America's uninsured rate has never been in single digits.
But it's at 10.1% now—and falling: http://t.co/dfyJqtN2B2 pic.twitter.com/y6Kg08yBTN
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) June 16, 2015
Now let us hope that the five Sadists on the Supreme Court don’t fuck this up.
Punchy
I am hoping that Justice Kennedy sees this tweet, ponders, and then demands a box of erasers, stat.
More realistically is Scalia and crew seeing this statistic and saying “See? Nobody even needs health care! Nearly 90% already have it!” and voting accordingly.
srv
All good things must come to an end.
Brachiator
In my universe, this gives the Democrats something concrete to challenge the GOP. It should move things from debating whether or not there should be healthcare reform and on to how to improve it.
Nor should Republicans be allowed to muddy things with the claim that Obama failed to deliver decreases in overall medical costs.
What matters most is the availability, quality and delivery of medical care, and how this can be improved. Costs are not unimportant, but part of a larger context of how to get health care to people.
And the other irrelevant dodge would be any claim that illegal immigrants are sucking up the health care that real Muricans should be getting.
Arclite
Hey Richard,
Did you hear the NPR story last night on how millennials were struggling with getting/understanding insurance? What’s your take?
Belafon
@Arclite: They should all come here. If it wasn’t for Richard, most of us wouldn’t have more than a surface level undertanding of insurance.
MomSense
This is a BFD. Imagine if the sadist governors and legislatures had expanded Medicaid coverage.
Tommy
@srv: Lets hope not. In the past year my parents have had some health issues for really their first time in their lives. One major and a few minor. Mom in the ICU for a month. They are not the most liberal people, although I have “turned” my mom to vote for Obama.
I talk politics with them and mom noted they didn’t pay a single penny for any of their medical care. Dad worked 30+ years for the Federal government and they provide them their insurance.
I told her they were lucky and the rest of us want what you have and now we kind of do. I work for myself and I have a far better plan for a lot less money. The ACA could be improved but we kind of did a good thing.
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: I like your universe. I just wish my congresscritter lived there.
the Conster
@Arclite:
Too bad there isn’t a constitutionally protected institution that uses a delivery system owned by the public that gets beamed into every household 24/7 with vast resources that could explain it to them. oh wait…
rikyrah
thanks for the good news
cahuenga
Yet the ACA is the most dastardly crime ever committed against the American people!!!! /wingnut
Tommy
@Arclite: I like to think I am somewhat educated on health insurance. When I went to the Federal Exchange and bought my health care coverage I was more than a little confused. I had to spend a lot of time on Google trying to understand everything. I could see how somebody that was buying it for the first time would be far more confused.
Linnaeus
@Tommy:
Let me guess – they “earned” it, but the rest of us didn’t.
Brachiator
The other bogus claim that the GOP may try to push is the philosophical one, that the government should not be involved in health care because the private sector can do better.
The decrease in the number of uninsured refutes this claim pretty easily.
The GOP should be asked why they want to take health care away from people. And this includes Medicare.
Arclite
@Tommy: I could see a series of slick Youtube vids embedded in strategic locations in the ACA site that could really help alleviate confusion.
Patricia Kayden
Thanks Obama!
Jack the Second
“Don’t fuck this up”? The chart shows that the uninsurance rate in non-expansion states is twice that of expansion states — 7.5 vs 14.4. They’ve already fucked it up. If they hadn’t, we’d be looking at a 7.5% uninsurance rate nationally.
raven
@Linnaeus: That’s uncalled for.
elmo
If the Supreme Court hadn’t bypassed 75 years of precedent to tell the States that they were free to take Medicaid money AND ignore Medicaid mandates, we would, in fact, be in single-digit uninsured territory right the fuck now.
Tommy
@Arclite: Yes. Illinois is kind of a strange state where our exchange is jointly run with the Feds. What we have now is far superior to when it first launched and I signed up. I spent like 20+ hours with the site crashing and being confused and I just picked up the phone. The level of expertise and help that lady provided should be a model for how government should work.
Elizabelle
@Jack the Second:
That affects a lot of lives. Some people have probably died for lack of healthcare.
Let’s call it the John Roberts Health Insurance Gap.
Elizabelle
@elmo: Yes. We would.
See The John Roberts Health Insurance Gap.
Make that bastard own it.
Brachiator
@boatboy_srq:
You have my sympathies. I don’t understand any Democratic Party congress critter who wants to pretend the they were in the room when Obamacare was passed or have no stake in improving it.
I can understand Republican opposition, but they can no longer oppose Obamacare on principle, but have to offer alternatives that will deliver better results. Or explain why some people really don’t deserve health care.
Tommy
@Elizabelle: I am sure people have died. I mentioned in another comment my parents have had a few health issues the past year or two. Get their health care via the government.
I recall my father worried that he would not be able to get health care in a timely manner. He had a small growth on his nose. He was in one day where they took a sample and tested it. It was cancerous. He was in three days later having it removed.
I can’t seem to get my father to see my liberal views but mom totally gets it now. It took 60+ years but she sees maybe we have some good ideas.
