The ACA/ Obamacare Website Fiasco Thread

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Healthcare reform for a "special interest group" (those that didn't have it)?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/16/curl-we-completely-overhauled-american-health-care/

"President Obama said it in August 2009: “I don’t have to explain to you that nearly 46 million Americans don’t have health insurance coverage today. In the wealthiest nation on Earth, 46 million of our fellow citizens have no coverage.”

He said it dozens more times, including in June 2013: “We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women and children.”

So, he created Obamacare. The crux of the biscuit: The United States would completely change its entire health care system to make sure those 46 million got insured. Well, at least that’s what every rational American thought. If there are 46 million uninsured, and the president and Congress are overhauling the system, it must be to solve the whole problem — not just part of it.

But last week came word that with just 15 days left for people to enroll for federal coverage, just 4.2 million had. The math is simple: That’s just 9 percent of the supposedly 46 million uninsured."

Yes while only 4.2 million people have joined via healthcare.gov, another 2.2 million Americans received insurance through their parents insurance plans, 2.4 Million are new enrollees to medicare, and some states are saying that up to 1/3 of their new insurance enrollments are happening outside of the exchange(which is still legal). So that adds up to at least 8.8 million people having coverage who did not previously have it. While that is still a very low number, it is more than twice what is claimed in the editorial you posted.
 
Yes while only 4.2 million people have joined via healthcare.gov, another 2.2 million Americans received insurance through their parents insurance plans, 2.4 Million are new enrollees to medicare, and some states are saying that up to 1/3 of their new insurance enrollments are happening outside of the exchange(which is still legal). So that adds up to at least 8.8 million people having coverage who did not previously have it. While that is still a very low number, it is more than twice what is claimed in the editorial you posted.

Good point! I wish the Admin would "advertise" figures like that in order to give a more accurate picture. I would also appreciate stats on the numbers of people who were "authorized" delays in compliance to the "law of the land".

Wish this was all on C-SPAN.
 
Where are you getting that figure from?

The estimates of $1.5 trillion additional Federal spending anticipated by the Congressional Budget Office by 2023 with more than 31 million estimated to be uninsured at that time. I am not sure what offsets there might be by that time, but this was an expensive proposition to get so few (in the grand scheme of things) insured and still have so many uninsured.
 
But last week came word that with just 15 days left for people to enroll for federal coverage, just 4.2 million had. The math is simple: That’s just 9 percent of the supposedly 46 million uninsured."

The program doesn't end at the end of March it's just a milestone that will miss projections. Where will be next year or the year after, who know? It will still be better than it was when it started. Will meaningful financial reform come along, I can only hope so. The current system is killing the country, the economy and the household economy. Even with Obamacare our healthcare system will still be way over priced.
 
Yes while only 4.2 million people have joined via healthcare.gov, another 2.2 million Americans received insurance through their parents insurance plans, 2.4 Million are new enrollees to medicare, and some states are saying that up to 1/3 of their new insurance enrollments are happening outside of the exchange(which is still legal). So that adds up to at least 8.8 million people having coverage who did not previously have it. While that is still a very low number, it is more than twice what is claimed in the editorial you posted.

Sorry to double post BUT...:-"

How many of those enrolled have actually PAID premiums? I recently (during open season in Nov) enrolled in dental and vision insurance but my policy didn't go into effect until mid-Jan when the company took out the deduction from payroll.

Are those enrolled COVERED? If so, how? Who paid so they could get subsidized coverage?
 
Yes while only 4.2 million people have joined via healthcare.gov, another 2.2 million Americans received insurance through their parents insurance plans, 2.4 Million are new enrollees to medicare, and some states are saying that up to 1/3 of their new insurance enrollments are happening outside of the exchange(which is still legal). So that adds up to at least 8.8 million people having coverage who did not previously have it. While that is still a very low number, it is more than twice what is claimed in the editorial you posted.

Sorry to double post BUT...:-"

How many of those enrolled have actually PAID premiums?

Are those enrolled COVERED? If so, how? Who paid so they could get subsidized coverage?

Bingo!

The website shows how many people "signed up", meaning put their info in and looked at rates. It doesn't show who secured coverage by PAYING.

Nobody in the Administration has any idea how many people actually PAID for insurance.

(See vid at 3:22)

 
I wish they would scrap the whole thing and start over. It's been a colossal waste of time and money and while a handful of folks who had not previously had no coverage now do (yay!) it doesn't look like they're going to get the enrollment (and premiums paid...) numbers they need from the younger folks to keep the overall premiums for the 2015 coverage year down to a reasonable level for the average middle class folk who don't qualify for the subsidy.

At this point I would I would agree with socializing (gasp!) preventative visits like the annual exams and general illness visits at the state level with a state tax that is deducted from payroll (like the FICA tax) and have the health insurance industry remain private for catastrophic coverage (cancer, accident, injury).

I would recommend federal but I feel the government is incapable of managing a socialized program - the issues we have with medicare (waste, fraud, abuse) illustrate what happens when a government run program is too big.
 
I'm totally in agreement with government REFORM of health care. I'm just against mandates on individual citizens. I'm also in favor of some common sense regulation- like DROPPING PEOPLE when they get sick, or the circus that comes out of trying to get things covered- the games that get played. These things are in desperate need of reform.

But the .GOV needs to take a page out of the private sector to accomplish it. It's simple.

RATINGS.

Just get a ratings system in place where insurance companies that are rated highly by patients get access to some kind of incentive- money. Reward insurance companies the same way manufacturers reward car dealerships for volume of sales. A significant portion of a car dealer's revenue comes not from the sale of the unit, but from a certain number of good surveys- Customer Service Index scores. So they must hit their unit goals and also their customer service goals. If they do both, they get a huge lump sum payout. For this reason, many here who have bought a new car have found out that the dealer will often times go $1,000 below invoice- plus rebates and incentives on top of that- and basically sell the vehicle for below the actual cost of the vehicle. Why? Simple. Trying to get to their bonus tier.

The goal should be to maximize coverage, maximize customer "service" experience, and duplicate existing mechanisms and strategies. Using the auto industry model, an insurance company could "compete" with other insurance companies to enroll as many people as possible and also get positive survey results from their customers. The process would encourage insurance providers to enroll more people AND also execute excellent service. This isn't rocket science.

But sophisticated approaches to governing this nation will never originate from a President who while in the private sector never even ran a lemonade stand.
 
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I'm going to disagree. The whole point of getting insurance is so you are covered WHEN YOU GET SICK, and if you just get your money taken and sent on your way then dropped like a hot rock when you get sick, there's no fucking point to the entire program at all.
 
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