Obama says 'sorry' to Americans losing health insurance

[Jingthing]

Who's responsible for this?

Starting Jan. 1, nearly five million people who were supposed to be covered under Obamacare won't be because their states have refused to expand Medicaid.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/medicaid-expansion-map-obamacare-losers

Not Obama!

[Emdog]

US so called "health care" is an embarrassment and travesty. The problem is it does not go far enough, something catering to the AMA, big drug and insurance companies. Calling it "Obamacare" is also bogus. If you recall or know, laws are passed by Congress (all of whom it seems are bought off by corporations, hence what a half way double priced abortion of a bill it is). The President can veto or sign. Period. Just copy Canadian model: universal care for about $3000 less per capita. US has most overpriced and underserving system in the world. Program in Thailand shames USA. Perhaps if USA took some of that bloated military budget (more than 2x what next four big spenders spend combined per year) and used it to serve citizens..... no that can never happen.

[chuckd]

Who's responsible for this?

Starting Jan. 1, nearly five million people who were supposed to be covered under Obamacare won't be because their states have refused to expand Medicaid.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/medicaid-expansion-map-obamacare-losers

Not Obama!

Let us look at the expansion of Medicaid.

When Obamacare came out the law said each state was required to expand as ordered. Any additional costs for the expansions would be paid by the federal government for the first three years. After that each state begins assuming more and more responsibility for the increased costs each year.

As a part of the Supreme Court decision saying the "fine" as called for in the law was really a "tax" and therefore constitutional, the Supreme Court also said the REQUIREMENT for the states to join the Medicaid expansion violated states rights and states could elect to join in or not.

Roughly half of the 50 states decided not to play along as this would obligate their state budgets to an increase over an extended period of time. Many of them did not feel Medicaid should be further abused by illegal immigrants and hesitated to endorse it for that reason.

What the states have done is entirely legal and constitutional. Some may not like it but there can be little criticism aimed at a states individual decision not to burden future tax payers and governors with the additional costs.

An interesting observation is the three year full federal payment is scheduled to expire precisely when Obama's lease on the White House does.

Coincidence...or crafty political planning?

[Jingthing]

Not expanding Medicaid is legal. It is ALSO cruel, nasty, and obstructionist. The republicans are never going to win the presidency again with such continued blatant attacks on poor people. Recently they had the nerve to actually cut FOOD STAMPS benefit amounts. Disgusting! You try to eat at all on even the before cut amount, much less eat healthy. So these poor people are going to need health care even more thanks to that. It's not murder but it's a slow kill for sure.

[Baloo22]

Not expanding Medicaid is legal. It is ALSO cruel, nasty, and obstructionist. The republicans are never going to win the presidency again with such continued blatant attacks on poor people. Recently they had the nerve to actually cut FOOD STAMPS benefit amounts. Disgusting! You try to eat at all on even the before cut amount, much less eat healthy. So these poor people are going to need health care even more thanks to that. It's not murder but it's a slow kill for sure.

What does any of this have to do with the topic at hand? Your are simply firing off a scattergun pattern of mudslinging on the faint hope that some of it will stick to a wall. You sputter about cruel food stamps and republican presidencies and wild accusations of attacks on "poor people". Then you descend to frantic wacko screeching about "eat less healthy" without any substance at all.

You make no sense at all !!!!

[Jingthing]

It makes perfect sense and it is indeed ALL related.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2013/11/09/too-much-of-too-little/

But the cheap foods she could afford on the standard government allotment of about $1.50 per meal also tended to be among the least nutritious — heavy in preservatives, fats, salt and refined sugar. Now Clarissa, her 13-year-old daughter, had a darkening ring around her neck that suggested early-onset diabetes from too much sugar. Now Antonio, 9, was sharing dosages of his mother’s cholesterol medication. Now Blanca herself was too sick to work, receiving disability payments at age 40 and testing her blood-sugar level twice each day to guard against the stroke doctors warned was forthcoming as a result of her diet.

These right wing governors, all republicans, refuse to expand Medicaid for poor people and also this same obstructionist party is the one behind food stamp cuts.

Poor people have more health problems often directly due to poor nutrition.

So these right wing war on poor people (including so many innocent CHILDREN) types are attacking the very lives of poor Americans on multiple levels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/house-passes-bill-cutting-40-billion-from-food-stamps.html

WASHINGTON — House Republicans narrowly pushed through a bill on Thursday that slashes billions of dollars from the food stamp program, over the objections of Democrats and a veto threat from President Obama.

Note: if this food stamp cut bill gets to President Obama's desk he would VETO it. But the fact that these republican/tea party fanatics even passed this in the House shows where their heads are at as far as any caring at all for poor Americans HEALTH. The food stamp amount is already way too low.

[Publicus]

*sigh* echochamber has restarted. You guys like the sound of your own voices don't you?

Fanatics.

It's not just disagreement.

It's good versus evil. And it's stamp out the evil, really hammer it so that at long last it goes away forever, once and for all.

These guys however are not representative of the vast center of the US body politic. They in fact are a dwindling number of the population and the body politic.

