OK, so I'm paying more for health coverage each month (sort of)

I'm not gonna lie to you: My monthly health coverage premium is higher now than before the Affordable Care Act — and it's already saving me money.

Before the Affordable Care Act most of the medications in my family were completely out of pocket, charged at full retail, because the law allowed my insurer to exclude coverage of preexisting conditions.

So what?

So...the refills that cost around $200 a pop in 2013 cost less than $50 in 2014. Which means  ObamaCare is working for me.

So...if you haven't already jumped into the insurance pool, come on in, the water's fine...

[btw, an entrepreneur friend — married, 40ish, two young children — told me his monthly premiums are $300 less now, with a lower deductible and better coverage than he had before, so...horror story averted I guess.]

with apologies | sometimes good things are difficult

With apologies to G.K. Chesterton,* the Patient Protection and Affordable Car Act has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult; and left untried.


* I borrow Mr. Chesterton's phrasing on an even bigger theme from What's Wrong with the World (1910)

THIS IS OBAMACARE

courtesy of the Democratic National Committee

Obamacare | Signed. Sealed. Delivering

[Here's a letter about Obamacare from my health insurance provider. I've pulled  the identity of the carrier so as not to trip anyone up; other than that, the letter is as I received it — and reflects the positive trend toward affordable, quality health care for Americans.] Dear James, As 2014 and the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) approaches, we know you have many important decisions to make about your health care coverage. As your partner in health, we're making it easy for you to get the great care you expect from [us]. New ways to get health care in 2014  In late September, we will be sending you information about your new 2014 [health] plan, as well as information about all [our] other 2014 plans. Some of these plans are available through the Health Insurance Marketplace, Covered California. Also, you may qualify for financial assistance from the federal government. Download information to help you determine whether or not you may be eligible. We're making it easy for you to stay with [Us] We want to make sure that you get the plan that best fits your needs. Here are your options: Enrolling in your new ACA-compliant plan We've made it easy for you to continue your coverage. We've matched you to a 2014 ACA-compliant plan that includes all the additional benefits provided by health care reform. Your enrollment into this plan is automatic. You don't need to do anything but pay the premium for your new plan on or before its due date. Switching to another [of our] ACA-compliant plan If you prefer to enroll in another one of our new 2014 plans, you can do so either directly with us or through the Health Insurance Marketplace during open enrollment which begins on October 1, 2013. Soon you'll receive more information about all our new 2014 plans and how to sign up. Signing up for financial assistance if you qualify If you determine that you are eligible for federal financial assistance (a subsidy), to receive this benefit you must purchase your new ACA-compliant plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace. The Health Insurance Marketplace opens for enrollment on October 1, 2013. You'll receive more information on how to apply for financial assistance in your renewal packet. Why [our coverage] is your best choice for good health  No matter how you choose to purchase your 2014 coverage, [we] will continue to offer you superior access and care, including: Your choice of doctors and specialists who you know and trust. Convenient care and services at locations near you. Easy access to appointments, advice, and information. Mobile and online features to email your doctor's office, order prescription refills, view most lab results, and more. A secure electronic health record that brings it all together.* You don't need to do anything right now In late September, you'll receive all the information you need to know about your [health] coverage and how to apply for financial assistance, if you qualify. If you would like to learn more about health care reform, visit [our website], call our Member Service Contact Center at 1-800-XXX-XXXX (or TTY for the deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired at 711), weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (except holidays), or contact your agent or broker. Thank you for choosing us to be your partner in health. [If you don't get a similarly upbeat letter from your health insurance provider — or if you don't have health coverage — keep an eye peeled for details in the next few weeks from the new state and federal Health Insurance Marketplaces active where you live. Very shortly, quality, affordable health coverage will be available for all of us (and not a minute too soon if you ask me.)]

all we want is health care that works for everyone | yet another reason I like the Affordable Care Act

click here to learn more

Bitter Pill | Why We Have to Finish the Job on Healthcare Reform

The Daily Show's @JonStewart talks with @StevenBrill about Brill's Time Magazine cover story, Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are Killing Us.

