Affordable Care Act Woes (Obamacare)

[Pointedstick]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/0 ... 39446.html

Just 22 percent of uninsured Americans plan on getting health insurance through the government exchanges -- the websites that help you sign up for coverage -- or have already done so, a Gallup poll released Friday found. What’s more, less than one-quarter of uninsured Americans who say they plan on buying coverage through the exchanges have visited one so far, according to Gallup.

The poll's results are troubling, suggesting that uninsured Americans aren’t responding to a part of Obamacare that’s critical to its success. In order to keep health insurance prices at a reasonable level healthy young adults need to sign up for coverage. If the only uninsured Americans that end up using the exchanges are those that are desperate for coverage, like the sick and elderly, it could push up premiums for everyone, threatening the exchanges’ success.

[Reub]

I wonder if he'll be blaming Israel soon for putting a Stuxnet-type virus on the Obamacare website because they were upset about our selling out to Iran. Why wouldn't he?

[Libertarian666]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/0 ... 39446.html

Just 22 percent of uninsured Americans plan on getting health insurance through the government exchanges -- the websites that help you sign up for coverage -- or have already done so, a Gallup poll released Friday found. What’s more, less than one-quarter of uninsured Americans who say they plan on buying coverage through the exchanges have visited one so far, according to Gallup.

The poll's results are troubling, suggesting that uninsured Americans aren’t responding to a part of Obamacare that’s critical to its success. In order to keep health insurance prices at a reasonable level healthy young adults need to sign up for coverage. If the only uninsured Americans that end up using the exchanges are those that are desperate for coverage, like the sick and elderly, it could push up premiums for everyone, threatening the exchanges’ success.

You might almost think that the system was designed to fail in exactly that way, if you were paranoid... or libertarian.

[RuralEngineer]

It's tempting to think that a plan this bad MUST be intentional, but I propose the ripe stench of incompetence that will cling to all those involved in this mess, should it fail, will make pushing an even more liberal alternative difficult. I think that there are enough on the left aware of this to make the "conspiracy" theory unlikely.

[PP67]

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence - Napoleon Bonaparte

[clacy]

The government can't even impliment a simple website and yet people want them to centralize more and more power.

The fact is central planning doesn't work due to incompetence and corruption.

[jacob_h]

...

Lets say the earth totally stops getting warmer i.e. over the next 10 years it does not get any warmer.  Where will the political will to continue defending global warming (as you know they will) come from?

...

How many legislators care about what their constitutents want?

Global Warming ended 16 years ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ve-it.html

[Reub]

Yes, but the cessation of global warming is, in itself, caused by global warming. 

[Pointedstick]

Obamacare is collapsing, and Democratic senators, fleeing the carnage, are rushing to associate themselves with bills designed to delay or nullify portions of it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 67718.html

[Libertarian666]

Obamacare is collapsing, and Democratic senators, fleeing the carnage, are rushing to associate themselves with bills designed to delay or nullify portions of it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 67718.html

This may actually be the end of the line for the "progressive agenda".
Probably not, because delusion is a powerful force, but just maybe...

[Benko]

This may actually be the end of the line for the "progressive agenda".
Probably not, because delusion is a powerful force, but just maybe...

Which do you think is stronger:

--The psychological drive to get everyone to do what you think is best, because you know better than they do what is good for them**

--The desire to have gov't do what it must and leave us alone otherwise


**you can currently read  examples of this on many web sites explaining why it is a good thing that people lost their insurance policies.

[Jan Van]

Global Warming ended 16 years ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ve-it.html

<off topic>

Misleading Daily Mail Article Pre-Bunked by Nuccitelli et al. (2012)

However, this claim is simply incorrect.  Nuccitelli et al. (2012) considered the warming of the oceans (both shallow and deep), land, atmosphere, and ice, and showed that global warming has not slowed in recent years (Figure 3).

[Libertarian666]

This may actually be the end of the line for the "progressive agenda".
Probably not, because delusion is a powerful force, but just maybe...

Which do you think is stronger:

--The psychological drive to get everyone to do what you think is best, because you know better than they do what is good for them**

--The desire to have gov't do what it must and leave us alone otherwise


**you can currently read  examples of this on many web sites explaining why it is a good thing that people lost their insurance policies.

How about the desire to have government do nothing at all and leave us alone completely? That's mine.

[flyingpylon]

This may actually be the end of the line for the "progressive agenda".
Probably not, because delusion is a powerful force, but just maybe...

