If only they had passed Medicare for All

It's like everybody forgot what health insurance was like before Obamacare. Sam Baker reminds us don't blame Obamacare just because it's there. Take for instance, losing your doctor:

Insurers tried to narrow their provider networks in the '90s using HMOs, and consumers hated the plans so much that insurers ultimately backed away. That could happen again this time—the Affordable Care Act doesn't require narrow networks and it doesn't dictate how much insurers pay doctors.

"No one has ever heard of an HMO? Networks have been around forever," said Aaron Carroll, director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research at Indiana University. "The idea of networks as somehow new or government-created is strange.... I understand why people don't like it. They never have. But it's not the fault of the Affordable Care Act. It's the fault of trying to keep spending to a minimum."

I recall many stories before they passed the ACA about people losing their doctors because employers changed plans, raised rates and cut benefits. And speaking of employers and high deductibles:

But deductibles were already on the rise, pre-Obamacare. In the market for employer coverage, which Obamacare barely touches, deductibles have been growing steadily. In 2006, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 10 percent of workers covered by an employer plan had an annual deductible of $1,000 or more. By 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act passed, it was up to 27 percent. By last year it had reached 38 percent.

In other words, Big Business is blaming Obamacare for cuts they were already planning to make to save money and raise profits.

Our legislators should have listened to the hippies who were screaming for single payer. They should have ignored Joe Lieberman's great concerns that derailed the Medicare buy-in deal. But they didn't. In the end, the only thing that would pass is this Rube Goldberg morass of new regulations that allowed the middlemen to maintain their status as useless skimmers. As Baker puts it:

There's not a big difference between "how Obamacare works" and "how health insurance works"—and that, health experts said, is what makes the law such a convenient target.

Atrios warned them about this from the first day of negotiations. No matter what happened, and it was never going to be great as long as insurance corporations weren't cut out as the arbiters of health care, Obamacare and Democrats were going to be blamed for everything wrong with the system. The system sill sucks and always will until we cut out the middlemen. [image via]

Can't spell conservative without the con

And by con I mean lying, dissembling, inhumane ideologues who put politics above the public health and safety. In particular, I'm talking about today's alleged scoop by Tucker Carlson's vanity project, The Daily Crapper which breathlessly announced  Cleveland Clinic is cutting staff because Obamacare:

The Cleveland Clinic, which is ranked among the top four U.S. hospitals, is making layoffs and cutting its budget more than $100 million as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act, the Daily Caller has learned.

“The cuts for 2014, about half of those are related to the Affordable Care Act…We anticipate a reduction in workforce,” Cleveland Clinic executive director of communications Eileen Sheil said in an interview with TheDC.

The funny thing about that "scoop" is this was already reported on Sept 18th by numerous news organizations. Furthermore, as analyzed on Oct 11th, the cuts aren't a direct result of Obamacare. It's not that Obamacare didn't alter the reimbursement schedule. It did, but the overall program was designed to lower federal reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid which would have been balanced by increased coverage under Medicaid and additional insurance subscribers who would sign up for affordable polices, thus cancelling out the unpaid debts that previously plagued hospital budgets.

All the parts were designed to work together and probably would have until the Republicans started screwing around with dismantling the balance points like actively discouraging younger, healthier people from signing up at all and GOP governors refusing to expand the Medicaid coverage after the cons on SCOTUS decided providing health care for poor people shouldn't be mandatory in a civil society.

The weird thing is, after the GOP majority in Ohio's state legislature refused to expand Medicaid coverage, Governor Kasich issued an executive order to do it anyway.

This should have solved the much of the lost revenue problem, except crackpot cons sued to keep the poor from getting Medicaid. They won an expedited hearing just recently.

The procedural ruling was a victory for the six Republican members of the Ohio House and two local Right to Life chapters who filed suit after a legislative-spending oversight panel approved the expenditure last week of $2.56 billion in federal aid provided under the Affordable Care Act. The Controlling Board acted at the request of Gov. John Kasich, who took administrative action to expand Medicaid after the Republican-controlled General Assembly refused to approve it.

Which would have been a big win for both Cleveland Clinic and the state coffers.

Expanding coverage to all Ohioans with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — just under $16,000 a year for an individual — is expected to bring $13 billion in federal money to the state during the next seven years.

