Will technology accomplish what the GOP could not?

[Kaitzilla]

HHS extends deadline for individuals to enroll in Obamacare for January coverage

HHS to delay 2015 Obamacare enrollment by a month

I think we have twin admissions here. 1) The website isn't getting fixed anytime soon and 2) the admin fully expects premiums to rise next year and wants to avoid that playing a roll in the midterms if possible.

Health and Human Services plans to delay the start of the second year of Obamacare enrollment by one month to allow insurers more time to set rates after assessing their plan experiences during 2014, a department official said Thursday night.

The decision means that sign-ups for the 2015 plan year would begin on Nov. 15, 2014, and end on Jan. 15, 2015, instead of the Oct. 15-Dec. 7 window previously announced. The date change, first reported by Bloomberg, also lengthens the enrollment period by a week. Doing so would give companies more opportunity to account for individuals, particularly young adults, who come in late during the plan’s first year, which has gotten off to a rocky start. The goal is premiums that more accurately reflect costs for those insured.

The new calendar would move the start of the 2015 open enrollment season to shortly after the November midterm elections.

The HHS official said the change is “good news for consumers, who will have more time to learn about plans before enrolling

Midterm elections are November 4th.

If premiums do skyrocket the 2nd year (and 1st year subsidy checks will still be 2 or 3 months away if I'm understanding the subsidies correctly), better that voters find out about it November 15th than October 15th.

It's going to be hard enough for the Democrats when 100 million cancellation notices go out in October.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/20/second-wave-health-plan-cancellations-looms/

 

[DinoDoc]

Tick, tock.

“The president and his team have repeatedly assured us that the system will be working by Dec. 1. That’s when I start looking at what we have to do in our oversight function to hold the administration accountable for making it work.” Rep. Bruce Braley, an Iowa Democrat who is running for an open Senate seat said Thursday, adding that he’s contemplating whether to ask the president to fire members of his staff. “I’m thinking about those options. But my biggest concern is fixing the system and making it work.”…

[A] big-city lawmaker predicted oversight hearings are “going to be ugly” come next month. “The more we find out about this implementation of the ACA, the worse it looks. The Congress did our job. We passed the ACA. It’s up to the administration to implement the law.”…

“At this point, I don’t think there is anyone that would express any confidence in the administration’s ability to right the ship,” said [a House Democratic] source, adding that members seem to be “bracing for another tidal wave when Dec. 1 comes and goes and we are still dealing with a dysfunctional website, or ‘broken computer’ as the old-timers have been calling it.”…

One Democratic House member, asked by text message whether he was worried that there didn’t seem to be a Plan B at the White House, wrote back, “Yes!!!”

As deadline nears, ticking clock on Democratic patience

 

[Azale]

100 million cancellation notices

website means we have to go back to the worst healthcare system in the developed world

doom slash gloom

gop gonna sweep senate

lol

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

“I don’t sense that at all. When you think about it, a week after the October shutdown Democrats were experiencing a euphoric high. We thought we had Republicans on the mat. We thought we were going to win back the House and then this rollout fails,” said one House Democrat from a traditionally safe seat based in a major city. “Now, we need to be concerned, all of us, me included, that we aren’t viewed as ineffective and kicked out of our seats.”

What a dick.

edit: That whole article is a schlong parade.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I've just found out that you can get the Obamacare subsidies upfront.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=12919658&postcount=29

That means the whole scheme is much better than I thought it was.

If they can just get the website working well by December 1st mmm

 

[DinoDoc]

That means the whole scheme is much better than I thought it was.

If they can just get the website working well by December 1st mmm

The admin doesn't think much of the scheme atm.
Failure to fix website by March puts ‘the entire health insurance industry at risk’

 

[Antilogic]

Today it was announced the disastrous Obombyacare law again failed to be sucked into an inevitable death spiral:

How many people have signed up for private coverage under Obamacare? 7,041,000, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced Tuesday afternoon.

That number is likely to rise: It does not include the Monday sign-ups in the 14 states operating their own marketplaces. In addition, the enrollment deadline was relaxed for people having trouble completing the process, so some people could still sign up in the next two weeks.

The figure does not account for how many people have paid their first premium, formally initiating their coverage. Independent analysts have also estimated that about 9 million people have enrolled directly through their insurer.

Source.

According to Gaba's website, the final number of enrollments (accounting for the signups through the website, Medicaid, students on parents' plans, etc.) is between 14.6 and 22 million people. The CBO originally projected 7 million would enroll through the website, but reduced that to 6 million after the buggy launch. Turns out the original projection was met.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Today it was announced the disastrous Obombyacare law again failed to be sucked into an inevitable death spiral:

Paul Ryans Budget repeals Obamacare with 80% chance that Republicans will take back the senate. And massive cuts to medicare, food stamps and welfare sounds like a win.