I'd dare say when the Republican Party again wins a presidential election almost of us will be deceased - we won't have to experience the horror. This despite the fact ObamaCare will have extended our life spans.

And ObamaCare's mental hygiene provisions will have become greatly useful to some certain constantly thumping types.

PST - present traumatic stress disorder.

[Publicus]

.

It's time to set much of the record straight.

Insurance plans being “canceled” or people facing “sticker shock” are almost exclusively limited to the individual insurance market, which covers between 5 to 6 percent of the population.

It's noted that 15 million people, or just 5 percent of the population, purchases health insurance policies on the individual market and that more than 80% don't stay on the same plan for more than two consecutive years, so the individuals who will be affected by “provider shock” are those who had been changing providers almost every year anyway. This is a non-issue enemies of popular health and medical care are trying to exploit.

I read Bob Cesca in the Huffington Post who points out that UnitedHealthcare, one of the most notorious insurance providers before the ACA was passed, has the horrendous reputation of summarily canceling policies and arbitrarily penalizing customers. So it's no surprise that when ObamaCare came online UnitedHealthcare decided to exit the individual insurance racket. By doing so, the notorious UnitedHealthcare has thus avoided taking on less healthy customers early in the exchange sign-up process, thereby forcing other insurers to absorb the risk. This is an example of the clever and sinister schemes against ObamaCare by a number of insurance companies.

Moreover, a number of insurance companies are circumventing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Certain insurance companies are doing this by changing policies in very small ways, thus exempting themselves from the grandfather clause of the ACA.

Many insurance companies are doing this by telling millions of policy holders to purchase the insurance companies' own, more expensive plan. They do this without saying anything about provisions of the ACA or about the possibility of ACA options that have a lower cost than the companies' own expensive policies, or about the health insurance exchanges. For example, Anthem Blue Cross of California, which is currently being sued in court, sent deceptive letters to policyholders suggesting they switch plans specifically with the intent of making the policyholders lose their grandfathered status.

Worse yet, a number of insurance companies have already threatened to raise premiums on small businesses and the individual insurance market by 25% to 116% in 2014. The right wingers like to ignore that these insurance companies were infamous for dropping people, raising rates astronomically, changing coverage, and generally mistreating policyholders long before Obamacare. If there's anyone Americans should target with our anger and outrage, it’s the same culprits it’s always been, a substantial number of the health insurance companies.

The fact is that while about 3% of Americans will pay for more insurance coverage than they want to and are likely to experience a premium increase, 97% of Americans will experience virtually no effect or a positive effect on their insurance coverage and premium.

And, yeah, the website is screwed up. However, the federal website wouldn’t have had so many people to serve if there weren’t so many states refusing to set up their own exchanges. Had the Confederate states with Republican Party governors cooperated with the ACA by setting up their own websites, there surely would have been far fewer people massing at the federal website. Indeed, Kentucky is being praised as a model because not only is it a red state with a functioning healthcare website, its Democratic Party governor stands opposite the Republican and right wing governors who have refused to set up ObamaCare websites in their states.

The Real Villains Behind the Criticisms of Obamacare

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/10/real-villains-criticisms-obamacare.html

Another Obamacare 'Horror Story' Debunked; and, No, the President Didn't Lie About the Law

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/another-obamacare-horror-_b_4229439.html

Publicus my man, ya gotta do better than that. You're basically saying the same thing I am, but leaving out a few things such as many doctors and hospitals refusing to accept these new Obamacare compliant plans. (link provided where I posted it.)

Obamacare did nothing to lower the costs of health care in the US, and did nothing to control the insurance companies. It looks to me like perhaps we agree on that.

But I think you're underreporting the number of people who are losing their health insurance and will have to scramble to find a replacement and then hope hospitals and doctors will accept it.

Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had

And glance at this link. The news gets worse by the day. Link

And this:

Obamacare fallout: Millions face sticker shock following insurance ...

With due respect, you and I do not agree.

For one thing, there's not much difference between Fox News and its calculatedly bogus statements and the data at the links you present. In other words, the unrelenting drumbeat of marching falsehoods about ObamaCare the right wing has been disseminating not only continues, it is expanding, accelerating, intensifying.

Then I presented data you summarily and arbitrarily dismissed that ObamaCare lowers the cost of insurance, health and medical care respectively in the US. You say the opposite and you say I agree with you, which I do not do.

You claim you and I agree the insurance companies are culprits in the present disorder but we don't, because I don't read you recognizing the sabotage of the exchanges and the program by their sinister circumvention of the grandfathering clause of the law.

I advocate ObamaCare for its great significance and impact in the present time going forward, using its many positives as a predicate to improve on the first go at a progressive medical insurance and medical care approach. One of the positives, for instance, is the elimination of preexisting conditions as a rationale of the insurance companies to deny coverage over many decades to large numbers of desperately needy Americans. You are absolutely and adamantly opposed to these progressive developments.

You personalize your opposition against Prez Obama himself. I see it institutionally, i.e., Republican Party obstructionism and, indeed, Republican Party support of the cynical sabotage a number of major insurance companies are willfully conducting against the ACA.