In other words, it's a great deal for the states. Of course common sense and humanity are not words in the crackpot Republican  lexicon. Nothing is more important than punishing the poor. They'll fight to the death of every last one of "those people" whom they judge to be undeserving in their relentless attempt to win policy concessions they didn't earn at the ballot box.

Cleveland Clinic should be fine in Ohio, if the governor prevails, but they have bigger problems. Thanks to hospital consolidation over the years, they own hospitals in other GOP controlled states where Republicans are determined to sabotage Obamacare. So in effect, they're not cutting staff because of Obamacare. Once again, the onus rests rather firmly on the crackpot cons of Republican party.

Why Mitch McConnell really hates Obamacare

The propaganda doesn't sell as well once the people start signing up in droves for Obamacare. Like in Kentucky:

But in a state where the rollout has gone smoothly, and in a county that is one of the poorest and unhealthiest in the country, Courtney Lively has been busy signing people up: cashiers from the IGA grocery, clerks from the dollar store, workers from the lock factory, call-center agents, laid-off coal miners, KFC cooks, Chinese green-card holders in town to teach Appalachian students.

Not only that, but the rubes are discovering the GOPers have been lying to them.

Although she once had to dispel a rumor that enrolling involved planting a microchip in your arm, and though she avoids calling the new law “Obamacare” in a red state, most people need little persuading.

One person signs up successfully and tell their friends and family. The governor went all in on making the program work well. He clearly understands a healthier population saves the state money and it's just the humane thing to do. Now 60 year old people who have never had health insurance their entire lives are covered. Waiting for the tipping point where the lies just won't sell at all anymore and the GOPers start trying to take credit for the program. Only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, it will be too late for McConnell either way. He's led the vanguard against health care for his own constituents, so the newly covered rubes who once believed the lies won't vote for him now and the angry cons who won't ever sign up because, Dimmocrats invented it, won't vote for him because he signed off on a compromise or two. He's pretty well screwed.

Democrats fight back on Obamacare

This is a good sign. Granted it's not all their fault but the biggest obstacle to the successful implentation of the ACA has clearly been the ongoing GOP sabotage of the rollout. Our POTUS was too polite to call it that but Obama called out the GOP in his own mild way at his inquistion before the WSJ CEO judges panel:

Addressing a gathering of business executives, Obama acknowledged that the health-care rollout “has been rough, to say the least,” and he lamented the government’s archaic information-technology procurement system.

Obama said that fixes to the HealthCare.gov Web portal are underway and that the exchange will function for a majority of people by the end of November. But the president said staunch opposition from congressional Republicans is inhibiting the law’s implementation.

“One of the problems we’ve had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure,” Obama said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council meeting in Washington. “We obviously are going to have to remarket and rebrand, and that will be challenging in this political environment.”

This is also encouraging. It appears our Democratic party found a winning rescue strategy:

I’m told the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is set to launch a new campaign designed to refocus the debate on the Republican position on health care, which Dems will widely label as ”Cruz Care.”

“The polls all show that when you shift the conversation from `support or oppose’ to ‘fix versus repeal,’ Democrats have the advantage,” Matt Canter, a spokesman for the DSCC, tells me. Regular readers know I broadly agree polls show disapproval of the law does not equal support for the GOP position of repeal.

As I've been saying, it never made sense for Dems to try to run from reform. Their ownership of ACA is set in stone. Their only practical choice is to stand up and fight for it with everything they've got. When GOPers wail repeal, they respond with repair. The problems aren't insurmountable and the GOP's "plan" is to revert to the former status quo. Dems could be reminding the public every day that before ACA junk policies were being cancelled at will by insurers just when they were needed the most. And sticker shock? People forget how fast the premiums were rising and benefits were being cut even in relatively affordable employer based polices. Could only help to remind them.

No really, Obamacare is a big success

Shocking news. Obamacare rollout working well in states that aren't run by GOP thugs determined to sabotage it.

In our states — Washington, Kentucky and Connecticut — the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” is working. Tens of thousands of our residents have enrolled in affordable health-care coverage. Many of them could not get insurance before the law was enacted.

People keep asking us why our states have been successful. Here’s a hint: It’s not about our Web sites.

The Affordable Care Act has been successful in our states because our political and community leaders grasped the importance of expanding health-care coverage and have avoided the temptation to use health-care reform as a political football.

