Obamacare good?
- Thread starter bio-chem
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irish_2003
Board Rep
interesting/coincidence? states with the highest population of illegal immigrants (from all countries) and most populous minority populations have the most debt
irish_2003
Board Rep
heckler7
Registered
cali is a reallt large state, if it were any where else it would be like 10 states and we have a majority of illegals
so what = I don't understand any of this
irish_2003
Board Rep
it's so bad they still want a national bailout bill passed for california
Yea and you care about everyone here .You care about everyone as much as a stray dog..and you like to line your pockets just like me..and i'm doing it right now as we speak
You lament the smae system that you profit from....
Obamacare Application Asks About Voter Registration
Monday, 25 Mar 2013 06:23 PM
By Kenneth Hanner
Federal regulators are preparing a questionnaire for Obamacare applicants which includes asking those seeking federal healthcare if they want to register to vote.
The draft questionnaire drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services prompted a GOP congressman to raise the specter of Democrats turning the sign-up for Obamacare into a voter registration drive, the Washington Examiner reported.
Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr. of Louisiana questioned whether groups used as “navigators” to sign up Obamacare applicants might include those friendly to Democrats, like AARP and Families USA.
The 61-page questionnaire seeks information about an applicant’s identity and whether they qualify for Obamacare. On page 59, is the question: “Would you like to register to vote?”
“The draft documents wander into areas outside the department’s purview and links applications for health insurance subsidies to voter registration,” Boustany wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “The position of the question could lead some to think voter registration is somehow tied to subsidy eligibility.”
Boustany, chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee, said that the agency was overstepping its bounds by asking the question about voting.
“While the health care law requires that government agencies collect vast information about Americans’ personal lives, it does not give your department an interest in whether individual Americans choose to vote,” Boustany wrote.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ob...gistration/2013/03/25/id/496253#ixzz2Og99q3fs
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
Monday, 25 Mar 2013 06:23 PM
By Kenneth Hanner
Federal regulators are preparing a questionnaire for Obamacare applicants which includes asking those seeking federal healthcare if they want to register to vote.
The draft questionnaire drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services prompted a GOP congressman to raise the specter of Democrats turning the sign-up for Obamacare into a voter registration drive, the Washington Examiner reported.
Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr. of Louisiana questioned whether groups used as “navigators” to sign up Obamacare applicants might include those friendly to Democrats, like AARP and Families USA.
The 61-page questionnaire seeks information about an applicant’s identity and whether they qualify for Obamacare. On page 59, is the question: “Would you like to register to vote?”
“The draft documents wander into areas outside the department’s purview and links applications for health insurance subsidies to voter registration,” Boustany wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “The position of the question could lead some to think voter registration is somehow tied to subsidy eligibility.”
Boustany, chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee, said that the agency was overstepping its bounds by asking the question about voting.
“While the health care law requires that government agencies collect vast information about Americans’ personal lives, it does not give your department an interest in whether individual Americans choose to vote,” Boustany wrote.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ob...gistration/2013/03/25/id/496253#ixzz2Og99q3fs
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
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It's the incredible stewardship of the libtards that have made Cali the paragon of financial responsibility that it is. For example, Governor Brown decided that scholarship funds (paid for with taxes) can't be withheld from illegal chewies. Great job, libtards.
you must buy a product (health Insurance) just because you breathe air or you'll get taxed, fined and thrown in prison if you don't. If you choose to live on earth in the USA you must buy a product the govt mandates. You must buy auto insurance if you CHOOSE to drive in a state where it's required. there's a big difference.
You choose to live in the US. Mexico doesn't require you buy health insurance if you're interested in moving.
So did anyone notice the part when they did there taxes that told them their added tax liability next year if they don't have sufficient insurance? Good luck with Obamacare. Added taxes for the poor, without increasing their ability to get service. things that make you go hmmmm
lol.
jagbender
Registered
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Barack Obama's health care law stunned administration officials Wednesday, saying openly he thinks it's headed for a "train wreck."
"I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama's health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense.
Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance that start next year.
The six-term Democrat is also expected to face a tough re-election in 2014. Baucus is still trying to recover from approval ratings that nosedived amid displeasure with the health care law in his home state.
