The Health Care Debate

[knucklehead]

Wow - you really think it is important to note that Big Pharma isn't as bad as Hitler.

You must think big Pharma and insurance companies are pretty stinking bad if you feel the need to clarify that point.

[shinatoo]

Also, if Obama is a Socialist, he's the worst one ever.

Had control of the banking industry, let it go.

Had control of big auto, let it go.

Could have nationalized healthcare, let it go.

Worst Socialist Ever.

[KCMax]

Also, if Obama is a Socialist, he's the worst one ever.

Had control of the banking industry, let it go.

Had control of big auto, let it go.

Could have nationalized healthcare, let it go.

Worst Socialist Ever.

He's been in power for five years now. When do the death panels begin? The thought police to invade our homes? What is the timetable for these terrible nightmares?

Barack Obama - too incompetent to roll out a website to take your name and address, but somehow devious enough to trample all our freedoms in and lead us to a terrible secular authoritarian dystopian nightmare.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Besides the elimination of the "cheap" insurance policies some other issues are starting to see the light. Some are complaining that the new insurance they are required to purchase provides less coverage than the old insurance - the old policies were to rich. And there are patients receiving some special treatments, like for cancer, and their doctors are not in the new groups of providers and/or they are to be in an EPO, exclusive provider, which does not provide out-of-network coverage like a PPO would.

[studentper]

yea, i don't like the ACA, but the six degrees of adolph hitler seems a little extreme.

[FangKC]

Besides the elimination of the "cheap" insurance policies some other issues are starting to see the light. Some are complaining that the new insurance they are required to purchase provides less coverage than the old insurance - the old policies were to rich. And there are patients receiving some special treatments, like for cancer, and their doctors are not in the new groups of providers and/or they are to be in an EPO, exclusive provider, which does not provide out-of-network coverage like a PPO would.

Much of this is true though when your employer changes insurance providers for their employees.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Yes, but for many a mandate from an employer is quite different than a mandate from the government.

[bobbyhawks]

Are there actually medical records on a national database? Since there is no need to search for preexisting conditions, I thought there was about as much information in the medical system as there would be in the DMV, and that is only if you are one of the few that qualifies for Obamacare. Sorry if this has been covered in the previous 7000 posts.

[KCMax]

Yes, your name, address and personal medical details on a national database is not nefarious by any stretch. Sheeple.

If only the site could work! Gah! Foiled again!

[aknowledgeableperson]

By Chuck Todd, NBC News

President Obama said Thursday that he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his promise that no one would have to give up a health plan they liked.
"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he told NBC News in an exclusive interview at the White House.
"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."
In a wide-ranging interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, President Obama discusses implementation of the Affordable Care Act, rollout of the healthcare website, NSA spying, Iran and keeping Joe Biden as his running mate.
Obama’s comments come 10 days after NBC News’ Lisa Myers reported that the administration has known since the summer of 2010 that millions of Americans could lose their insurance under the law.
Obama has made repeated assurances that “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan” with Obamacare.
...
“Obviously we didn’t do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law," Obama said in the interview Thursday. "And, you know, that’s something I regret. That’s something we’re gonna do everything we can to get fixed ... We’re looking at a range of options.”
After the initial NBC News report, the administration insisted that the president did not mislead Americans, arguing that the law could not have accounted for insurers altering existing plans after passage of the law.
Yet earlier this week, Obama tweaked his promise, acknowledging that plans that have been substantially changed since passage of the law would no longer be “grandfathered” into acceptance under the ACA.
“If you had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed," he said.
...
Frustration among even some Democrats supportive of the Obamacare bill boiled over this week as coverage of the dropped plans continued.
Sen. Max Baucus, the Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman and a key author of the bill, called the problems “unacceptable” during a hearing at which Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled on Wednesday.
“It has been disappointing to see members of the administration say they didn't see the problems coming,” he said.
House Speaker John Boehner responded to the president’s comments Thursday, saying, “an apology is certainly in order, but what Americans want to hear is that the president is going to keep his promise.”
Pointing to a scheduled House vote next week on a measure that would allow insurance companies to continue policies that don’t meet the ACA's standards, Boehner added, “if the president is sincerely sorry that he misled the American people, the very least he can do is support this bipartisan effort. Otherwise, this apology doesn't amount to anything."

