Obama was told by hi staff that people would lose their health insurance. Instead of being honest with the public he deliberately lied to sell his disastrous health plan. Now we are all suffering for it.

We now have proxy death panels through lost health insurance coverage. In California over 1 million health insurance policies have been canceled.

Anthem withdraws their cancellations. Web Link

The whiners (aka losers) are moaning about Obamacare forcing insurance companies to maintain minimum standards. Big whoop. Once these folks get better coverage, for less money after their subsidies, they'll get it.

HL and the "Pravda/ITAR Tass" crowd were the same whiners who thought regulations requiring seat belts and air bags were "big government intrusions". Said that folks "could special order seat belts if they wanted them!" Yes, these are the same guys!

Still waiting for the republicon Replace Plan, as part of repeal and replace. What's the big replace plan? Letting for-profit insurance companies sell unregulated, inferior products across state lines. Wow. What a deal!

We all know the Republican healthcare plan WAS Romneycare (aka ObamaCare!) Since Obama co-opted it, they have nothing. Quite the masterful stroke by Obama, forcing repugs to rail against the Heritage plan, backed by Newtie the Serial Adulterer and Mitt Rmoney.

The best solution? Medicare for all. Let folks buy in to Medicare. Lowers costs, provides better outcomes, like other industrialized countries. Frees corporations to compete internationally without the burden of healthcare costs.

Otherwise, let the losers whine. Big crocodile tears about how they are so offended that ObamaCare isn't perfect yet, after doing everything to sink it. Americans spoke, and relected Obama by 5 million votes ina a landslide over the creator of RmoneyCare.

"...obsequious genuflection is really nauseating and subjects itself to ridicule and scorn." Yes, you do.

Swallow your humongous pride and vote for humongous Christie in 2016. Only hurts for a little while. Trust me, I had to vote for kerry to avoid the disaster that was Bush.

Yeah, it took a bit of drink to choke that down.

Where's the repug plan? Allow pre-existing conditions? Charge women more than men? Keep kids on Mom's plan?

Where is it, crocodile tears?

Today's Sacramento Bee had a headline today reading

Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA.

Web Link

BTW Anthem did not withdraw the cancellations, 104,000 of their policy holders only received a 60 day extension.

Is Walter Wallace any relation to Henry A Wallace?

Gray Lady - do you think inferior, over priced insurance policies not meeting basic criteria should be allowed?

Did you also disagree with the federal mandatory seat belt law back in '68?

Did you disagree with the federal mandatory air bag law in 1998?

Were seat belts an overreach by the feds? States rights issues? Personal responsibility, get the feds out of it, kind of deal to you?

Where's the repub plan? Allow pre-existing conditions? Charge women more than men? Keep kids on Mom's plan? No annual or lifetime limits? Insurance companies can't drop you when you get sick? Better protections for seniors? Preventative services at no out-of-pocket cost?

Show us the plan!

Obamacare is basically just federal regulation of for-profit insurance companies. They agreed to it.

I have an idea - let's make a trade!

Dems drop not only ObamaCare, but also ALL regulations on for-profit insurance companies....

.....and...

...wait for it...

Repubs agree to an option for all Americans to buy or opt in to Medicare.

Deal?

Makes perfect sense! The free market loons can go buy overpriced, under-performing insurance from for-profit insurance companies, and the true fiscal conservatives will recognize the value in Medicare and opt-in.

Oiy! Such a deal!

No we just disagree with the President of the United States when he deliberately lied to the American Public when he said if you like your policy you can keep it when he was briefed by his advisers before he spoke that that was not the case. He wanted Obamacare so much that he was willing to cause great harm to the American Public in order to get his landmark legislation passed.

Then when House Republicans tried to make the fix Nancy Pelosi shelved it. It cost her the Speakership but it also cause over 1 Million and counting Californians to lose their health care coverage.

Even Bill Clinton has abandoned the sinking Obama ship in hope of getting his wife elected president in 2016.

Can't wait for the mid terms.

Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 2, nearly 27 million people have visited the ACA exchange website but only 106,000 people have been able to enroll. That means less than 0.4% of the people have been able to enroll.

The ACA is not off to an auspicious start.

"only 106,000 people have been able to enroll"

Falsehood. More have been ABLE to enroll, they just wisely choose to wait.

Only 106,000 HAVE enrolled. Smart folk have investigated, found many cheaper and better policies on the website than they have found elsewhere through insurance company websites (ever try one of THOSE!?!?!?! omg!!!!!) and ARE WAITING to enroll later, via the ACA website.

And one wonders why 106,000 Americans have enrolled so early. The start date for their policies (better and cheaper policies, of course!) is at least 6 weeks away, why pay now? Shouldn't sign up and make that payment until you need to. Save the money till then.

How many signed up for RomneyObamaCare (RomneyObamaCare™, trademarked by republican Tim Pawlenty) during it's first month? a thousand? two thousand?

How many were able to sign up for Medicare Part D in 2003? Not many, it's rollout was also a fiasco, and that was with both parties helping to implement the program once it passed. With RomneyObamaCare, the repblicons have been trying to sabotage healthcare for Americans AT EVERY TURN, and then cry big ol' crocodile tears when the launch isn't perfect!

Menlo Observer, Gray Lady, Number Cruncher: where's the repub plan?

Yup! Correct answer!!!! ObamaRomneyCare *IS* the republican plan, hatched by Jim Demint's Heritage, supported by Cheatin' Newtie Gingrich, Bush and a host of other republicons, until a black dude co-opted it! Then - no way Jose, we HATE IT!

20 million Americans visited the federal ACA site - 27 million according to the poster above! How cool is that! Republicans have NO PLAN to help Americans, and Obama put something in place that has tens of millions of Americans seeking healthcare for them and their families!

3 million have used the 800# call center.

Countless millions have used 37 state exchanges, such as CoverdCA, except in places like Texas, that because of partisan hackery, they are preventing their citizens from getting healthcare. www.coveredca.com

"There is no doubt the level of interest is strong. We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the next five months, mirroring the pattern that Massachusetts experienced," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. They’re also numbers that will grow as the website, HealthCare.gov, continues to make steady improvements.”

ObamaRomneyCare *IS* the republican plan. A truly progressive plan would be single payer.

I made a mistake.... apologies.

I said: "How many signed up for RomneyObamaCare... during it's first month? a thousand? two thousand?"

The first month of romneycare in Massachusetts had sign ups of....

...drum roll.....

......130.

Not One Hundred Thirty Thousand.

Just one hundred thirty. No commas.

130.

Folks don't enroll until they have to. Look at your company and it's open enrollment. Go ask HR, when do the signups happen? The last week. The last day.

Whoops, here's an article that says it was 123. And Mitt's pissed off again. Web Link

Oh well.

I'm not going to respond to Mr. Wallace's hyperbolic claims. I'm going to let the Washington Post's Ezra Klein do it. Klein has been one of President Obama's and the ACA's most ardent supporters.

In this morning's edition, Klein destroys most of the assertions made by Mr. Wallace including the false equivalency about the Massachusetts slow sign up experience and the false assertion that cancelled policies were "junk insurance" anyway. Ironically, with their super high deductibles and co-pays, many of the bronze and silver plans touted on the Healthcare.gov website are exactly that.

And the fun will really begin in October 2014 when the new regulations begin to impact group insurance policies that the vast majority of Americans rely upon. That's just one month before mid-term elections. There won't be enough trees and plants in DC to provide cover for fleeing politicians.

Web Link

The cracks in the Obamacare wall are stunning. Dylan Ratigan. Mary Landrieu. Dianne Feinstein. Mark Pryor. Kay Hagan. Jeff Merkley. Bill Clinton. Add Ezra Klein to the list.

And now, word is starting to leak out that the Healthcare.gov website won't be ready as promised. Oh boy...

"I'm not going to respond to Mr. Wallace's hyperbolic claims." Ha!

Nor are you going to answer any of the questions - starting with: what's the republican plan?

- republican death panels: insurance companies, left to their own republican devices, *ARE* the death panels, dropping policies as they see fit. Dropping coverage. Denying coverage. Pre-existing conditions.

- insurance companies have routinely changed about half their plans annually (you know, the changes in fine print of that annual notice that you never read.) Now they claim they can't, that changing plans is a burden because of the ACA? Bull.

- the republican plan (ie... no plan) was the reason that half the bankruptcies in this country were because of medical expenses, and half of those Americans HAD insurance

- the republican plan (ie... no plan)Allow pre-existing conditions. Charge women more than men. Keep kids on Mom's plan? Lifetime and annual limits. Insurance companies drop you when you get sick. Inferior protections for seniors. Does not require preventative services at no out-of-pocket cost.

Show us the plan! (and not that lame old "across state line" horse pucky thing.)

re: Ezra - a day old article, made obsolete by today's announcement of the administrative fix for insurance cancellations. Folks with inferior policies can now keep them, pending state approval and the insurance companies informing the policy holder of the policy's inadequacies. The onus of selling known inferior product is now on the insurance companies, and that massive inhaling sound you hear? That's the insurance companies about ready to throw a tantrum. (guess who' going to be doing crocodile tears for the insurers on Fox tomorrow? The usual suspects, of course.)

Quit cryin' yer big ol' crocodile tears, Pogo, and show us the republican plan!

Show us the plan!

The liberal plan? It isn't the ACA (that's Mitt's plan). It's single payer. Proven models that provide better and lower cost outcomes than America's present for-profit insurance model.

So..... Throw the money-lenders (insurance companies) out of the temple!

That last one hyperbolic enough for you?

;)

Show us the plan!

The republican rrsponse to hillarycare was romneycare. Now that romneycare is obamacare, they hate it but have essentially nothing. No "plan b" to romneycare.

