Category: ObamaCare

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Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

More Obamacare Good News – More Deficit Reduction, More People Insured Than Expected

Photo: CBO

Did you know? Obamacare, also known as the ACA will reduce the federal budget even more than the CBO initially reported. Also, more people will be covered than initially thought. Also, the Republicans are dead set on repealing the whole thing.

In 2010, it estimated that Obamacare’s costs to the federal budget between 2014 and 2019 would hit $759 billion. That figure has steadily declined with each revision. The new figures project “a net cost of $36 billion for 2014, $5 billion less than the previous projection for the year; and $1,383 billion for the 2015–2024 period.” That last figures is “$104 billion less than the previous projection.”

It also projected an increase to the number of people gaining coverage under Obamacare — though a modest one. Compared to its February estimates, the CBO now assumes that 7 million more people will gain coverage under the Obamacare exchanges. In total, it projects that “12 million more nonelderly people will have health insurance in 2014 than would have had it in the absence of the ACA” — an increase that appears to be independent of the spike in Obamacare enrollments at the end of March.

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Healthcare ObamaCare Politics rachel maddow

Rachel Maddow is Shocked By The Kathleen Sebelius Resignation

“Well that was a surprise!”

That was how Rachel maddow started her segment about the resignation of HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. Maddow went on saying that the administration finally got some good news about Obamacare since the website debacle back in October, and she found it strange that they decided to accept Sebelius’ resignation now.

Accepting the resignation Maddow said, turned the story of the successful Obamacare enrollment figures into “a story instead about firing people.”

“Kathleen Sebelius has to go? Why now? Because the administration can’t resist stepping on its own tail and turning the first good news cycle they have had about Obamacare since it passed into a story instead about firing people for Obamacare’s failures?”

Maddow concluded by comparing the administration’s acceptance of Sebelius’ resignation to a team that began the season playing badly, then eventually winning the championship and in the middle of their celebration, they fire their coach.

Video

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Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Turns In Her Resignation

Republicans should be happy. For months, since the original failed launch of the Obamacare website, Republicans have called for heads to roll… preferably, the head of the Health and Human Services – Kathleen Sebelius. Well today, Republicans got their wish as Sebelius turned in her resignation to the Obama administration.

Sylvia Burwell, who leads the White House Office of Management and Budget, will be nominated to take her place, according to multiple White House sources.

Sibelius was not expected to remain in the Obama administration through the end of the president’s second term – with reports that she had been discussing her future for months with the President.

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dead Featured Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

Florida Woman Dropped Dead Because State Republicans Refused Obamacare

While Obamacare is saving millions of lives today, there are still some states – headed by Republican governors – that insist on killing their citizens… literally. One of those states is Florida and the case of Charlene Dill is a sad but perfect example.

Dill, a 32-year-old mother of three, collapsed and died on a stranger’s floor at the end of March. She was at an appointment to try to sell a vacuum cleaner, one of the three part-time jobs that she worked to try to make ends meet for her family. Her death was a result of a documented heart condition — and it could have been prevented.

Dill was uninsured, and she went years without the care she needed to address her chronic conditions because she couldn’t afford it.

Under the health reform law, which seeks to expand coverage to millions of low-income Americans, Dill wasn’t supposed to lack insurance. She was supposed to have access to a public health plan through the law’s expansion of the Medicaid program. But Dill, a Florida resident, is one of the millions of Americans living in a state that has refused to accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion after the Supreme Court ruled this provision to be optional. Those low-income people have been left in a coverage gap, making too much income to qualify for a public Medicaid plan but too little income to qualify for the federal subsidies to buy a plan on Obamacare’s private exchanges.

Florida has one of the highest uninsurance rates in the nation, and is home to a disproportionately large number of residents who struggle to afford health services. Nonetheless, lawmakers have continued to resist accepting generous federal funds to expand Medicaid to an estimated 750,000 low-income Floridians like Dill.

 

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ObamaCare Politics

Report – The Koch Brothers are Benefiting Financially From Obamacare

Amazing, isn’t it. These two billionaire brothers are practically responsible for the Teaparty Movement, convincing poor and apparently ill-informed Americans that having healthcare is a bad thing. Yet, according to Senate Leader Harry Reid and the Associated Press, these same billionaires are benefiting nicely from the same healthcare they are set against – Obamacare.

From the Associated Press;

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., renewed his criticisms of the Kochs this week. In a Senate chamber speech, Reid noted that Koch Industries benefited from a temporary provision of the health care law.

The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, Reid said, “helped the company pay health insurance costs for its retirees who are not covered by Medicare.” Reid asked sarcastically: “So it’s OK for Koch Industries to save money through Obamacare” even as Koch-related groups seek the law’s repeal.

When Congress enacted the health care law in 2010, it appropriated $5 billion for the temporary reinsurance program. The goal was to subsidize employers’ costs for workers who retire before they become eligible for Medicare. Hundreds of employers applied – many were corporations, cities and public universities – and virtually all the money was soon distributed.

“If the Affordable Care Act is so awful,” Reid asked, “why did Koch Industries use it to their advantage?”

Federal records show that Koch Industries received $1.4 million in early retiree subsidies. That’s considerably less than the sums many other employers received. A Koch Industries spokesman said he had no comment on Reid’s latest criticisms.

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ObamaCare Politics

This Republican is Praising Obamacare – Wants Enrollment Centers to Remain Open

Source (AP) - Call Center

A Republican Congressman who has sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act praised the Obama administration for keeping open a call center dedicated to enrolling people into the law after the initial enrollment period.