Kerry Reid
@Tommy: I am in Illinois, too. I first signed up for an individual plan before Obamacare. Which meant underwriting. Which meant lots of calls back and forth on procedures and tests I’d had done years earlier to make sure that I didn’t have pre-existing conditions. And since my medical groups had changed depending on which plan I had with employers before I went individual, it was a pain tracking down all the records. And of course the terror of “If I get something wrong they will find out and drop me through rescission as soon as they find out I actually need this insurance.”
So while I do sympathize with people who find it confusing, I’ve mostly found those complaints coming from people who had never been on the individual market. They either went with employer-plan options or went without insurance. For those of us who are self-employed, it’s ALWAYS been complicated, and coverage was not guaranteed.
Brachiator
@Arclite:
As long as I’ve been an adult, I’ve known people who never thought about health care until they got married and had children. And for most of these folk, health insurance was just something they got as part of the job, and they just checked a box.
As employer offerings changed, a lot of people have HR departments and video and written material to help explain options.
Trying to squeeze all this onto a government web site has got to be tougher. And I don’t know whether people can talk to a knowledgeable human being or insurance agent about any of this.
Also, what options do people without computer access have and what is their experience like?
srv
The fix is in:
Linnaeus
@raven:
You’re right – I apologize, Tommy. I didn’t need to make that remark. I think I’ve just been too frustrated by talking to too many people who do feel that way, but it’s no excuse.
Roger Moore
@Kerry Reid:
It really reminds me of all the people complaining about how Obamacare will mean there’s a government bureaucrat making decisions about your healthcare. Even if that were true, it’s not as if there haven’t been a bunch of insurance company bureaucrats doing exactly the same thing all along, but without the implied mandate of public servants to actually serve the public.
japa21
@srv: What “fix” are you speaking about? Issa wasn’t supposed to be there, tried to force his way into a place he didn’t belong and was escorted out. Issa is an incompetent bully who for some uncomprehensible reason thinks he is some savior of the nation. He is, instead, a major symptom of what is wrong with the GOP nowadays.
japa21
@Linnaeus: Graciously done.
Tommy
@Kerry Reid: I was scared of what I was buying.
A number of years ago when I started to work for myself I bought Fortis insurance (which has since been sued into the ground). I caught a one in a few million virus and almost died. This is strange on many levels because I don’t even have aspirin in my house. I am blessed with amazing health.
But things went sideways and I was in the ICU, cut from ear to ear, with a tube down my throat for a week.
Fortis refused to pay most of the bills. If I didn’t have parents with some money I would have lost everything. I wanted to be sure that didn’t happen again.
David Koch
Kerry Reid
@Roger Moore: Absolutely correct. And really — I’m not so sure that something as important as healthcare shouldn’t involve a decent amount of research on the part of the individual.
You should at least be thinking about what diseases run in your family that might require certain regular diagnostic procedures (we’re a smorgasbord of cancer in my family — my dad died of lung cancer 35 years after he gave up smoking, my mom of colon cancer, my sister just passed from ovarian, and her twin is in remission from non-Hodgkins lymphoma — and my dad also had a stroke at age 34, so that’s another risk factor). So what medical groups are available that might work best with all of that? I was lucky that I was able to get a plan that included my now-late sister’s gynecological oncologist, who was willing to do a prophylactic spaying on me, if you will. But some things are just gonna take time and effort and research. You wouldn’t expect to buy a house or a car without doing due diligence. I guess I view health insurance in the same way. It would of course be a lot easier if we had single-payer, but that’s a ways off, I’m afraid.
ETA: I also live in a major metropolitan area, which makes things immeasurably easier. I honestly don’t know what a lot of rural dwellers do when confronted with chronic or life-threatening conditions. It’s got to be pretty awful just from a logistical viewpoint.
am
+1 for Futurama reference
Bill
I will say this again, the Supremes are going to uphold ACA subsidies. The insurance industry is not interested in the death spiral that will result from a contrary holding, and enough conservative on the court will listen to the corporate interests to save the ACA.
In this case we are lucky corporate interests and America’s interests are aligned.
If I believed 11 dimensional chess were a thing, I’d almost think the Prez planned it this way.
Kerry Reid
@David Koch: Bernie Sanders voted for ACA. PRIMARY HIM!!!! (Because you can primary people who run as independents, right?)
Yeah, believe me, when it comes to the kill-the-bill mouthbreathing morons, my shitlist is horizontal and they will NEVER get off of it.
Tommy
@Linnaeus: I didn’t like your comment but I can understand the frustration. My father might say something close to what you posted and I don’t understand it. I wonder more than I care to admit how my parents, who are nothing close to liberals, raised a liberal. I feel like there is a liberal core in them, I just need to bring it out.
Kerry Reid
@Tommy: That is a nightmare. I hope you’re doing better now. As one of my friends is fond of saying “It can take decades to get rich — if you even get there. But you can become poor overnight.” I will never understand people who think that they will never be unlucky enough to need some kind of social safety net or government intervention to make sure they don’t lose everything if they get sick.
