ObamaCare is working

[Full-Auto]

Two pieces of good news this week: the national uninsurance rate has gone down for the first time in 5 years and health insurance premium growth has slowed substantially this year.

Census: Uninsured Numbers Decline As More Young Adults Gain Coverage

Surprising some experts and giving President Barack Obama a potential boost eight weeks before Election Day, the number of people without health insurance fell for the first time since 2007, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The closely-watched census report found that 48.6 million Americans were uninsured during all of 2011, compared to 49.9 million in 2010. The rate of uninsured dropped to 15.7 percent from 16.3 percent, the biggest percentage drop since 1999.

The good news on the uninsured comes a day after a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that employer health costs rose by a modest 4 percent this year. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

The biggest drop in the uninsured was among people aged 19 to 25, for whom the rate fell from 29.8 percent in 2010 to 27.7 percent in 2011. It was the second consecutive year that that age group saw at least a 2 percent decline in its uninsured rate.

Health experts credit a provision in the federal health law which took effect in September 2010, which allows families to keep adult children on their health plans until age 26. The Obama administration said about 3 million people have gained coverage from this provision.

Less participation in the work force. Is the primary mover.......

Claiming a drop after forced increases is not what anyone with a sound mind call Impressive. Rates are still up as a result of this legislation. No amount of knob polishing will change that.

 

[Katzndogz]

obamacare won't be said to be seriously working until the death toll starts rising from denial of care.

 

[Greenbeard]

Claiming a drop after forced increases is not what anyone with a sound mind call Impressive. Rates are still up as a result of this legislation. No amount of knob polishing will change that.

Why so glum, chum?

Uninsurance rates are starting to come down (in large part due to some of the new insurance regulations that kicked in almost two years ago) and they'll be falling dramatically in just over a year when the new markets open their doors. Insurance premiums are growing only modestly. Preventable hospital readmissions are starting to creep downward as hospitals get ready to face new financial incentives for providing better care, not just more care. Early iterations of the kinds of health care reforms Obamacare encourages are showing the ability to reduce costs and improve care quality.

Health care price growth remains remarkably low:

The price behavior we are witnessing is unprecedented. July 2012 represented the 38th month of the current economic expansion, yet both the overall economy and the health sector (as measured by the HCPI) are exhibiting extraordinarily low price inflation.

Medicare spending growth remains historically low, somehow managing to surprise the number crunchers multiple years in a row:

But the report also noted that for the third year in a row, CBO expects the growth in Medicare spending in 2012 to be “substantially slower” than anticipated earlier in the year.

CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said at a press conference that the slower growth in Medicare is consistent with slower health care cost growth throughout the economy, which many analysts have observed. But he said it’s still unclear why the slowdown is happening.

So buck up. For the first time we've got a fighting shot of fixing our broken health care system and bringing it into the 21st century.

 

[Wyld Kard]

Obamacare is working? That's laughable.

Yet accurate. Coverage has grown, private health insurance premium growth has moderated, and Medicare spending growth is at historic lows.

Here is a part of the Obamacare that you probaly won't hear about on the nightly news and I wonder if all those "Obama-supporters" are even aware that the government would gain access to their personal bank accounts or would they even accept it?

Obviously that isn't true.

Here, go through the law and find for yourself where it does anything even close to that: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Can't find it, can you?

Yet accurate. I doubt that.

I know what I posted about the government will be gaining access to everyones bank account through Obamacare is true. I personally don't give a damn if you believe it or not. All you can say is "Obviously that isn't true", without doing your own research.

Obamacare is one of the worst plans ever to come out of DC.

 

[Greenbeard]

I know what I posted about the government will be gaining access to everyones bank account through Obamacare is true. I personally don't give a damn if you believe it or not. All you can say is "Obviously that isn't true", without doing your own research.

It's not really a matter of belief. The text you quoted doesn't appear anywhere in the Affordable Care Act. Your, ah, "research" didn't get as far as Ctrl-F to verify the most basic facts of your claim?

 

[xsited1]

ObamaCare is working

Here's what you'll see:

Because of Obamacare, family premiums will increase even higher (medical inflation) and tens of millions of uninsured (including millions of covered employees) will be herded into government-subsidized insurance exchanges, creating a massive Medicaid program that will starve private insurance providers and eventually force a single-payer system run entirely by government. As a result, the quality of health care in America will drop substantially for all but the wealthy. The middle class will get hit the hardest. This is by design.

 

[Greenbeard]

Medicaid will expand, as will private insurance, but I'm not sure why Medicaid expanding would "starve private insurance providers." Just like the expansion of straight-up private insurance, the expansion of Medicaid means more business for them. For instance:

WellPoint to Buy Amerigroup - WSJ.com

WellPoint Inc.'s $4.46 billion deal to buy Medicaid-focused Amerigroup Corp. underscores the future of health coverage as a business that increasingly intertwines the roles of government and private companies.

The acquisition, which will vault the No. 2 health insurer past UnitedHealth Group Inc. and others to become the biggest private Medicaid company by membership, reflects several key drivers. Among them: budget pressures that are prodding state officials to turn to private contractors that may be able to manage Medicaid more efficiently, and the 2014 expansion of Medicaid under the federal health law.