Part I

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part II

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part III

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Women's Health Care From Now On: August 1st, 2012

Good news: If you're a woman with health insurance, from now on you are covered without copay or cost-sharing for eight additional preventive care services. 

Bad news: Many of the most vulnerable women remain uncovered at this time. 

You-had-to-go-to-school-to-learn-that? insight: The sooner every American can acquire health insurance, the better for all of us.

Here, as described by healthcare.gov, are the eight additional women’s preventive services now covered:

• Well-woman visits: This would include an annual well-woman preventive care visit for adult women to obtain the recommended preventive services, and additional visits if women and their health care providers determine they are necessary. These visits will help women and their health care providers determine what preventive services are appropriate, and set up a plan to help women get the care they need to be healthy.
• Gestational diabetes screening: This screening is for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant, and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes. It will help improve the health of mothers and babies because women who have gestational diabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. In addition, the children of women with gestational diabetes are at significantly increased risk of being overweight and insulin-resistant throughout childhood.

Headline from the Future | Health Coverage

Official Denied Emergency Treatment

(Arlington, VA) U.S. Senator Tom Brown died yesterday in the parking lot of a Washington area hospital after being denied entrance because he lacked proof of insurance. 

The senator was taking a run, an aide said, when he complained of chest pains. “We took him straight to the hospital, but he didn’t have his wallet and they wouldn’t let us in.” 

Speaking off the record, a hospital employee who is not authorized to speak to reporters told the Post, “They said, ‘He’s a United States Senator!’ I said, ‘I don’t care if he’s effing Ron Paul: No insurance equals no treatment.’ If I make an exception for some clown who says he’s a senator, where does it stop? Treat first, ask questions later? What kind of business model is that?”

Anything Government Can Do... Part 02

Following my post, Anything Government Can Do, The Free Market Can Do Better | An exchange between friends, my friend replied:

In response, I did not say better, but more cost effectively. Cost efficiency does not always equate as better. I can drive a well maintained 10 year old Toyota Corolla more cost efficiently than a new full sized auto, but that does not mean it is a better auto. Secondly, I never said anything about "the unfailing efficiencies of the free market". I believe it is the fact that the free market can and does fail that makes it pure. Government, on the other hand is able to prolong and deny failure by extending budgets, increasing debt and raising taxes. 45 out of 50 states are now insolvent and several are headed for bankruptcy while still spending at record levels. That is not "philosophy', but is backed up by government audits.A federal employee is paid 64.47% more (including benfits and pensions) than a free market employee with full benefits doing the same task. By the Governments on records there were 72 Billion dollars spent on improper payments in 2008. The government also discovered that 22% of the programs they finance (at a cost of 123 Billion annually) fail to show any positive impact on the population they serve. The beauty of the free market, is that it can not operate like this. Most free market enterprises operate on less than 6% profit and would long since be out of business if they operated so inefficiently. Many of the businesses I shooped at or resturants I ate in 10 years ago no longer exist. I am not aware of many (any) governmental agencies that have been aloowed to fail in that time.

Anything Government Can Do, The Free Market Can Do Better | An exchange between friends

An old friend responds to my post on The Costs of Repealing Health Reform:

There is one flaw in her reasoning and that is that Government can provide any service more cost efficiently than the free market. The only way they will be able to reduce premioums to the amounts that she is talking about would be for the government to subsidize the difference and that will mean further National debt, and/or increasing taxes to Canadian and European levels.

To which I reply:

I'm not sure we're reading the same historical and contemporary background sources. 

I wonder if your a priori assumptions about the costly ineffectiveness of government and the unfailing efficiencies of the free market are exactly and no more than that: philosophical positions you bring to the conversation, before the evidence is weighed and perhaps sometimes regardless of the evidence. 

The founders showed zero interest in reviving The Plymouth Company or inviting the Hudson Bay Company down to run the show for profit. They wrote the US Constitution in order to form a more perfect union of the states, to establish domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence and secure the blessings of liberty in perpetuity. They were — and I am —  convinced those things can be accomplished better by the government they formed (and reformed by the constitutional amendments they proposed and the states ratified two years later).

