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Re: Loyal Obama supporters lose their health insurance under ACA even though it was a good plan

Posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 7 15:26:34 2013, in response to Re: Loyal Obama supporters lose their health insurance under ACA even though it was a good plan, posted by dand124 on Thu Nov 7 15:25:37 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Being evasive again?

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(1122500)

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Re: ''Universal Health Care'' (ACA) restrictions make Brooklyn couple consider getting *divorced*

Posted by italianstallion on Thu Nov 7 16:43:59 2013, in response to "Universal Health Care" (ACA) restrictions make Brooklyn couple consider getting *divorced*, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 7 14:25:36 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
“Go on the website, you’ll see what I mean,” Aronowitz told Champion.

I thought the website was broken.

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POTUS apologizes (sort of) for saying people could keep their health plan, doctor, etc.

Posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 7 18:43:26 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The Hill

Obama apologizes for saying people could keep health plans

By Justin Sink
11/07/13 06:03 PM EST
President Obama on Thursday apologized to Americans who are losing their health care coverage despite his promise that if individuals liked their plans, they could keep them under ObamaCare.

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," the president told NBC News.

"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."

Millions of Americans have received cancellation notices from their insurance companies saying they can't keep their current plans because they don't meet ObamaCare's requirements.

Some insurance companies have also announced they would not continue to offer existing plans, saying that it is too administratively burdensome to manage plans that do not satisfy basic coverage requirements mandated by ObamaCare. Instead, they've offered consumers more expensive plans that include increased benefits.

Republicans have seized on that discrepancy, and say the president misled the American public to sell ObamaCare.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Obama had showed "contempt for the American people" with his "deceptive" remarks.

"Just stop. Stop," said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck. "Stop and admit you sold this health law on a central promise that is flat-out untrue. Have enough respect for the people who elected you to be honest. No one is being fooled anymore."

Last week, the president for the first time began adjusting his statements by noting that only individuals who had maintained unchanged coverage since the ACA was signed into law would be able to keep their coverage.

But the White House has defended Obama, with press secretary Jay Carney saying that a majority of the group who lose their plans would "get better coverage at the same or less cost than they have today."

Carney also noted that only a small slice of the population purchased their own insurance — rather than receiving it through their work or federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid — and that those consumers were accustomed to "upheavals in the market."

Before the implementation of ObamaCare, only a small percentage of private insurance buyers kept the same plan from year to year.

The House plans to vote on a bill next week that would grandfather in all plans that existed as of Jan. 1, 2013.

Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) called the bill "a simple, sensible solution that would allow health plans being offered today to continue into next year" in an op-ed for USA Today on Thursday.

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Re: POTUS apologizes (sort of) for saying people could keep their health plan, doctor, etc.

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Thu Nov 7 19:31:47 2013, in response to POTUS apologizes (sort of) for saying people could keep their health plan, doctor, etc., posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 7 18:43:26 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Yep ... insurance companies come riding in on a pwny, jacking up the rates like always, insisting that it's Obama's fault. Excellent work, folks. Maybe we should have just dealt them out in the first place and gone with single payer like Teddy Kennedy wanted. The more the republicans and the insurance industry work hard to make it fail, the more likely it will be that we'll get the proper result. :)

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White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by Olog-hai on Fri Nov 8 22:53:43 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The Hill

Report: White House might expand eligibility for ObamaCare subsidies

By Elise Viebeck
November 08, 2013, 10:12 am
The White House might broaden the availability of federal discounts on healthcare coverage under ObamaCare to help consumers whose premiums are going up, according to a report.

The administration is considering expanding the premium tax credits that are available to some people purchasing insurance coverage on the new exchanges, according to Huffington Post.

Right now, the tax credits are only available to people making 133 to 400 percent of the federal poverty line.

But the administrative fix under discussion would widen the eligibility for people with incomes above the 400 percent level.

Widening that eligibility for people with incomes above 400 percent of the poverty line would raise the Affordable Care Act's overall cost, a major issue for Republican lawmakers.

The proposal would apparently assist people with canceled health insurance find alternatives on the new exchanges without the threat of a major price hike.

The Obama administration is scrambling to address problems with its healthcare rollout, including instances of "sticker shock" and massive technical flaws in the online enrollment system.

On Thursday, President Obama apologized to individuals who are losing their healthcare coverage despite his promise that they could keep their plans if they liked them.

Obama hinted that his team is weighing policies to address the cancellation notices, which have become a political firestorm in the last two weeks.

"We've got to work hard to make sure that [people] know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this," Obama told NBC news.

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Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by WillD on Fri Nov 8 23:54:26 2013, in response to White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare, posted by Olog-hai on Fri Nov 8 22:53:43 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Single payer here we come. And good news too. Our economy desperately needs the cost reductions and productivity improvements that can only come from divorcing healthcare coverage from employment.

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Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sat Nov 9 00:20:44 2013, in response to Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare, posted by WillD on Fri Nov 8 23:54:26 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Oh, his friends have NO problem divorcing health care from employment. Their attitude is that burger-flippers and everybody else can just go talk to their local insurance agent or bankster and just shop around. Paying for it is THEIR problem. :-\

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Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by Edwards! on Sat Nov 9 01:20:02 2013, in response to Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare, posted by WillD on Fri Nov 8 23:54:26 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
single payer?

still a long way off.

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Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by mr mabstoa on Sat Nov 9 03:33:04 2013, in response to Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare, posted by WillD on Fri Nov 8 23:54:26 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
So the ACA was planned to fail?

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Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by bingbong on Sat Nov 9 10:26:13 2013, in response to Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare, posted by WillD on Fri Nov 8 23:54:26 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Absolutely. Why they didn't just do Sen Kennedy's plan, a gradual phase in of Medicare based on age alone....oldest to youngest with exceptions for those unable to get an affordable policy (like those pesky pre-existing conditions) or tie that in to a fail whale on ACA? That would have given some serious pause to all the bullshit surrounding this. It would have motivated the RW to either make their plan work OR face single payer.

Employment based insurance does nothing for those out of work, and traps those who otherwise could be more productive in other ways (such as starting a business) . It's a horrible trap for millions, based on a fluke from another generation, another time where the situation no longer applies. It's not 1945 anymore. The RW really needs to comprehend that their fantasy of the "good old days" is unworkable now, and those days weren't all that good anyway.

