Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Feed Up With Healthcare.gov Story

Someone needs to teach Obama how to explain things or he needs to get Bill Clinton to do it again. With all this talk about people being thrown off their existing health care plans (I heard 2,000,000 people this morning) I've yet to hear anyone ask how many people were thrown off their plans last year? Or were thrown off once they got sick or made claims? Every year I've had to pick a new plan or seen the cost of my plan go up significantly. I knew at the time that Obama's soundbite claims were too broad. He usually said that if you get coverage via your employer it won't change, and that's still true (unless of course your employer changes or changes their coverage which happened before and after Obamacare).

And the woman who's insurance costs have gone up 10x? She was paying $54 per month before that and was happy with that plan. I want to know what that plan covered and if she ever used it or got any money from the insurance company?

And would someone other than Ezra Klein point out to some GOP Congressman they're interviewing their own complicity in the problems? The GOP’s Obamacare chutzpah. And people should point out to Ted Cruz that the health insurance he gets via his wife's employer has a tax subsidy. Now he might think all taxes are bad and that any discounts on taxes are good, but that doesn't change what it is. If you don't get insurance from your employer the tax deduction you can take varies depending on your situation.

Fix the damn website, fire the people who screwed up, fine the contractors for not meeting their obligations (or fire the lawyers that wrote the crappy contracts) and get in front of the messaging. It's not that hard.

Update: At least WonkBlog is trying hard to explain this stuff. The Health-Care Trilemma: How Obamacare is changing insurance premiums

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