How to Protect Yourself From Obamacare

[heironymouspasparagus]

There is a big difference between hits and actual traffic.  Your opinion echoes that of our developers.  They built this thing over three years, knowing that they would need significant infrastructure to manage it.  The point is that the code shouldn't' have been the weakness.  Here's the registration script https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/global/en_US/registration.js They are not doing anything earth-shattering with the online signup forms, but the data is another issue.  Connecting to all of the legacy data systems probably presents a challenge, but $634 million dollars should have been enough to configure the proper connectors to send and receive an insurance application, but that's not what they are doing. They are trying to use the system as far more than it should be used for.  They are pulling IRS data, law enforcement data (at least Maryland's exchange admits that your application information can be used for law enforcement), credit scores, and God knows what else.   After they have put together this "information package" they then pass it to the appropriate exchange offerings in your state.  

Isn't that connection to all the other governmental entities something that you are jazzed about??  As in the "Patriot Act"...?  Shouldn't we be able to ensure that no illegals, drug users (take a drug test!), sex offenders (especially those who crime was pissing in the weeds while drunk) or other nondescript ne'er-do-wells are allowed into the system?

This IS the logical conclusion to the Republicontin nonsense of the last 30+ years...plus some Dummycrat nonsense.  But the Dummycrats BS has been dwarfed by the truly epoch scale of the other side's stupidity....  (Perspective 101... 4,000 : 1)

[Conan71]

Yes, policies are becoming more comprehensive. 

But why would a 50 year old woman want maternal and prenatal care as well as pediatric vision and dental care?

What's the likelihood a 25 year old woman will need ambulatory or rehabilitative care?

It has removed a lot of the cafeteria option and people are being FORCED to purchase coverage they do not want or need at a given point in their life.

Do you like being forced by mandate to purchase something you don't need?

[heironymouspasparagus]

Do you like being forced by mandate to purchase something you don't need?

Glad you asked...no!  I absolutely abhor being forced by mandate to purchase something that not only do I NOT need, but is totally and completely and absolutely against not just my own and the country's self interest, but the very fiber of my being - the disgusting, despicable actions taken to the tune of nearly 2 Trillion dollars by George Bush and his bunch of gangster buds who sent us into Iraq for no valid reason.  Squandering not just the wealth of the country, but the future of so many!

And not only is it also stacked into the rest of the debt that the Republicontins have piled onto us just so their 1/2%er buddies could have massive tax cuts larger than even Reagan envisioned, but it killed over 4,000 of our kids and wounded tens of thousands more.  IF we could have those kids back and make whole those tens of thousands, I would gladly - and cheerfully - have NO complaint about the $2 trillion.  In fact, double or triple that would be fine with me!  But since we can't get there from here, that abominable debt on top of the rest of it just adds massive insult to horrendous injury!

And yeah, I do have some blame for Blowbama in this - he is worse than useless as a President on a couple of fronts - first his ignorance and stupidstition about the 2nd Amendment, but even more, his absolutely spineless caving in when it came to letting the Bush temporary cuts expire!  At this point in our recovery, based on 70 years or more of very well documented past experience, we would have been MUCH further along the road to recovery - we would have reached "recovered" by now - and many more people would no doubt be enjoying gainful employment.  Well, except for us old people - we would still be out of luck....but everyone else would be healed up for several years!

How about you?  How you liking that nearly $1 trillion dollars Bush got you to pay to the pharmaceuticals for so-called Medicare drug benefit?  Adding over $400 billion to the debt according to the Congressional Budget Office.  And those same CBO guys are still guessing that ACA will reduce the budget deficit over the next 20 years or so....always a good thing.  How is it again that one would want to protect themselves from fiscal responsibility and reduced debt?  Oh, yeah...we keep electing Jim Inhofe.....sorry - irrelevant question.


Beautiful weekend last, wonderful mild day with some rain today...great day for a rant!

[nathanm]

But why would a 50 year old woman want maternal and prenatal care as well as pediatric vision and dental care?

It's not now and has never been uncommon to have..surprises, even at 50. Yeah, you got the snip, but part of pooling risk and enabling easy comparison shopping is (mostly) standardizing coverage. The idea is to make it more like Wal-Mart and less like a car dealer.

What's the likelihood a 25 year old woman will need ambulatory or rehabilitative care?

