The sabotage of obamacare begins.

[Max_Polo]

So are you suggesting that slashing the government's healthcare advertising budget won't have much effect on enrollments?

If so, Trump won't be happy about *that*!

IDGAF what Trump thinks about the effect of advertising. I do GAF about spending the money in the first place, effective or not.

 

[Klingsor]

IDGAF what Trump thinks about the effect of advertising. I do GAF about spending the money in the first place, effective or not.

One would think the efficacy would be the important question.

 

[Max_Polo]

One would think the efficacy would be the important question.

Not in this case as far as applied to me.

I would support neither effective nor ineffective advertising for walking backward in the middle of the freeway as recreation.

I am fundamentally opposed to Obamacare, not because it's inherently a bad idea (though that is not settled of course). My primary beef is the lying and fraud perpetrated in its passage. So I don't want my money spent to advertise for Aetna to sell insurance policies that I then have to pay for, mandated by a law that I not only do not support, but find entirely fraudulent.

I know these videos are awfully graphic, but they are a great reminder why many Americans are so angry about Obamacare.

 

[Klingsor]

I am fundamentally opposed to Obamacare, not because it's inherently a bad idea (though that is not settled of course). My primary beef is the lying and fraud perpetrated in its passage.

For me, the important question is how well Obamacare works. I'd say it's in many ways a significant improvement over where we were before, but nonetheless deeply flawed, mostly because it still leaves us in the grip of private health insurance companies.

I would fully support "repeal and replace"--but only by something better. Right now that doesn't appear likely.

 

[Max_Polo]

For me, the important question is how well Obamacare works. I'd say it's in many ways a significant improvement over where we were before, but nonetheless deeply flawed, mostly because it still leaves us in the grip of private health insurance companies.

I would fully support "repeal and replace"--but only by something better. Right now that doesn't appear likely.

We will be in the grip of private health insurance companies for the foreseeable future. And until we stop paying for quantity of care rather than quality, we're going to get quantity and not quality.

That said, the legislative fraud is maddening...

 

[Industrialsize]

Not in this case as far as applied to me.

I would support neither effective nor ineffective advertising for walking backward in the middle of the freeway as recreation.

I am fundamentally opposed to Obamacare, not because it's inherently a bad idea (though that is not settled of course). My primary beef is the lying and fraud perpetrated in its passage. So I don't want my money spent to advertise for Aetna to sell insurance policies that I then have to pay for, mandated by a law that I not only do not support, but find entirely fraudulent.

I know these videos are awfully graphic, but they are a great reminder why many Americans are so angry about Obamacare.

How is the ACA fraudulent

 

[Max_Polo]

How is the ACA fraudulent

Obamacare is fraudulent because:

Taxes started years before benefits to make math more palatable. Simple fraud.
Budget plan to decrease Medicare spending by $800B to make the math more palatable. Entirely unrealistic given growing Medicare population and increasing cost per beneficiary.
"If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."
"The average family will save $____."

And, see Gruber video above. He said very clearly that honesty would have been unsuccessful so sleight of hand was employed because American voters are stupid. Doesn't that arrogance make even your hair stand on end?

 

[Klingsor]

Taxes started years before benefits to make math more palatable. Simple fraud.

I'm not sure I follow. Have my Social Security and Medicare taxes also been a fraud all this time? Haven't seen a penny of benefit from those.

 

[Max_Polo]

I'm not sure I follow. Have my Social Security and Medicare taxes also been a fraud all this time? Haven't seen a penny of benefit from those.

But when those programs were created, that was very clearly the system - you pay in while working and (theoretically) see benefit when you retire. The timing of taxes and benefits in this case was a temporary fiction to make the total cost look lower than it actually will be in the long term. Fraud.

 

[Klingsor]

But when those programs were created, that was very clearly the system - you pay in while working and (theoretically) see benefit when you retire. The timing of taxes and benefits in this case was a temporary fiction to make the total cost look lower than it actually will be in the long term. Fraud.