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Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare

Posted by bingbong on Sat Nov 9 10:47:22 2013, in response to Re: White House considering expanding subsidy eligibility for healthcare, posted by mr mabstoa on Sat Nov 9 03:33:04 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The republicans certainly want to see that. After all it was their plan from back on 1993, developed by the Heritage Foundation. So of course they want it to fail.

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White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Nov 10 02:56:17 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
McClatchy DC

Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had

Published: November 7, 2013
By Kevin G. Hall and Anita Kumar, McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies.

“If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” Obama said as he pitched the plan, the unqualified promise he made repeatedly.

Yet advisers did say in 2010 that there were large caveats and that anyone whose insurance plan changed would lose the promised protection of being able to keep existing plans. And a report in 2010 said that as many as 69 percent of certain employer-based insurance plans would lose that protection, meaning as many as 41 million people could lose their plans even if they wanted to keep them and would be forced into other plans. Another 11 million who bought their own insurance also could lose their plans. Combined, as many as 52 million Americans could lose or have lost old insurance plans.

Some or much of that loss of favored insurance is driven by normal year-to-year changes such as employers changing plans to save money. And many people could end up with better plans. But it is not what the president pledged.

Caught in the firestorm of his broken promise, Obama on Thursday apologized.

“I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” he told NBC News Thursday evening. “We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.”

The shifting narrative started as Obama worked to sell the entire health care overhaul to a skeptical nation and Congress. To win support from those who already had insurance, he made the promise that no one who liked their plan would lose it. The key was that millions of plans would be “grandfathered” in the new law, thus protected from any new requirements.

Yet as insurance companies started notifying hundreds of thousands this fall that their current policies were being canceled in preparation for new ones, it became clear that many were not guaranteed to keep their plans.

The White House and Congress have focused on cancellations of plans in the individual market, where people buy their own policies.

Obama insisted anew Thursday that the problem is limited to people who buy their own insurance. “We’re talking about 5 percent of the population who are in what’s called the individual market. They’re out there buying health insurance on their own,” he told NBC.

But a closer examination finds that the number of people who have plans changing, or have already changed, could be between 34 million to 52 million. That’s because many employer-provided insurance plans also could change, not just individually purchased insurance plans

Administration officials decline to say how many employer-sponsored plans could change. But those numbers could be between 23 million to 41 million, based on a McClatchy analysis of estimates offered by the Department of Health and Human Services in June 2010.

Obama aides did acknowledge around the time the law was enacted in 2010 that some people could lose their coverage if their plans changed after the law was passed. Those people would in turn receive what the administration described as superior coverage. But in the years since the law’s passage, HHS officials have downplayed that consequence of the hard-fought law.

“If health plans significantly raise co-payments or deductibles or significantly reduce (them) … they’ll lose their grandfather status and their customers will get the same full set of consumer protections as new plans,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a June 15, 2010, news conference.

Many changes in the old insurance plans could trigger the loss of the protected status. Regulations issued by HHS state that the grandfathered status would be lost if the policies eliminate coverage for a particular condition, reduce the annual dollar limit on benefits, increase co-payments by as little as $5 or 15 percent, or increase out-of-pocket maximums by more than 15 percent or premiums by more than 5 percent.

Later in June 2010, Sebelius’ department published estimates in the Federal Register that 39 percent to 69 percent of employers’ fully insured plans would relinquish the coverage they had prior to the March 2010 passage of the ACA and thus would have to cancel or change policies.


About 60 million people are covered in fully insured plans, which make up about 40 percent of employer-provided health plans. Fully insured plans are usually offered by large employers. These plans have the insurance company rather than the employer assume the financial risk of annual health care expenses exceeding expectations. The rest of employers self-insure.

To escape having to provide the new law’s minimum required benefits, plans would have to largely maintain the co-pays, premiums and out-of-pocket limits that existed prior to March 2010.

Already this year, only 36 percent of employer plans were pre-2010 plans, compared with 56 percent in 2011, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading health care research organization. That means that millions of people’s plans already had changed or were canceled in the three and a half years since the law was enacted in March 2010.

That doesn’t automatically mean the plans were changed or canceled because of the new law.

“I think there needs to be great emphasis that plans are not being canceled because of ACA requirements,” said Jon Gabel, a senior fellow at the University of Chicago’s Health Care Research Department. “They’re being canceled because insurers do not want to ‘grandfather’ some plans.”

This week, after millions of Americans mostly in the market for individually purchased plans began receiving cancellation notices or price hikes from their insurance companies, Obama added the caveat that people could lose their plans if insurance companies changed the plans.

“Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really like that plan, what we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed,” he said, adding the qualifier Monday during a Washington event with supporters.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 03:00:47 2013, in response to White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Nov 10 02:56:17 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Heh. Yeah, like everybody had any idea of what a scam those insurance companies had been playing for all these years (hint: Bingbong and *I* did, we paid them and got shafted hard) and now suddenly, fearing prosecution for those plans, they're suddenly being just cancelled instead of being properly upgraded like they should have been under the law.

Yeah, AIG never happened, move along now kids ... :-\

There IS a solution: single payer ... but the very same insurance scammers playing the old scam apparently have no fear of being exposed and not being included in their own future. Love it! :)

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 03:13:52 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 03:00:47 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
See? Here's the thing ... even the crazy-assed libertarians who gave us the teabaggers realize that there IS a role for government in doing what the people cannot do for themselves, and regulating thugs when they get out of hand. What we're seeing here with this media and corporate campaign against Obamacare is thuggery of the highest order. I suspect that if any NON-corporate media made the effort to dig a little deeper, all would be revealed for the scams that exist here.

Insurance policies that don't meet the "Obamacare standard" are scams, plain and simple. But the more they play this game, the greater the pressure will be for "socialized medicine" and they'll be dealing themselves out entirely once folks realize WHY they got cancelled. Or are people simply THAT stupid?

Let's see where this goes. As folks experienced with the dark side of health insurance, this is going to be an interesting ride if only the opposition to this finally grows a pair.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 05:57:40 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 03:00:47 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
I used to be, I am not now, and never will be again.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 10:39:29 2013, in response to White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Nov 10 02:56:17 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
There was plenty of coverage about insurance scams, plenty of stories about supposedly insured people finding out otherwise when they had to file a claim and plenty of bankruptcies to back it all up.