You and I agree on the time of day in this but I'm afraid you and I agree on nothing else about it

[NeverSure]

Not expanding Medicaid is legal. It is ALSO cruel, nasty, and obstructionist. The republicans are never going to win the presidency again with such continued blatant attacks on poor people. Recently they had the nerve to actually cut FOOD STAMPS benefit amounts. Disgusting! You try to eat at all on even the before cut amount, much less eat healthy. So these poor people are going to need health care even more thanks to that. It's not murder but it's a slow kill for sure.

I thought you guys wanted a single payer system? This is a patchwork system of 50 states, each being asked to expand Medicaid only for residents of that state and at the expense of the individual state. The Federal government and Obama who are trying to cram this down their throats aren't paying for it. They are trying without success to force each state to pay for it separately.

So, which is it? Do you want "single payer" or do you want a patchwork of 50 payers, all with different demographics? Some states are wealthy and have few who would need this. Other states are poor and would be overwhelmed with it. Is that "single payer?"

If you were the governor of, say, Mississippi where people are poor and the income to the state is low, wouldn't you object to having this crammed down your throat when you couldn't afford it? Wouldn't you see that you have too many poor people to cover with your limited budget?

Can't you see what this really is?

If you really want a single payer system, at least understand that this isn't it, that it's a patchwork that can't be constitutionally forced on the states, and that this is the reason we have a republic of states - to keep the big and the wealthy from ruling the small and the poor.

Let me make this simple for you. I'm the federal government and I offer to buy everyone a new SUV. I get a completely different reaction than I would if I ordered everyone to buy himself a new SUV, especially if I don't have the authority to do so.

That's where some of you are missing it. This as far from single payer as you can get. There are 50 payers for the poor, and millions of payers for themselves.

All of them are subject to private insurance companies which are free to charge what they wish, or even discontinue coverage.

At the same time, all health care providers are private and don't have to accept these new policies and patients, and many have declared that they won't.

Go on and cheer-lead for this. It proves only that you don't see what it really is, and you don't see what it really isn't.

[Publicus]

ACA_ObamaSigEd1.jpeg

.

It's time to set much of the record straight.

Insurance plans being “canceled” or people facing “sticker shock” are almost exclusively limited to the individual insurance market, which covers between 5 to 6 percent of the population.

It's noted that 15 million people, or just 5 percent of the population, purchases health insurance policies on the individual market and that more than 80% don't stay on the same plan for more than two consecutive years, so the individuals who will be affected by “provider shock” are those who had been changing providers almost every year anyway. This is a non-issue enemies of popular health and medical care are trying to exploit.

I read Bob Cesca in the Huffington Post who points out that UnitedHealthcare, one of the most notorious insurance providers before the ACA was passed, has the horrendous reputation of summarily canceling policies and arbitrarily penalizing customers. So it's no surprise that when ObamaCare came online UnitedHealthcare decided to exit the individual insurance racket. By doing so, the notorious UnitedHealthcare has thus avoided taking on less healthy customers early in the exchange sign-up process, thereby forcing other insurers to absorb the risk. This is an example of the clever and sinister schemes against ObamaCare by a number of insurance companies.

Moreover, a number of insurance companies are circumventing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Certain insurance companies are doing this by changing policies in very small ways, thus exempting themselves from the grandfather clause of the ACA.

Many insurance companies are doing this by telling millions of policy holders to purchase the insurance companies' own, more expensive plan. They do this without saying anything about provisions of the ACA or about the possibility of ACA options that have a lower cost than the companies' own expensive policies, or about the health insurance exchanges. For example, Anthem Blue Cross of California, which is currently being sued in court, sent deceptive letters to policyholders suggesting they switch plans specifically with the intent of making the policyholders lose their grandfathered status.

Worse yet, a number of insurance companies have already threatened to raise premiums on small businesses and the individual insurance market by 25% to 116% in 2014. The right wingers like to ignore that these insurance companies were infamous for dropping people, raising rates astronomically, changing coverage, and generally mistreating policyholders long before Obamacare. If there's anyone Americans should target with our anger and outrage, it’s the same culprits it’s always been, a substantial number of the health insurance companies.

The fact is that while about 3% of Americans will pay for more insurance coverage than they want to and are likely to experience a premium increase, 97% of Americans will experience virtually no effect or a positive effect on their insurance coverage and premium.

And, yeah, the website is screwed up. However, the federal website wouldn’t have had so many people to serve if there weren’t so many states refusing to set up their own exchanges. Had the Confederate states with Republican Party governors cooperated with the ACA by setting up their own websites, there surely would have been far fewer people massing at the federal website. Indeed, Kentucky is being praised as a model because not only is it a red state with a functioning healthcare website, its Democratic Party governor stands opposite the Republican and right wing governors who have refused to set up ObamaCare websites in their states.

The Real Villains Behind the Criticisms of Obamacare

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/10/real-villains-criticisms-obamacare.html

Another Obamacare 'Horror Story' Debunked; and, No, the President Didn't Lie About the Law

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/another-obamacare-horror-_b_4229439.html

Since you are setting the record straight, why not try all of the record.

