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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRobert Reich on Obamacare: It’s Working Despite Misinformation
Robert Reich, the secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, is Chancellor's professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and the co-creator of the film "Inequality for All."
Early indications are the Affordable Care Act is working. With less than two weeks remaining before the March 31 deadline for coverage this year, five million people have already signed up. After decades of rising percentages of Americans lacking health insurance, the uninsured rate has dropped to its lowest levels since 2008...health care costs have slowed dramatically. The new law may well be contributing to this slowdown by reducing Medicare overpayments to medical providers and private insurers, and creating incentives for hospitals and doctors to improve quality of care.
But a lot about the Affordable Care Act needs fixing especially the widespread confusion and misinformation that continues to surround it. For example, a majority of business owners with fewer than 50 workers still think theyre required to offer insurance or pay a penalty. (In fact, the law applies only to businesses with 50 or more employees who work more than 30 hours a week). And many companies with fewer than 25 workers still dont realize that if they offer plans they can qualify for subsidies in the form of tax credits.
Many individuals remain confused and frightened. Forty-one percent of Americans who are still uninsured say they plan to remain that way. They believe it will be cheaper to pay a penalty than buy insurance. Many of these people are unaware of the subsidies available to them. Signups have been particularly disappointing among Hispanics.
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But even here, remedies could evolve. States might use their state-run exchanges to funnel so many applicants to a single, low-cost insurer that the insurer becomes, in effect, a single payer. Vermont is already moving in this direction, and California may be next. In this way, the Affordable Care Act could become a back door to a single-payer system every conservatives worst nightmare.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/20/obamacares-four-year-checkup/the-affordable-care-act-is-working-despite-misinformation
Obamacare: It's Obama's signature achievement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024695694
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)... That's what gets passes around here as facts not these ....non lies <----- /sarcasm
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)supporter.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Seriously, WTF?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Cha
(297,191 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)joshcryer
(62,270 posts)If Clinton runs you can expect ProSense to be a super critic.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Critic.
Fun times ahead: 2016 primary is going to be funtastic.
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)I was still right about SoS.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)joshcryer
(62,270 posts)Blue links will be a good thing!
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)that doesnt pertain to the OP, that's too much. And I get tired of the links with no opinion, no statements, just apparent insinuation.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"And I get tired of the links with no opinion, no statements, just apparent insinuation."
...forcing you into these threads. If you're "tired" of them, ignore them.
Cha
(297,191 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)I miss it.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)and quit the petty garbage.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)The ACA is better than the old system. It needs to be tweaked, badly. We need single payer, STAT.
I'm sure you don't agree with me. YMMV. Sarcasm is my way of coping with things at times. I find your approach to me rather hostile. Capiche ?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)too many of the posts like your, they seem to be exploding. There is nothing wrong with sarcasm, but your post, IMO, was insinuating that others thought as you posted. I can understand that you think that anyone that might disagree with your methods as being "hostile". Apparently you've never seen hostile.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)I said absolutely nothing to you. Feel free to be hostile to others. I'm not here to accept your hostility. Bye.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)issues without the garbage.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Passive aggressively hostile. Let me know when you want to discuss issues without the garbage."
...have to respond to the poster's comment. It was sarcasm, and it's not the poster's fault you don't get it or like it. The comment wasn't directed at you so challenging the person to a discussion based on it is pretty silly.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)to a discussion based on it is pretty silly." Isnt that exactly what you are doing here? You werent part of this discussion.
And "it's not the poster's fault you don't get it or like it." You spend an inordinate number of posts explaining why you dont like what someone says.
My comment is that the post stating, "I want the old way back." is a childish way to participate in a discussion. I get the sarcasm, and I get who he is mocking with it.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)..."get" why someone might not care about your objection to sarcasm?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)WTF are you talking about?
You pick someone's sarcastic comment, jumped all over it and now are making sweeping nonsensical broadbrush accusation about some some imaginary group.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Cha
(297,191 posts)Despite Misinformation..".. so take that Misinformers.
Cha
(297,191 posts)If someone doesn't care for my sarcasm, why confront me ? Interesting. Even more interesting that my sarcasm was directed at the OP, not anyone else.
Have a good evening, Cha !
Cha
(297,191 posts)I'm gonna have a good day out here in Hawai'i, steve. You have a good evening~
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)albino65
(484 posts)That millions upon millions of dollars are being spent to confuse and disorient the consumer regarding the ACA. Healthcare is a bumpy road to maneuver even if you are well versed in the subject. Add the bullshit from the right and it can be a nightmare. People who have been without healthcare for decades will have a lot more issues than someone who has had it all along. They finally see some hope and are worrying about what treatments they can get to alleviate pain, or some condition they have had for years. Then they tune into the TV and see some advertisement that degrades the ACA and leaves them more concerned than ever. They read the news that some right wing turd wants to change the playing field before they even get in the game. It ought to be against the law for those assholes to even get any airtime denigrating an act that is the law of the land. They are causing irreparable harm to people and may even be killing some directly or indirectly. They need to be called out for that.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"It doesn't help (t)hat millions upon millions of dollars are being spent to confuse and disorient the consumer regarding the ACA."
...in point:
The real goal of all those anti-Obamacare ads
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024702414
cynzke
(1,254 posts)are nothing more than glorified bookkeepers. We pay them to pay our medicals bills from the pool of premium they collect from us. But then they got too greedy, designing policies that cover as little as possible and claims departments dedicated to finding ways to deny claim payouts. They rigged the system to line their pockets. And ACA was the necessary response. Everyone agrees sanctions were needed. But the problem with ACA is that it still keeps a for-profit business between you and your healthcare. Those high deductibles are gifts to the insurance company. The idea of deductibles was to discourage people from seeking unnecessary medical treatment. Now insurance companies use deductibles to increase their profit margins. ACA took away some of their favorite toys, pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps and in return, allows the insurance companies to load up front these large deductibles. Why should we have to subsidize insurance companies with a deductible when we already pay them a premium. Get rid of the insurance companies and eliminate deductibles. Its a racket and shakedown.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)I would make one correction, it's disinformation, not misinformation. Those bastard Rethugs are lying and misleading the public by design. Sadly they get lots of help from those who should know better~~who claim to be on our side...
Julie
Cha
(297,191 posts)Millions of people are getting needed health care, and that's not chump change. It's going to take a while for all the kinks to be ironed out, but the program is going to save and IS saving lives here in America. And hopefully it's just the first step toward someday achieving universal health care for all of our citizens.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)He says that's why the ACA is working and "Obamacare" isn't.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)hue
(4,949 posts)Just the tremendous amt of effort waged from the RW Re/Teapukes against the ACA is proof of how important this Act truly is! The private insurance companies are parasitic on the sick & dying!
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)It's driving them mad, they can't stop it.
They even let their anger tip their hand and expose their real agenda.
It isn't all going to crash and burn so the Utopia arises from the ashes. It's working. Really pisses them off. They were wrong, yet again.
The rest of us are trying like hell to fix what we have instead of throwing our hands in the air and giving up.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)beerandjesus
(1,301 posts)This is good news. I, too, hope we get single-payer some day, but in the mean time, this is damn good news.
And for what it's worth, we're seeing positive movement here in South Carolina too--it's not just California and Vermont.