When Clinton beats Christie, will romneycare go from obamacare back to hillarycare?

Apparently the NYT does have its moments of lucidity albeit rare. In yesterday's NYT's politic section it wrote

"The disastrous rollout of his health care law not only threatens the rest of his agenda but also raises questions about his competence."

"For the first time in Mr. Obama’s presidency, surveys suggest that his reserve of good will among the public is running dry. Two polls in recent weeks have reported that a majority of Americans no longer trust the president or believe that he is being honest with them."

“When you start losing the trust and confidence, not only of Congress, but the American people, that makes it even more difficult,” said Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia.

Things are getting really bad for the President when the White House's most ardent advocate and fawning apologist has this brief moment of honesty.

Seat belts are a big government intrusion into our private lives and the free market. Never should have happened. Why, I'm over 60 and only needed seat belts once.

Maybe twice.

Stupid costly regulations are killing the American spirit.

Obamacare is also stupid, if I have an crummy, cheap insurance policy that doesn't meet minimum standards, I should be able to keep it. It's cheaper than the expensive ones and will allow me piece of mind until I get sick and it doesn't work. Hey, ya gotta go sometime.

Seat belts, air bags and Obamacare - stupid useless regulations that are strangling the American economy. We should be able to smoke in restaurants, too. Speed limits also are dumb.

I just read that Obamacare is his Katrina like George Bush. That makes sense.

We all know Obamacare is worse than a couple thousand bodies floating through the streets in some strange town in the south because it takes our freedoms. At least Dubya flew over and took command of the situation.

Congress needs to re-vote on this monstrosity and kill Obamacare. It is taking away our freedoms. And death panels too.

Sarah said it best yesterday about Obamacare - “Our free stuff today is being paid for by taking money from our children and borrowing from China. When that money comes due—and this isn’t racist, but it’ll be like slavery when that note is due. We are going to beholden to the foreign master.”

"When Clinton beats Christie, will romneycare go from obamacare back to hillarycare?"

Good question.

Questions that remain unanswered:
- did Gray Lady think seat belts, air bags and other safety regulations are unnecessary signs of big government impeding the progress of the free market?
- when will Pogo and Menlo Observer sharer the republican plan with us?

No, not republican RomneyCare, we all know that now as ObamaCare!

Nice try on the false equivalency on public safety laws that had bipartisan support. Obamacare wqas strictly Democrat legislation that the Republican party was not even allowed to participate in.

Obamacare is a farce and it will be an albatross around Democrats necks in House and Senate races in 2014. There is no question that the Republican party will see gains in both houses. The question is whether the Republicans will have enough to retake the Senate

There are 33 Senate seats up for grabs in 2014. Twenty one of those seats are held by Democrats. Republicans only need to win 6 seats to gain control of the Senate. Democrats are retiring in Montana, South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan and West Virginia. Four of those five seats are very vulnerable. There is a strong chance that the Republicans will own both houses during the last two years of the disastrous Obama presidency.

Bob Woodward was asked by Chris Wallace if the Obamacare implementation revealed “rank incompetence,” Woodward agreed.

Bob Woodward was also quoted by Politico today as saying:

“When you go down the road, it’s going to get worse,” he said. “It’s going to blow a hole in the budget when you go two or three months from now… All of a sudden this is going to come on the table and people are going to say, ‘My God it’s going to cost much more money than we thought before. How you disentangle this is now on Obama’s head.”

"Nice try on the false equivalency on public safety laws that had bipartisan support"

Not during the fifties. It took state law to do the work of the feds (notably Wisconsin, 1961) to prod them forward in the sixties, specifically requiring the GSA to only purchase autos with seat belts.

However, NICE TRY in avoiding the question asked of YOU
- does Gray Lady think seat belts, air bags and other safety regulations are unnecessary signs of big government impeding the progress of the free market?

We all know that libertarians and tea party kooks think that they are an intrusion at heart. "Seatbelt Laws Lead Us on the Slippery Slope of Tyranny" Web Link

Did you agree with Reagan in the sixties when he was paid by the AMA to call Medicare socialism? What about Medicare part D?

Predicting 2014 must be a fun game in your parlor. What were the predictions a month ago when republicans in congress cratered, below 10% approval?

Also in your parlor, what is the republican replace plan? Can't use republican romneycare, it's already been used!

It is a wonderful fantasy world liberals live in where they can go back in history and revise it to fit their failed beliefs. So now Dubya Dubya wants you to believe that a State (Wisconsin) can order an Agency of the Federal Government (GSA) to do what it wants. Maybe in a alternate Socialist time and space warp that happens but not in the USA--yet. But that may be what Dubya Dubya wants-- that is to have all actions of the Federal Government and its subordinate agencies subject to the review and approval of all the State Governments.

Then when Dubya Dubya is losing the Obamacare argument big time he takes another page out of the socialist playbook and that is "If you can't win an argument then go off topic to another argument and see if that will gain any traction".

Romneycare, in spite of all its flaws at least works despite its economic inefficiencies. It is not as good as a private system but it still has limited success. Obamacare can't even get off the ground.

"It is a wonderful fantasy world liberals live in where they can go back in history and revise it to fit their failed beliefs."

Wow! How far you will go to not answer the question posed: does Gray Lady think seat belts, air bags and other safety regulations are unnecessary signs of big government impeding the progress of the free market?

re: Wisconsin - look it up. First came WI, then NY, then the feds ordering the GSA to only purchase autos with seat belts for their fleet. Gray Lady, did they go to far, intruding on the free market?

Speaking of "Dubya", one notes the lack of answers on the Medicare Part D question.

Gray Lady: do you think Reagan was correct when he was paid by the AMA to call Medicare socialism? What about Medicare part D?

Now Gray Lady is a big fan of Romneycare. Well, it is truly the only plan the republicans have. And you are SO bitter that Obama co-opted it away from you guys, bitter enough to shut the government down. Your version of holding your breath until you turn blue. Would have been funny if not for the damage caused to our country. At least some sensible republicans realized how stupid it was and caved at the last minute.

Meanwhile, Gray Lady wants Americans to continue on this path of for-profit health insurance nightmares: (from the Commonwealth Fund study released this month)

"U.S. Health Care Lags Behind Other Affluent Countries, Study Finds"

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- American adults are far more likely than those in 10 other high-income countries to go without health care due to cost, or to have trouble paying their medical bills, a new study finds.

- "The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country, but what we get for these significant resources falls short in terms of access to care, affordability and quality"

- "The survey of 11 high-income countries found that 37 percent of U.S. adults went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick or did not fill prescriptions because of the cost, compared with as few as 4 to 6 percent of adults in the United Kingdom and Sweden."

- "Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of American adults also either had serious trouble paying medical bills or were unable to pay them, compared to less than 13 percent in France (which had the next-highest rate), and 6 percent or fewer of those in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway"

- "Thirty-two percent of American adults also said they had either spent a lot of time dealing with insurance paperwork and disputes, or their insurer had denied a claim and/or paid less than anticipated. This contrasted with 25 percent of adults in Switzerland, 19 percent in the Netherlands and 17 percent in Germany, all countries with competitive health insurance markets."

- "However, the U.S. spent $8,508 per person on health care in 2013, which is more than any other nation. The next highest-spending countries were Norway ($5,669) and Switzerland ($5,643). New Zealand was the lowest at $3,182."

- "The United States also had the highest health insurance administrative costs at $606 per person. The next-highest countries were France ($277) and Switzerland ($266), the results showed."

The republican plan isn't more of the same - it's worse than that. And they proved how serious they were, willing to shut down the government to make it worse for America.

The worst part? Dollar to donuts that Gray Lady participates in America's biggest single payer system.

You got it: Medicare.

Medicare buy-in for all.

And Nero Fiddled while Rome is burning. Obamacare is a bust and no amount of ranting by Dubya Dubya is going to fix that, as he desperately tries to deflect criticism by going off topic.

Nope.

Just showing the world your true stripes.

- Hated seat belt laws because they intruded on the free market (though you're afraid to answer that one.)

- Hate Medicare because Reagan told you it was socialism (though you're afraid to answer that one.)

- Hate Obamacare even though it IS THE republican plan (though you're afraid to answer that one.)

- Hate single payer because you're afraid it's socialism (though you're afraid to answer that one.)

- Hate it most of all because YOU are on single payer socialized medicine called Medicare.

Whole lotta hatin' going on!

Medicare for all. Get rid of the vultures known as for-profit health insurers.

I've said it multiple times. You just can't read it with your blinders on, so try it again:

Obamacare is romneycare, courtesy of Jim Demint's Heritage. It still sucks billions out of Americans' pocketbooks for thieves like republican guv Rick Scott ans other insurance CEO's making millions Web Link Like ALL republican plans, it leaves A LOT to be desired.

Medicare for all. Put billions back into the economy. Not into the vulture's pockets.

So much hate Dubya Dubya. I don't hate uninformed brainwashed liberals who believe the propaganda put out by the Obama Administration. But when the New York Times, the bastion of liberalism, says the emperor is not wearing any clothes it is game over. Obama's staunchest supporters are abandoning him like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Obama's brief flirtation with Socialism is coming to an end and thankfully not a moment too soon.

Socialism??????

The Dow broke 16000. I guess capitalists love socialism.

What is the GOP plan, anyway?

Capitalist: good call. The markets almost lost it all under Bush, and is thriving under Obama. The Dow:
- Clinton in 2000 = 11,700
- After the Dubya Bush disaster in March 2009 = 6,620.
- Yesterday, under the 'socialist' Obama = 15,976.02

What a joke. The only thing the markets hate more than 'socialism' is a republican president. You know it's true!

