Front Page  »  

Welcome in Obama Care

October 1, 2013
Stew Jenkins

Stew Jenkins

OPINION By STEW JENKINS

For fear mongers who have tried selling doubt, facts already show that the Affordable Care Act is bringing down health insurance costs making coverage available to everyone.

Passed by Congress and upheld by the United States Supreme Court, the law ended insurance company abilities to exclude for cancer and chronic diseases; extended the time families could cover children; and removed lifetime coverage limits.

Health care exchanges opened in California Tuesday, making it simple and easy for people to find, compare, and buy inexpensive plans covering their needs. More choice and incentives for insurance companies to compete for your business!

Examples will now abound of people saving money or being able to afford coverage they never dreamed they could secure.

As a small business owner I can share with your readers our own experience. Just the advent of California’s Health Insurance Exchange (Covered California) provided my insurance company with incentives to compete to keep our business. With a few phone calls and internet exploration our big blue suddenly was more than happy to offer a plan that had never been available at almost half the price, with half the deductible and more coverage in spite of preexisting conditions including cancer.

Let the fear mongers stew in their own juices. Pick up the phone and call 800-300-1506; or visit Covered California at http://www.coveredca.com.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


112 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Let the fear mongers stew in their own juices. Pick up the phone and call 800-300-1506; or visit Covered California at http://www.coveredca.com.

——————-

I just tried it again. 2:14 p.m. It’s still down. You can open the first page and pre-loaded information pages. But you can’t “Start Here” as it says. It’s still crashed.


And frankly, I would expect no more from Government. This is par for the course.


0

I couldn’t get on either, so I called thr 800#. It’s only a 35 minute wait!


0

You know why? Because this thing is a whole lot more popular than anybody expected. People are swarming at the gates to get Obamacare, and the phone and IT machinery couldn’t keep up. This is good news. They’ll get that part fixed as soon as things calm down a bit.


0

Yes, that must be it. Or…….


http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-california-health-exchange-glitches-20131001,0,7108713.story


But, you’ll continue to see only what you’re instructed to see. Sad.


0

“What is it about Obamacare that compels seemingly intelligent people to explode in bubbling spasms of stupid? Are they misinformed? Unable to see past the rage-fueled partisan sweat dripping into their eyes? Or just plain dishonest?


No matter. At this point, it has become obvious that history will look back on the four-year war on Obamacare as one of the saddest, most bizarre, and most dishonestly embarrassing episodes of our time. I have given up trying to understand the vehement opposition of so many who cannot offer up truthful reasons for their objections, and instead fuel the hatred and fears of the uninformed with the most illogical, mendacious, and fundamentally bizarre arguments that have ever been marshaled. By comparison, Joe McCarthy’s McCarthyistic McCarthyism was an exercise in reason.”


Are Republicans So Frantic to Stop Obamacare Because They Fear It Will Work?


This type of behavour is why we can’t have nice things in America, tantrum poltics.

Shame.


0

What is the incentive for a business operating in California to continue offering a healthcare plan that far surpasses the best Obamacare package?


I am concerned that the company I work for will cancel our current plan and tell us to fend for ourselves with the California plans which can’t hold a candle to what I have now.


0

Oh, very nice indeed. I read the linked article, and then clicked a little more and found out that while your Mr. Eichenwald loves the ACA, and hates the Second Amendment, he also believes that government intrusion into our personal cell phone records is no big deal and that we should all feel reassured that Big Brother is watching our every move. Nice company you keep there. I encourage all other readers of this thread to follow Word’s link and see for yourselves the mindset on display. Good one. Can’t make this stuff up.


0

And the right’s strategy of responding to a lost election by trying to gain through blackmail what the party couldn’t gain at the polls is weird.


0

I too tried to use the website. You can click on a few areas but they all eventually crash. Now maybe it is just because it is new and difficult to comprehend. Maybe a one year delay for implementation would allow the various agencies involved to figure out what needs to be done. But wait the Senate won’t allow that they are telling us we must start today, even though they exempted themselves and their staff.


