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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Feb 20, 2014 - 09:53pm PT
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"Did any of you California based Obamacare supporters sign up AND utilize the system yet?"
Yep...and the Covered California system works a helluva lot better than trying to get ahold of my current insurance provider.
I've sat on hold for between 1-1.5 hours waiting for a representative to answer....half the time the wrong dept. picks it up (necessitating another nasty wait time), or you get disconnected.
By comparison, I've been able to log into the Covered California website pretty easily, and shop around without difficulty...got a representative on the phone within 15 minutes.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 20, 2014 - 10:44pm PT
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TGT whined How was it talking to a felon?
I'm willing to bet you talk to felons on most days and don't even know it. What do you expect felons to do when they finish their sentences, exactly? Those guys got real jobs. Good for them.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 20, 2014 - 10:52pm PT
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I don't have to talk much with politicians.
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Snowmassguy
Trad climber
Calirado
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Feb 20, 2014 - 11:58pm PT
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Problem is the numbers are not materializing. Proponents of this mess can try to fudge the numbers ( hell they do what they want/ lie when it supports their cause) but this thing is going to implode unless the young and healthy decide to pay big $$ for their health care policy.
Though officials have confidently claimed enrollment in ObamaCare is surging, Vice President Biden suddenly suggested during a stop in Minneapolis the totals might be lower than projected.
"Initially, we talked about by the end of this period having seven million people lined up," he told a group in a coffee shop on Wednesday. "We may not get to seven but we're gonna get to five or six, and that's a hell of a start with people."
That’s quite a difference from the confident predictions last fall, just before the rollout, from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
"I think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014," she told NBC last September.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office stuck with that estimate for the exchanges until just recently, when it lowered its projection from 7 million to 6 million. But the vice president is the first to mention a number as low as 5 million, suggesting doubts in the administration.
In its report on signups through the end of January, the administration claimed 9.6 million total had gotten health insurance -- 3.3 million in the federal and state exchanges, and another 6.3 million in Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans.
But a nonpartisan health care firm says the number of new signups in Medicaid from ObamaCare is much lower than 6.3 million.
"It's about 1.3 to 1.8 million people who are new to the program The rest are part of the regular churn that are in and out," Matthew Eyeles, of the firm Avalere Health, said.
And those in the regular churn -- those who come and go all the time – wouldn’t count as part of ObamaCare because they were already eligible before the health care law.
For those new to Medicaid under the expansion encouraged by ObamaCare, the administration pays 100 percent of the cost for the first three years. But it pays no additional funds for those already eligible, which is often one of the top three items in state budgets:
"The state pays that bill," said former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Eakin. "If it's the expansion, the federal government pays the bill. So it matters a lot whether it's newly eligible or existing eligible who are signing up."
Meanwhile, the vice president might have also irritated other officials by giving the wrong date for the end of enrollment.
"There's a drop-dead date for the first round -- in the beginning of March," he told the coffee-shop gathering.
Actually, open enrollment goes to the end of March, not the beginning.
If the vice president is right on the numbers, though, and only 5 million sign up in private exchanges -- and fewer than 2 million newly eligible enrollees enter Medicaid – then the administration would be hard-pressed to hit half the original projection of 16 million total by next month.
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Snowmassguy
Trad climber
Calirado
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Feb 21, 2014 - 12:05am PT
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LOL
Probably better to try to do it right the first time. Oh yeah...this is the government.
Inefficiency, cronyism, deceit and straight out lies are OK for now.
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Snowmassguy
Trad climber
Calirado
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Feb 21, 2014 - 12:11am PT
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Why bother doing it right the first time....just wait until after the next election cycle before admitting that ACA is not sustainable.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2014 - 12:20am PT
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That's awesome Apogee, what was your health care experience? ie, hospital visit, office check up, etc? As in - did you actually use the insurance via dr visit or get some tests. Also, what supplier did you utilize? There's some news ones I've never heard of.
From our view so far at work, we all have kaiser and have been damned happy, so naturally, when we find out that the health care is too good to provide our employees under obamacare and it's going to end, and that we will be paying more and getting much much less, it's pretty upsetting.
BTW, my opinion - Blue Cross/Shield sucks. Always has.
Apogee said: "Yep...and the Covered California system works a helluva lot better than trying to get ahold of my current insurance provider.
I've sat on hold for between 1-1.5 hours waiting for a representative to answer....half the time the wrong dept. picks it up (necessitating another nasty wait time), or you get disconnected.
