Patterico's Pontifications

2/25/2014

Four FIVE! Pinocchios for Obama on ObamaCare Claims

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:41 am



The Washington Post “Fact Checker” Glenn Kessler evaluates the following statement by Barack Obama:

We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion.

And gives it the maximum Four Pinocchios. Kessler’s conclusion:

What does this mean in terms of evaluating the president’s statement? He seems to be falling into the same trap as other Democrats, and some reporters, by assuming that everyone in the Medicaid list is getting health insurance for the first time because of the Affordable Care Act. But that number is nowhere close to 7 million. It could be as low as 1.1 million (Avalere) or as high as 2.6 million (Gaba.) If one wanted to be generous, one could include people coming out of the woodwork, even though they would have been covered under the old law, but no one is really sure what that figure is.

(“Coming out of the woodwork” refers to the large number of people who were eligible for Medicaid before but did not realize it.)

In any case, no matter how you slice it, it does not add up to 7 million. It is dismaying that given all of the attention to this issue, the president apparently does not realize that the administration’s data are woefully inadequate for boastful assertions of this type.

My, isn’t it dismaying that the President has gotten fooled like that! It would be even more “dismaying” if — as I believe — he fully knows that his figures are wrong and is simply telling the American people something he knows not to be true. (I know, it’s seems almost impossible to believe from Mr. If You Like You Plan You Can Keep It.)

Also dismaying is that the “Fact Checker,” one of the few Big Media types actually busting Obama over his health care misstatements, completely misses the distinction between “access to health care” and “health insurance.”

While nobody is going to argue that the uninsured all have access to the best health care available, it is not the case that they are utterly without access — and it’s certainly untrue that Medicaid is the cure-all. There is a network of “health care safety net” providers including “emergency departments, community health centers, public hospitals, charitable clinics, and in some communities, teaching and community hospitals” that provide health care to the uninsured. It’s not an ideal situation, because these people have health conditions that are aggravated or even caused by a lack of preventative care.

But Medicaid does little to fix that problem. The New York Times explained in November that many doctors are not accepting patients under Medicaid and that this would only get worse with the expansion of the Medicaid rolls. The thrust of the story is that providers of health care to low income people are “already overwhelmed and are unable to take on more low-income patients.”

Obama is not telling the truth, and even Glenn Kessler masks the extent of it. Everybody in this room is stupider for having listened to Barack Obama’s statements on this. I award him Five Pinocchios, no points, and may God have mercy on his soul.

Thanks to Dana for the Kessler link, and to JD for that video clip.

75 Responses to “Four FIVE! Pinocchios for Obama on ObamaCare Claims”

  1. and may God have mercy on his soul.

    You’re more generous than I am.

    My prayer is “may Jeremiah Wright, et al, have mercy on his soul.”

    Mark (572cf9)

  2. in an unprecedented move, a lying liar unexpectedly lied.

    this is news only to the window licking, paint chip eating mouth breathers who voted for him.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  3. And people eligible for Medicaid don’t really need to get health insurance in advance, because Medicaid covers people 90 days retroactively, and hospitals treating (and billing) people will do their best to get them on Medicaid if they think they are eligible..

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  4. Patterico: (I know, it’s seems almost impossible to believe from Mr. If You Like You Plan You Can Keep It.)

    I believe he actually said that he thought that if only 2% of the people would discover it was untrue, it would be OK.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-president-obamas-nov-14-statement-on-health-care/2013/11/14/6233e352-4d48-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html

    With respect to the pledge I made that if you like your plan you can keep it….Keep in mind that the individual market accounts for 5 percent of the population. So when I said you can keep your health care, you know, I’m looking at folks who’ve got employer-based health care. I’m looking at folks who’ve got Medicare and Medicaid. And that accounts for the vast majority of Americans. And then for people who don’t have any health insurance at all, obviously that didn’t apply. My commitment to them was you were going to be able to get affordable health care for the first time.

    You have an individual market that accounts for about 5 percent of the population. And our working assumption was — my working assumption was that the majority of those folks would find better policies at lower cost or the same cost in the marketplaces and that there — the universe of folks who potentially would not find a better deal in the marketplaces, the grandfather clause would work sufficiently for them. And it didn’t. And again, that’s on us, which is why we’re — that’s on me.

