Health and Sanity category archive

Via My Local Rag.

And a glitchy website does not mean a glitchy law.

The first time I rolled out my website back in the members dot AOL dot com tilde username days, it was glitchy, and I did not have the benefit of high-paid consultants to add extra glitches.

Really, grow up, people.

Let Wendy Wolf explain:

Recently, people who couldn’t afford health insurance were asked to use one word to describe how being uninsured felt. Overwhelmingly they said, “Scared.” Scared about not getting care when they needed it. Scared about medical debt that could bankrupt families. Scared about being unable to afford a prescription or recommended therapy.

(snip)

Yes, the marketplace website rollout was a debacle — but it is making steady progress so that Maine people are finally getting enrolled. Yes, dealing with the cancellation of existing policies that people hold will require the thoughtful action of policy makers to address their concerns.

However, 75 percent of Americans agree that our health system needs to undergo fundamental changes or be rebuilt completely. Despite its shortcomings, Obamacare is still the best starting place for that change.

More stuff to help you grow up at the link.

Aside:

As someone who must buy his health insurance on the open market, I predict that the Republican decision to tag the ACA as “Obamacare” will haunt them for years, as affordable health insurance is indelibly associated with President Obama and with the Democratic Party.

If you wonder why they are determined to destroy “Obamacare,” there is your reason.

Can you say, “Foot. Shoot.”?

The Rude One rudely takes on President Obama’s “About Face” (as my local rag styled it) on health no-surance.

Warning: Extremely Rude, but rudely on target.

Also, Dick Polman.

Wendell Potter explains the scam:

. . . a years-long industry strategy has been to shift more and more medical expenses to patients. As part of that strategy, big insurance firms bought smaller companies that specialize in limited-benefit plans, which often provide such skimpy coverage that some insurance brokers have refused to sell them.

(snip)

Limited-benefit plans like that one, blessedly, will not be available next year, and that’s because of the Affordable Care Act. Neither will plans with sky-high deductibles. Another way insurers have shifted costs to patients in order to enhance profits: luring or forcing them into plans with such high deductibles they join the ranks of the underinsured the moment they enroll. When people in these plans get seriously sick or injured, they are on the hook for thousands of dollars in medical bills they’ll have to pay out of their own pockets.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Update: Open tag fixed.

Via Informed Comment.

Reg Henry has a wonder:

What is with this strange Republican obsession with health care anyway? It is downright weird. Do they think health care is like a country club — no point in being a member if everybody has privileges?

I think he’s on to something . . . .

Read the rest.

Via Raw Story.

Below the fold, in case it autoplays.

Read more »

Extending health care to the community, the Republican way.

A small community hospital in eastern North Carolina is closing after state officials declined Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Why are Republicans having all that Obamacare defund fun? It’s not just the windmills.

The panel gets to the politics of it towards the end of this discussion.