HuffPo: Obamacare rollout has been a complete disaster.

The deductible and out of pocket expenses are less with the new plan.

I think the credit is for $1000 a month. So they end up paying about $50 a month.

 

Guess what CNN and Fox isn't reporting....

 

Yeah, I'm guessing you don't really understand trends.

LOL I guess

 

I know one thing that makes me happy about that graph is I'm still considered a young adult. Woo hoo!

 

From $900/month to $50/month for better coverage.

Obamacare rollout has been a complete disaster.

 

No one will dispute that plans are much more affordable for people who qualify for a subsidy.

But, that's not really creating affordable coverage, it's just paying for it.

That would be like saying that if I give someone $20 in the line at a grocery store to pay for their food that I made food more affordable.

 

Part of the problem with the ACA rollout is that some states have laws that are actively blocking it.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/state-efforts-block-obamacare-are-working-study-finds-2D11922402

State efforts to block Obamacare are working, study finds

States whose governments are hostile to Obamacare are also hindering efforts to get people signed up for health insurance, according to a study released Tuesday.

Laws restricting outreach and enrollment efforts have handicapped community health centers that are a key component of plans to get health insurance to millions of Americans who lack it, researchers at George Washington University found.

“This is the first study to attempt to measure the impact of restrictive state policies,” said Sara Rosenbaum, who led the team at GW’s Department of Health Policy that did the study. “The navigator laws are having a real effect.”

The 2010 Affordable Care Act seeks to get health insurance to the 15 percent of Americans who don’t have it in several ways: with online health marketplaces called exchanges, by expanding Medicaid and by changing insurance laws so that companies cannot refuse to cover certain people or stop their coverage once it gets expensive.

To sign people up, the Obama administration recruited and trained so-called navigators, assistants to help people choose which plans would be best for them among the dozens of choices in some states. And community health centers launched their own efforts, because many of their clients fall into the groups most in need of health insurance.

But after the Supreme Court gave them the option, many states decided not to expand Medicaid — even though the federal government will pay for the entire cost until 2017. Around 20 have decided against it.

In addition, states such as Missouri, Montana, Texas and Florida have passed law restricting what navigators and others can ask and say in helping people enroll in health care. They're all states that have refused to expand Medicaid or to operate exchanges, forcing the federal government to step in and do it.

The Missouri law requires the navigators to pass an exam and pay a fee before they can be licensed by the state. Texas is requiring extra training and testing for navigators, while Florida forbids navigators from working in state offices.

Supporters of the laws say it's important to ensure that people working with private information — names, addresses, Social Security numbers and income details — be properly trained and vetted. The Obama administration calls it "bullying."

"This is a blatant attempt to add cumbersome requirements to the navigator program and deter groups from working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage,” U.S. Health and Human Services department spokesman Fabien Levy said in September after Texas passed its law.

Some of the laws were passed to address issues raised by licensed insurance agents and brokers, Rosenbaum says. But it has affected efforts to help people sign up.

“The big smoking gun as far as I am concerned is assisting in selecting a health plan,” Rosenbaum told NBC News. “There is a highly significant difference between the restrictive states and the non-restrictive states in community enrollment assisters who are actually helping people figure out the health plans.”

Don McBride of ACCESS Family Care in Neosho, Mo., says he’s seen it. “We have been handicapped,” McBride told NBC News. “But with everything that is going on, I think we are making the best of it.”

“We haven’t been able to reach as many people,” agreed Kally Taul, outreach coordinator and a navigator at the clinic system.

But McBride, Taul and others say they are not simply being hobbled by state laws. It’s more complex than that, they say. “It’s not the funding. The main thing is the negative publicity,” Taul said.

Bad publicity had made people mistrustful, McBride agreed. “They call it ‘Obamacare’ and it’s like the atom bomb,” he said. “It is definitely going to take some time to build trust.”

Rosenbaum’s team surveyed 606 out of the nation’s 1,198 federally qualified community health centers. They compared the answers from health centers in states that have embraced health reform to those that have been less welcoming. At least 19 states have passed laws that limit what navigators or other assisters may say and do, or that add hours of training and licensing requirements on top of what the federal governments asks.

“Health centers in restrictive states reported approximately half the staffing capacity maintained by health centers in full implementation states,” the report reads.

“Of particular significance in measuring the impact of navigator restrictions is the fact that health centers in restrictive states were significantly less likely to assist with plan enrollment,” it adds.

This can hurt because the people signing up at health centers are those who are the least likely to understand health insurance in the first place, Rosenbaum says.

“The significantly lower rate of plan enrollment assistance suggests that the regulatory burdens created by navigator laws are affecting not only the work of certified navigators but community outreach and enrollment efforts more generally,” the report concludes.

“When you change the policy environment and put the brakes on things, it really trickles down to the community,” Rosenbaum said.

 

That article is ridiculous and incredibly misleading.

The Texas exams and training for a navigator are incredibly simplistic. It's like taking defensive driving online.

Do you think it's outrageous to expect people who are going to be handling sensitive identifying information to go through such minor training? Not to mention that most people who want to be navigators have no experience in customer side insurance.

Edit: Judoka's article, not Texx

 

Do you know about the exams in the other states?

 

Only Texas, but as the departments of insurance for most of these red states coordinate on things, I wouldn't imagine them to be much different.

I'm not defending Perry or Texas on their dealing with Obamacare, but the navigator issue is a non-starter. Especially when you see the people applying for these jobs. They need MORE training.

 

You raise a good point and I will take your word for it since you work in the industry.

 

Oh look! More POSITIVE data trends.

And from a state that did not expand Medicaid or set up its own exchange.

HOW CAN THAT BE?!?!?!?

Florida’s Obamacare enrollment surges, as does the nation’s

In Florida, 83 percent of enrollees received a subsidy of some kind.

It’s hard to know how many more Floridians will sign up for a plan. Applications covering more than half a million state residents have been submitted. Of those 486,000 have been deemed eligible to enroll and 247,000 received a notice indicating that they qualify for some kind of financial assistance.

 

Yeah the enrollment numbers are going up.

I do have some concern that the majority of enrollments are getting a subsidy though.

These are tax credits that are going to be very expensive to deal with down the road.

 

Preventive care is going to save the US an amazing amount of money in the long run.

 

I know right?

They should just not have access to medicine because with the money we give them we could have 1/10,000th of another tank! It is the humane thing to do.

 

Yes he has.

"I will end the Iraq war" Done
"I will make the economy better" Done
"I will bring down unemployment" Done
"I will kill Bin Ladin on matter what it takes" Done
"I will pass healthcare reform" Done

I'm sure there's more.