    So, let;s do the math. Only 5% of the people would be impacted (that’s not quite correct, but let’s use it. A majority would be saisfied with their new plans. Say 60%. That leaves 40% of 5% who would disturbed by the violation of his pledge, which is 2%.

    As Lincoln said, [NOT!] if you can fool 98% of the people, you’re doing all right because the other 2% don’t cast enough votes.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  5. Damned shame the Pinocchios dial doesn’t go up to 11. Needs more cowbell.

    Beldar (8ff56a)

  6. The esteemed Mr Finkelman quoted Barack Hussein Obama:

    With respect to the pledge I made that if you like your plan you can keep it….Keep in mind that the individual market accounts for 5 percent of the population. So when I said you can keep your health care, you know, I’m looking at folks who’ve got employer-based health care. I’m looking at folks who’ve got Medicare and Medicaid. And that accounts for the vast majority of Americans. And then for people who don’t have any health insurance at all, obviously that didn’t apply. My commitment to them was you were going to be able to get affordable health care for the first time.

    OK, if the number of people who weren’t covered before was so small, why did we need that cockamamie law in the first place?

    The Dana who noticed (3e4784)

  7. He had the best intentions and surely the welfare of our nation was utmost in his mind before he repeatedly lied, Patterico!

    Colonel Haiku (fe7cbb)

  8. Sammy continues his travels down his personal Road to Damascus..

    Colonel Haiku (fe7cbb)

  9. Comment by The Dana who noticed (3e4784) — 2/25/2014 @ 9:10 am

    OK, if the number of people who weren’t covered before was so small, why did we need that cockamamie law in the first place?

    That was the number of people who stood to lose health insurance policies at the end of 2013.

    President Obama put the size of the individual health insurance market at 5% of the U.S. population. Although it may be closer to 8%.

    The percentage of uninsured people was put at just over 15% by the Census Bureau. (this includes people temporarily uninsured, or who would be covered by Medicaid in a medical emergency.)

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  10. Sammy continues his travels down his personal Road to Damascus..

    with any luck, he’ll look back & turn to salt…

    (i can mix metaphors with the best of ’em %-)

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  11. “…he fully knows that his figures were fantasy and is simply telling the American people something he pulled out of his ass.”

    FIFY.

    Kevin M (dbcba4)

  12. With respect to the pledge I made that if you like your plan you can keep it….Keep in mind that the individual market accounts for 5 percent of the population

    So, that small group of individuals is OK to screw over? Keep in mind that that 5% is the difference between President Obama and Presidents McCain or Romney.

    And, if we are talking about groups, 5% is comfortably more than twice the number of Jews or Muslims or millionaires, just in case you have some other sacrifices in mind.

    Kevin M (dbcba4)

  13. just in case you have some other sacrifices in mind.

    if you wanna have an omelet, you gotta break some eggs.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  14. Wouldn’t a better plan for low-income people getting healthcare be to grow the economy so they are fewer low-income people? Maybe that’s just my bourgeois bias showing, but it seems like a better plan than more dole.

    Kevin M (dbcba4)

  15. Mr M wrote:

    Wouldn’t a better plan for low-income people getting healthcare be to grow the economy so they are fewer low-income people? Maybe that’s just my bourgeois bias showing, but it seems like a better plan than more dole.

    Sure, it would have been a better plan, but do you see any evidence, any evidence at all, that this President and his team of pet economists had the first fornicating idea about how to do that?

    The economist Dana (3e4784)

  16. the level of denial, was as if W was denying there were attacks in Iraq, not the character of the attack, but them themselves,

    narciso (3fec35)

  17. Comment by The economist Dana (3e4784) — 2/25/2014 @ 10:30 am

    Wouldn’t a better plan for low-income people getting healthcare be to grow the economy so they are fewer low-income people?

    No, because the people being left out were not the lowest income people, but people above the Medicaid cutoff, and people with pre-existing conditions, who both would be charged premiums too high for them.

