Donald Trump went on David Letterman last night and spewed some lies about Obamacare. So much lies were told, that David Letterman actually had to interject at one point, saying “I don’t believe that is true.” At another point when Trump continued complaining about Obamacare, he accused the system of containing “fraud and abuse,” to which Letterman asked for documented proof of said “fraud and abuse.”
But in all the lies, Trump spoke about a friend of his who suffered a serious medical condition while visiting in Scotland. According to Trump, his friend was only supposed to be there for four days when he got sick, and was taken to a hospital where he was treated by some very “great doctors” giving him “great care.” According to Trump, when his friend asked “where do I pay,” he was told, “there are no charge.”
This of course is because Scotland has a single payer type system, and in comparing the American system to that in Scotland, Trump said, “we can have a great system in this country…” before he was cut off by Letterman. But following his line of reasoning one can easily conclude that Trump prefers the Scotland system than the system here in America.
It’s a very simple concept – provide people with the opportunity to buy their own life saving health insurance and the average, sensible American would jump at that opportunity. Then there are those who would deny themselves life saving healthcare if they think doing so would hurt the president. We will call those people Republicans. You should always stay away from Republicans
But I digress.
A new report out today finds that the amount of uninsured in America is at record lows.
Earlier this week, the National Center for Health Statistics released new data on health insurance coverage during the second quarter of 2014, the first federal survey data that largely capture the effects of the Affordable Care Act’s first open enrollment period. These new data confirm earlier findings that 2014 has seen dramatic reductions in the share of Americans without health insurance, reductions that correspond to an estimated 10 million people gaining coverage since before the start of open enrollment.
This progress is even more striking when viewed in historical context. Building on work by other researchers, the Council of Economic Advisers has constructed estimates of the share of Americans without health insurance extending back to 1963. These estimates show that the drop in the nation’s uninsured rate so far this year is the largest over any period since the early 1970s, years in which the Medicaid program was still ramping up and the Medicare and Medicaid programs were expanded to people with disabilities.
With this year’s decline, the nation’s uninsured rate is now at or near the lowest level recorded across five decades of data. Furthermore, new data out today on Medicaid enrollment and data on Marketplace plan selections from earlier this week show that progress in reducing the number of uninsured Americans is continuing.
Republican Senate Majority Leader-elect, Mitch McConnell, campaigned on repealing Obamacare, promising to uproot Obamacare “root and branch” he often said, and the voters in Kentucky, who benefit most from Obamacare decided to put McConnell in charge.
So in an effort to keep his promise to take away his constituents healthcare, McConnell is already gearing up for a repeal vote in the senate.
“Number one: We certainly will have a vote on proceeding to a bill to repeal Obamacare. … It was a very large issue in the campaign,” he told Roll Call in an interview published on Monday.
Republicans will have 54 members in the new Senate to convene on January 3 – short of the 60 needed to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster on a bill that repeals Obamacare.
Though he spoke of a more cooperative and functioning Senate, McConnell insisted that Republicans “will go at that law [Obamacare] – which in my view is the single worst piece of legislation passed in the last half century – in every way that we can.”
By now I’m sure you’ve heard the bogus and outrageous claim by Republican Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell.
In his one and only debate with Alison Lundergan Grimes earlier this week, McConnell was asked about his plans for Obamacare if reelected to the Senate to represent the people of Kentucky.
It should be noted that McConnell already sits in that seat, he is the Senator for that state. But he knows that Republicans in Kentucky don’t like Obamacare and they want it repealed, even though Obamacare – they call it Kynect in Kentucky – provides them with life saving healthcare.
McConnell also know that Republicans cannot repeal Obamacare. They have tried over 50 times to no avail. And even if they win the Senate in November – and it’s looking more likely that they will – Republicans will not be able to repeal the law because the president is not going to sign any legislation that kills healthcare for millions of Americans.
But in the debate, McConnell could not avoid lying to the people of Kentucky, the people he represents, the people who wants the Obamacare repealed although they are benefitting from the law. When asked about his plans for healthcare, McConnell lied… twice!
“Kentucky Kynect is a website,” McConnell said. “The website can continue, but in my view the best interests of the country would be achieved by pulling out Obamacare root and branch.”
His first lie was trying to separate Kentucky Kynect from Obamacare as if they are two different entities. Kynect is not just a website, it is a marketplace set up and funded by Obamacare. Uprooting Obamacare “root and branch” is in fact, uprooting Kynect “root and branch,” and thus, eliminating health care for hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians.
His second lie? That re-electing him to the Senate will magically result in repealing Obamacare, as if the last 50 trials were just practice.
What’s the odds that the people of Kentucky picked up on these lies? Don’t bet on it. They are mostly Republicans.
