Is Obamacare on death's door?

[Merc14]

Another boot to the crotch, many of the "8 million" new enrollees are duplicates caused by the malfunctioning website that dumped many into a black hole on the server. To fix this. people were instructed to create new accounts and the insurance companies ignored the originals. Obama and crew gleefully counted both accounts as new enrollees. As the cheerleader above says, this will help solve the not paid problem as no payment is expected on the duplicates but the cheerleader and his boys once again lied to the American people by duplicitously counting these duplicates on their victory lap.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/05/07/confirmed-many-of-obamacares-8-million-enrollees-are-duplicates-n1834786?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm

Lot's of bad news coming down the road, however, in the form of major premium increases and massive numbers of existing policy cancellations so star will be busy for the foreseeable future. What a crappy job.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/politics/own-small-business-brace-obamacare-pain

Sadly, Obamacare did not decrease emergency room visits in the least, a promised result of this wünder-law

http://freebeacon.com/issues/hospital-ceo-obamacare-has-not-reduced-er-visits/

[Einsteinium]

Another boot to the crotch, many of the "8 million" new enrollees are duplicates caused by the malfunctioning website that dumped many into a black hole on the server. To fix this. people were instructed to create new accounts and the insurance companies ignored the originals. Obama and crew gleefully counted both accounts as new enrollees. As the cheerleader above says, this will help solve the not paid problem as no payment is expected on the duplicates but the cheerleader and his boys once again lied to the American people by duplicitously counting these duplicates on their victory lap.

http://townhall.com/..._campaign=nl_pm

Lot's of bad news coming down the road, however, in the form of major premium increases and massive numbers of existing policy cancellations so star will be busy for the foreseeable future. What a crappy job.

http://www.reviewjou...-obamacare-pain

Sadly, Obamacare did not decrease emergency room visits in the least, a promised result of this wünder-law

http://freebeacon.co...uced-er-visits/

And of course, predictably, you post ONLY links to biased articles that support your views.

“It may be a matter of months,” Mr. Pratt added, “before insurers know how many people activated their coverage by paying their share of premiums.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/us/politics/insurers-say-most-who-signed-up-under-health-law-have-paid-up.html?_r=2

As it turns out, they do not know exactly how many duplicates there are and they will not know for a few more months most likely. Obama is wrong to cite incorrect numbers, but the numbers he has are the only numbers that exist. He simply cannot cite absolute factual numbers yet, because they do not exist!

The fact is that this law is extremely complicated, it will take time for things to play out and the facts to be known. Obama is using propaganda and cherry picking facts to try and trump up support for ACA, 'conservatives' are using propaganda to try and destroy ACA before it even goes into effect fully. What we need is collaboration and we need both sides to meet in the middle, instead we get both sides digging in even harder on the extremes of both sides. This failure to work together is what is going to do the most damage to the country. And you are playing right into it.

[F3SS]

Hey don't cite bias and then post from the nytimes. That's redundant.

[Einsteinium]

Hey don't cite bias and then post from the nytimes. That's redundant.

You caught me! I figured that with his 3 extremely conservatively biased sources that only the NYtimes could possibly balance it out and bring it back to center

[Merc14]

And of course, predictably, you post ONLY links to biased articles that support your views.

“It may be a matter of months,” Mr. Pratt added, “before insurers know how many people activated their coverage by paying their share of premiums.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/us/politics/insurers-say-most-who-signed-up-under-health-law-have-paid-up.html?_r=2

As it turns out, they do not know exactly how many duplicates there are and they will not know for a few more months most likely. Obama is wrong to cite incorrect numbers, but the numbers he has are the only numbers that exist. He simply cannot cite absolute factual numbers yet, because they do not exist!

The fact is that this law is extremely complicated, it will take time for things to play out and the facts to be known. Obama is using propaganda and cherry picking facts to try and trump up support for ACA, 'conservatives' are using propaganda to try and destroy ACA before it even goes into effect fully. What we need is collaboration and we need both sides to meet in the middle, instead we get both sides digging in even harder on the extremes of both sides. This failure to work together is what is going to do the most damage to the country. And you are playing right into it.

Please stop dictating that I use only biased left wing sources that refuse to report bad news, Dispute the data, not the source Also, you aren't disputing anything in the above and are merely excusing it with the old "it's complicated" excuse. The problem is, your excuse was what we were warning about when your side used reconciliation to pass this massive law without a single republican vote thereby ignoring half the population.

We told you this monstrosity was far too complicated for the incompetent federal government to run and we were right, you were wrong. I'll further predict that this will never work and needs to be massively overhauled or rescinded.