But don't wait for an answer on what the right wing plan is, other than getting sick and losing your insurance coverage. It's a personal responsibility thing: you pay for insurance, it's your responsibility to not get sick and need it. It's your responsibility to not have a pre-existing condition.

There is no right wing plan now that Obama took romneycare.

Gray Lady is full of hate, just look at what she hates:

- She hates seat belt laws because they intruded on the free market
- She hates Medicare because Reagan took money from the AMA to tell her it was socialism
- She hates Obamacare even though it IS THE republican plan
- She hates single payer because she's afraid it's socialism
- She hates it most of all because SHE is on THE single payer socialized medicine called Medicare.

Good thing the great American social safety net covers her meds for controlling all that anger and anxiety!

And we're happy to help our fellow American! We love you, old Gray Lady! We want you to live a long life: happy, COVERED, WRAPPED up and SECURE in the American safety net!

Nice and comfy, being in the great American safety net of Medicare, isn't it?

Republicans have no plan to protect from insurers that reject for preexisting conditions

They want BatKid to go without coverage.

@grayladydown: What is the Republican plan for Bat Kid and pre-existing conditions?

tell me their is a plan behind the madness........

Plan and Batkid: don't hold your breathe for the republicon plan... they only had one, and it's now called OBAMACARE!

Been fun, I'm done here... y'all have a good (and well insured) life! (thanks to the ACA!)

Walter Wallace

@WalterWallace: don't go! I've had fun watching you poke at the obvious hypocrisy of the Crocodile Tear Right!

Locally, from the LATimes (you won't hear this from Fox, Rush or drudge)

"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.

"What we are seeing is incredible momentum," said Peter Lee, director of Covered California, the nation's largest state insurance marketplace, which accounted for a third of all enrollments nationally in October. California — which enrolled about 31,000 people in health plans last month — nearly doubled that in the first two weeks of this month.

Several other states, including Connecticut and Kentucky, are outpacing their enrollment estimates, even as states that depend on the federal website lag far behind. In Minnesota, enrollment in the second half of October ran at triple the rate of the first half, officials said. Washington state is also on track to easily exceed its October enrollment figure, officials said."

from Web Link

Obamacare is working in California. In Kentucky (much to McConnell's chagrin.) In Connecticut. Romneycare is working in Massachusetts. Nationally, congress needs to fix it, not sabotage it.

@WalterWallace: Ted Calgary Cruz today finally gave the totality of the Crocodile Tear Right replacement plan, he also shows all how thin-skinned he is...

Q:"What do you say to them, Senator? When they say, “Please help me”, what is the fix that you offer them? I looked at the list of bills that you’ve sponsored. There’s not one that offers a solution to the current problems with health care except to get rid of the existing law. Is that enough?

CALGARY CRUZ: Well, that’s the only solution that will work. (more: lies about people losing insurance and not having coverage "...they wouldn’t get it back.")

The way to get —

Q: You don’t think you have a responsibility as a U.S. senator to do better than that in terms of offering a solution for what to do next?

CALGARY CRUZ: Well, I — I appreciate your trying to lecture me in the morning. Thank you for that."

Poor baby. When he gets a chance to tell the world of the GOP replacement plan, he whiffs and gets huffy about his failure: "I — I appreciate your trying to lecture me in the morning."

Wait until the primaries. Unless the GOP gets it's way and cancels all the GOP primary debates, ThinSkin Ted is in for a rough ride.

"I — I appreciate your trying to lecture me..."

Even liberal Time Magazine is excoriating Obama in this week;s cover story. Obama has lied to the public numerous times and has lied in his ridiculous explanations.

Web Link

@graylady

Reading this thread from the top, one notes the overarching points:
* you detest Obama (duh, join the club)
* you ignore any points, opinions or facts posted by others
* you ignore questions asked of you
* you have no solutions

Do you even bother to read the other posts?

Or do you just come on here every couple a days when you are bored up in SM, just to get a little release by posting some trash?

What IS the GOP plan? Do they even have some bullet point deck they at least refer to?

A new CBS News poll finds that 61% of Americans disapprove of Obamacare and only 31% approve. Nearly twice as many Americans disapprove of Obamacare than approve of it. The Poll also found that President Obama's approval rating plummeted to 37%. That is a 9 point drop for just a month ago, before the American public finally caught that Obama is a congenital liar.

52% of Americans said that Obama is no longer trustworthy or honest, after news outlets reported that Obama lied to them about their health care plan. He said, at least 36 times throughout the past 3 years, that Americans can keep their health insurance plans under Obamacare. Obama has been repeatedly slammed about his statement that, “if you like your health plan, you can keep it. Period.”

What's the republican plan?

Obama at 39% is about 30 points above republicans in congress, who set a new record low a month ago at 9%.

What's the republican plan?

There isn't one, is there?

Yo,

Liberal Delta Foxtrots, The Obamacare plan has turned out to be a Charlie Foxtrot of epic proportions.

The Republican plan, introduced by Representative Paul Ryan on January 27, 2010 was shelved by Harry Reid when it reached the Senate. Obamacare was a 100% Democrat Plan which shut out Republican participation completely. Obamacare is on the Democratic Party.

Republicans will own both the House and Senate in 2014 and will not change the rules on Cloture. Now the Democrats have to live with another mess that they created. They are so short sighted.

The RYAN PLAN?!? From his 2010 budget? Called Path to Prosperity? (for the ultra wealthy, only)

The one that cuts taxes in half for the richest 1 percent of Americans — incomes exceeding $633,000 get a massive tax break in these days of deficit? Have to pay for that tax cut for the ultra rich somehow, so Paul Ryan wants to RAISE taxes on the middle class - most Americans, those with incomes between $20,000 and $200,000 — would face tax increases.

But as far as healthcare, its a complete disaster, and a complete non-starter.

Omigosh! Eliminating Medicare for insurance vouchers. That's as dead as privatizing Social Security! That thing died the day it was born. How does a voucher protect anyone from predatory insurance companies?

"The Ryan plan would eliminate traditional Medicare, most of Medicaid, and all of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, converting these health programs largely to vouchers that low-income households, seniors, and people with disabilities could use to help buy insurance in the private health insurance market." With no Medicare and no protections from the insurers, what rates do you think a 75 year old will have to pay?

"Under Ryan’s plan, by 2080, Medicare would be cut 76 percent below its projected size under current policies, according to CBO. In other words, by 2080, the vouchers that would replace Medicare would receive one-quarter of the resources that Medicare would otherwise use."

There it is, boys and girls, the GOP plan. Dead.

Ryan's budget, along with Romney's 47% comment, is the very reason they lost in a landslide. Even republicans voters hated that budget.

Funny language for an old Gray Lady, by the way... "Liberal Delta Foxtrots"?

Gray Lady, seriously, the voucher thing was a funny answer, but all joking aside, what IS the republican plan?

Vouchers for my 87 year old mom, to go and try to buy insurance. Too funny!

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has developed a pragmatic, practical, and portable free-market alternative to the current health care system without the unworkable taxes and mandates forced on American families through the President’s health care law.

For more information go to this web page

Web Link

"a pragmatic, practical, and portable free-market alternative"

Give my 87 year old mom a voucher instead of Medicare? Are you completely insane?

The insurance companies quote for her coverage would include a belly laugh. And not much else.

AS for the "cross state lines" proposal - it cures nothing, other than give state insurance regulators more to worry about with sham policies and fly-by-night insurers. No thanks. And the republican offer allows insurers to dump Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Again, a non-starter among the American public. It hasn't even been fully scored by the CBO. No wonder Americans took a look at Romney/Ryan and said 'no thanks' in a landslide 332-206.

Again, funny stuff, but really, all joking aside, what IS the current republican replace plan?

So without eliminating the dreaded pre-existing conditions, in effect, the GOP Ryan plan condemns BatKid to an early death.

Why does the GOP hate BatKid so much?

Having discourse with the fringe right poster is useless until she answers a basic question implied above: Gray Lady, do you agree with Medicare philosophically?

Or do you, as Walter asked, do you agree with Reagan that Medicare is a path to socialism?

To repeat Walter's questions, do you think laws like seat belts and airbags are a government overreach?

Until she stakes her position on those basics, debate is useless. Until then, based on all evidence above, assume that Gray Lady is like the two curmudgeons from San Mateo and Sharon Heights, all blustery "government is always bad" until they need it themselves, then it can't do anything correct to please them.

(because they have been fighting and defunding it all along!)

Representative Paul Brown cogently makes the argument against Obamacare on CNN

Web Link

Gray Lady still will not answer the basic questions. The irony behind fringe right wing attacks on the Obama care is the private sector component is actually the one that is falling down on the job, while the public sector aspect is humming along beautifully. And the GOP needs the state exchanges (that they refuse to fund) to make their own awful plan to work!

See Ezra: "Republicans need Obamacare’s exchanges to work" Web Link

Oddly, Gray Lady supports Paul Ryan's

- "This was in the heady months of possibility before Republicans concluded that their optimal health-care policy would be repeal-and-mumblemumble. The Patients’ Choice Act was a thoughtful effort to expand coverage. It had much in common with the plan that ultimately became Obamacare. The biggest similarity -- reflecting a shared heritage in conservative health-care reform circles -- was a reliance on state-based insurance exchanges.

- There it was, right on the first page: “The Patients’ Choice Act would give every American the opportunity to choose the health care plan that best meets their individual needs. It will utilize state-driven exchanges to facilitate real competition between private plans and give Americans -- for the first time -- a choice of health care plans.”"

Funny that, eh?

- "The Republican proposal tried to put this insight into policy by ending the huge tax break given to employer-based plans and replacing it with a $2,300 tax rebate for individuals and a $5,700 rebate for families. This change would have made it much more costly for employers to offer health insurance. As a result, many would have ended or downgraded the policies they provided. Tens of millions of Americans would have lost their insurance plans, whether they liked them or not. (THAT IS THE DISASTER THAT IS THE GOP PLAN THAT GRAY LADY ADVOCATES!)