In a statement posted on his campaign website last week, Rep. Vance McAllister (R) revealed that he, along with Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu (D) and David Vitter (R), lobbied General Dynamics, the company who operates the call center, to preserve the more than 600 jobs in the state.

“This is excellent news for the City of Bogalusa and the hundreds of high quality workers employed by General Dynamics whose jobs are now saved,” McAllister said. “I’m pleased to see that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services saw how important this is to my district and the state of Louisiana. As long as I am in office I will continue to fight for the health of our economy and the preservation of jobs.”

A spokesperson for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services clarified that “Call centers operated by CMS contractors have supported our effort to enroll millions of Americans in quality, affordable health coverage.” HHS says it will have 3,800 full-time call center employees “to handle marketplace activities outside of open enrollment.”

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News ObamaCare Politics

Glenn Beck Is Mad – Cannot Understand Why Anyone Would Want Obamacare – Video

Glenn Beck is mad. Mad I tells ya! He simply cannot understand why any American would fall for the lies Obama is selling them. Lies like, having affordable healthcare is a good thing. Why would anyone in their right minds want healthcare?

Glenn Beck is livid.

We’ve never had this before. This guy, you put him in a military uniform, I’m not kidding you, you put him on a balcony in a military uniform, this guy is a full-fledged dictator. There has never been any president who has ever done anything like this.

This is complete bogus. This is complete bogus fairytale. This is completely made up. This is nonsensical. The emperor has no clothes and everyone in the press, you “rat bastards.” Every single one of you. No, what he’s saying isn’t true. You know it. You know it.

He’s a sociopath! He’s sociopathic!

Video

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Healthcare Mitch McConnell ObamaCare Politics

Thanks to Obamacare, Uninsured is Cut by 40% in Mitch McConnell’s State

Mitch McConnell could thank Obama for making his state more healthy. He could thank Obama, but he won’t. He’s more concerned with trying to deny Obama a second term. Oh wait a minute…

Obamacare has cut Kentucky’s uninsured population by more than 40 percent, signing up roughly 360,000 residents since enrollment opened up on Oct. 1, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Some 75 percent of them — 270,000 — were previously uninsured. That means Kentucky’s uninsured population of 640,000 has come down by 42 percent.

The enrollment figures, which state officials relayed to the Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, underscore the relative success of Kentucky’s state-based Obamacare exchange compared to other states and, in some ways, the HealthCare.gov federal marketplace portal.

Like the federal government, Kentucky has decided to give people who began their applications until April 15 to sign up for insurance on the exchanges. State officials told the Herald-Leader that those who are eligible for Medicaid can sign up after the March 31 deadline

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Healthcare ObamaCare

President Obama’s Full Victory Speech on Obamacare – Video


Rest assured. Right now, Republicans are brainstorming, trying to come up with another set of lies talking points to fool the American people into thinking that having healthcare is a bad thing. Today however, President Obama took a victory lap in announcing the end of the end of the enrollment period for healthcare and that the initial goal of 7 million enrollees was reached.

The President;

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Health Care ObamaCare Politics Repeal

Fox News To Ted Cruz – Majority of Americans Want Obamacare – Video

Although Americans from all stripes are showing more support for the President’s health care law, Republicans like Ted Cruz are still insisting that the people want “every word” of the law repealed.

On the morning after a massive surge by Americans to get healthcare, Cruz was heard on Fox News saying, “I think at this point it is abundantly clear this thing it isn’t working. You can’t fiddle around the edges. I think it is the essence of pragmatism to recognize this thing isn’t working, and let’s start over, let’s repeal every word of it.”

Fox host Steve Doocy printed out to Cruz that he was speaking for a minority, not the majority of Americans.

“You know, you’re kind of in a minority when it comes to that. You look at the polling, Senator, and a lot of Americans like parts of it, would like to see parts of it continue. So, to blow the whole thing up, I don’t know if people are behind that.”

Cruz, however, discarded that fact and held firm to his talking point, saying “every poll that’s done” showed that the Affordable Care Act was the “profoundly most unpopular law we’ve seen in modern times.”

“I think it’s going to be repealed because I think the American people are demanding it,” the Texas Republican added.

Vudeo

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ObamaCare Politics

Ted Cruz’s Crazy Teabag Followers Not So Crazy After all

Ted Cruz thought he’ll gin up some of the Tea-nut crazies on his Facebook page by stroking their Obamacare fears in the former of a question –  are they better off now under Obamacare.

He did not get the answers he was looking for.

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Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

Obamacare Could Hit 7 Million Sign-Ups Today

With Republicans still maintaining that Obamacare is doomed to fail, Forbes magazine reports that enrollment may actually hit 7 million before the day ends.

While not saying that enrollment will definitely reach that mark before the deadline, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is the agency that oversees the roll out, seem pretty optimistic. They said on Sunday that with brisk traffic on the website and call center, along with the surge in applications in the past few weeks, the projection seems promising.

In an update issued Sunday afternoon, the agency said that the website had been holding up well to the heavy traffic, handling 8.7 million visits in the last week.

“The site continues to perform well under the largest sustained period of volume to date with average response times less than 400 milliseconds and an error rate of 0.5%,” the report said.

In spite of the rocky beginnings for the website, which proved to be far from ready when it was launched on October 1st of last year, it now appears that the original projection of 7 million sign ups may be reached.  A recent report by the CBO found that there is already a sufficient number of enrollees to make the system an actuarial viability.

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