Just heard Obama interview--he said he was 'sorry' some lost insurance AND

[hooverville29]

-- and got pretty close to admitting there shouldn't have been blanket assurances about that. But more important than that, in the middle of a long, long sentence, he used the phrase------

'changes needed in the law.'

Talk about opening the door and letting the wolf in! Wow! Is there a mastermind sitting somewhere in a back room in the West Wing, who knows exactly where they're going with this thing? Frankly, this is getting --- what's a good term ---- confusing?

[senseandsensibility]

1. I think there are changes needed in the law.

And I'm glad he said that.

[Skip Intro]

5. What changes? n/t

[hooverville29]

13. That, friend, is the question

[SalviaBlue]

27. Medicare for all

right, friend?

[riderinthestorm]

19. Introducing a public option on healthcare.gov! nt

[NoOneMan]

28. Everything

The tiers. Making self-rationing mechanisms like deductibles and copays illegal. The profit. The multitude of private insurers (hell, you just need 1 public one). The subsidies... (wtf, really? Just fucking subsidize everyone 100% with taxes like sane countries).

[LouisvilleDem]

29. Make deductibles and copays illegal?

Wouldn't that just increase costs even more?

[NoOneMan]

39. If it would decrease self-rationing (which wouldn't otherwise balloon conditions to critical levels)

Then potentially. But maybe not since early treatment could always be accessed.

Canada doesn't have those things. Their per capita health costs are almost half the US's currently.

Besides, costs are costs. Why endorse a system that cheats the most vulnerable by forcing them to choose between care and food? You wouldn't pay more for a fair system?

[LouisvilleDem]

40. Of course I would

I guess I'm just not convinced that completely eliminating co-pays would make the system fairer.

[NoOneMan]

41. Why wouldn't it make it more fair?

Co-pays and deductibles only purpose is to deter access among those who can least afford them; this, by nature, produces different levels of health outcomes among the different quintiles (assuming as such that competent access to care correlates positively to better health outcomes). Why do the poor deserve a higher infant mortality rate than the rich?

[gopiscrap]

42. welcome to DU

[Bandit]

43. Why do you think medical costs for VA are so much lower than for regular people?

VA Health is completely run by the Government. NO MIDDLEMAN, and costs are less than half of what the general public is presented with.. Why is that?

[hooverville29]

6. Fine. I might agree, but he'd batter have a plan for handling the tsunami he'll get

From the House on that one. All of us can imagine full well what it'll be --

Stop this thing in it's tracks, because how can we be implementing something nationwide that the President says should be changed. And the answer to that is -------------?

He'd better be ready to be explicit fast about those changes to show they don't require holding up implementation.

[JaneyVee]

15. This effects 5% of the insured, 3% of which will get an even better deal under

Obamacare. Just let it blow over. Oh well, 2% got fucked out of their shitty scam insurance. 98% happy is damn good.

[hooverville29]

17. It's nice you can decide that for them. Why did Obama apologize?

[JaneyVee]

20. Because that's what good presidents do. Would you like him to have said

"Oh well, fuck em". He's an extremely decent man who accepts responsibility and owns up to his shit. Unlike our last prez who still hasn't apologized for lying about WMDs, sending soldiers into a meat grinder, and blowing a surplus.

[kydo]

21. this ^^^ +1000

prefect couldn't have said it better

[hooverville29]

22. Issue is the changes and what changes. Should they give the 5% relief?

[riderinthestorm]

35. +2000. nt

[hooverville29]

30. BTW, 4 million of your fellow citizens are in this spot. You say fuck 'em?

[Yo_Mama]

2. There are changes needed in the law

and now when people talk about the problems, he can talk about their unwillingness to address them.

Up until now the presidential PR on this has sucked, because it made him look clueless and careless.

No one ever anticipated that this would be perfect.

[icymist]

3. Do you have a link to this? nt

[hooverville29]

34. Here' an LATimes story on it, saying WH is working on changes

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-pn-obamacare-cancellations-president-sorry-20131107,0,4645950.story#axzz2k0zNSxeP

[icymist]

36. Thank you.

[Enrique]

4. there have already been changes in the law

i'm watching the replay now on MSNBC, I just heard the part you mention, and it doesn't have the significance you suggest.

Of course the GOP will blow this out of proportion but that's so predictable it's not worth even thinking about let alone worrying about.

[hooverville29]

8. It'll have the significance most people want to give it, and the WH can't control that

[Skip Intro]

7. Do you have the full quote. Maybe the full interview? n/t

[hooverville29]

10. It's showing up around the country, concentrating on his apology. Here's NYT

The entire statement will play out tomorrow. As the reaction on the Hill already shows, it'll be yet another chapter in this saga.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/us/politics/obama-apologizes-to-americans-dropped-by-insurers.html?hp&_r=0

[kydo]

24. uh huh

[kydo]

9. I'm glad he said he was sorry

And of course the laws needs changes. No matter what, if he said anything or didn't say anything the baggers are going to attack him regardless. Its all they know how to do.

But I am glad he was sorry and said it. He is human and he cares.

[hooverville29]

11. So we should proceed to implement something that should be changed?

[Skip Intro]

12. That's a hell of a question. n/t

[kydo]

14. yes we should

[hooverville29]

16. -----interesting-------OK

[kydo]

23. ......