    Also, that idea lacks the utopian aspect of, at least theoretically, eliminating for everybody, once and for all, indefinitely, the possibility of not being covered by a medical insurance policy, which in Obama’s mind is nearly the same thing as not being able to be seen by a doctor.

    So he supported and signed a law that pretended to get everybody covered by a medical insurance policy that included every conceiveable medical condition, and then some, with no annual or lifetime cap.

    (Everybody = [legal] residents of the United States of America.)

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  18. Oops. That was Kevin, and I knew that, but I extracted the quote from a reply by The Dana.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  19. Here ya’ go. Shut down free speech and they won’t need to worry about no stinkin’ noses:
    http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/23/harvard-writer-free-speech-threatens-liberalism-and-must-be-destroyed/

    So that’s what they’re teaching in schools these days.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  20. Unable to behead Jewish journalists himself, and having overplayed slyly giving the finger to TV audiences, Obama is now using verbal birds to signal his contempt for infidels. He knows we know he’s lying and he also knows all we’ll do about it is whine.

    ropelight (185e01)

  21. ” … My, isn’t it dismaying that the President has gotten fooled like that! …”
    = = = = = =

    Good heavens, another “if only Stalin KNEW” moment!

    A_Nonny_Mouse (57cacf)

  22. The true believers, of course, do not care about this at all. For them, any increase in enrollment — no matter how small — makes the program a success. They DO NOT care about costs; they DO NOT care about cancelled policies.

    Icy (b22f5c)

  23. “He seems to be falling into the same trap as other Democrats, and some reporters, by assuming that…”

    He’s not “falling into a trap”. He’s deliberately telling falsehoods, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (73b524)

  24. When Barack Obama cites statistics, it’s almost always a lie – and I don’t think he cares whetehr it is really correct.

    Of course, that’s true of most other presidents, too.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  25. Being President is hard. Or something.
    He hasn’t been to Hawaii since last month. Give him a break.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  26. Can’t the man just enjoy his waffle?

    askeptic (2bb434)

  27. Of course, that’s true of most other presidents, too.

    Oh, there’s Sammy — once again — having to rationalize away the lousy, corrupt, dishonest nature of a leftist by inserting a bit of moral equivalency into the mix.

    BTW, did you know that commentator Pat Buchanan loves blood and violence? (And quite seriously, Barack “drone-killing,” “goddamn-America-embracing'” Obama loves blood and violence as much as, if not more, than the best of ’em.)

    Mark (08f7ce)

  28. You all need to cut Barracky some slack. Do you not understand how hard it is to be a homosexual married to fat ugly woman?

    highpockets (b8a2f2)

  29. She’s just “big boned”.

    askeptic (2bb434)

  30. ” Of course, that’s true of most other presidents, too.”

    Comment by Mark (08f7ce) — 2/25/2014 @ 5:19 pm

    Oh, there’s Sammy — once again — having to rationalize away the lousy, corrupt, dishonest nature of a leftist by inserting a bit of moral equivalency into the mix.

    It happens to be true (when it comes to citing faulty statistics.)

    There’s not one president I know that’s resisted the temptation. Ford did it.

    BTW, did you know that commentator Pat Buchanan loves blood and violence?

    I saw it again on Sunday. I was kind of surprised he was championing force against Ukrainiand, but then he’s not pro-Ukrainian, he’s pro-violence.

    http://www.mclaughlin.com/transcript.htm?id=996

    MR. BUCHANAN: And they built encampments in the middle of your capital. Would you tolerate that in D.C.?

    MS. CLIFT: I wouldn’t tolerate setting the army on them.

    MR. ZUCKERMAN: We wouldn’t have responded with bullets and guns, killing hundreds of people and —
    MR. BUCHANAN: After three months?

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  31. Comment by Mark (08f7ce) — 2/25/2014 @ 5:19 pm

    And quite seriously, Barack “drone-killing,” “goddamn-America-embracing’” Obama loves blood and violence as much as, if not more, than the best of ‘em.)

    What he loves is very small scale, high-tech, use of force. Much more than any kind of regular army. That’s so 20th century.