Anyways, back to the reconciliation vote that broke the senate rules and disenfranchised teh majority of voters that didn't want Obamacare, even with with lies being told. Now, as Obama's Reverend Wright is wont to say, "The chickens are coming home to roost!"

[+DieChecker]

Another boot to the crotch, many of the "8 million" new enrollees are duplicates caused by the malfunctioning website that dumped many into a black hole on the server. To fix this. people were instructed to create new accounts and the insurance companies ignored the originals. Obama and crew gleefully counted both accounts as new enrollees. As the cheerleader above says, this will help solve the not paid problem as no payment is expected on the duplicates but the cheerleader and his boys once again lied to the American people by duplicitously counting these duplicates on their victory lap.

http://townhall.com/..._campaign=nl_pm

Lot's of bad news coming down the road, however, in the form of major premium increases and massive numbers of existing policy cancellations so star will be busy for the foreseeable future. What a crappy job.

http://www.reviewjou...-obamacare-pain

Sadly, Obamacare did not decrease emergency room visits in the least, a promised result of this wünder-law

http://freebeacon.co...uced-er-visits/

Some interesting reads.

ER visits are up? That wasn't supposed to happen. But, I guess when the Fall rolls around we'll have a more clear trend.

By the Fall we'll also see how many people Really signed up and paid their premiums.

Should be an interesting, political Summer and Fall.

[Startraveler]

Startraveler,

So why can't the Government receive a Yes/No reply when someone purchases insurance and when someone pays their premium? Is that some kind of privacy issue, or is it due to the website not having that functionality? It would seem that the government could keep track of those very easily just with some simple code and the agreement by the insurance companies.

The website, at least today, doesn't process payments, those are made directly to the insurer by the enrollee.

ER visits are up? That wasn't supposed to happen. But, I guess when the Fall rolls around we'll have a more clear trend.

Dueling anecdotes!

IowaCare shift shrinks wait time at Broadlawns, U of I ERs

IOWA CITY, IA. — Not long ago, a trip to the emergency room at University of Iowa Hospitals was an exercise in frustration for people expecting immediate medical care. Unless they arrived with a life-threatening injury, most people often were forced to wait two hours or more in a crowded waiting room before seeing a doctor.

The federal Affordable Care Act has changed that, reducing congestion at the hospital and at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines.

Today, Iowans once covered by IowaCare are no longer forced to choose between two public hospitals — U of I Hospitals and Broadlawns — when they need medical care. Under the new Iowa Health and Wellness Plan, they can seek medical care in their hometowns where physicians now are reimbursed for services they provide.

So instead of showing up in the emergency room in Iowa City or Des Moines for primary care issues such as earaches and sore throats, former IowaCare recipients can call a local doctor.

For U of I Hospitals, the change has meant a 60 percent drop since Jan. 1 in the number of former IowaCare patients arriving at the emergency room. Overall, the number of patients being treated in the emergency room has dropped about 20 percent, from an average of 160 a day to 130 during that same period, said Dr. Hans House, an emergency room doctor and vice chairman of education and interim vice chairman of research in the university’s department of emergency medicine.

“What is different for us is we can see people faster,” House said. “It is really noticeable. Before, we were really busy. Now, we have more time with our patients and with our students, which, as an educator, is really great.”

“This is exactly why health care reform was put into place,” he said. “I think it does decrease the overall cost of health care because people aren’t using the emergency room for primary care.”

[Merc14]

The website, at least today, doesn't process payments, those are made directly to the insurer by the enrollee.

Dueling anecdotes!

IowaCare shift shrinks wait time at Broadlawns, U of I ERs

At least you'll have a few years of defending the indefensible here and now you have a rational ally to help! Just think how much fun it will be when the employer mandates kick in, if they ever do! Of course, if they don't the whole "complicated" scheme falls on its proverbial ass, hence the title of the long and sad thread composed of a list of never-ending failure and the zealots who defend those failures.

[Startraveler]

So we have new Gallup data showing a very fast and substantial drop in the uninsurance rate, translating into more than 10 million uninsured gaining insurance in the last six months; confirmation from a decade of data in Massachusetts that expanding insurance coverage saves lives; a GOP committee burned today when the witnesses it called refuted the bogus paid policies number they put out last week (Insurers: High Proportion of Health Plan Enrollees Paid Premiums | Wall Street Journal), leaving them "visibly exasperated" at their own hearing; and we have more data out today showing that Obamacare is continuing to improve the quality of care delivered in our hospitals.

What a week!