I would love to lower my health insurance premiums, but someone would have to be pretty stupid to believe that anything in this massively incomprehensible law will lower anyone’s premiums. I do like many of touted benefits of the new law, but again you have to be pretty gullible to think there is not a cost associated with the benefits and we all know who will be paying the costs.


0

Funny how Stew only wants to see what he wants to see-

US employers slashing worker hours to avoid Obamacare insurance mandate-

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/us-employers-slash-hours-avoid-obamacare


Double Down: Obamacare Will Increase Avg. Individual-Market Insurance Premiums By 99% For Men, 62% For Women- http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/09/25/double-down-obamacare-will-increase-avg-individual-market-insurance-premiums-by-99-for-men-62-for-women/


BUT HEY, if it doesn’t negatively effect Stew then it’s Ok.


0

So you slight someone, then do the same thing you accuse another of doing?


It is called Confirmation bias, “see what he wants to see” happens to you too.


0

Hey Stew


Last year our Blue Cross premium was $777/mo and will rise to $1167/mo starting Jan. I would hope that you’ld agree that it’/s a severe increase. Please don’t piss onmy leg and tell me it’s a shower.


0

Stew has a nice big smile on his face. Wonder if he’s still smiling 20 years from now when he’s needing some really good health care, and all he has is Government controlled Obama care.With some Government official deciding if his life is worth preserving


0

20 years from now he’ll be on Medicare, and lovin’ it.


0

Oh, it exists alright. It’s called Tricare Reserve Select (TRS). All you do is, go find a National Guard or Reserve recruiter. Undergo the background checks and head down to the L.A. Military Entrance Processing Station. Go to basic training and AIT. Go to your unit and drill and you can get TRS. Now, mind you, there are some hidden costs. You might spend a year overseas in a third-world dump that smells like human poo-poo, where all the natives pretty much would love to cut your head off with a spoon. You’ll also miss wedding anniversaries, First Communions, birthdays, Christmases, etc. But you will be eligible for a pretty darn good health plan at the cost I’ve described. Now, really, I’m being a bit facetious, for when you activate for a deployment you’ll go on regular Tricare which is free for the length of your active-duty orders. The other non-monetary costs are as described. 1800goguard.com if you’re interested in contacting my broker for the same deal.


0

Oh, it exists alright. It’s called Tricare Reserve Select (TRS). All you do is, go find a National Guard or Reserve recruiter.

—————-

Like I said, $200 a month family health care insurance doesn’t exist. Like I said, the other $400 a month is being picked up by your employer–in this case the government.


0

You can look at it that way. Or you can assign some monetary value to the other things I’ve described and say that I’m paying with two forms of currency. I suppose it depends on one’s perspective. It is a nice benefit and one which I’m happy to have, but the flip side is that if I do get to the point where I’d like to get out, I have to face the prospect of suddenly absorbing these new expenses associated with the ACA plans. So, the requirement for keeping the TRS is to keep making myself available for all sorts of assignments, including deployments abroad. That is a cost in and of itself. I’m proud to serve and grateful for benefits, but benefits for military service are earned with a lot more sacrifice than regular 9-5 jobs at home in the States. So, again, I contend that one can look at it as paying with two forms of currency. I see your point, but this is sort of a unique category of employment.


0

et the fear mongers stew in their own juices. Pick up the phone and call 800-300-1506; or visit Covered California at http://www.coveredca.com.

————————-

Funny. This is the website I tried. It won’t even load. It’s already shut down. 11:00 a.m. and it’s already out of business.


Any more questions on how well the government works?


0

You have a lousy IP. I clicked the link and it loaded immediately. Any more questions about hyperbole?


0

ISP


Homer says: “I’m sorry, but bad spelling and silly spellings always make it hard for me to take people seriously. ”


That said, the site loaded fine for me.