Which do you think is stronger:

--The psychological drive to get everyone to do what you think is best, because you know better than they do what is good for them**

--The desire to have gov't do what it must and leave us alone otherwise


**you can currently read  examples of this on many web sites explaining why it is a good thing that people lost their insurance policies.

Unfortunately, the desire for "free sh*t" is even stronger than either of those.

[ns2]

Unfortunately, the desire for "free sh*t" is even stronger than either of those.

P.J. O'Rourke is famous for the quote "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see how much it costs when it's free".

I wonder how many women flocked to the Obama-care website to get their free birth control pills only to find out how expensive free birth-control pills really are.

[clacy]

We just met with our insurance broker for my business yesterday.  We normally renew in July but Obamacare was written to allow a "last chance" renewal period for December 1st, 2013.  Our increase was just under 20%, but keep in mind that was for only a period of 6 months.  That will lock our rates through December of 2014.  The two previous renewals were 30%+ increases YOY. 

The numbers we were quoted for renewing in January of 2014 were significantly higher, so it's a "no-brainer" to lock in one last time.

Our broker told us that the sticker shock we'd see a year from now and 2015/16 for that matter, would be make the recent 20-30% YOY increases look mild. 

I think the big loser in all of this will be the middle class.  The poor will get subsidized health care.  The rich can afford 3-4x what they were previously paying.  The middle class will get their benefits reduced and pay more.

[Jan Van]

I think the big loser in all of this will be the middle class. ... The middle class will get their benefits reduced and pay more.

Middle class? Won't be much left of that anyway...

[AdamA]

Here's South Park's take on it.

The clip is pretty funny, and only about a minute long.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/ ... llout.html

[Libertarian666]

He just announced a 1 year delay in the requirements that caused all the cancellations.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/obama-giv ... 2D11591250

Sounds great, but I have three questions:
1. How does this actually fix anything?
2. Wasn't that what the Rs were asking for, that Obama had to shut the government down because he wouldn't allow it?
3. What gives him the power to change laws by fiat?

[Pointedstick]

He just announced a 1 year delay in the requirements that caused all the cancellations.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/obama-giv ... 2D11591250

Sounds great, but I have three questions:
1. How does this actually fix anything?
2. Wasn't that what the Rs were asking for, that Obama had to shut the government down because he wouldn't allow it?
3. What gives him the power to change laws by fiat?

Answers:

1. Shut up.
2. Shut up. Shut up! Shut up!!
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6woIRLnbmE

[Libertarian666]

He just announced a 1 year delay in the requirements that caused all the cancellations.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/obama-giv ... 2D11591250

Sounds great, but I have three questions:
1. How does this actually fix anything?
2. Wasn't that what the Rs were asking for, that Obama had to shut the government down because he wouldn't allow it?
3. What gives him the power to change laws by fiat?

Answers:

1. Shut up.
2. Shut up. Shut up! Shut up!!
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6woIRLnbmE

Whew, for a moment there I thought there was a problem. Thanks for straightening that out!

[Pointedstick]

The hits keep coming…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 75571.html

President Obama closed his health care press conference on Thursday by taking one last shot at the reporters he was speaking to.

“The things that go right, you guys aren’t going to write about," he said.

To say that might not have been the best thing to do on a day when Obama was apologizing for the botched rollout of his health care law, but, if Obama was looking for some stray validation, he would have been wise to look away from Twitter.

The reviews for his press conference were negative, to say the least. These are just some of the things people were saying:


I give up.
— Lizzie O'Leary (@lizzieohreally) November 14, 2013

Obama presser resembling first debate v. Romney in tone and dynamism.
— Jonathan Wald (@jonathanwald) November 14, 2013

Obama really not making the greatest case for federal programs...
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) November 14, 2013

Shorter Obama: "I don't know what's going on in the executive branch. I'm just the president."
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 14, 2013

To get back to subject of the president's intelligence that was mentioned in the other thread, I'm sure the man has a high IQ, but insulting reporters at the end of a damage-control press conference certainly doesn't do much to highlight it.

[RuralEngineer]

I think the year extension is brilliant. The millions of people with "subpar plans" get one last hurrah to enjoy basic insurance that provides for their needs and is affordable with a whole year to anticipate their upcoming rate increases. Obama has done NOTHING to mitigate his lie, just extended his pain.

Glorious.

What a putz.

[Pointedstick]

The media is having a field day over this disaster. They can smell the blood in the water. If Obama can't manage to turn this around quickly and the Republicans can avoid distractingly making asses of themselves, his second term might be sunk.

[WildAboutHarry]

If Obama can't manage to turn this around quickly and the Republicans can avoid distractingly making asses of themselves,

Care to estimate the probability of either?