dagblog - Comments for "Dear angry American who has to pay more for better health insurance,"

Actually, I did go shopping

Peter Schwartz — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 20:15:04 +0000

In reply to You are making assumptions

Actually, I did go shopping and found more than one good policy at a "reasonable" price as these things go. Friends have, too.

You should read more right-wingers: They think the ACA is the final step before single payer is imposed on them.

You are making assumptions

Peter — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 20:43:22 +0000

In reply to especially those who actually

You are making assumptions here PS without any actual personal involvement. I'll wait for the people who have purchased these cheap insurance policies to report what kind of health care they get from them before drawing conclusions. The massive support for a single-payer system and the nonexistent desire by the Ruling Class to supply one is telling, the People have almost no power over their Leaders or their Corporate handlers. The important thing the ACA does is it takes another large "step" away from ever allowing single-payer to supply healthcare directly to people.

especially those who actually

Peter Schwartz — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 20:51:17 +0000

In reply to Art, now you are

especially those who actually have to use this program

There are plenty of people who actually have to use this program who are finding good policies at cheaper prices. As someone who spent decades in the individual market, I can tell you that the policies I see on my exchange are far better and far cheaper than anything I ever had.

Now, it may be that all those people who actually have to use the system have been clamoring for a single payer system--but they haven't managed to exert sufficient upward pressure to get the political class to hove to. And they haven't managed to convince the 85% of their fellow Americans who get coverage from their employers to clamor either.

Failing that, it's hard to see why ACA is a contemptible plan.

To be sure, there have been polls showing something like 75% support for a single payer program. And it might have been easier over all to sell a plan that said, "You all understand Medicare. Well now, everyone is going to be covered under it, and its name will now be AmeriCare."

But polls don't necessarily translate into votes nor into the money candidates need nor into political protection when hundreds of thousands of people who used to work for insurance companies lose their jobs. Until they do, this is clearly a step forward.

Well yes, but it doesn't give

Peter Schwartz — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 20:32:20 +0000

In reply to from that link: UPDATE: I

Well yes, but it doesn't give much in the way of particulars. Hard to know what he means, exactly, or what it all amounts to. Below that, the principal author adds this:

"I should add, too, that in saying 'sabotage works,' I mean it does material damage, not that it will succeed in its ultimate goal. I believe the ACA will ultimately succeed notwithstanding the spiteful, intellectually corrupt GOP campaign to destroy it."

I understand your impatience with cheerleading and booing the law on all sides, but I can't help but think that it's early days to pronounce it dead or alive. And that's what the media is determined to do.

Even a much less contested roll out in MA and with Part D took some doing to iron out the kinks and make it work. This may sound pollyannish or too cheerleaderish, but getting this law on the books was, IMO, a HUGE achievement, and it shouldn't be pissed away because there are challenges.

(Including the fact that some people may come out worse.)

One reason there may be so little information about what is happening and how things are working is that the plan has been under REAL attack by people with a REAL ability to damage it badly since forever.

Not only has the WH not had a "partner for peace" in the House who might have helped work out problems, but they've even had to go outside government, hat in hand, for implementation funds that should have been there. Some states I hear have passed or tried to pass laws banning, outlawing, navigators from helping people find there way around the site! Good fucking grief!

This has all been a bit like trying to open an umbrella against gale-force winds that with just a slight change in angle could blow the thing out of your hands.

Within the confines of the blogosphere, we're free to argue the pros and cons and come up with solutions, but it shouldn't be forgotten that there is a powerful movement that really does want to repeal the thing. It's not easy to mount a legal challenge that goes all the way to SCOTUS, and they did it, and they had some success AFTER the thing was law.

Art, now you are

Peter — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:29:28 +0000

In reply to Oh puhleez, you're just being

Art, now you are contradicting yourself about talking points. Reread the article you linked to and just look at the attitude of the author through how he couches the questions some uninformed rube is asking. I think most people, especially those who actually have to use this program, realize that resistance is futile but that doesn't mean they have to submit in silence. I base my contempt for this law not on partisan talking points but my understanding of what it is and will be in the future and on the personal accounts of people who are actually affected by its implementation. I am glad to see that your anger is being directed at both sides of this fiasco which gives me some hope that the conditioning we all have been subjected to can be overcome.

Oh puhleez, you're just being

artappraiser — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:23:46 +0000

In reply to If this piece of

Oh puhleez, you're just being ridiculous now. Sharing understanding of a system is not propaganda for that system.

Edit to add: just the opposite, doing so halts the ability to propagandize. I am soooo very sick of the political talking points and spin on Obamacare coming from all directions (very much including the administration, but also anti-Obama lefties like you and anti-Obama righties) and am verging on getting really angry that people keep doing it. It's over people, the fight is over, don't you get that? This is the system we got by law, cut the crap fur or agin, and let's try to understand what it is first and how it will affect people (and by people I most definitely do not mean politicians up for re-election) before continuing on to either supporting it or fighting to change it or repeal it.

If this piece of

Peter — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 15:54:26 +0000

In reply to This, mho, is a very good

If this piece of paternalistic propaganda is what you consider " fair and accurate" I have to question your judgment, Art. Anytime someone from the MSM claims to have a monopoly on the "truth" and is so benevolent as to share it with the unwashed masses I cringe and look for my pitchfork. This is just another well-insured minion of the chattering class telling us to "shut up and eat your peas".

from that link: UPDATE: I

artappraiser — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 20:47:16 +0000

In reply to http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.

from that link:

UPDATE: I confess that I missed the early link in the WaPo article to David Cutler's May 11, 2010 memo to Larry Summers, calling for a new institutional structure to manage ACA implementation. While not focused on development of the website, it does give one pause regarding the alleged management shortcomings in the existing institutions. The fact that Austin Frakt gives weight to the memo and the WaPo article carries weight with me, too.

What's said in the links within that quote is very depressing. I hope the actual current situation is better than what's said.

http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.

Peter Schwartz — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 19:04:49 +0000

In reply to http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.com/2013/11/subtext-to-wapo-healthcaregov-disaster.html

And this...

Good one Doc... Boy Howdy!

oldenGoldenDecoy — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:51:53 +0000

In reply to The government also forces me

Good one Doc... Boy Howdy!

I can visualize the person picking his face off on the hood of his car after blowing through the windshield saying this...

"The government also forces me to buy a car with all these fussy 'safety' regulations, when it would be a lot cheaper to take them off."

~OGD~