- The rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been an utter and complete disaster, leading to a flowering of schadenfreude among Republicans who predicted Obamacare would be an utter and complete disaster. But the failure of the federal exchange Web site, and widespread confusion among consumers, isn’t the particular disaster Republicans had predicted. And it’s not a particularly auspicious one for Republican policy interests.

- Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, for instance, is going perfectly well in states that chose to accept it. Take Oregon, which has emerged as perhaps the worst disaster zone in Obamacare’s implementation: Oregon’s state-run exchange is simply broken. More than six weeks after it was supposed to open, not a single person has successfully enrolled for insurance through it. Yet at the same time, the state has signed up more than 70,000 people for Medicaid -- reducing Oregon’s uninsured population by more than 12 percent."

President Obama lied about Obamacare because he could. He did it because nearly five years in the White House has given him confidence that he would not have to face the music and could finesse the Obamacare problems until they got fixed because the liberal media has always provided him with safe harbor in the past.

If you want to understand the blindness and arrogance of the Obama White House in failing to anticipate the wave of rage and disappointment and disgusted wonderment that would hit them in the wake of the Obamacare rollout, you need only consider the following:

1. Obama has always had the protection of his liberal base.

2. Obama has always had the protection of Senate Democrats, who have not acted in any way to trouble him regarding these scandals and who have impeded aggressive investigations into them, and

3. Obama has always had the protection of the mainstream media who went to great lengths to cover up and bury his lies and incompetence.

As a result, Obama and his administration have said what they felt they needed to say and done what they felt they needed to do for immediate political gain. And they did it once more. But this time was different, because this time he was mishandling and discrediting the great liberal dream of our time — a national health-care system.

This time he did not get away with it. Too many Americans are being hurt. Over 5.4 Million people and counting have lost their health care coverage. The press can no longer lie for Obama. This lie is too big to cover up.

Crazy. About the only way those sentences above make any sense is if you substitute the following:

- "Bush" for "Obama"
- "WMD" for "Obamacare"
- "corporate owned media" for "liberal media"
- "republican base" for "liberal base"

We're all still waiting for the GOP healthcare plan that would work.

Gray Lady, here is Ronald Reagan's vinyl record album, uploaded to youtube, telling us that Medicare would make us into a socialist dictatorship Web Link

He was wrong on so many things.

Do you think he was right about Medicare? Does that bother you every time you use it?

Now come the lawsuits. This is from the New York Post:

" The Obamacare rollout has been a debacle, with delays in the implementation of mandates, technical glitches in the exchanges, cancelled individual policies and more.

It's about to get worse. The federal judiciary is currently hearing four cases challenging decisions made by the Internal Revenue Service that could soon deliver more major blows to the Affordable Care Act."

Web Link

Ever wonder why poor and lower middle class voters have voted against their economic self-interest by voting Republican?

It's been a great mystery ("What's the Matter With Kansaas?") Breaking that tradition is the GOP's bigggst fear with ObamaCare, and it's starting to play out in Mitch McConnells home state. Kentucky, with it's democrat goverrnor, is one of the great roll-out stories.

Here's the story Web Link "In rural Kentucky, health-care debate takes back seat as the long-uninsured line up"

-------------------------
"Soon, Ronald Hudson walked in.
“Okay,” Lively began. “What Hudsons are you kin to?”
“R.T., Uncle Lenny . . .” said Hudson, a skinny 35-year-old who worked as an assistant director at the senior center and had just been released from the hospital after a blood-sugar spike.
He’d never had insurance before and said his hospital bills were up to $23,000 at this point.
“Good night,” Lively said, tapping in his information.
Kids: five. Salary: about $14,000 before taxes.
“You’re going to qualify for a medical card,” she told Hudson.
“Well, thank God,” Hudson said, laughing. “I believe I’m going to be a Democrat.”"
-------------------------

The GOP's worst nightmare, from the most rural, reddest of red counties in the South...

“I believe I’m going to be a Democrat.”

That's what the right wing echo chamber is all worked up about - and why they have no REPLACE as part of repeal and replace.

“I believe I’m going to be a Democrat.”

The GOP should have passed Romneycare when they had the chance. When far right Heritage and Newt Gingrich told them to do so.

“I believe I’m going to be a Democrat.”

The South shall rise again.

The DC announced today

"The Cleveland Clinic, which is ranked among the top four U.S. hospitals, is making layoffs and cutting its budget more than $100 million as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

Eileen Sheil, the Cleveland Clinic executive director of communications, said

"The cuts for 2014, about half of those are related to the Affordable Care Act…We anticipate a reduction in workforce”

The Cleveland Clinic announced a budget cut of $330 Million.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has more to say

Web Link

Obamacare is resulting in higher costs and lower quality of service. The Emperor is wearing no clothes. And the stories are only going to get worse. These Kool Aid drinking liberals are in denial. Jim Jones would have loved to have them in his flock,

The only place with that quote is the fringe right wing Daily Caller web site.

The link provided by Gray Lady is to the The Cleveland Plain Dealer, not the fringe Daily Caller, which makes no such assertion. Gray Lady is conflating a legitimate news organizations with the fringe right DC making an assertion.

Conflating a legitimate news source and a fringe website is required by Gray lady to keep everyone from looking at the Republican Plan (ie.. nothing) and the ACA successfully enrolling hundreds of thousands with quality coverage (see above.)

Worse, Gray Lady and his fringe web site are screaming about this happening TODAY!!!! when The Cleveland Plain Dealer article Gray Lady cited appeared MONTHS AGO (September.) Web Link

"Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Toby (what a smart sounding name!) Cosgrove told employees this morning that the health system may have to eliminate jobs to meet a target of cutting $330 million from its 2014 budget. .... In 2011, University Hospitals announced $100 million in cuts over two years, but said the hospital system had no plans for major layoffs. The same year, MetroHealth Medical Center announced it would cut $30 million from its budget and close a 144-bed skilled nursing facility to cope with a projected $1.1 million net loss. The cuts translated to a 450-person layoff, the hospital system announced at the time."

----------------------------------

Cleveland Clinic has been slicing and dicing for years. From the comments (MONTHS AGO) "The public needs to be outraged about the Cleveland Clinic's high costs while at the same time building palaces and wall street type junkets for its top employees."

----------------------------------

Gray Lady's conflation of an old news article with fringe conspiracy site hacking it up as TODAY'S NEWS is either dishonest, disingenuous or just trolling. Take your pick, but no matter what, you now know that Gray Lady is not a reliable source. Much like the poster "global warming" who posts in the snow thread at near identical times to Gray Lady's posts here, well...

As Yoda might say: "strong is the odor of conspiracy with this one fringe."

GRAY LADY POSTS ANOTHER ROUND OF LIES.

The Cleveland Clinic is NOT laying off workers. The Cleveland Clinic DOES SUPPORT Obamacare.

see below:

- Fox News reported that the Cleveland Clinic was instituting "massive layoffs" due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but when asked about the reports, a Clinic spokesperson said, "We're not."

- Eileen Sheil, Cleveland Clinic's Executive Director of Corporate Communications, said, "There have been several mis-reports and they keep mentioning that we're laying off 3,000 employees. We're not."

- Sheil said that Cleveland Clinic is offering voluntary retirement to 3,000 eligible employees

- repeat: the Clinic is offering some early retirements. ZERO layoffs.

- Despite Gray Lady's false claims from DC, Sheil reiterated the Clinic's support for the Affordable Care Act:

"We believe reform is necessary because the current state is unsustainable. The ACA is a step toward that change and we believe more changes will come/evolve as there are still many uncertainties. Hospitals must be responsible and do what we can to prepare and support the law."

YOU CAN NOT TRUST THE FALSEHOODS PUT FORWARD by the fringe right wing media, and mindlessly echoed by the fringe poster above.

"the current state is unsustainable" - Gray Lady and the GOP have yet to tell us how they will fix an unsustainable system.

Fox news lied???????,,

I'm shocked! Simply shocked!

more followup debunking the LIES POSTED ABOVE BY GRAY LADY, DC and Fox, courtesy of The Atlantic

Obamacare Isn't Really Taking Away Jobs: Cleveland Clinic Edition
Web Link
The prestigious system says budget cuts have more to do with the need to find efficiencies. "We felt health-care reform was absolutely necessary," a spokeswoman said.

"In fact, the "Obamacare is killing jobs" story isn't really accurate. It's not totally false — the Cleveland Clinic will in fact take in less money because of the law — but it's a more complicated story about changes in medicine. When I reached Sheil on Thursday, she seemed a bit confused by the emphasis on Obamacare in reports. "We've been working on reducing costs for years," she said.

"We felt health-care reform was absolutely necessary," Sheil said. "This is the new normal. This is where hospitals have to focus to be viable in the long run. This is not doomsday for the clinic. We're still growing — we're still hiring."

----------------------

So according to Gray Lady's lies, the Cleveland Clinic is laying off because of ObamaCare. According to the Cleveland Clinic - "We're still growing — we're still hiring."

Who are you going to believe? Liars like Gray Lady and other fringe right posters, or the Cleveland Clinic?

"We felt health-care reform was absolutely necessary"

What lies are Gray Lady and Fox going to tell next? How about this whopper? "The GOP REALLY does have a plan!"

Naaaaaa, no one will buy that either. Too absurd.