 

[KMRblue1027]

Paul Ryans Budget repeals Obamacare with 80% chance that Republicans will take back the senate. And massive cuts to medicare, food stamps and welfare sounds like a win.

Obama still has the WH. Veto power is strong enough that the Republicans cannot do anything more than they already do.

 

[RobAnybody]

I'll anecdotally (sp?) temper those numbers by reflecting what we've seen (I work for a health insurance company - I should probably macro that). There's been a lot of people who haven't yet paid for their insurance. Maybe, like 15-20%.

Sure, a decent chunk of those will eventually pay, or more likely, their parents will. I'm just pointing it out. The numbers are great*, awesome really, considering the rollout, but they're probably a little inflated from what the final number will turn out to be.

* from an insurance company's perspective - I'm not trying to make a political statement - you all have to buy our product!!! We drink everyone's milkshake! Whee!

 

[Antilogic]

Definitely so, the people who signed up yesterday (or recently in general) haven't paid their insurance bill yet. What this does show is a sufficient number of people interested/enrolling to avoid the death spiral.

 

[RobAnybody]

Definitely so, the people who signed up yesterday (or recently in general) haven't paid their insurance bill yet. What this does show is a sufficient number of people interested/enrolling to avoid the death spiral.

We don't actually know that yet. I mean, you're probably right. Young people are "known procrastinators", so we can guess that a bunch of young people were the ones who waited 'til the last minute.

But we don't know at this point. A month, realistically more like three or four months from now, we'll have reliable statistics, both on who signed up & more importantly (both for us & the success of the program as a whole) who actually paid.

I'm just keeping expectations down, if I can do that. That's what we're doing as company - being conservative (not in the political sense). We're tracking stats. We just don't know the stats for sure at this point. Things look good. Give it a few months to know for sure.

 

[metatron]

[...]

 

[RobAnybody]

It's like "Sewage system, yay or nay?".

To be fair, if that were up for a vote in America today, it'd probably get voted down. I can't imagine if we didn't already have a highway system & Obama proposed it. Can you imagine the fluoride debate that would happen today? "They're putting ObamaChems in your water!" Heck, stop signs would be decried as socialism at this point if they didn't already exist.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Obama still has the WH. Veto power is strong enough that the Republicans cannot do anything more than they already do.

Veto proof majority ?
Privatization of medicare sounds awesome.

Ryan’s Budget Would Cut $5 Trillion in Spending Over a Decade

He said it would bring federal spending and taxes into balance by 2024, through steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, and the total repeal of the Affordable Care Act just as millions are reaping the benefits of the law.

Defense spending would increase. Domestic programs would be reduced to the lowest levels since modern government accounting. And Medicare would be converted into a “premium support” system, where people 65 and older could buy private insurance with federal subsidies instead of government-paid health care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/u...tml?hp&target=comments&_r=0#commentsContainer

 

[Rashiminos]

I can imagine a pro-outhouse campaign.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I signed up for the ACA last Monday, got my first bill in the mail yesterday. It's suspiciously low for some reason, my bill should be about ~$230 but the first bill is only ~$20. What's up with that? (I'm not complaining, just confused)

Notes on the sign up process:

I tried to just get on the website and window shop back in October - I couldn't do squat with all the problems.

Then I sat down last Monday and was done within an hour and a half. It was stupid easy and user-friendly, especially given how complex of a purchase buying health insurance is. I compared all the plans and could even check to see which plans had my local doctors in their networks! All on one website! Actually, you had to click through a link to check on which doctors were in-network, and which drugs were covered, but all other comparisons were done on healthcare.gov and even the links to those other pages were on healthcare.gov, I didn't have to go digging.

So A++ for service, I was seriously blown away. I started at Bronze level coverage and threw in some silver level plans for kicks. Most of the Bronze plans sucked donkey balls - lowish premiums but absurd deductibles and most of them would pay *NOTHING* until you hit your deductible limit. Silver was a bit better, but obviously pricier. But I kept digging and I ended up finding a plan in the Bronze level that offered $15 dollar doctor visits and $15 dollar prescriptions even before you hit your deductible.

Do you know how long it's been since I could go to the doctor or get an RX filled? Do you know how awesome it feels to not have to pay (literally) hundreds of dollars to see a doctor for 15 minutes for an RX that will also cost hundreds of dollars?

IT'S FRAKKING AMAZING.

