seriously think that little of me? As I said, I had created the aca account with a brand new email because I do not trust our government at all and I know it was meaningless to do since I could open 1,000 emails and they'd know I made all of them...... but I opened a new email with a new password before signing up. After my compy died, I somehow lost this login info for BOTH the aca and that email addy. I'm sure I've got sevral messages in that particular inbox asking me to click a particular link to verify it's me so I can change my password. Unfortunately, I can't get into that email address either. Bummer....
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:30 PM
Quote:Originally posted by G: Quote:Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK: As I said, I had created the aca account with a brand new email because I do not trust our government at all and I know it was meaningless to do since I could open 1,000 emails and they'd know I made all of them...... but I opened a new email with a new password before signing up. After my compy died, I somehow lost this login info for BOTH the aca and that email addy. See what you get for not trusting? Who do you have the email account with, what provider? Call their support desk, hopefully you can prove who you are, then tell them the situation and they should be able to reset the email pw - then you recreate it on your new box.
Quote:Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK: As I said, I had created the aca account with a brand new email because I do not trust our government at all and I know it was meaningless to do since I could open 1,000 emails and they'd know I made all of them...... but I opened a new email with a new password before signing up. After my compy died, I somehow lost this login info for BOTH the aca and that email addy.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:46 PM
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AURAPTOR
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