Discussion for article #230100
I think there are a lot of people who want to delicately say Americans aren’t too bright when it comes to public policy (not at all curious about issues, they want something that is very easy to think about, and shut off any explanation that goes beyond that 10 second time limit), government economic issues (the state is not run anything like a family), and the voting public (this past election of voting Progressive for policies and for pols who won’t even consider voting for those policies) when only 1/3rd of those who took the time to register to vote even went to the polls to fill out a ballot. Its difficult to disagree with Gruber on that point.
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He was describing voters in IA, KY, NC, AK, LA, FL, WI, KS…ahhh, fuckit. My fingers hurt.
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“Obamacare” is working here:
Health insurance rates decline for 2015
Key grafs:
This year, less unpaid medical services and increased competition and transparency were the major factors that drove down prices, Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali said of the approved rates released today.
In the past, when a patient was unable to pay for their health care because they weren’t insured or their insurance didn’t cover the services, the losses were passed on to the private insurance members, Cali said.
However, with more people with insurance and more comprehensive coverage due to the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are reporting less uncompensated care. While some insurance companies didn’t factor this into their rate proposals, Cali said, the Oregon Insurance Division made sure all consumers benefited from it.
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Dylan Scott should read Brian Beutler’s post on this matter in The New Republic. Beutler used to write for TPM. He is a much better writer now.
He pretty much confirms what the White House is saying.
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The last thing I want is to read Brian Beutler. So magically his writing improved when he changed jobs - so does that mean he had instructions from his bosses @ TPM to write shit stories at TPM?
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Maybe someone proofreads his work now.
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There was a great article in the NYT yesterday entitled Is the ACA Working and it breaks down every aspect.of the pros and cons and the misconceptions and misperceptions. One thing that was really interesting is that while a lot of people were able to get lower Premiums they also had much higher deductibles and as a result couldn"t meet there deductibles and had higher out of pocket costs. Some folks who were Kicked Out of their plans are understandably pissed.
The one thing is the insurance companies are the biggest winners and even thought they are making m ey, they would just as well go back to the old way so they don’t have to honor the restrictions and regulations. Once again, how the fuck did the lawyers and orofessionals writing this law do a better job of crossing ts and fitting i’s.
This guy owes the White House, and the public an apology.
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Just saying . . .
~OGD~
He finally had the sense to escape from the shitpile he was buried under at Salon/Slate?
Some time back, I believe travel warnings to foreign visitors indicated that the USA was an unstable country politically.
I looked, very hard. Sure, premiums for the blue chips coverage seem high, as compared to any other single buyer plan but Grassley, Bacaus and Nelson sucked enough AMA and Insurance coc_ to populate a small city.
If one had not the sense to drive to individual physician’s office and button hole the controller to see what coverage they would accept, then tough shit when they don’t do their homework.
I am sick of hearing relatives bitch about the ACA and what they shell out now to cover a family of three.
Invariably, they are wealthy enough but, simply cheap.
COBRA, cost as much or more than the top tier plans and with a PEC, choices are now legal.
One of these relatives, seems to forget that being diagnosed with Lupus, means NO insurance if it were not for the ACA.
High deductibles, yep, been the way of the world for me anyway, and I’m glad to have it, even on a very tight budget I eventually paid off the hospital.
Most folks have employer coverage anyway, so the GOP thinks they can cut the cord and let poor people fend for themselves.
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Obamacare is working for me. The money I saved in premiums this year literally paid for a new roof on my house.
Never in my life has a President made a more positive impact on me personally
(well, perhaps save the one who ended the draft – but he was the same one that extended the Vietnam War to get reelected, so shall remain nameless.)
That said, and having voted for him twice, I feel eminently qualified to give Obama hell when he deserves it. In fact, if we recall, that’s precisely what he asked us to do when he won his first term.
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How dare that, like, Guber guy says I’m stupid?! I, like, know every name of the Kardashian sisters., for instance. And if one of them, like, runs for office, I will actually, like, register to vote for her.
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Apples to apples, Chammy, the deductibles are aligned with the services’ provided. In the end, hospitals are no longer treating uninsured people and that is by far the biggest immediate benefit to the entire actuarial pool. Without the bottom being covered, the top would not see the benefits that are accruing to it now. (See Lestaldec) The biggest long term actuarial benefits will come as the newly insured begin to embrace wellcare practices designed to reduce diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, which costs you and me a fortune in real dollars today. Another thing. Obamacare is good for business. Everyone gets paid and the dollars are “smart dollars” not “emergency room dollars”.
Americans are uninformed by design. And, no, we are not at all curious about issues, despite the wealth of available insight and analysis out there. Our attention span has been deliberately limited to the 30 seconds an advertising message can take hold. So, yeah, many of us are innocently stupid. The uninformed disgruntled, those hardest hit by policy, too often hide in apathy, expresing their displeasure by refusing to participate. They really do not understand that standing on the sidelines allows those who actively work against their best interests to run the show.
But many of us are also maliciously stupid, driven by bigotry and selfishness. The more intelligent have access to all manner of disingenuous “conservative” and libertarian arguments to poison the public well. The most maligicous have access to Breitbart and Beck and Limbaugh and Faux and their own politicians to heighten nihilistic irrationality, successfully smothering the inherent decency of the average individual.
Meanwhile NPR and much of corporate MSM offers “he said, she said” in devastatingly shallow and very short “analysis”.
It seems to me only two things might decide our course into the long slow death of functional democracy. Sufficient numbers of people retain enough inherent decency to reject nihilism, finally recognize its role in furthering the undemocratic alliance of political corruption & corporate oligarchy. Or we are awakened by crisis, which could take a very bad turn indeed.
It’s our job to advocate the possibilities of the former, even if it seems nobody hears us.
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Not qualified to critique Beutler’s writing (he seemed to get his ideas across just fine to me, but I have no professional creds of any kind), but I was always impressed by his insight. He could always look at a situation and pull back the curtain to show the interlocking parts. New Republic seems a good fit for him.
Hopefully these people are those who didn’t vote in the last election.
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