[chaglang]

Yes, your name, address and personal medical details on a national database is not nefarious by any stretch. Sheeple.

If only the site could work! Gah! Foiled again!

I always use the Blue Cross database when I'm mining people's personal health data. It's very well organized and has been around for decades.

[chaglang]

Is there no end to your irrational Kool-aid chugging?

[aknowledgeableperson]

So the Big Boss Man has spoken and taken Obama to the woodshed. Will it change anything?

[KCMax]

106,000 people have signed up for health care exchange plans according to the Obama administration. 26,000 of those were through healthcare.gov. They claim 846,000 completed an application.

If Massachusetts is any indication, most people will sign up in the last few weeks before the deadline.

Democrats in the Senate have also proposed a bill that would require insurance companies to continue to offer existing health plans to current customers for as long as they sell insurance in the same market so you can keep your existing plan. No surprise, Republicans are showing resistance to the bill.

[aknowledgeableperson]

No surprise, Republicans are showing resistance to the bill.

Maybe it is because the House GOP has their own bill.

Low enrollment numbers add to political low point for Obama

By Michael O'Brien, NBC News

But health care reform and the president’s fortunes have arguably never seemed as shaky as they do right now amid the portal’s prolonged technical difficulties and Republican-led outrage over insurance plans that have been canceled because of the Affordable Care Act.

Even the administration’s Democratic allies have begun to exhibit signs of nervousness.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Red State Democrat who’s up for re-election in Louisiana next fall, has proposed a patch to Obamacare that would allow consumers to keep insurance plans threatened by cancellation. The tweak would, in essence, force Obama to make good on his once-stated promise that individuals who like their health care plan could keep it.

The bill, passage of which would represent an embarrassment for Obama, has even won over some administration allies, including California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. And former President Bill Clinton, whom Obama once dubbed his “explainer in chief,” didn’t help the White House on Tuesday when he endorsed a similar fix.

Senate Democrats will huddle on Wednesday with administration officials to mull a path forward. And White House Press Secretary Jay Carney suggested the administration would propose its own fixes “sooner rather than later.”

But the bleeding hasn’t stopped yet.

...

But with the midterm elections just a year away, the window of opportunity for Obama to chalk up many more legislative victories is closing quickly. Like most two-term, presidents, he’ll be regarded as a lame-duck after the 2014 elections as the political world’s attention turns to the next presidential election.

With little to show for the past 11 months – and with few expectations of a bipartisan breakthrough in the next 12 – Obama’s legacy is tied even more closely to the success of the Affordable Care Act.

One anonymous House Democratic lawmaker, speaking to NBC’s Luke Russert, summed up the stakes and the nerves at play in Washington.

“They have no ‘Plan B,’ no apparent fix, they're clueless,” the Democrat said as the House nears an end-of-the-week vote on a Republican bill to permit consumers to continue purchasing their current plans, though the coverage is regarded as subpar under health care reform. “They need to figure out something by Friday fast.”

[chaglang]

I'd be willing to bet that the ACA will stay more or less as-is because only bills that kill the entire program will be able to be passed out of the House.