0

You have a lousy IP. I clicked the link and it loaded immediately. Any more questions about hyperbole?

—————–

Nope. You stopped at the introductory page. You can’t go anywhere from there. You can’t get anything done.


0

So do you go shopping on opening day every time there is a new store?


A new nation wide program and the first day there are a few website issues? How do you even test for that number of page views?


0

You are now changing your argument when the original was proven false. Poor form.


0

“Funny. This is the website I tried. It won’t even load. It’s already shut down. 11:00 a.m. and it’s already out of business.


Any more questions on how well the government works?”


Gee…perhaps the Republicans with their hissy fit, schoolyard bully, wannabe dictator-like extortion tactics to shut down the government might have something to do with it ?


How do reasonable people deal with liars, hostage takers, and insane drunks ?


What are you going to do with people like that ?


Yeah, I got some questions.


0

How do reasonable people deal with liars, hostage takers, and insane drunks?

Well, if there’s a (D) after their name, usually they elect/re-elect them.


0

Joe McCarthy comes to mind


0

Health care exchanges opened in California Tuesday, making it simple and easy

————————-


First of all Stu, you have to be pretty arrogant to claim it’s simple and easy before you even know. It’s the first day. How would you know if it’s simple and easy until it’s been proven simple and easy?


Secondly, the first day proof is already in the pudding. In typical government fashion that is basically similar to all government run enterprises, if you try and access one of the CA health care exchanges today you get absolutely nowhere. The one website I tried doesn’t even load. It’s a pathetic cluster______. I’m betting that the system has been overwhelmed by the so called hardship cases (who happen to have computers, internet, cable, smart phones, $100 tennis shoes, cars, section 8 housing, government EBT cards, and cigarette and beer money) who have nothing better to do than to try and hop on the free health care wagon.


In typical government fashion, it’ll probably take years for the government to get its act together and it’ll probably always be 5-10 years behind the private sector. And in the process, the undoubtedly the government will waste billions of dollars on handouts to the politically connected. It’s the nature of government.


0

An excellent point. I am always curious how people cheer-lead something that hasn’t even been given a chance to work (or fail).


Of course, once fully implemented and should it be a failure, is there a way out? An “off” button? No.


If it succeeds, then hooray for us!


Some people think it’s like drinking a poison… well, it’ll either kill us or won’t, let’s just wait to find out. Applying that logic, it is easy to understand why some people did not want to move forward with this.


0

Mr. Jenkins: I accept your word as to how it’s working out for you. My story differs from yours. I currently pay $197.50 (not sure about the change but the main amount is $197.) a month for a plan that covers me, my spouse and child at 80% with very low co-pays. I went to the Covered CA website and looked at comparable plans. The cheapest was about $600 and up to about $800/month. That is definitely not a savings. My coworker looked up his comparable plan and he also would be facing considerable cost increases. Like I say, I’ll accept your word, but you need to understand that for other people the outcome isn’t looking as good as you describe. I don’t think this thing is going to work out as well as you say. Once the young people figure out that they’re being deliberately overcharged to subsidize the people in your age bracket, a lot of them are going to opt for the fine. If they don’t sign up in huge numbers, the math (shaky as it is) will simply not work out. Maybe I’m wrong, but the research I’ve done so far on what this new system can do for me and my family doesn’t support your contentions.


0

My story differs from yours. I currently pay $197.50 (not sure about the change but the main amount is $197.) a month for a plan that covers me, my spouse and child at 80% with very low co-pays.

————————-

No way. Doesn’t exist. Your employer must be picking up the other $400 a month.


If it really exists, please tell all of us your plan and broker so we can get the same deal.


0

I thought I replied directly to you, sorry. Please see above.


0

So keep your current coverage (which, as another person suggested, is being paid for primarily by your employer.)


0

How dare you reply with logic, instead of fear and FUD. :)


0

You can’t possibly have an 80% plan for that price! More like ten times that price.


0
1 2 3