Tag: Affordable Care Act

Clinton Sums Up the Political Media

Buck Banks

If a policymaker is a political leader and is covered primarily by the political press, there is a craving that borders on addictive to have a storyline,” Clinton said. “And then once people settle on the storyline, there is a craving that borders on blindness to shoehorn every fact, every development, every thing that happens into the story line, even if it’s not the story.

— Bill Clinton, quoted by the Washington Post.

Obamacare Almost Impossible to Repeal Now

Buck Banks

If you want to say the further and further this gets down the road, the harder and harder it gets to repeal, that’s absolutely true. As far as repeal and replace goes, the problem with replace is that if you really want people to have these new benefits, it looks a hell of a lot like the Affordable Care Act.

— GOP congressional aide, quoted by TPM, on the increasing difficulty of ever repealing Obamacare.

ACA Enrollment Tops 5 Million Mark

Buck Banks

5 million

People have signed up for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration announced. The AP reports: “That still leaves about 1 million to go over the next two weeks for the White House to meet its latest goal of 6 million enrolled by March 31. That would work out to more than 70,000 people a day. And some independent analysts say that’s a stretch.”

Pres. Obama’s ‘Between Two Ferns’ Interview Has Upset Republicans – Because It’s Working

Jon Ponder

Republicans say they are agitated that Pres. Obama went on Zach Galifinakis’ fake interview show, “Between Two Ferns,” to promote the Affordable Care Act because he should be spending all of his time on the crisis in the Crimea — never mind that George H.W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of Kuwait, took his cigarette boat out for a spin during the Gulf War.

What they’re actually upset about is the fact that episodes of “Between Two Ferns” often get about 13 million page views and its viewers skew young, compared with the 2 million old folks who watch O’Reilly on Fox, the top rated cable news show, on a given night. And it appears that Obama’s appearance is working — USA Today: Healthcare.gov gets traffic boost after Obama’s ‘Funny or Die’ video:

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$27 Million Down the Drain? Doh!

Trish

Bad news for whoever is writing the checks at Americans for Prosperity (AFP). The Koch brothers’ political organization has spent $27 million since last August, with millions more planned, on ads attacking Senate Democrats who voted for healthcare reform and who are up for re-election this year.

A new poll shows they are likely wasting that cash.

Poll: Support for candidates who voted for the health-care law has improved dramatically

Support for candidates who voted for the health-care law has improved dramatically in recent months, a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday shows.

The survey found respondents almost exactly split on the question of whether they would be more or less likely to vote for a congressional candidate who supports the Affordable Care Act, with 34% saying they would be more likely to vote for the candidate and 36% saying they would be less likely to do so. Some 27% said it would not make a difference.

That’s a significant jump in support levels from November—a month after the troubled launch of HealthCare.gov, the federal insurance exchange that serves 36 states—when just 21% said a candidate’s support for the law would make them more likely to vote for them, compared to 37% who said it would make them less likely to do so. A much larger percentage—40%—were indifferent.

AFP’s ads are termed “misleading” by neutral fact-checkers, and “absolutely false” by Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

The organization put all its eggs in the “Obamacare will be hated” basket so if the public approves of the reforms and the costs of coverage decrease, the Kochs lose. Some Republicans have sniffed the wind and moved away from criticizing Pres. Obama over the Affordable Care Act to criticizing him over every other initiative instead.

One in Five Obamacare Enrollees Failed to Pay Premium

Buck Banks

20%

Of people who signed up for health insurance under the new health care law failed to pay their premiums on time and therefore did not receive coverage in January, the New York Times reports. “People could have many reasons for not paying their premiums. Some decided they did not want a health plan for which they had applied. Some never received an invoice from the insurance company, or received it late. In addition, phone lines of some health plans were overwhelmed.”

International Group Accidently Provides Evidence that Obamacare is the Best Health System

Trish

If you want to live a long life, don’t come to America. According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the average lifespan of people in the United States is only 78.7 years, putting us at number 26 among the OECD’s 34 member nations. But thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the research shows there is hope for Americans in the future.

The Wall St. Journal recently looked at the new OECD study, and counted down the top five countries.

  • #5: Spain — Life expectancy of 82.4 years, even with a low gross domestic product of only $33,000 per capita
  • #4: Iceland — Life expectancy is also 82.4 years, and Iceland is third lowest in smoking rates and last in diabetes
  • #3: Japan — Life expectancy is 82.7 years, thanks to very low rates of heart disease and obesity
  • #2: Italy — Life expectancy is also 82.7 years, yet Italians spend only $3,000 per capita on health care
  • #1: Switzerland — Life expectancy of 82.8 years, but third highest in spending on health care (you already know who spends the most). Switzerland is the only country on the list that does not provide single-payer, universal access to health care. Instead, it uses a system very like the Affordable Care Act that requires citizens to buy a health plan. Doh!