Nearly 3.9 Million Qualify For Medicaid Under Health Law

[TomCADem]

The MSM tends to report the expansion of Medicaid as a bad thing, which I just don't understand. I would think that expanded health coverage to folks with less income is a desirable goal.

http://www.kwtx.com/news/health/headlines/Nearly-39-Million-Qualify-For-Medicaid-Under-Health-Law-236766201.html

WASHINGTON (December 20, 2013) Nearly 3.9 million people have qualified for coverage through the health care law's Medicaid expansion, according to numbers released Friday by the Obama administration.

The numbers cover the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 and underscore a pattern of Medicaid outpacing the law's expansion of private insurance.

Through the same time period, about 365,000 people signed up for subsidized private insurance through new federal and state markets.

President Barack Obama's health overhaul expanded Medicaid to cover people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $15,860 for an individual and $32,500 for a family of four.

[customerserviceguy]

1. Medicaid and Medicare

enrollments are not going to solve the problem. What the ACA needs is young, healthy people being willing to sign up for something that they're not going to get too much benefit from right now.

The only thing keeping Medicare and Medicaid going are the numbers of people with either their own or employer-provided health insurance paying healthcare providers enough to be able to take on a percentage of M & M patients.

[TomCADem]

2. In Kentucky and California, Have Been Successful Signing Up Young People

I know a lot of MSM has been pushing the idea that young people will not sign up, and Republicans have been pushing the idea that young people don't benefit. But. the evidence does not necessarily bear this out. Also, for young families, maternity care is vital, so I disagree with the idea that folks 26 to 35 don't need coverage. I recall when I was starting a family when I was in this age range, I was using healthcare a lot more than I am now.

http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/tag/covered-california/

Covered California has been successful in attracting young people to sign up, a critical cohort for balancing insurance pools and keeping the price of premiums low. Eighteen to 34-year-olds represent 21 per cent of enrollees in the marketplace, roughly in line with their representation in the California population.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I hope the trends you cite in those two states

hold up as we approach the end of March. If they don't, then 2015 rates will skyrocket, and more young people will figure that the penalty is not as bad as premiums for something that they won't necessarily use.

The ACA has the next big hurdle to clear starting next month, and that is implementation. If the folks who have been chomping at the bit to get into it invade doctors' offices in droves, then quit paying premiums after a few months, especially after finding out exactly what the words 'deductible' and 'co-payment' mean, that's going to have bad effects on 2015 rates, too. Doctors may have trouble collecting deductibles and co-payments from temporarily insured people, and their support for the ACA may vanish.

There's a long road ahead to acceptance and successful implementation of the ACA, and plenty of roadblocks to it between now and Election Day.

[TomCADem]

4. The MSM Has Been Concern Trolling, But Contradicting...

...themselves by running stories complaining that men and old people should not have to subsidize women's maternity care. In other words, when you look at many of the "concerns" being pushed by the MSM, a lot of them are contradictory. Also, the focus on the "young invincables" always focusing on people who are college aged, but most of them can be covered under their parent's plan. For young people over 26, a lot of them will be looking for coverage because 26 to 30 is the age that many folks are starting families.

And, of course, you need to filter out the contradictory concern trolling by the media about women having to subsidize men for prostate cancer while men have to subsidize women for breast cancer and maternity care. I think the reality is that many people would like healthcare coverage, but there has been a lot of misinformation as noted in this story by NPR, which shows how folks who would likely qualify for Medicaid or subsidies are not signing up based on misinformation being pushed by their Republican Governor:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/11/248156142/hard-sell-for-obamacare-in-florida-despite-big-market

The median household income in this county is about $40,000 a year. Lots of jobs here don't come with health insurance. That means many here like Mott, who doesn't have steady work at the moment, probably qualify for subsidies to help them afford coverage.

But Mott isn't buying the idea that the health law could possibly be good for his family. "I would have to say no," Mott says, "I haven't investigated deep enough to know if there is anything."

Mott and 41-year-old Michael Dees of Mayo, who works in a paper mill, have mostly heard that Obamacare is going to increase the price of health insurance, making it more unaffordable for people like them.

* * *
"I really hadn't heard about the subsidy," he says.

Yet, all you hear in the media is an echo chamber about Republican attacks and poor poll results, which feeds Republicans attacks, which feeds poor poll results. Rarely do you get any focus on the benefits of the ACA or the folks who might benefit from it.

[customerserviceguy]

5. We'll see if the stories improve

But right now, the anti-ACA crowd seems to have the media going in their direction.

[TomCADem]

6. As The NPR Story Shows, Its The MSM That Has People...

...Going in the direction of being anti-ACA. If you listen to the NPR audio, the "anti-ACA crowd" consists of many folks who stand to significantly benefit from it, yet are buying into the Fox News/Republican talking points.

The media should be working to inform the people so that they can make informed decisions about their lives and their political choices. Instead, the MSM works to exploit them, by interviewing folks who have no knowledge of the benefits of the ACA , but never asking them about the actual benefits or informing the public at large about the benefits of the ACA.