Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Second rate reporter says what?

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

This really is a full service blog.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Virtually Speaking tonight

Virtually Speaking tonight

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I’m scheduled to talk about health care and PPACA implementation with Jay Ackroyd tonight at 9:00pm EST.

 

Virtually Speaking is here:

My big concern is a combination of tech problems on my end and the fact that I have a voice best suited for blogging.

 

Update: That was a lot of fun.  We talked for an hour or so mainly on the mechanics of the health care industry and financing.  I really appreciate all the community members who their stories and questions about how PPACA impacts them.  Talking about those situations created the strongest parts of the conversation.

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    My big concern is a combination of tech problems on my end

    Only solution is to repeal cancel the whole thing.

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    See the opening scene of Anchor Man for some voice warm-up tips.

    Scotch scotch scotch.

    Scotchy scotchy scotch.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s actually remarkable how much I’ve started taking notice of tech problems I come across in daily life after the healthcare.gov rollout. I see glitches everywhere now.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: And it’s not like insurance websites were ever a picnic, even before the dreaded Obamacare. I was pulling my hair out when trying to do something dead-simple on my Private-Sector / Job Creator Insurance Website the other day. That’s the standard HC.gov should rightly be judged by.

  10. 10.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    OK … I’m frantically googling ‘Jay Ackroyd schedule’ now. I have no doubts at all that you’ll be terrific.

  12. 12.

    ThresherK

    I’m in the same boat, vocally speaking.

    Some of us radio geeks have a self-proclaimed “voice made for telegraphy”, making this joke older than the internet.

  15. 15.

    Starfish

    The local NPR station said that my Representative is trying to make it so that insurance is not mandatory in some of the ski resort towns of Colorado because the affordable care act coverage is not particularly affordable, and most people make above whatever level they need to make to get subsidies because cost of living in that area is really high.

  16. 16.

    Starfish

    The local NPR station said that my Representative is trying to make it so that insurance is not mandatory in some of the ski resort towns of Colorado because the affordable care act coverage is not particularly affordable, and most people make above whatever level they need to make to get subsidies because cost of living in that area is really high.

  17. 17.

    Starfish

    The local NPR station said that my Representative is trying to make it so that insurance is not mandatory in some of the ski resort towns of Colorado because the affordable care act coverage is not particularly affordable, and most people make above whatever level they need to make to get subsidies because cost of living in that area is really high.

  19. 19.

    Yatsuno

    the fact that I have a voice best suited for blogging

    “Microphones, darling. They work wonders.”

    /Truth about Cats and Dogs

  20. 20.

    Starfish

    It wasn’t that they don’t need insurance. It’s that it would be about $500/month (I assume that is per person.) The ski instructors are typically seasonal employees, and I am not sure if the resorts would be required to cover them, or they would have to buy their own insurance or how that works.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    Budget deal vote was 332 to 94 with 169 Republicans and 163 Democrats voting for it. So about 2/3 of no votes were GOP and 1/3 Dems.

  22. 22.

    BGinCHI

    @Baud: Apparently Pelosi told her members to “embrace the suck.”

    Hmm.

    I guess she knows why this is not the hill to die on.

  24. 24.

    Violet

    @Baud: CBS Evening News is leading with a story about how Boehner is “emboldened to try to regain the upper hand” against the teabaggers. And then shows a clip of him essentially saying the tea partiers are crazy. Followed by another bit on how it’s outside money with deep pockets that are funding the tea party and how they don’t have to govern so they can say whatever they want.

    Is the tide turning against the Tea Party?

  26. 26.

    BGinCHI

    @Baud: Agreed. I don’t believe the “if we only held out for more it would happen and still pass” chorus. The media is dying for a comparison between the Progressive Caucus and the TP. We should enable their fucking stupidity.

    Just look at fucking stupid fucking Politifact today. Assholes.

  34. 34.

    mclaren

    My big concern is a combination of tech problems on my end and the fact that I have a voice best suited for blogging.

    Really?

    Your big concern should be that the ACA claims to reduce costs but in fact lowers premiums by jacking up deductibles to stratospheric levels. The old shell-game, in other words — yet again revealing that the ACA is a non-reform reform designed to kick the can down the road until our bloated corrupt collapsing health care system finally implodes in a shower of health care CEO golden parachutes and chapter 7 reorganizations while citizens who can’t afford the deductibles or limitlessly increasing premiums riot in the street due to lack of basic health care.

    For months, the Obama administration has heralded the low premiums of medical insurance policies on sale in the insurance exchanges created by the new health law. But as consumers dig into the details, they are finding that the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are often much higher than what is typical in employer-sponsored health plans.

    Until now, it was almost impossible for people using the federal health care website to see the deductible amounts, which consumers pay before coverage kicks in. But federal officials finally relented last week and added a “window shopping” feature that displays data on deductibles.

    For policies offered in the federal exchange, as in many states, the annual deductible often tops $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a couple.

    Source: “On Health Exchanges, Premiums May Be Low, but Other Costs Can Be High,” The New York Times, 9 December 2013.

  35. 35.

    PhoenixRising

    @mclaren:

    as consumers dig into the details, they are finding that the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are often much higher than what is typical in employer-sponsored health plans.

    …aaand since those of us who are shopping on the exchanges don’t HAVE employer-sponsored insurance, we’re still pretty happy!

    Deductible and OOP went down compared to previous years paying the full premium for individual plan, even before the savings of Not Having To Pay For The Care You Already Know You Need (pre-existing conditions), nets out pretty well.

    Looks like you, along with the staff of even the librul NYT, have seen an EOB from insurance for a group larger than 50. How lucky.

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