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As we approach the one-year anniversary of Obama’s health care reform scheme becoming law, it is important to note that the number of uninsured people in America has remained roughly the same, or actually increased slightly, in the last year–and the cost of health insurance has continued to rise. From Gallup:
This isn’t because the new law has failed to work as designed, but due to the fact that the law was actually written to help almost no one for a full four years after passage. This incredibly long delay was done solely to get a better, lower CBO score, which, incidentally, the vast bulk of Americans either don’t know about or refuse to believe.
What this means is you really can’t do a one-year retrospective on the effectiveness of the new law because, so far, the law has barely done anything.
One thing that is clear though, a year after passage, the shortsighted political decision to use an extremely long delay was one of the most foolish moves made by Democrats–in both political and policy terms. In 2012, President Obama will run as the man who passed “universal health care reform”–and yet, at the same time, there will likely be slightly more people without insurance than when he took office.
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Gee, whoever could have anticipated…?
The purpose of the Health Care Reform scam was never to make things better, it was always to pretend to make things better, and to get big payola, which Zero got and will get for his reelection.
Ah, shit, ya beat me to it.
obama is going to lay a big egg if he thinks he can “energize” his base by talking about his health-insurance-bailout act.
Young people, unemployed/underemployed and underinsured in all aspects of their life are not going to get out and vote because they know how dishonest obama’s rhetoric is – they live it every day and probably cannot see a doctor if they needed one.
More uninsured in 2012 than 2008 is not a “bug” – IT WAS PART OF THE DESIGN.
Me too! Was just going to say the exact thing.
Hmph! I’m betting that pharma and big insurance are going to “forget” everything he did for them and support his (Republican) opponent. Bets?
Shit, they forgot the nanosecond after he signed that pos.
Forgetfulness and lack of breath may be a side affect of….
And, PS, back to an earlier post, you make your own kind of music, sing you own special song…la la la.
Look at the Obama administration causing a 6000% increase in the price of this drug:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1364747/Preemie-outrage-Cost-makena-drug-prevents-premature-birth-rise-10-1500-KV-Pharmaceuticals.html
The Obama administration totally let their PhRMA buddies profit at our expense by calling this drug that has been in long-standing use an “orphan drug,” that needed special monopoly protection.
I was just having this argument with my Obamabot relatives. They asked me why I didn’t think it was a good thing that more people have health insurance. I argued that I bet this law won’t cover any additional people, but I didn’t have a poll to back it up, until now.
I thought we might see an uptick in healthcare coverage with hiring, but I am sure most of the jobs created so far don’t include health insurance. I can’t wait to see the obomabots excuses this time.
I’m sure he’ll get Clinton payday speeches once he leaves office…he’ll make millions of dollars a year just by giving a few speeches a month.
Jeez, no, Pharma and insurance got what they asked for……they will ‘quietly’ support Obama while the rest of us flap at the wind. We are sooooo screwed. Until the Right can develop some reasonable candidate with any only minimal character flaws, I think we’re stuck with Obombster no matter how we vote.
President Obama will run as the man who passed “universal health care reform”–and yet, at the same time, there will likely be slightly more people without insurance than when he took office
Yep and if he does win in 2012 the very few the do have HC will not in the future. Welcome to o world. I really like that Zero term but it should be lower case
No more of the lesser of the two for me, to old to do it any more.
Clinton also didn’t have anything he could run on except “Family Medical Leave Act”, and he still got reelected. Of course, he had a decent economy which helps a lot.
Who woulda thunk it.
It goes to show the only thing that would have made a difference was to include a public option that went into effect right away. Not only did Obama not fight for it but went for a 2014 time frame that added insult to injury. Cash strapped states are now kicking people off Medicade rolls, and many states are dropping people from COBRA, the program states use to offer affordable healthcare.
Yep. I’ve voted for my last Vichycrat.
I have a hard time processing that there is anyone left in America who does not recognize that Obama is a Republican/Oligarch-wannabe. He’s just feathering his nest at the expense of the citizens. And Michele’s wearing ‘regular’ clothes just tells me that she is his beard.
Yep a carl rove plant.
I never had any doubts about Michelle.
Obama’s (and the Democrat’s) historic achievement.
Hahahahaha!
That was part of the plan – obama is just a place holder and he knows it. Doesn’t bother him in the least – he will be rewarded handsomely when he leaves the White House and it will not matter to his corporate masters if it is 2012 or 2016.
Either way, he is destroying the dem brand and breathing new life into the repugs – a party that was nearly written off as “dead” after the reign of bush terror and financial meltdown.
obama has hoisted that burden off republicans and they came roaring back in historical fashion only 2 years after obama’s “historical” election.
I don’t know how to interpret this.
Really, eCahn, how did you know? I was duped. But I know that if the Zed was my husband, I’d have kicked his skinny butt around the block by now. Michelle just wears her GAP clothes and her mama-sweaters and acts all sweet and caring. Fool me time and again, and I’m still a fool. Oh, well…..
It’s bc I caught onto O so early on. There’s no way Michelle couldn’t have known and bought into the full extent of the deception.