Meanwhile, the #moleg is headed for a repeat of 2013 on Medicaid expansion:
July 27:

For more than six hours, the House Interim Committee on Citizens and Legislators Working Group on Medicaid Eligibility and Reform heard a similar refrain from dozens of speakers – doctors, disability advocates, hospital executives, the uninsured. The working group is one of three special committees created by state lawmakers after the Republican-led Legislature repeatedly rejected Medicaid expansion proposals in the 2013 session.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/27/43 ... xpand.html

November 8:

Rep. Jay Barnes, a Republican from Jefferson City, presented data this week showing how the state could get nearly all of its residents under some form of health coverage and achieve a modest savings while doing so.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/08/46 ... icaid.html

November 13:

Republicans, who hold a majority on the Senate panel, later voted to keep Medicaid expansion out of the report that is to be released before the 2014 session.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/13/46 ... jects.html

[FangKC]

Everyone needs to calm down about ACA. Everything will get worked out. This gleeful reaction by many over the technical problems is really just sickening. There is still time for people to enroll, and if things don't get worked out, the enrollment period can be extended.

The fact that not many people haven't signed up yet doesn't indicate anything. Early numbers are disappointing, but it is very common for people to wait for the last minute to enroll in many types of programs, or make their decision.

States that have their own individual state-run health care exchanges seem to be doing okay--like California. If all states had been mandated to offer individual exchanges, the enrollment process probably would have gone much better. Every state has a Medicaid program, so that was probably the logical entity to have handled this task. State Medicaid plans are used to determined eligibility for services based on income, assessing percentage of the poverty level for the family and individual, and family structure. They are also used to contracting with insurance companies and other entities for services.

In states that have pre-paid health plans (Health Maintenance Organnizations [HMOs] and Physician Provider Organizations [PPOs]) for Medicaid recipients, they are used to handling thousands of enrollment decisions at a time during the annual enrollment process. Medicare also oversees millions of health plan changes during their annual enrollment period for Part D prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage expanded health coverage.

There were problems when Social Security started.

There were problems when Medicare started.

There were problems when the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan started.

Once the problems were worked out, citizens were happy with the results, and these became among the most popular of government services.

Granted, it was a mistake to make the heathcare.gov the primary focus of the enrollment process. We existed without the Internet at one time, and we still accomplished things. There should have been another functioning method to enroll that didn't involve a web site.

As far as the shopping for insurance process goes, the Department of Health and Human Services should have put an option on the healthcare.gov site that allowed people to merely click on a link that took them to a page where they gave their name and mailing address, and insurance companies that were contracted in their state, or county, to provide insurance under ACA would mail them booklets outlining options and prices. Or had a toll-free number that people called and gave that information, and had the information mailed to them.

I worked for Medicaid in Arizona, and almost all clients were enrolled in Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) after eligibility was determined. Then the contracted health plans mailed them booklets and competed for the client, who choose their plan. They had a set time limit to choose a plan, or them were automatically enrolled in one by computer algorithm.

By the way, Medicaid clients were given the choice to be enrolled in the same HMOs that I was able to choose as a state employee. These same plans provided health coverage to corporations, small businesses, and individuals.

[KCMax]

No surprise, Republicans are showing resistance to the bill.

Maybe it is because the House GOP has their own bill.

Their bill would only give insurance companies the option to offer the same plans and get out of the ACA requirements. So some would keep offering the same plans, but others wouldn't.

changlang is right though, the House won't pass anything.

[aknowledgeableperson]

States that have their own individual state-run health care exchanges seem to be doing okay--like California. If all states had been mandated to offer individual exchanges, the enrollment process probably would have gone much better. Every state has a Medicaid program, so that was probably the logical entity to have handled this task. State Medicaid plans are used to determined eligibility for services based on income, assessing percentage of the poverty level for the family and individual, and family structure. They are also used to contracting with insurance companies and other entities for services.

Not quite sure if true or not. There was a talking head on a news program and the talk was about the numbers, or lack of, and the sign-ups plus the getting the young. The comment, in summary, was many of the sign-ups were for Medicaid coverage, not for the health exchanges or for insurance.

[KCMax]

Yea, Fang, did you consider the unquantified number of Medicaid signsups provided by anonymous Talking Head that akp saw?