What does your friend Bob Cesca think will happen when EMPLOYERS have to provide insurance to their employees under the regulations as promulgated by Seblius and her minions?

As you might recall, Obama, despite what the law said, arbitrarily decided to delay the mandate for EMPLOYERS by one year. The action taken by the "Prez" means that some 95% of the American people, according to your own words, are not even included in the conflagration known as the Obamacare Rollout.

What's going to happen when that 95% hits the fan?

Here's a sneak preview:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had

BY KEVIN G. HALL AND ANITA KUMAR

McClatchy Washington BureauNovember 7, 2013

From the article to comply with fair use rules:

"And a report in 2010 said that as many as 69 percent of certain employer-based insurance plans would lose that protection, meaning as many as 41 million people could lose their plans even if they wanted to keep them and would be forced into other plans. Another 11 million who bought their own insurance also could lose their plans. Combined, as many as 52 million Americans could lose or have lost old insurance plans."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/07/207909/analysis-tens-of-millions-could.html#storylink=cpy

No amount of spin can change the fact that Obamacare was a bad bill and is now a bad law and no amount of spin can change the fact that it was completely a product of the Democratic Congress and Democratic President.

A pig with lipstick is still a pig.

The McClatchy news organization you quote above states in the article you cite that.

Some or much of that loss of favored insurance is driven by normal year-to-year changes such as employers changing plans to save money. And many people could end up with better plans.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/07/207909/analysis-tens-of-millions-could.html#storylink=cpy

Further, as I pointed out in my post above, a number of major insurance companies are circumventing the grandfather clause written into the ACA, which protects us in our present programs, by making minor changes to our policies. The minor changes make the grandfather clause written into the ACA inapplicable.

The result is that a number of scheming insurance companies are engaged in a massive swindle of the public by cancelling tens of millions of policies.

This is both cynical and a sinister sabotage of ObamaCare by a number of insurance companies. Consequently, lawsuits against the perp insurance companies already are being filed in state and federal courts by aggrieved policy holders and public interest groups.

The law suits against the certain contemptuous insurance companies are currently being filed while the insurers fail to say to us anything about provisions of the ACA to include the possibility of ACA options that have a lower cost than the companies' own expensive policies, or about the existence and availability of the health insurance exchanges - at least in the states that don't have obstructionist Republican Party governors

One such insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross of California, is currently being sued in court because it sent deceptive letters to policyholders suggesting they switch plans specifically with the intent of making the policyholders lose their grandfathered status. These lawsuits will take some time but will play out favorably for Americans together with ObamaCare.

Then we get the diabolical double talk from the insurance companies that the plans are not being canceled because of ACA requirements, but that the policies are being canceled because insurers do not want to grandfather some plans. The blatantly obvious absurdity of this statement, which is an intended insult to our intelligence, is that grandfathering of policies is in fact a requirement of ObamaCare. Grandfathering is an ACA requirement.

Who do you people think you're kidding? You're getting lost in your own tall tales and web of lies.

Here's another whack job story about the number of Americans who will lose their present policies:

129 Million To Lose Health Care Coverage, Why Is Obama Not Being Impeached For Criminal Fraud?

The defining character of the Devil is that he is a liar, and the father of lies. It is no coincidence that the defining character trait of Barack Obama is that he cannot tell the truth. He is an incessant liar. And, like the Devil, Obama takes great pleasure in destroying those who support him.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=15588

Presently the going figure is 52 million. Perhaps by this time next week you people will be on the 129 million presented in this malevolent story. After all, the pattern of the past five years is that the lies coming from the right wing only get worse, more expansive, more intense, wilder, more off the wall.

Hey, why not a 129 million lie. The right wingers shot their load early, what with the "death panels" which admittedly is a hard act to follow after that one also was easily and quickly shot down.

The right wingers have put this whole thing into the gutter from day one. They contribute nothing to this issue except to expose themselves. They're overdoing this one too so will end up flat on their arse yet again.

[Ulysses G.]

No amount of spin can change the fact that Obamacare was a bad bill and is now a bad law and no amount of spin can change the fact that it was completely a product of the Democratic Congress and Democratic President.

A pig with lipstick is still a pig.

Exactly what I was thinking as I read some of the propaganda on this thread. I have no love for insurance companies, but it is the law that gives them perfect cover for dropping people who badly need their insurance.

[Scott]

Troll posts and posts containing profanity have been deleted. Stay on topic and post in a civil manner.

[NeverSure]

-snip-

Further, as I pointed out in my post above, a number of major insurance companies are circumventing the grandfather clause written into the ACA, which protects us in our present programs, by making minor changes to our policies. The minor changes make the grandfather clause written into the ACA inapplicable.

The result is that a number of scheming insurance companies are engaged in a massive swindle of the public by cancelling tens of millions of policies.

No, this is where, as the thread topic heading says, Obama had to apologize. The thread topic heading is:

Replying to Obama says 'sorry' to Americans losing health insurance.

