Affordable Care Act Timeline, or...

Tamar,I am not a huge fan of the Rube Goldberg, jury=rigged system that we eneed up with. We could have much more easily expanded Medicare to everyone, but there are so many reasons that couldn't happen. I will accept that there are times we have to accept minor improvements instead of getting what we really want. Sadly the political climate is so poisonous that anyone who doesn't think Obama is a socialist/commie/fascist/dictator and doesnt' think Obamacare is the worst thing ever is labeled an Obama apologist. Am I benefiting from Obamacare? Damn right I am. Do I think it's perfect? No. Am I blind to the fact that some people will not benefit to the same extent? No.

Can't agree strongly enough with that Mike. People feel this need to place everybody in to neat boxes that cover all questions. I am labeled an Obamacare apologist, even though I am on record as saying that it sucks. it sucks so much, that the only thing worse is what preceded it, when 40 million Americans had no coverage. But alas, our political process only allows for highly byzantine legislation, even when simple solutions exist.

So you were against single payer before you were for it. It's the WMD argument all over again.

Obamacare numbers coming in huge: Here's a guide to GOP excuse-making

You and your need for black and white.

I am not particularly for it...mainly because I don't think we can trust our government with the concept plus my experience with medicare is not pleasant and expanding that does not appeal to me either.

That does not mean I can't see that it would still be slightly better than the mess we are stuck with now.

My preference would have been true reforms of the the systems we had before...looking into cost reductions, tort reform, possibly a public option to help the homeless but done in a limited way so companies couldn't dump insurance policies to shove their employees on to it. Ways to improve the system and leave personal choice intact.

I love the fact if an insurance company provides a really good insurance product that in 2018 they will be nailed with a 40% tax.

Shouldn't everyone be aiming for getting insurance like that and not forced down to a shittier plan? How about we elevate the other plans instead of punishing excellent coverage?

Not really. But it got you to enter into serious discussion, which I appreciate.

And if you'll recall, I and others here have been advocating for similar reforms for as long as there's been a WF. But the general reaction from the opposition has ranged from "there's nothing wrong with it" to "lawyers, John Edwards, ambulance chasers, oooh, look, shiny!"

If the underlying premise is that a healthy nation is a strong nation (and you can replace "healthy" with "educated" or even "well nourished" or anything else those damn Libruls are always advocating), then there's an impetus toward improving the status quo.

If the underlying premise is "my situation's fine and I don't see any reason to change anything" or "Jesus said 'the poor are always with us' so it's okay" or "We need an underclass to scrub toilets once we throw the illegals out" or "life sucks and you can't change anything," then the impetus will be different.

IMO, there is still a Calvinistic impetus underlying a great deal of U.S. society. Calling it "American exceptionalism" doesn't make it a good thing.

• In 2011, ObamaCare helped around 86 million Americans use free preventive services that had previously been subject to co-pays or deductibles.

• ObamaCare aims to improve community health care centers in an effort improve health care for those who cannot afford private health care.

• ObamaCare doesn't increase the deficit. It is projected to cut the deficit by over a trillion dollars over the next two decades.

• ObamaCare offers countless benefits and protections that have been rolling out since 2010 and continue into 2022. Find out more about the Benefits of ObamaCare.

DO YOU FEEL C0RP0RATI0N5? --------------------------------------------------------------- N0 MORE! those times are over. GET INSTANT HEALTH 100%!!!! Did you ever think..... it doesnt w0rk!? Now it does! Read on--Obamacare2000(TM) this will help you GUARANTEED My friends told me: "Corporations Corporations" to which I had one reply HEALTH 24 Hours ONLY with our Obamacare2000(TM)!!! Dr. Cheesy McNibbletits says: "I saw it work like magic." (Cheesy McNibbletits is TRUSTED source in the field.) Try it for free NOW! JUST $129... to good to be troo? I thouhgt s0 too ....at first. Try it now. CLICK HERE www.buy-obamacare2000.com

Obamacare2000?! Why, that must be 2000 times better than the old version! I'll take a dozenty!

• In 2013, American employers with 25 or less full-time employees may receive tax breaks of up to 35% (25% non-profits) of the cost of their employees' insurance premiums. In 2014, it increases to 50% (35%).

• Employers with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees must insure their full-time workers or pay a tax (like the current state run unemployment and workers compensation programs).

9th Street Ministries to conclude Medical Clinic mission

It was announced last week that 9th Street Ministries will be concluding their medical clinic mission, which had been ongoing monthly to offer free medical services to those in need since first starting in 1998. The final day for the medical clinic will be Thursday, April 24, and that will conclude the mission that has been in place for almost 16 years.

“Because people are qualifying for insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, our free medical clinic will not be needed anymore,” Stacey Bowser RN, 9th Street Ministries Clinic Director, stated. “We’ve gone from seeing around 300 people a month on a regular basis, but as people were enrolling in Obamacare, the numbers we were seeing have dropped. We were down to 80 people that came through the medical clinic in February, all the way down to three people at the medical clinic in March. Our services won’t be needed anymore, and this will conclude our mission.”

The free medical clinic at 9th Street Ministries was started to reach out to those who could not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, and did not have any other health insurance policy. If anyone has any form of health insurance, they then become ineligible to received the free medical clinic care through 9th Street Ministries.

