affordable care act

[jmccaskill]

I think the most telling thing that states the real condition of this debacle is what the Obama people and and Obama himself are putting out now. First, Obama has changed around his lies, still lies but has 'adjusted' them to fit the current conditions of people's reactions to his first set of lies. Then, the administration will not release the true data on sign ups and the like... and be certain is they were anything but totally dismal they would be finding a way to hype things as a great success!

Be ready for the 'Ultimate Solution' which is sure to be promoted in the not to distant future... Single Payer healthcare... yeah boy, that will fix it all!! YIKES!!

[lvstephanie]

That is socialism, regardless of whether or not the insurance companies are still private.

Beautiful!  You basically say "it's socialism even though it isn't"   Just like the people that say "this is unconstitutional even though the supreme court says it isn't"

Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

It seems that you are mistaken about the definition of "Socialism"... When people say that the ACA is "socialist", they do not mean that it is full out Marxist / economic communist, but rather that the state has regulated the industry to such a point that these privately owned companies cannot function in a true free market, esp. when these regulations are designed for the best for the collective rather than for the individual.

There are other ways to address the problems in our health care industry that would be more in-line with a capitalist rather than a socialist market. For example one of the main platforms that the ACA addresses is coverage for pre-existing conditions. One of the main reasons why people fall foul of this clause in insurance policies is that the health insurance is tied to a person's employer rather than by the individual being covered. Then if that person loses their job, they also lose their insurance benefits, and so when they do get insurance once again, some conditions that were covered by their previous policy will now be classified as pre-existing. If however the policy was tied to the individual, then when that person loses his / her job, (s)he won't also lose their insurance coverage. Perhaps there'd need to be a law requiring automatic renewability (meaning that as long as a person pays their premiums, then the insurer cannot drop that person), which is the case in most states that require auto insurance (so that the auto insurance company cannot drop someone when they get into an accident). This way the insured person wouldn't be considered to have a "pre-existing" condition relative to their employment status, yet for those that clause would still be in place for the case where the person decides not to get insurance (and thus haven't been paying into the insurer's pool) until after they have been diagnosed with some condition that has many medical expenses associated with it. This would be more in-line with car insurance where an insurer won't pay for anything that happened to the car before the car was insured.

Likewise I could also see if the ACA only required major medical insurance coverage instead of the broadly scoped coverage that it currently requires. Thus people would be able to better shop around for a plan more suitable for themselves. Then a young person may choose to only get that coverage and waive coverage for routine doctor visits (and just pay out-of-pocket for those rare occasions when they need to see a doctor for a non-life threatening issue).

I'm actually disappointed with both parties... It seems that the ACA is too socialistic (or "federally regulated", if you'd rather term it as such), which is in part why the insurance companies had to raise their premiums in order to continue to function under all of these new unfunded mandates. Yet the Republicans seem to have no good alternatives and tend to want to dismantle the ACA wholecloth and just go with the status quo. I'd have more respect for the parties if they weren't so partisan on this issue... If the democrats in congress had spent more time when the law was being devised instead of trying to ram the law through passage saying that we won't know what's in the bill until after we've passed the bill. And if the republicans had been more assertive in having an alternative plan, esp. during the government shutdown.

[heypeg]

I don't think it will even be possible to sign up. Hopefully no one ever will.

[6265AT99]

I never will!!!!!  WAKE UP PEOPLE - IT'S JUST ANOTHER WAY TO KEEP THE POPULATION UNDER THE GOVERNMENTS' THUMB!!!!!!!!!!  DON'T BE STUPID AND SIGN UP FOR THIS CRAP!!   IT'S THE FIRST STEP TO CONTROLLING EVERYTHING YOU AND I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!   THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO BUSINESS IN HEALTHCARE AND EVEN IF THEY DID - YOU WOULD BE A FOOL TO FALL FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lguzman1]

I have medical i don't thing we need to sign up, but I still wonder about it. 

[jmccaskill]

I think we (as a people) are at the point of rebellion on this matter. Civil disobedience is about the only means left to US citizens to fight this attempted take over of EVERY aspect of out lives. It seems many are just flat refusing to sign up and participate in Obamacare and that is the death nail in the coffin of this garbage.

Obama is now lying about his previous lies, he has become a laughing stock because MOST people are finally seeing him as he really is and not what the main stream press has hyped him to be. His dishonesty has become so apparent that no rational person can believe a thing he says now. His grand design has been pushed as far as it can be and I believe he is the lamest lame duck president the US has ever seen.

rant over...
 