So it is Obama who screwed up and caused Americans to lose their insurance policies and there it is in bold print.

It was Obama who repeated told people that if they like their doctor they can keep him, and if they like their health insurance policy they could keep it. But it wasn't true.

The Act has new requirements for insurance policies, and most old insurance policies don't comply with this new Obamacare law. So the insurance companies had no choice but to cancel the illegal old policies and either pull out of the market or write new complying policies which will cost a lot more due to compliance.

I don't know how anyone can reach the conclusions you are quoting, when Obama's role in the loss of insurance for millions of people is so obvious that he had to publicly apologize.

[Lancelot]

In the US we are losing our ability for political compromise. The last time this occurred we suffered a nasty civil war...

Health insurance is a relatively new concept in the US. During WWII wage freezes denied Unions the ability to bargain for wage increases- so they negotiated for better fringe benefits. Viola! Employer provided Medical insurance

With respect to Medical care, there are two Americas: one with golden health care benefits provided by large corporations and government employers and the other half with no coverage or "coverage lite" policies through employers such as Walmart.

The current system is convoluted and pretty much broken. I think it will take a complete failure of the system for any real improvements to be made.

When I am in the US, I use the Veterans Hospital but they are bureaucratic and yeah, they ration care by making patients wait for services.

Most Americans want unlimited, instant care at no or modest expense to them selves. Heck, I like a bargain too; however, paying a penny for a dollar's worth of benefits is usually unsustainable. But maybe this time its different

When they elect me as Great Leader (yea right) I would implement a National Health Service along the lines of what the Brits use, supported by personal and corporate taxes. We already do that for the elderly and poor, so why not every one?

Personally I am disgusted with the trillions we've squandered on "Wars on Terror and Drugs" Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi nationals, so our response is to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Beam me up Scotty...

[samran]

*sigh* echochamber has restarted. You guys like the sound of your own voices don't you?

*sigh* It's truly amazing that you do not see and fully realize the damage being done to the American people by Obama and his administration!

I'm guessing that people who

- are not rejected from insurance due to pre-existing conditions

- have access to subsidies to by insurance

- have better access to Medicade

will probably all beg to differ.

What is clear is that the damage is being done to your idealised version of America. It shouldn't suprise. You are conservative. Change scares you. Status quo all the way for your blokes.

[NeverSure]

*sigh* echochamber has restarted. You guys like the sound of your own voices don't you?

*sigh* It's truly amazing that you do not see and fully realize the damage being done to the American people by Obama and his administration!

I'm guessing that people who

- are not rejected from insurance due to pre-existing conditions

- have access to subsidies to by insurance

- have better access to Medicade

will probably all beg to differ.

What is clear is that the damage is being done to your idealised version of America. It shouldn't suprise. You are conservative. Change scares you. Status quo all the way for your blokes.

I'm guessing that people who

- Can't find a doctor or hospital that will accept their new insurance

-Already have good insurance and a good doctor but lose it due to law changes, and experience sticker shock over the new costs

-Find out that many, many doctors, especially specialists never did and won't accept Medicaid

-Find out that many insurance companies are declining to issue these Obamacare compliant policies at all

-Find out that their deductibles and co-pays are greatly increased and unaffordable

Will be shocked and disillusioned.

What is clear is that your liberal mindset tells you that any government mandate to buy insurance must be good because it's government, with no further studying of the facts.

[Baloo22]

*sigh* echochamber has restarted. You guys like the sound of your own voices don't you?

*sigh* It's truly amazing that you do not see and fully realize the damage being done to the American people by Obama and his administration!

I'm guessing that people who

- are not rejected from insurance due to pre-existing conditions

- have access to subsidies to by insurance

- have better access to Medicade

will probably all beg to differ.

What is clear is that the damage is being done to your idealised version of America. It shouldn't suprise. You are conservative. Change scares you. Status quo all the way for your blokes.

It is not an "idealised version of America" where millions of citizens had health insurance policies that they, as free citizens chose. Health insurance policies that they chose, paid for, and wanted to keep. Those choices of free citizens existed just last year. And a certain person publicly promised the citizens of the United States that they would be able to keep those health plans.

Remember the promise to the American people that Obama repeated multiple times; "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period! If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” , by B.H. Obama

Obama repeatedly and deliberately made promises to the American people that he knew were false. Obama knew when he was making those promises that millions of citizens were not going to be able to keep their health insurance plans. Then his administration immediately and deliberately wrote detailed regulations to insure that even more citizens would not be able to keep the health insurance that they wanted. That is why millions of U.S. citizens are now finding out that they CANNOT keep their health care plan whether they want to or not.

It is not just simple "change" for an dishonest narcissistic Obama and his elitist allies to deliberately use the power of the federal government to deny tens of millions of citizens the health plans that THEY chose, that THEY paid for, and that THEY wanted to keep.

[chuckd]

This administration just can't seem to stop digging that hole ever deeper.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Mental Health Mandate Will Make Obamacare More Expensive, Increase Fraud And Canceled Policies

Even as stories pour in of Americans facing steeply higher health insurance premiums and canceled coverage, Team TISI 0% Obama just imposed new regulations that will make those problems worse. It’s almost like they can’t help themselves.