Many critics have no idea how devastating it has been to find out that health insurance companies can and have been denying coverage at any price to individuals they deem to have a pre-existing condition.
When I retired, pre-Medicare, I applied to the very same insurance company that had covered me for 15 years through my employer. With few claims, I was shocked that they determined I wasn't insurable because of an old injury. Not at any price. Another insurer would, but didn't offer any plan as comprehensive as the options my employer had offered.
We learned that the only people who have to pay full price for health care are the very people who don't have insurance or who don't have good insurance.
We are lucky. We could afford insurance when we could find it even though the premiums have been high. Now I'm on Medicare and pay a fraction of what I was charged before, and get more for it.

Many people can't get ANY and can't afford what they are charged.
The ACA addresses these absurdities in the for-profit health insurance arena. In my book, it doesn't go far enough but it's a really important and needed change.

MEDICARE BUY IN FOR ALL. GOTTA KILL THE BLOODSUCKERS KNOWN AS FOR PROFIT INSURANCE. THEY PROFIT ON DENYING HEALTHCARE.

There are some good aspects of Medicare, mainly that it doesn't need a big profit margin to pay investors and to pay for lots of advertising.
But it is based on fee-for-service and that encourages providers to generate charges.

What we really need are non-profit insurance companies that have an incentive to keep us well. Something like Kaiser.

With Obamacare revealing that except for lies and incompetence Emperor Obama is naked, all around the country voters are turning against the president's political party and anyone who made it possible for Obamacare to rape the middle class. Just a few months ago, the media thought the government shutdown would benefit Democrats in the 2014 midterms. Today the National Journal reports that a wave is building that will hand Republicans control of the United States Senate.

A third of America's one-hundred U.S. Senators are up for re-election every two years. Of the 33 or 34 facing a 2014 election, the National Journal identifies 15 seats as vulnerable. Thirteen of those seats are held by Democrats. But of the 7 seats most likely to turn over, all 7 are held by Democrats. Republicans need only pick up 6 seats to win the chamber.

Unlike the shutdown, Obamacare is almost certain to be the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans as the law rains hell on American voters. By the government's own calculations, tens of millions more insurance cancellations are expected to hit next year. And if the Administration does get the website functional, that only means that Americans will discover the other bad news about lost doctors, premium increases, and sky-high deductibles.

The unprecedented -- over 225 years -- move by Senate Democrats to kill the filibuster for presidential appointees is also a sign that Democrats see the writing on the wall. With only a year of majority control left, and Obamacare dying a death of a thousand cuts, the nuclear option was the only move Obama had left to secure some kind of legacy by packing the courts and various regulatory agencies.

In other news, talk of Democrats regaining control of the House was never a very real possibility and is now a distant memory.

The good news that with control of both chambers, Republicans will have two years to show the American people that they are far from obstructionists and do-nothings. John Boehner's House has passed a number of bills, but the media refuse to report that fact and Democrat Harry Reid refuses to even allow them to come up for a vote in the Senate.

With Reid out of the picture, Republicans can craft a real agenda with real alternatives to Obama's relentless, failed statism.

Something had to be done to allow MILLIONS of residents to be able to obtain health care supported by health insurance. The for-profit market has made that impossible. This should have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with humanity.

The ACA is critical to address some of the problems. Is it perfect, no. But it's a heckofalot better than what has existed.

First Gray Lady posts LIES about the Cleveland Clinic and other fringe right fables above.

Now Gray Lady violates forum rules by plagiarizing (ala Rand 'copycat' Paul) and pastes an entire article by Nolte in the far fringe brietbart, without attribution.

Happy Thanksgiving, Gray Lady. Enjoy your blessings, such as family, friends and community. A community that provides you with Social security and Medicare!

Transcript for CNN's New Day today:

GEORGE HOWELL, HOST: We know the first thing you have to do when you go to this website you have to select your state. Is that working?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And what's funny is I was talking with Matt, and, yeah, that seemed to work, right, when you logged on. But then came the road blocks. So tell me about what happened, because we're getting another error message here, and it's supposed to be running smoothly. We’re just not seeing that.

MATT SLOANE, CNN MEDICAL PRODUCER: Yeah, so, you know, we've been trying to get into the site since October 1 on and off again. I have to say it did work a lot more smoothly this morning. I got through. I picked my state. I put in all of my information and I got through the whole process in eight minutes. And then it said my status was in progress. So I went to refresh it and I got the error message.

Yep it's working alright.

@graylady - first, you ignore all the posts that prove your rantings are lies (like the Fox lie about the Cleveland Clinic, a lie admirably snuffed out by @toby) and then you copy and paste fringe opinion with out attribution in violation of terms of service for this forum (your 11/27 rant, again by @toby). Quite the insane way of getting your point across.

What is the alternative, other than the old way of dropping sick people from private health insurance plans? Denying coverage?

What is the replace part of the repeal and replace plan?

From Krugman last week, on why @graylady and the gop is really worried: Web Link

"Meanwhile, media coverage is shifting fast. It’s still mostly trying for equivalence — each positive story of people being helped matched by a negative story of people hurt. But the stories don’t actually match up at all.

Small example: earlier today I found myself trapped in a place with CNN on in the background, showing a fair-and-balanced account of losers and winners. First, the loser: a guy who admits that Obamacare has gotten him a plan cheaper than the insurance he had, but who has found that his current allergist is off-network. Annoying, no doubt; but there are other allergists, and this particular one probably didn’t help the case by saying that he’s thinking of refusing to take Medicare patients, too.

And in any case, insurance with restricted networks is hardly something new to Obamacare.

Then, the winners: a couple with no insurance at all, because her premium would have been prohibitive and he has a preexisting condition that won’t let him buy any kind of insurance at all — but now both covered, at a very affordable price, by Covered California.

I don’t know about you, but these don’t sound to me like equivalent stories."

thank you, Paul.

Check it out - Covered California™ | Affordable Health Insurance www.coveredca.com/‎

The City of Menlo Park's cost for its employees health care will rise 30% to 40% this year-- all of which is directly attributable to the Affordable Care Act.

Call Alex McIntire at 330-6620 to get the actual budget numbers.

Please post FACTS about how 30% increases are caused by the ACA.

Can anyone point me to a GOP health coverage plan they paased since Hilarycare? (not Med pt D)

Have they voted for their own plans in the last 20 years?

Have they even announced a plan?

This is from the Daily Post. Unfortunately the Daily Post does not have a web link or otherwise it would have been provided.

"Federal officials are furiously working behind the scenes to fix the Obamacare exchange, which is filled with widespread errors, according to media reports.

Insurers say much of the enrollment data they’re receiving is practically useless, meaning some consumers might not be able to get access to benefits on Jan. 1, the date their coverage is scheduled to take effect.

The enrollment records for a significant number of the Americans who have chosen plans through the online marketplace contain errors that were generated by the computer system, the L.A. TIMES said. That could also mean they might not get the coverage they’re expecting next month.

The errors cumulatively have affected roughly one-third of the people who have signed up for health plans since Oct. 1 according to two Government and health care industry officials. The White House disputed the figure but declined to provide its own.

The idea that one-third of the enrollment records are flawed “doesn’t accurately reflect the picture of what’s happening right now,” White House senior communications adviser Tara McGuinness told the Times.

The mistakes include failure to notify insurers about new customers. Duplicate enrollments or cancellation notices for the same person, incorrect information about family members, and mistakes involving federal subsidies. The errors have been accumulating since the exchange opened two months ago."

Poor old Gray Lady, posting a fringe article that also appeared in "righttolifenews" Web Link that's fringe, even staid old Consumer Reports is laughing at it!

From CR: Web Link

"After advising consumers to steer clear of Healthcare.gov in October, Consumer Reports health care expert Nancy Metcalf told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd Tuesday morning that the federal health care exchange website was improved enough following the Obama administration’s frantic month of repairs that users could confidently use it.

Consumer Reports had earlier told its readers not to even bother with the website through the first month, a provisional verdict it later said had been misrepresented.

“Now we’re saying, ‘it’s time,’” Metcalf said, in particular praising the new window-shopping function, in which users can peruse health plans without registering with the site.
...
“It’s terrific, I’ve tried it, it was working yesterday through the busiest times,” Metcalf said."

Steady solid progress, millions of Americans enjoying better healthcare protections, millions of Americans finding better quality insurance at cheaper prices, millions of Americans getting health insurance despite obstructionism from Republicans.

Could be bad news for the GOP next year. Americans do not obstructions. They want to work to improve our country, not shut it down.

Check it out for yourself - Covered California™ | Affordable Health Insurance www.coveredca.com/‎

Poor old Gray Lady needn't, after all, her government provided healthcare is Medicare.

That's a "woodshed"? It's a pretty stupid op-ed about OPTICS, and compares it to the challenges that Reagan had when caught lying to the American people about Iran Contra.

The net? "Obama will need to study the lessons of his predecessors."

Wow. That whole silly op-ed for that? Big whoop-dee-do!

For real news, from the same paper: "In response to higher-than-expected demand, the Covered California exchange said it is adding staff and expanding its capacity to answer consumer calls. It received 17,000 calls in less than an hour Wednesday... Web Link

17,000 calls in an hour!! Just for California!! Look at the demand from Californians for higher quality, more affordable coverage, and Obamacare is delivering it!

Republicans have NO SOLUTION.

Gray Lady - tell us the last healthcare plan that John Boehner and Eric Cantor voted FOR! (hint - they haven't voted for one since Medicare Part D, an unfunded bloated fiasco - which Democrats voted against, but once padssed, worked to improve.)

Obamacare is going to cover millions!

That's why the GOP is scared, and lying through their teeth - they now they are in trouble.

