How 'bout that Obamacare?

Bad news for Obamacare hating trolls...
If canceled, not even 1% will pay more for Obamacare: Study

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Just a "tiny fraction" of Americans stand to lose their current health insurance plan and pay more for coverage under Obamacare,a new study
said Thursday as concern over canceled policies remained a pressing issue for the White House.

The analysis found that only 0.6 percent of people under age 65 are at risk of losing their individual plan and having to pay higher premiums for coverage approved by the Affordable Care Act, according to Families USA, the consumer health advocacy group that issued the study.

Acknowledging that the study was an effort to counter a steady stream of bad publicity for the administration about canceled policies, Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack added that 1.5 million people possibly losing insurance and paying more for new coverage is "not trivial."

But, he said, "it's important to keep a perspective ... that number is a tiny fraction of the 65 million nonelderly people with pre-existing conditions who will get coverage under the Affordable Care Act."

"I do think this issue has been blown out of proportion," said Pollack, whose group supports President Barack Obama's decision last week to let insurers maintain ACA-noncompliant plans with current customers for at least a year.

The Families USA study also found that 71 percent of the 15.2 million people with individual polices will be eligible for Medicaid coverage or government subsidies to offset the cost of ACA-compliant policies because their household income is below 400 percent of the federal poverty index.

"This is very significant," said Pollack of those 10.8 million people, who can use the subsidies to buy coverage from HealthCare.gov and the state-run exchanges. "Those families will see significant reductions in their costs for premiums, often in the thousands of dollars."

Families USA's finding of 0.6 percent was based on data showing that only 5.7 percent of the nonelderly population have individual—as opposed to group—health coverage and that just 29 percent of that group have family incomes that are higher than the limits for subsidies. And just one-third of that smaller group would be expected to remain in the individual market for longer than a year, given its historical turnover.

Pollack's group has been a key backer of the ACA and its implementation.

happy jack wrote:

There is absolutely no way that Barry didn’t know, with absolute certainty, that there was strong opposition to the plan...

Opposition != sabotage.

But again, you're right. He totally should have expected it.

Vermont Approves Single-Payer Health Care: ‘Everybody in, nobody out’

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The Affordable Care Act continues to plow ahead, despite Republican attempts to fight it at every turn. What is unfolding in front of us is nothing short of spectacular. The problems with healthcare.gov are slowly being resolved which is helping more and more people sign up for affordable healthcare, many for the first time in their life. The law provides so much more than that, including standards for even the lowest level plans, protections for young adults 26 and younger, and the elimination of pre-existing plans. Of course, you will not hear the success stories on the news, because those stories are not nearly as sexy as the “Obama Lied” slogan they are so fond of.

The biggest downside of the ACA is the reliance on the private insurance industry. It does not have to be this way, however. There is yet another provision in the Affordable Care Act that can open the door for states to institute their own single-payer healthcare system. Other states have a public option, especially for those below a certain income level, but no state had instituted a true single-payer system. All of this has changed thanks to President Obama and the Affordable Care Act.

Vermont—Home of Ben and Jerry’s, Maple Syrup, Bernie Sanders and the first state to pass marriage equality. Now, Vermont will be known for something that will impact every resident in the state.

The ACA provided states with federal funds to institute a Medicaid expansion. The states chose to expand the program also were able to set up their own state exchanges, which were relatively free from the problems the federal site had. Vermont decided to take it a step further by setting up their very own single payer system.

The slogan of the program: Everybody in, nobody out.

The program will be fully operational by 2017, and will be funded through Medicare, Medicaid, federal money for the ACA given to Vermont, and a slight increase in taxes. In exchange, there will be no more premiums, deductibles, copay’s, hospital bills or anything else aimed at making insurance companies a profit. Further, all hospitals and healthcare providers will now be nonprofit.

This system will provide an instant boost the state economy. On the one side, you have workers that no longer have to worry about paying medical costs or a monthly premium and are able to use that money for other things. On the other side, you have the burden of paying insurance taken off of the employers side, who will be able to use the saved money to provide a better wage and/or reinvest in their company through updated infrastructure and added jobs. It is a win-win solution.

To make sure that it is done right the first time, Vermont brought in a specialist who knows a thing or two about setting up a single-payer system.