Normally low-key and supportive, Baucus challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Wednesday's hearing.
He said he's "very concerned" that new health insurance marketplaces for consumers and small businesses will not open on time in every state, and that if they do, they might just flop because residents don't have the information they need to make choices.
"The administration's public information campaign on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act deserves a failing grade," he told Sebelius. "You need to fix this."
Responding to Baucus, Sebelius pointedly noted that Republicans in Congress last year blocked funding for carrying out the health care law, and she had to resort to raiding other departmental funds that were legally available to her.
The administration is asking for $1.5 billion in next year's budget, and Republicans don't seem willing to grant that either.
"I don't know what he's looking at," Sebelius told reporters following her out of the room after Baucus adjourned the hearing. "But we are on track to fully implement marketplaces in Jan. 2014, and to be open for open enrollment."
That open-enrollment launch is only months away, Oct. 1. It's when millions of middle-class consumers who don't get coverage through their jobs will be able to start shopping for a private plan in the new marketplaces, or exchanges. They'll also be able to find out if they qualify for tax credits that will lower their premiums. At the same time, low-income people will be steered to government programs, mainly an expanded version of Medicaid.
But half the states, most of them Republican-led, have refused to cooperate in setting up the infrastructure of Obama's law. Others, like Montana, are politically divided. The overhaul law provided that the federal government would step in and run the new markets if a state failed to do so. Envisioned as a fallback, federal control now looks like it will be the norm in about half the country, straining the resources of the department Sebelius leads.
"I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama's health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense.
Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance that start next year.
The six-term Democrat is also expected to face a tough re-election in 2014. Baucus is still trying to recover from approval ratings that nosedived amid displeasure with the health care law in his home state.
Normally low-key and supportive, Baucus challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Wednesday's hearing.
He said he's "very concerned" that new health insurance marketplaces for consumers and small businesses will not open on time in every state, and that if they do, they might just flop because residents don't have the information they need to make choices.
"The administration's public information campaign on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act deserves a failing grade," he told Sebelius. "You need to fix this."
Responding to Baucus, Sebelius pointedly noted that Republicans in Congress last year blocked funding for carrying out the health care law, and she had to resort to raiding other departmental funds that were legally available to her.
The administration is asking for $1.5 billion in next year's budget, and Republicans don't seem willing to grant that either.
"I don't know what he's looking at," Sebelius told reporters following her out of the room after Baucus adjourned the hearing. "But we are on track to fully implement marketplaces in Jan. 2014, and to be open for open enrollment."
That open-enrollment launch is only months away, Oct. 1. It's when millions of middle-class consumers who don't get coverage through their jobs will be able to start shopping for a private plan in the new marketplaces, or exchanges. They'll also be able to find out if they qualify for tax credits that will lower their premiums. At the same time, low-income people will be steered to government programs, mainly an expanded version of Medicaid.
But half the states, most of them Republican-led, have refused to cooperate in setting up the infrastructure of Obama's law. Others, like Montana, are politically divided. The overhaul law provided that the federal government would step in and run the new markets if a state failed to do so. Envisioned as a fallback, federal control now looks like it will be the norm in about half the country, straining the resources of the department Sebelius leads.
Of course it's a trainwreck, they just piled more people in to a system that doesn't work. It's kind of like tying to fit more people on a train headed for derailment.
Nation's biggest movie theater chain cuts workweek, blaming ObamaCare
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published April 15, 2013
FoxNews.com
The nation's largest movie theater chain has cut the hours of thousands of employees, saying in a company memo that ObamaCare requirements are to blame.
Regal Entertainment Group, which operates more than 500 theaters in 38 states, last month rolled back shifts for non-salaried workers to 30 hours per week, putting them under the threshold at which employers are required to provide health insurance. The Nashville-based company said in a letter to managers that the move was a direct result of ObamaCare.
?To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law's definition of a full time employee.?- Memo sent to managers of Regal theaters
?In addition, some managers have requested guidance on what they should tell those employees negatively impacted and, at your discretion, we suggest the following,? read the memo obtained by FoxNews.com. ?To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law's definition of a full-time employee.?
?To manage this budget, all other employees will be scheduled in accord with business needs and in a manner that will not negatively impact our health care budget,? the message continues.