I don't think it's a big stretch, looking at what they said in those documents and the laws they enacted pursuant to those powers agreed upon by the states, to say they did not intend to relinquish their liberty to individuals and companies motivated by profit any more than to those motivated by the entitlements of royalty. 

Now It's Personal: The Costs of Repealing Health Reform

HealthCare.Gov is Up + Running

This week, HealthCare.gov went live.

Here's a fourish-minute video describing how to move around the site, which includes details on what's changing (and when) and current state-by-state availability of health coverage keyed to specific individual, business and family circumstances.

Health Care Reform | What Happens First

What are the day-to-day effects of the new health care law? See if you find anything that pertains to you in this list out today from Nancy-Ann DeParle, the Director of the White House Office of Health Reform...

• This year, children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. Once the new health insurance exchanges begin in the coming years, pre-existing condition discrimination will become a thing of the past for everyone.

• This year, health care plans will allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy up until their 26th birthday.

• This year, insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage. This year, restrictive annual limits on coverage will be banned for certain plans. Under health insurance reform, Americans will be ensured access to the care they need.

• This year, adults who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized high-risk pool.

• In the next fiscal year, the bill increases funding for community health centers, so they can treat nearly double the number of patients over the next five years.

• This year, we'll also establish an independent commission to advise on how best to build the health care workforce and increase the number of nurses, doctors and other professionals to meet our country's needs.  Going forward, we will provide $1.5 billion in funding to support the next generation of doctors, nurses and other primary care practitioners -- on top of a $500 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Health insurance reform will also curb some of the worst insurance industry practices and strengthen consumer protections:

• This year, this bill creates a new, independent appeals process that ensures consumers in new private plans have access to an effective process to appeal decisions made by their insurer.

• This year, discrimination based on salary will be outlawed. New group health plans will be prohibited from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that discriminate in favor of higher-wage employees.

• Beginning this fiscal year, this bill provides funding to states to help establish offices of health insurance consumer assistance in order to help individuals in the process of filing complaints or appeals against insurance companies.

• Starting January 1, 2011, insurers in the individual and small group market will be required to spend 80 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Insurers in the large group market will be required to spend 85 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Any insurers who don't meet those thresholds will be required to provide rebates to their policyholders.

• Starting in 2011, this bill helps states require insurance companies to submit justification for requested premium increases. Any company with excessive or unjustified premium increases may not be able to participate in the new health insurance exchanges.

Reform immediately begins to lower health care costs for American families and small businesses:

• This year, small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable.

• This year, new private plans will be required to provide free preventive care: no co-payments and no deductibles for preventive services. And beginning January 1, 2011, Medicare will do the same.

• This year, this bill will provide help for early retirees by creating a temporary re-insurance program to help offset the costs of expensive premiums for employers and retirees age 55-64.

• This year, this bill starts to close the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' by providing a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the gap in prescription drug coverage. And beginning in 2011, the bill institutes a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the 'donut hole.'

10 Things About Health Care Reform

1. Once reform is fully implemented, over 95% of Americans will have health insurance coverage, including 32 million who are currently uninsured. [2]

2. Health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny people coverage because of preexisting conditions—or to drop coverage when people become sick. [3]

3. Just like members of Congress, individuals and small businesses who can't afford to purchase insurance on their own will be able to pool together and choose from a variety of competing plans with lower premiums. [4]

4. Reform will cut the federal budget deficit by $138 billion over the next ten years, and a whopping $1.2 trillion in the following ten years. [5]

5. Health care will be more affordable for families and small businesses thanks to new tax credits, subsidies, and other assistance—paid for largely by taxing insurance companies, drug companies, and the very wealthiest Americans. [6]

6. Seniors on Medicare will pay less for their prescription drugs because the legislation closes the "donut hole" gap in existing coverage. [7]

7. By reducing health care costs for employers, reform will create or save more than 2.5 million jobs over the next decade. [8]

8. Medicaid will be expanded to offer health insurance coverage to an additional 16 million low-income people. [9]

9. Instead of losing coverage after they leave home or graduate from college, young adults will be able to remain on their families' insurance plans until age 26. [10]