On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced new regulations mandating health insurers cover mental and behavioral health to the same extent they cover physical health care.

Details here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2013/11/11/new-mental-health-mandate-will-make-obamacare-more-expensive-increase-fraud-and-canceled-policies/

[Jingthing]

Mental health care SHOULD be covered. Duh!

[NeverSure]

Mental health care SHOULD be covered. Duh!

But the individual people have to pay for it. This is NOT national health care. It adds a cost burden to those who will never need it.

The people - individuals, are paying for this by government mandate whether they want it or need it. It runs parallel to the rule that everyone has to have maternity coverage - even a 60 year old couple where he's fixed and she'd had a D&C. No everyone should NOT have to be covered by all of this at their own expense.

I think that somewhere in the back of your mind you still think the government is providing this for everyone. How else could you defend it?

[Jingthing]

Mental health care SHOULD be covered. Duh!

But the individual people have to pay for it. This is NOT national health care. It adds a cost burden to those who will never need it.

The people - individuals, are paying for this by government mandate whether they want it or need it.

I think that somewhere in the back of your mind you still think the government is providing this for everyone. How else could you defend it?

Anyone, anytime could need care for mental health problems. The brain is part of the body. Any decent health care system OR insurance policy should include mental health care. Dude, don't you get it? Obamacare IS a kludge of a national health care system and a national health care system in a civilized country WOULD cover mental health care (at least to some extent). Obviously it can't cover Woody Allen style Freudian talk therapy that's more of a fashion for the elite than a real medical need.

You seem to be wanting it both ways. Pay for needed service only. Ideally, not bad if it was affordable. But it's not. The risks do need to be SPREAD in the American system, sadly.

[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed.

[samran]

Mental health care SHOULD be covered. Duh!

But the individual people have to pay for it. This is NOT national health care. It adds a cost burden to those who will never need it.

The people - individuals, are paying for this by government mandate whether they want it or need it.

I think that somewhere in the back of your mind you still think the government is providing this for everyone. How else could you defend it?

Anyone, anytime could need care for mental health problems. The brain is part of the body. Any decent health care system OR insurance policy should include mental health care. Dude, don't you get it? Obamacare IS a kludge of a national health care system and a national health care system in a civilized country WOULD cover mental health care (at least to some extent). Obviously it can't cover Woody Allen style Freudian talk therapy that's more of a fashion for the elite than a real medical need.

You seem to be wanting it both ways. Pay for needed service only. Ideally, not bad if it was affordable. But it's not. The risks do need to be SPREAD in the American system, sadly.

haha, isn't that what insurance is about, covering for the unforseen?

I'm glad some people here know exactly what ailments are going to hinder them over the rest of their lives. Lucky them.

[chuckd]

Following is an interesting video showing how the Navigator system is working.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsUWFANPS8

[chuckd]

Mental health care SHOULD be covered. Duh!

But the individual people have to pay for it. This is NOT national health care. It adds a cost burden to those who will never need it.

The people - individuals, are paying for this by government mandate whether they want it or need it.

I think that somewhere in the back of your mind you still think the government is providing this for everyone. How else could you defend it?

Anyone, anytime could need care for mental health problems. The brain is part of the body. Any decent health care system OR insurance policy should include mental health care. Dude, don't you get it? Obamacare IS a kludge of a national health care system and a national health care system in a civilized country WOULD cover mental health care (at least to some extent). Obviously it can't cover Woody Allen style Freudian talk therapy that's more of a fashion for the elite than a real medical need.

You seem to be wanting it both ways. Pay for needed service only. Ideally, not bad if it was affordable. But it's not. The risks do need to be SPREAD in the American system, sadly.

haha, isn't that what insurance is about, covering for the unforseen?

I'm glad some people here know exactly what ailments are going to hinder them over the rest of their lives. Lucky them.

Did you forget the pre-existing condition paragraph?

Once you are diagnosed with liver cancer you can go to Obamacare and demand an insurance carrier set you up.

Why pay for it before if you know you can get coverage after the fact?

Edit in: I just realized the fallacy of my argument. The fallacy is that one has to be able to sign in to the web site and obtain coverage between the diagnosis and when they die.

[Publicus]

-snip-

Further, as I pointed out in my post above, a number of major insurance companies are circumventing the grandfather clause written into the ACA, which protects us in our present programs, by making minor changes to our policies. The minor changes make the grandfather clause written into the ACA inapplicable.

The result is that a number of scheming insurance companies are engaged in a massive swindle of the public by cancelling tens of millions of policies.

No, this is where, as the thread topic heading says, Obama had to apologize. The thread topic heading is:

Replying to Obama says 'sorry' to Americans losing health insurance.

So it is Obama who screwed up and caused Americans to lose their insurance policies and there it is in bold print.

It was Obama who repeated told people that if they like their doctor they can keep him, and if they like their health insurance policy they could keep it. But it wasn't true.