BigMedia hasn't been telling this story. For every economically secure whiner they're trotted out to wail about cancelled policies and raised premiums, there are dozens of success stories on the internets about people who found coverage on the exchanges. Some are getting better policies and saving thousands a year. Some are able to afford health insurance for the very first time. And how about those small businesses the GOPers are claiming will have to fire people because they can't meet the new requirements? Well there's this responsible employer.

Since Howard Stovall opened his sign and graphics business in Lexington, Ky., in 1998, he has paid half the cost of health insurance for his eight employees. With the help of Stovall’s longtime insurance agent and Kentucky’s health exchange, Kynect, Stovall’s employees are saving 5 percent to 40 percent each on new health insurance plans with better benefits. Stovall can afford to provide additional employee benefits, including full disability coverage and part of the cost of vision and dental plans, while still saving the business 50 percent compared with the old plans.

And something to think about. The majority of success stories are coming from states with Democratic governors. When's the last time you saw a feature on any of them on the BigMedia? A bit surprised this op-ed made the cut in WaPo but they made up for it in the related links at the bottom of the piece:

Kathleen Parker: Obamacare is sinking

Charles Krauthammer: Why liberals are panicked about Obamacare

Ruth Marcus: Obama’s political malpractice

The Post’s View: A prescription for fixing Obamacare glitches

Dana Milbank: Obama makes a desperate sales pitch

Clickbait journalism at its finest. This is why we can't have an informed electorate.

House passes Protect Predatory Insurers Act

John Boehner's House of Dysfunction passed a bill protecting junk health insurance with a convenient side effect of slow motion undermining the very core of health insurance reform. House GOPers rejected an amendment to protect consumers brought forward by the Democrats. They objected to this language as not being germane to their bill.

The amendment proposed in the motion to recommit in pertinent part requires state insurance commissioners to examine notices of health insurance cancellations or conversions. It also addresses the regulation of health insurance rates, specifically the amendment delineates what would constitute inadequate notice of cancellation or conversions of health insurance coverage and directs state insurance commissioners to investigate such cases of inadequate notice. Additionally, it permits the Secretary of Health and Human Services or the relevant state insurance regulator to take corrective actions if health insurance rates are determined to be excessive, unjustified, or discriminatory….

Translated: If insurance corporations are allowed to sell junk policies, there have to submit to regulatory review if they cancel the policies when people actually get sick and they won't be allowed to indiscriminately price gouge. You'll recall President's Obama's fix also required the insurers to clearly state the limits of the policies and make the consumer aware they had other options on public exchanges.

Well the Republicans won't stand for that. It completely ruins their plan to destroy all and any reforms that interfere with insurance corporation's profits. Even more depressing, 39 Democrats crossed over and voted for the GOP's malicious fakery in a vain attempt to dodge Republican attack ads. As if the dark money frontmen of the GOP won't still pour millions into taking their seats.

A word to those 39 spineless idiots. If you have "D" after your name, you own Obamacare. The good and the bad. The rubes in your district aren't going to be impressed by your cowardly caving into the GOPers thuggery. They'll only respect you if you stand up and fight. Every Democrat should be refusing to countenance the GOP's trickery and holding press conferences on the Capitol steps every day blasting the GOP's perfidy instead of kowtowing to Republican demagoguery.

[Big thanks to Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction (Twitter: @mjwstickings) for kindly linking in at Mike's Blog Round Up]

Your move Big Insurance Republicans

Dizzy from trying to follow all the media spin on Obama's fix for Obamacare. It's bold. It's desperate. It's smart. It's incredibly stupid. It's a trap. It's a trick. It's dictatorial. It's weak. It's generational theft, dammit. Me, I think it was rather brilliant solution. Shorter Obama: You fools like getting ripped off for junk policies? Fine. You can keep 'em. Let the insurance gougers explain why they don't want to give them back to you.

Shockingly, the insurers are unhappy with this fix. They can't blame Obamacare for cancelling insurance policies now.

The idea isn’t to retroactively fulfill the promise he made to everyone whose plans have been canceled, but to demonstrate to the public that there’s now nothing in the law requiring carriers to dump policyholders or uphold their cancellation notices, so that the public takes its concerns and grievances directly to the carriers. That would alleviate pressure on Democratic lawmakers to vote under duress for legislation that would undermine the Affordable Care Act more dramatically.

