ACA Issues? Folks, just RELAX. It is EARLY, and it is corporate media hype. GIVE IT TIME.

[RBInMaine]

Much of this is corporate media hype. They do not say that 400,000 now have expanded Medicaid, and climbing. They do not say that an additional 800,000 people and climbing have confirmed eligibility and are pending ACA enrollment and that the site has had 20,000,000 hits. They don't say that 20,000 people per hour and climbing are now able to use the website.

They don't talk much about the many glitches and WAY larger cost of Medicare-D than we were told when it first came out, and the slow sign-ups of RomneyCare when it first came out.

Was rolling out that website before they properly tested it a fumble? YUP ! Should Obama have had a more nuanced stump message back in '09? YUP.

Is it EARLY? Yup!! I will tell you, come the end of the month and once this website is running to capacity or near capacity, you will see a huge surge in sign-ups, and insurance companies will be pressured to extend many of the plans which they ALREADY could have extended but now explicitly can via executive action.

So RELAX. The small individual market piece of this law does have some bugs, thanks largely to the INSURANCE RACKET COMPANIES, but GIVE IT TIME. It is going to improve by the day. It is already getting better. GIVE IT TIME.

[CBHagman]

1. Rachel Maddow made exactly your point tonight...

...showing the figures for the sign-up period for the health care law in Massachusetts and how that was slow getting out of the gate.

[RBInMaine]

2. YUP. GIVE IT SOME TIME.

[King_Klonopin]

6. I hold the same belief as you,

but I still wish I could push time ahead by about 6 months.

This is a huge undertaking for any institution -- whether
it's governmental or private -- and the traffic will never be as
heavy nor the problems as numerous as they will be during a
roll-out period, for this or any other program of this magnitude,
past or present.

But try to get any news organization or "reporter" to sputter these
things out loud. In 6 months, the positives will outnumber the
negatives 1000 to 1 (and that "one" will be an anecdotal, bullshit,
planted, story.) Meanwhile, we have to suffer through this bogus
hand-wringing and political theater.

The problems related to health care existed for decades. No
republican had ever tried to fix it (with the exception of Mittens,
who reluctantly signed the prototype bill into law in Mass.) The
Clintons took a swipe at it and had their asses handed to them by
the lying shills of the corporate right wing. It needed to be
seriously addressed, and Obama had the balls to take it on.

The response from the GOP and media, which I expect will continue:
Hey everyone, let's shit all over Obama, impede his progress
at every turn, and sabotage all his good-faith efforts and successes
as our way of saying, "thank you for your service".

A steady flow of lies, propaganda and misinformation is still to come....

[RBInMaine]

7. Exactly. A bunch of nonsense and drama from the GOP and the corporate media.

[brush]

3. You're exactly right. No heads of hair on fire please. nt

[BootinUp]

4. Correct. And only 3 (now 4) recs. nt

[Jamaal510]

5. Slow news cycle.

Sensationalism and drama always = more ratings. Sad to see that even some MSNBC anchors are acting like this, though.

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. It’s worse to see …

Democrats and folks here at DU acting that way … at least the media is getting paid for their performance.

[JoePhilly]

8. YUP ... everything is the worst disaster ever ... until next week's disaster.

The media has decided that it has to scream to be heard at all.

[Whisp]

10. some people have their hand on that pin

ready to pull for Anything the media gets them worked up over.
Corporate Media - Don't Trust Them! but they end up trusted them anyway, if the story is scary ooga booga enough.

And I mean right here, nevermind the population at large.

[JoePhilly]

11. Agree ...

The media freaks out ... and DU is not far behind.

[magical thyme]

9. by next year the glitches will be forgotten

People will be signed up, all will be over, the media cycle will have moved on to some new "hair on fire" story. EOS.

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. I had a discussion with one of my …

Anti-ACA co-workers yesterday and I think I got her thinking.

Well, she’s not really “anti-ACA”, as she is among the 100s of millions that gets her healthcare insurance through her employer … rather, she buys into the media hype about the slow sign-ups and the website issues and sees that as a sign that the program is doomed.

Well, as timing would have it, we are at the close of our “Open Enrollment” period for our health insurance … and as the person coordinating it, she is getting slammed with last minute calls for assistance from people that waited to the last minute to enroll/make changes. AND, as timing would have it, the link between our company and the insurance company broke and the system had to be taken down to repair it.

As she was complaining about the crush of business over the last couple of days, I saw an opportunity to make a political point … I asked her (in my most sympathetic and innocent voice): “Wow, you really seem busy. It’s really amazing that people have 45 days to enroll or make changes to their insurance plan; but they always wait to the last minute, huh? I guess that’s just the way people are.”

She agreed, stating that it is this way every year … there is a trickle of folks in the first couple of weeks, then the volume picks up about a week and a half before the close, with 70% (her figure from last year) waiting until the last couple of days of the last week.

Then, I said: “And it does help that the system has been kind of buggy, huh?”

She agreed; but said she had no doubt that everyone seeking to enroll or make changes to their plan will be able to.

Then, I said: “And this is only 5,000 employees … imagine if we had 100s of millions of employees, all trying to get healthcare?”