Tag: Enrollment

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Healthcare ObamaCare

Obamacare in Florida – Almost 2 Million Floridians Enrolled by February 15th

Florida. Another state with a Republican governor who, if he had his way, would repeal Obamacare and leave his constituents without healthcare in a jiffy! Yes, that same Florida registered almost 2 million Americans to receive health insurance benefits from The Affordable Care Act.

Erollment in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans topped 1.6 million in Florida and totaled about 11.4 million nationwide through the Feb. 15 deadline, according to data released Wednesday by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The figures reflect the number of people who selected a plan during the just-completed three-month open enrollment period or who enrolled during the previous year and were automatically re-enrolled.

Officials said the deadline for people who were unable to complete their enrollments by Feb. 15 would be extended by a week, so the enrollment totals will be revised once those enrollees are counted.

Enrollment totals for metropolitan areas included in Wednesday’s release were:

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach — 756,137

Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford — 192,881

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater — 174,675

Jacksonville — 80,256

North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton — 44,072

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Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

President Obama – “Republicans Were Wrong” – 8 Million People Already Signed Up

And still, the Republicans are stuck on stupid! They’re still talking about repealing a law that is helping the economy, and helping millions and millions and millions of Americans! And as they talk about repeal, they have no idea on what to replace the law with if they somehow manage to repeal it.

President Obama announced Thursday that 8 million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, calling the feat a success story that Democrats should “forcefully defend and be proud of” in the face of Republican election-year attacks on the law.

The enrollment figure, revised upward from the 7.5 million signups that the administration had announced earlier this month, renewed hopes at the White House that Democrats will be able to overcome the initial rocky rollout of the health law in the fall as they battle to maintain control of the Senate in the midterms this fall.

“This thing is working,” Obama said at an afternoon news conference. Of the GOP, he added: “They said no one would sign up. They were wrong about that. They are wrong to try to repeal a law that is working.”

The final figure is well above the White House’s initial target of 7 million signups.

Republicans, who have fought the law since it was passed by a sharply divided Congress in 2010, escalated their call for the law to be repealed after the problems with the enrollment Web site, which repeatedly broke down in its first few months. Obama’s job approval ratings dropped, and Democrats worried that the bad headlines would harm the party at the ballot box.

But a buoyant Obama said the better-than-expected enrollment news should convince Democrats to not shy away from embracing his signature domestic achievement.

“I don’t think we should apologize for it, and I don’t think we should be defensive about it,” he said. “I think it is a strong, good, right story to tell. I think what the other side is doing and what the other side is offering would strip away protections for those families.”

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Featured Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

Fox News Outrage – Because of Obamacare, People Must Now Wait to Buy Healthcare

Fox News has something else to complain about. They are now blaming Obamacare for the people who chose to remain uninsured past the enrollment cycle. You know, those same folks Fox News told not to buy healthcare.

On the so-called “news” network’s website, this was written;

There is yet another ObamaCare surprise waiting for consumers: from now until the next open enrollment at the end of this year, most people will simply not be able to buy any health insurance at all, even outside the exchanges.

Apparently, the concept of an enrollment cycle is foreign to the good ole folks over at Fox. Of course, the rest of us already know that enrollment in health insurance happens every year and anyone who missed or failed to enroll because, they listened to Fox for example – would usually wait for the next enrollment cycle. But according to the foxers, Obamacare is now the culprit.

I still cannot figure out why their audience continue buying their bull!

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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

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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Healthcare

How Many People Signed up for Obamacare So Far? 7,041,000

How many people have signed up for private coverage under Obamacare? 7,041,000, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced Tuesday afternoon.

That number is likely to rise: It does not include the Monday sign-ups in the 14 states operating their own marketplaces. In addition, the enrollment deadline was relaxed for people having trouble completing the process, so some people could still sign up in the next two weeks.

The figure does not account for how many people have paid their first premium, formally initiating their coverage. Independent analysts have also estimated that about 9 million people have enrolled directly through their insurer.

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Domestic Policies Health Healthcare News ObamaCare Politics

March 31 Is Only The Beginning

I suppose it would have been fitting if the Obama Administration had scheduled April Fool’s Day as the last day to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. We’ve certainly been treated to a smorgasbord of ineptitude, shifting deadlines, executive pronouncements that let certain economic sectors off the hook, and some rude, disrespectful, sometimes hateful objections from the right-wing about the entire business.