Republicans are pissed at being upstaged. I already see the new talking point being tweeted out. Apparently the directive is: Howl about how this doesn't help at all. And the conservative insider media hounds can't be thrilled about losing their favorite "keep yer plan" chew toy. But they still have the glitchy website and Issa's tomfoolery to obsess about -- so there's that.

Keep the reforms, help the people sign up for Obamacare

Have no idea what Big Dog was thinking when he started spewing  GOP talking points. Maybe he was hitting the sauce. Maybe it was some incomprehensible eleventy dimension chess move to help Hillary in 2016 but Bill Clinton has never been so wrong. Letting people keep crap insurance polices is a terrible idea. The whole point of reform is those policies offered no real protection. It would screw up the implementation of the reforms even more than a glitchy website.

Reading the wailing and watching the garment rending over the website reminds me of how spoiled and impatient we've become on the internets. If it doesn't load instantly we're out of there. But that's a problem for the tech savvy. I keep thinking about a tweet I saw showing long lines for signups at a health insurance fair in Sacramento. There are millions of Americans who either don't have good access to the internet or the technical savvy to negotiate the website even if it is working. Seems to me the administrators need to have more events like this especially in states run by GOPers who are sabotaging the rollout. It's clear people want health insurance but many need one on one help with the process.

Koch brothers aim to kill college kids

Okay, so the Koch boys aren't hiring snipers to murder young people, but they may as well be randomly shooting them dead. The billionaire brothers new front group invented Creepy Uncle Sam to convince them to opt out of health care. Worth clicking to see the rest of the photos at the link.

On Saturday, Generation Opportunity, a group in part funded by billionaire activists Charles and David Koch, threw a tailgate party with College Republicans outside the University of Miami football game to advocate against signing up for the insurance plans.

What a humanitarian plan. Okay kids, everybody party like you're never going to get sick or die. Who would have thought drunken 20 year olds would sign a pledge against accepting nearly free health care?

Oh and that's not all. As Chris Moody tweeted, "I want to point out that this anti-Obamacare tailgate party had free Godfather's Pizza. Because Herman Cain."

Of course it did. Koch boys have to look out for their brother from another mother, don't they?

Don't blame Obamacare

I never expected to find myself in agreement with Juan Williams today but he's absolutely right. Quit yer bitching about Obamacare and blame the damn insurance corporations.

It baffles me that people are directing their anger at the ACA which rights these terrible wrongs. [...]

The Hartford Courant newspaper reports that the CEO of Aetna insurance made $36 million last year plus several millions more in stock options.

They also report that the CEO of Cigna cleared a cool $12.5 Million plus stock options.

The American health insurance industry is one of the most profitable in the history of the world. Before the ACA, they made money by finding any excuse, any loophole to deny coverage to the sickest and most vulnerable people in our society.

As Juan says, the damn insurers should be grateful they weren't cut out of the skimming business altogether by Medicare for All, which might have been a thing if professional concern troll Joe Lieberman hadn't killed it dead in utero on the Senate floor. They should be competing in the free market they're always railing about by offering an honest, affordable policy instead of pulling these desperate last minute scams on the consumer trying to squeeze the last drop of blood money out of the system before the public discovers Obamacare isn't to blame after all.

What if Obamacare was repealed

For all the carping about the flaws in Obamacare, and granted there are some big ones, the bigger question is would we better off without it? The answer is no. For the naysayers, Ericka does the maths at the link and this is a conservative estimate. :

The GOP has gleefully jumped on media reports about Americans having their health insurance plans nixed because of Obamacare. "Obama lied. My health plan died," conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote in September, referring to President Barack Obama's promise that people who liked their health insurance plans could keep them. But how many Americans' health plans would receive some form of cancelation notice if GOP hard-liners got their wish and repealed Obamacare? Probably at least 137 million. [...]

"[R]ight now the media are paying the most attention to people who are [getting cancellation notices]," Jost says. "Bad news sells better than good." But ACA benefits have kicked in already, and others will be coming online soon. So imagine the fury if Republicans repeal the law and 137 million Americans get cancelation notices. Then the media might have a real scandal to report.