By comparison, I've been able to log into the Covered California website pretty easily, and shop around without difficulty...got a representative on the phone within 15 minutes."
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Snowmassguy
Trad climber
Calirado
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Feb 21, 2014 - 12:27am PT
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Is it sustainable Kos?
One of your buddies does not thinks so.
George Soros Bet $1.3 Billion The Stock Market Will Fall
George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager who has broken the British pound and some Republican hearts, is betting that the U.S. stock market could break, too.
Soros Fund Management had $1.3 billion wagered at the end of 2013 that the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index would fall, the Bullion Baron blog reported last week, citing the fund's latest regulatory filing. It was Soros' biggest position, making up 11 percent of his fund's holdings.
The filing is a snapshot of Soros' position at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013. He might have raised or lowered that bet since then. He might also be using the position to hedge some other bet. He's certainly not going to tell us. Closing out the bet would have made some sense in the middle of February, after the S&P had fallen more than 5 percent for the year.
But Soros definitely jacked up the bet going into the end of the year, to $1.3 billion from $470 million in the third quarter. And just last month he warned about risks to the global economy, mainly from China.
Soros is maybe most famous, or infamous, these days for being sort of the liberal version of the Koch Brothers -- a wealthy guy pumping millions into progressive candidates and causes.
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dirtbag
climber
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Feb 21, 2014 - 12:38am PT
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Stupid Americans!
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 21, 2014 - 04:44pm PT
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Ron bellowed Well for the 11th time, now spanning 2 months of TRYING,, the NV HEALLH CARE sign up site STILL ISNT WORKING..
OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Oh wait no the State of Nevada set up their own site. I guess you have to go to talk to Republican Governor Brian Sandoval. Also, you might try using less commas than you normally do. Ron level commas will break most web forms.
Called the main office and got someone i could BARELY UNDERSTAND
Judging from your average post I'm going to go ahead and guess that is probably your fault and not theirs.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Feb 21, 2014 - 06:13pm PT
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"THE EXACT same thing i was told the previous ten damm times ive tried to complete my application which takes a LOT of time to do and then is discarded by the "system" at what ever stage it stuck you at. "
Well, then, five in the arse and two in your head oughta fix it.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2014 - 07:19pm PT
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Have you used the insurance yet Apogee? Or just signed up?
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Feb 21, 2014 - 07:29pm PT
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couch, my current policy is an individual plan I started last summer, after being on a group plan prior to that. Those policies were not the same type of policies, though they were both with Anthem/Blue Cross- the earlier one was far better, simply because it was a group plan. The current plan was intended as a gapfiller until the new laws & system came into effect.
Now that the system is largely in place (for whatever that's worth), I've been shopping for a new policy- getting that information from Blue Cross has been a monumentally frustrating time wasting pain in the arse, but using the Covered California resource has been far smoother.
I'm not under any allusion that any of these plans will do exactly what the insurance company says they will do...those slimebags will dodge out of virtually any significant claim I try to make. This is no fault of the ACA...it's entirely reflective of how stoooopid it is to continue to have a profit-driven, capitalist healthcare insurance system.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 22, 2014 - 09:15am PT
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TGT whined What good is "coverage" if you can't get
Care?
I think this is amazingly delicious. The reason that doctor choice is limited in some places is because the nature of a market based solution is that delivering a lower premium price requires a guaranteed volume to a limited number of providers/hospitals. THIS IS THE MARKET SOLUTION THAT CONSERVATIVES DREAM OF. You can get more doctor choice but it will cost you more money which is exactly how conservatives say the world should work. This is not because of some evil provision in the ACA it's because that's how markets are.
If you're advocating to abandon a market based system, TGT, there are plenty of us who will support you. In reality, of course, you are just copy and pasting whatever negative sounding news you can find about the ACA because that's just the kind of blog reaggregating poster you are.
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dirtbag
climber
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Feb 22, 2014 - 09:52am PT
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I don't know if I posted this before, but my take on the ACA is some behind the scenes smart guys pushed the passage of the ACA, knowing it was crap.
You mean, the Heritage Foundation?
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 22, 2014 - 10:37am PT
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Government can't finish anything that it starts just look at all these programs that I forced to stop prematurely.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 22, 2014 - 10:37am PT
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Government can't do anything right just look at all these programs that I defunded and interfered with.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 22, 2014 - 10:38am PT
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Government can't pass workable legislation just look at all these bills that I blocked.
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