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Dr. William Hsaio, the Harvard health care economist who helped craft health systems in seven countries, was Vermont’s adviser. He estimates that Vermont will save 25 percent per capita over the current system in administrative costs and other savings.

Many like to say that the United States has the best healthcare system in the world. The problem is we don’t. Not even close. In fact, the only way you can get the best healthcare in the world, is if you are willing and able to pay for it. The United States can and must do better for its people.

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Costs have to be held down — there is no reason why the U.S. has to pay twice the amount per capita as the next most costly system in the world (Norway’s), and still not cover millions of its citizens. A Harvard Medical School study states that 45,000 Americans die each year from treatable diseases because they cannot afford to get treatment.

45,000 Americans die every single year because they cannot afford treatment, are you ready for that? That is 15 times the amount of people that died during the September 11, 2001, attacks, or perhaps for you Righty’s out there you would rather see it put this way, 11,250 times the amount of people that died in the Benghazi attack. That equals 5 Americans that die every hour, of every day, of every year because of a preventable illness that was not taken care of due to lack of access and means.

Even once the Affordable Care Act wrinkles are ironed out, which they will be, and every America is covered, which will happen, that will not change the fact that all of this is being driven by a for-profit system by companies that only care about their bottom line. Despite rules in the ACA which prevent insurance companies from absolutely gouging their customers, insurance companies are not exactly know for their ethical behavior.

A single-payer system would all but eliminate anybody dying unnecessarily due to lack of access to healthcare. Our Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” How can somebody have life and happiness, without their health? Despite the glaring hypocrisy of rich, white males who owned slaves stating all men are created equal, we have come a long way from 1776. Yet when it comes to the very basic need, we are left to the whim of a business. Single-payer is inevitable, and the ACA is a giant step in that direction. We need must hold our officials to a higher standard which will get us there faster. 40,000 people a year is absolutely unacceptable. Vermont saw the writings on the wall. Will the rest of us?

Damn You,Obama! It's all your fault  

Is there anything these scumbag R's won't sink to?  
California GOP creates fake health care website to discourage constituents from obtaining insurance

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Republicans are horrible people. Period!

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California Republicans are desperate and shameless. In the past two weeks, GOP Assembly members have sent mailings out on what appears to be the state's dime to their constituents about health insurance. Only, they don't direct those people to CoveredCA.com to sign up. Instead, they send them to their own astroturf version with the url CoveringHealthCareCA.com.
On their version, there are links to negative articles and twisted messages intended to sour people on signing up for health insurance before they ever land at the official health exchange site.

A fake health care site. A fake health care site intended to discourage the people on their own mailing lists from getting health insurance because fuck them, that's why.

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If you click on the "Don't have health insurance" tab on the front page, you're taken to a page that puts all the focus on the penalty and none on the benefits. In fact, they have a "penalty calculator" on that page, rather than a premium calculator.

Other bits of logic include explaining to young people that by getting insurance they'll be subsidizing sick people, the goddamn leeching bastards. (On the other hand, if you cannot grasp that the central point of all insurance is pooling a little money from a large group of people in order to insure some level of security for those people in the pool that have something very bad happen to them, including for example you, perhaps removing you from the gene pool is not entirely a bad thing. If you are so nasty a person that you can't live with the thought of insuring yourself because it means some other person might get healthcare using one one hundredth of a cent of your money, the world will certainly not be missing you much after you are gone. Godspeed!)
This is yet another of the reasons the current incarnation of the Republican Party is little more than a political oozing sore. There is probably a downside to trying to kill off your own voters to score a momentary political point, but let's just say the members of the party brain trust in my state could meet in a closet and still have enough room for the vacuum and boxes of Christmas decorations.

If there was anyone in the US that doesn't deserve heath care insurance it's these jagoffs!

The consequences of GOP opposition to Obamacare

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As of now, over two dozen states are not opting in to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, thanks largely to hostility to the law among GOP governors who are turning down huge sums of federal money that could otherwise go towards expanding coverage to their own constituents. Result: untold numbers risk falling into a “Medicaid gap,” making too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid, yet too little to qualify for subsidies on the exchanges.

