Be INFORMED

Friday, October 25, 2013

Congratulations, Republicans. Your Obamacare sabotage has screwed over millions

Here's the dirty secret behind the Republicans' big loss on defunding Obamacare in the shutdown: they lost that battle, but they have done pretty well in the overall war, because they've so royally screwed up implementation in half of the country with their three years of sabotage efforts, from the lawsuits to the lack of necessary funding from Congress to the refusal of states to expand Medicare or build their own exchanges. Here's how that's playing out in the states:

Don’t tell Elisabeth Benjamin it’s tough to sign up for Obamacare. For two weeks, she has been enrolling uninsured people from her New York City office through an online marketplace created by the law.

Most recently, she helped a Bronx home-health worker in her 30s get health coverage for $70 a month. [...]

In Texas, which has more uninsured than any other state, 90 health insurance navigators, doing the same job as Benjamin, haven’t been able to sign up a single person despite a flood of interest, said Tim McKinney, head of the United Way of Tarrant County. [...]

The state and federal exchanges are designed to sell health insurance to millions of Americans under the law known as Obamacare. More than half of about 500,000 enrollees since the Oct. 1 opening come from the 14 states running their own exchanges independent of the U.S. government. While enrollment continues through March, consumers must sign up and choose a plan by about Dec. 15 to get insurance coverage as of Jan. 1.

It's true in terms of Medicaid expansion, as well. Kaiser Family Foundation released a new report this month estimating that more than five million people will fall into the coverage gap: making too little income to qualify to purchase insurance on the health exchanges and too much to qualify for existing Medicaid. Texas should be particularly proud: fully 20 percent of those 5.2 million who won't be getting Medicaid—or any other coverage—are in that state. Florida is not far behind, at 15 percent.

HealthCare.gov is improving in Texas, and will get fixed. People in all those states that refused to create their own exchanges will eventually be able to get their insurance. But the Republicans will still have scored a "victory" in making it as painful as possible, and in successfully keeping millions from even having the promise of health care.

Originally posted to Joan McCarter on Thu Oct 24, 2013

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Chris Hayes Blows Apart ‘Obamacare Kills Jobs’ Lies

 By Egberto Willies October 23, 2013 @ AddictingInfo

Chris Hayes Blows Apart Obamacare Kills Jobs Lies

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes dispelled the ‘Obamacare Kills Jobs’ lies on his All In show. See how he used the employment data to prove Republicans are lying. Image: EW Addicting Info

We are all well aware of the Obamacare lies and misinformation. The big one; Obamacare kills jobs.

Everyone remember Hannity’s big fail? He featured three families claiming to be hurt by Obamacare. It turns out all three would be helped by Obamacare.

Of course there are many other lies that are easy to dispel. Obamacare is a government takeover of healthcare? That lie is easily dispelled since insurance is provided by the private sector. Medical services are provided by private hospitals and doctors. That is in no way a government takeover.

Obamacare gets between you and your doctor? Really? The reality is that your private insurance is the one that does that. They tell you what drug you can use. They tell you which doctor you can see. They tell you which hospital you can go to.

The other big lie is that Obamacare kills jobs.

The narrative from the Republicans is that Obamacare kills jobs by creating a job market of part time work. Obamacare requires that companies with over 50 employees provide insurance to employees working over 30 hours per week. Their theory is that that would cause employers near 50 to stay below 50 workers. They also assume employees would be kept below 30 hours per week.

For a party that claims to be business savvy they miss an important point. Companies hire to maximize profits. Taxes and health insurance are costs of doing business just like any other cost. If it is not burdensome enough to stunt a marginal profit increase, hiring will occur.

In the aggregate, everyone pays for the uninsured. As such, total employment is affected whether it is paid for by the employer or through the economy by the taxpayer. Those dollars are redirected to healthcare and away from other goods and services.

The jobs report came out today and the ‘Obamacare Kills Jobs’ lie was completely dispelled. Involuntary part time jobs declined (also see WSJ & Politifact). This has been occurring for over a year even as Obamacare is being rolled out.