More Solid Proof That Obamacare Is Working

[Xipe Totec]

The provision of the law that permits young adults under 26, long the largest uninsured demographic in the country, to remain on their parents’ health insurance program resulted in at least 600,000 newly insured Americans during the first quarter of 2011.

Wellpoint, the nation’s largest publicly traded health insurer with some 34 million customers, reports adding 280,000 new members in the first three months of 2011.

Add in the results of some of the other large health insurers including Aetna, who added just short of 100,000 newly insured to their customer base, Kaiser Permanente’s additional 90,000, and Highmark’s 72,000 new customers, and we begin to sense our health insurance pools are filling up with some badly needed young blood.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/05/23/more-solid-proof-that-obamacare-is-working/

[lob1]

1. K&R.

[Kadie]

2. K&R n/t

[eridani]

3. That amounts to 20% or so of that age demographic.

Don't you have even a little problem with the fact that many of the other 80% have uninsured parents, or parents who can't afford to cover them?

Of course if the people who benefit refuse to take advantage of their privilege, this does nothing to get the same benefit for the non-privileged, but still, why in fucking hell to people post stuff like this without affirming a commitment to keep fighting until everyone has access to health care?

[Xipe Totec]

5. Some light reading for you...

Seriously.

[eridani]

6. I see. Fuck low income young people n/t

[KittyWampus]

10. and your position is fuck everybody.

[eridani]

15. My position is that there is something wrong with being satisfied when people--

--are being left behind.

[Flying Dream Blues]

7. Wow. I guess you've never heard the starfish story.

And I think it goes without saying that we want healthcare for everyone.

[eridani]

9. Then say so on every occasion, dammit!

Especially on those occasions where you report that more access to health care has been gained for just some!

[KittyWampus]

11. Why? So you can continue ignoring progress? You still haven't acknowledged that some good has

been accomplished.

[eridani]

14. Accomplishing good is not enough until everyone has equal access to health care n/t

[Swede]

22. Health care in Canada started slowly,and progressed nationwide.

Rome was not built in a day.

[eridani]

30. Agreed, but they started with SINGLE PAYER in one province

That is why everyone should be campaigning to modify ACA so that states don't have to wait until 2017.

[JTFrog]

19. So you think that nobody under 26 has their own insurance through their

employers or other means?


Why not get a link with some actual facts and stop pulling numbers out of ... well, where ever it is you're pulling them from.

I hope we get Medicare for all soon. Or a public option. It would be awesome if we would commit to taking care of ALL of the people in this country.

[joeglow3]

20. You are assuming 100% of the demographic was uninsured to begin with

At 26, I had insurance through my employer. I assume a decent percentage of those do as well.

[Recursion]

52. Or jobs with benefits (nt)

[babylonsister]

4. Thanks, rec'd, great to read! nt

[Jakes Progress]

8. I don't think I'll share this post with my friend.

He's a waiter. No insurance. His kids finally got some because he make so little money. It only took 6 months of paperwork and meetings and a three inch pile of paper to get the kids covered. His 8-year-old car with 200K miles needed work so he took a temporary week-end job to cover it and get his kids some clothes. The state found out about the minimum wage temp job and kicked his kids off the insurance list. This happened the week that he had gall stones and spent a week laid up in bed and in the hospital without pay. This little sojourn will cost him about a thousand dollars after his huge pile of paperwork proves he is without funds for the multi-thousand dollar hospital bill. He missed a week of pay, and must begin the 6 month journey into state bureaucracy hell that is needed to get his kids (one with asthma) covered again.

This guy is a college-degreed professional whose job went to India. All of his friends in his industry are also doing temp and odd work because that where their jobs went too. He waiters because that way he can work nights while his wife works days so that the kids are covered.

Yeah. The Health Care Reform bill really helped him. Those of you with insurance from your jobs can celebrate the little victories if you want. All you have to do is ignore what is really happening.

(Oh, yeah. Thanks for using a Forbes story as uplifting. That's some source you got there.)