Ah, ha. She does have a few “tells” going, doesn’t the woman?
People have been so gaga about her body. Not me. Her biceps are Nancy’s new place settings. And, I hope that we’re getting a discount on child care since her Mom is there. Okay, /s. But, I really mean it. Not impressed. At all.
The health care scam did everything it was intended to do. It gave a serious “bonus” to the insurance industry as was promised by Øbama. It gave a serious “bonus” to the Pharma industry as was promised by Øbama. It supplied a vehicle for anti-choice idiots to further their agenda as Øbama did with his Stupak EO. It permitted Insurance companies to separate, and charge more for, reproductive health care from “regular” health care thanks to Øbama. If there is any doubt that Øbama is anti-choice there is no further proof needed than his effin’ health care reform crap.
Health care reform will go down in history as one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the people. Can you imagine asking the corporate overlords to wait four years for anything, especially something with zero benefit in the end. We gave away trillions to the financial sector virtually overnight as a reward for failed and corrupt business models.
Interesting. I have never been a fan.
As the thread is slow, I’m going for a cocktail. Martinis on the bar tonight. On offer….
Shes the wife of one of the biggest corporate whores ever to sit in the white house. She knows what she got into. She knows her husband and his integrity (or lack there of).
She has to wear stylish clothes from major retailers and say meaningless fluffy things – her life is committed to a man that sold this nation out.
And she surely and fully knows it.
Isn’t it great that obama told us what a great job BP did in the gulf!!!!!!!
For those who have a liking for black humor (and, no, I’m not talking about Flip Wilson) there is something so darkly funny about the first black president and his African American wife taking down the Democratic Party.
Andyone got any Tums?
gin or vodka? Not that it matters, considering.
I don’t don’t have an elementary school desk to duck under either.
Tonics work, though. I really heard a better way to deal with this shit today, myself.
Bombay safire gin.
I have limes & tonic in the fridge, so could also offer gin & tonic.
Tums? I’m still hoping I come down off the psychotropic drugs I’ve apparently been slipped.
Dearie, I have a cup of chamomile tea, with some vodka or gin in it, if you’d care to partake.
Sucky stuff. To be sure. I have other attitudes and things to say about that woman, but, I’ll choose to be circumspect at this time. Considering the world news.
Hip chick. Can I bring some appetizers of fresh califlower and/or broccoli, with lite blue cheese dressing? And, maybe some sliced apples and sprinkled feta cheese?
When all else fails, right?
The problem with health care in this shitty country is not only how we pay for it, it’s how much we pay for it. We pay grossly inflated prices.
I had some diagnostic work done recently that was triggered by a false positive on an EKG. I paid, including the fees for the cardiologist, $2,044 for a nuclear stress test conducted in a government-run hospital. I had to cover that completely out of pocket because I have a $2,500 deductible. If what I read was accurate, then this same procedure done by a cardiologist in a private hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, would cost 500 euros (about $700). Now, that’s pretty cheap, but I would think I should have been able to get the procedure done for about $1,200 ($1,500 max) if health care in this country were not such a scam.
I like bourbon and ginger ale as a cocktail myself.
Well, considering that the insurance industry, along with numerous other corporate interests, are his “base,” I think he will absolutely be able to energize them. Or, at the very least, be able to point to his record and show that he has helped them.
People still thinking that any portion of “we, the little people” are part of his, or any other establishment politician’s “base”…. I have to work to not giggle at the madness of it.
That sounds great.
What???? You think I have a fully stocked bar?
I actually do, so I’ll slide you down some neat bourbon & you can add ice & ginger ale, as I don’t have any the latter on hand.
I happen to like the good life. Why I do what I do. We peas? *g*
I may live in a fancy trailer. I may only vacation while camping. At the beach. But, make no mistake. I will serve homegrown broccoli at an FDL get together. And, folks, we need to have a circle hug. We really do. Ya know?
I love most vegies (and fruits and meats and cheeses and and and, well food) except for eggplant which has the consistency & taste of cardboard IMO.
OOOOPS!
You misunderstood my post – let’s not argue semantics. You can define the following words as you see fit, but my statement uses these operational definiations:
BASE: (in context of politicians) The people that vote for a given candidate.
CORPORATE MASTERS: The business entity that actually underwrite a politican
SHILL: Those that accept payment for CORPORATE MASTERS
peace
Could someone point me to the explanation of how one resolves:
a) benefits delayed to improve CBO score (make it cheaper)
b) killing it will raise the deficit
I didn’t misunderstand. But that’s fine, let’s use your definitions then and I’ll add one to go in-between BASE and CORPORATE MASTERS.
Obama/Dem Party BASE: Idiots for being the BASE
Peace to you as well.