    Not enough to use it, though, most of the time.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/world/middleeast/obama-worried-about-effects-of-waging-cyberwar-in-syria.html?

    The considerations that led Mr. Obama to hesitate about using the offensive cyberweapons his administration has spent billions helping develop, in large part with hopes that they can reduce the need for more-traditional military attacks, reflect larger concerns about a new and untested tactic with the potential to transform the nature of warfare. It is a transformation analogous to what happened when the airplane was first used in combat in World War I, a century ago.

    The Obama administration has been engaged in a largely secret debate about whether cyberarms should be used like ordinary weapons, whether they should be rarely used covert tools or whether they ought to be reserved for extraordinarily rare use against the most sophisticated, hard-to-reach targets. And looming over the issue is the question of retaliation: whether such an attack on Syria’s air power, its electric grid or its leadership would prompt Syrian, Iranian or Russian retaliation in the United States.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  32. There’s not one president I know that’s resisted the temptation.

    I bet if a rightwing president — guilty of far, far less than the dishonest debacle that is Obama — were caught in merely a tiny white lie, you wouldn’t emotionally and immediately want to say “but they all lie.”

    but then he’s not pro-Ukrainian, he’s pro-violence.

    I previously posted his column from a few days ago and you know damn well that his take on the situation in Ukraine — which is very nuanced — isn’t based on a love of violence, on his love of blood. But if you truly do feel that way, then you had better groan and proclaim that Obama sending in drones to kill people from A to Z, including US citizens, therefore means President “Goddamn America” loves blood and violence too.

    Mark (08f7ce)

  33. What he loves is very small scale, high-tech, use of force.

    He loves blood and violence, but on a smaller scale. He’s so humane and beautiful.

    Mark (08f7ce)

  34. No, Buchanan is more focused on nationalism, demography questions of that nature, the sectarian character of the outgoing regime,

    narciso (3fec35)

  35. You said it yourself Patterico:

    But Medicaid does little to fix that problem. The New York Times explained in November that many doctors are not accepting patients under Medicaid and that this would only get worse with the expansion of the Medicaid rolls. The thrust of the story is that providers of health care to low income people are “already overwhelmed and are unable to take on more low-income patients.”

    How can you possibly be satisfied with the state of health provision to its citizens which now exists in the United States, as you and yours offer no solutions, only criticisms of a politician who has tried to make improvements.

    Moreover, we have 21 red states who refused the Medicare expansion under the ACA, thus continuing the substandard care of the health of those who find themselves impoverished.

    How can you sleep at night, Patterico?

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  36. The economist Dana wrote in 15:

    Sure, it would have been a better plan, but do you see any evidence, any evidence at all, that this President and his team of pet economists had the first fornicating idea about how to do that?

    Since the Great Recession induced by Wall Street in 2008 as Obama was taking office, the economy has thrived for the 1%, but not for the rest of us. That’s the problem, and the anti-Obama right-wing factions have offered no solutions, only obstructions.

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  37. 36. “How can you sleep..?”

    Rico is prolly busy at his day job, Prog so we’ll let Proverbs 26 reply:

    11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
    so fools repeat their folly.

    12 Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?
    There is more hope for a fool than for them.

    13 A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
    a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

    14 As a door turns on its hinges,
    so a sluggard turns on his bed.

    15 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.

    16 A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven people who answer discreetly.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  38. Medicare expansion Medicaid expansion

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  39. Since the Great Recession induced by Wall Street in 2008 as Obama was taking office, the economy has thrived for the 1%, but not for the rest of us. That’s the problem, and the anti-Obama right-wing factions have offered no solutions, only obstructions.

    My solution is the market.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  40. 37. You’ve identified the problem, Prog, but you’re a bit lost on the cause:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-25/chart-day-jpmorgans-30-billion-legal-fees-and-expenses-2010

    Jamie Dimon new Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme.

    Jamie Dimon took $1 Billion in MBS’ illegally accessed customer accounts after Jon Corzine’s bankruptcy was begun and all accounts frozen.

    Jamie Dimon regularly appears before Congress, and is a significant Obama donor.