It is one of the reasons ACA happened to begin with.

Bottom line...nobody should have been surprised. The only thing surprising is how pervasive those scam policies (NY has historically done a superb job of keeping hustlers like that OUT of the state so there's no stories about bankrupt neighbors here) ARE. That should be the channel of outrage.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by TonyG on Sun Nov 10 10:44:23 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 03:00:47 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Single Payer is going to happen in the US (even most of my most conservative friends are resigned to that fact).

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 10:51:15 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by TonyG on Sun Nov 10 10:44:23 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Good. Can't happen soon enough.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by LuchAAA on Sun Nov 10 12:21:58 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by TonyG on Sun Nov 10 10:44:23 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
and the quality of health care in America will greatly decline.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 12:27:50 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Nov 10 12:21:58 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Wrong. Medicare recipients receive the same healthcare as anyone else.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by italianstallion on Sun Nov 10 12:50:07 2013, in response to White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Nov 10 02:56:17 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Key takeaway:

Already this year, only 36 percent of employer plans were pre-2010 plans, compared with 56 percent in 2011, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading health care research organization. That means that millions of people’s plans already had changed or were canceled in the three and a half years since the law was enacted in March 2010.

That doesn’t automatically mean the plans were changed or canceled because of the new law.

“I think there needs to be great emphasis that plans are not being canceled because of ACA requirements,” said Jon Gabel, a senior fellow at the University of Chicago’s Health Care Research Department. “They’re being canceled because insurers do not want to ‘grandfather’ some plans.”

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Re: Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov

Posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 13:24:07 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 13:28:48 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by TonyG on Sun Nov 10 10:44:23 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
I used to be, I am not now, and never will be.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 13:29:41 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 10:51:15 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
I used to be, I am not now, and never will be.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 13:33:15 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 13:29:41 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
If you, as you say, aren't, then why are you here?

Your insurance could help you with that condition. Take your meds. Clearly you need them.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Nov 10 14:37:02 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Nov 10 12:21:58 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Some people have to learn the hard way. I could post the myriad of NHS horror stories, but they still won't believe it until it hits them personally.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 15:08:14 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 13:33:15 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
I guess you can't read between the lines?

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 15:33:25 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 15:08:14 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Yes I can, and do. Can you?

I guess if you could you wouldn't be RW, since you could see the variations in effect and understand something about the human condition. Nothing is simply black and white, excluding certain designs. Those who discern nuance rarely are closed minded. Never met an open minded conservative. Ever. They just don't happen.

So I'd rethink that maybe.....

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 17:13:57 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 10:39:29 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
And let's not forget the real benefit to the banksters here ... most credit is unsecured debt. When somebody goes into bankruptcy over medicals, they get out from under all that unsecured debt as well. :)

So ACA seriously benefits the banksters too.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Nov 10 17:25:21 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by italianstallion on Sun Nov 10 12:50:07 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
And an important thing about the Kaiser Foundation, they're Kaiser-Permanente, one of the largest HMO's there are.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by chicagomotorman on Sun Nov 10 17:42:57 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by bingbong on Sun Nov 10 15:33:25 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
You follow an agenda.

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Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA

Posted by chicagomotorman on Sun Nov 10 17:50:34 2013, in response to Re: White House knew tens of millions would lose health insurance under ACA, posted by italianstallion on Sun Nov 10 12:50:07 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
And condone the lies from obama?

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Re: Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov

Posted by SMAZ on Mon Nov 11 04:12:06 2013, in response to Re: Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Nov 10 13:24:07 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Love it or leave it.

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Democrats' nerves rattled over ACA fallout

Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Nov 11 08:22:36 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Cable News Network

With elections looming, Obamacare rattling Democratic nerves

By Tom Cohen, CNN
updated 10:02 AM EST, Sat November 9, 2013
Quick, can you hear it? That creaking sound from Washington is the nerves of congressional Democrats in response to the political firestorm raging around Obamacare.

The botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act's vital new marketplaces, coupled with insurers notifying more than a million Americans that their policies were being canceled, raised questions about the administration competence and honesty in selling and implementing President Barack Obama's signature health care reforms.

Republicans still licking their wounds after last month's failed bid to dismantle Obamacare by shutting down the government got a new chance to attack, keeping the issue in national headlines because of the problems rather than a successful launch of the enrollment process.

Obama apologized on Thursday night in an interview with NBC and said unspecified steps would be taken to help those losing coverage.

However, some Democrats facing re-election battles next year are joining Republicans in calling for the administration to delay provisions of the 2010 law that survived a Supreme Court challenge last year.

Here are four reasons why Democrats are nervous:

Website woes

The major problem has been the failure of the HealthCare.gov website that was set up to enroll people in new Obamacare health insurance exchanges starting on October 1.

Instead of a comprehensive online portal for uninsured people or those who buy individual coverage to readily shop for policies online, the website became a symbol of government failure when most early visitors couldn't log in, got constant error messages, faced long delays and had their profiles disappear.

A public relations nightmare ensued, with the administration the butt of national jokes. A spoof song at Wednesday's CMA Awards show lampooned the wait faced by people trying to use the website, with co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood singing: "I'm going to wind up with hemorrhoids, if I sit here 'til dawn."

But the actual damage has been much more significant.

The health care reforms depend on full public participation to create large markets that reflect the broad public spectrum — including both less-expensive younger people and more expensive older folks — as well as more competition for the increased business.

HealthCare.gov was supposed to be both the main source of public information and the main vehicle for signing people up. Its early failures made the tough challenge of launching the markets appear insurmountable.

At a series of committee hearings in recent weeks, Democratic legislators joined Republicans in lambasting the Obama administration for the malfunctioning website. They called the problems and the government's failure to anticipate them unacceptable, and demanded fast action to get HealthCare.gov functioning smoothly.

"This is the 21st Century," Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo of California told a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on October 24.

She rejected an administration contention that initial website volume was higher than expected, noting that Amazon and Ebay don't crash days before Christmas and ProFlowers doesn't crash just before Valentine's Day.

The administration says it will have the Obamacare website running smoothly for the "vast majority of users" by November 30, though it warns the first enrollment figures coming out next week will be far lower than expected.