@ councilwatcher - be careful accusing the Affordable Care Act for being the sole reason the city's benefit costs increased 10% (if they have).
The ACA establishes a minimum set of benefits that are to be offered through insurance plans. That's a good thing. For those covered by the plans, the premium costs are only a part of the total cost of their health care. To understand the benefits of ACA, one must evaluate all costs, including changes in co-payments, deductibles, maximum out-of-pocket costs, and what IS covered that didn't used to be covered. On top of that, the risk of going backrupt from medical expenses is greatly reduced.

The city can negotiate the costs of the plans with insurance companies, and the city can negotiate more cost sharing with employees.

The Covered California site works. It's cumbersome, but it works. I know.

Rich Lowry reveals what a charlatan and a fraud Obama really is

Web Link

Another opinion piece from the post? Seriously Hank, can't you come up with a better source to support your arguments?

Rich Lowry??? The guy who wrote about Chuck Hagel and “Friends of Hamas”?

That Rich Lowry, who wrote about something THAT DOESN'T EXIST? Completely WRONG about a made-up, fictional group called Friends of Hamas. That Rich Lowry?

The Rich Lowry who wrote in 2005 that judicial filibusters are a "perversion" of democracy and urged the Republican Senate end them? And now screams because Harry Reed took his advice? That Rich Lowry? Web Link

The Rich Lowry who wrote on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s March on Washington, that the Civil Rights war had been won long ago, as he campaigns for more voter suppression of blacks? That Rich Lowry?

The chickenhawk Rich Lowry who always supports a war, but never served? (like Gray Lady, I'm sure.) That Rich Lowry?

The good looking man in his 40's, always dresses well, ahem, never a hair out of place, takes real good care of his body, ahem, single, ahem, lives in NYC, ahem, not married, yet doesn't support equality? That Rich Lowry?

Rich Lowry. What a hack.

Come out, come out, wherever you are, Rich, and tell us where the WMD is, that caused 5,000 American servicemen to die.

There's a lot of bozo's on both sides, with histories of being wrong. To me, Lowry takes the cake.

CNN has reported that thte Obama Administration is not being forthcoming about Obamacare.

These are

1. How many people are on the website? Jay Carney says over 1 Million but wont share how he got that number. The Carney said "there is an enormous amount of demand for quality affordable health insurance. Of course there is. It is too bad that Obama care is not affordable for the vast majority of Americans. If you are a deadbeat then it is affordable. If you are a working middle class American than it is definitely not affordable.

2. How many people are signing up? For every person signing up four people have had their policies cancelled. The gap of uninsured people is getting wider.

3. How broken is the back end? the insurance companies are not receiving the data. It does not matter that you finally got proof of signing up if the Government is not relaying the information to the insurance companies. Of course this is deliberate because Obama wants a single payer plan.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the "architect" of Obamacare, told Chris Wallace that President Barack Obama's promise "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" was absolutely true--with one important caveat: if you like your doctor, "you can pay for it."

Wallace grilled Dr. Emanuel, challenging his false claims that California's enrollment was keeping pace with the percentage of the young population necessary to keep the system afloat, and pointing out that the president's promise on doctors would collapse once people lost their insurance or their doctors refused to participate.

Dr. Emanuel tried to defend Obamacare, claiming that "No one guaranteed you that your premium wouldn’t increase"--ignoring the president's repeated promise that health insurance premiums could drop by as much as $2500. He tried to claim that Obamacare's "glitches" were similar to those of popular devices like the iPhone.

"No one has launched a big PR campaign to get these people signed up," said Dr. Emanuel, blaming the website troubles that have plagued healthcare.gov--though he himself cited the need for such a campaign in May, long before the website's problems were widely known. There are just a few weeks left to the Dec. 23 deadline.

Gray Lady again just lifts entire sections of copyrighted material, in this case from the fringe opinion site brietbart Web Link without attribution, in what used to be a clear violation of the terms and conditions to this forum.

When will the Republicans announce and vote on their replacement plan?

answer - they won't. If they actually had to defend a vote for the draconian cuts they propose, they would get swept out of office for a decade.

The GOP will hack away instead of trying to improve the system, because their own policies are so unacceptable, they cannot afford to even schedule a vote.

Boeher has all month to schedule a vote on a replacement plan, he's not doing anything in congress this month.

All month.

The GOP has nothing.

Many liberals have deliberately lied about the Republican party having never introduced a viable Healthcare Plan. The truth is in 2009, before Obamacare was ever put into place, Paul Broun, a Congressman and Medical Doctor from Georgia, introduced a bill that would have cured the majority of the problems found in our current healthcare financing system.

The Republican Party was proactive while, the Democrats at that time had offered nothing. But House Democrats, caught sleeping on the job, did not want House Republicans to steal their thunder, so they iniquitously sabotaged Congressman Broun’s efforts to bring the bill to a vote to buy them time to craft their own version. The House Democrats, then patched together a shoddy Healthcare Bill fraught with problems, under the sponsorship of John Dingell’s (D- MI) and passed a vastly inferior and disastrous health care bill, while denying Republicans any opportunity to propose constructive changes, that laid the foundation for Obamacare.

Under Dr. Broun’s Patient OPTION Act, healthcare would have been accessible to all Americans, even those with pre-existing conditions, through market-based solutions. These included: the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, 100% tax deductibility, expanded contributions to health savings accounts, association pools, and incentives to physicians offering indigent patient care.

Through these initiatives, the Patient OPTION Act, unlike Obamacare, would make health insurance cheaper for everyone, provide access to quality care for all Americans, and save Medicare from going broke. The Patient OPTION Act would empower patients by giving them full control of their healthcare decisions. In fact, it is the only healthcare bill, to date, that completely removes intrusive Federal Government from the doctor-patient relationship.

Instead of wasting time trying to fix a law that is destroying our economy and healthcare system, Congress should instead focus its efforts towards a full repeal of Obamacare. The Patient OPTION Act should then be re-introduced in the House of Representatives. The Patient OPTION Act saves our healthcare system, while addressing the fundamental problems associated with healthcare financing today. Congress needs to work towards providing Americans with the affordable and quality care they deserve, without expanding the reach of federal government and sacrificing our cherished liberties. The Patient OPTION Act does that.

"The truth is in 2009, before Obamacare was ever put into place, Paul Broun, a Congressman and Medical Doctor from Georgia, introduced a bill "

Wow! He INTRODUCED a bill?!?!?

It's a MIRACLE!!! The GOP healthcare alternative that the entire GOP VOTED FOR!!!!!! (in between the 40 repeal votes) All scored by the CBO and ev'reeeeeything!!! I'm sure it was a unanimous vote by republicans!

Uh, wait a minute....

What was the vote?

How did Boehnerr vote on it?

He did vote, didn't he?

Wait a minute, he at least SCHEDULED a vote, didn't he?

Oh, my.

Boehner has been running the House since 2010, how many times have they voted on it?

Boehner has had 40 repeal votes, can you give us the date that Boehner had the house vote on this miracle health plan?

Uh-huh.

Got it.

It's a miracle....

Gray Lady, you're losing it.

Pepperdine,

You are the one who is losing it. Dr. Braun introduced the Bill in 2009 and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, shelved it. You should pay more attention to what you are reading.

Gray Lady, nope, not losing it. I asked how many times John Boehner, Republican, Speaker of the House, has voted for Broun's joke of a bill. And your answer was to hide behind Nancy Pelosi, who has not been speaker since 2010.

You can not hide behind Nancy Pelosi's skirts, since Boehner has been speaker for three years. Three years to re-introduce and vote on it.

Three LONG YEARS without scheduling a vote - why is that?

Boehner will never allow Braun's joke bill to get a vote. Boehner and the GOP cannot possibly cast an affirmative vote on any healthcare plan of theirs - it would quite simply be disastrous, much like actually voting for Social Security privatization (which never happened either.) A vote would require a CBO score, which would kill the GOP in 2014.

Chickenhearted chickenhawks - that's today's GOP. Too afraid to re-introduce a bill and vote for what they claim to believe in.

As I said:

"What was the vote?

How did Boehnerr vote on it?

He did vote, didn't he?

Wait a minute, he at least SCHEDULED a vote, didn't he?

Boehner has been running the House since 2010, how many times have they voted on it?

Boehner has had 40 repeal votes, can you give us the date that Boehner had the house vote on this miracle health plan?

... It's a miracle....

Gray Lady, you're losing it."

Okay, we're done here, Gray Lady. It's over, you can give up trying to represent the fringe conservative movement now.

John Boehner just summed it all up: conservatives “have lost all credibility”

From your conservative bible, the National Review: Web Link

"Conservative outside groups “have lost all credibility,” House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said during a press conference Thursday.

Presumably speaking about groups such as Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, and the Club for Growth, Boehner accused them of “misleading their followers” and “pushing members into places they don’t want to be,” specifically the government shutdown fight. He also criticized their preemptive criticism of the budget deal negotiated by Paul Ryan and Patty Murray.

“When groups come out and criticize an agreement that they’ve never seen you begin to wonder just how credible those actions are,” Boehner told reporters. “Frankly, I think they’ve lost all credibility.” He went on to praise the deal, arguing that conservative who favor deficit reduction should support it. “I’m as conservative as anybody around this place,” he said.

Asked if he though these groups should “stand down,” Boehner replied: “I don’t care what they do.”"

Out work is done here.

thanks, John. Now how about a vote on a healthcare bill from Broun or any other republican...

This argument is not about the conservatives, it is about President Obama deliberately lying to the American Public: "If you like your health plan, you can keep it. Period!" He lied. But he wanted to sell a defective health plan as a vehicle for income redistribution. So how is that working? Well the Millenials are avoiding it like the plague. The people Obama has depended on: the under thirty healthy people are not buying into Obama's scam.

Then you have former Speaker of the Huose Nancy Pelosi saying "You have to pass the bill to know what's in it." What a load of hooey.

