OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: 16.4M HAVE GAINED HEALTH INSURANCE

[DonViejo]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 16 million Americans have gained insurance coverage as a result of President Barack Obama's health care law, the administration said Monday as the White House prepares to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the law's signing.

In releasing the latest estimates, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell called it "the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades."

Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, but it has been politically divisive from the start.

Democrats hailed it as the culmination of decades of effort to guarantee health coverage for all Americans, including people with health problems who until then could have been turned away by insurance companies. Republicans called it government overreach, and haven't stopped trying to repeal or roll back what they dismiss as "Obamacare."

-snip-

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEATH_OVERHAUL_UNINSURED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Faux pas]

1. ...

[BlueCaliDem]

2. YES, WE CAN!

[URL=http://www.sherv.net/][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[FBaggins]

3. So we're down to fewer than 4Million without insurance?

Amazing!

[George II]

4. Not bad for a "failed program"! Ever notice when they all whine "Obamacare is a failed....

....policy/program", they NEVER say how it has failed?

Sixteen million people now have health care insurance, premiums overall are going down, government costs are lower than originally projected. Failed? HOW????

[CTyankee]

24. And HOW LONG have we been waiting for their "better idea"?

Why hasn't it materialized yet? Has Paul Ryan given up? What's stopping repukes from coming up with their own plan?

Also, do they think that just saying that Obama's plan is a failure will somehow make it so? What do we call people who look at success and call it failure...

I think the work might be "delusional."

[Cali_Democrat]

5. This is terrible news

Sincerely,

Republicans

[calimary]

8. Awwww, what a SHAME!!!

Well that's just too damn bad. Boo-hoo. Suck it, GOP.

[livetohike]

6. K&R

[Iliyah]

7. Dear 16.4, "F" you, love ya, GOP party.

P.S. have a nice day, hehehehehehe

[OnyxCollie]

9. Consumers getting 'skinned' by health insurers -Wendell Potter

Consumers getting 'skinned' by health insurers -Wendell Potter

"Our marketing folks came up with an almost Orwellian name for this cost shifting —consumer driven health care. In retrospect, it was a brilliant strategy, and one that got virtually no pushback from lawmakers or regulators. Little by little, year after year — and long before many people outside of Illinois had ever heard of Barack Obama — Americans began putting more of their skin in the health care game. They had no choice.

The strategy has been so successful that insurers are back in Wall Street’s good graces. Their profits keep breaking records, and so does the price of their stock.

But what’s good for them has been anything but good for a growing number of Americans. Out-of-pocket expenses have gotten so high that nearly half of American families don’t have enough money in the bank to pay their deductibles if they get really sick.

That was one of the findings of last week’s report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which decided to look into how the skin-in-the-game strategy is affecting family budgets. KFF’s researchers found that 49 percent of American households wouldn’t have enough liquid assets to meet what their out-of-pocket obligations would be if they were in a plan with a $2,500 individual deductible and $5,000 family deductible."

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/03/16/16905/consumers-getting-skinned-health-insurers

Thanks, Obama.

[al bupp]

18. Yeah, but they're still better off

having to come up w/ $2500-$5000 for a deductible than 10 or 100 times that for the entire cost of a claim.

[JDPriestly]

10. This is good news!

I hope it gets top billing on the evening news. It should, but we know that Hillary's e-mails are far more important.

[sheshe2]

11. KnR

Good news for the 16 million, Don. Poor, poor GOP haz a sad.

[Corey_Baker08]

12. I Am One Of Those Recipients, Thanks President Obama!

My entire family now has health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act, President Obama, his Administration & Democrats who worked long days and even longer nights never ceasing to give up on this vital program even in the face of non stop Republican obstruction...

We owe them all a deep debt of gratitude for standing up for the 99% while Republicans where as they still are looking out for their friends and donor's, the 1% who have more money than the 99% combined!

Yes We Can & Yes We Did & Yes We Will Elect A Democrat to the White House in 2016 As Well As Take Back The United States Senate & Appoint Progressives to the Supreme Court of the United States...

This we can do, this we must do, and as one United Democratic Party!

[DAMANgoldberg]

22. Count me in as well.

Even though I pay a large monthly to reduce my out of pocket and deductible expenses, it's very much worth it. Now I am actually on the way to medically resolve multiple years of health issues too numerous to list here. Thanks Obama! No thanks to Pat, Thom, and the NC General Assembly!

[highmindedhavi]

13. Health care companies found a way

to get those who were not giving them money to have the government to do it for them. They are the biggest winners. Now everyone pays them.

[Ilsa]

17. This concerns me also.

I'm concerned that some people still may not be able to afford the insurance they must have because they aren't getting enough assistance. States should be forced to expand Medicaid.

[IronLionZion]

19. Why is team GOP taking a lawsuit to the Supreme Court

to stop subsidies in red states? Many on the left and right are on the same side against subsidies.

If you don't want to give money to insurance companies, don't buy insurance. You don't have to buy it, you can always just pay the tax instead.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

14. The wording of the article was great! Kudos to AP!

[appalachiablue]

15. Thanks for this great news-

[canoeist52]

16. We may have gained health insurance.

But whether or not we can afford health CARE remains to be seen. Let's look for a huge reduction in our bankruptcies due to medical costs before the ticker-tape parades.

[Cha]

20. So happy for them.. thanks Don!

[undeterred]

21. Shameful. He should be impeached.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Hooray for Democrats. The more (on insurance), the healthier. n/t