"They were always going to be low," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday. "And that was even when we did not expect the problems with the website that occurred."

At the same time, Carney noted the enrollment period runs through March, adding that a fully functioning website by the end of November would leave plenty of time for people to enroll for required coverage under the law.

Both supporters and detractors acknowledge that continued website problems beyond November 30 would be a major problem threatening the goal of robust enrollment by the end of March.

The law itself

The bigger fear for Democrats is that public sentiment will side with Republicans who have warned for four years that Obamacare amounted to big government run amok, resulting in an unmanageable new bureaucracy.

Regardless of how things turn out, the perception so far is that the administration's inability to effectively launch a crucial part of the Affordable Care Act might foreshadow further problems down the road.

Obama sought to blunt that argument in the NBC interview, saying the goal of the health care reforms — making affordable coverage available to millions of uninsured and underinsured people — remained crucial and that the reforms he championed were the best way to pursue it.

"I think we, in good faith, have been trying to take on a health care system that has been broken for a very long time," the President said. "And what we've been trying to do is to change it in the least disruptive way possible."

However, the biggest disruption to date — cancellation notices to a small percentage of Americans after Obama repeatedly promised they could keep coverage they liked — provided strong ammunition for strong GOP attacks that put the President and Democrats on defense.

"Despite Democrats' promises, millions of families are losing their insurance, losing access to their doctors, or being forced to pay more for insurance," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday in trying to link the issue to a stronger-than-expected October jobs report. "Their household economies are taking a hit, and Obamacare has made life more uncertain for them."

Obama's apology addressed the cancellation notices received by some among the 5% of Americans who buy their own individual health insurance instead of getting coverage through their jobs or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid like 80% of the population.

"Even though it's a small percentage of folks who may be disadvantaged, you know, it means a lot to them. And it's scary to them," he said. "And I am sorry that they — you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me."

On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the administration was "looking at a number of options" on how to help people with canceled policies, "but there isn't any specific proposal at the table immediately."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday that Obama "has directed his team to consider some administrative solutions to those problems," but he also emphasized the need to better educate Americans with canceled policies on the options they have for getting more comprehensive coverage.

Carney said Thursday that Democratic concerns focused on the website problems rather than the guts of the reforms.

"Every one of the Democrats who voted for this and believed in it and fought for it, and with the president, defended it against the constant assault by Republicans and outside opponents, continue to believe in it, and believe it's the right thing to do," he said.

Election year politics

By this time next year, voters will have decided races for all 435 House seats and 33 of the 100 Senate seats, including 21 now held by Democrats. With five Senate Democratic incumbents retiring, the 16 up for re-election are especially vulnerable to attack from the political right over Obamacare.

Already, the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has spent more than $7.6 million in recent weeks on TV, radio and web ads attacking legislators who support Obamacare and applauding those against the reforms.

AFP is partially funded by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, who have spent many millions of dollars to back conservative causes and candidates.

One set of ads targeted Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who is facing a tough re-election battle in the conservative-leaning state.

Landrieu backed the Affordable Care Act, but now calls for Obama to make good on his pledge that people who like their policies can keep them.

She announced last week that she will introduce legislation allowing people to maintain their current coverage into 2014 as long as they make the payments, saying: "A promise was made that if you like your health plan, you can keep it - and I will do everything I can to see that the promise is kept."

At the same time, she echoed the administration's argument that most of the individual policy holders getting cancellation notices will get a better deal under Obamacare.

"Many people may find better plans in the marketplaces that offer superior coverage for them at a good value and at a potentially lower cost," she said in the statement. "But if people want to keep their current plans, they should be able to do so."

Landrieu flew with Obama to New Orleans on Friday, but she missed his speech on economic development due to what her office called long-scheduled events in Lake Charles. Obama praised her during his remarks for tireless advocacy on behalf of the people of Louisiana.

She was one of 15 Democratic Senators, most of them facing re-election challenges in 2014, who met with Obama at the White House this week to discuss the Obamacare brouhaha.

"There would not have been this meeting if you didn't have this group of Senators up in 2014," a Democratic staffer with knowledge of the event told CNN.

Some who took part said they pushed Obama to make changes such as extending the deadline to enroll past March 31 or delay the fine for failing to do so.

Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas said he told the President to "hold the individuals in charge accountable for these mistakes" involving the website and other issues, while Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska cited "an understandable crisis in confidence because the administration has yet to get" HealthCare.gov "off the ground."

A separate meeting between White House staff and aides to House Democratic leaders was taking place Friday, according to a senior House Democratic aide.

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is teaming with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois on a measure to effectively put off the requirement for everyone to obtain insurance for a year by delaying the fine for non-compliance.

"This commonsense proposal simply allows Americans to take more time to browse and explore their options, making 2014 a true transition year," Manchin said in a joint statement with Kirk.

At this point, the proposals amount to political posturing. The administration opposes any delay, even as it considers specific steps to help people facing canceled policies, and it was unlikely that any legislation that included major changes to Obamacare would pass the Senate or get signed by the President.

"Delaying the Affordable Care Act wouldn't delay people's cancer or diabetes or Parkinson's," Sebelius told a Senate committee this week, adding that "for for millions of Americans, delay is not an option. People's lives depend on this."

GOP scorched earth tactics

The upcoming elections aside, Democrats also are contending with the no-holds-barred opposition by Republicans who seek any opportunity to call for getting rid of the health care reforms despised by Republicans.

Going back to the debate on Obamacare that started in 2009, GOP legislators have fought it in committees and in both the House and Senate, with zero Republicans supporting the Affordable Care Act when it passed in 2010.

Republican attorneys general helped mount the unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge against the reforms, and some GOP governors now have rejected federal money under Obamacare to expand Medicaid coverage for indigent people lacking health insurance.

Obama criticized such resistance at speeches this week in two GOP-led states that have rejected the Medicaid expansion — Texas and Louisiana. Joining the federal program would mean fewer uninsured people going to emergency rooms for their health care, which Obama said resulted in a "hidden tax" because hospitals pass the resulting extra costs on to everyone else.

"It's the right thing to do for the health of our economies as a whole," he said. "It is a practical, pragmatic reason to do it that has nothing to do with politics or ideology."