The Act has new requirements for insurance policies, and most old insurance policies don't comply with this new Obamacare law. So the insurance companies had no choice but to cancel the illegal old policies and either pull out of the market or write new complying policies which will cost a lot more due to compliance.

I don't know how anyone can reach the conclusions you are quoting, when Obama's role in the loss of insurance for millions of people is so obvious that he had to publicly apologize.

Exactly what did Prez Obama say when he said "I'm sorry"?

Prez Obama said he's sorry he failed to prevent the insurance companies diabolically screwing tens of millions of Americans and that he's getting on the case administratively (not legislatively at this time because the treacherous Republicans in Congress will prevent his actions to remedy the situation) to correct the problem of the corporate insurance companies acting cynically and by sinister means and in sinister ways.

Prez Obama said, "We worked hard to try to make sure we implemented it properly. Obviously we didn’t do a good enough job.

“We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.

“Ever since the law was passed, if insurers decided to downgrade or cancel these substandard plans, what we said under the law is, you’ve got to replace them with quality, comprehensive coverage because that too was a central premise of the Affordable Care Act from the very beginning.

“I think for the most part people know that I speak my mind and I tell folks what I think and I’ve been very clear about what I’m trying to do. And I think most people know that even if they disagree with me on certain issues that I’m every day working hard to try to make life a little bit better for middle class families … and folks who are trying to get in the middle class who are doing the right thing and being responsible.”

I myself would add the remarks written today by former Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Lawrence Summers who, speaking of Teapublican conscious and willful subversion of ObamaCare, stated in the Washington Post that "... history will not judge kindly those who, having lost political debates over policy, go beyond vigorous oversight and seek to subvert enacted programs."

Summers said, "There is a danger here that goes far beyond delays in access to health insurance. In the end...[o]ur democracy is the loser."

[Publicus]

Expansion of Medicaid is an integral component of the ACA and for which Prez Obama needn't apologize.

In fact, it is the Republican Party institutionally that needs to apologize to millions of politically disenfranchised low income Americans who are being denied access to the expanded Medicaid provision of ObamaCare because Republican Party governors and/or legislatures refuse to participate in the fully funded Medicaid expansion.

The following map shows in blue the states that have signed up for the expanded Medicaid provisions of ObamaCare. The states in the lighter color have not signed up - these states are controlled either by Teapublican governors and legislatures, or have a veto happy Republican governor, or a Teapublican controlled legislature.

More specifically, of the 25 states that have signed up for the expanded Medicaid provisions, ten have just been surveyed. In those ten surveyed states, Medicaid has signed up 444,000 people in the six weeks since open enrollment began, according to Avalere Health, a market analysis firm that compiled data from those states.

"Medicaid is exceeding expectations in most places," said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health which conducted the survey."It is definitely a bright picture in states that have chosen to expand."

This great success is occurring despite institutional Republican Party subversion of ObamaCare that has only half the states of the divided United States participating in the Medicaid component. The Medicaid expansion is strongly supported by state hospital associations, medical groups and advocates for the poor. (emphasis added)

The participating 25 states are doing exceedingly well. "This is a group of states that's very committed to aggressive expansion and enrollment," said Matt Salo, executive director of the nonpartisan National Association of Medicaid Directors.

The Republican Party needs to apologize to the millions of Americans excluded from the Medicaid provisions of the ACA, politically disenfranchised because they don't have millions of dollars to buy television and internet advertising against the people who do have such money and who use it to misrepresent ObamaCare and to lie about the ACA.

What the Media Won’t Tell You: Millions are Hurting as Red States Reject Medicaid Expansion

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/09/healthcare-gov-commands-attention-millions-hurting-states-reject-medicaid-expansion.html

Medicaid is health overhaul's early success story

http://news.yahoo.com/medicaid-health-overhauls-early-success-story-080558828--finance.html

[Baloo22]

-snip-

Further, as I pointed out in my post above, a number of major insurance companies are circumventing the grandfather clause written into the ACA, which protects us in our present programs, by making minor changes to our policies. The minor changes make the grandfather clause written into the ACA inapplicable.

The result is that a number of scheming insurance companies are engaged in a massive swindle of the public by cancelling tens of millions of policies.

No, this is where, as the thread topic heading says, Obama had to apologize. The thread topic heading is:

Replying to Obama says 'sorry' to Americans losing health insurance.

So it is Obama who screwed up and caused Americans to lose their insurance policies and there it is in bold print.

It was Obama who repeated told people that if they like their doctor they can keep him, and if they like their health insurance policy they could keep it. But it wasn't true.

The Act has new requirements for insurance policies, and most old insurance policies don't comply with this new Obamacare law. So the insurance companies had no choice but to cancel the illegal old policies and either pull out of the market or write new complying policies which will cost a lot more due to compliance.

I don't know how anyone can reach the conclusions you are quoting, when Obama's role in the loss of insurance for millions of people is so obvious that he had to publicly apologize.

Exactly what did Prez Obama say when he said "I'm sorry"?

Prez Obama said he's sorry he failed to prevent the insurance companies diabolically screwing tens of millions of Americans and that he's getting on the case administratively (not legislatively at this time because the treacherous Republicans in Congress will prevent his actions to remedy the situation) to correct the problem of the corporate insurance companies acting cynically and by sinister means and in sinister ways.