Regal, which had revenue of $2.8 billion in 2011, is the latest company to respond this way to the Affordable Health Care Act's requirement that employees at companies of a certain size who work more than 30 hours per week be provided health coverage. Applebee's and Olive Garden also scaled back the hours of workers. A handful of colleges have cut hours because of the law, including Palm Beach State College in Florida and New Jersey?s Kean University. Critics say the law is boomeranging on working folks.
"If you want to have reduced work, lower wages and economic stagnation, this is a great way to do it, said Ed Haislmaier, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
One Regal theater manager told FoxNews.com the move has sparked a wave of resignations from full-time managers who have seen their hours cut by 25 percent or more.
?In the last couple weeks, managers have been quitting on a daily basis from various locations to try and find full-time work,? said the manager, who asked not to be named. ?Regal up until now has never restricted anyone to anything below 40 hours.?
The manager told FoxNews.com ObamaCare has had the unintended consequence of taking food off his table.
?Mandating businesses to offer health care under threat of debilitating fines does not fix a problem, it creates one," he said. "It fosters a new business culture where 30 hours is now considered the maximum in order to avoid paying the high costs associated with this law.
?In a time where 40 hours is just getting us by, putting these kind of financial pressures on employers is a big step in a direction far beyond the reach of feasibility for not only the businesses, but for the employees who rely on their success," he said.
Regal, which operates cinemas under the names Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres and United Artists Theaters and recently purchased Oregon-based Hollywood Theaters for $191 million, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from FoxNews.com. The publicly-traded company's stock has risen nearly 30 percent over the last year.
In addition to the movie theater chain and several restaurants, the state of Virginia also rolled back the hours of all part-time employees back to 29 per week in February, with officials from the state claiming that the new mandate would cost the state tens of millions of dollars a year.
Nation's biggest movie theater chain cuts workweek, blaming ObamaCare | Fox News
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published April 15, 2013
FoxNews.com
The nation's largest movie theater chain has cut the hours of thousands of employees, saying in a company memo that ObamaCare requirements are to blame.
Regal Entertainment Group, which operates more than 500 theaters in 38 states, last month rolled back shifts for non-salaried workers to 30 hours per week, putting them under the threshold at which employers are required to provide health insurance. The Nashville-based company said in a letter to managers that the move was a direct result of ObamaCare.
?To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law's definition of a full time employee.?
?In addition, some managers have requested guidance on what they should tell those employees negatively impacted and, at your discretion, we suggest the following,? read the memo obtained by FoxNews.com. ?To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law's definition of a full-time employee.?
?To manage this budget, all other employees will be scheduled in accord with business needs and in a manner that will not negatively impact our health care budget,? the message continues.
Regal, which had revenue of $2.8 billion in 2011, is the latest company to respond this way to the Affordable Health Care Act's requirement that employees at companies of a certain size who work more than 30 hours per week be provided health coverage. Applebee's and Olive Garden also scaled back the hours of workers. A handful of colleges have cut hours because of the law, including Palm Beach State College in Florida and New Jersey?s Kean University. Critics say the law is boomeranging on working folks.
"If you want to have reduced work, lower wages and economic stagnation, this is a great way to do it, said Ed Haislmaier, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
One Regal theater manager told FoxNews.com the move has sparked a wave of resignations from full-time managers who have seen their hours cut by 25 percent or more.
?In the last couple weeks, managers have been quitting on a daily basis from various locations to try and find full-time work,? said the manager, who asked not to be named. ?Regal up until now has never restricted anyone to anything below 40 hours.?
The manager told FoxNews.com ObamaCare has had the unintended consequence of taking food off his table.
?Mandating businesses to offer health care under threat of debilitating fines does not fix a problem, it creates one," he said. "It fosters a new business culture where 30 hours is now considered the maximum in order to avoid paying the high costs associated with this law.
?In a time where 40 hours is just getting us by, putting these kind of financial pressures on employers is a big step in a direction far beyond the reach of feasibility for not only the businesses, but for the employees who rely on their success," he said.
Regal, which operates cinemas under the names Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres and United Artists Theaters and recently purchased Oregon-based Hollywood Theaters for $191 million, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from FoxNews.com. The publicly-traded company's stock has risen nearly 30 percent over the last year.
