Obamacare’s health coverage programs remain works in progress, with 19 states continuing to refuse the law’s Medicaid expansion for the poorest uninsured and financial difficulties facing some major insurance companies participating in the exchange marketplaces where low- and middle-income households buy subsidized private insurance. But when it comes to covering the uninsured, the law has…
Tag: obamacare
TRP News – Progressive News & Information – June 29, 2015
TRP News with James Andre. This week Fast Track has passed and been sent to the President, the Islamic State turns one year old and calls for a month of disaster, SCOTUS hands down several important decisions including same sex marriage, the Iran talks overrun but are said to be near completion, and the politics…
$11 a month? Obamacare super-cheap for some, feds find
Bare-bones health insurance could cost just $11 a month for a family of four in Indianapolis on the federal governments new exchanges, which start serving customers next week. A similar family in New Orleans might pay as little as $23 a month, although they’d have to shell out $282 for a more generous “silver” plan,…
The Biggest Myth About Obamacare
When Congress wrote the law known as the Affordable Care Act, their idea was to maintain Americans current health coverage as much as possible, to boost consumer protections in the health insurance market for individuals, and to cover the uninsured. That doesnt mean all workers will keep what they have. The Congressional Budget Office predicts…
GOP Congressman Pushes For Obamacare Repeal: “This is not a Democracy”
Doug Collins, representative from Georgia came on Politics Nation and it was no surprise when he started spouting the typical one-sided nonsense about how they weren’t shutting down the government and were in fact funding the government – as long as it didn’t include the affordable care act. Nothing shocking there, but what may have…
Florida Among States Undercutting Health Care Enrollment
As many states prepare to introduce a linchpin of the 2010 health care law — the insurance exchanges designed to make health care more affordable — a handful of others are taking the opposite tack: They are complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about the new program. Chief among them is Florida, where Gov. Rick…
48 Million Americans Remain Uninsured, Census Bureau Reports
The rate of uninsured Americans dropped slightly for the second consecutive year in 2012, from 15.7 percent to 15.4 percent, largely a result of more people enrolling in Medicare and Medicaid, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The closely-watched report found that about 48 million Americans were uninsured in 2012, down from 48.6 million in…
Republicans Like The Affordable Care Act More Than Obamacare
Republicans like the 2010 health care law better when its called by its proper name — the Affordable Care Act — instead of Obamacare, according to a new Fox News poll. Republican support for the law jumped eight percent, from 14 percent for Obamacare to 22 percent for the Affordable Care Act, when pollsters…
The GOP’s dangerous Obamacare strategy
In today’s New York Times, Jonathan Weisman and Robert Pear report on a peculiar problem faced by the Affordable Care Act: Republicans who’re unable to repeal it also refuse to permit any tweaks or technical correction that would help it work better. In fact, they’re creating new problems by withholding implementation funds. This is…
Medicaid Opinions: Several State Leaders Come In For Heat For Not Moving Toward Expansion
Editorials and columnists in several papers around the country pressed officials toward accepting a Medicaid expansion and offered suggestions about implementation. Also, comments continued about a recent study on Medicaid. Los Angeles Times: A Public Health Compromise For California The Legislature is poised to offer health insurance to millions of additional low-income Californians, with…
Expanding Medicaid Would Save Florida $100 Million Per Year
Obama has won re-election and the health law’s implementation is marching forward, Scott has showed some signs that he may consider softening his stance. And a new report from Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute could give him even more reason to do, since it concludes that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion would save Florida about $100 million…
Report: Mitt Romney plan leaves 72M uninsured
Mitt Romney’s health care plan wouldn’t just insure fewer people than “Obamacare” — it would make the uninsured problem worse than it would have been if the law had never passed, according to a comparison of the two plans released Tuesday morning. The analysis by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health care research foundation,…
Many states not prepared for health-care law
Participating states must set up a call center as well as a Web site that allows people to easily find and understand health plans, in much the way that Orbitz and Travelocity help people find airline flights. Moreover, many Republican-led states resisted the exchanges in the hope that the Supreme Court would strike the health…
Health Insurance To Provide Easy-To-Understand Plan Summaries
On Monday, a health law provision goes into effect that requires insurance companies to provide user-friendly guides that provide explanations of plan benefits that will be as clear and easy to understand as the nutrition facts provided on food packages. Reuters: Health Insurers Begin To Provide User-Friendly Plan Guides The Obama administration on Monday began…
Top Insurance Lobbyist: Obamacare Is Already Encouraging Greater Efficiency In Health Care
In a Medicare Advantage hearing before the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee on Friday, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President Karen Ignagni confirmed that Obamacare is encouraging health care providers and private insurers to adjust their business models, just as the law was intended to do. Although Ignagni noted that some of Obamacare’s provisions…
U.S. state officials in stealth mode on health exchanges
Republicans working on exchanges have been accused of party disloyalty, and that opposition has intensified after the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in late June. In Colorado, Tea Party members tried to expunge Republican Amy Stephens for co-sponsoring exchange legislation. In Michigan, the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity circulated petitions to kill…
States Watch Calif. As It Builds Exchange; Red State Officials Wrestle With Opposition To Law And Need To Implement It
News outlets report on both the progress and difficulties states are facing as they attempt to establish health exchanges and meet other health law requirements. Meanwhile, Vermont is hoping to move beyond the federal law as it tries to set up a single-payer system. The New York Times: California Tries To Guide The Way On…
Romneys Shifting Stance On Health Law Makes Waves
The GOP presidential nominee’s comments Sunday that he would keep parts of the health law triggered questions about how he would cover those with pre-existing conditions, and reinforced doubts within his own party about his commitment to repealing the overhaul. Campaign aides attempted to clarify the comments. The New York Times: It Will Be Tricky…
STUDY: Obamacare Led To Record Drop In Uninsured Young Adults
According to the National Health Interview Survey, 33.9 percent of people between the ages of 19 and 25 lacked health insurance in 2010. The following year, after the Obamacare provision had taken effect, that number dropped to 27.9 percent. By the CDC’s estimates, that means 1.6 million young people gained coverage between 2010 and 2011,…
The Health Care Law is Saving Americans Money
Last September, we also put in place new rules that ensure that every single rate increase of 10 percent or more is reviewed on either the state or federal level. For the first time, we have been able to guarantee Americans that no matter what state they live in, insurers will no longer be able…