This is making Republicans very very angry. Not only is Obamacare helping millions of Americans live healthier lives, thus reducing insurance costs, thus reducing the deficit, thus making the economy stronger, Obamacare is also giving refund checks to millions of people.
Millions of Americans can expect to get a refund from their insurance companies this year, at an average of about $80 dollars per family, thanks to a little-known Obamacare provision that’s helping people save money on their premiums. According to a new report released by the Health and Human Services Department on Thursday, Americans across the country have received a total of $1.9 billion dollars in rebates since this provision first took effect in 2011.
Obamacare’s medical loss ratio provision — which is also frequently referred to as the “80/20 rule” — requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of every American’s premium costs on their medical care, rather than on the company’s own profits or administrative overhead. If insurance companies don’t hit the right balance, they have to issue a refund check to their customers to make up for it.
According to HHS’s calculations, 6.8 million Americans will save $330 million in refunds this year because of the 80/20 rule. Insurance companies are required to provide those reimbursements by no later than the beginning of August. Not everyone will actually receive a physical check in the mail; insurers are allowed to apply the reimbursements to future premiums, so the savings could show up that way.
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.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell now holds a seven-point lead over Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race following last week’s state party primaries.
McConnell earns 48% support to Grimes’ 41% in the latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Kentucky Voters. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate in the race, and seven percent (7%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The two were tied with 42% support each in late January in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at the then-hypothetical race.
In other words, with his promise to repeal Obamacare, the people of Kentucky would prefer giving up their own health care with a vote for Mitch McConnell.
First it was marriage equality. Now it’s the minimum wage. And prison reform. And some lefty laboratories in cities across the country. It’s not a sharp turn to the left as many had anticipated with Obama’s election in 2008. It’s a wide turn, and the country’s already done the first hand-over-hand on the cultural-political wheel.
If you haven’t seen the Frontline series on American prisons, please go their post-haste and watch what you can. The growth of the prison population in this country is staggering, and is a direct result of the conservative policies that created minimum sentences and the mandated arrests of millions of low-level and non-violent offenders, most of whom were males of color. Pair that with the creation of laws that, in some states, treated 12 year-olds as adults, and the results are explosive. We built prisons, then made sure we filled them up.
That’s changing. Many states, such as Kentucky, are trying to reform and rewrite their legal codes to provide the kind of care that young, at-risk juveniles and older, clearly sick men and women need in order to avoid jail time. One of the stories on the program shows a clearly distressed young women who needs counseling, medication, emotional support and a mentor if she is to thrive as a citizen. Otherwise, she’s going to wind up as a ward of the state and she might commit a violent act against someone. Another story shows a 67 year old addict who’s been released from jail to a halfway house with nothing. No money, no prospects, no clothes other than the sweats on his body. And he’s supposed to get a job? Go on welfare or food stamps (that the GOP wants to cut more)?
And while we were spending all of this money on being punitive, the right wing also told us that we needed to spend less on schools and lower taxes that paid for needed government services. Spending more on prisons and less on schools has had a direct impact on our culture. But as I said, that’s changing.
There are other signs of a wide left turn. Minimum wages are going up in some states. In New Jersey, the people voted to raise the wage over the objections of Governor Christie. Today’s vote to try and raise the national wage ended in a Republican-led filibuster, which will show up in Democratic ads come the fall. The national reactions to comments from Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy shows that, although there are still racists in the United States, they will not be tolerated as they were before. Courts are striking down voter ID laws, most recently in Wisconsin, which is a welcome sign for democracy.
We still have work to do, and there will be setbacks, but slowly and surely, ideas that for years were ridiculed as soft and unworkable are seeing the light of day.
This happened in 2010. I cannot remember seeing or hearing about it, but these right-wing hate mongers calling themselves “Christians,” were so against their fellow Americans getting the opportunity to buy private health care, that they gathered in Washington and prayed to God for Divine intervention in killing Obamacare.
And it wasn’t just the regular nuts that prayed, no, the irregular ones prayed too. Georgia Republican Congressman Jack Kingston joined in the insanity.
This is good news. People are now able to afford and purchase their very own private health care, thanks to Obamacare, and because of this, free clinics are finally shutting down.
Said Stacey Bowser RN, Director of one of these clinics.
“Because people are qualifying for insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, our free medical clinic will not be needed anymore. We’ve gone from seeing around 300 people a month on a regular basis, but as people were enrolling in Obamacare, the numbers we were seeing have dropped. We were down to 80 people that came through the medical clinic in February, all the way down to three people at the medical clinic in March. Our services won’t be needed anymore, and this will conclude our mission.”
Free clinics were started to help people get some sort of health care. And there are many testimonials online from thankful Americans, some owing their lives to people like Stacey Bowser. Obamacare however, is putting these Americans in control of their of their own health, some for the first time, and that’s always a good thing.
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.
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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