In addition to the movie theater chain and several restaurants, the state of Virginia also rolled back the hours of all part-time employees back to 29 per week in February, with officials from the state claiming that the new mandate would cost the state tens of millions of dollars a year.
Nation's biggest movie theater chain cuts workweek, blaming ObamaCare | Fox News
Revenue of $2.8 billion, I don't see how they could possibly stay in business with all of this healthcare mess. I mean, the higher ups must be eating TV Dinners and living in 5 person crash pads.
How Medicaid and Obamacare Hurt the Poor - and How to Fix Them
Jim Epstein | April 25, 2013
"Most physicians can't afford to accept Medicaid" patients, says Dr. Alieta Eck, a primary-care physician based in Piscataway, New Jersey. "If you're getting paid about $17 per visit, it won't be long before you can't pay your staff or pay your rent."
Medicaid is the nation's health care system for the poor. It's funded jointly by the federal government and the states. Medicaid is either the first- or second-largest budget item in all 50 states and the program is slated for a massive expansion under President Obama's health-care reform law. Despite the program's huge and growing overall cost, reimbursements to medical providers are so low that many practices refuse to accept Medicaid patients, causing long waiting periods for treatment.
Eck and her husband, Dr. John Eck, are the founders of Zarephath Health Center, a free health care clinic in Somerset, New Jersey, where they each volunteers six hours per week taking care of poor patients. While the Ecks don't accept Medicaid in their private practice, some of the patients that show up at their free clinic are Medicaid recipients who can't find a regular doctor.
"The hardest thing for a Medicaid patient to do is get a doctor's appointment," says Avik Roy, who writes a health care blog at Forbes.com and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. One consequence is that Medicaid recipients show up at emergency rooms at nearly double the rate of the privately insured, often with accute problems that could have been addressed earlier in a doctor's office. They're also more likely than both the privately insured and the uninsured to have late-stage cancer at first diagnosis.
After they've been diagnosed, it's also difficult for Medicaid patients to find qualified surgeons who will treat them. A University of Virginia study found that Medicaid patients were about twice as likely as the privately insured to die in the hospital after surgery. Even the uninsured were more likely to make it out of the hospital alive than Medicaid patients.
Despite the program's failings, in 2014 Obamacare will add millions of new patients to the program's rolls. "All too often, people who claim to care for the poor say, 'I'm going to give you a card that says you have health insurance and my work is done,'" says Roy. "But the hard part is making sure that person gets treated."
Obamacare was designed to expand Medicaid by about 17 million enrollees by 2021, but it likely won't meet that goal because the Supreme Court ruled that states don't have to participate in this component of the law in order to keep current levels of funding. So far, the governors of 19 states have come out against expanding Medicaid in their states.
So what's the best way to provide quality health care to the poor without spending more money that we don't have? Roy says the federal government should take the same money it spends on Medicaid and block grant it to the states so they can experiment with health care plans in which the patient is in control.
"Let them spend it on the doctor of their choice," says Roy. "Let people take the money and get the bureaucrats out of the way, and you'll find there's suddenly a lot more efficiency in the way people actually get health care."
Eck believes charity care could be a big part of the solution, if only the government made it easier for doctors to volunteer their time. She has worked with state Sen. Robert Singer (R-N.J.), who has co-sponsored a bill in New Jersey that would allow the state to cover physicians for malpractice in their private practices as a way of compensating them for volunteering. The bill is currently awaiting consideration by the state senate's health care committee.
"Every doctor I talk to says, 'I would do that in a heartbeat,'" says Eck.
In the meantime, when Obamacare takes full effect next year, charitable clinics like Eck's will be more essential than ever to pick up the slack for a social safety net that's already not working.
"I've been doing this for nine years," says Eck, "and I can honestly say that I come away feeling good that I was able to make a difference."
[video=youtube;Cmr1HFzFGuI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cmr1HFzFGuI[/video]
How Medicaid and Obamacare Hurt the Poor - and How to Fix Them - Reason.com
Jim Epstein | April 25, 2013
"Most physicians can't afford to accept Medicaid" patients, says Dr. Alieta Eck, a primary-care physician based in Piscataway, New Jersey. "If you're getting paid about $17 per visit, it won't be long before you can't pay your staff or pay your rent."