Pretty high, if she gets in a car wreck. Or, for a lower chance thing, turns out to have multiple sclerosis, which will start to become evident around then. Or maybe breaks her neck in a skydiving accident. Whatever. Back when I was a kid a friend's dad tripped on the stairs coming out of a courthouse and hit his head. Usually that's no big deal. In his case it resulted in a brain hemorrhage necessitating brain surgery, from which he ended up getting meningitis and became paralyzed for a while, although he recovered. There were lasting effects on mood and personality. Point being that smile happens. You're buying the insurance as much for the protection of the people who have to fix you up regardless of your ability to pay as much as yourself. Having a patchwork of exceptions defeats the purpose.

[Hoss]

I'm going to say this just one time, and I've infuriated many right-leaning friends of mine when I ask this when they can't give me an acceptable answer.

We are required to carry insurance on our car or cars in almost every state.  Why?

Why don't republicans/tea party members hoot and holler about repealing auto insurance?  What's the difference?

Just an honest question.

[Gaspar]

I'm going to say this just one time, and I've infuriated many right-leaning friends of mine when I ask this when they can't give me an acceptable answer.

We are required to carry insurance on our car or cars in almost every state.  Why?

Why don't republicans/tea party members hoot and holler about repealing auto insurance?  What's the difference?

Just an honest question.

I'm going to say this just one time, and I've infuriated many left-leaning friends of mine when I ask this when they don't accept this as an acceptable answer because they refuse to employ logic.

We are not required to purchase a car! 

That is why.   

[Hoss]

I'm going to say this just one time, and I've infuriated many left-leaning friends of mine when I ask this when they don't accept this as an acceptable answer because they refuse to employ logic.

We are not required to purchase a car! 

That is why.   

Did you know, however, that if you drive, even if you don't own a car, you're expected to carry insurance?

[Gaspar]

So the design of the Obamacare website was a no-bid contract awarded to a Canadian company known for spotty performance and inconsistent pricing. The company was previously fired by the Canadian government for failure to meet deadlines.  Should be fun to follow the money on this one!

CGI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.

CGI Federal's parent company, Montreal-based CGI Group, was officially terminated in September 2012 by an Ontario government health agency after the firm missed three years of deadlines and failed to deliver the province's flagship online medical registry.

CGI was a much smaller vendor when it was approved by HHS in 2007. With the approval, CGI became eligible for multiple awards without public notice and in circumvention of the normal competitive bidding procurement process.

General Accountability Office acting counsel Linda H. Gibson noted that at the time CMS officials had only rated some of CGI's previous services as "fair."



Former Spite House press secretary Robert Gibbs says heads should roll.
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/10/14/gibbs-people-should-be-fired-over-healthcare-website-glitches/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/obamacare-healthcare-gov-website-cost/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexhoward/how-the-first-internet-president-produced-american-governmen

[Conan71]

I'm going to say this just one time, and I've infuriated many right-leaning friends of mine when I ask this when they can't give me an acceptable answer.

We are required to carry insurance on our car or cars in almost every state.  Why?

Why don't republicans/tea party members hoot and holler about repealing auto insurance?  What's the difference?

Just an honest question.

Two different issues.  With one type of insurance, you purchase it to protect others from your neglect.  With the other you purchase it to protect yourself from your own neglect.  

I can mitigate my own risks and determine how much of the costs I'm ultimately able or willing to pay out of my own pocket if my car is damaged.    Therefore I select higher deductibles on the parts of my auto insurance which protect my investment in my car: comp and collision.  

The requirement for liability insurance is to protect others from my own negligent behavior.  If I were texting, crossed the center line and sent a family of four to the hospital, it helps to remunerate them for someone else's negligent behavior, regardless of how much they chose to self-insure themselves on their vehicle and/or split the risk with their insurer.  If it's an accident with injuries, chances are a good portion of that liability settlement are going to medical bills and rehab costs.  If someone hits me in my car, on my motorcycle, or on my bicycle it's far more likely than not they don't have the personal funds to pay for two weeks of hospitalization, months of re-hab, and lost wages.  From that aspect, it's a joke how low they allow the liability limits to be.  You can blow through $50K in under a week in the ICU alone coupled with surgeries.

Sure there's benefit to me in helping to create a financial shield should I get sued for auto negligence, but that is not the reason it's mandatory to be purchased, it's simply to protect other folk.  

The government makes all sorts of laws to protect citizens from the negligent acts of other citizens.  Compulsory auto liability is but one of them.