That’s why March 31 is so important. It represents the end of the first, and possibly most vital, stage of the implementation of the act. Millions of people have signed up for heath insurance. Millions of others are now covered by Medicaid. The federal and state websites are still balky, but they work. The end of the beginning is upon us. It can only get better from here. And the best part is that the law is working.

Republicans have dropped their demand that the law be scrapped, which six months ago looked like a possibility as they shut down the government and Healthcare.gov showed exactly what can go wrong when the government attempts to shortchange the software cycle. Now the arguments are that the law needs to be fixed, although GOP candidates are running against it to the exclusion of everything else, except perhaps voter ID laws that will guarantee a Republican majority in the House for the foreseeable future. Even Democrats in tossup races in Louisiana and North Carolina are talking about fixing the law so it doesn’t ensnare the middle class and endanger employer-provided health insurance.

The problem is that, over time, that’s exactly what the law will accomplish. We are moving into uncharted waters, where the employer mandate will shift and companies will start to drop health insurance from their benefit plans. How this will work is the key. Will companies give employees a voucher with a dollar amount attached to it to buy insurance? Will they raise wages so people can pay for their own policies? Will insurance companies bring down the cost of policies so they can remain viable? Will we eventually get a public option that takes private insurance out of the economy? These are the questions that will define how successfully the ACA reforms the health care industry. Follow the money. That’s always been the gold standard of social change.

My sense is that employer-sponsored health insurance will be gone from most industries within 7-10 years, and the fallout won’t be as bad as some have predicted. Companies have a vital interest in the health of their workers and insurance companies won’t want to price people out of plans. Without the major expense of providing health insurance, companies will be able to pay workers more, though not too much more. The minimum wage will be less of a burden as it rises. Workers will need to make healthier choices and get checked more often before health issues become major concerns. The GOP calls this personal responsibility, and they accuse the Democrats of coddling the country with social programs. The ACA will do more for people taking control of their health than anything we’ve done in the United States. Remembers, the ACA is based on Republican ideas. That’s why the law is both a curse and a blessing.

All of that is in the future. For now, President Obama’s approval numbers are in the tank. History will remember him far more positively.

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ObamaCare Politics

Obamacare Enrollment Surpasses The 6 Million Mark

WASHINGTON — More than 6 million people have enrolled in the federal and state health exchanges as of Thursday, President Obama announced this afternoon.

This means the administration has met its latest goal, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office, to ensure the insurance system is sustainable.
Obama made the announcement on a conference call with health care navigators and volunteers while he was traveling in Italy. He thanked them for their help.

The latest milestone comes after the troubled opening of the federal exchange Oct. 1. Software problems and other issues rendered the site virtually unusable for weeks, and it took a surge of technology support to have it fixed by Nov. 30. Since then, however, enrollments have risen dramatically, particularly as the Dec. 31 and March 31 deadlines approached.

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Healthcare Obama care Politics

Obama Administration Extends Healthcare Enrollment for a Select Few

With less than a week left for people to sign up for health insurance, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would allow more time for those who had tried to apply but were blocked by technical problems with the federal exchange.

Several states running their own exchanges, including Maryland, Minnesota and Nevada, have taken similar steps in the last two weeks.

Open enrollment was scheduled to end on Monday for all Americans. The White House had previously insisted that the deadline was firm and would not be extended.

Under the move planned by the administration, some people will be given a special enrollment period, beyond the deadline, if they can show they were not able to enroll because of an error by the federal exchange or by the Department of Health and Human Services. Federal officials allowed a special enrollment period, on a case-by-case basis, for some people who were unable to meet the Dec. 24, 2013, enrollment deadline for coverage starting Jan. 1 of this year.

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Health Care Healthcare ObamaCare

Obamacare Prediction – 6 Million Sign ups Will Happen By End of March

Charles Gaba has “been tracking the most up-to-date enrollment information and offering his own projections on his blog, ACAsignups.net. On the same day that he predicted the 5 million signups milestone, he accurately predicted that California would hit the 1 million mark.”

“His next big prediction: The final sign-up tally will hit 6.22 million.”

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Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

Obamacare Good News – Millions More Enrolled, Lowest Uninsured Rate in 5 Years

The Obama administration on Wednesday released its monthly update on health insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 3.3 million Americans enrolled in private health plans through Obamacare’s state and federal marketplaces from October through February 1, with 1.1 million signing up in January alone. The data comes on the same day that a Gallup survey found that the U.S. uninsurance rate has hit a five-year low:

“We’re seeing a healthy growth in enrollment,” said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a conference call with reporters. According to Sebelius, an additional 6.6 million Americans have been deemed eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) during the first four months of the open enrollment period.

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