We now have a new look at the consequences of this: Millions will likely remain uninsured, and racial and geographic disparities in access to coverage will worsen.As of now, over two dozen states are not opting in to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, thanks largely to hostility to the law among GOP governors who are turning down huge sums of federal money that could otherwise go towards expanding coverage to their own constituents. Result: untold numbers risk falling into a “Medicaid gap,” making too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid, yet too little to qualify for subsidies on the exchanges.

We now have a new look at the consequences of this: Millions will likely remain uninsured, and racial and geographic disparities in access to coverage will worsen.

. . .

The big story is that failure to opt in could deepen disparities in health coverage across the board. As Kaiser puts it:

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These adults will not gain access to a new affordable coverage option and likely remain uninsured. Given their high uninsured rates and low incomes, people of color will be disproportionately impacted by this coverage gap, particularly poor uninsured Black adults residing in the southern region of the country where most states are not moving forward with the expansion. These continued coverage gaps and their varied impacts across groups will result in millions of poor adults remaining uninsured and likely lead to widening racial and ethnic as well as geographic disparities in coverage and access to care.

I really can't figure out why the conservatives whining about the 3% having to pay higher premiums don't seem to give a flying fuck about those who can't get insurance at all.

Heretic wrote:

I really can't figure out why the conservatives whining about the 3% having to pay higher premiums don't seem to give a flying fuck about those who can't get insurance at all.

It's pretty simple,Heretic. If you pay close attention to their lunatic talking points they always refer to "hard working Americans" as the victims. As far as they're concerned if you're out of work or can't find a job then fuck you. Extend unemployment benefits? Fuck You! Working at a minimum wage job and need food stamps to make ends meet? Fuck you!

In their twisted world only "hard working Americans" are entitled to affordable healthcare or other basic human rights.

Last night I heard a caller on lunatic Mark Levin's radio show identify herself as an ER Doctor.  She was whining about not being able to convince her fellow "liberal"  Dr's that Obamacare is a disaster. She then went on to claim that "hard working people" who came down with symptoms of an illness would just carry on and not run to an ER,while those on medicaid would be coming in for a runny nose or a stomach ache and thus be abusing the healthcare system.

My gut feeling based on her vocabulary and choice of words was that there was no way she is Dr,but rather a tea loon who gave an excellent rendition of how these mean spirited people think.

Report: Only 10,000 Will Lose Out Under Obamacare

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How many people are losing the health insurance they had because of Obamacare and won’t be able to renew it or replace it with something better?

Not very many, says a report by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce – about 10,000 people.

The report, issued in December, says:

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Opponents of the Affordable Care Act claim that 4 [million] to 5 million people will lose their health insurance coverage next year because of the law. They cite as evidence a report by The Associated Press that estimated that 4.7 million Americans have received or will receive notices canceling their 2013 health insurance plans.
But that’s faulty reasoning, the report says, and it instead came to these conclusions:

Half of the 4.7 million will have the option to renew the plans they had in 2013, because of a change in the rules.
Of the remaining 2.35 million, 60 percent “will be able to buy subsidized coverage through the new health exchanges or enroll in Medicaid.” That’s based on a Kaiser Family Foundation estimate that half the people who buy individual policies will be eligible for tax credits to help them pay for premiums. Also, Medicaid has been expanded in some states under Obamacare.
Also, the report says, “Individuals who received cancellation notices are eligible to apply for a hardship exemption and purchase catastrophic health plans typically offered only to individuals under 30.”

So, with so many options to buy insurance, very few people will be unable to continue health insurance coverage, the report says. This sums it up:

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Complete data on policy renewals and enrollment in new insurance plans are not yet available. But the actual number of individuals who receive a cancellation notice, do not sign up for new insurance in 2014, and lack the option to do so at affordable prices will likely be less than 10,000. Over 99 percent of the individuals receiving cancellation notices will have the option to renew their 2013 policies, enroll in subsidized coverage through the marketplaces or Medicaid, or purchase a low-cost catastrophic plan, and many have already done so.

George Zornick wrote on the liberal Plum Line blog of The Washington Post:

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As we’ve noted, Republicans have had an awful hard time finding people who completely lost coverage because of the ACA. (Think of the man who starred in Americans for Prosperity ads last week and whose story still hasn’t been fully explained.) Perhaps it’s because there just aren’t that many of them.