Medicaid, the state-federal program that covers low-income Americans, costs around $457 billion a year and covers about 53 million people, WellPoint said. Around 24 million of them are enrolled with managed-care companies for comprehensive coverage, according to WellPoint. The companies are typically paid a set amount per person by states.

 

[driveby]

Two pieces of good news this week: the national uninsurance rate has gone down for the first time in 5 years and health insurance premium growth has slowed substantially this year.

Census: Uninsured Numbers Decline As More Young Adults Gain Coverage

Surprising some experts and giving President Barack Obama a potential boost eight weeks before Election Day, the number of people without health insurance fell for the first time since 2007, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The closely-watched census report found that 48.6 million Americans were uninsured during all of 2011, compared to 49.9 million in 2010. The rate of uninsured dropped to 15.7 percent from 16.3 percent, the biggest percentage drop since 1999.

The good news on the uninsured comes a day after a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that employer health costs rose by a modest 4 percent this year. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

The biggest drop in the uninsured was among people aged 19 to 25, for whom the rate fell from 29.8 percent in 2010 to 27.7 percent in 2011. It was the second consecutive year that that age group saw at least a 2 percent decline in its uninsured rate.

Health experts credit a provision in the federal health law which took effect in September 2010, which allows families to keep adult children on their health plans until age 26. The Obama administration said about 3 million people have gained coverage from this provision.

 

[Katzndogz]

The age group 19-25 is the group least likely to use health insurance, that's why so many voluntarily decided they wouldn't pay for it.

Families that keep ADULT children on insurance plans to age 26 pay premiums every month, but may never use it. The purpose isn't to have this age group get insurance. The purpose is to get the money out of the families for useless premiums.

 

[idb]

Obamacare is working? That's laughable.

Here is a part of the Obamacare that you probaly won't hear about on the nightly news and I wonder if all those "Obama-supporters" are even aware that the government would gain access to their personal bank accounts or would they even accept it?



Obamacare: Government Will Have Electronic Access To Your Bank Accounts
August 6, 2009
Posted by: Erin

And, if they choose…pretty much ALL of your data. Obama’s Health Care Bill has SO many broad powers granted to the government…it is much more about CONTROL than it is about health care.

Beginning on page 58, line 5, it is revealed that Government will have real-time access to your individual finances, and a National ID Health care card will be issued. From the bill:

5 ‘‘(D) enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card;
Enable, where feasible, near real-time adjudication of claims;provide for timely acknowledgment,response, and status reporting applicable to ANY ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION DEEMED APPROPRIATE BY THE SECRETARY.

On page 59 of the bill, Big Brother continues:

21 ‘‘(C) enable electronic funds transfers, in
order to allow automated reconciliation with the
related health care payment and remittance advice;
page 60:
4 ‘‘(E) require the use of a standard electronic transaction with which health care providers may quickly and efficiently enroll with a
health plan to conduct the other electronic transactions provided for in this part.

I have no doubt that Erin, of all people, knows what she's talking about.

 

[Bfgrn]

Obamacare is working? That's laughable.

Here is a part of the Obamacare that you probaly won't hear about on the nightly news and I wonder if all those "Obama-supporters" are even aware that the government would gain access to their personal bank accounts or would they even accept it?



Obamacare: Government Will Have Electronic Access To Your Bank Accounts
August 6, 2009
Posted by: Erin

And, if they choose…pretty much ALL of your data. Obama’s Health Care Bill has SO many broad powers granted to the government…it is much more about CONTROL than it is about health care.

Beginning on page 58, line 5, it is revealed that Government will have real-time access to your individual finances, and a National ID Health care card will be issued. From the bill:

5 ‘‘(D) enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card;
Enable, where feasible, near real-time adjudication of claims;provide for timely acknowledgment,response, and status reporting applicable to ANY ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION DEEMED APPROPRIATE BY THE SECRETARY.

On page 59 of the bill, Big Brother continues:

21 ‘‘(C) enable electronic funds transfers, in
order to allow automated reconciliation with the
related health care payment and remittance advice;
page 60:
4 ‘‘(E) require the use of a standard electronic transaction with which health care providers may quickly and efficiently enroll with a
health plan to conduct the other electronic transactions provided for in this part.

There is a very good reason you won't hear about it on the nightly news...it's BULLSHIT.

FactCheck.org : Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200



Claim: Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.

False. This section aims to simplify electronic payments for health services, the same sort of electronic payments that already are common for such things as utility bills or mortgage payments. The bill calls for the secretary of Health and Human Services to set standards for electronic administrative transactions that would "enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice." There is no mention of "individual bank accounts" nor of any new government authority over them. Also, the section does not say that electronic payments from consumers is required.

 

[Greenbeard]

FactCheck.org : Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200

More importantly, H.R. 3200 is not the Affordable Care Act. Some folks insist on continuing to re-fight the battles of 2009, railing against proposed pieces of legislation that ultimately weren't adopted.

 

[Katzndogz]

Sears and Olive Garden have already stopped giving employees health care coverage.