These Obamacare programs might have helped save 15,000 lives

Spending money on hospital readmissions is arguably one of the worst uses of health care dollars. Readmissions happen when something gets screwed up during an initial procedure.

They aren't popular with patients (who have to spend unnecessary time in the hospital) or insurers (who have to pay for additional medical care). But there's some good news on readmissions in a new federal report: after five years of holding steady, hospital readmissions in the United States appear to be falling.

The new figures, published Wednesday by Health and Human Services, show that readmission rates — which held steady at 19 percent from 2007 to 2011 — fell to 18.5 percent in 2012 and 17.5 percent in 2013.

Those percentages can seem small but they add up: the 1.5-percentage-point decrease in readmissions accounts for 150,000 fewer patients readmitted to a hospital when they didn't need to be.

The drop in readmissions has coincided with the start of a new Obamacare program that penalizes hospitals that have the highest readmission rates. Hospitals can now lose as much as 2.5 percent of their Medicare revenue if they have lots of patients turning up in the hospital again. One analysis showed that hospitals have lost $227 million in fines because of this program.

The federal government says it's seen a drop-off in a number of hospital-acquired conditions that can be deadly, like a patient fall or pneumonia acquired from a ventilator.

Overall, Health and Human Services shows that the number of hospital-acquired conditions has fallen by 9 percent over the past three years. In 2010, there were 145 problems acquired in the hospital per 1,000 patients discharged. In 2012, that rate stands at 132.

This decline has also coincided with health law programs that try to penalize these exact types of events. The health care law's value-based purchasing program, for example, penalizes hospitals if they don't hit certain quality metrics — and, alternatively, rewards hospitals if they do really great. These are also the type of events that can lead to readmissions, meaning that the health care law's readmission penalties could have also played a role.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Startraveler

[+DieChecker]

The website, at least today, doesn't process payments, those are made directly to the insurer by the enrollee.

But if the Feds wanted to, it would not be a big deal to exchange that information with the insurance companies. Why wouldn't they share a Yes/No answer to if the person enrolled and paid or not? What reason would the insurance companies have to withhold that information?

IowaCare shift shrinks wait time at Broadlawns, U of I ERs

So instead of showing up in the emergency room in Iowa City or Des Moines for primary care issues such as earaches and sore throats, former IowaCare recipients can call a local doctor.

This looks like a state of Iowa law, and not part of the ACA. It does look like a good idea however. (And the current Iowa governor is a Republican!!?)

[+DieChecker]

These Obamacare programs might have helped save 15,000 lives

The drop in readmissions has coincided with the start of a new Obamacare program that penalizes hospitals that have the highest readmission rates. Hospitals can now lose as much as 2.5 percent of their Medicare revenue if they have lots of patients turning up in the hospital again. One analysis showed that hospitals have lost $227 million in fines because of this program.

Another good law.

I think Republicans would/could vote for a law/program like this, if only it wasn't lumped into a humongous "Landmark" piece of legislation, with lots of other legislation that Republicans blatantly would not agree with.

[Merc14]

But if the Feds wanted to, it would not be a big deal to exchange that information with the insurance companies. Why wouldn't they share a Yes/No answer to if the person

It's complicated. Of course, Amazon processed, securely, over 36.8 million transactions in one day but the ACA website couldn't manage 7 million in 6 months without totally screwing it up but hey, it's complicated and way too much to ask if the folks paid for their policies.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Merc14

[+DieChecker]

It's complicated. Of course, Amazon processed, securely, over 36.8 million transactions in one day but the ACA website couldn't manage 7 million in 6 months without totally screwing it up but hey, it's complicated and way too much to ask if the folks paid for their policies.

Do you think that Amazon knows if those 36.8 million people paid or not?

[ninjadude]

What reason would the insurance companies have to withhold that information?

because they don't have to and don't want to.

[ninjadude]

Of course, Amazon processed, securely, over 36.8 million transactions in one day but the ACA website couldn't manage 7 million in 6 months

Of course, as pointed out to you before, they are completely different types of transactions in both scope and complexity. But you don't care about the facts. So why bother.

[Merc14]

Do you think that Amazon knows if those 36.8 million people paid or not?

Pretty sure they do. What is it, something 10% or $560 billion dollars of medicare is fraudulent payments. Yeah, just what we need is more federal government in healthcare.

[Merc14]

Of course, as pointed out to you before, they are completely different types of transactions in both scope and complexity. But you don't care about the facts. So why bother.

You're the zoser of the politics section. You know that, right?

[Frank Merton]

All insurance schemes, both private and government, are just rife with fraud. It's a natural.

[Merc14]

All insurance schemes, both private and government, are just rife with fraud. It's a natural.