10. Community health centers would receive an additional $11 billion, doubling the number of patients who can be treated regardless of their insurance or ability to pay. [11]

My US Representative, Brian Bilbray, voted against all this. [1]

Sources:

1. Final vote results on motion to concur in Senate amendments to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, March 21, 2010

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11. "Affordable Health Care for America: Summary," House Energy and Commerce Committee, March 18, 2010

4. "Insurance Companies Prosper, Families Suffer: Our Broken Health Insurance System," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Accessed March 22, 2010

5. "Affordable Health Care for America: Health Insurance Reform at a Glance: Revenue Provisions," House Energy and Commerce Committee, March 18, 2010

8. "New Jobs Through Better Health Care," Center for American Progress, January 8, 2010

9, 10. "Proposed Changes in the Final Health Care Bill," The New York Times, March 22, 2010

11. "Affordable Health Care for America: Health Insurance Reform at a Glance: Addressing Health and Health Care Disparities," House Energy and Commerce Committee, March 20, 2010

Research courtesy MoveOn.org

Health Care News: The Sky May Not Be Falling

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you can spare 12 minutes to consider the upside of the health care reform bill, you may be less apt to panic when someone who claims special knowledge tells you this is the end of the world as we know it.

Reconciliation + Lies

Here's something you will hear opponents of health care reform say this week:


They will say no significant legislation has been passed using the reconciliation process.


One of two things is true of people who say this:

1. They have been misled. 
2. They are misleading you.

When the majority party in Congress thinks something is important enough, they may resort to reconciliation to overcome obstructions by the minority party. For example:

• In 1985 a split Congress (Republicans controlled the Senate, Democrats controlled the House) thought uninterrupted health coverage was important enough to pass the COBRA legislation through reconciliation and President Ronald Reagan thought it was important enough to sign it (in spite of a number of flaws, at least some of which were made right in subsequent legislation).
• Majority Republicans thought passing tax cuts was important enough to override the objections of the minority Democrats using reconciliation three times from 2001 to 2008. A big chunk of the current deficit resulted from that level of commitment in the Republican-controlled Congress and President George W. Bush's willingness to sign those bills into law.
• A Democratic-controlled Congress agreed that making college-level education affordable—including regulating abuses in the college loan industry—was important enough to pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act through reconciliation in 2007? The Republican president agree and signed the bill into law. 

Just as they passed a suite of tax cuts through reconciliation no matter how many Americans would be hurt, in the present circumstance, minority Republicans have made it clear in a year of negotiations that they will obstruct health care reform no matter how many Americans will be helped, no matter how much the reform will reduce the federal deficit, no matter how sharp a competitive edge the measure provides to US businesses large and small.


It's about priorities. The Democratic congress and president think these benefits are worth refining and passing in reconciliation for the common good. 


Don't let the ignorant or devious mislead you about this.




image from peterme

What Robust Health Care Reform Will Mean

1. Ending the worst insurance company practices and outlawing discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
2. Reducing costs for people with insurance and making coverage more affordable for people without it today.
3. Setting up a new competitive insurance marketplace where small business owners and families can shop for the insurance plan that works best for them, giving them the same buying power and insurance choices as members of Congress.

Dear Senator Reid...

Senator,

I urge you to lead the Senate to deliver an intelligent and robust public option for health coverage.

Everyone from the Economic Policy Institute to the Business Roundtable agrees our healthcare coverage must be universal, portable, continuous and affordable for American workers in order to protect our citizens and stimulate competitive advantage for the US economy.

I am convinced bold leadership is the way forward for you, for the Democratic party and the American people.

I urge you to help your colleagues get where a majority of tax-paying, voting citizens already appear to be.

with kind regards and high expectations and hopes,

Jim Hancock

Senator Harry Reid is the Senate Majority Leader. You can tell the Senator what you think (even if you're not a Nevada resident) at info@harryreid.com.

Hawaii's Health Care Nightmare

The Apparent Trap

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Death Panels after all

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy