The LA Times has some really good news on Obamacare enrollment pace:
A number of states that use their own systems, including California, are on track to hit enrollment targets for 2014 because of a sharp increase in November, according to state officials….
California — which enrolled about 31,000 people in health plans last month — nearly doubled that in the first two weeks of this month…
Connecticut saw growing enrollment in November: 3,201 people signed up for health plans in the first two weeks of this month, nearing the 4,371 total for all of October….
As I had updated in my post concerning the October enrollment pace, Pennsylvania (a federal exchange state) seems to be seeing a quadrupling of pace in the first two weeks of November compared to October. This is evidence that the kinks are getting worked out in the process and people are still willing to look for a good deal on the Exchanges.
Baud
Good news. Ultimately, it’s the numbers that matter. Not the media.
MomSense
Shocked, shocked to find out that people are waiting until closer to the deadline to sign up for something.
Baud
@MomSense:
Next thing you’ll tell me is that many people wait until April 15 to file their taxes.
Valdivia
Glad to hear the good news. Like always the Village yelled about the website when it wasn’t working now they are not even reporting on it. I also see that after weeks of yelling and screaming about fixing stuff Ezra Klein is yelling and screaming that Obama fixing stuff will ruin Obamacare. Ugh.
On a personal note–I got my BCBS letter in October and I am going to call this week and sign up. I couldn’t do it on the local website because as a naturalized citizen they couldn’t authenticate me electronically. But I know exactly what I am signing up for and how much i will save (like 10 dollars each month) for the same exact plan.
Linda Featheringill
That is good news. I wonder why anyone thought the enrollment would be insufficient. But of course I’ve actually known people without health insurance and frankly without health care. They are legion.
MomSense
@Baud:
I’ve heard that some people don’t pay all their taxes. They actually engage in schemes to move money overseas to avoid their patriotic duty to support the greatest country in the world!! I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.
AliceBlue
Great news. Then I go over to TPM and it’s “Opposition to ACA Hits New High”! “White House Plan Not All Good News for Obamacare”!
aimai
I just explained all this to my mother, who is really alarmed at all the hysteria about the aCA and the pace of enrollment. I know its trivially obvious that the Media are in the tank for the Republicans on this but my mother gets pretty much all her news from NPR, the Boston Globe and the Jon Stewart show so the disinformation and the disinclination to really tell people what is happening is incredibly widespread. When I poined out to her that people don’t usually spend money three months in advance of purchasing something if they don’t have to she had kind of a lightbulb moment.
the Conster
Fer fuck sake people, we’ve been doing this in Massachusetts for years – people sign up in large numbers as the deadline approaches. From the perspective of a lifelong Masshole it’s amusing to watch the media and cultural fooferah around same sex marriage and Obamacare while we here have somehow managed to thrive without being forced to gay marry or escape from local death panels.
mai naem
Gee, call me not surprised. This was expected. The Mass. experience said to expect it. Human nature said to expect it. Big ticket shopping said to expect it.
Also too, the teabaggers can say all they want but many many people aren’t willing to walk the walk when it involves $$$. If they know they’re going to get tax subsidies and they think they’re going to get the same or better insurance, they’ll at least check it out. I have a friend who is all about those “illegals” etc. but has used them several times to have work done on her house because it saves her $$$. I also think the young invincibles will sign up in higher numbers than expected because many have seen extended family members rack up ridiculous medical bills. Many have family members who work in healthcare so they’ve had the dinner table conversations of “X happened at work and can you believe it cost $$$.”
Valdivia
@aimai:
My mom is the same. I had to explain to my mom during the election last year and since then she is a little more trusting when i tell her it isn’t as terrible as it sounds. Even I find it hard given how relentless it is these days. As @AliceBlue: rightly points out. I can’t even go to the usual websites without being hit with it. Must say Greg Sargent at The Plum Line is doing valiant work keeping things in perspective.
magurakurin
@Valdivia: I think the dam is starting crack on the Obamcare is a failure meme. A good article in the LA Times today about it.
The Myth of Obamacare’s failure
By August of next year, as the election comes into full swing, you won’t hear the name Obamacare at all. The Repukes will be falling all over themselves trying to find ways that they supported the PPACA. And since the majority of people don’t know that the PPACA and Obamacare are the same thing anyway, it will probably work to some extent on a good many voters.
Valdivia
@magurakurin:
It’s good to see these stories, I just wish they would get the exposure the stories about the End of Liberalism stories from the last two weeks got. But hey, we got the media we got right?
Chyron HR
@magurakurin:
For those of us without Adblock at work, please note the complete lack of Obamacare-related Newsmax headlines this morning.
Elizabelle
@magurakurin:
yup. especially if we have to rely on our “all things republican” free press to get the word out.
negative 1
@the Conster: Why, that’s impossible. I know for a fact that this is the Katrina War for Obama that will Bankrupt the Country in less than a year if we don’t stop it. So how has it been in place in Massachusetts for longer than a year? And without a full scale riot against the government?
Frankensteinbeck
@negative 1:
East Coast Liberal Elites.
aimai
I have completely given up even looking at JoshMicah Marshall’s Talking Points Memo–it has turned into even more of an hysterics click bait site reporting nothing but stupid, sensationalized, and faked up stories of Marshall’s readers and correspondents and wire ripped talking points. I am astounded at how transparently toxic the site has become. I get that its probably better business for him than actually doing any real reporting or pushback but its quite horrifying, all the same.
Valdivia
Sorry OT but apparently Sen Deeds of Virginia (who lost the race for Governor in 2009) was killed by his son who then killed himself. Awful.
Correction–he is in critical condition. Son is dead.
dmsilev
@Chyron HR: Huh. Interesting. Out of 8 headlines, looks like 3 are miracle cure/”one strange trick to improve your Social Security”, one online poll (“Obama: Worst President or Worstest President?”). Then, War on Christmas, War on Terror, Dick Cheney (who plays the first-half-of-the-book Grinch well enough to span both categories), and Finance You Can Use, brought to you by a billionaire corporate raider.
It’s like they’re not even trying any more. Not even a Benghazi!! story.
Matt McIrvin
@Chyron HR: I noticed that too! Though there are two Weird Health Tricks today: “Natural Formula Dramatically Lowers Blood Pressure” and “Doctors Say This Spice is a Brain-Health Miracle.” I thought Huffington Post was ground zero for that kind of thing.
rikyrah
now they can’t pass a
JOBS BILL
FARM BILL
IMMIGRATION BILL
but, they can tackle the ‘ problem’ of
‘being President While Black’.
………………….
Citing overreach, Republicans ponder new checks on executive powers
By Molly K. Hooper – 11/19/13 06:00 AM EST
Congressional Republicans are considering various options to curb President Obama’s use of executive powers, which they say are excessive.
GOP officials have long claimed that the president has violated the law and the Constitution through administrative actions on issues ranging from immigration to nominations to the U.S. military involvement in Libya
But the president’s recent move to change ObamaCare through an administrative fix has sparked a new round of discussions within the conservative base and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last week said he was “highly skeptical” Obama could find a fix for the cancellation of health insurance plans that was both “legal and effective.”
“I just don’t see, within the law, their ability to do that,” said the Speaker.
An hour later, Obama was outlining such a change to reporters at the White House.
House Republicans passed a bill that would allow people to keep their health plan. Despite a veto threat, 39 Democrats backed the legislation written by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).
“I know there’s a lot of discussion about the validity of the president just unilaterally changing the law. … There are a lot of us that are very concerned about it,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in an interview with The Hill.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, said, “We’re exploring options to try to somehow try to rein in this president’s total disregard for the Constitution.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/190672-citing-overreach-gop-ponders-new-checks-on-executive-powers
cmorenc
The one good thing to come out of the tragically destructive November tornadoes that struck Illinois is that it provided the MSM a new shiny object to focus on instead of continuing to pile on the problematic ObamaCare rollout. By the time attention returns the spotlight to the issue, the increasing enrollment numbers and improved function of the enrollment website will finally get some media traction.
Matt McIrvin
@Valdivia: It sounds as if Deeds (but not his son) is still alive. Awful story.
MomSense
@dmsilev:
They are constantly running miracle cure “articles” about household items that will cure your diabetes/heart disease/ED.
Obviously the Newsmax readers could use ObamaCare.
dmsilev
@MomSense: Very good idea. Someone needs to start a “One weird trick to improve your health insurance/Insurance Companies Hate This Weird Trick” campaign….
Elizabelle
@Valdivia:
Oh how awful. Deeds is a good guy.
MomSense
@dmsilev:
Ha! Heads will explode.
Valdivia
@Matt McIrvin: @Elizabelle:
yes he seems to be hanging in there. Hope he does. Just terrible story. So sad.
Belafon
Go check out the picture from the Daily Show about the “Obama’s Katrina” farce. It may actually be the single best picture about this fiasco (the fiasco being the media’s response) and one of the best political pictures.
Tone in DC
@rikyrah:
After Dumbya’s reign of error, now these gas-holes want to rein in the executive?
It’d be almost funny if it weren’t so foul. And so obvious.
rikyrah
Latest Macy’s Allegation: NYPD Officer Says Macy’s Racially Profiled Her in Black Friday Arrest
By James Fanelli and Murray Weiss November 18, 2013 9:47pm
A Hispanic NYPD officer taking advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales at Macy’slast year was wrongfully arrested for shoplifting after the store’s security lied that she confessed to the crime, a new lawsuit charges.
Jenny Mendez, 29, is suing the department store for $40 million, claiming its workers racially profiled her — and the bogus arrest got her bounced from the police department after less than a year on the job.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Bronx Civil Supreme Court, also accuses bosses at Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square of encouraging security to lie in their internal theft reports.
Mendez, who lives in the Bronx, was acquitted of the shoplifting charges in September. During the two-day bench trial, a store detective took the stand and admitted her supervisors told her to fudge paperwork.
The store detective, whom the lawsuit only names as Trouche, testified that she checked “yes” in a section of her report in which it asks if Mendez admitted the theft.
Trouche said she lied about the confession because it was “something our boss told us” to do, according to court records.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131118/midtown-south/nypd-officer-says-macys-racially-profiled-her-black-friday-arrest
Valdivia
@aimai:
I agree. When he writes his own thoughts on the Editors blog he seems to have a good perspective on things but it seems as if they all learnt to run blogs at the school of vapid sensationalist headline writing.
I started noticing this with Ezra’s blog too in the last few months. I follow him on twitter and the blurbs for his and the blogs pieces which are usually the headlines are out of the Stanford course for publishing (I saw the materials since I have a friend who took it). Basically they tell you to use numbers a lot (9 things that will surprise you about ACA) and make you actively dumb down your content. I truly believe every single publication today with the exception of The New Yorker and maybe TNR which have well defined identities are being run to the ground by this gimmky way of writing. It drives me bananas. I wish someone would write a piece about this. Maybe I should….
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
Hoping that effort will backfire on the GOP. Cannot blame PBO for trying an end run around people who will not DO their jobs, so they can keep their jobs. (The Republican caucus, askeered of its tea partying base).
Saying the President doesn’t respect the Constitution is a tell that it’s red meat for the “energized” GOP base, much of which has no idea just what is in the Constitution they worship.
Elizabelle
@Valdivia:
Five things about the Washington Post that tell you it’s jumped the shark.
Alexandra
@aimai:
Phew. Glad to know I’m not alone.
Southern Beale
Unrelated but this is some breaking news:
I wonder what the hell happened.
Elizabelle
Richmond Times Dispatch: Virginia Republican State Senator John Watkins offers bill to create a state healthcare exchange — his third attempt. Might be hard to get a bill through the GOP-controlled Virginia House of Delegates.
But maybe not, once we get to spring and it becomes apparent how Obamacare fared, even with all its rollout problems, political sabotage and not.
That 32,000 applications might be a good number.
NorthLeft12
@MomSense: Exactly. But that goes virtually unmentioned by the media because it does not fit their “THE SKY IS FALLING!!!” meme.
Human nature, go figure.
handsmile
@aimai:
At this moment, TPM’s lead story is “Reports: Obamacare Enrollment on the Rise”:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obamacare-enrollment-numbers-increasing-2
which is precisely the same story (linking to the LA Times report) that currently tops this blog.
The stories now comprising the TPM Editors’ Blog (the site’s left-hand column) include a variety of topics (Rob Ford. Zimmerman/Martin, Kennedy assassination, ACA/Healthcare.gov, Walmart) little distinguishable from those of recent threads here. So I am puzzled by (and do disagree with) your description of the site as “toxic” and no more than “hysterics click bait.”
Perhaps I should add that for me this blog’s greatest value is its commentariat; at TPM, its presence is negligible. It’s within the comments here that I most often find material that is informative, illuminating, infuriating.
Our mileages obviously vary on the quality of TPM, but I was most prompted to reply given the intensity of your opinion.
ETA: in the time it took me to write this, TPM’s lead story has now changed to the Deeds incident.
aimai
Jeebus, I just hopped over to the Left Coaster, a blog I used to read before the Obama/Hillary matchup. They have gone stark raving mad. They have a big post up about how Obama has to “take one for the team” and give up Obamacare because he has lost the mandate of heaven and will now lose the party the house as well as the Senate because of his toxic ACA legacy. So the smart thing to do is to give up the entire ACA and start over again in time for the midterm? I always thought the Pumas were largely fictional but the only comment over there is from someone still patting himself on the back for voting for Hillary in 2007. Holy shit. It was like looking at bizzaro world political analysis where the stupidest things are presented as received wisdom.
aimai
@handsmile: I know–they run smiley pictures of Obama when the news is, for five seconds, good and frowny sad pictures when they imply that his presidency is over. I saw that headline too and I figured this was a signal that JMM has decided he’s milked disaster porn (to mix my metaphors) as much as he needs to and will now report some good news for dems for a few minutes. The thing that I object to in JMM’s coverage is that he once held out some promise for crowd sourced political information but has let the site devolve into clickbait with highly deceptive, sound bite style headlines which are often contradicted in the body of the text. “Hillary is Dissapointed in Obama” might be one such headline, followed by something innocuous rather than the cat fight he’s promised.
So: yeah, he’s reporting an uptick for the President, but the body of his coverage will continue to look like this:
Let me misrepresent the situation, then let me offer you some reader responses to correct my original misrepresentation, then please click here for a reconsideration of a topic which I will now aver is much more complicated than my readers probably think. Oh, is it basically the same article over and over again? My bad! Click here for a reconsideration of the same information and polls you could see elsewhere, with my value added opinions on top!
Valdivia
@Elizabelle:
clap. clap. clap.
you win the internets today. where can I send them? :)
Matt McIrvin
@handsmile: TPM ran a lot of infuriating “Obamacare trainwreck” clickbait headlines for a little while there. They seem to have calmed down.
I think there was some kind of change in the media zeitgeist just over the weekend; “Obamacare is the biggest disaster ever” is no longer the top media story everywhere, and we’re starting to see Serious People actually pushing back, though it hasn’t happened everywhere.
dmsilev
@aimai: Christ, that’s insane. Even putting aside the merits of the idea (which are non-existent), it took nearly 15 years after the collapse of the Clintonian attempt to reform health care before Democrats tried again.
rdldot
The best part about the crappy news reporting on Obamacare is that most people don’t watch news or cable news anyway. They get their info word-of-mouth. Just because Republicans and news folks are still talking about the website doesn’t really relate to that many people. Talk to the people you know and get the info out. I’ve already signed up. The website is fast now, and I’m in Texas. If they can get it working for me with all the sabotage that’s involved here – they can get it working anywhere. It’s been working fine for a couple of weeks now.
Belafon
@aimai: So, demonstrating absolutely no concept of governing. How would scrapping the biggest achievement of the last few years help the party?
Elizabelle
@aimai:
Walk on past Left Coast, if that’s what it’s purveying.
Or, as raven would advise: FIDO
Fuck it and drive on
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin:
Yup.
The media is like a school of sardines — bait fish, really — that swirls around the meme of the day (Obamacare bad! No, wait, that was Friday news) and then moves on.
The sardines, at least, are nutritious.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@mai naem: I play tennis with a guy (because he has a private court in his backyard!) who will rail about Obama and illegals in one breath then admire the great work that his Mexican gardner did on the yard or brag about the great deals he gets on labor for his textile business.
MomSense
@NorthLeft12:
Breaking News: Sky in the same place! Details at 11.
Craig
@Baud: I file October 15. Two free extensions, and you get until your final filing date to make your retirement plan contributions.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@aimai:
Unfortunately, I’m seeing far too much of the same shit, and from folks not even ostensibly PUMAs. Just folks who have bought into the entire media narrative of “OBAMACARE DISASTER!!!! WORSE THAN KATRINAAAAA!!!!” bullshit and have gone full bore against Obama because this somehow proves the stark raving incompetence of his entire presidency or some shit.
And again, trying to convince them of otherwise does me as well as trying to convince people of anything on gun control: it just makes them hate me and what I’m trying to support/convince them of even more and I end up totally alienated and apathetic because I’m convinced everyone just wants to go full bore winger at this point and just wanted an excuse.
Matt McIrvin
@rdldot:
What I see is that everyone’s Facebook feed has Republican Uncle Fred hitting the “Obama lied, my Blue Cross died” talking points super-hard in the comments, and you can’t ban Uncle Fred without causing some serious family drama, and defending the ACA just gives Fred an opening to jump in with the same stuff again. So it takes some fortitude to keep at it.
aimai
@Elizabelle: I know, I just was curious. It was a kind of rubbernecking.
But I think that the phrase in the original post here that people are “still willing to look on the exchanges for a good deal” is key. Of COURSE people are willing to shop on the exchanges–for fuck’s sake it doesn’t get any easier than staying at home and checking your computer screen occasionally. As long as the exchanges are better than no insurance people are going to go there and sign up, whatever they say to pollsters about the law or whatever they say to their conservative reps about it. People are stupid and easily confused and they vote against their self interest all the time but in the main, they are desperate for health insurance and health care. The majority of people who will end up signing up never had a personal doctor or any kind of relationship with their “network” at all so they won’t be suffering network shock. People are going to sign up in droves and the entire system is obviously too complex to be dismantled at all. The most that can happen now is tinkering around the edges. But the fact that there are some people in this country so stupid as to think that you can wave a wand and end this law is a tribute to how little people understand law, politics, governance or reality. And that is down to people watching and listening to news and talk shows that have dumbed down their content so much that people have been led to believe that up is down and black is white.
divF
Madame Dr. divF is on her way over this morning to the offices of the Alameda Alliance, which is coordinating the California state exchanges for Alameda County, to start planning for the influx of patients to the community clinic she works in. The logistics are, well, complicated . Madame Dr. :”when you send us patients, you have to send us at least recent medical records”. AA: “but they are a bunch of ER admissions! And HIPPA!” But folks are soldiering along, getting the processes set up.
Elizabelle
Charlottesville Daily Progress:, some typos:
Herculean efforts. For a brilliant kid. What’s up with that?
Alex S.
Who knows… maybe it will turn out that the whole drama actually drew attention to Obamacare and helped increase enrollment.
handsmile
@aimai:
Appreciate your reply (and boy do I wish I could think/type as fast as you do!).
While your description of TPM/Josh Marshall’s intentions and practices is (slightly) more measured, I would maintain that it is itself of “misrepresentation” of much of what appears there. For one example, Marshall and his staff writers give no quarter to the chicanery and malfeasance of the Neo-Confederate party. Again, perhaps, varying mileages.
But as to TPM’s often sensationalistic and misleading headlines, I do emphatically agree with you and Valdivia (#33). In fact, I have twice written (via email) to Mr. Marshall on this feature/bug, insisting that it demeans the site’s credibility and value. Surprisingly given my financial and journalistic clout, I never received a response.
Elizabelle
@aimai:
Was it Kay who wrote about Republicans having to keep burnishing Reagan’s myth, again and again and again, because he is a president who won’t stay sold otherwise?
They’re trying that tactic with Obamacare, to tear it to pieces in its crib, but Obamacare actually helps Americans, and will eventually be a gamechanger.
The GOP can persuade the media and the elite who don’t need Obamacare.
But word is getting out.
Who doesn’t know someone who could use better healthcare, or in despair over medical bills?
Matt McIrvin
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
There’s an old psychological concept, related to Stockholm syndrome, called “identification with the aggressor”: people who feel attacked and helpless sometimes harbor a wish, maybe subconscious, to become the attacker, because it seems like the only way to regain a position of strength and vitality. I think this is at the heart of some of the crazier sort of left attacks on Democratic politicians: they see themselves the target of this unstoppable unhinged aggression, and on some level they want to be in the attacker’s shoes instead.
jl
I heard a House GOPer in a news report spouting how all the problems with the ACA debut just showed how Obama will destroy our well functioning health care system. Didn’t catch this guy’s name, but I guess that will be the new attack, which I doubt will be effective with the vast majority of the citizens. I guess that line will work with people on old-school Medicare (maybe the typical Fox viewer?) and relatively well-off people who don’t have to worry about their employer based health insurance.
I don’t think the line will play well with anyone who has experience with public insurance or individual market, or has had to deal with the uncertainty of changing jobs, worrying about all the gimmicks of qualifying for benefits at a new job, uncertainty about what will happen with existing plans every year at open enrollment, and staying covered with COBRA between changes in jobs.
Regular people know the reality of health insurance coverage in the U.S. and they are taking their time in making a decision. They are not ensconced in a cushy job with good and secure coverage, they know they have to take the decision seriously.
The director and other leaders of the California plan has been working on insurance policy for years, and has been involved with business and insurance efforts to improve coverage and benefits, and so far the CA enrollment process has played out according to their predictions.
I was glad to hear news that the October enrollment rate doubled in the first two weeks in November, and glad to hear other states are seeing the same thing.
aimai
@Elizabelle: It sounds to me like its going to turn out that the son had some form of psychotic break or schizophrenia–it often happens in late adolescence or when kids go away to college. Stabbing is something you do to a family member. My heart breaks for the family, it sounds like this is going to be a horrific tragedy with a well loved child just going off the rails. Think Marvin Gaye.
jl
And memories seem to be very short. Medicare Part D survived its initial roll out, which in some ways was much more chaotic and confusing than this one, both from the consumer and the small provider perspective.
Elizabelle
Meanwhile, news out of Florida:
[Story says Ebbers had health issues in recent years.]
aimai
@Elizabelle: Horrible. Poor thing.
Chris
@aimai:
LOLWUT.
Medicare and Medicaid were passed in, what, 1965? And after that we had to wait forty five years for the next big advance in health care? Sorry, I’m not interested in watching health care costs and inefficiencies skyrocket for another half-century before we get another crack at it.
Those fucking amateurs.
handsmile
@Matt McIrvin:
All I can say is that I myself did not see those TPM headlines or stories as often or as consistently as you and others here apparently did. (TPM is one of the blogs, like this one, that I do check several times each day.)
As for those “green shoots” of “change in the media zeitgeist” on its reporting of the ACA, I’ll watch its desirable growth with skepticism and cynicism. I do think, however, that the Village media’s gleeful assertion that “Obamacare is Obama’s Katrina” was so despicable and so revolting that pushback was inevitable both from a few Serious People as well as the unwashed masses who read/watch newspapers/blogs/TV and write letters or emails.
Valdivia
@handsmile:
I really do appreciate JMM’s writing. And he groomed some of the best bloggers around now blogging elsewhere–Sargent, Bleuter (who was the first one to predict the ruling by SCOTUS when everyone said the law would go down, if I remember correctly). Lately some of the hires for the DC office are either very Villagy (one of them ended up in a wingnut outfit) or at the lefty end of hysterical (Kurtz has been hyper critical of everything Obama does from before he took office) and whoever they have at the job of writing headlines is a wanker (sorry, he/she is!) But I truly think the problem is bigger than TPM–if you look at how Klein used to write a year ago and how the posts are written or headlined these days you want to knock your head on the wall. And again–I am pointing my finger at that wirting/publishing course. There is a format/formula to it. Like paint by numbers, just for writing. It really is a disservice to a good site.
I am so glad Sargent hasn’t fallen prey to it yet!
rdldot
@handsmile: Yes, as usual the Republicans overplayed their hand with the ‘Katrina’ thing, and anyone who’s not already a wingnut is shocked at them, and the media that repeats their crap and takes it seriously.
raven
Listening to Herman Cain coming back from my swim. Apparently the pukes are going to hold hearings on the ACA in North Carolina and Georgia.
Mike E
@handsmile: @Valdivia: @Matt McIrvin: TPM commenters cite this effect often, and bemoan the HuffPostification of that site. GOS, in comparison, has lately been a model of steady and calm reflection on the ACA War.
Russ
@Alex S.: I actually thought this all along, Chess and all.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Elizabelle: What’s the news? I assumed Gus and Creigh were reenacting The Death of Marvin Gaye when I heard the initial report.
Mike E
@raven: Fuck ’em. Our local media has been quick to shorthand nat’l blurbs about ACA, but have been good about covering the tremendous callousness of our General Assembly’s refusal to extend Medicaid to obviously deserving poors here (which may include me, dunno, I’m waiting til Dec to sign up).
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@rdldot:
I wish I could say I see the same, but between personal experience of people echoing the full bore winger points on everything based solely on the fucking site, plus prominent dems showing they can’t run the fuck fast enough from Obama and the ACA at this point, I’m in fully on despair at the moment. Even if/when this finally smooths out, the damage is all done, and first impressions once again rule the roost. And the GOP is the master of the first impression.
balconesfault
Richard – question I had after discussion with a friend in the food service industry.
As management, she was provided a pretty good healthcare plan in the past, while her workers got bupkis. Now, because (she claims) Obamacare requires the same level of plan to be offered to all employees, the qualify of her plan has gone down while the cost to her has gone up … and ironically, a lot of her employees, after briefing, are declining coverage anyway and electing to take the minimal tax hit instead of paying their portion for the company plan.
Does this ring true?
negative 1
@jl: The thing is, I’ve always had stable employer-provided healthcare and they STILL switch almost every year. In my state there have only really ever been three options and I still almost never had the same one for two years in a row. It’s why it’s shocking that the “Obamacare cancelled your policy” meme ever got legs. Literally every time we switched insurances it would eff up the billing somehow, so people would complain about having to switch all the time. The go to excuse? “Oh that policy was cancelled and the new one was more money”. I know I’m not the only one that heard that as an excuse. It’s why it’s so frustrating that dems didn’t counter the ‘Obamacare cancelled your policy’ meme by pointing out how shady insurance companies really are.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@negative 1:
This is because providers jack up their rates by ~20% each year.
Valdivia
@Mike E:
interesting. I don’t read the comments there (and haven’t been to GOS in ages) but at some point one would hope JMM might be responsive to that criticism no?
Elizabelle
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Here’s a little bit more from the Charlottesville paper. Police should be doing a press conference soon, if not already.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
So the latest news seems to indicate Gus Deeds stabbed his dad and then shot himself.
Elizabelle
@balconesfault:
I’d be interested in hearing how this turns out.
Food service employees. Wouldn’t it seem they’d be eligible for subsidized insurance on the exchanges? Can’t imagine they make that much money.
What state does your friend live in?
(And who wouldn’t want to see food service employees able to see a doctor, rather than coughing into the wares?)
ericblair
@Matt McIrvin:
Some lefties are just as big authoritarians as the wingnuts. A bunch of criticism of Obama is Obama as Failed God more than Obama as elected politician with specific powers. Plus the drive to make every popular progressive politician into the next candidate for President, because that’s apparently the only position that matters.
It’s sort of like the problems with putting a rebel in charge of a hidebound organization to shake things up and loosen the reins. Instead, you’re likely to get a micromanaging dictator, because pretty often the rebel isn’t rebelling against the power structure (which he likes just fine), just his place in it.
schrodinger's cat
@Valdivia: TPM is striving to be a baby Huffpo, with screaming headlines and all.
negative 1
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I realize that, but the way it was always presented was that “your plan was cancelled and the new one costs more”. Makes me wonder why everyone could fall for the idea that “obama cancelled my totally awesome and cheap plan”.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@ericblair: How about this criticism of Obama: for eight years he tried all the Republican ideas and they all blew up in his face because Republican ideas suck. And now Democrats own all those Republican failures.
Mike E
@negative 1: Have you heard, there are black people in the White House!
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
I bet the media would be nutritious if you processed them into delicious Soylent Green.
handsmile
@Valdivia:
Well, hey there ! :)
Disagreement we have none on the Village-centricity (inevitable, though?) of some of TPM”s recent staff writers or the true wankerishness of its headline writer(s).
“How do you solve a problem like [Ezra Klein]?” is a song I don’t have the inclination or interest to sing at the moment. (I don’t know if I even agree with the lyrics.) I will say I do not regard him with the contempt that many on this blog do, even given the perplexing strategy behind his ACA columns of the past month or so.
I look forward to reading your expose on the Stanford publishing course. :)
Elizabelle
Link to the Highland Country Recorder:
Stabbing took place at home occupied by Deeds’ ex-wife, then a second 911 call about gunshot victim.
gogol's wife
@Chyron HR:
HaHa. I’ll know the worm has really turned when the NYTimes stops putting it on the front page.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Elizabelle: Deeds just found out first hand what we’ve been trying to tell him and his NRA paymasters: guns in the home are far more likely to result in the death of a family member than a marauding deer.
Richard Mayhew
@balconesfault: depending on the details — maybe.
Most group health insurance is regulated through the ERISA Act and it has a few requirements in that plans are generally offered to a general class of employees so a distinction of managers/salaried employees getting benefits but not the line cook is plausible under current law. The employer mandate got delayed a year, so no requirement that employers offer insurance to all workers, and it has to be affordable insurance.
Really depends on the details, I can’t give you an answer on a blurb.
Elizabelle
@Valdivia:
@handsmile:
Yeah, Valdivia. You should totally write that expose on the Stanford course.
Save TPM and others from themselves.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@negative 1: No one is falling for anything. The health insurance industry is doing what they do best: scam, the folks that don’t like PPACA are doing what they do best, pointing out its overwhelming flaws and The Steely Eyed Realists are doing the usual pants around the ankle thing.
balconesfault
@Richard Mayhew: Thanks Richard.
Her point was that upper management was telling her level that for the company to offer insurance to both management and to the cooks, it had to be the same level of coverage. They apparently did want to offer coverage to everyone … but this inability to “tier” the coverage to employee class seemed odd to me.
Mike E
Wow, msnbc producers suck. Cut away from this weak ass press conference.
Mike in NC
This will by some “fluke” totally escape the attention of Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Chuck Todd, David Gregory and the rest of the Village Idiots who enjoy seven figure salaries…
Valdivia
@handsmile:
@Elizabelle:
Maybe not an expose exactly but just illuminate how all these writers are copying Cosmopolitan circa 1990s! :D
They’re all turning into CosmoGirls.
Roger Moore
@negative 1:
I don’t think it’s shocking at all; it just shows how out of touch the people making editorial decisions in the media are. They are shocked that people are forced to change plans, can’t keep their doctors, etc. because they have Cadillac plans that don’t have those problems. That’s the same reason the decision to tax Cadillac plans to pay for PPACA got such extensive coverage. Not many people were affected, but the people deciding which news to publish were among the few, so they made a big deal about it. When the media acts shocked about something that ordinary people have plenty of experience with, you should see it as a sign that the media are out of touch.
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore:
The reporters who should be covering the ACA story are the ones who got downsized or had to leave for health reasons.
Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams are. never. going. to. get. this. one.
Mike in NC
@rikyrah:
I’ve seen in the Letters to the Editor where Obama has appointed hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of unaccountable “czars” to take away our FREEDUMB!
Yatsuno
@Elizabelle: Wow. Just…wow. How terrible for the entire family. Much healing light to Mr. Deeds.
raven
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Don’t start with that shit.
kc
@negative 1: @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Yeah, but it’s not his fault because Republicans wouldn’t let him do anything else.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@raven: Don’t start with me, Douche. I am in no mood for your passive aggressive bullshit.
raven
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Nothing passive aggressive about it, it’s straight out aggressive you asshole.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@raven: I’ll do and say what I want and if you don’t like it, you can send John a whiny letter.
raven
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: And I’ll call your punk ass out when you do say stupid fucking shit like that.
burnspbesq
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Is your world-view always this stupid and simplistic?
ETA: which “overwhelming flaws” are those? Be specific. I’m going to hound you until you are. I’m tired of your schtick.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@raven: No, you’ll do your usual BMOC routine with the usual results: nada.
raven
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Sounds like you’re the one that needs Cole to hold your purse.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@raven: I have no idea what that means but I guess it’s some kind of gaybaiting? Why don’t you go fall asleep in front of the teevee before you dig yourself a hole you can’t dig out of?
raven
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Oh sorry, I thought you were a ten year old girl.
Tripod
Dogs bark, caravan moves on to Black Friday – bullshit to spend disposable income on, and JFK – still missing a large portion of his brain.
muricafukyea
Tune in tomorrow when hot/cold Richard switches back to concern trolling by twisting the numbers in a negative way…again.
Yatsuno
@Tripod:
Too soon?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Yatsuno: lol
Dumbass was trying to be a giantslayer and stomped on his own dick.
RaflW
I’m relieved to see this news. And you can add me and my partner to the list of people who will be shopping our state exchange this month. October just seemed early to be figuring it all out. But December seems busy and late in the underwriting process. So here’s hoping MNSure stays stable as demand ramps up!
Mikeyes
Is anyone using Health Sherpa? http://www.thehealthsherpa.com/
I’m sending my patients to that site since Wisconsin has taken to ignoring or blocking any help for the federal web site.
gelfling545
@MomSense: This is what I was thinking as I read about numbers of accounts created vs enrollments purchased. I have known few people who were in a position to pay for things months before they absolutely had to. Also, the few I knew who were affluent enough to do so rarely paid early either, so as not to lose interest on the funds or whatever.
Jebediah, RBG
@rikyrah:
So if we go back and check, we will find out that this fucker was front and center and loudly opposing all that “unitary executive” crap back when that-guy-they-can’t-quite-remember was president?
Another Holocene Human
@MomSense: When we used to have company Xmas parties (before the management decided to #ragequit the whole thing because we brought a certain manager insufficient piles of narcissistic supply versus all the lovely unnecessarily office gewgaws he could buy with our morale/safety-incentive budget), I recall that invites with RSVP were sent out a month in advance. Predictably only about 10% would return, and on the day after the sign-up deadline the department office assistant would call everyone individually to find out who was going. Every. Year.
She didn’t take it personally… of course, the douchebags who replaced her once she retired did.
balconesfault
@kc:
Yeah, but it’s not his fault because
RepublicansSenators Bayh, Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu, and Baucus wouldn’t let him do anything else.Another Holocene Human
@the Conster: But some Boston people wished me and my wife “Mazel Tov!” when we got gay-married in Boston so clearly it’s the Jewish Bolshevik Pinko Commie Queer Gulag (Death Camp For True Christians!) Taxachusetts Hell Hole we were warned about!!!!!1111
Another Holocene Human
I always find it humorous when people call Massachusetts godless considering how many churches abut the Boston Common alone.
Downtown Boston — my god, it’s full of steeples.
Of course, wrong kind of Christians (shudder, Quakers) & all that…. Never could wrap my mind around Mennonites wearing old-timey clothes coming in on the subway and proselytizing right in front of the Commons visitor center with a freaking amp. Just like the 12 Apostles on Pentacost, right?!
Another Holocene Human
@mai naem: Invincible, my ass. Must be all those rich jackasses on their parents’ insurance.
All the young people I ever knew were desperate to get even shitty insurance because they needed a scrip for their mental health meds… needed help paying for the meds, too.
Oh, and you’re kind of required to have health insurance to go to college, except the pre-ACA “plans” (Aetna… um… they had some name for their student ripoff subdivision… shit, won’t come to me) they made you buy were overpriced shite. It’s a big problem for grad students….
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: You are very good at this rhetoric thing, rikyrah. Hat tip.
Older
I am employed as a process server, and most of the people to whom I deliver notices are young people (30’s at most) who have unpaid medical bills. Most of them also have children.
Since long before the president’s bill was presented, I have been talking to the people I serve about health care insurance. I used to say “Write you representatives in Congress and tell them we need single payer health insurance in this country”. More recently, I’ve been saying “Soon this kind of thing won’t happen any more”.
I have learned that there are a lot of young people, with or without children, who have no insurance, and have needed it. (I have also learned that way more people than I realized have dogs, but that’s another matter.)
Families have broken up because of this problem. People have lost their homes because of what started as an unexpected medical need. This was one of the huge unmet needs in this country, and I admire the president for being able to deal with it. After all these years.
Another Holocene Human
@balconesfault: I wondered once why you never saw black people at the radical lefty space, but then I made the mistake of reading some literature there… Guardian Weekly. And some dudebro had written a piece about how deluded African-American voters were supporting Obama so fiercely when he had done so little for them except symbolically. Yeah, that’s right, ARRA didn’t put anyone in the community to work in the darkest hour, UI didn’t keep body and soul together, and the Republican Congress doesn’t exist to stop any progress on jobs, jobs, jobs. What a crock of–if I may say so?–shit. And Eric Holder fighting for voting rights doesn’t count because DRONEZZZZZZZZ.
Poor, deluded, African-American voters.
Mike G
@Jebediah, RBG:
If only the ACA included torture he’d be in favor of it.
Another Holocene Human
aimai: I saw the same stupidity on a different blog last week, so I guess that blog is late to the party. What a bunch of fair weather idiots. “I told you so” is more important than people gaining access to healthcare after years of being jerked around and hounded by collectors.
It’s also amazing how your fantasy president can always do everything perfectly that the real world president can never do. That’s why Mitterand put Communists in his government–having real responsibilities got rid of his worst thorns in his side and their constituency was instantly disgusted by their glorious leaders selling out.
Of course, you’d think Hilary being SOS would have helped… and it did… but fairweather Dems that listen more to GOP talking points than the D base are apparently easily demotivated.
Somehow, they don’t realize that THEY are the liberal cavers and losers that they’re always bitching about–!!
So when you’re down in the first quarter you #ragequit and burn the coach in effigy–??
Another Holocene Human
Elizabelle: Schizophrenia?
hitchhiker
@Older:
Thanks so much for that, and I’m sorry for all the needless suffering you’ve had to be part of.
I’ll admit to turning away from the political news for the last two weeks. I think it was the juxtaposition of those two guys from Politico grinning everywhere about their horrible snake-pit of a book and the joy of the pampered media personalities in what they were determined to see as a political failure for Obama.
As if there was nothing at stake here except the daily measure of his effing approval rating!
People need this so much, and they’ve needed it for so long, and they’re counting on it so hard. I swear to Christ, it’s like they’re watching someone drowning overboard while sipping a good Merlot and laughing at the captain of the ship who’s trying desperately to steer while being prodded with 37 sharp sticks at once. I just hate them all.
kc
@Another Holocene Human:
With deductibles of $6,000.00 to $7,000.00 under the bronze plans, plus hundreds out of pocket each month, I can guarantee you that people will still be hounded by collectors.
Tripod
@Yatsuno:
What else more do I have to say?
aimai
@Another Holocene Human: We kind of famously kicked out the Quakers, actually, whipping, branding, and hanging them.
mclaren
Once again, no surprise here. The Reptilicans screwed themselves by claiming the ACA is “another Katrina,” a “disaster,” “unraveling and in total collapse,” blah blah woof woof what-ev-ah, playah.
In fact if the reports are accurate the online enrollment system is working unusually well for a government-funded and large-company-designed IT system. And of course people today tend to forget that Medicare had similar glitches during its initial rollout. It takes time to get the bureaucracy to work smoothly at the start of large government programs like this. After a while, with fixes and legislative tweaks, it all works reasonably well.
Of course the big issue remains cost control. My suspicion has always been that Obamacare represented the back-door path to government-mandated cost control, which gets you most of the way to single-payer. Once the government steps in and sets prices on all medical procedures and medical devices (to keep the ACA mandated premiums from rising to infinity), economies of scale wind up forcing most of the balkanized health care providers to merge and you get one government entity dictating prices to and reimbursing a small number of very large health care providers, which is pretty close to nationalized single-payer with cost controls.
mclaren
@Jebediah, RBG:
From one of the thugs who voted in favor of the NDAA which flagrantly violates the 5th and 6th and 8th and 14th amendments of the constitution. LOL!
Pot, meet kettle.
greg l
Richard M,
Do the Obamacare numbers include those people who sign up for a plan directly with the insurer rather than using the website? I did not qualify for assistance so I went directly to the BCBS web site not thru healcare.gov.
Thanks
Tripod
@mclaren:
Medicaid for all. That’s why Roberts striped out the expansion mandate. He couldn’t flip the whole law because of legitimacy concerns raised by CU, so he tried to thread the needle. Another day, another GOP rat fuck. Also too slick by half. The neo-confederates are now trying to navigate around the popularity of Medicaid expansion with both voters and corporate health interests to placate dipshit GOP primary voters. Good luck with that.
Jebediah, RBG
@mclaren:
I suppose its possible that the dipshit is using a definition of “disregard” much different than the one the rest of us use.