Tag: Obamacare

‘Make America Sick Again’

Buck Banks

“It’s a world where health insurance companies are jacking up rates, Americans are losing benefits and illness is racking the nation,” Politico reports.

“This is the apocalyptic picture of America offered by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to describe how he sees the health-care landscape after Republicans gut Obamacare. And he has found a slogan — borrowing from perhaps the most successful branding campaigns in modern political history — that he hopes to turn against the GOP repeal plan: ‘Make America Sick Again.’”

You’re Going to Miss Obamacare

Trish
id-10032629
Photo by Graur Codrin

Depending on where you live, up to one in three of you could find yourselves without insurance if Republicans are able to follow through on their threat to repeal Obamacare.

Here’s the problem. Without the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obamacare’s official name, we would go back to allowing insurance companies to refuse to cover you if you ever had certain health problems. And it’s not just cancer or heart disease that falls into the “declinable pre-existing conditions” category. Do you, or does a loved one, have:

  • Arthritis or other inflammatory joint diseases
  • Diabetes
  • Kidney disease
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Obesity (defined as a body mass index of 30 or higher, such as 5’9″ person who weighs at least 203 pounds)
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Pending surgery
  • Pregnancy
  • Sleep anea
  • Stroke

[…]

Obamacare Has Insured 20 Million

Buck Banks

20 million

While the nation is transfixed with the spectacle of whether the Republican Party will nominate a racist demagogue who wants to repeal Obamacare and cut taxes for the rich, or a traditional conservative who wants to repeal Obamacare and cut taxes for the rich, it’s worth pausing to take note that Obamacare continues to make things much better. … In particular, in addition to surprisingly and historically low rates of health-care cost inflation, today the Department of Health & Human Services announces that a net 20 million people have now gained access to health insurance. — Jonathan Chait, in New York Magazine</h2>

Unexpected Obamacare Savings for Women Could Lead to Fewer Abortions

Trish

pregnancytest

The numbers are in for the Obamacare provision that ended women’s out-of-pocket expense for family planning, and they are huge, according to the policy journal Health Affairs, and quoted by Kaiser Health.

Women are saving a lot of money as a result of a health law requirement that insurance cover most forms of prescription contraceptives with no additional out-of-pocket costs…But the amount of those savings and the speed with which those savings occurred surprised researchers.

The study looked at out-of-pocket spending from nearly 800,000 women (sic) between the ages of 13 and 45 from January 2008 through June 2013. For most plans, the requirement began Aug. 1, 2012, or Jan. 1, 2013.

[…]

Jeb Bush Profited from Obamacare

Buck Banks

$462,013

Amount of profit Jeb Bush received on $441,203 worth of stock in Tenet Healthcare he acquired in May 2011 Bush’s financial endeavors “included serving as a paid director to the hospital company Tenet Healthcare, which backed President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The position invited questions for Mr. Bush, who as a candidate opposes the health care law. … Mr. Bush resigned from the Tenet board in 2014 when he was preparing for his presidential campaign,” according to the New York Times.

More than 80 Percent of Obamacare Enrollees Are Satisfied

Buck Banks

81%

Of those enrolled in ObamaCare plans are satisfied with their health insurance,The Hill reports. “The survey from the Commonwealth Fund, a health research group, found that 45 percent of people enrolled through ObamaCare’s marketplaces are “somewhat satisfied,” and 36 percent are “very satisfied.” Fifteen percent are not satisfied. ObamaCare also expanded Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, in states that agreed to accept the expansion — 29 so far. The survey finds that 93 percent of people enrolled in Medicaid are satisfied with their plans.”

Public Wants Supremes to Leave Obamacare Alone

Buck Banks

55% to 38%

Margin by which more people say the Supreme Court should not take action to block federal subsidies in states that didn’t set up their own exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. “Public opinion on providing subsidies splits in predictably partisan ways — but not overwhelmingly so. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (65 percent) say the court should not take action to block health insurance subsidies. Fifty-five percent of Republicans say the court should rule against the subsidies. Independents side with keeping subsidies, 57 percent to 36 percent.”