[JoePhilly]

18. You mean like adding a public option? That would be a change, right?

Naaa ... he must mean some evil change, like granny has to sit before a death panel or something like that I guess.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. It would be fiting to add a public option considering he repeatedly said he would not sign any bill

without one, then of course he did sign a bill without one. So yeah, he should make good on that failed promise.

[JoePhilly]

31. Which is why, those on the left who are so upset about website glitches, should use it as an

opportunity to say "the ACA could be improved with the addition of a public option".

Or, they can whine about the how original ACA did not have a public option, and then sit there with sour faces.

Not my call.

[hooverville29]

26. A broad based, flexible public option could get a lot of folks off the hook

including some in Washington.

[JoePhilly]

32. You'd think more on the left would be pointing that out.

Sadly, many of them are caught up in "web site glitches" to seize the opportunity.

[ProSense]

33. You're misrepresenting what he said.

Just heard Obama interview--he said he was 'sorry' some lost insurance AND

-- and got pretty close to admitting there shouldn't have been blanket assurances about that. But more important than that, in the middle of a long, long sentence, he used the phrase------

'changes needed in the law.'

He was apologizing for the confusion created by the statement about keeping your plan, which has nothing to do with changes to the law.

Obama Issues Apology For 'You Can Keep Your Plan' Promise

In an interview with NBC News, President Barack Obama apologized Thursday that people were seeing their health insurance policies canceled under Obamacare, despite the president's earlier pledge that they woud not.

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," Obama said, according to a portion of an interview released by 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."

<...>

Here is a more detailed transcript of Obama's comments.

"First of all, I meant what I said. And we worked hard to try to make sure that we implemented it properly. But obviously, we didn't do a good enough job, and I regret that," he said.

The president continued to stress that many plans currently offered on the individual market are subpar.

"Keep in mind that most of the folks who got these cancellation letters, they'll be able to get better care at the same cost or cheaper in these new marketplaces," he said. "Because they'll have more choice. They'll have more competition. They're part of a bigger pool. Insurance companies are going to be hungry for their business."

But he repeated several times that he regretted the situation.

"I regret very much that what we intended to do -- which is to make sure that everybody is moving into better plans because they want them, as opposed to because they're forced into it -- that, we weren't as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place," Obama said. "And I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are finding themselves in a good position, a better position than they were before this law happened."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-i-am-sorry-people-s-health-coverage-is-being-canceled

[hooverville29]

37. WH now saying they have staff working on possible chqnges

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-pn-obamacare-cancellations-president-sorry-20131107,0,4645950.story#axzz2k0zNSxeP

[ProSense]

38. Transcript:

PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Well-- first of all, I meant what I said. And we worked hard to try to make sure that we implemented it properly. But obviously, we didn't do enough-- a good enough job-- and I regret that. We're talking about 5% of the population-- who are in what's called the individual market. They're out there buying health insurance on their own.

A lot of these plans are subpar plans. And we put in a clause in the law that said if you had one of those plans, even if it was subpar-- when the law was passed, you could keep it. But there's enough churn in the market that folks since then have bought subpar plans. And now that may be all they can afford. So even though it only affects a small amount of the population, you know, it means a lot to them, obviously, when they get-- this letter cancelled.

And-- you know, I am deeply concerned about it. And I've assigned my team to see what we can do to close some of the holes and gaps in the law-- because, you know, my intention is to lift up and make sure the insurance that people buy is effective. That it's actually going to deliver what they think they're purchasing. Because what we know is before the law was passed, a lot of these plans, people thought they had insurance coverage. And then they'd find out that they had huge out of pocket expenses. Or women were being charged more than men.

If you had preexisting conditions, you just couldn't get it at all. And we are proud of the consumer protections we put into place. On the other hand, we also want to make sure that-- nobody is put in a position where their plan's been cancelled. They can't afford a better plan, even though they'd like to have a better plan. And so we're going to have to work hard-- to make sure that those folks-- are, you know, taken care of.

<...>

PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Well, that-- let me just say generally-- and I don't think I'm saying anything that people don't know and I haven't said before. I am deeply frustrated about-- how this website has not worked over the first couple of weeks. And, you know, I take responsibility of that. My team take responsibility of that. And we are working every single day, 24/7, to improve it. And it's better now than it was last week. And it's certainly a lot better than it was on October 1st.

I'm confident that it will be even better by November 30th and that the majority of people are going to be able to get on there. They're going to be able to enroll. They're going to be able to apply. And they're going to get a good deal-- a better deal than they've got right now when it comes to buying health insurance.

Now that-- you know, having said that-- given that I've been burned already with-- a website-- well, more importantly, the American people have been burned by-- a website that has been dysfunctional. What we've also been doing is creating a whole other set of tracks. Making sure that people can apply by phone effectively. Making sure that people can apply in person effectively. So what I'm confident about is that anybody who wants to buy health insurance through the marketplace, they are going to be able to buy it. And--

- more -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/07/video-watch-obama-kinda-sorta-apologize-to-americans-losing-their-health-plans/

[Pretzel_Warrior]

44. There are changes. Do you know how many changes were made to Medicare laws?

Do you know how many changes have been made to Massachusetts insurance law? As we find things that should work better, they should be changed.

DUHHH!!!!!

People around here simply amaze me with their obtuseness.