In Washington, meanwhile, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee issued a subpoena for the administration to turn over enrollment figures so far by Friday.

Sebelius has said the first figures would be released next week, and there was no sign her department would budge.

The GOP push for figures seeks to cast the botched rollout of the Obamacare website in the worst possible light. Sebelius and Carney have tried to downplay expectations by repeatedly saying the initial figures would be lower than expected.

Both Obama and Sebelius repeatedly emphasize that the website problems have prevented consumers from getting the information they need about coverage options, possible government subsidies and other details that they insist would alleviate concerns.

At the Senate hearing Wednesday, Sebelius implied without directly saying so that Republicans were failing to properly inform their constituents about the health care reforms.

"I think that it is always welcome to have elected officials in their home states give information to constituents about what the law says, what their options are, what their benefits could be, what choices they have, and how to access the process," she said.

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Re: Democrats' nerves rattled over ACA fallout

Posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Mon Nov 11 08:26:57 2013, in response to Democrats' nerves rattled over ACA fallout, posted by Olog-hai on Mon Nov 11 08:22:36 2013.

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This is the most passive aggressive defense of the Obama administration I've ever seen. Only a tiny percentage. Attacks are funded by Koch. It's all political.

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Re: Democrats' nerves rattled over ACA fallout

Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Nov 12 20:06:43 2013, in response to Re: Democrats' nerves rattled over ACA fallout, posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Mon Nov 11 08:26:57 2013.

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Ed Koch?

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Doctors being driven to refuse insurance because of ACA

Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Nov 12 20:12:22 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

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Yahoo Finance

Is Obamacare Driving Doctors to Refuse Insurance?

Practices say cutting out insurers cuts 40% of their overhead

By Jen Wieczner
Nov. 12, 2013, 8:26 a.m. EST
When Samir Qamar practiced concierge medicine at Pebble Beach Resorts in Monterey, Calif., the hotel’s “A-list clientele” paid $550 to see him and as much as $30,000 a month to keep him on retainer.

But last year, Dr. Qamar decided to abandon VIP medicine and pursue a no-frills version of his practice, charging just $59 for monthly membership to his MedLion clinics (16 locations in five states) and $10 a visit—and never billing insurance.

Dr. Qamar is part of a new and growing generation of concierge doctors who, in this era of health reform, see more opportunity in the middle class than they do in the jet set. The trend has bifurcated the retainer medicine industry: On one end, patients pay thousands of dollars a month for lavish celebrity-type treatment at traditional concierge practices. On the other, pared-down clinics charge roughly $50 to $100 a month for basic primary-care medicine, more accessible doctors, and yes, money savings for those looking to reduce their health spending.

Of the estimated 5,500 concierge practices nationwide, about two-thirds charge less than $135 a month on average, up from 49% three years ago, according to Concierge Medicine Today, a trade publication that also runs a research collective for the industry. Inexpensive practices are driving growth in concierge medicine, which is adding offices at a rate of about 25% a year, says the American Academy of Private Physicians.

Unlike high-end concierge practices, which typically bill insurers for medical services on top of collecting retainer fees, the lower-end outfits usually don’t accept insurance. Instead, they charge patients directly for treatment along with membership, often posting menu-style prices for services and requiring payment up front, which is why it is called “direct primary care.” Eliminating insurance billing cuts 40% of the practices’ overhead expenses, enabling them to keep fees low, doctors say.

On the cusp of the Affordable Care Act mandating most Americans to have health insurance next year, a rise in doctors who don’t take insurance might seem paradoxical. But health-care experts say the two forces go hand in hand, as patients may find concierge doctors more accessible, especially if traditional doctors get flooded with more patients. Also fueling the trend is a little-known clause tucked into the health-care law that allows direct primary-care to count as ACA-compliant insurance, as long as it is bundled with a “wraparound” catastrophic medical policy to cover emergencies.

“All of a sudden our market went from the uninsured to everybody,” Dr. Qamar says.

Think this type of medicine might be right for you? Here are some issues to consider:

The ACA already requires me to buy health insurance. Why would I need this, too?

While some insurers are developing special health plans around concierge practices, most patients who see concierge doctors pay for it on top of their regular insurance. The rationale: Many of the new health plans have high deductibles that most members will never hit, meaning patients will still be paying thousands of dollars out-of-pocket anyway—possibly even more than what they’d spend on concierge medicine. People with deductibles of $5,000 or more should think about how many times a year they typically see the doctor and for what, keeping in mind that annual checkups are free under the ACA. If doctor visits typically cost $150 and the patient has six appointments a year, a concierge practice offering the same services for $40 or $50 a month might be cheaper.

The recognition of concierge medicine in the law has spurred a few insurance companies, including Cigna Corp., to build new employee health plans around the model. Travel company Expedia Inc., for one, has added a concierge clinic run by Seattle-based Qliance Medical Group to its Bellevue, Wash., headquarters. Some practices are working with insurers on bundled products for the individual insurance market, as well, all designed to cost roughly the same as traditional insurance, or less. “I would never be a person who recommends coverage on top of coverage for the sake of increased coverage, but as we move forward, it becomes much more of a puzzle than it used to be,” says Tracy Keiser, chief executive and founder of the Keiser Group, a benefits-design firm developing wraparound policies to complement MedLion.

What if my insurance doesn’t have a concierge option?

Since most large insurers have yet to build plans around concierge practices, people might feel that the retainers are redundant next to their insurance plan, says Erika Bliss, CEO of Qliance, which received funding from Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos and whose 8,500 patients pay between $54 and $94 a month depending on age. Dr. Bliss, who championed the concierge clause in the ACA, says it’s “a shame” more insurance companies haven’t embraced it yet, because people compelled by law to buy traditional coverage might find concierge unaffordable now.

Direct primary-care doctors say that a patient’s best bet is to select a high-deductible policy with minimal premiums for emergencies, and put the money they save up front toward the concierge retainer. High-deductible plans are often paired with health savings account. The IRS, however, doesn’t recognize direct primary-care fees as eligible HSA expenses, so patients might not be able to spend pretax dollars at the clinics.

How can this save me money?

While traditional doctors charge for each treatment and test—which can add up to hundreds of dollars per visit—Qliance, MedLion and other clinics charge flat fees that generally include basic checkups, treatment of minor ailments and electrocardiograms, or EKGs.