He caved to Repuglicans on the stimulus, and we lost some good people, like the lady who said the stimulus should be way bigger. And he caved big time on the Insurance for All fiasco. And how come Wall St isn’t in jail? And all along I wanted to stick with him because he is a young guy with two young daughters, so he would want them to have a good country to live in, right? Then he did that fantabulous flip flop and now tells us that tax cuts for rich people are good for the economy and will create jobs. Michigan is going to lower taxes on corporations by %80 and raise it on the lowest earners to eliminate the deficit and bring prosperity back to Michigan. Oh, and no more unions, they are done. And we are so quiet about it all. We need Woody Guthrie, or at least his spirit, with his guitar that says ‘this machine kills fascists’.
Slightly more uninsured but what about the profits of the health insurance cartels. That’s what’s really important.
Well, you’re not Italian or French for that matter.
I doubt if anyone will notice the giant scam since the entire country is nothing more than a scam on the working and middle class.
Number of uninsured —> UP
Cost of insurance —> UP
“Healthcare” profits —> UP
Obama’s HMO Take for 2012 —> UP!
SUCCESS!
ya many of us were gullible.
however one must admit it was one hell of a performance. the man may be the greatest con artist ever.
American citizens continue to earn less each passing year.
Health insurance premiums continue to rise unabated.
People are being forced to drop their coverage, so this isn’t surprising at all. America is becoming more like Mexico every year, when it should be trying to become more like Canada.
The only real expansion of coverage was Medicaid in 2014 – but because Obama was planning his cave to the GOP and deficit cutting so as to appear bi-partisan it was all a con-job.
Medicaid is fragmented state to state, inefficient, and ill-supplied in terms of locations and providers requisite to the needed care for the new wave of enrollees. The 2014 financing mechanism favors wealthy states but it is the poorest states with the greatest number of soon-to-be, new enrollees. There is a current Medicaid deficit in near all the states, getting worse as the economy goes nowhere, and no additional Federal aid in sight. The promised 2014 aid will be killed to make the deficit cutters happy, causing the states to crash and burn under the Medicaid expansion – and lets not get into demands from providers for better or more adequate payment because we failed to sell the idea of a Federal price control on all basic services.
Medicare for all, with a Federal price control function, must replace this mess – but I do not see Obama having the leadership – or the desire – to do the right thing.
There is no deficit reduction unless one assumes that a visit to an insurance brokers office (a broker is an agent that sells the products of more than one company) – produces lower rates.
The brokers office – called exchanges – were sold by an econ prof at MIT based on no background in the industry – and Massachusetts hired the fellow for the Mass health care agency that is called the Connector. There really is little that is done because of merit in most of what happens to most folks in the US.
A broker never does more than present the different products – and the insurance company never does more than mix up the coverages so no two products can be compared for “best value” by any non-actuary.
I fought the spreadsheet nonsense that the MIT prof sold, but then I worked in the industry – so there should have have no expectation by me that I or someone like me could have had major input to the making of the legislation. If anyone needs a part-time near zero cost actuarial consultant, and with my computer data base manager kid now needing a job in Boston/Worcester, if any know of a Boston/Worcester job, drop me a line.
The word gullible is being tossed around sef-referentially.
No.
That’s not it.
It’s simple cowardice to admit that only fear of an uprising will motivate the elites to do good.
They own the electoral process outright.
Well, see, this way Obama can run in 2012 and pretend like his health care is gonna be everything he says it will be and he can hype people up. It’s the old …why buy the cow if the milk is free. Americans give over the milk for a weak promise and Obama doesn’t have to do anything but whisper sweet nothings in voters ears and , as usual, never deliver.
Its better then Obama then haveing to face the results when mandate kicks in.
It’s done one thing for sure:
As health care law rolls out, many insurers drop child-only policies
Link
Yep. Agreed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/the-key-to-rebuilding-wor_b_835607.html
Nope, nope, nope. Not taking that.
They’ll rinse and repeat. We’re an emotional species, we don’t run on intellect.
Nah, his history was available on the net. I read it. People don’t vet candidates, which is interesting given the amount of for free information available.
I voted for him because I thought he would be marginally better than McDazzled and Daffy Dazzler. I not at all sure about that assumption now.
I don’t think the 4 year delay was simply to improve the CBO score. O’Sellout isn’t as stupid as Bush was, he certainly had to know that throwing the Public Option under the bus – especially since he campaigned on it- and giving the Health Insurance Industry a green light to continue ripping off customers would not be popular in 2012.
He also gets to say in the 2012 race that the reason we still have 50+ million uninsured is because the law will not be in effect until 2014. If the ACA went into effect immediately like most every other law, Barry no longer has a fig leaf to mask the naked ugliness of how ineffective his HCR was.
we were gullible because we thought no sane person wants to continue down the path started by 8 years of government under Bush/Cheney. Obama hasn’t just decided to keep to their path, he’s gone farther than Shrub Jr. and Dick the Undead ever thought.
I disagree that he is the greatest con man ever. He is a lying crook, no doubt about that, but not the greatest fraud perpetrated on the US of A.
We found out after the HCR kabuki what Obama really is, and that only took two years. Ronald Reagan has been out of office 30 years and people still worship that SOB. (Given a choice, I would take Reagan over Obama today. Obama is far more Right-Wing and corporate friendly)