We’ll all find out for sure at some point in time. In my case, my insurance provider was ready to roll me into a different plan on Jan. 1. Instead, I purchased a new policy via HealthCare.gov at a cost savings of 45 percent. I make too much money to be eligible for a subsidy, so other people could get an ever better price

Wow,the R's were right after all  Thousands will lose coverage. Meanwhile millions will benefit!  

We were also warned by Faux News and other wingnut concern trolls that ER's and medical providers would be "overwhelmed" and unable to handle the load of new patients.

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Side Effects: ER Overload Will Only Get Worse | The Foundry ...
blog.heritage.org/2010/05/.../side-effects-er-overload-will-only-get-wors...‎
May 21, 2010 - Remember how Obamacare was going to save big bucks and reduce wait time in emergency rooms? The idea was that millions of previously  ...
Physicians prepare to deal with increased demand, strain - Fox News
www.foxnews.com/.../physicians-prepare-to-deal-with-increased-demand...‎

Turns out that's exactly what's not happening  

Early days of Obamacare bring trickle, not flood, of patients

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Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. medical providers are seeing only a trickle of patients newly insured under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, as insurers, hospitals and doctors try to work out any hitches in coverage.

More than 2 million people have signed up for new private health plans that took effect on Wednesday under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. While some of those consumers were already lining up doctor visits last month, early reports from providers and an online medical booking service show the demand for care has been modest so far.Contrary to fears that Obamacare enrollees would be sicker than other Americans, with serious and expensive pent-up medical needs, so far they are not much different from other Americans, according to data from ZocDoc, a six-year-old closely held company that allows patients to find a doctor who accepts their insurance and make an appointment online.

Obamacare consumers "started booking appointments the last two weeks of December for January appointments," said ZocDoc founder and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Oliver Kharraz. "The vast majority of these were for preventive care, not acute care where people indicated they had an existing illness, which accounted for only 7 percent of searches."

That mirrors the behavior of ZocDoc's previously insured users. ZocDoc says the site gets just over 5 million unique visitors each month who are searching doctors' ratings and reviews as well as making appointments.

So Yeah......

Ignorant Koolaid drinking Troll wrote:

How 'bout that Obamacare?

  


.

The nightmare continues for wingnuts and trolls  ....

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9 Million Covered
The Latest Numbers Are In

According to the latest official figures, about 9 MILLION Americans have received health coverage through various provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including:

   2.2 MILLION who purchased private health plans through the federal and state marketplaces between October 1 and December 31

   3.9 MILLION Americans who were found to be eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

   3 MILLION or so young people who have been able to stay on their parents’ health plans until their 26th birthdays

Other Americans have also purchased plans directly from insurers, but the government doesn’t yet have data on those individuals. It’s also worth remembering that another 4.8 MILLION low-income Americans who could have received Medicaid coverage won’t receive any coverage at all because Republican governors and state legislators are refusing to expand Medicaid.

The other important information we received yesterday was the breakdown of those buying private insurance by age. In order for the system to work properly, the influx of older and sicker people who are now flocking to the system after finding it difficult or impossible to find or afford coverage before need to be balanced out by younger, healthier people.

Right now about 24 percent of the new pool of enrollees is part of the latter group, which is right about where experts believe it has to be in order to avoid sizable premium increases as a result of an unbalanced pool. The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation called the figures “encouraging” and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein declared the end of fears that a so-called “death spiral” would occur in the new marketplaces:

   The risk of a “death spiral” is over. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that if the market’s age distribution freezes at its current level — an extremely unlikely scenario — “overall costs in individual market plans would be about 2.4% higher than premium revenues.” So, in theory, premiums costs might rise by a few percentage points. That’s a problem, but it’s nothing even in the neighborhood of a death spiral.

Here are a few reasons to be encouraged by how enrollment is proceeding:

   The pace of enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces is looking very similar to what happened during Massachusetts’ successful rollout in 2007.

   The problems with HealthCare.gov prevented or deterred many people from enrolling during October and November, but now that the website is working enrollment is surging, particularly among young people.

