November 30 has come and gone. That was the date on which the President promised to have HealthCare.gov working for “the vast majority” of users. (Well, to be precise, the second such date, since he initially told us it would work fine when launched.) Did he make it? The answer, according to his supporters, seems to be sortof. Some people can now buy health insurance there, but others still can’t. Meanwhile, for the states that tried to create their own exchanges, things are even worse in some places. Oregon’s exchange has not yet enrolled anyone, while Hawaii’s has enrolled only 257 people. Nationwide, less than 300,000 people have bought insurance through the exchanges (as of the moment when I write this). That means the pace has picked up slightly–recall that only about 100,000 did so in October–but all told, very few people have bought insurance.
Now we all know that many millions of people have had their policies cancelled because of the ACA. Some of those people may have gone to Medicaid or moved to an employer-based plan, but it seems certain that there are a substantial number of people who lost their plans and now don’t have health insurance, and are not able to buy it through the exchanges. Moreover there may be others who didn’t have insurance to start with and now can’t buy it. The federal government and some states have tried to improvise by allowing people to sign up over the phone, or by allowing some of the cancelled plans to be revived for one more year. But it’s unclear whether phone sign-ups will work and many states aren’t cooperating with the President’s “fix” for cancelled plans.
So the bottom line is that we have some people who desire health insurance but are unable to purchase it. It seems unlikely that the problem will be fixed during the last few days of the year, so some of these people will, on Jan. 1, become uninsured through no fault of their own. What, if anything, should be done for these people?
What will we do about the uninsured? We will probably pass legislation that eventually helps some but not all of them. The same thing we did last time. Which is the same thing we’ll do next time.
If you truly want to help the people who can’t afford global-pool health insurance the only answer is single payer. We can cut half of the health care costs (from $8,000 a person to $4,000-$5,000 per person) by getting rid of the industries that have grown up around exploiting our health care.
Here it is December 2 and I haven’t been to the store yet. I guess no one is getting Christmas presents from me this year!
Given the horror stories why anyone would have tried to sign up is beyond me. If the news reports say the site works, you’ll see some different results. And you’ll also see tons of people doing it at the last minute.
The California site, by the way, is working just fine.
My fiancee got a cancellation letter from her insurance. It said clearly that if she did nothing, they would automatically sign her up for a similar plan that was allowed by the ACA (possibly at a different premium). She of course had the option to look at other plans from that insurer or another. I assume that other cancellation letters were similar.
Cite that there are millions of people who had their insurance cancelled and were unable to get insurance? It would surprise me greatly if a business that had me as a customer and was required to change their product offerings would just send me a letter that said “no more for you” without them telling me about all the really easy ways to keep giving them money.
If I had insurance in the bad old days (pre-existing, live in wrong neighborhood, whatever). why would I not be able to find insurance when those restrictions have been struck?
Actually, I am your poster-boy for this particular bit of ACA-bashing*.
Sorry, even though I will be uninsured come 1/1/14, I still support ACA and will continue to support it. It is something, and something is better than nothing. The US is never going to get real, single-payer in one step. Between the right-wingers yelling “Socialism!” and the medical and insurance industries defending their incomes, it is DOA. We can modify an existing program much more easily then we can creat the desired program out of whole cloth.
Patience, my friend, patience.
I am on SS Disability. As such I am eligible for Medicare A and B. Buried in ACA is a note that those eligible for A and B are not eligible for ACA subsidies. I didn’t learn of this until the 2013 enrollment period had closed.
In Jan 2009, when I first became eligible for Part B, I chose to continue my private insurance.
I can’t afford the new policy (from 21% of income to 27% of income in premiums - and that is with a deductible I’ll never meet). The cheapest ACA Exchange Bronze would be 30%)
So, I can’t afford private, cannot apply for Medicare, and do not qualify for ACA subsidies.
What can you do?
Either drop the exclusion for Medicare Eligibility (or re-write to “Having both A and B”), thereby making us eligible for ACA subsidies) or allow those of us caught in this wringer to buy Parts B (and D) with a 1/1/14 start date. As it is, it will not kick in until 7/1/14.
We won’t do anything for the remaining uninsured for a very long time, given the present political climate.