    Crickets.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  41. #36,(notice something a bit familiar?) if the politician Progressive identifies as having tried to make improvements failed miserably and made health care immeasurably worse for millions of Americans, lied about his failures over and over, trampled on the law of the land, repeatedly usurped legislative authority, and continues to refuse to face up to the mess he made, then he’s the one who should be having trouble sleeping, along with those who worship evil.

    ropelight (8efa99)

  42. Comment by Progressive (0d2b80) — 2/26/2014 @ 6:50 am

    How can you possibly be satisfied with the state of health provision to its citizens which now exists in the United States, as you and yours offer no solutions, only criticisms of a politician who has tried to make improvements.

    Suppose you have a plumbing leak, and somebody proposes to do something stupid about it, you are not supposed to criticize his work, unless you know yourself how to fix it?

    Does that make sense?

    Moreover, we have 21 red states who refused the Medicare expansion under the ACA,

    Medicaid expansion.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  43. That’s the problem, and the anti-Obama right-wing factions have offered no solutions, only obstructions.
    Comment by Progressive (0d2b80) — 2/26/2014 @ 7:01 am

    Actually, the problem is that all of factions that are right of Obama’s far left have not been successful enough with their obstructions.
    But, it is unfortunately true that many an otherwise intelligent person has believed such nonsense as you spout.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  44. besides, ‘rico never sleeps. He is unrelenting in his passionate pursuit of justice and putting bad, mean, and nasty people behind bars (or at least at home with an alarm on their leg), so the rest of CA can wait on the phone or in line trying to get their helath insurance figured out without fearing for non-government-sanctioned thievery to beset them as well.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  45. 41. Scusa, $1 Billion in MF Global’s.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  46. 45. You’re catching on, Doc.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  47. 36. If Doctor’s won’t cooperate and heal the sick then we’ll take away their income.

    Oh, wait,..

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  48. 35. Buchanan? Why do we keep hearing that name?

    I wanna hear what Phil Robertson thinks.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  49. 40:

    My solution is the market.

    This is 2014; having already failed in 2007-2008, the market has now had six more years, to what outcome? Answer: Nothing for the 99%, everything for the 1%. This is unsustainable without ultimate internal chaos.

    Overall, the solution is:

    * more progressive tax structure,
    * large reduction in defense spending,
    * increase in spending on education,
    * and increase in spending on infrastructure.

    This can only be accomplished by the political parties working together on solutions, otherwise we are stuck with a permanent 1%:99% divide and increasing chaos.

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  50. 50. “Overall, the solution is:”

    Actually, you do write as tho educated. We aren’t normally treated to trolls of your graces, Prog.

    http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2014/02/25/bauhaus-of-cards/?singlepage=true

    A day late and about $1 Trillion short.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  51. Progressive, your approach and emotions have been influencing thinking and policies in wonderful, beautiful countries like Venezuela, Argentina and France. Closer to home, your approach and emotions have been influencing thinking and policies in wonderful, beautiful cities like Detroit, et al.

    Yes, trust your instincts, because they’re wonderful and beautiful. And so wonderfully compassionate too.

    Mark (08f7ce)

  52. 50. Cont. “Nothing for the 99%, everything for the 1%. This is unsustainable without ultimate internal chaos.”

    You need to take that up with Spokesmodel ShamWow.

    This Chaos of which you speak is the goal from the outset of an administration handing banks $2 Trillion in untapped reserves, in printing 10% of GDP all directly accomplished by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve purchased public debt.

    Your proposals are pat(pun unintentional) and already exercised.

    How are they working so far?

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  53. Does Progressive = Perry? Can’t say for sure yet, but the bread is on the water.

    ropelight (8efa99)

  54. How are they working so far?

    Quite well, actually, compared to the alternative: another great depression.

    Your kind had no better solutions to offer in order to recover from the deficits your kind produced by making wars and creating bubbles.

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  55. 50. 40. “My solution is the market”.

    Despite you dismissal, this answer is not trite.

    Had we not in Jan. 2008 precipitately voted for Stimulus 2.0, incorporated stimulus into the baseline and rubber stamped the increased spending with CR after CR, in contravention of the law that Congress pass a budget, which stimulus now totals $2 Trillion, more than double the initial, advertised cost, and simply let AIG and foreign banks fail we would be a ways down the road to recovery.

