Obamacare cost...

[BigFatMeanie]

Explain this. So you have the catastrophic event, then you go sign up for insurance? In what world? I must be missing something.

* Start off with no insurance
* Catastrophic event = get diagnosed with cancer, or have a child diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, etc. Basically anything where you all of a sudden find out that you're going to need a crapload of health insurance.
* Sign up for insurance. Can't be denied due to pre-existing conditions.
* Get your cancer or CHD treated and covered under your newly obtained insurance.

QED

[SCcoug]

* Start off with no insurance
* Catastrophic event = get diagnosed with cancer, or have a child diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, etc. Basically anything where you all of a sudden find out that you're going to need a crapload of health insurance.
* Sign up for insurance. Can't be denied due to pre-existing conditions.
* Get your cancer or CHD treated and covered under your newly obtained insurance.

QED

You also have to wait for the next open enrollment period.

[BigFatMeanie]

You also have to wait for the next open enrollment period.

Fair enough. How frequently do open enrollment periods come along?

[The_Douger]

It's once a year at my employer's.

[il Padrino Ute]

So what's the issue here? I mean other than Obama being the great Satan, obviously. Are we to assume that the website design company is owned by some staffer's cousin or something?

Even worse. It's a Canadian tech firm.

[Moliere]

You also have to wait for the next open enrollment period.

Even from private insurers?

[Uncle Ted]

Even worse. It's a Canadian tech firm.

Take off you Hoser!: http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...=1#post1030684

[Uncle Ted]

It seems the dems are feeling the heat...

https://twitter.com/DanaBashCNN/stat...10100153352192

Dana Bash
@DanaBashCNN


new: senior dem source tells me to expect every sen dem running in 2014 to back @JeanneShaheen proposal to delay #ACA enrollment deadline

Democrat Tells Obama People Shouldn’t Be Penalized For Problematic Health Insurance Website

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Tuesday called for the Obama administration to consider extending the open enrollment period for the first year of the health care law’s implementation — and delaying the individual mandate tax — if the problems plaguing the HealthCare.gov website persist.


New Hampshire is one of the states that did not set up its own exchange, meaning Granite State residents are facing the full brunt of the “glitches.”


“Given the existing problems with the website, I urge you to consider extending open enrollment beyond the current end date of March 31, 2014. Allowing extra time for consumers is critically important so they have the opportunity to become familiar with the website, survey their options and enroll,” the Democrat wrote in a Tuesday letter to President Barack Obama.
[...]

http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/democ...idual-mandate/

[il Padrino Ute]

Take off you Hoser!: http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...=1#post1030684

I'm a hack and that video is hilarious.

[Jacob]

You also have to wait for the next open enrollment period.

Pretty sure you can sign up at any time. Coverage might not be effective till 1st of following month.

[Jacob]

Explain this. So you have the catastrophic event, then you go sign up for insurance? In what world? I must be missing something.

Just as was described above. You can't be denied coverage. It is not really insurance any more . The system makes zero spence, but they are still calling it insurance.

[Uncle Ted]

300k people in Florida get a cancellation notice from their insurance. Mine is also forthcoming. The net effect of this law in its first year will be less people on insurance.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stor...insurance.aspx

The article above also mentions 119,000 cancellation notices from Blue Shield of California...

Blue Shield of California sent roughly 119,000 cancellation notices out in mid-September, about 60 percent of its individual business. About two-thirds of those policyholders will see rate increases in their new policies, said spokesman Steve Shivinsky.

[Uncle Ted]

There is a huge shortage of primary-care physicians and specialist projected because of Obamacare... I wonder how that is going to save me $2500 in health insurance costs like Obama promised:

ObamaCare 2016: Happy Yet?

[...]


Even before the ACA's launch in 2013, many physicians—seeing the changes in their profession that lay ahead—had begun talking their children out of going to medical school. After the launch, compensation fell, while nothing in the ACA stopped lawsuits and malpractice premiums from rising. Doctors must now see many more patients each day to meet expenses, all while dealing with the mountains of paperwork mandated by the health-care law.

The forecast shortage of doctors has become a real problem. It started in 2014 when the ACA cut $716 billion from Medicare to accommodate 30 million newly "insured" people through an expansion of Medicaid. More important, the predicted shortage of 42,000 primary-care physicians and that of specialists (such as heart surgeons) was vastly underestimated. It didn't take into account the ACA's effect on doctors retiring early, refusing new patients or going into concierge medicine. These estimates also ignored the millions of immigrants who would be seeking a physician after having been granted legal status.