Right now BigTV is fully invested in their lazy "Obama lied about keeping your plan" which wouldn't be quite so annoying if they showed the same interest in playing syntax police on the GOPers as well. But the bigger media malpractice is they could be using their time to explain the exchanges. Especially since every one of their "Obamacare cancelled my fabulous policy" stories has fallen apart under scrutiny. One of the so-called victims has since recanted her complaints and now calls her cancelled policy a blessing in disguise. Can't fail to notice, that isn't getting play on the TV news. And as Brian Beutler points out, BigMedia look like bigger idiots every time they post a new so-called victim that turns off to better off with a crap policy.

Of course, BigMedia could be spending their time explaining the exchanges and interviewing success stories but screw the facts. Informing the public is so old business model. Must generate phony outrage. Clickbait journalism demands it and their big fat salaries depend on it. Hell of a way to make a living.

The trouble with Obamacare

As I said before the fatal flaw in Obamacare has always been its dependence on BigInsurance to act responsibly in being allowed to remain as the middlemen to health care. I don't think they have any great obligation to inform their policy holders about the competition but the scary cancellation letters forcing consumers to opt out of being flim flammed into high priced products shouldn't be legal. If we had a functioning Congress, they would fix that oversight. But we don't, and many will be cheated.

Which brings us to the second chronic flaw. Confused consumers. The exchanges are complicated. There's a multitude of choices. Guessing a majority of those who need them the most don't have the educational or technical skills to navigate the system. Even among those who do, one anticipates the wade through the process with the same joyous anticipation normally reserved for root canals. Repairing the website won't change that.

Obamacare is far from perfect. We knew that from the beginning. It barely loosens one finger of the chokehold the insurance brokers have on our health care. But it's still better than the status quo. Many people will be breathing easier with health care security.

Millions of people could qualify for federal subsidies that will pay the entire monthly cost of some health care plans being offered in the online marketplaces set up under President Obama's health care law, ...

Far too many will likely fall through the cracks that won't be repaired until the Crackpot Caucus is deposed. That will take a little more time. Everything changes. At its own pace. Sometimes for the better.

Scumbag insurance corporations scamming their policy holders

Building a bit on the last post, TPM investigates and finds insurance companies lying about Obamacare to their policy holders.

Donna received the letter canceling her insurance plan on Sept. 16. Her insurance company, LifeWise of Washington, told her that they'd identified a new plan for her. If she did nothing, she'd be covered.

Of course she would be paying $300 a month more for the pleasure of staying with a plan she "liked." But Donna is no fool. She shopped around on the Obamacare exchanges.

If Donna had done nothing, she would have ended up spending about $1,000 more a month for insurance than she will now that she went to the marketplace, picked the best plan for her family and accessed tax credits at the heart of the health care reform law.

"The info that we were sent by LifeWise was totally bogus. Why the heck did they try to screw us?" Donna said. "People who are afraid of the ACA should be much more afraid of the insurance companies who will exploit their fear and end up overcharging them."

Donna is not alone.

It's happening in many states. More than a few insurers are doing it, but some are more blatantly swindling consumers than others.

The insurance companies argue that it's simply capitalism at work. But regulators don't see it that way. By warning customers that their health insurance plans are being canceled as a result of Obamacare and urging them to secure new insurance plans before the Obamacare launched on Oct. 1, these insurers put their customers at risk of enrolling in plans that were not as good or as affordable as what they could buy on the marketplaces.

This was always the fatal flaw in Obamacare. Its success depended on the greedy insurance mega-corporations to be honest in their dealings. We knew that was never going to happen. But at least it's more difficult for them to get away with it now. So there's that. Still, caveat emptor.

Blame the damn insurance corporations

If you needed further proof of the total failure of our Fourth Estate you need look no further than the media's frenzied search for alleged Obamacare victims. Today the (once proud and now useless bird cage liner) Wall St. Journal delivers up cancer victim Edie Sundby whose losing one of her insurers. What the op-ed doesn't tell you is she would lost that coverage anyway because United Healthcare long planned to drop all individual policies. It seems they can't compete in the individual market in California because of selective tax breaks being given to only some insurers, of which they were not one.

But there's a lot more Ms. Sundby didn't tell us in her lament for lost health care. Steve M. does some digging and discovers the Edie's is a  poor little rich girl tale. Leaving aside the discrepancies in her stories, (she's been featured in various media more than once), few cancer patients have this luxury:

Whenever Edie suffered a setback, she took what she calls "a spirit quest" into the wilderness. Weary from chemo in the summer of 2009, she and Dale traveled by camper van through national parks in the West. "The wilderness helps me forget everything," Edie explains. "I don't think about cancer; I feel healthy there." Twice more they headed out on camping trips, the last time in 2011 when the cancer returned.