Prez Obama said, "We worked hard to try to make sure we implemented it properly. Obviously we didn’t do a good enough job.

“We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.

“Ever since the law was passed, if insurers decided to downgrade or cancel these substandard plans, what we said under the law is, you’ve got to replace them with quality, comprehensive coverage because that too was a central premise of the Affordable Care Act from the very beginning.

“I think for the most part people know that I speak my mind and I tell folks what I think and I’ve been very clear about what I’m trying to do. And I think most people know that even if they disagree with me on certain issues that I’m every day working hard to try to make life a little bit better for middle class families … and folks who are trying to get in the middle class who are doing the right thing and being responsible.”

I myself would add the remarks written today by former Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Lawrence Summers who, speaking of Teapublican conscious and willful subversion of ObamaCare, stated in the Washington Post that "... history will not judge kindly those who, having lost political debates over policy, go beyond vigorous oversight and seek to subvert enacted programs."

Summers said, "There is a danger here that goes far beyond delays in access to health insurance. In the end...[o]ur democracy is the loser."

What you have ↑ above ↑ is absolute fantasy nonsense!

It is the narcissistic and deceitful Obama that is intentionally preventing tens of millions of Americans from keeping the health plans that they chose, paid for, and want to keep. It is his administration that deliberately wrote detailed regulations to insure that even more citizens would not be able to keep the health insurance that they wanted. That is why millions of U.S. citizens are now finding out that they CANNOT keep their health care plan whether they want to or not.

Obama repeatedly and deliberately made promises to the American people that he knew were false. Obama knew when he was making those promises that millions of citizens were not going to be able to keep their health insurance plans. These were deliberate actions by Obama and his administration.

Remember the promise to the American people that Obama repeated multiple times; "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period! If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” , by B.H. Obama

[Publicus]

Mental health care SHOULD be covered. Duh!

But the individual people have to pay for it. This is NOT national health care. It adds a cost burden to those who will never need it.

The people - individuals, are paying for this by government mandate whether they want it or need it. It runs parallel to the rule that everyone has to have maternity coverage - even a 60 year old couple where he's fixed and she'd had a D&C. No everyone should NOT have to be covered by all of this at their own expense.

I think that somewhere in the back of your mind you still think the government is providing this for everyone. How else could you defend it?

Teapublican, Republican and dogmatic right wingers are preventing the targeted population of ObamaCare, the poor and those middle class Americans who are uninsured, obtaining the medical care insurance coverage they want and need, and which they have been wrongfully denied all of their lives.

For this they need to apologize to the American people and to quit their rampaging against ObamaCare.

The dogmatic right wingers who always have cared nothing for the poor are now working actively to continue to deny the poor their wanted and needed medical care insurance, and are working militantly to deprive ALL Americans of our natural right to medical care insurance which the corporate insurance companies have always denied on the basis of their immoral and anti-social corporate caveat of a pre-existing condition.

Opposing the ACA means, among many other right wing dogmas, denying all Americans protection against the corporate insurance companies' denial of coverage based on "pre-existing" conditions.

The fact is that, by criteria established long ago by the corporate insurance companies, one out of two Americans has a pre-existing condition. Thus and very conveniently, the corporate insurers have both guaranteed fat profits for themselves while denying desperately needed medical care to half of the entire population of the United States.

For this, the corporate insurers and their right wing protectors need to apologize to all Americans, but especially to the half of the US general population who are denied medical care by the corporate insurers because of their peculiar definition of a "pre-existing" condition which, by definition, denied needed medical care to half the general population.

ObamaCare makes all Americans eligible for medical insurance and care regardless of their health or medical status. This is a hallmark of a civilized society, and in direct opposition to a profit oriented greedy corporate culture that selfishly and exclusively denies citizens their desperately needed medical care.

Those out of the mainstream right wingers who pine for the previous chaos of medical care have a strange and anti-social rationale that long ago failed the scrutiny of civilized societies.

The Affordable Care Act Eliminates Pre-Existing Condition Loopholes;

No More Pre-existing Conditions as of 2014

http://obamacarefacts.com/pre-existing-conditions.php

What the Media Won’t Tell You: Millions are Hurting as Red States Reject Medicaid Expansion

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/09/healthcare-gov-commands-attention-millions-hurting-states-reject-medicaid-expansion.html

Medicaid is health overhaul's early success story

http://news.yahoo.com/medicaid-health-overhauls-early-success-story-080558828--finance.html

[Jingthing]

In my opinion the tea party republicans which currently dominate the republican party are NIHILISITS. I consider them a threat to American lives in the same way as foreign enemies such as Iran. How this radical right wing extremist fringe group ever gained so much power just shows what any anti-social minority with massive energy can accomplish. It's really a shame that groups opposing their twisted destructive agenda don't share their passion and energy. Imagine no tea party. There is no way a "normal" republican party would have not participated in medicaid expansion -- denial of same is indeed a horrible attack on millions of American lives.