[BlueIris]

12. +1. nt

[craigmatic]

13. How is this a good thing? If anything this is going to boost their profits.

[zalinda]

16. Yeah, it's great for the insurance companies.

They couldn't get those young healthy kids before.

zalinda

[Jakes Progress]

17. Notice the source for the story that calls it a good thing - Forbes

[JTFrog]

18. It's called the Affordable Care Act.

Let's try to keep the right wing propaganda out of it.

[politicasista]

24. + 1 n/t

[Xipe Totec]

28. Tough croud...

:yoiks:

[veganlush]

37. wow, you aint kidding....n/t

[dflprincess]

34. The "Affordable Care Act" has as much to do with actually improving access to care

as Bush's "Clear Skies Iniative" had to do with protecting air quality.

This bill was designed to give the insurance companies access to millions of new victims to fleece. Anyone with one of the "consumer driven" (high out of pocket) plans that many employers are moving to can tell you that having insurance is not the same as being able to get care.

[eridani]

39. Actually it's the barely affordable insurance act

80% of medical bankruptcies are filed by people who have insurance. Why would you expect that to change?

[Armstead]

21. I lov e the vampiric tone of that article....

"and we begin to sense our health insurance pools are filling up with some badly needed young blood."

Bleeding the public dry for insurance company profits.

Ya hoo that's some reform there

[bvar22]

23. "More Solid Proof That Obamacare Is Working"....

for those in the Upper Middle Class & The RICH with a large disposable incomes who can afford the buy in to keep their kids covered,
AND
for the Health Insurance Industry who now have even more Paying Customers with few Health problems.
Insuring The Young IS the most profitable demographic for the parasitic Health Insurance Industry.

On the other hand, the number of Uninsured Americans have risen from 40 Million to over 50 Million since the "historic" reform was passed, and Premiums have risen over 30% in many cases.

If THIS is an example of "ObamaCare Working",
we are in serious trouble.

Chess:
a game where the Pawns are sacrificed to protect The Royalty.

[TheKentuckian]

25. Yup, working as designed by the Heritage Foundation

to increase the bottom lines of the insurance cartel, to maintain the employer based system, and to absolutely crush any effort toward actual reform by giving the comfortable and the wealthy a few carrots.

[Jakes Progress]

26. +100 Easy to see if you don't wear blinders.

[Top Cat]

27. K&R

[Number23]

29. K&R 600,000 newly insured Americans is a fantastic start

[Jakes Progress]

36. Yep. 600,000 new customers for corporate insurance.

Would have cost half as much with a PO.

[Number23]

38. You just can't help yourself, can you? You just have to post negativity

and you don't care how idiotic you sound in the process. Would have cost half as much with a PO. Because the PO was such an option in a country with people making $5.75 an hour who have allowed millionaires like Rush Limbaugh to make them scared shitless of "socialism," right?

You've probably burned a thousand calories trying to persuade everyone how "horrible" everything is and I bet you probably haven't convinced a single person yet.

[Jakes Progress]

42. You just can't help yourself can you? You just have to post pap.

The fact that 600,000 people are now partially covered is like saying "Hey. Some soldiers didn't die today." Those soldiers shouldn't be their and some will die today, along with great numbers of civilians.

This drop in the bucket of the uninsured is a silly thing to celebrate. We lost the health care battle. The insurance companies and the republicans that lick their boots won. This small percentage of Americans that are celebrated in the article paid more for less than citizens of dozens of other countries. The more that people celebrate these tiny, incremental steps - still steps that enrich insurance companies more than they serve people - the easier it is for the corporate power brokers to keep buying our politicians.

You called me idiotic. But your idiotic support for this travesty of a program is mindless and fan-based. It has nothing to do with what is happening to real people. You go ahead with your feel-good policy. It is easy if you just ignore suffering and pain and degradation of your fellow man. See post 8 for what is really happening in the world.

You've probably burned a thousand calories trying to persuade everyone how wonderful everything is, and I bet you haven't bothered to get out to the emergency rooms and shelters and where real people live. Hope you and your friends are happy and can stay unaware enough to keep giggling.