When you can print money the fraud becomes a little less important. That is why government running private businesses never works. Fascism always fails.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Merc14

[+DieChecker]

You're the zoser of the politics section. You know that, right?

STOP!! You know what happens when worlds collide right? I can't have Zoser doing politics and Ninja doing UFOs. I just couldn't handle it......

Pretty sure they do. What is it, something 10% or $560 billion dollars of medicare is fraudulent payments. Yeah, just what we need is more federal government in healthcare.

Huh. I thought it was a higher percentage then that....

[Agent0range]

Do you think that Amazon knows if those 36.8 million people paid or not?

When you see a product on Amazon and purchase it on Ebay, does Amazon know if you paid Ebay? NO. Stop comparing apples and oranges. Amazon only knows you paid, because you pay Amazon! I swear, I can't tell if you are truly that confused about what is going on, or if you are just trolling.

[Einsteinium]

Pretty sure they do. What is it, something 10% or $560 billion dollars of medicare is fraudulent payments. Yeah, just what we need is more federal government in healthcare.

There will ALWAYS be fraud, whether it is government related, or private business related.

I agree with a lot of your points, and I am not a liberal by a long shot. The fact is that the old system was failing, and had we continued the old system costs would be skyrocketing as well. How much more/less the ACA is causing prices to go up is debatable. There are a few things about the ACA that I do not like, but I would counter your argument with my argument that we need less for profit private business in our healthcare system.

The profit motive that works so well to increase efficiency and productivity for many things does not work for healthcare. Why? Because there is more money to be made in keeping people sick and feeding them meds, keeping people coming back to the hospitals for procedures they do not really need. The profit incentive creates perverse incentives in the healthcare industry. Therefore private for profit industry is NOT going to achieve the optimal outcome for the majority of people in the healthcare industry. If we truly want to maximize marginal utility in the healthcare industry, we need to do something different, we need some kind of entity/entities whether it be government or non-profits that manage the healthcare system. I don't know what the best way to do that is, but the ACA is not the answer. The old system was also not the answer.

Perhaps we should make Merc into the 'health Czar', he has all the answers (only kidding of course!)

[Merc14]

There will ALWAYS be fraud, whether it is government related, or private business related.

I agree with a lot of your points, and I am not a liberal by a long shot. The fact is that the old system was failing, and had we continued the old system costs would be skyrocketing as well. How much more/less the ACA is causing prices to go up is debatable. There are a few things about the ACA that I do not like, but I would counter your argument with my argument that we need less for profit private business in our healthcare system.

The profit motive that works so well to increase efficiency and productivity for many things does not work for healthcare. Why? Because there is more money to be made in keeping people sick and feeding them meds, keeping people coming back to the hospitals for procedures they do not really need. The profit incentive creates perverse incentives in the healthcare industry. Therefore private for profit industry is NOT going to achieve the optimal outcome for the majority of people in the healthcare industry. If we truly want to maximize marginal utility in the healthcare industry, we need to do something different, we need some kind of entity/entities whether it be government or non-profits that manage the healthcare system. I don't know what the best way to do that is, but the ACA is not the answer. The old system was also not the answer.

Perhaps we should make Merc into the 'health Czar', he has all the answers (only kidding of course!)

I don't accept that you replace a flawed system with a totally broken one that turns over massive power to an already out of control federal government and as far as being a liberal or not, if you find yourself on the same side as ninja, you are a liberal. Just sayin'

There are several things that could have been tried before passing this abomination of a law ye they didn't even consider them because Obamacare is NOT about fixing healthcare and never was, it is about power.

[Agent0range]

I don't accept that you replace a flawed system with a totally broken one that turns over massive power to an already out of control federal government and as far as being a liberal or not, if you find yourself on the same side as ninja, you are a liberal. Just sayin'

There are several things that could have been tried before passing this abomination of a law ye they didn't even consider them because Obamacare is NOT about fixing healthcare and never was, it is about power.

How can you not see the flaws in your thinking? In your mind, you can only agree on what conservatives agree on. You essentially have no real thoughts of your own in fear of agreeing with someone belonging to a different party. Obamacare is THE LEAST of our worries. It is people with your train of thought that have this country completely ****, and they are becoming more and more prevalent, on both the right and the left.

[Merc14]

How can you not see the flaws in your thinking? In your mind, you can only agree on what conservatives agree on. You essentially have no real thoughts of your own in fear of agreeing with someone belonging to a different party. Obamacare is THE LEAST of our worries. It is people with your train of thought that have this country completely ****, and they are becoming more and more prevalent, on both the right and the left.

Umm, what?