   Campaigns to drive enrollment among young people and others had to be put on hold when HealthCare.gov was not working, but now those efforts are getting underway in earnest.

   By their very nature, young people are procrastinators and are more likely to wait until closer to the March 31 deadline to enroll.

It’s also worth noting that the Affordable Care Act includes built-in mechanisms to stabilize premiums over the first few years if the mix of new enrollees isn’t exactly what insurers anticipate it will be. Naturally, Republicans in Congress are specifically trying to repeal those provisions, which could conveniently result in premium increases that would be announced just before this year’s elections.

For their part, Republicans are once again declaring the law a failure because of the number of young people who have signed up so far. As Kevin Drum of Mother Jones wrote today, the law is doing just fine and it’s probably best just to start ignoring their neverending series of false and misleading attacks:

   Republicans are trying to make hay with this, but that’s just Republicans being Republicans. You can safely ignore them. There’s really nothing much to worry about here.

BOTTOM LINE: The Affordable Care Act is here, here to stay and it’s working. While much work remains to be done over the next few months (and years) to fully implement the law, its partisan critics are wrong — as the millions of Americans who now have quality, affordable health coverage thanks to the law can attest.

Troll who always ends up being wrong wrote:

And no, I am not one of those “unsuspecting Americans”. I suspected from the beginning that Obamacare was going to suck the big one.

Obamacare political disaster

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Ask any Republican in Congress and they'll tell you that Obamacare is an enormous political disaster. Well, maybe they're right:

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   Which party could do a better job of dealing with health care?

   Democratic: 45
   Republican: 38

Those numbers come from the latest Pew national survey, and the only sense in which they are a disaster is that despite betting everything on Obamacare repeal, Republicans still trail Democrats on dealing with health care. The only positive gloss you could put on the numbers for Republicans is that before health care reform became a partisan dividing line, Democrats used to have a 20+ point advantage. But that was when reform was an abstract notion — now it's a concrete reality.

In September, Pew showed Republicans with a one-point advantage on health care. And now, despite the "rocky rollout," Democrats have the edge again. I wouldn't be surprised if that earlier poll wasn't a bit of an outlier, but the key point is this: Despite Republican predictions that the implementation of Obamacare would be a political disaster for Democrats, the reality has been anything but.

Another false wingnut talking point goes down in flames...
CBO: Guys, We Didn't Say Obamacare Would Cost 2.5 Million Jobs

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The Congressional Budget Office issued its official rebuttal Monday to the Republican talking point that Obamacare would cost 2.5 million American jobs.

In a new FAQ explainer of last week's budget report, CBO director Doug Elmendorf, answering if 2.5 million people will lose their jobs by 2024 because of the health care reform law, said: "No, we would not describe our estimates in that way."

In the immediate aftermath of the CBO report, some Republicans characterized the report's findings as: The law would "cost" the U.S. economy up to 2.5 million jobs. The phrase quickly found its way into a Senate GOP web advertisement.

But what the CBO actually said was much different, as TPM reported. The agency said that some Americans would choose to stop working or work less because of the law. They could change their work habits for various reasons, such as starting a new business or choosing to spend time at home. The voluntary cutback in hours would be equal to 2.5 million full-time jobs.

"Because the longer-term reduction in work is expected to come almost entirely from a decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply in response to the changes in their incentives, we do not think it is accurate to say that the reduction stems from people 'losing' their jobs," Elmendorf wrote.

But in the broader debate about whether Obamacare's effect on the American work ethic is a good or bad thing, as TPM discussed, the CBO decided to leave that to the politicians.

"Whether voluntary reductions in hours worked owing to the ACA are good or bad for the country as a whole is a matter of judgment," Elmendorf said.

Once again, the authors of a published report have to specifically tell the GOP "Stop fucking lying about our report!"

Heretic wrote:

Once again, the authors of a published report have to specifically tell the GOP "Stop fucking lying about our report!"

Not only that but it's actually a Job Creator.  
Example:Worker who would like to start their own business is tied to working someplace they don't want to,because they need heath insurance and due to a pre-exisiting condition or some other bullshit reason couldn't get it on their own.
Now they can get their own,start a business and hire employees while former employer hires replacement for worker that quit.

dim bulb wrote:

And no, I am not one of those “unsuspecting Americans”. I suspected from the beginning that Obamacare was going to suck the big one.