It is surprising that the doctor shortage was not better anticipated: After all, when Massachusetts mandated health insurance in 2006, the wait to see a physician in some specialties increased considerably, the shortage of primary-care physicians escalated and more doctors stopped accepting new patients. In 2013, the Massachusetts Medical Society noted waiting times from 50 days to 128 days in some areas for new patients to see an internist, for instance.


But doctor shortages are only the beginning.


Even before the ACA cut $716 billion from its budget, Medicare only reimbursed hospitals and doctors for 70%-85% of their costs. Once this cut further reduced reimbursements, and the ACA added stacks of paperwork, more doctors refused to accept Medicare: It just didn't cover expenses.


Then there is the ACA's Medicare (government) board that dictates and rations care, and the board has begun to cut reimbursements. Some physicians now refuse even to take patients over 50 years old, not wanting to be burdened with them when they reach Medicare age. Seniors aren't happy.


Medicaid in 2016 has similar problems. A third of physicians refused to accept new Medicaid patients in 2013, and with Medicaid's expansion and government cuts, the numbers of doctors who don't take Medicaid skyrocketed. The uninsured poor now have insurance, but they can't find a doctor, so essentially the ACA was of no help.


The loss of private practice is another big problem. Because of regulations and other government disincentives to self employment, doctors began working for hospitals in the early 2000s, leaving less than half in private practice by 2013. The ACA rapidly accelerated this trend, so that now very few private practices remain.

When doctors are employed like factory workers by hospitals, data from the Medical Group Management Association and others indicate, their productivity falls—sometimes by more than 25%. They see fewer patients and perform fewer timely procedures, exacerbating the troubles caused by physician shortages. Continuity of care also declines, since now a physician's responsibilities end when his shift is over.




[...]


It is also no wonder that three years ago members of Congress [and the president] got themselves exempted from the Affordable Care Act. They may have passed the law, but they're not stupid.


Dr. Allen, a pediatric heart surgeon, is a former professor and surgical director of the Children's Heart Institute in Houston.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...49642030106938

The Liberals will say that Obamacare is not prefect because they couldn't the republicans to go for a national healthcare system. I am guessing that will solve everything.

8idstgh.jpg

[Uncle Ted]

What a complete cluster.

http://onforb.es/1a24VaW

I think I figured out the problem. The government is just a little behind the times when it comes to technology so I pulled out my old Apple ][ computer and the Obamacare website is working now...

oregon-trail-dysentery_5.jpg

[Katy Lied]

So what's the issue here? I mean other than Obama being the great Satan, obviously. Are we to assume that the website design company is owned by some staffer's cousin or something?

Certain implementation decisions were purely political, not taking efficiency, effectiveness, or marketability into consideration. I think it can be likened to Bush's Iraq War. Since the Bush Administration hung their hats on the war, I'm sure some of the war-related decisions were purely political, and I'm sure some disgruntled soldiers had a lot to say about the war's implementation.

The Obama Administration hung their hats on the ACA, and some of their web site implementation decisions were purely political. Here are two simple examples that Uncle Ted has previously cited:

1. Normally the government will hire a managerial vendor who acts like a general contractor, hiring and coordinating and communicating between all the IT subcontractors. The Obama administration made the decision to act as its own general contractor to control the insertion of political strategies into the entire process. So we have a lot of government people involved in the web site design and implementation, from beginning to end. Government people who poorly understood the needs and timelines and importance of testing and other best practices.

2. Normally, web sites will furnish free quotes to people shopping their websites. So you can get a price for that urn you've been lusting after on antiquesrus.com. Even though the shipping and handling will differ depending upon your personal info (where you live, how fast you want it, etc) The obamacare web site was initially set up to furnish quotes this way. However, the quotes were coming in too high, because without personal information the web site could not reduce your premiums by the expected subsidies you might qualify for. The Obama Administration made the political decision to not allow the web site to provide any quotes unless the subsidies were calculated into the premium price, so they forced insurance shoppers to enter in a bunch of personal information, and then the obamacare website had to talk to other websites suchs as the IRS website, the Insurance Clearinghouse website, etc to verify the information. This resulted in a manitude increase on the demands of what the website had to do.

Like my earlier example from the Bush Administration, the insertion of political objectives, whether into a "market" or a war will create a lot of disincentives and inefficiencies. And I'm being equal opportunity here, not merely calling Obama the Great Satan.