Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare)

[Joe Shlabotnik]

House GOP wants all Congresspersons and their staff to pay full freight of ACA premiums

This means low paid staffers will have to bear the complete brunt of health premiums. I'm trying to understand what this is about. It appears they are just being nasty now. What am I missing?

[cardsfantx]

If they are low paid, then they would qualify for the ACA, right?

Don't see a problem. Govt should have to purchase insurance like everyone else.

[heyzeus]

This has been a huge [expletive] failure. Memo to the Republicans: You are mad about the wrong thing.

We've been trying to just LOG IN TO SEE THE OPTIONS for over two weeks now. The website's been down, gears just grinding metal on metal I guess. Somehow, major traffic websites that process multiple transactions like amazon, facebook, geico.com, etc figured out how to do this, but the feds couldn't. And still can't, healthcare.gov is still a [expletive].

So finally we make it through to the pages where you have to give pages after pages of personal data just to see the prices and details of the insurance offerings. Kudos on that as well, guys. And lo and behold, these pages are all kinds of [expletive] up too. Then we get to a question where the website asks what my wife's relationship is to me. And it gives you a dropdown box that reads "[Name of my son]'s relationship to [me] is..."

So the "question" is in fact two different, unrelated questions. We couldn't decide which one to answer, so we guessed. And guessed wrong. AND THE WEBSITE WILL NOT LET YOU GO BACK LATER TO CORRECT IT. We have to call someone to see if they can correct the information.

So yeah, Boehner et al, if you want traction on this ACA issue, don't pretend it's a bad thing that more people will be insured. Oh no, we're spending money to provide health care to poor people. Maybe hit up the fact that three weeks in this website is still completely [expletive] beyond all recognition and probably cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, and in the meantime people are still uninsured and can't even find out what insurance is available. And nothing's been fixed (possibly because you've kept the government shut down this entire time). THAT is the failure of ACA.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

If they are low paid, then they would qualify for the ACA, right?

Don't see a problem. Govt should have to purchase insurance like everyone else.

They do have to purchase it - it was in the original legislation. but that's not what the GOP House is considering. They want to disallow the federal subsidies to the politicians and their staffers. I don't get what they are trying to do to their low paid employees except piss them off and make them ex-employees. Unless I'm missing something...

[sighyoung]

Revenge is a dish best served without subsidies.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

NY Times had a great article about this cluster. Ends up the state exchanges are doing much better. But people in the states that are doing next to nothing and actively fighting ACA are going to be screwed for a long time it looks like. Combination of poor planning, lots of uncertainty and insufficient funding and staffing of such a monumental task.

I'm thinking for people in red states, ACA is going to be a nightmare while states that have been working to maximize the advantages of the laws will see people have a very positive experience. Longer term, I think this means the reddest of states say "I told you so", the ones in the middle begin to emulate the states where it is working, and the states where it is working see an influx of people wanting to take advantage of ACA.

I know we are headed out of Alabama as soon as we can.

This has been a huge [expletive] failure. Memo to the Republicans: You are mad about the wrong thing.

We've been trying to just LOG IN TO SEE THE OPTIONS for over two weeks now. The website's been down, gears just grinding metal on metal I guess. Somehow, major traffic websites that process multiple transactions like amazon, facebook, geico.com, etc figured out how to do this, but the feds couldn't. And still can't, healthcare.gov is still a [expletive].

So finally we make it through to the pages where you have to give pages after pages of personal data just to see the prices and details of the insurance offerings. Kudos on that as well, guys. And lo and behold, these pages are all kinds of [expletive] up too. Then we get to a question where the website asks what my wife's relationship is to me. And it gives you a dropdown box that reads "[Name of my son]'s relationship to [me] is..."

So the "question" is in fact two different, unrelated questions. We couldn't decide which one to answer, so we guessed. And guessed wrong. AND THE WEBSITE WILL NOT LET YOU GO BACK LATER TO CORRECT IT. We have to call someone to see if they can correct the information.

So yeah, Boehner et al, if you want traction on this ACA issue, don't pretend it's a bad thing that more people will be insured. Oh no, we're spending money to provide health care to poor people. Maybe hit up the fact that three weeks in this website is still completely [expletive] beyond all recognition and probably cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, and in the meantime people are still uninsured and can't even find out what insurance is available. And nothing's been fixed (possibly because you've kept the government shut down this entire time). THAT is the failure of ACA.

[stlouie_lipp]

Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

[planet planet]

Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Interesting. Is there an outline of the minimum coverage/benefits required by ACA? I wonder how people with these catastrophic/low premium policies handled more mundane, yet still costly healthcare services before?

[New Pagodi]

Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Here Is What’s Wrong With That Story About Obama Knowing That Your Health Care Policy Would Get Cancelled

This all sounds very ominous until you consider that the naturally high turnover rate associated with the individual market means that it’s highly unlikely that individuals would still be enrolled in plans from 2010 in 2014. In fact, the Obama administration publicly admitted this when it issued the regulations in 2010, leading Republicans like Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) to seize on the story in order to push for repeal of the grandfather regulations...

The debate was widely covered in the press, so it’s unclear what exactly the NBC investigation unit has uncovered...

So yes, individuals can keep the plans they have if those plans remain largely the same. But individuals receiving cancellation notices will have a choice of enrolling in subsidized insurance in the exchanges and will probably end up paying less for more coverage.

[letsgocards89]

Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Interesting. Is there an outline of the minimum coverage/benefits required by ACA? I wonder how people with these catastrophic/low premium policies handled more mundane, yet still costly healthcare services before?

Maybe they didn't need them so they didn't buy insurance for them. Or, perhaps they used the money that they didn't spend buying insurance they didn't need on the services they actually did need.