Eugene Robinson: "It’s all over but the shouting: Obamacare is working."
By Eugene Robinson
It’s all over but the shouting: Obamacare is working.
All the naysaying in the world can’t drown out mounting evidence that the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature domestic achievement, is a real success. Republican candidates running this fall on an anti-Obamacare platform will have to divert voters’ attention from the facts, which tell an increasingly positive story.
<...>
All the apocalyptic end-of-freedom rhetoric that we continue to hear from the far right sounds increasingly ridiculous to moderate voters who have no strong party allegiance. But the GOP’s activist base continues to respond with campaign donations and raring-to-go enthusiasm — factors that can make the difference in a midterm election when moderate voters often stay home.
To do well in the fall, Democrats have to infuse their most loyal voters with similar enthusiasm. The success of Obamacare will help. Already, polls are showing upticks in support for embattled Democratic incumbent senators in Louisiana, Arkansas and Alaska. Democrats control their own destiny in November: If they can get their voters to the polls, they’ll win.
In the long run, no matter what happens in the election, I’m more convinced than ever that the Affordable Care Act will be seen as landmark legislation. With minimal immediate impact, the ACA does two tremendously important things...it shifts the incentive structure in the health-care industry in ways that promise to hold down rising costs. And second, it establishes the principle that health care should be considered a right, not a privilege.
Of course it’s not perfect. It’s a thing of beauty anyway. We have liftoff. It’s working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-obamacares-victory-lap/2014/04/14/d3e802d4-c40e-11e3-b195-dd0c1174052c_story.html
CBO: Obamacare will have lower premiums, insure more, and cost government less than projected
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024820407
= new reply since forum marked as read
However there are those that refuse these benefits. Republican States refuse their constituents!
What the hell are they thinking! They lie and people die!
Damn them all to hell!
It is time to vote these bastards out. It is time for The People to have affordable healthcare. For once, just for once let them think of The people.
Death Panels Come To Life as Thousands Will Die In Obamacare Obstructing Red States
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/01/death-panels-life-thousands-die-obamacare-obstructing-red-states.html
REPORT: 27,000 Will Die Because Republican States Refuse To Expand Medicaid
The 25 GOP-led states that are refusing to expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act are not just turning down an estimated $42.6 billion in 2014 alone, they’re also missing a chance to save 27,000 lives — according to a new study from the pro-expansion group Health Care for America Now (HCAN).
HCAN’s projection is based on a Harvard School of Public Health study published in 2012 in the New England Journal of Medicine that compared states that had expanded Medicaid to childless adults to those who hadn’t:
The mortality rate in expansion states was 6.1 percent lower than in the neighboring expansion states. For every 500,000 adults gaining Medicaid benefits, 2,840 deaths would be prevented each year, the researchers found. Put another way, for every 176 people added to the Medicaid rolls, one life would be saved.
An estimated five million residents of states that haven’t expanded the program will find themselves in a “coverage gap,” where they will neither qualify for Medicaid nor be able to afford a policy in the insurance exchanges. Applying that 1-in-176 formula to five million uninsured, HCAN comes up with the 27,000 lives that may be lost.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/report-27000-will-die-because-republican-states-refuse-to-expand-medicaid/
Thanks ProSense, damn I am overwhelmed by these heartless bastards. I don't know what to say about them anymore. It's true I guess, they just want us to die.
"You say lower premiums, but premiums are rising, not falling. I asked you in your other thread about Obama promising that rates would fall by $2500 for the typical family. He promised it repeatedly as did others. You didn't address that promise, or the conflict with the reality that rates are not falling but rising.
You link to your other thread promoting lower premiums under Obamacare, but the reality is that premiums are rising across the board, by large amounts in many instances. How do you reconcile that reality with your spin?"
...title of the OP provide any clues: "New York exceeds Obamacare enrollment expectations by 60 percent, premiums halved"
I posted this in the other thread about the CBO report that shows premiums will be lower than expected (which evidently isn't good enough for you and the red herring question you're keep asking.)
Health care costs grow every year. When growth is at the slowest pace in 50 years. That's a significant savings.
Still, even with that fact, premiums are lower than the status quo.
Most families/people are saving a lot more than $2,500 a year (the average subsidy is about $4,000). Premiums were nearly $12,000 per year for an individual plan. Millions of people are paying less than $100 per month. Million are paying nothing.
STUDY: Average Obamacare Plans Are Cheaper Than Employer-Sponsored Ones
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024415004
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/17/news/economy/obamacare-health-insurance-new-york/
In fact, Obamacare isn't just lowering premiums, it's boosting incomes.
Obamacare boosting household income and spending
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024606074
Go ahead and complain about the links.
"Are you saying that the CBO said premiums have gone down relative to last year?"
...I saying that premiums are lower than they would be without Obamacare, and that people are saving thousands of dollars on average.
I know it really burns some people that the opposite of collapse and failure is happening, that the law is working, keeping premiums down and benefiting millions of people.
Does that upset you?
"Your silence speaks volumes. "
Does it make you uncomfortable while you're a work?
Transparent? No, not you.
subject matter? 
You're not really commenting on what Mr. Robinson actually wrote. 
Don't expect those of us who have been left out to be silent. "We should do better, and perhaps someday we will?" Really? 
pick up the shattered pieces and move on with my life, such as it is. 
But it's been silent of late. No apologies. No retractions. Just...silence.
I'm happy to read that ObamaCare is working as President Obama has always said it would. Now, of course, you're hearing the obligatory, "Weeeell, we really don't know if it's working yet. Only time will tell".
Some people really do enjoy being pessimists. 