My surviving sister works for an insurance company, so she was able to steer me toward certain plans and away from others. That also helped a lot.
Linnaeus
@Tommy:
Very kind of you to say. Once again, I’m sorry for the insensitivity on my part.
As for your own path, it’s funny how people can develop. To be sure, parental influence is significant, but it doesn’t necessarily determine where one goes, I’m sure you had some formative experiences at key times in your life that made a difference. I know I did.
catclub
@japa21: I think it was a joke. The fix is in to protect Hillary and the Man is keeping Darrell Issa from learning the truth, by keeping him out of the deposition.
Richard Mayhew
@Arclite: I will listen as I mow the lawn tonight. I also owe you guys a post on facility fees
Amir Khalid
@catclub:
With srv, I’m not so sure about the joke part.
Tommy
@Linnaeus: You are more than welcome. We can all write stuff here we wish we could take back. I know I have.
raven
@Linnaeus: That was really good of you, for reals.
Chyron HR
John Thune called, he says that Obamacare is a failure because it’s keeping 10% of the population from getting insurance.
japa21
@Amir Khalid: Exactly
Linnaeus
@raven:
Thank you, both for that and the opportunity to correct myself.
fuckwit
@cahuenga: WINGNUT?? Fucking Turtle McConnel, the majority leader of the United States Fucking Senate, used almost the EXACT same words to describe Obamacare last week, on national television!!
What we used to have to go nutpicking in the corners of right-wing blogs and transcripts of Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Hannity shows to find, is now coming from the leaders of the fucking legislative branch of the country.
O Peak Wingnut, where is thy sting?
feebog
@Chyron HR:
And you win the thread!
Elizabelle
@Linnaeus: Hugs for apologizing to Tommy.
raven
@Linnaeus: I said something stupid to one of our regulars 9 months ago. I said I was sorry and I’ve been on the shit list ever since.
Linnaeus
@raven:
That does strike me as a bit long to be in purgatory. *shrug*
raven
@Linnaeus: Fuck it.
Mike in NC
Darrell Issa is such a bastard he doesn’t even recycle.
Roger Moore
@fuckwit:
The inmates are now in control of the asylum.
Linnaeus
As for the thread topic, while there isn’t much I’d put past this Court, I’ve been less convinced in recent days that they’ll do what we fear. IANAL, but it’s my understanding from people I know who are that the Court would have to engage in some unprecedentedly silly statutory interpretation to rule for the petitioners.
I’d be okay, since my state has an exchange. But all those that would be thrown off the federal exchanges? That would be madness.
ETA: Though it shouldn’t have even come to this.
cthulhu
@Linnaeus:
They won’t get thrown of the Federal exchanges, the subsidies anyone receives could stop, and pretty quickly I suppose without intervention.
It does seem many states are actively seeking fixes and that the Feds have some ideas too. There would be some delicious irony if the ACA somehow managed to survive through an adverse SCOTUS ruling and eventually became stronger in the process.
It certainly won’t do well by any of the “fixes” the GOP has suggested.
Elizabelle
@raven: I love your concept of FIDO.
Fuck it and drive on.
I think it several times daily, in appropriate situations, and everyone I’ve ever mentioned it to has laughed and liked it. Useful concept.
raven
@Elizabelle: There it is.
raven
@Elizabelle: “It don’t mean nuthin” was much more common but FIDO is good. Then there is WETSU.
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: Barbara Comstock. Upscale Teahadi (Orthodox Bushist sect). How she got [s]elected I’ll never know.
workworkwork
@Tommy: I was confused when I renewed my coverage on our state exchange but I called the 800 number and one of their service reps walked me through the process in less than five minutes.
I think Healthcare.gov has something similar.
dww44
@Arclite: Don’t know if Richard answered this.Anecdotally, I’ve already concluded that NPR is in the tank for their funders and beholden to the GOP’ers who keep just enough of the funding going to public radio/tv to make them dependent on them. A couple of days ago, Steve Inskeep on ATC at NPR, started off a half hour segment with a lead-in to how some folks in Atlanta weren’t able to get affordable health care from the exchanges. I admit I was so miffed I switched to a classical CD (kept in the ready to provide pleasant excapes) because they probably didn’t even mention that Georgia didn’t take the buy-in to Medicaid and consequently most folks buying on the exchanges here start out at a disadvantage.
Seems to me that NPR is really pushing the Anti-Obamacare meme. I’m hoping that judicial restraint and common sense carry the day in the verdict. If it doesn’t go our way, I’m sorta with Booman on his take:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/6/9/17118/84489
Zinsky
Yet, nearly every Republican presidential candidate, all 348 of them, insist that “Obamacare” is a failure”. It is jarring to watch such blatant, untrue propaganda being used so shamelessly and even more shocking to watch a significant number of people buying into it. Good God, Americans are gullible. I swear that you could convince a large percentage of Republican Party voters that the sun really rises in the West, just by saying Barack Obama was behind it!
magurakurin
@raven: for what it’s worth (not much, I reckon but..) you are not and never have been on my shit list, bro.