    Prog, if you are to make any headway here, show your work.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  56. Not so progressive, but there are many things more worthy of my time (including other posts) than responding to an ever shifting flood of undocumented claims and opinions.
    And to them I now go.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  57. Prog, if you are to make any headway here, show your work.

    I’ve already shown mine; where’s yours?

    The President presented his budgets, but a Congress made up of dysfunctional righties did not step up to their pledged duty to act on behalf of the American people.

    You simply cannot make a mess, then blame the other side for your mess, and not be called out for it. I’m calling you out, gg!

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  58. I don’t find it necessary to document our Great Recession and the outcomes thereof.

    Progressive (0d2b80)

  59. YEEeeAAaRRRggggHHHH!!!

    Don’t take any wooden nickels, Kid.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  60. It’s hunger for attention is insatiable, it’s thirst for conflict unquenchable, it’s arrogance unpalatable, and it’s poisonous presumptions unmistakable.

    ropelight (8efa99)

  61. The more Obama-friendly Politifact labels Obama’s claim as FALSE.

    Bird Dog (130699)

  62. Austerity looms:

    http://www.moneynews.com/newswidget/Grant-Fed-easing-stock/2014/02/25/id/554597?promo_code=12390-1&utm_source=12390PJ_Media&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1

    Actually the imminent victims of taper are EU banks. Yellen announced, I believe on the 19th, that the Discount Window is being closed.

    Get yer shots, flu season ain’t over.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  63. they can call themselves “progressive” only because truth in advertising laws don’t apply to politics.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  64. Malaise:

    Various economists describe France as the “new sick man of Europe,” and they have good reasons to say so. In 2013, 62,000 businesses have closed their doors, and their employees have virtually no hope of finding a new job. Growth has been close to zero for almost a decade. The number of poor now exceeds 9,000,000, more than 15% of the population. The official unemployment rate is higher than 10%, and does not include 2,200,000 beneficiaries of the guaranteed minimum income (RSA) that any adult over twenty-five has the right to collect. Public spending accounts for 57% of GDP, an absolute record in the developed world. Compulsory levies are up to 46% of GDP and are the highest in Europe. Foreign investments fell 77% in 2013. The country’s debt is growing at an ever faster pace, and nothing for the moment seems able to stop a movement resembling a free fall.

    Sick, terminal? What about Spain, Italy and Greece?

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  65. Actually, the problem is that all of factions that are right of Obama’s far left have not been successful enough with their obstructions.

    Yup!

    I’m still a little miffed at those who shut down obstructions as though a well oiled legislature is something we actually want.

    Dustin (303dca)

  66. Schumer: “In addition, the parade of horrible stories trotted out by the haters of this bill have proved not to be true.”

    Harry Reid: All ObamaCare horror stories are untrue

    I see a trend forming

    Neo (d1c681)

  67. $308 Million and the T-Shirt is backordered:

    http://www.katu.com/news/local/Ex-Cover-Oregon-website-chief-I-stuck-to-the-talking-points–they-were-not-accurate-247168321.html

    Somebody has a lot a ‘splaining to do.

    gary gulrud (e2cef3)

  68. I think the “trend” started with New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman Monday:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/opinion/krugman-health-care-horror-hooey.html

    Still, you can already see some on the right groping toward a new strategy, one that relies on highlighting examples of the terrible harm Obamacare does. There’s only one problem: they haven’t managed to come up with any real examples. …

    …. Even supporters of health reform are somewhat surprised by the right’s apparent inability to come up with real cases of hardship. Surely there must be some people somewhere actually being hurt by a reform that affects millions of Americans. Why can’t the right find these people and exploit them?

    The most likely answer is that the true losers from Obamacare generally aren’t very sympathetic. For the most part, they’re either very affluent people affected by the special taxes that help finance reform, or at least moderately well-off young men in very good health who can no longer buy cheap, minimalist plans. Neither group would play well in tear-jerker ads.