So they both could take months off from work and travel as far afield as Alaska and Fiji. And they clearly have resources or at least connections among the the venture captial crowd. Edie was looking forward to launching a new line of beauty products this year. It may well be that Edie will be inconvenienced by Obamacare but she is far from the typical insurance consumer. Clearly it won't ruin her life to rework her policies whereas living without any health care at all would literally kill millions of Americans who will now have access to affordable coverage.

So the question for all the journos who are jumping on the "Obama lied because these people say they like their insurance" is, did it never occur to you that maybe the alleged victims are lying because they hate Obama, or liberals or Democrats, or poor people and they want to help Republicans kill Obamacare because it only helps millions of uninsured and doesn't do anything for them? Crazy idea I know. That never happens.

Massive media fail: Health care horror stories

Exactly one honest piece on the Memeorandum right now debunking the embarrassing clickbaiting about Obamacare cancellations. The majority are rife with disgracefully negligent coverage of cherrypicked whiners whose phony horror stories will most probably be debunked within hours. You want facts these days, you have to go to the honest journos like Steve Benen who exposes the media malpractice of the Clickbait Corps.

Bartiromo didn’t follow up with the guest, so Michael Hiltzik did. He discovered that Deborah Cavallaro has a pretty awful health plan, which costs $293 a month in premiums, along with a deductible of $5,000 a year and a limit of two doctor visits a year, each of which come with a $40 copay. If she sees her physician more than twice, she’s responsible for 100% of the costs.

Under “Obamacare,” she can sign up for a “silver” coverage plan for $333 a month with a vastly reduced deductible and no limits on the number of times she’s able to see her doctor. She can also sign up for a “bronze” plan and pay as little as $194 a month. She’d have the same deductible she has now, but she’d save on premiums and have no limits on the number of visits.

Any so called reporter who doesn't start with the specifics about policies being cancelled in their lede is simply a disgrace to the formerly proud profession of journalism. They are many. The honest are few. This is why we can't have an informed electorate.

One dares to call them liars

News you won't see from the Clickbait Corps. BigMedia fears to tread where Brian Beutler dares to go with “Rate shock”: The GOP’s shameful new Obamacare lie. This in particular.

Some people who receive these notices will be pleasantly surprised to find that the most similar new plan offered by their current provider is actually cheaper than their old one. Others will be told that a similar plan will cost more. What they won’t be told, because insurers don’t want to downsell or advertise for their competitors, is that they’re likely to find a different plan available through their state exchange that’s closer to the same price or cheaper. If they can’t find a cheaper one, then there’s a decent chance that federal subsidies will reduce their out-of-pocket costs. It’s only the remainder — and it’s likely to be a small remainder — that genuinely will have no choice but to either pay more money (in some cases significantly more) or pay a fine and go without coverage.

The cancellations are for policies so crappy they don't conform to the bare requirements of meaningful health care coverage as mandated by Obamacare. So people complaining about not being able to "keep their plan" are basically whining they have to pay more to stay with a company that's been ripping them off instead of choosing from the other (far superior) 124 plans available on the exchanges. [Supply your own punchline.]

California rule raises Obamacare rates

Award for biggest corporate fluffer of the week goes to this annoying hit piece on Obamacare "sticker shock" at the LAT. I've seen this narrative developing in the courtier media for a while now. ZOMG! Some people are seeing their super cheap insurance policies cancelled because, they're crap. Obamacare requires policies to furnish actual coverage for medical care. Wonder hard LAT had to look to find that one disgruntled young healthy person in California?