So Boehner and the Tea Party are having a disagreement. So somehow that gives the Democratic Party a pass on the most horrendous piece of legislation passed by Congress in the last 100 years? I think not.

Gray Lady referred to Congressman Broun's plan. That is the plan that Speaker Pelosi wouldn't even allow a vote on and now the entire country is suffering. But Oregon has 44 sign ups so far. So things could be looking up.

"Gray Lady referred to Congressman Broun's plan. That is the plan that Speaker Pelosi wouldn't even allow a vote on and now the entire country is suffering."

And again I ask: WHY HASN'T JOHN BOENHER BROUGHT IT UP FOR A VOTE?

If it's such a miracle plan, boehner has had THREE YEARS to re-introduce it and bring it up for a vote!

It's toxic to republicans, that's why they won't even vote on Broun's plan! It will cost them the Hosue in 2014 if they bring up ANY republican idea's for replacement of Obamacare!

Nancy stopped it in 2009. Only the republicans have stopped it since!

The GOP has no replacement plan to vote affirmative on!

The republicans have NO alternative to Obamacare, because, as pointed out above, ObamaCare IS the republican plan, a free market, private insurer solution created by right wing Heritage, endorsed by disgraced Newt Gingrich and implemented by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.

Where is the republican replacement plan?!!?!?

Who honestly believes that insurance companies had not already been dropping people from coverage or had not already been dropping doctors and other providers from their networks?
No matter what you think of the weaknesses of the ACA as it passed, just consider the alternative without it. MILLIONS of Americans can have health insurance coverage they couldn't buy at any price before, MILLIONS of Americans won't risk bankruptcy due to health care costs, MILLIONS of Americans can benefit from the lower fees they are charged from health care providers. This is goodness. Access to health care and to health insurance should be celebrated in a nonpartisan way. Knock off the politics!

Politifact, a politically neutral organization that rates the veracity, or lack thereof of politicians has bestowed its Liar Laureate award for 2013 on Barack Obama.

Web Link

"PBS Newshour interviewed a woman from Washington, D.C., who was a supporter of the health care law and found her policy canceled. New policies had significantly higher rates. She told Newshour that the only thing the new policy covered that her old one didn’t was maternity care and pediatric services. And she was 58."

"The chance of me having a child at this age is zero. So, you know, I ask the president, why do I have to pay an additional $5,000 a year for maternity coverage that I will never, ever need?" asked Deborah Persico.

"First, they tried to shift blame to insurers. "FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans," said Valerie Jarrett, a top adviser to Obama, on Oct. 28."

"PolitiFact rated her statement False. The restrictions on grandfathering were part of the law, and they were driving cancellations."

"Then, they tried to change the subject. 'It’s important to remember both before the ACA was ever even a gleam in anybody’s eye, let alone passed into law, that insurance companies were doing this all the time, especially in the individual market because it was lightly regulated and the incentives were so skewed,' said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

"But what really set everyone off was when Obama tried to rewrite his slogan, telling political supporters on Nov. 4, 'Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law, and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.'"

"Pants on Fire! PolitiFact counted 37 times when he’d included no caveats, such as a high-profile speech to the American Medical Association in 2009: 'If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.'"

Even Obama’s staunchest allies cried foul.

But one can easily imagine Obama saying this

"I’d like to thank the people who helped me win this award. Kathleen Selbilius,Nancy Pelosi,and Harry Reid. We’ll try to be repeat winners next year."

But what Obama has really earned is the Pinocchio/Münchhausen/Orwell/Machiavelli/Goebbels award!

Gray Lady: HOW MANY TIMES has Boehner brought the Broun plan for a vote in the last three years?

What is the republican replacement plan?

(hint - there is NONE)

What Politifact said about the "lie" last year, in June 2012, when Politifact claimed the statement to be HALF TRUE:

" Obama has a reasonable point: His health care law does take pains to allow Americans to keep their health plan if they want to remain on it. But Obama suggests that keeping the insurance you like is guaranteed.

In reality, Americans are not simply able to keep their insurance through thick and thin. Even before the law has taken effect, the rate of forced plan-switching among policyholders every year is substantial, and the CBO figures suggest that the law could increase that rate, at least modestly, even if Americans on balance benefit from the law’s provisions. We rate Obama’s claim Half True."

"We rate Obama’s claim HALF TRUE."

Web Link

From Politifact this year: "No one knows exactly how many people got notices... Analysts estimated the number at about 4 million, out of a total insured population of about 262 million.

That was less than 2 percent..."

Gray Lady didn't believe Politifact back in June 2012 for the exact same statement, but now crows about it, just to keep from answering the questions posed of her:

- HOW MANY TIMES has Boehner brought the Broun plan for a vote in the last three years?

- What is the republican replacement plan?

Poor Gray Lady, sitting pretty on Medicare and Social Security, bashing the government for providing others healthcare coverage through the free market of private insurance companies.

What a Socialist!

Living off the government t.... while screaming about the government setting up exchanges (that republican Tom Coburn just said were good Web Link ) to provide free market solutions.

Old Gray Lady lives the socialist life 'style' while Barack Obama sets up the free market to prosper! Just ask republican Tom Coburn!

It's a miracle!

Pepperdine is full of Beans. I have paid into Social Security and Medicare since 1965. I have paid for my plans and for a fatuous fool to suggest that I am living off the Government is simply not true. The Government has been living off of me. And now I am collecting on my forced investment. And don't further display your ignorance by introducing specious arguments that ignore the time value of money.

Now for a common sense Healthcare Bill that was not crafted by liberal lemmings:

"While Obamacare is a complex, 2,700 page bill, Broun’s OPTION Act puts forward several important reforms in just 77 pages:

Ø Fully repeals Obamacare;

Ø Provides 100 percent deductibility for all health care expenses, including health insurance;

Ø Increases contribution limits and adds patient-friendly reforms to Health Savings Accounts;

Ø Moves Medicare to a more flexible premium assistance program;

Ø Creates a new tax credit for donations to hospitals and clinics for indigent patient care;

Ø Allows consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines;

Ø Makes it easier for groups to establish Association Health Plans, which would allow small businesses and other entities to band together to negotiate lower costs for their employees or members;

Ø Gives doctors a tax incentive to treat indigent patients;

Ø Completely phases out the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and

Ø Incorporates the language from H.R. 567, the State Health Flexibility Act, which would block grant Medicaid and CHIP."

I will trust a smart Medical Doctor over incompetent and fiscally irresponsible liberals any day.

Gray Lady:

you're right, you're not living off the government, you're living off those of us still contributing to the social security and medicare programs. Neither of these programs have ever been an "investment" and as such your "time value of money" argument is specious. Social security and Medicare have NEVER been investments, in fact many would argue it's a giant Ponzi scheme relying on ever increasing numbers of payers to support payees. Why do you think it's been forecast to run out of money? Hint: fewer people paying into the system than needed. The payout of both of these programs isn't based on what you "invested." It's a purely socialist program. How do you like participating in socialism?

Gray Lady: You use public roads, you are protected by the government justice system, you use public institutions, your health care is provided through Medicare (a single payer, government "socialized medicine" plan that YOU CAN OPT OUT OF if you weren't such a hypocrite,) you collect a government check every month.

Thanks for admitting that! Hypocrisy comes easy to fringe right wingers on government Medicare, doesn't it?

You claim Broun has a plan (he doesn't - it hasn't even been scored by the CBO, has it?)

If he has a so-called "bill", tell us how did Broun VOTE ON HIS OWN BILL - - oh, my, he hasn't voted for his own bill??

How many times has republican leader John Boehner brought Broun's plan for A VOTE IN THE LAST THREE YEARS? Oh, drats, po' Johnny Crying Time hasn't brought the bill to the floor for a vote?? What's a tea-bagger to do?

"I will trust a smart Medical Doctor ..... any day."

Why won't John Boenher trust Dr Broun enough to give his plan a vote?!?!?!?!?!?

Other than the boondoggle Medicare Part D, which our lovely hypocrite Gray Lady loves to use to her heart's (and her government funded health's) content, when is the last time the republican caucus voted in the affirmative (not a repeal, but a real plan) for a healthcare plan?

They haven't offered and voted FOR a healthcare bill (other than the boondoggle Medicare Part D) since before Hillarycare in the early 1990's!

Broun re-introduced his plan in March of 2012 (again, he's introduced it several times), so you can't blame the wise Nancy Pelosi - you can only blame republicans who won't bring this to a vote because it's an electoral disaster-in-the-making, guaranteed to lose the House in 2014 if they vote on it! Bring on the return of Speaker Pelosi, thanks to the wise Dr Broun and his disastrous health bill!

Your so-called "common sense Healthcare Bill" (not!) that republicans are too chickenhearted to vote on!

Republicans have nothing. Never have, never will. They can't afford to vote on their healthcare "plans".

Easy for you though, laying back and living off the government t.....

Ah, how some people love living the Socialist lifestyle. They have their government funded and provided Medicare, the hell with everyone else.

Such a sweet old lady.

Happy Holidays!

I'm just about done here, toying with the socialist Gray Lady is getting a bit old. It's the holiday season, I should be nicer to her, like her family at Thanksgiving, where they just politely nod their heads and smile. And then go vote Blue.

Scratch a Tea Bag, find a hypocrite.

So I'll leave you with the original teabaggers: "What have the Romans ever done for us?"

Damn the big guvmint, them Romans, and their taxes and regulations... Web Link


Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
PFJ Member: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace? SHUT UP!

Leave it to Python to sum it up, eh, what?

;)

No one likes participating in Socialism except the neer do wells. The Government, controlled by Democrats at the time, forced these socialist programs upon the American Public. We had no choice in the matter. If it had allowed the public to invest their money in Health IRAs and Retirement plans through deductions, for the same amount as FICA, most people such as myself would have been far better off.