With subsidies, I'm paying about $230/mo as I said before, and I also opted for dental coverage (which was $15 /mo and included in the $230). It's more than I wanted to pay, to be honest, but the really important point is that I can afford it - and everyone should pay their share. (And I should note even fully socialized-medicine states make people pay their fair share through taxes)


All in all, it was oddly pleasant given the fact that I was getting a great deal on something I really needed. It wasn't a hassle at all, but I'll grant the fact I was probably more motivated to actually shift through the details than most.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Can you imagine the fluoride debate that would happen today? "They're putting ObamaChems in your water!" Heck, stop signs would be decried as socialism at this point if they didn't already exist.

You don't have to go quoting GW16 to make a point...

 

[FriendlyFire]

You don't have to go quoting GW16 to make a point...

He was a RINO since he was for government regulation of which lanes people should drive in to reduce the carnage in Republican control states as non seat belt wearing, drunk, Libertarians would have killed themselves in the hundreds of thousands.

Or maybe that is LINO.

 

[RobAnybody]

Hobbs - Awesome. Glad to hear it. I know you'd been concerned about the issue for months. With that said, I'll comment on a few of your experiences.

I signed up for the ACA last Monday, got my first bill in the mail yesterday. It's suspiciously low for some reason, my bill should be about ~$230 but the first bill is only ~$20. What's up with that? (I'm not complaining, just confused)

I believe my way back first impression that you would receive subsidies in the form of a tax credit turned out to be incorrect. People will get subsidized in their actual bill.

With that said, let me tell you why, IMO, that was a political ploy but not a good one. It was a political ploy because everyone's happier that way! Everyone would prefer a smaller upfront bill rather than a tax credit, right? But, but... how do we know what your income is going to be for the rest of the year?

If you wind up with a much higher paying job for the last 6 months of the year, you should probably get a lower subsidy, right? If someone with a high paying job right now gets laid off, they should get a bigger subsidy than what the website would calculate right now, yes?

So, the easiest (not saying better, just easiest) way is to true it up when you pay your taxes. Take your whole year into account. Not your fluctuating income. Then determine your subsidy. I'm actually glad it worked it out this way. It's just not the best way to calculate the subsidy, mathematically speaking. And us mathematicians are hard-assed by-the-numbers peoples. Not known for our empathy, us mathbots. But I'm glad that empathy won out in this case.

Actually, you had to click through a link to check on which doctors were in-network, and which drugs were covered, but all other comparisons were done on healthcare.gov and even the links to those other pages were on healthcare.gov, I didn't have to go digging.

That's good to hear, but honestly, I hate that you were surprised by this. Everyone's doctor is still in network from the plans they were shopping before all this. The same drugs are covered.

What are we, stupid? Of course we (the insurance companies) designed the plans that we chose to offer on The Exchange to reflect the same plans we are currently offering pre-Exchange. Same doctors as our current plans. Same drugs. We're businesses. Our competitors are also on The Exchange! What kind of idiots would we be to design an Exchange Plan that didn't have the same doctors as the plans you could sign up for right now, off The Exchange? This is a big artificial issue with a giant DUH sign on it.

Some of the plans we used to offer can't be offered on The Exchange. Because they sucked. Becase they had $10,000 or $15,000 deductibles. But "because Dr. Smith was on our network?!? Nuh-uh. He's out! We hate him." No. That's stupid. All our plans (FWIW, I'm just ranting on my company's behalf) have our same networks as before. Our same doctors. Our same drugs. Just sometimes better benefits.

So A++ for service, I was seriously blown away. ...

Now that's good to hear, & out of our control. We submit the plans we offer & hope The Exchange works.

Most of the Bronze plans sucked donkey balls - lowish premiums but absurd deductibles and most of them would pay *NOTHING* until you hit your deductible limit.

Aye. The minimum we can offer is a plan with a $6350 Out-Of Pocket maximum. For cheap, but kinda crappy benefits. Some people want bare minimum plans. We offer some crappy plans because some people want bare minimum crappy plans for low costs. Just saying. Win-win* there - some people want catastrophic plans for cheap.

...finding a plan in the Bronze level that offered $15 dollar doctor visits and $15 dollar prescriptions even before you hit your deductible.

Outside of HSA plans (which 1] I can go explain if anyone wants & 2] is what I have), most plans Bronze+ should have visits to your doctor & most prescriptions as a copay. The level varies, of course, but what you found *should* be the norm.

The rest of your post I'll let stand on its own. It's really a win-win*. Us insurance companies love it - more members! - but it's much better coverage for many people. Or even "good coverage for people who had none". And it doesn't affect the vast majority of people who already had coverage through their employer!

So, the uninsured get health insurance. People with poor health insurance get better, cheaper coverage. Also, we drink all your milkshakes! More like *win-win-win IMO.