[craigmatic]

44. ^I agree with this.

I still can't afford it. More than that these exchanges won't make healthcare cheaper. These corporations will just band together to set the prices after they jack them up higher than they were in the last decade.

[Jakes Progress]

45. And don't forget. Affordable Health Care Act meant

saying that the cost of health care for the government was more affordable. it wan't meant to make it more affordable for us. Most of the provisions in the act were meant to reduce funding and costs, not to make it cheaper for the consumer.

[Number23]

54. 600,000 people who WEREN'T COVERED AT ALL are now "partially covered"

to borrow your phrase. If that pisses you off, then be pissed off. You and people like you would dismiss the Second Coming if it happened on a Tuesday because that's your least favorite day of the week.

Your long-winded, pointless pontifications are just that but as long as you recognize that you aren't fooling anyone and most importantly, you aren't CONVINCING anyone, you keep right on keeping on.

[Jakes Progress]

55. Oh happy day.

You have a very low expectation of the second coming if you think it is anything like this bill.

Look. The republican and neocons drummed us like all get out on this. Your celebration of this failure of the Obama administration is only fodder for glee and back slapping by the corporate interests that convinced you that this was good.

Buy you go ahead and ignore reality. Your fantasy sounds like a happy place. Glad you are well off enough to not have to deal with the real world. You can believe that people with minds feel like you, but they don't.

[eridani]

40. Yes. If they incur really serious health care expenses, they can go bankrupt just like--

--the 80% of people who go bankrupt right now despite being "insured."

[Adam Notsmith]

31. Excellent

How is the GOP going to explain their "brilliant" plan to take that away next year?

[juajen]

32. requirements

Are there any other requirements needed other than age and, of course, that your parents have a policy to include you?

[M0rpheus]

35. Depends on the employer and what provisions they've grandfathered...

There is some leeway in the way employer plans administer the HCR provisions. They follow the provision to the letter, or they can offer more.

IIRC with the base provisions of HCR, dependents up to 26 can be covered if they do not have other coverage available and only for medical/Rx. In the case of my clients, they have chosen full coverage for dependents up to 26. That includes medical, dental and vision, regardless of whether they have other coverage available.

There are many other provisions that employers have the option to be more "generous", but that's the one I've received the most questions about.

[annabanana]

33. My 24 yr old has benefited hugely by this provision.

And so have I, in that I can sleep at night.

[Xipe Totec]

41. Same here, mine is 24 years old too

Just graduated from college. Now he will continue to be covered under my policy until he has a steady job and can get coverage on his own. Without this change, we would be totally screwed.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Armstead]

46. Yes but if you couldn't afford your own insurance, you'd both be screwed

[annabanana]

48. of course.. . . n/t

[LynneSin]

47. My Nephew is working as a full time temp while still on his parents plan.

I was in his position when I got out of college. I had a chance of getting a full time job for the state, but I had to work as Temp first before I could get the job. Well Temp work means no health benefits so instead I went job hunting for the first job that paid a decent salary and gave me health benefits.

Fast forward to 2011, my Nephew is in the same position although not a state job, it's still a good position should he be hired full time. But he has to work as a temp first but that's ok because he's still under the age of 27 and can be covered on his parent's plan.

[Mr. Jefferson]

49. That must be why so many have sought and been granted waivers.

Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.

Answer: They are all among the 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers, covering 3,095,593 individuals or families, that have been granted a waiver from Obamacare by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

[Mimosa]

50. ^ Amazing and disgusting ^

I know a few people -those who make around $25K- who work for small businesse with just 3 or 5 employees. The small group insurance premiums for them have gone up to over $750 a month and the employers can no longer afford to subsidise.

Single payer was the way to go.

[Mr. Jefferson]

51. Indeed, the result of HCR is that the working poor are now subsidizing the non-working poor.

[Mimosa]

53. The rich buy off the poor using money from the middle class

Ever heard of the neo-conservative strategy?

But now they just want the poor to die.

[Avant Guardian]

56. Privatization

sucks