No, I don't like socialism at all. But the Democratic Party has forced it on us and Obama, the Socialist in Chief, is doing his best to bankrupt the country.

Pepperdine needs to get a grip. You can't have two conflicting laws. The House has tried at least 41 times to repeal that, as Senator Max Baucus called the "Train Wreck" so that a sensible Health care plan can be introduced. But the Senate, led by Harry Reed, has thwarted the attempts.

The 2014 mid terms elections should give the Senate back to the Republicans so that Obama can get his veto machine in order. Too bad there won't be 67 Republican Senators to override the numerous vetoes that will be coming our way during Obama's lame duck session.

But come 2016, the Public will tire of the Democrats' fiscal irresponsibility to allow a change in Party at the White House.

liberal fantasy, gray lady, Hank, whatever you're calling yourself today. You can opt out of SS and Medicare. Especially since all those years you were putting money into those systems you weren't "investing" you were paying other people's way. Put your money where your mouth is, opt out.

"Pepperdine needs to get a grip. You can't have two conflicting laws. The House has tried at least 41 times to repeal that..."

Grip this: Broun's plan INCLUDES the repeal, therefore CAN BE VOTED ON, except the republicans know to even have the CBO score a bill like that would cost them the 2014 elections.

Please, pretty please, pretty pukleeeeze with a tea bag on top - PLEASE vote on the Broun bill!!!

Omigawd, Boehner, please vote on it immediately!!! But he won't.

Why wouldn't they vote on the Broun bill, if not for the political disaster it (the Broun bill, and, well, republican 'ideals' in general) the Broun bill represents?

As for "But the Democratic Party has forced it on us..." Medicare Part D was Bush socialism. Completely unfunded. A gift to our senior Socialists - such as yourself. Living your little socialist lives, pulling the ladder up behind you.

Also note that Bush has both the House, Senate and executive, and did not change Medicare to vouchers, nor privatize Social security. To even vote on either would end the GOP.

Hank: how long before you offer a wager on 2014? It'll be a lot faster than the republicans offer a replacement plan!!

Admit it - the Broun plan is an unworkable disaster for the GOP. They have nothing.

Wow.

A stunning example of full on Koolaid consumption by old gray lady.

Everyone knows she's just being used by the far right, and she's a part of the echo chamber. But what a great call on her living the socialist lifestyle!

SHe's actually just playing the role of Tea Party Tim, of Tea Party Tim and Plutocrat Pete fame.

Web Link

Just remember, old gray lady, Pete luvs ya. You can bet your life on it.

Straight from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama's health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly.

An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that health care remains politically charged going into next year's congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished HealthCare.gov website running smoothly is just one of Obama's challenges, maybe not the biggest.

The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for any more government help. Those are the 85 percent of Americans who the White House says don't have to be worried about the president's historic push to expand coverage for the uninsured.

In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law's passage.

Sixty-nine percent say their premiums will be going up, while 59 percent say annual deductibles or copayments are increasing.

Only 21 percent of those with private coverage said their plan is expanding to cover more types of medical care, though coverage of preventive care at no charge to the patient has been required by the law for the past couple of years.

Fourteen percent said coverage for spouses is being restricted or eliminated, and 11 percent said their plan is being discontinued.

"Rightly or wrongly, people with private insurance looking at next year are really worried about what is going to happen," said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who tracks public opinion on health care issues. "The website is not the whole story."

************************

It seems the MP liberals are out of step with the rest of the country.

"In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse."

what the ???? It's a poll of opinion of future events, not facts.

Owww. Please stop. "Teh Stoopid" just hurts!

My policies have changed almost every year for the last 20, and almost always for the worst. Well, duh.

I get to blame obamacare now?

Who knew? For the last twenty years, my more expensive policies with less coverage were HIS fault!! Wow! Now I get it!

Here's a news flash:

- if we keep obamacare, rates will go up

- if we repeal obamacare, guess what? rates will go up

Duh!

At least the law protects us from coverage caps, lifetime limits, getting booted off for getting sick, no pre-exisiting conditions, etc.. That's good stuff.

What's the Republican plan?

Gray Lady Down - you were advocating several times for the plan from Dr. Broun, and pepperdine claims that the Republicans haven't even brought it to the floor for a vote.

Well? What up?

Do the Republicans have a plan they have voted for?

Why today? Because today is when millions get better and less expensive coverage from Obamacare. It's a big day for so many Americans who get healthcare!

Obamacare wins.

Soon, the GOP will start referring to it by another name, no longer wishing to associate the name "Obama" to another successful program.

As for the claims from the GOOP that millions lost coverage? Pure bull(bleep). Try 10K out of our 330 million Americans.

Dec 31: "A crucial GOP line of attack against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is that millions of people will supposedly lose coverage thanks to shifting requirements on the health insurance exchanges — a flagrant violation of President Obama’s infamous “if you like your plan, you can keep it” proclamation. The truth has always been more complicated, of course. Republicans are constantly blurring the line between people who lose a plan and people who lose coverage. That is, many people might lose a particular insurance plan but immediately be presented with other options.

Now, a new report from the minority staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has destroyed the foundation of that particular GOP claim. It projects that only 10,000 people will lose coverage because of the ACA and be unable to regain it — or in other words, 0.2 percent of the oft-cited 5 million cancellations statistic." Web Link

War over on the GOP fighting healthcare for Americans. GOP games over. Now let's get to work creating jobs for Americans and get this economy back on track!

Mine Reasons why Obamacare or the Unaffordable Care Act sill fall flat on its face:

1. Many won’t pay: A sizeable share of the 2 million people who selected a private insurance plan before the 2013 deadline will not pay their share of the premiums and therefore won’t be covered by the plans in which the White House says they “enrolled.” Enrolling, by the White House definition, is actually just selecting a plan — the same as putting an item in the shopping basket at Amazon. Until you pay, you don’t own it. Early reports from Washington State and Nevada show that only half of those selecting a plan had paid their first month’s premium before the deadline.

2. Others will stop paying: Even if people do pay their premiums for the first few months, we’ll wait to see how many people are still paying them later in the year and maintaining their insurance. Remember, the law requires people to pay premiums for health insurance every month, year after year, to comply with the mandate; if they go more than three months in a year without government-approved health insurance, they have to pay a penalty tax.

3. Many enrollees will be the newly-uninsured: Obama-administration officials are not releasing data on how many of the people who have picked plans are from the ranks of the uninsured. One reason: It is likely that many if not most of those enrolling in private insurance are people who have been kicked out of their existing private plans because their policies didn’t comply with the mountain of Obamacare rules, mandates, and requirements.

4. Another broken promise: Many members of Congress who voted for Obamacare did so because they wanted “universal coverage.” But we may end up further from that goal: If the numbers show that millions of those buying insurance on the exchanges had insurance before but lost it because it didn’t comply with Obamacare’s rules, we may wind up with fewer people with private insurance than before the $2.6 trillion law passed! That would be another betrayal of trust with the American people, who genuinely wanted to help expand access to health insurance.

5. Many uninsured won’t enroll: People will find that Obamacare’s high-deductible insurance policies just aren’t worth the exorbitant premiums — even after subsidies — and won’t buy. Faced with paying premiums of $3,000 or more a year and carrying a $4,000 annual deductible, millions just won’t see the value in buying the coverage.

6. Sicker and older enrollees will outweigh younger healthies: The Obama administration hasn’t released a demographic breakdown of exchange enrollees so far. But many of us — and many in the Obama administration — fear that those most likely to enroll are older, sicker, and more expensive patients, not — despite Pajama Boy’s hot-chocolate plea — the younger, healthier people needed to offset their elders’ premiums. This will mean premiums or deductibles will have to be even higher in 2015.

7. Tens of millions will see employer plans canceled: The next wave of lost coverage will be among those receiving health insurance through small businesses. Most do not self-insure (the way big companies do), and the health-insurance policies that businesses renewed in 2013 under the old rules will expire in waves throughout 2014 because they don’t meet the law’s new mandates. Expect to see many more news articles reporting on the next cascade of lost policies.

8. Most of the newly insured will be on Medicaid: The more heavily subsidized insurance is, the more likely people are to enroll. Medicaid is free to patients, or nearly so, so it’s likely to see the greatest enrollment. In Kentucky, for example, 85 percent of those enrolling so far are on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

9. Fewer insurance companies will participate in 2015: Many insurance companies took a “watch and wait” attitude to participating in the Obamacare exchanges in the first year. Those that did participate have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to structure plans that comply with the law. But as the rules change, sometimes daily, these companies have been sent into a frenzy to comply with the new directives. Those who bought in and those who didn’t will look carefully at whether or not they will participate in 2015. If they don’t, people will have even fewer choices of plans, and premiums will be even higher next year.

Nice.

Copyright infringement on the far right national review site: Web Link

Per the NR site: "© National Review Online 2014. All Rights Reserved."

..................

Hank, I asked a month and a half ago: "again, funny stuff, but really, all joking aside, what IS the current republican replace plan?"

There isn't one, is there? Why hasn't Boenher voted YES on any Republican plan? (other than, as pointed out above, the bloated and unfunded Bush Medicare Part B)

"Hank, I asked a month and a half ago: "again, funny stuff, but really, all joking aside, what IS the current republican replace plan?"

It's now been 7 years of the GOP promising a replacement plan.

Anyone seen it yet?

Replace?

Ha. Sadly.

Gray Lady made a big thing about Obama "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"

Trump to Scott Pelly: "they can have their doctors, they can have their plans, they can have everything."

Can't wait to see Trump's replacement plan with EVERYTHING.

Trump said the same thing that the freaks attacked Obama for saying?

Say it ain't so, Joe.