Fine. I see LAT's self-serving anecdote and counter with this guy who is happy his inadequate insurance was cancelled:

Anyway, you may have seen in the past couple of days how some insurers are being forced to drop thousands of individual policies because they're not ACA-compliant. My current policy is among those, so I've looked for a new policy with my insurer (Anthem). And, thanks to the ACA, I can finally get a more traditional policy because the insurer has to offer ACA-compliant plans and can't exclude for preexisting conditions. As a result, I'm switching to a Silver level plan with a $2,000 deductible, free preventive care, reasonable co-pays ($30-$45) for doctors' visits pre-deductible and reasonable co-insurance (25%) post-deductible, all for a premium that's only $20 than what I was paying. Significantly better coverage, in other words, for about $240 more per year. The media, however, are depicting the end of those policies as a bad thing, apparently because insureds may have to pay more now. But they don't mention that these insureds will be getting much better coverage. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

I've spent years making medical decisions based on the out-of-pocket cost. I've passed on doctor-advised MRIs because they would cost me $1,000 (and don't even get me started on the myth of how patients can negotiate with providers--a notion propagated largely by people who've never had to try it), and just this week I had to decide whether to have a follow-up visit with a neurologist for vertigo or see a podiatrist about an ongoing running injury. I'm ecstatic to have this coverage. And I would not have had it without the ACA.

I've heard a lot more stories like his than I have of whiners like the single one LAT dug up to join the insurance corps spokesmouths parroting GOP propaganda. But the real annoyance is the misleading hed. It blames Obamacare for an additional requirement the state of California tacked onto the policy. Which you have to read pretty far into the dismal piece to find out. Which few will do.

This is why we can't have an informed electorate.

Senate GOPers revolt

Harry Reid could have couched this better (or possibly The Hill truncated his statement). He should have made the point the impending government shutdown being engineered by the Crackpot Caucus in John Boehner's House of Dysfunction is on them even as they desperately try to spin their harebrained plots to pin the blame on Obama. However, it's probably a good sign that Senate Republicans mutinied, leaping off the crackpots' ship of fools in droves.

Reid thanked Senate Republicans and Democrats for voting to end debate on the bill today. Twenty-five Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in voting to end debate, even though Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned that vote would let Democrats strip language from the bill to defund ObamaCare.

Someone should explain the difference between propaganda to fool the rubes and the actual facts to Cruz. Those facts being legitimate polling shows a majority of Americans don't want them to defund or destroy Obamacare. Of course Cruz is actually smart enough to know that. Everybody inside the beltway knows the only reason he's putting on this clown act is it will help him with the deluded base in the 2016 primaries.

The GOP's greatest nightmare

Obamacare is lowering costs for health insurance much more than initially expected.

The most comprehensive study on Obamacare to date finds that Americans’ insurance premiums under the health law will be “lower than expected.” Many Americans will pay even less than the top-line rates after factoring in government subsidies for their health coverage, with some paying nothing at all for crucial medical coverage.

And, it offers actual health care coverage unlike the sort of low cost private insurance with caps on coverage so low it wouldn't cover the cost of treating a hang nail.

Thus it's no surprise Republicans are now trying to kill Obamacare by sabotaging the rollout via cockamamie investigation. With less than a month before open enrollment begins, Republicans issued a massive document demand to the agencies assigned to assist Americans wishing to enroll in health care exchanges.

Welcome to new world of fiscal conservatism where public health is an impediment to thwarting the President. Their timing could not be more obvious. The GOPers are targeting the several states with the most uninsured. Clearly the Republicans aim to prevent as many people as possible from signing up. Once again I wonder, why in hell would anyone vote these heartless cretins into office?

Public confused about Obamacare

A new poll from Kaiser Family Foundation shows a majority oppose defunding Obamacare. Only 36% would approve, whereas 57% would disapprove. Which makes the GOP's grand plan of shutting down the entire federal government rather than pass any appropriation bill  funding the ACA even more tone deaf than they usually do.

Meanwhile, Americans remain entirely confused about what Obamacare actually does, which is not surprising given the enormous amount of disinformation and outright lies circulating about the law. Especially egregious are the number of mega-corporations lying about Obamacare forcing them to cut their workforce and/or dropping coverage. As Think Progress points out at the link:

Large companies are blaming this move specifically on the health law. But in reality, Obamacare just serves as a convenient scapegoat for anti- labor practices. Employers have been attempting to shift more health costs onto workers for the past decade, and workers’ health care costs have been skyrocketing as the same time as their wages have stagnated. Indeed, studies have shown that large employers were trying to slash workers’ hours long before Obamacare was around. Most large companies aren’t actually planning to slash their employees’ benefits specifically in response to health reform, despite the headlines proclaiming otherwise.

The Kaiser poll also finds only 8% consider BigMedia as a trusted source of information. Ironically fully 81% are getting information from BigMedia. Small wonder everybody is so confused.