[mandismuses]

Honestly, I HAVE government health care. After almost dying two years ago and needing constant checking on some health issues, I got put on Medicaid. Hardly no doctors accept it. When they do, you are basically a piece of meat, crammed into a waiting room with 40 other people. You're stacked in at 10 minutes a person per appointment, if one runs over everyone runs over. There are times I've sat in a doctors office for 5 hours waiting for an appointment that I was ON TIME for. Major surgeries? Forget about it, I've needed an abscess removed for a year now that is causing significant loss of function in my left arm, which happens to be my dominant one. Medicaid says it's not medically necessary and I can't get it taken care of. No surgeon will touch me. In tears, I even offered to make a payment plan and pay on my own. Nope, with medicaid it's not possible to subsidize that way or they'd kick you off of medicaid and assume you have funds hiding somewhere. Most medications ARE covered, but they are incredibly strict about brands, dosage, refills, etc. If even a single item is different, it gets bounced back and you have to go through yet another appointment to find another option. This happens a good 4-5 times before you find something that works AND insurance will pay for.

If I had literally ANY other options, I'd take it. My health has gotten fundamentally worse with government healthcare, not better. If the ACA could help any of these issues, that would be one thing. But my dad works construction for million-dollar golf course homes. Many are owned by doctors. Out of 20-25 clients that are physicians or surgeons, 6 are retiring. 10 are scaling back office hours and how many patients they can accept. 3 are selling their homes and downsizing because they won't be able to afford to stay where they are. If even the doctors are running for the hills, shouldn't we as a nation be worried?

[tashamjoy]

No I am under my dads insurance I figured he would handle this or let me know if anything changes... I dont know if thats bad but he handles that and I dont understand this stuff!!

[kapeh12]

No I am under my dads insurance I figured he would handle this or let me know if anything changes... I dont know if thats bad but he handles that and I dont understand this stuff!!

Just because you are on your father's insurance plan now, doesn't mean you'll be on it forever.  Eventually you'll need to get your own insurance once you are no longer eligible to stay on your father's plan.

I suggest taking this opportunity to ask your father about how to shop for insurance.  Use the online sign-ups and enter your information to get quotes from various sites so you know how much you'll have to spend to afford the now required health insurance.

Also, don't assume your future employer will cover your insurance premiums.  Most businesses will provide health insurance coverage, only they will pay a portion of the premium, and you are still subject to paying the balance out of your salary (granted this is typically pre-tax dollar which helps).

In my case, what I'd have to spend out of my salary was about the same as I would have to spend out-of-pocket to get my own insurance, so I opted out of my employer's medical coverage and went with my own years back - that way I got much better coverage than what my employer was providing for basically the same price.

Since you are currently covered, now is the perfect time to educate yourself so you are prepared when you have to go it alone.

[greenthumbjan]

I don't see any difference yet. 

[jongarton]

First let me state the fact of the moment: Healthcare is expensive! I have not signed up yet but when I have probably more time to wait on a slow inaccurate system to figure out if it wants to work or not is when I will sign up. There may have been a few actually sign up by now but when your first day number of acceptance was 6 signed up I knew at that point we as Americans were in some serious trouble. I am a college student who in the long run may benefit but at this time it would probably be a waste of time and resources in trying to get on the site only to have the service interruptions that come with a poorly designed and legally bound contractual obligation such as the affordable care act. In my opinion that should have been an option for those without any type of insurance not a MUST have regulation for those who already had insurance. There are people who are losing the insurance they had and cannot afford the supposed "affordable care act"

[dancer139]

it is a bunch of crap.   i did the application.   i'm on unemployment,,,  it stops in January of 2014.  I will have no income of my own.  ( still looking for a job).  the web site of this "affordable care act"  told me that I don't qualify for "medicade" and sent to to look at insurance plans with the monthly cost of 450.00 a month and up.

I think something is wrong with that picture !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Falconer02]

The prices vary from state-to-state. I'm on a blue cross blue shield silver plan with no dental coverage and I pay 190$ a month now, so at the moment I'm okay since I'm actually paying less than I was (220+$/mo). I think everyone who's complaining about the gov't website being down is uninformed that you can go to actual health insurance websites and sign up through them. Don't rely on the gov't to take care of you. Do your own research and work and most of the time you'll be better off.

[potluck6]

we pay about 460.00 a month for 3 people now if I can get it cheaper even 100.00 or so would sign up .Don't have any idea how hard it will be to sign up might try not sure. actually we pay 500.00 a month for got about dental and eye care.

[bud1]

I be  damned  before  I  get on  Obamascare.  He  forced  this  crap  on  us.  He  said " we would be  able  to  keep  our  insurance", which  was  a  bunch of  .  I hope  the  people who  voted  for  this a**hole  votes him out.