They’ve been doing this for decades just under the radar of most people. It started en masse in the late 80’s as big companies that provided health insurance were moving more and more jobs overseas, and unions lost power leaving companies to hire people as less than fulltime so as to not provide benefits. Leaving more and more people with no insurance and no affordable way to buy it. Things just snow-balled from there. I remember when I was a patient at U of M hospital (I had good insurance from my Dad) and they always thanked me for being in as it meant they could treat more uninsured people. Already they were charging over 2x the real cost.
MikeJ
3662
People out there seem to have no idea how the Affordable Care Act will work. There’s so much fear out there. For instance, a commenter at Ezra Klein’s blog (who you think would be better informed than average):
Romney scares me; but so does Obama. The lesser of two evils? I’m changing my vote, though, following this awful descision that requires me to purchase healthcare insurance that I can’t afford anyway. My 50 year old husband is out of work for 3 years now; I support our household on $400 a week; I have no healthcare benefits because the cost would take half of my income, little as it is. I have to save up money for basic bloodwork to see my doctor every six months to get my blood pressure medication prescriptions renewed. I have 3 stents in my heart; I’ll be paying for them for the next 30 years. I cannot afford my pills and the doctor in the same month. I have a questionable lump in my breast. I will not have it looked into because although I can get a free mammogram, what good what it do? I can’t afford to have it treated. If I have to save for six months to afford a doctor appointment, labword and my medicine, how the hell can I pull together $5000 a year?? Hell, just fine me the $1500. I can’t pay that, either. Its cheaper just to wait to die.
I blame Obama for that for allowing the GOP to frame the program from the start. The administration made no attempt from the start to inform the public, and his campaign did not tout health care reform as a major talking point. It didn’t help that we were deep in an economic crisis, and the AHA ordeal did nothing to allay people’s concerns about unemployment and the like. As always, it doesn’t help that the Democratic party lacks the cohesion of the Republicans, allowing its voting block to splinter and drag the process on longer than it should have.
Going through all the changes line by line, I find most people like the reform, but it unfortunately doesn’t communicate well in soundbites, certainly not as easily packaged as the bogeyman tactics Fox and the GOP employed to scare people about the act without ever having to explain what it accomplishes in earnest. Obama really needed to address the nation on this issue, and while he has mentioned some of the benefits in speeches here and there, he never truly sold it to the public. It’s troubling that he’s yet to do so to this day, and that the chief, tangible accomplishment of his term still remains a mystery for many at best and a misinformed rallying cry for his opponents at worst.
10 out of 10
Kaiser P. Healthcare Reform Quiz
Sadly, I am in the extreme minority.
55% Still think there are going to be “Death Panels” bullshit.
73% Believe that the bill will include a government run healthcare option. (which it should)
I got 9/10–got the Medicare one wrong.
MikeJ
3666
And this is a sample from the portion of the population that was interested enough to know about the quiz and confident enough to take it.
9/10 here too. I got the Medicaid one wrong. I actually didn’t know that it expended Medicaid. I’m happy to know that.
What I’m not happy to know is that only 27% of people got the correct answer to “Will the health reform law create a new government run insurance plan to be offered along with private plans?” which, for the record, is no. The Republican bullshit machine is working overtime.
8/10. I had to answer “don’t know” on the one about Medicaid expanding to cover low income folks regardless of whether they have children, and, yikes!, I missed question 1 about people having to pay a fine if they don’t choose to have insurance. I misunderstood the “mandate”, I guess.
Chuck
3670
10 out of 10 for me and my partner. Looks like we’ve been paying attention.
I missed “Will the health reform law require nearly all Americans to have health insurance starting in 2014 or else pay a fine?” because my idea of nearly all wasn’t the same as theirs. There are enough people in the financial hardship category that I wouldn’t describe that as “nearly all”. But then I realized I don’t actually know how many people fit that requirement. Does anyone have the numbers?
Sure, but they would fall under Medicaid. The “nearly all” would only include those on some strange margin between being ineligible for Medicaid yet subject to the fine, a pretty tiny group.
Yeah, either you make enough to have insurance through an employer or get one from the new affordable exchanges. If you don’t have enough money, then you will be covered under medicare/medicaid.
Probably some people right on the edge of those two.
If some of these Republican state governments don’t go along with the Medicaid expansion there could be a lot of people left high and dry on the lower-income end in those states…
and those low-income people will vote against their rational self-interest because, GOD. Well, that and they can’t let those liberal socialists win.
Sad.
Those low-income people don’t vote against their self-interest much. The big difference between the red states and blue states isn’t poor voter behavior, it’s how extremely Republican the rich are.
Voter turnout amongst the poor is also very low.
10/10, but I guessed on the small business tax credits (seemed like a reasonable thing they would do, and I know there are similar considerations for larger businesses) and undocumented workers (seemed like the kind of thing the opposition would gin up outrage with if it existed).
It says that illegal immigrants aren’t eligible to purchase insurance from the exchanges. Is that right? I don’t think it matters all that much, since I think most illegal immigrants don’t have health insurance as one of their primary priorities, but I don’t know much about how they’re planning on running / managing the exchanges. I sort of assumed it would just be a highly regulated market.
Also, regarding the not-death panels. Doesn’t it establish an independent review board around the efficacy of treatments, which will issue recommendations, but has no real power? I can see that question being confusing to some people.
I’m currently the low scorer.
I recall the “death panels” being a fiction derived from the bill “providing end-of-life counseling,” i.e. it would pay for doctors to consult with terminal patients and explain their options regarding DNRs and such.