Until July when I got a job, I was unemployed for 3 years, had run through my unemployment benefits, exhausted my COBRA, and had an income of $0. I had no health insurance, and under Obamacare, I would have continued to be uninsured, penalty or not.
Good luck with that. This is the equivalent to me wishing we’d get a permanent moon base AND a series of manned Mars missions. Plus a pony. It’s simply not going to happen, at least not any time soon. And if the ACA fails then it’s NEVER going to happen, because resistance from Republicans (and probably Independents) will be even more hard core, as they will point to the failure of the ACA as ‘proof’ that health care reform as conceived by the Democrats is doomed to failure. Until and unless the Democrats are a single party in the US and you or Der are God King of America it’s not in the cards, as our system is all about compromise between the political poles, with the vast majority sitting somewhere along the fence.
Ay, there’s the rub. Let’s imagine a person–we’ll call her Sue Klinkhamer–who previous paid $291 a month for insurance. Because of the ACA, that plan got cancelled and the cost of a similar plan would now be $647. Suppose that Sue Klinkhamer can’t afford $647 per month. If she wants insurance, she has to go to the exchange and choose an new insurance plan, in her price range, presumably one with higher deductibles and a more restricted network. But if the exchange isn’t working, she can’t do that. So what’s she supposed to do?
Possibly, but there are less than three weeks remaining for those who want coverage on Jan. 1. (And that’s after Obama pushed back the initial date.) The Washington Post has a big article today about continuing problems with the federal exchange. And as I already mentioned, some state exchanges are not functioning at all. So there will be some people who were unable to buy insurance through no fault of their own.
What should be the government’s response to them? Just saying “screw them”?
In 50 years, the US health care system is going to resemble one of only two possibilities: either (a) half the states will be running their own single-payer fiefdoms versus the other half who will still be reliant upon the ACA, or (b) we will have nationwide single-payer. There will be no middle ground, period, and no matter how much the conservative loony toons might bitch and moan the bottom line is that the US is NOT MOVING in the direction of LESS health insurance. It’s expanding and eventually everybody will be covered one way or another.
I seriously cannot wait for the millenials to get into positions of power so that our institutions can finally take a hard left turn. Considering that we prefer socialism to capitalism by pretty wide margins, I say bring it on.
And how many of them are in states where the Republican governor is determined to undermine and sabotage any such effort? Might want to mention that in passing, provide a bit of balance. Just a suggestion, mind you.
You think that’s likely? Or are you having a spot of fun with some cage rattling and chain yanking?
Oh, and your anecdote about the lady in Chicago? The other side has anecdotes too. Shall we stipulate that we are not interested in playing Dueling Anecdotes? That would be good, I think.
I agree that’s a problem, and not an easy one to fix. I am sure that there are such people. I’m looking forward to your cite that there are millions.
I think there are a lot of short term fixes that would be available if the government could agree that trying to fix this problem was a priority. But since a significant part of it kinda wants to get rid of Obamacare, that doesn’t seem too likely.
I think the long term fix will be to muddle through, to keep trying to make the ACA system work. I believe that this will be a temporary problem. I’m sure that’s very little comfort to people who find themselves without insurance, some fraction of which will have some catastrophic health event during that time, and will not get the treatment they should, or will go broke over it.
Of course there are also many people who were in that situation prior to the ACA, who through no fault of their own were unable to buy insurance at any price, or who could not afford insurance at the prices offered. And now can.
Having A and wanting B is a special case for Medicare - it cannot be done online, there is a number to call.
I called twice, spoke with 2 different people, same story both times.
The only situation by which I would be allowed to apply before 1/1/14 would be if I had declined Part B (when first eligible) because I was covered under a spouse’s group plan. Since I declined because I preferred real insurance, I am not eligible.
I have never been married, so trying to lie on this one would likely not go far.
If my scripts weren’t as much as current policy, I wouldn’t mind the gap - the only catastrophic ailment likely is renal failure, which Medicare covers even if the patient is not close to eligible.
What I said was there are millions whose plans have been dropped, and that some have been unable to buy new insurance plans. How many that is, I don’t know. (And those running the show probably aren’t very eager for us to find out.)
So, um, do you have anything to say that’s relevant to the question?