“Once people are enrolled in Obamacare, we can’t see them anymore,” Bowser said. “This complete dropoff of numbers of people coming to the clinic is a result of all those who have successfully enrolled in an insurance policy now.”

The last day will officially be Thursday, April 24, and it will only be open until noon.

“There was such a need for many years that we would have people coming through the medical clinic from the time the doors opened early in the morning all the way until 4:00 in the afternoon.”

9th Street Ministries had always been open on the last Thursday of each month, and was providing services on a first come first serve basis.

The closure of the medical clinic will have no affect on the other services offered by 9th Street Ministries. The services of the Feeding Mission and the Polk County Family Mission will carry on as. The Polk County Family Mission is a program for helping families with bill and utility assistance.

The medical clinic was seeing so many area residents, that there was always a crew of 25 to 30 volunteers that worked to meet all the needs of keeping the medical center operating successfully. After the end of this month, there won’t be the need for that particular group of volunteers anymore.

While 9th Street Ministries has always been sponsored by First Baptist Church in Mena, many other churches and groups were part of its mission. Volunteers have always come from throughout the county to help meet the needs of the people.

“We’ve done our mission, and it’s been great,” Bowser said. “For me, in addition to helping countless people over the years, the biggest honor has been to work with such a devoted group of volunteers that sought out to meet the the needs of Polk County. It’s been an extreme blessing,” Bowser said.
----------------

^Beat me to it!

Watch this get spun into "Free clinic forced to shut down because of Obama!!!"

Yeah, I'm waiting for that one myself. Guess no one on FOX has picked it up yet. The naysayers are waiting for instructions.

but, but...Obamacare is fascism...I mean socialism....I mean...it doesn't work...it can't work...dontcha see? Dontcha SEE????

^And facts have a liberal bias. Don't forget that one. It must be true, because any time facts are presented to folks like LizK and frontline, they have no comeback.

Facts have no bias. But liberal bias often leads the faithful flock to regard liberal propaganda as "facts."

Remember unskewedpolls.com? That's the reaction of such folks to facts. It's an essentially exclusively "conservative" reaction.

False data are easily refutable. But first you have to be able to explain why they're false, and since the "You're wrong because" links you've posted to date indicate that you don't even understand what you're linking to, you haven't done a very good job.

You get points for continually bumping the thread when others have realized they have no comeback and have left the field, but that's all you've accomplished.


• ObamaCare won't cause 650,000 jobs to be lost as some of its detractors say (the number isn't even in the CBO report on The Affordable Care Act). The often misrepresented quote stated that part of the job loss ObamaCare creates is from employees who cut back their hours, since they will no longer have to rely solely on their jobs for their family's health care. In fact, ObamaCare's effect on job growth in Government jobs and Health Care rivals job loss in other markets.

• Although ObamaCare hasn't resulted in job loss, the "employer mandate" has resulted in a number of full-time workers at large firms having their hours cut back to part time in order for employers to avoid providing their full-timers with health insurance. On the same note, many larger firms have moved workers from part-time to full-time to provide them will benefits.

It's worth noting that the fix for this is easy, if only Republicans weren't obsessed with being obstructive at all costs in an effort to make reform look bad. Just base the employer mandate on total worker hours, not the number of full time workers, and have it on a sliding scale--e.g. at 500 worker hours/week and below employers don't have to offer any insurance or subsidies; between 500 and 1500 hours a week they have to pay subsidies, on a sliding linear scale from 0% to 100% of the cost of a cheap silver plan and on top of any other wages agreed to by contract or guaranteed by law, that employees can use only to put towards the purchase of a plan on the exchanges; and above 1500 worker hours a week employers have to purchase group coverage equivalent to silver level plans or pay full cost for their employees to get cheap silver plans on the exchange. Then you have no perverse incentives to marginally reduce hours since marginal hours only incur marginal costs to the employer.

Of course. But these are the same sort of people who thought the country would collapse if we instituted a mere 40-hour work week.

7.5 million.

About what should have been expected, if not less than, once it's taken into consideration that procrastination and a preferance to have money and health care rather than not to have them are nearly universal traits. About what liberals would expect, but less than they'd hope. A good example of how facts don't so much have a liberal bias as they have an anti-conservative, reality based bias.

Any answers yet on how many of that mythical number were uninsured before Obamacare caused them to become so? How many are the young people needed to keep Obamacare solvent? And don't tell us it's already been answered -- as of the day she retired, Kathleen, "I'm so good at my job I quit" Sebelius was claiming not to know. If you do when she didn't, maybe you should apply for the privilege to sit in her hastily vacated hot-seat.

Decades worth, in both raw data and individual stories, both of which you can find in this thread and every other thread on the topic from the beginning of Wordforge until right this minute.

If that's insufficient for your research purposes, there's this: http://softwaregeneration.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/automatic-google-search.gif

• If you or your family choose not to purchase healthcare through the Online Health Insurance Exchange, they can still buy private insurance, get insurance through their employer, Medicare, or Medicaid. Those who chose to not purchase insurance will pay an income "penalty" tax to help cover the rest of us. In other words, it is a tax, not a mandate; no one is actually forcing you to have health insurance.