Category: Health insurance

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Health insurance Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

New Report – 20 Million Americans Covered Under Obamacare

This bit of news will totally mess up your crazy Republican uncle’s day. So be my guest and share this news with him.

A report published last week in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine provided an overview of Obamacare’s first year, its successes and the challenges ahead. It also offered a yet another estimate of the number of people covered by the law: 20 million.

The NEJM report pulled a wealth of information, much of it already known by those closely following the law’s implementation but presented together by the journal, from think tanks and government agencies. It covered a range of topics, including the number of people covered, 2015 premiums, and the adequacy of provider networks for plans offered through the law.

But its bottom line was that millions of people have become insured under Obamacare.

“Taking all existing coverage expansions together, we estimate that 20 million Americans have gained coverage as of May 1 under the ACA,” the authors wrote. “We do not know yet exactly how many of these people were previously uninsured, but it seems certain that many were.”

They reached the 20 million total this way: 1 million adults under age 26 enrolled in their parents’ plan; 8 million enrolled in private coverage through the insurance marketplaces; 5 million enrolled in private coverage directly through their insurer; 6 million enrolled in Medicaid.

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Health insurance Politics

Detroit’s “Emergency Manager” To Take Away Health Insurance from Public Workers

About 24,000 retired Detroit public servants will soon receive letters notifying them that they are losing their health insurance on March 1, even as the city claims to be negotiating with retirees’ groups to strike a better deal on health care.

The bankrupt city’s emergency manager Kevyn Orr is sticking to the same proposal for drastic retiree health care cuts that he initially intended to implement this month, prompting a group that represents retired Detroit workers to threaten they will sue the city.

For the two-thirds of the retiree group who are old enough to be eligible for Medicare, the plan means shifting onto the government-run insurance program for seniors. But 8,000 younger retirees will have their insurance plans replaced with a monthly stipend check of just $125 to subsidize the cost of insurance plans they will have to find on their own.

When that plan was initially floated last fall, a pair of retired firefighters young enough to be stuck with stipend checks told ThinkProgress that the change would doom their recoveries from the serious injuries they sustained protecting the city. Retired librarian Gwendolyn Beasley, 67, said the shift to Medicare’s less-generous coverage would mean choosing between groceries and prescriptions

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Health insurance Healthcare ObamaCare

Yes, People Are Successfully Signing Up For Obamacare – Video

She was so happy to finally get affordable healthcare, this constituent wrote a thank you letter to her congressman. Here is a story you will never see on Fox News. And since Fox won’t cover it, you will never hear any Republicans in Washington talking about it.

After her husband died in February 2012, Amy Bowman was diagnosed with breast cancer. She tells her story that she was eventually able to continue 0n her husband’s insurance for a year. But cancer is a serious pre-existing condition and Amy knew that getting insurance after her year was out would be almost impossible.

After searching, Amy was able to continue her insurance at another company, but they monthly price for her policy was extremely high. On a monthly basis, Amy Bowman’s insurance policy was almost $1500.00. But she was able to sign on and shop for healthcare on the marketplace provided by Obamacare, and received a health policy with provision for dental benefits, for about half of what she was paying before.

This is Amy Bowman’s story.

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Health insurance Planned Parenthood Politics Texas women

Rick Perry Eliminates Health Insurance for Poor Women in Texas

Thanks to a decision by Republican Governor Rick Perry, 130,000 low-income women in Texas just lost their health insurance coverage. A bill that was recently signed into law by Rick Perry, disqualified Planned Parenthood from receiving federal grants thus, ending the Medicaid program that provided necessary health benefits to the poorer residents of his state.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that it will cut off all Medicaid funding for family planning to the state of Texas, following Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) decision to implement a new law that excludes Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid Women’s Health Program.

Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO), wrote Texas health officials a letter on Thursday explaining that the state broke federal Medicaid rules by discriminating against qualified family planning providers and thus would be losing the entire program, which provides cancer screenings, contraceptives and basic health care to 130,000 low-income women each year.

“We very much regret the state’s decision to implement this rule, which will prevent women enrolled in the program from receiving services from the trusted health care providers they have chosen and relied upon for their care,” she wrote. “In light of Texas’ actions, CMS is not in a position to extend or renew the current [Medicaid contract].”

The federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas’ $40 million Women’s Health Program, and nearly half of the program’s providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics. But the new law that went into effect earlier this month disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions.

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Barack Obama Health insurance Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics Republican

Newt Gingrich Teaching The Benefits Of The Individual Mandate – Video

Once upon a time, in a world far far away… it must have been somewhere around 200… there lived a man called Newt Gingrich. This man was a Republican politician who actively advocated for the individual mandate – requiring that everyone must have some kind oh health insurance.

Then magically, a Democratic president was sworn into office in 2009. He enacted the individual mandate that Newt wanted and Republicans, including Newt, turned their backs against everything they once held dear – including the individual mandate.

The end… of a Republican party that once stood for something.

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Featured Health insurance New York Repeal United States

Congresswoman Votes for Repeal, But Didn’t Know Who Pays Her Health Care

Apparently, not all Republicans in Congress who voted to repeal the Obama Care Health Law know that their Health Care is paid for by the Government. That appeared to be the case with Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle, Republican Representative from New York.

The freshman Congresswoman held her first town hall meeting in Newark NY, and had to be told by a staff member that her Health care is paid for by tax payers. Reporting the story is Marnie Eisenstadt:

“Buerkle, who voted to repeal the health care reform act, was twice asked about the health insurance she receives as a government employee. At first she said she couldn’t understand why people were so interested in her health insurance, and that taxpayers didn’t pay anything for it. She later corrected herself after being handed a note from a staffer. Like most employees, she pays for a portion of her insurance and her employer, the government, pays the rest, she said.”

Seems to me that the wrong person got elected here. Can we hold another election and get her staffer instead?

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