Affordable Health Care Law under review by SCOTUS

[onejayhawk]

Let us know when the death panels are created; or when the government takes over the health insurance industry; or that Obamacare will kill 800k jobs.

I never claimed there were death panels, but since you bring it up are there any demographics on those who lost coverage?

Embarrassing for the GOP for oh-so-many reasons....

Not nearly as embarrassing as the roll out, for oh so many reasons.

J

[nots]

The RCP average has it still underwater by 12.5 points. I'm not sure the GOP is going to be too embarrassed to hold onto the House and possibly win the Senate based almost exclusively because of this bill.
Having said that, I think it's way too early to making any concrete statements about the final numbers. Here is a pretty fair article about where things are now:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/obamacare-affordable-care-act-8-million-105829.html

[Judge Jude]

yes, that seems like a fair article.

[onejayhawk]

Here's another one for el D

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/obamacares-success-changes-everything-105914.html?ml=m_po#.U1ijPFVdXc0

J

[Hornsby]

Both articles point out two unassailable facts: More Americans of all ages and income brackets are now covered by health insurance. And the taste for the repeal of Obamacare is fading rapidly. Oddly enough, apparently Americans LIKE to have affordable health insurance, who would have thought that?

Recent polling shows that support for repeal is shrinking to the most conservative voters, key to Republican primaries but not enough to win most statewide general elections. When given a choice of whether to repeal the ACA or keep it intact or with small modifications, a recent Bloomberg poll found, only a third of Americans (34 percent) chose repeal. That’s about the same proportion who have favorable views of the Tea Party.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz2zqjmEppx

[heyelander]

Just discovered that when i moved from NJ to CA I went from a POS plan to a PPO... the PPO is wicked more expensive in reality. Normal stuff that was covered under a regular dr. visit copay under the POS is billed out on a PPO. RJEL girl went to an ENT out here and he scoped her nose... that's what an ENT is supposed to do on a visit to diagnose what's going on in your nose. Back east, free (after co-pay). Under the PPO this is an invasive procedure that is billed out to the patient until they reach their deductible.... POS = Free (with copay) PPO = $700+

None of this was explained to us when we got the plans sent to us... we were just told these were to comparable CA plans to what we had in NJ

I checked the CA clearinghouse today to see if I could drop my company insurance and self-insure, but everything on the clearing house were PPO and one HMO.

[onejayhawk]

Both articles point out two unassailable facts: More Americans of all ages and income brackets are now covered by health insurance. And the taste for the repeal of Obamacare is fading rapidly. Oddly enough, apparently Americans LIKE to have affordable health insurance, who would have thought that?

How many more? Given the cost 8 million is low, but clearly there are a lot who have come from previous insurance. Is it even 2 million newly insured?

I think I can give you your second "fact". It is far from an asset to the Democrats, but it is not a stone around their necks. More like an albatross.

J

[Moonlight J]

Red states' refusal to expand Medicaid will literally kill people, according to a Harvard study.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harvard-study-medicaid-expansion-deaths

Your GOP, ladies and gentlemen.

"Good, fewer Democratic voters" -- Your GOP, ladies and germs

[Hornsby]

"Good, fewer Democratic voters" -- Your GOP, ladies and germs

Ouch...that's the harsh truth to many tea baggers.

[Moonlight J]

Who said the ACA would be an economy crusher?

$445 Million spent on ads related to the ACA, with the negative ads outpacing the positive ones FIFTEEN to ONE. In the end, the smear & fear didn't work.

http://www.saintpetersblog.com/study-political-tv-ads-health-law-total-445-million

[onejayhawk]

Well, they are finally getting some sign ups. How is the rest of it working?. If you can match Medicare I give you a pass. VA is an A.

What is the collection ratio on sign ups? Oh, Wait...

J

[chancellor]

Ezra Klein in 2009: Does The Government Run Health Care Better? http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezr...un_health.html

“If you ordered America’s different health systems worst-functioning to best, it would look like this: individual insurance market, employer-based insurance market, Medicare, Veterans Health Administration.”

Ezra Klein in 2011: When socialism works in America. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...OgNH_blog.html

“The thing about the Veteran’s Administration’s health-care system? It’s socialized. Not single payer. Not heavily centralized. Socialized. As in, it employs the doctors and nurses. Owns the hospitals. And though I think there’s some good reason to believe its spending growth is somewhat understated — it benefits heavily from medical trainees, for instance — accounting for that difference still means a remarkable recent performance.”

The VA - our vision of socialized health care in America.

[Judge Jude]

not exactly

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/politics/phoenix-va-hospital/

"The VA has acknowledged 23 deaths nationwide due to delayed care. The VA's inspector general, Richard Griffin, told a Senate committee in recent weeks that his investigation so far had found a possible 17 deaths of veterans waiting for care in Phoenix, but he added that there was no evidence that excessive waiting was the reason."

so the extent to which this will linger as a scandal in large part is liable to be if we can get a handle on whether vets have died because of this. we'll see.

[Lucky]

I'm sure a lot of the answer will depend upon the question asked. In one way or another, there are millions of deaths each year due to the individual not receiving medical care in time.

I have represented and otherwise had dealings with a lot of people who receive their primary health care from the VA. They were, almost without exception completely happy with all aspects of the care they received. Of course, much of this was probably due to the fact that Arkansas is a relatively small state, so there may have been much less pressure put on the system here. Waiting for care may not be an issue here because of the relatively low number of veterans seeking that care.

I believe one of the reasons there are lot of people are attacking the VA right now is because it has historically been an efficient care provider, and therefore could be used as an example of how the ACA could work well nationwide. Until the ACA, I don't remember people using the VA and scandal in the same sentence. Even now, and even if the complaints are true, is there a scandal or just a problem? If something goes wrong for the guy on the other side, is it automatically a scandal? Must we use "-gate" to describe it?

One of my strongest regrets is that I never served in uniform. I can't change that, but I can respect and honor those who did serve.

[Judge Jude]

It could be both. We know the issues are being used as talking points by the right to attack ACA. Whether that's justified or not is an entirely separate issue, and as you note it's complicated.