Thanks for this. Of course, I

artappraiser — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 21:07:01 +0000

In reply to Journalists Turn to Themselves for Obamacare Stories

Thanks for this. Of course, I fully admit I find it useful because it confirms my own bias of: Obamacare, put on the table before it was ready for primetime. This quote from the Friess example encapsulates it: only one thing is clear: Nobody can give anybody a straight or consistent answer to anything. I'm still hoping that I am wrong. But starting with my first glances at the exchanges when I complained that they don't seem set up so that people can really truly shop knowledgeably, there's not been much to disabuse me of the sinking feeling. (That does not apply to all the Medicaid expansion recipients, they are the winners here and it's great that that's happening.)

But it just seems like it was decided somewhere to make the rest of the individual market a bunch of guinea pigs where even the insurance companies offering the policies haven't figured out yet what providers they are offering and things like what their deductible rules are and what applies to them. (The latter on the plethora of surprisingly high deductibles that few were expecting.) Every day more evidence that the whole thing was rushed rushed rushed into formation with not just little planning about ramifications (and I'm not just talking about the federal website when I say that,) but few details of what the actual plans will entail.

My main point: spare me your surprise if you introduce change that way, people buying a pig in a poke, and mostly what you get is negative feedback from the media, negative feedback which has basis in reality, and which the anti-reform GOP plays for political gain. Silly me, I thought it was being planned with the result of so many people so pleased as punch with their new health coverage that the word of mouth would result in more votes in 2014 for the reformers and calls for more reform, extending to employer-provided insurance.

Right now, all I can foresee is a lot more unhappiness as purchasers find out what their plans actually entail (some of those things still being decided, no doubt,) and as the ramifications expand to employer-provided insurance over the next year and a half. Medicaid expansion and fixing the pre-existing condition problem alone aren't going to cut it. As to the former we all know if we are honest with ourselves that that kind of "welfare" is politically controversial, and as to the latter, that was so long overdue and so long a bipartisan desire that it was totally expected and no one is going to get "credit" for it.

dagblog - Comments for "Journalists Turn to Themselves for Obamacare Stories"

Thanks for this. Of course, I