That is just an undeniably awful article.

I would agree with you except there is one major difference. The cost that will be shifted to the 20 somethings and middle class American's who make over 47k a year that are going to be hit with increase in medical cost (between premiums & out of pocket expenses).

lol

I'm a 20something middle class American making over 47k a year, will let you know how my premiums change raradevils. I'm currently shelling out $50/month, will make sure to blame Obama when it EXPLOOOOOOOODES next month

Jim:

That's an overreach. Even if ObamaCare fails miserably with a large majority of Americans turning against it by voting for Republicans en masse, Republicans would be making a big mistake if they suddenly think they have a "mandate" to get rid of Social Security and Medicare. (Henniger virtually acknowledges this in his article.)

There is one point Henniger makes in his piece that has the ring of truth ... that being the risk of mass confusion and frustration due to (inevitable) software glitches. Anybody who has worked on (or attempted to work on) large hardware/software integration projects knows what I'm talking about. ObamaCare is probably one of the biggest hardware/software integration efforts in the history of Government. There are plenty of ways this could go wrong ...

There are going to be "glitches" - especially in the early stages - which will take time to iron out. If these glitches become a permanent feature of ObamaCare, people are going to quickly sour on the entire enterprise. I have a feeling the politicians who support ObamaCare have not given the technology aspect of this project the attention and respect that it deserves. I doubt if President Obama has read Frederick Brooks classic book on the subject: The Mythical Man-Month. I have a feeling Mr. Henniger has read the book as Mr. Brooks thesis is that big complex software is very difficult to write and difficult to get working correctly. The history of software development on big projects like this is full of spectacular (and costly) failures that wind up wasting tons of money while producing little of value. There are already anecdotal reports of software related to the exchanges - which are supposed to go live next week - being late and behind schedule.

Obamacare is not UHC. It's a failed blend of UHC and what we have now.

The biggest potential for fail, as far as I see it, is with the youth buying in. If they refuse it, for whatever reason, the whole thing could go to **** quick.

There will also be unintended consequences we don't even realize yet. Our economy is already a disaster, a whole new market of underground cash jobs will probably emerge, where young people work off the books for cash and get free Medicare, for example.

Young people getting free Medicare, sounds legit.

I thought Medicare was being expanded for free HC for poors? Isn't that where the 30 million uninsured are going?

That would be great if the cost of the plans was lower than it is today. Now you get to pay more for less, unless you are 60+ years old, unhealthy, or poor.

1. High-deductible plans that are compatible with HSA currently have combined family deductibles, but "regular" copay plans do not for the most part. Some companies have introduced family deductibles over the last few years to cut down on cost. None of the copay plans that I currently sell have family deductibles. Now all of the plans will have family deductibles. I don't think the general public realizes that buying a bronze plan means a $7k+ deductible for a family.

2. I'm waiting to see what other companies in Virginia are offering (still no official plan documents or rates from any insurers, and we are 4 days away from exchanges opening). However, Anthem has probably done their research and should know what their competitors are doing, so the specialist visits being subject to deductible are likely to be the same with most/every company. People expecting a $20 copay for office visits are not going to be prepared for $100-400 office visits coming out of pocket.

3/4. Yes, tier 1 is mostly going to be cheap generics. If a drug costs less than $15, it can always be purchased without using the insurance plan. Having tiers 3/4 subject to deductible is not going to change the cost of the drugs themselves, but it definitely changes the out of pocket expense. A tier 3/4 drug under most group health plans usually has a copay of $40-60/month. As an example, let's say someone takes the depression drug Abilify, which costs approx. $500 per month. They may be expecting a plan similar to group health insurance where the copay is $50, but they will end up spending the full $500/mo until the deductible has been paid. There are a lot of brand name drugs with no generic equivalents that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.

5. It's not "bad", I just thought it was interesting. If you qualify for a subsidy, you can use the subsidy to purchase a cheaper bronze or catastrophic plan, or a more expensive gold or platinum plan. However, if you are between 100-250% of FPL and also qualify for cost-sharing subsidies, you do not have that choice unless you want a plan without cost-sharing subsidies (which won't make sense in most cases due to the high subsidization level). For example, for someone at 130% of FPL, the annual max OOP on a silver plan is $650, which is lower than the platinum plans will be.

6. Correct, no platinum plans. What does that tell you about how expensive the gold plans will be?

7. I've never said that Obamacare isn't a good/great deal for some people. For the poor, uninsurable, and those with pre-ex paying really high rates, it's a good thing. For everyone else, they get screwed. There are a lot more people in the "get screwed" category.


There is no publicly available information available on this yet. That should be rolled out on Monday, hopefully....seeing as how the exchange is supposed to open for business on Tuesday.

This is lulzy man.

People can stay on their parents' healthplan for longer.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...e-act/2877193/

Seems good for students too.

That is exactly what is going to happen.

People do not realize just how screwed over they are going to be until the full implementation.

the silver lining is that an entire generation Harry Reid(s) will be uncerimoniously pushed onto the ice flow and never heard from again.

nope

Students already have free health care (at least every university I attended was like that)

All we can do is wait and see. My money is on a big fail, just like every other liberal scheme Congress ever cooked up.

Jim,

You literally do not know what Medicare is. Kindly retreat to Wikipedia before posting again.

I have to pay ~1.5k USD/yr for health insurance to attend my university. Florida at some point required health insurance for students at state universities.

No ****? So they won't let you on campus without a qualified private plan? Blue state or red state?

You get registration holds without insurance. Florida seems to vote R more than D but can go both ways.

That's just dirty as ****.

How do low income people go to college? Do they get health insurance 'scholarships'?

It is taken out of my loans/grants. I actually paid for it out of pocket over the summer and couldn't get enrolled in the summer because medical records were hard to track own on time. lol.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/2...CLES/130329869

I guess this wasn't a state wide legislation change. Odd. But it looks like FAMU, FSU, FAI, and UF all have the requirement.

Yeah, sort of. Universities sometimes offer health insurance to their students, which can be rolled into the financial aid package.

I can confirm that Universities requiring insurance is common.

My Uni just had a student health center that you paid for as part of the fees on top of tuition.

So? Very few voters care about the distinction. They either want health care or want the government off their lawn (unless it is one of the preexisting entitlements they think they're entitled to).

Let's backtrack:

I brought up the topic of Obamacare failing.

You say "But UHC hasn't failed in other countries".

I say Obamacare is not UHC. Therefore, the success or failure of UHC is irrelevant to the success or failure of Obamacare.

The majority of the public already hates Obamacare. If this flops, the Republicans gain credibility and Democrats lose credibility. There is still a strong population of non-socialists in this country -- people who want less government intrusion in all aspects of their lives.

Of course, if the free ponies only attract more people to vote Democrat, then we are ****ed.

lol at the edit reason