Medicaid is the nation's health care system for the poor. It's funded jointly by the federal government and the states. Medicaid is either the first- or second-largest budget item in all 50 states and the program is slated for a massive expansion under President Obama's health-care reform law. Despite the program's huge and growing overall cost, reimbursements to medical providers are so low that many practices refuse to accept Medicaid patients, causing long waiting periods for treatment.
Eck and her husband, Dr. John Eck, are the founders of Zarephath Health Center, a free health care clinic in Somerset, New Jersey, where they each volunteers six hours per week taking care of poor patients. While the Ecks don't accept Medicaid in their private practice, some of the patients that show up at their free clinic are Medicaid recipients who can't find a regular doctor.
"The hardest thing for a Medicaid patient to do is get a doctor's appointment," says Avik Roy, who writes a health care blog at Forbes.com and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. One consequence is that Medicaid recipients show up at emergency rooms at nearly double the rate of the privately insured, often with accute problems that could have been addressed earlier in a doctor's office. They're also more likely than both the privately insured and the uninsured to have late-stage cancer at first diagnosis.
After they've been diagnosed, it's also difficult for Medicaid patients to find qualified surgeons who will treat them. A University of Virginia study found that Medicaid patients were about twice as likely as the privately insured to die in the hospital after surgery. Even the uninsured were more likely to make it out of the hospital alive than Medicaid patients.
Despite the program's failings, in 2014 Obamacare will add millions of new patients to the program's rolls. "All too often, people who claim to care for the poor say, 'I'm going to give you a card that says you have health insurance and my work is done,'" says Roy. "But the hard part is making sure that person gets treated."
Obamacare was designed to expand Medicaid by about 17 million enrollees by 2021, but it likely won't meet that goal because the Supreme Court ruled that states don't have to participate in this component of the law in order to keep current levels of funding. So far, the governors of 19 states have come out against expanding Medicaid in their states.
So what's the best way to provide quality health care to the poor without spending more money that we don't have? Roy says the federal government should take the same money it spends on Medicaid and block grant it to the states so they can experiment with health care plans in which the patient is in control.
"Let them spend it on the doctor of their choice," says Roy. "Let people take the money and get the bureaucrats out of the way, and you'll find there's suddenly a lot more efficiency in the way people actually get health care."
Eck believes charity care could be a big part of the solution, if only the government made it easier for doctors to volunteer their time. She has worked with state Sen. Robert Singer (R-N.J.), who has co-sponsored a bill in New Jersey that would allow the state to cover physicians for malpractice in their private practices as a way of compensating them for volunteering. The bill is currently awaiting consideration by the state senate's health care committee.
"Every doctor I talk to says, 'I would do that in a heartbeat,'" says Eck.
In the meantime, when Obamacare takes full effect next year, charitable clinics like Eck's will be more essential than ever to pick up the slack for a social safety net that's already not working.
"I've been doing this for nine years," says Eck, "and I can honestly say that I come away feeling good that I was able to make a difference."
[video=youtube;Cmr1HFzFGuI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cmr1HFzFGuI[/video]
How Medicaid and Obamacare Hurt the Poor - and How to Fix Them - Reason.com
irish_2003
Board Rep
harry reid is now asking for a bailout for obamacare? yep it's working alright...it's working on bankrupting a once great nation
Employers Slash Workers? Hours To Avoid Obamacare Costs
May 2, 2013
Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead.
The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work.
Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year, and that extra expense would trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services.
Employers Slash Workers
May 2, 2013
Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead.
The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work.
Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year, and that extra expense would trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services.
Employers Slash Workers
also you are driving on public roads that are funded by the state and federal gov't. Of course they can say if your car is on our road it must be insured.
I have all ready accepted the fact that the economy will not get better, we spend money that we dont have an not one has a solution to resolve this issue. My advice to every one is to pay off all your debt, own property, buy guns and ammo and learn to be resourceful. Learn to utilize your own resources. Not saying were going revolution style were we have nothing, but do not be surprised if consumable items get so expensive that it breaks the bank, like food, gas, and clothes in an attempt to pay off the gov't debt. Live resourceful with no debt that is not important and you will be fine.