Then by all means, take the true cost into account when proposing a better alternative. That's only fair.

 

[Max_Polo]

Then by all means, take the true cost into account when proposing a better alternative. That's only fair.

Of course. But don't hold your breath for that to happen on either side of the aisle. Cue Jonathan Gruber and colleagues, they "know" voters are stupid and will continue to exploit that as often as they can.

 

[Klingsor]

Of course. But don't hold your breath for that to happen on either side of the aisle. Cue Jonathan Gruber and colleagues, they "know" voters are stupid and will continue to exploit that as often as they can.

Can't help you with that. That's a bigger-than-Obamacare problem.

 

[Industrialsize]

This is the most brazen act of Obamacare sabotage yet
Trump has quietly stopped funding Obamacare’s outreach budget.
Updated by Sarah Kliffsarah@vox.com Sep 8, 2017, 8:00am EDT
The Trump administration has let funding for Obamacare’s $63 million in-person outreach program lapse, leading to layoffs and confusion among nonprofits that enroll vulnerable populations in coverage.

“I have delivered 10 layoff notices to staff members,” says Donna Friedsam, director of Covering Wisconsin. “We don’t have a funding flow anymore.”

The government had previously announced it would cut the budget for Obamacare’s navigator program by 41 percent. But right now, the program has no funding at all. Last year’s grants ran out on September 1, and the administration still has not awarded next year’s money.

The sudden funding halt comes at a critical time for the Affordable Care Act. Navigator groups were just beginning to ramp up outreach for the health law’s open enrollment period, which begins November 1. Now, some have done an about-face: They’ve canceled outreach work and appointments with potential enrollees because they have no budget to cover those costs.

These groups often work with the most vulnerable populations enrolled under the Affordable Care Act. One-third of those who seek in-person help signing up for coverage do not have internet at home, and one in 10 do not speak English.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/8/16268572/trump-obamacare-navigators

 

[Industrialsize]

Trump wanted to hurt the Obamacare markets. The CBO says he's a success.
Having failed to repeal Obamacare, President Donald Trump has said his strategy would be to let the health law "implode."
The Congressional Budget Office released a report Thursday that predicts Trump administration policies on Obamacare could help it on its way by leading to rising premiums and decreased enrollment in individual insurance markets over the next year.
Without calling the administration by name, the report names several policies the White House is pushing when explaining why average Obamacare premiums will increase substantially in 2018.
Uncertainty about cost-sharing subsidies the government pays to insurance companies -- which Trump has repeatedly said he may withhold -- are mentioned by the CBO's report as a significant driver of higher costs for the insured. The failure to promise these payments, along with reductions in advertising to inform people about the markets and employees who sign-up enrollees, can only "push enrollment down," the report says.
For 2026, the agencies' projection of the number of people obtaining subsidized coverage through the marketplaces is now 4 million smaller, and the projected number of uninsured people 3 million larger, than they were in CBO's March 2016 baseline projections
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/20170915-cbo-insured-rate-uncertainty-premiums/index.html

 

[Industrialsize]

Latest ACA Repeal Plan Would Explode Premiums for People with Pre-Existing Conditions
A bad bill is about to get even worse. Just before recess, in an effort to revive the American Health Care Act, or AHCA, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and congressional Republicans proposed a plan for an “invisible risk pool.” And today, word has leaked that the pool is part of a broader plan to allow insurers in the individual market to charge a premium markup for enrollees with pre-existing conditions, with the pool put forth as a way to offset the premium increases resulting from the rest of the plan. Even before these changes, the AHCA would have thrown 24 million people off of their coverage to pay for massive tax cuts for the rich. Ryan’s most recent attempt to alter the bill would be even more harmful. Enrollees could see premium increases of tens of thousands of dollars, and the proposed invisible risk pool would shave only a tiny sliver off these increased costs for the sickest consumers.

CALL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS! US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121

 

[b.c.]