SignatureMD Inc., a somewhat higher-end concierge practice, includes in its $125 to $200 monthly retainer an “executive physical” that could cost $1,000 at a standard practice. Services like blood work, X-rays and vaccines can cost extra, but concierge doctors often negotiate with specialists and labs to secure discounts for patients who would otherwise pay out-of-pocket.

Brian Forrest, who describes his $39-a-month Access Healthcare clinic in Apex, N.C., as “concierge-lite,” has obtained prostate-cancer tests for $5 from the same lab that would charge a Medicare patient at least $175, $350 mammograms for $80, and colonoscopies for $400 when the official rate is $2,000. “Sometimes, it might be cheaper for them to use their insurance, but in some cases it isn’t,” Dr. Forrest says.

Students at North Carolina State University who studied Dr. Forrest’s practice found that his patients with normal insurance spent 12% less out-of-pocket than had they gone to a regular doctor—partly because the longer visits kept them healthier, says Richard Kouri, director of N.C. State’s BioSciences Management Initiative.

If the concierge medicine is cheaper, do I still get VIP treatment?

Because concierge doctors aren’t at the mercy of insurance companies, they say they take on fewer patients and spend more time with each, often guaranteeing appointments within 24 hours. They also don’t need patients to come into the office to get paid, so they can provide care via video, email and phone. One of the great conveniences that private physicians offer is virtual conversations, as in “text me a photo of your tick bite,” says Tom Blue, chief strategy officer for the American Academy of Private Physicians.

But the lower-cost concierge practices keep their rates low by focusing on simple services—you won’t find advanced medical technology, and you’ll have to go elsewhere (and pay extra) for screenings like MRIs.

For Qliance patient Don MacPhee, 85, the appeal was getting to keep his doctor when she switched to the concierge model—well worth the $90 a month he and his wife each pay. But Mr. MacPhee also likes the longer appointments and says his wife, whom the doctor visited in a rehab facility after she broke her hip, “profited from” the extra attention: “We don’t consider this to be exorbitant.”

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Re: "Universal" Health Care website www.healthcare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November

Posted by Olog-hai on Wed Nov 13 01:00:06 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

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Washington Post

Troubled HealthCare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November

By Amy Goldstein, Juliet Eilperin and Lena H. Sun
November 12, 2013
Software problems with the federal online health insurance marketplace, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised, according to an official with knowledge of the project.

The insurance exchange is balking when more than 20,000 to 30,000 people attempt to use it at the same time — about half its intended capacity, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal information. And CGI Federal, the main contractor that built the site, has succeeded in repairing only about six of every 10 of the defects it has addressed so far.

Government workers and tech­nical contractors racing to repair the Web site have concluded, the official said, that the only way for large numbers of Americans to enroll in the health-care plans soon is by using other means so that the online system isn’t overburdened.

This inside view of the halting nature of HealthCare.gov repairs is emerging as the insurance industry is working behind the scenes on contingency plans, in case the site continues to have problems. And it calls into question the repeated assurances by the White House and other top officials that the insurance exchange will work smoothly for the vast majority of Americans by Nov. 30. Speaking in Dallas a week ago, President Obama said that the “Web site is already better than it was at the beginning of October, and by the end of this month, we anticipate that it is going to be working the way it is supposed to, all right?”

The need for what the official called a “divide-and-conquer strategy” for enrollment puts more emphasis on alternative methods for buying health plans. These methods include federal call centers and insurance companies that sell policies directly to customers — paths that are hobbled for now by some of the same technical problems affecting the federal Web site.

Julie Bataille, director of communications at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said: “We are working 24/7 to make improvements so that by the end of the month the site is working smoothly for the vast majority of users. We are making progress, including fixes to reduce error rates and get the site moving faster.

“The challenges we are addressing today,” she added, “are a snapshot of November 12th, not November 30th.”

Meanwhile, pressure intensified Tuesday on the Obama administration to address the growing complaints of Americans whose individual insurance policies are being canceled because they do not comply with new government rules for coverage. The online magazine Ozy published a video interview with former president Bill Clinton saying that Obama must “honor the commitment” he made to Americans that they could keep their insurance — even if it requires a change in the law.

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger said she and her counterparts in other states have offered suggestions to the White House on how best to address the problem of canceled policies. The most obvious solution, she said, would be to allow customers to renew policies early to let them stay in effect until November 2014. But that would come with a trade-off, she said: Those people would not receive federal subsidies for which they might be eligible if they bought a plan on the exchange.

She said that she and other insurance commissioners are trying to address consumers’ desire to use the federal exchange. “Honestly,” she said, “it’s just a big mess right now. … I don’t know what to tell people.”

Debate over how to respond to Americans who are irate about losing their insurance is intensifying on Capitol Hill. The House plans to vote this week on a bill introduced by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would extend this year’s insurance plans for a year. On Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she is co-sponsoring a bill with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would require insurers to offer 2013 plans on the individual market indefinitely.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is set to grill several high-ranking administration technology officials about the problems affecting HealthCare.gov.

The software defects that ware making the Web site unstable with too much volume mean that some people face frozen computer screens when they try to enter information — and then get timeout errors, said the official with knowledge of the project.

Call centers have had problems, too. Within the network of 17 federally sponsored call locations staffed by more than 10,000 people, consumers are discovering that telephone representatives lack the authority to correct errors in online applications. And sometimes, consumers with more than routine questions are promised that specialists will call them back, but the calls never come.

Insurance companies, which have been pressing the White House for greater ability to sign up customers directly, are stuck at the moment, unable to complete enrollments. That is because they must connect with the federal online system to determine whether customers’ incomes qualify them for tax credits to help pay for their insurance — a part of the system that does not work.

According to the official, workers are trying to streamline the computer system so that it can handle outside queries from insurers and the call centers about whether people are eligible for subsidies. Technical workers are striving to have this part of the system working reliably within two to three weeks.

The work that remains to be done on the exchange is significant because the 2010 Affordable Care Act requires most Americans to have health insurance by Jan. 1. Under the law, the online marketplaces were supposed to be a central way for uninsured people who do not have access to insurance through a job to get coverage that is better and more affordable than most current individual policies.