With 6 Weeks To Go, Obamacare Enrollment On Track

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“With two months left to go, Obamacare enrollment is on track to hand the White House a significant win over the law’s critics,” wrote National Journal.

Inside the numbers the news was even more good news. Up from 24 percent in December, 27 percent of those enrolled last month are in the key 18-34 age group that tend be healthier and who are needed to balance out older, sicker individuals. And the number of young people enrolled grew by 65 percent, which is higher than the 55 percent increase among all other age groups combined. Major youth enrollment activities, including this Saturday’s National Youth Enrollment Day, got going after these latest figures were tabulated, so the numbers should continue to improve. The current youth enrollment numbers are almost exactly in line with the successful implementation of Massachusetts’ law and appear to already be high enough to avoid significant premium increases as a result of an unbalanced risk pool.

In addition to those selecting private plans, another 3.2 MILLION Americans were determined to be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP between October 1 and February 1. And an additional 3 MILLION or so young people are covered thanks to the law’s provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ insurance until they are 26.

Fresh data released by Gallup today also shows that the Affordable Care Act is working. The percentage of Americans without insurance continued to drop and actually reached a five-year low.

dim bulb wrote:

And no, I am not one of those “unsuspecting Americans”. I suspected from the beginning that Obamacare was going to suck the big one.

Majority Wants to Keep Obamacare
A new Kaiser tracking poll finds that 48% of Americans want to keep and improve the Affordable Care Act while another 8% want to keep it as is -- for a total of 56% who want to keep the law. Meanwhile, 19% want to repeal the law and not replace it, while 12% want to repeal and replace with a GOP alternative -- totaling 31%.

Greg Sargent:

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"I suspect the American mainstream doesn't believe there is any real GOP alternative to Obamacare and understands that despite its flaws, the Affordable Care Act is the only set of solutions we're going to get (with single payer being a political impossibility)."

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint wrote:

"If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him,"

Guess whose "Waterloo" it is now  

dim bulb wrote:

And no, I am not one of those “unsuspecting Americans”. I suspected from the beginning that Obamacare was going to suck the big one.

Obamacare officially hits 5 million enrollees

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Obamacare enrollments have reached the 5 million mark, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. A press release from HHS profiles a couple of the new enrollees.

 

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Fernando Valdez, 25, of El Paso, New Mexico woke up early on Saturday, after his mother insisted that he walk to an enrollment center and enroll in Marketplace coverage. Now, he will pay $22 a month for his health insurance.  Fernando said that he walked away knowing that if “I get into an accident I will not be in trouble with trying to find health care."  Read more about Fernando’s story at: http://www.elpasotimes.com/....

   And Denise Schroeder says she now feels like “I have a whole new life” after enrolling in coverage in recent days.  Denise, a small business owner in West Chester, Pennsylvania who runs “Happy Heart Clown N'Stuff” which does balloon decorating and entertainment for parties is also a cancer survivor.  Because she had cancer, Denise knew she couldn’t let her health coverage lapse, but the $880 premium she was paying each month wiped out her savings account, and she said it was killing her.  But after working with an enrollment navigator, she enrolled on Thursday in a Silver Plan for $22 a month.  When she saw the new premium, she cried.

Just last week the White House had announced 4.2 million sign-ups through February, not counting Medicaid enrollments, which means the pace has picked up in the last two weeks. The pace of enrollments is likely to continue over the next two weeks, meaning the administration's goal of six million enrollees is likely to be reached.

Too bad for wingnuts that they apparently had never been able to comprehend the use and term of a deadline.

It obviously never dawned on the slow-witted among us that when a deadline is imposed there is something called a "last minute rush" where many,many people rush to beat the deadline. Whether it's the IRS,the monthly bills,or something like renewing your license plates,a significant number of Americans wait until the last minute to fulfill their obligation.

5 million enrolled and 80% of the goal of 6 million.
12 days left
Looking pretty good      
Damn you Obama!  

My life would be so much simpler if I too was allowed to rewrite laws at will.
Maybe if I had a phone .... and a pen ....