    No, what the right wants are struggling average Americans, preferably women, facing financial devastation from health reform. So those are the tales they’re telling, even though they haven’t been able to come up with any real examples.

    You notice what he’s talking about is a financial horror story. The real horror story is narrow networks.

    Financially, it is probably true that if someone somone is sick, it may be worthwhile to buy even an expensive policy, and it is still a good deal, although not as good as what they had before maybe, but individual health insurance s like term life insurance, it’s repriced base every year or so based on risk except in states like New York that have community rating and $1,500 a month policies outside of a group.

    And if someone is not sick and is not financially well off, and plans to stay that way, they can probably get some kind of subsidized policy.

    There’s a certain level of income where it costs too much, but if someone is not sick, they’ll just go without it.

    Sammy Finkelman (7072ea)

  69. Krugman continues with this theme today:

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/a-general-theory-of-obamacare-fiction

    Suppose, then, that someone comes to you with an anecdote about a cancer patient, or just an older person in poor health, and tells you that this person is about to lose the care she needs, or face a huge increase in expenses, under Obamacare. Well, it’s almost certainly not true — people like that are overwhelmingly beneficiaries of health reform, thanks to community rating, which means that they can’t be discriminated against because of their condition.

    Or suppose that someone tells you about a struggling worker who had adequate coverage but is now being confronted with unaffordable premiums. You should immediately ask, what about the subsidies? Because the Affordable Care Act has subsidies that are there specifically to keep premiums affordable for lower earners.

    two things wrong with that: some people already benefitted from a form of community rating and had their policies cancelled, plus their new policies cover some very expensive contingencies – and the subsidy fades out at much too low levels of income.

    The argument’s going to be here that people are buying the policies, and so therefore they are not too expensive.

    Sammy Finkelman (7072ea)

  70. This is the article that discussed “Bette in Spokane”

    It seems she looked around a little bit more, and found a policy she liked. (but did that take advantage of some kind of loophole?)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/us/politics/human-volleyballs-in-the-health-care-clash.html

    Democrats complain that Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers should have tried to help Bette Grenier of Chattaroy, Washington, instead of trying to exploit her example, and that if she had, there would have been no example to cite.

    This article also points out the narrow network problems.

    Sammy Finkelman (7072ea)

  71. Comment by gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/26/2014 @ 9:35 am

    Sick, terminal? What about Spain, Italy and Greece?

    Well, France may be sick in the sense of having clogged arteries. Greece has already had a heart attack, and Spain and Italy are short of breath.

    Sammy Finkelman (7072ea)

  72. Morning Jolt’s been running something about Obamacare being against home health care. (which is better for the patient and cheaper for the gopvernment)

    HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ decided to cut the maximum amount she could from Medicare’s payments for home health-care services: 3.5 percent, and declared she would do the same
    for the next three years.

    This is enough to cause 40 percent of providers to lose money. And the National Association for Home Care and Hospice estimated that the magnitude of these reductions will likely render three-quarters of all industry operators unable to run profitably by 2017.

    All this according to this Fox News Report Morning Jolt linked to:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/24/sebelius-cuts-in-home-health-care-funds-could-jeopardize-nearly-half-million/

    Morning Jolt wondered why. Jim Geraghty got an answer:

    “The Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — both big Obama backers — have been trying to organize these home health care workers, mostly by leaning on states to declare people who receive the subsidies state employees,” Higgins writes. “The states then hand over the workers’ contact info to unions. That is the basis of the current Supreme Court case, Harris v. Quinn: whether these workers *really* are state employees… A problem the unions have run into is that the rates are set by the feds so there is little to bargain with the states for — and therefore little reason for the healthcare workers to join a union. It is hard to get somebody to sign a union card if they don’t think the union can actually do anything for them.”

    ……

    A puzzle piece falls into place, in some way; here’s a group of workers that is paid for through Medicare, resisting membership in the big public-sector unions. If they won’t get with the program, they’ve got to be punished. As Obama said early in 2009, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.”

    Probably not so uch exactly like that. But Onbama only cares about health care workers who are unionized, and from this ity wouild look like Obamacare was conceived so as to benefit the SEIU.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)


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