In my state's last Senate race, Bill Cassidy unseated a woman, Senator Mary Landrieu, who had worked tirelessly on behalf of the state of Louisiana AND its citizenry for a decade.

And how'd he do it? By running a dog whistle campaign against the black guy in the White House. "I'll stand up to Obama," his ad said. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself:

Louisiana Senate Campaign Ads, Nov 25 2014 | Video | C-SPAN.org

And he won. In a state where people were hurting under Bobby-fkng-Jindal's pro wealthy, pro business plans of austerity, and in spite of the REPUBLICAN obstructionism that prevented 400,000 Louisianians from getting healthcare, and in spite of Cassidy's support in Congress for measure after measure that favored the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

And in spite of his bullshit assurances to proteck sick kids, he has since endorsed Republican efforts to gut the ACA, to replace it with a shit plan, as well as having rubber stamped just about every fkng thing else that comes from Trump and Co.

Sen. Bill Cassidy betrays sick kids, fails the ‘Jimmy Kimmel test’ | Something Like the Truth

Now this a------ipe is co-author of a bill that, according to several analyses, promises to be an even WORSE piece of legislation than the p.o.s. plans the GOP FAILED to pass. For example, THIS, from the much esteemed consumer advocacy group, Consumer's Union, policy and action arm of Consumer Reports Magazine and consumerreports.org:

CU Letter to U.S. Senate Opposing Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Bill | Consumers Union
CU-Opposes-Graham-Heller-9-18-17-FINAL.pdf

Others are voicing their concerns as well:

Dems call for action against Cassidy-Graham ObamaCare repeal | TheHill
Graham-Cassidy repeals Obamacare but doesn't really replace it
Bill Cassidy tweets AARP about his disastrous Trumpcare bill and it totally backfires on him


But then again this is what happens when you put s------ in office for all the WRONG reasons.

 

[b.c.]

How's THIS for GALL? Republicans, the ones who FUCKED their own constituency by blocking Medicaid expansion in their respective states, are now trying to shift more medicaid funding to the states in which THEY blocked Medicaid:

Republicans Think It’s Unfair How States That Expanded Medicaid Are Getting More Medicaid Funding

"... there’s a very obvious, good reason why... four states receive a disproportionate share of Obamacare’s funding today: They expanded Medicaid. That’s pretty much the whole answer.

Meanwhile most red-state governors decided to treat health care policy like an Appalachian blood feud and refused the money the Obama administration all but begged them to take."

"... it’s worth remembering that the federal government offered every single state the same match rate for Medicaid expansion enrollees. All they had to do was sign people up. There was no inequity baked into the formula.

So when Cassidy and Graham grouse about how much money California and New York get, they are essentially whining over the fact that Medicaid-expansion states get more Medicaid funding.

The only way that might seem unfair is if you happen to live in a state where your stubborn Republican governor turned that money down."

 

[Klingsor]

Republicans Think It’s Unfair How States That Expanded Medicaid Are Getting More Medicaid Funding

Sometimes, it just takes my breath away . . .

 

[b.c.]

Sometimes, it just takes my breath away . . .

Apparently it's taken the breath from Trump and GOP supporters and apologists HERE as well. Since all we hear from them in response to this is.... [crickets]

But that's nothing new. the GOP has been fucking their middle-class and poorer constituents for (how long now??) in BLOCKING and OBSTRUCTING the medicaid expansion, jobs initiatives for civilians and veterans, an increase in the minimum wage, unemployment extension benefits, environmental protection, consumer rights, etc. etc. Yet THEY could always count on their voters to run to the polls and put them BACK in office. Why? Because Obama.

All they had to do, all they STILL have to do, is mention OBAMA.

Meanwhile:

BREAKING: 32 MILLION to lose coverage under Graham-Cassidy
Unbelievable! NPR just had to explain Sen. Cassidy's healthcare bill to ... Sen. Cassidy

 

[Industrialsize]