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/hhs-we-lack-statutory-authority-extend-obamacares-open-enrollment-period_784621.html

HHS: We Lack 'Statutory Authority' to Extend Deadline to Sign Up for Obamacare

5:07 PM, MAR 11, 2014 • BY JOHN MCCORMACK

On a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services insisted that March 31 is the firm deadline to sign up for Obamacare. "We have no plans to extend the open enrollment period," HHS official Julie Bataille said. "In fact, we don't actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014."

A reporter followed up, asking why the administration could delay many other parts of the law but not this one. Michael Hash, who directs the Office of Health Reform at HHS, replied that the law states that the HHS secretary must set the open enrollment dates by June 2012, which Secretary Sebelius did. "Once that 2014 open enrollment period has been set, they are set permanently," Hash said. He did not explain why the administration has the authority to ignore other statutory deadlines to implement the employer mandate or cancel private health insurance plans not eligible for "grandfathering."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-administration-will-allow-more-time-to-enroll-in-health-care-on-federal-marketplace/2014/03/25/d0458338-b449-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_print.html

Obama administration will allow more time to enroll in health care on federal marketplace

By Amy Goldstein, Published: March 25

The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline.
Federal officials confirmed Tuesday evening that all consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will have until about mid-April to ask for an extension.
Under the new rules, people will be able to qualify for an extension by checking a blue box on HealthCare.gov to indicate that they tried to enroll before the deadline. This method will rely on an honor system; the government will not try to determine whether the person is telling the truth.
The rules, which will apply to the federal exchanges operating in three dozen states, will essentially create a large loophole even as White House officials have repeatedly said that the March 31 deadline was firm. The extra time will not technically alter the deadline but will create a broad new category of people eligible for what’s known as a special enrollment period.

happy jack wrote:

My life would be so much simpler if I too was allowed to rewrite laws at will.
Maybe if I had a phone .... and a pen ....

Contrary to right wing bullshit, ignorance, lies and hysteria the president has every right to do it.

Quote :

Delaying Parts of Obamacare: 'Blatantly Illegal' or Routine Adjustment?

Applicable judicial precedent places such timing adjustments well within the Executive Branch's lawful discretion.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/delaying-parts-of-obamacare-blatantly-illegal-or-routine-adjustment/277873/

Now you know jack

edge540 wrote:

happy jack wrote:

My life would be so much simpler if I too was allowed to rewrite laws at will.
Maybe if I had a phone .... and a pen ....

Contrary to right wing bullshit, ignorance, lies and hysteria the president has every right to do it.

Quote :

Delaying Parts of Obamacare: 'Blatantly Illegal' or Routine Adjustment?

Applicable judicial precedent places such timing adjustments well within the Executive Branch's lawful discretion.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/delaying-parts-of-obamacare-blatantly-illegal-or-routine-adjustment/277873/

Now you know jack

Perhaps I can explain in a way that even a dim bulb troll who once boasted "And no, I am not one of those “unsuspecting Americans”. I suspected from the beginning that Obamacare was going to suck the big one." can comprehend.

It's no different than allowing voters who were standing in line when the polls closed to cast their votes.

dumbest troll on the internet wrote:

And no, I am not one of those “unsuspecting Americans”. I suspected from the beginning that Obamacare was going to suck the big one.

I happily predict that Obamcare will reach it's goal of 6,000,000 signups on Saturday and finish the month of March at 6.25 million or more.     

happy jack wrote:

I guess it just comes down to the question of: Were they lying then, or are they lying now?

Oh you mean like the GOP lying about "death panels" or "governmnt take over of health care"?

Those lies? The GOP lies 24-7 so it's not then or now, it's all the time.

What the hell does the word “truth” even mean anymore when we’re talking about fucking republicans?

WTF are you talking about, I did answer your question which was, "Were they lying then, or are they lying now?"
You're the one who brought up "lying" and "truth."
The only people who lying about the ACA are republicans. I gave you the link, you should read it.

Shit, here's another one:

Quote :

Are Republicans So Frantic to Stop Obamacare Because They Fear It Will Work?
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/eichenwald/2013/09/republicans-know-obamacare-will-work