In a telephone call with reporters earlier Tuesday, Bataille said that HHS is e-mailing about 275,000 consumers who have gotten stuck while trying to shop for and buy health plans. The e-mails encourage them to try again.

Asked whether the Web site could handle all those consumers if they logged on at once, Bataille replied, “That’s why we are sending this series of e-mails in waves.”

The CMS has said it has cut the waiting time for pages on the federal Web site from an average of eight seconds to one second and has reduced errors that have blocked consumers from 6 percent to 2 percent.

For some consumers, their frustration with the site has been compounded by their experiences with a call center. Lisa Chandler, 54, who lives with her husband outside Toledo, wanted to explore her new insurance options through the federal exchange. She had received a notice from her insurer that her health plan was ending and offering her a new one if she signed up by the end of this week.

After she was unable to complete an application on HealthCare.gov, she tried to contact a center three times and each time was told that a specialist would call back. No one did.

In Pennsylvania, Charles Roessler, 64, tried to apply three ways: online, through a call center and on paper. The retired computer salesman has decided on a health plan but hasn’t been able to sign up via any of the methods because no one has been able to verify his subsidy.

During his most recent attempt, on Monday, he asked a call center representative to delete duplicate applications but was told that the center lacked the authority. “We’re being told that you can go online or enroll through the call center,” he said. “Well, no, not really. … I’m just inches away from the finish line.”

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House Dems about to "go crazy" over WH's inability to fix ACA rollout problems

Posted by Olog-hai on Wed Nov 13 15:57:22 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

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The Hill

House Dems about to 'go crazy'

By Mike Lillis and Justin Sink
November 13, 2013, 02:39 pm
House Democrats on Wednesday expressed increasing frustration at the Obama administration’s inability to improve the rollout of ObamaCare.

Democrats said they’re worried about "being dragged into this non-stop cycle" of bad news about the ObamaCare rollout, rather than celebrating the successes of the law they helped to pass, a Democratic aide said.

"They're voicing those frustrations with the administration," the aide said following a Democratic Caucus meeting where administration officials got an earful from exasperated lawmakers.

With the House vote just two days away, many Democrats are urging the White House to come up with an administrative alternative to legislation sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would allow insurance companies to offer their old insurance plans.

The GOP bill is a response to the nearly 5 million people who have seen their health plans canceled under ObamaCare.

Two centrist Democrats — Reps. John Barrow (Ga.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.) — already have endorsed the Upton measure, but that number could rise if the bill comes up for a vote without a Democratic alternative providing some political cover.

A second Democratic aide warned that if the administration doesn't provide such a substitute by Friday, many members will "go crazy.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday said President Obama would announce “sooner rather than later” his proposed fix for those who have lost their health insurance because of ObamaCare.

“You can expect a decision from him and announcement from him sooner rather than later on options that we can take to address the problem that we've been discussing here with regards to those individuals who have had their individual insurance plans canceled because of the transition to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces,” Carney said.

Separately, the White House spokesman said Obama had personally been consulting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill about tweaks to his signature healthcare bill.

“The president does want to and is discussing with lawmakers the way we can make improvements to the program,” Carney said.

But Carney said that the White House was still wary of Upton’s bill.

House Democrats were briefed at their Wednesday caucus meeting by David Simas, the White House deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy, and Mike Hash, director of the Office of Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said the officials provided no hints as to what tweaks the administration is considering, or when they might surface. But the disgruntled message from Democrats, he added, was perfectly clear.

“They heard our caucus,” Pascrell said. “I wouldn't say [it was] heated, but very specific. In this business, you keep your word or get out.”

Meeting the press after Wednesday's meeting, Democratic leaders downplayed the friction between House Democrats and the administration on the ObamaCare rollout. But they also acknowledged the unrest among many in the caucus.

“We're Democrats and we're very passionate, especially when it comes to the issue of the Affordable Care Act,” Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) said. “There have been some frustrations about the rollout, but the reality is this is an enormous, an enormous, undertaking.”

Pascrell said the burden falls squarely on the shoulders of Democrats to fix the law they championed.

“We've worked too hard to get this passed, and in good conscience, we have to deliver to the American people,” he said. “I don't want to hear about the Republicans exploiting this. They're going to exploit every chance that they have. They didn't cause this particular problem. And so what I'm saying is that we'd better come up with an option or an alternative to Mr. Upton.”

The Upton bill remained a topic of discussion after the meeting. Riding in a crowded elevator up to the House floor, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) asked Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a fiscally conservative Blue Dog, whether he would be voting for the bill. "I don't think so," Cooper replied. Moran then said, "I'm really torn up over this." He later told reporters that he would not be voting for the bill but wouldn't whip his colleagues against it.

Upton's legislation would allow the health insurance industry to continue offering bare-bones plans that existed before the beginning of this calendar year, even if they do not satisfy the minimum coverage requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

Supporters of ObamaCare have expressed concern that the plan would undermine healthcare reform because the younger, healthier consumers who are needed to keep premiums down would opt for cheaper plans rather than the fuller coverage offered on the ObamaCare exchanges. In turn, premiums would shoot up for sicker and older enrollees.

“We don't believe that proposed legislation that actually causes more problems than it fixes are the right way to go,” Carney said.

A similar bill championed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) in the Senate has garnered support from other influential Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said she would sign on to Landrieu's effort.

The House would be open to considering a Democratic-sponsored bill to fix ObamaCare, if the Senate can pass it, a key GOP lawmaker said on Wednesday.

Upton on Wednesday suggested the House could vote on Landrieu's bill, which would require insurance companies to offer the old plans.

"We wanted to pass a bill with bipartisan support — that's what the goal is, if [the Senate] can pass something, more power to them — let's fix the problem," Upton told a gaggle of reporters.

Yet some conservatives have expressed opposition to the Landrieu bill, which would impose requirements on private companies.

"Government can't be mandating that businesses must sell a certain product," Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said. "This is not the Soviet Union."

—Russell Berman and Molly K. Hooper contributed to this story.

This story was updated at 3:02 p.m.

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Insurance loophole in ACA may hurt cancer patients

Posted by Olog-hai on Wed Nov 13 19:15:53 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

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WFAA, ABC 8, Dallas/Fort Worth

Insurance loophole may hurt cancer patients

by Janet St. James, WFAA
Posted on November 13, 2013 at 6:00 PM | Updated today at 4:46 PM
A pile of papers on Maria Silva’s table foreshadows doom.