Forcing me or my employer to purchase health insurance on my behalf with many coverages I do not need is an entirely different issue.  Should I decline to purchase that insurance even though I may have the funds to self-insure against a health crisis, I'm assessed a penalty.  This also mandates employers over a certain size to now provide something which was an optional employee benefit in the past and forces them to make it a part of compensation packages...or else.

[Conan71]

Former Spite House press secretary Robert Gibbs says heads should roll.

I agree wholeheartedly! Let's start with the ACA's namesake and work our way down!

BTW, congrats papa!

[Conan71]

It's not now and has never been uncommon to have..surprises, even at 50. Yeah, you got the snip, but part of pooling risk and enabling easy comparison shopping is (mostly) standardizing coverage. The idea is to make it more like Wal-Mart and less like a car dealer.

Pretty high, if she gets in a car wreck. Or, for a lower chance thing, turns out to have multiple sclerosis, which will start to become evident around then. Or maybe breaks her neck in a skydiving accident. Whatever. Back when I was a kid a friend's dad tripped on the stairs coming out of a courthouse and hit his head. Usually that's no big deal. In his case it resulted in a brain hemorrhage necessitating brain surgery, from which he ended up getting meningitis and became paralyzed for a while, although he recovered. There were lasting effects on mood and personality. Point being that smile happens. You're buying the insurance as much for the protection of the people who have to fix you up regardless of your ability to pay as much as yourself. Having a patchwork of exceptions defeats the purpose.

Wow, that's a lot of hypotheticals which deal with "small chances".  Let's be honest here.  By far, more money is spent on ambulatory and re-hab care on 60+ citizens than any other group.

In the past, if a 50 year old woman wanted to be knocked up, she could choose to purchase maternity and well baby coverage as a part of her plan.  Or if said 50 year old wanted to be knocked up, chances are she can afford the out of pocket costs.

[Gaspar]

Did you know, however, that if you drive, even if you don't own a car, you're expected to carry insurance?

You are not required to drive.

[Gaspar]

I agree wholeheartedly! Let's start with the ACA's namesake and work our way down!

BTW, congrats papa!

Thanks.  We're probably headed home this afternoon.  Much easier than the last two kids!

[heironymouspasparagus]

I'm going to say this just one time, and I've infuriated many left-leaning friends of mine when I ask this when they don't accept this as an acceptable answer because they refuse to employ logic.

We are not required to purchase a car!  

That is why.  

Nice try, but rather intellectually plebian.  What you say MIGHT be true in a universe where the people who don't want to buy insurance actually, truly wanted to accept the personal responsibility of their own actions and not burden the rest of us with going to a hospital for care when there narcissistic approach gets them into some kind of adverse health situation due to inattention to surroundings/circumstances, or self-inflicted issues, or just random accidents.  

If someone doesn't want to buy insurance - fine - stay out of the health care system completely.  Even if you can pay cash - someone has had to subsidize the health care you are wanting to mooch off of, no matter what the source....even private providers (hospitals, pharmaceuticals, equipment, etc) are getting public dole money to help support their operations and about 1/3 of that is extra the rest of us have to end up paying because of the uninsured.

We are interconnected - it is a shared risk pool.  But people with that attitude who don't participate are merely parasites trying to leech off the work of others.  (Isn't that one of the articles of faith of the RWRE?  And why is it again that they are so against the plan that THEY cooked up?  Oh, yeah....I remember now...)

[nathanm]

Sure there's benefit to me in helping to create a financial shield should I get sued for auto negligence, but that is not the reason it's mandatory to be purchased, it's simply to protect other folk.

Those precise words can be used to describe health insurance. It is there to protect the hospital and the doctors from getting stiffed when you can't pay. And it's not as if this is a rare issue. Uncompensated care was $41 billion in 2011. It's as much a matter of responsibility as liability insurance on your auto. You don't get a choice as to whether or not you carry insurance because the hospital and doctors working there don't get a choice as to whether or not they try to keep you from dying.

Granted, there is also the part of the law that is more about improving outcomes (and thus lowering lifetime cost) by getting earlier treatment, which is why qualifying plans are required to be relatively comprehensive. At present, people wait until they're on Medicare to get stuff treated that would be cheaper if treatment was begun earlier in life, driving the cost of that program up. We shouldn't be allowed to foist our costs onto hospitals and doctors and insurance companies should not be allowed to foist their costs onto Medicare.