One says her breast cancer has spread.

Another is a cancellation notice from BlueCross BlueShield because her policy doesn’t meet the new federal standards.

A third says her long-time oncologist won’t be accepting policies from the new federal health care program.

“It’s shocking,” Silva said. “Where am I supposed to go? Where am I supposed to go for treatment?”

Silva and thousands of Texas Oncology patients recently received the letter that says:
Texas Oncology will not participate as an in-network provider for the HIMP (Health Insurance Market Place) … We understand that these changes have a significant impact to our patients, both clinically and financially.
Texas Oncology treats tens of thousands of cancer patients at more than 135 sites across the state and in Oklahoma.

Deciding against accepting insurance offered in the health care marketplace, HealthCare.gov, might be blamed on a complicated loophole in the Affordable Care Act that could cost oncologists and countless other medical providers lots of money.

According the law, patients who haven’t paid premiums are given a 90-day grace period before their coverage is dropped. But the insurance company isn’t obligated to pay the claims for the last two months of that period.

“The doctors and hospitals could easily treat a patient for one, two, even three months, without fully understanding they are not insured,” explained Devon Herrick with the National Center for Policy Analysis, a non-partisan think tank based in Dallas.

That might provide too much financial risk for health care providers — especially those providing expensive, long-term care, like cancer treatment.

The American Medical Association has written about fears of widespread unpaid claims. According to American Medical News:
“Physicians, hospitals and other health care providers cannot reasonably be expected to know or predict if an enrollee’s premiums are paid or will be paid before the end of the grace period,” officials from the Missouri State Medical Association and the Missouri Hospital Association stated in an August 12 letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “And they cannot reasonably be expected to bear the concomitant burden of uncertainty and a potentially significant financial loss.”
Other organizations, including the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, have informed physicians that they are tracking the problem and have asked federal officials to solve the 90-day grace period loophole.

Texas Oncology declined an on-camera interview, providing this statement to News 8:
Texas Oncology has made no decision regarding participation in the Health Insurance Marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. At this early stage, it is not clear how the new insurance plans will cover cancer treatment, together with related care that our patients need.

Knowing what is covered before, during, and after cancer treatment impacts our ability to determine and deliver the most effective overall courses of treatment to our patients. That’s why a decision about participation at this stage would be premature.

Like many health care providers, we are carefully reviewing the more than 100 plans in the insurance marketplace, and will determine our approach based on what’s best for our patients and our physicians’ ability to deliver the best cancer care possible to patients in Texas.

During the transition ahead, Texas Oncology will continue to provide financial counseling to patients — consistent with our long-standing practice — to help them understand their medical and financial options.
“If I decided not to have treatment, I would be dead in two to three months,” Maria Silva said. “I have to have it.”

She prays the loophole is closed so she can find the lifesaving care she needs before it's too late.

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(1125083)

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Re: Insurance loophole in ACA may hurt cancer patients

Posted by bingbong on Wed Nov 13 20:32:53 2013, in response to Insurance loophole in ACA may hurt cancer patients, posted by Olog-hai on Wed Nov 13 19:15:53 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
This is why they need to ban insurance networks. Any provider should be required to take any insured person. There's plenty of practices that take Medicare and Medicaid which pay much less than private insurance. It's not an issue of economics. It's just bullshit.

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(1125275)

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Insurers say "ACA" fix for canceled health policies could drive up costs

Posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 14 14:28:25 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Reuters

Obamacare fix for canceled health policies could raise costs: insurers

Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:23pm EST
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's fix for canceled health plans could "destabilize" the insurance market and lead to higher costs for consumers without further steps, America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, said on Thursday.

"Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the (Obamacare) law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums," AHIP President Karen Ignagni said in a statement.

"Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers," she said.

(Reporting by David Morgan; editing by Jackie Frank)

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Re: Insurers say ''ACA'' fix for canceled health policies could drive up costs

Posted by rbseabeach on Thu Nov 14 14:33:49 2013, in response to Insurers say "ACA" fix for canceled health policies could drive up costs, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 14 14:28:25 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
although this is welcome news by obama, especially since he was startign to feel the heat from both sides of the aisle, this "fix" should be permenant. If not it will appear as election year grand standing again.

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(1125294)

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Re: Insurers say ''ACA'' fix for canceled health policies could drive up costs

Posted by mr mabstoa on Thu Nov 14 16:11:00 2013, in response to Insurers say "ACA" fix for canceled health policies could drive up costs, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 14 14:28:25 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Didn't this happen when itellectuals like Che and Fidel took over Cuba?

What's important is the intention and illusion of helping people. Small details like websites that work and 5 million people losing their coverage don't matter.

Hey as long as it ain't me right!

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(1125298)

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States to Obama: Screw Your "Fix"

Posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Thu Nov 14 16:42:05 2013, in response to Insurers say "ACA" fix for canceled health policies could drive up costs, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Nov 14 14:28:25 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
AR and WA to ignore it

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(1125301)

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Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix''

Posted by chicagomotorman on Thu Nov 14 17:13:29 2013, in response to States to Obama: Screw Your "Fix", posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Thu Nov 14 16:42:05 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Yep

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(1125302)

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Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix''

Posted by italianstallion on Thu Nov 14 17:23:06 2013, in response to States to Obama: Screw Your "Fix", posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Thu Nov 14 16:42:05 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Glad to see you are happy that states are fucking with people's lives just to make political points.

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(1125303)

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Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix''

Posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Thu Nov 14 17:26:21 2013, in response to Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix'', posted by italianstallion on Thu Nov 14 17:23:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Oh fuck you, this was never about anyone's lives.

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Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix''

Posted by DAND124 on Thu Nov 14 17:27:03 2013, in response to Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix'', posted by italianstallion on Thu Nov 14 17:23:06 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
i see you didn't read the article; if you you'd no that the person doing this is a democrat.

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(1125310)

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Re: States to Obama: Screw Your ''Fix''

Posted by chicagomotorman on Thu Nov 14 17:47:02 2013, in response to States to Obama: Screw Your "Fix", posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Thu Nov 14 16:42:05 2013.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Yep

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