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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Good news everybody

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    That is just flat-out good news.

    Next step, probably take a couple decades: Medicare for Everybody. We’re not close to that yet, but where we are is pretty damn good compared to ten years ago.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    Thanks, Obama!

    No, seriously, thank you President Obama. And Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid.

  4. 4.

    singfoom

    Thanks, Obama! Ok, good first step. Now let’s see if we can get 90% of people able to receive the health care they need through that insurance without breaking the fucking bank.

    @Richard Mayhew: There’s not enough data since the start of the ACA implementation to look at national health outcomes vs. pre ACA yet is there? Know of any good studies on that?

  6. 6.

    Weaselone

    Don’t worry. I’m sure that President Trump and a Republican Congress can get us back under that number in short order.

  7. 7.

    Prescott Cactus

    @dmsilev: What you said.

    It’s incredible that people will votes against their best interest for “whatever”. Is there any foaming at the mouth Christian or mild to moderate racist who think Combover Caligula gives a hoot about their health insurance.

    The Rethugs have sold “Repeal Obama” and it worked for them on local and state levels.

    Kicks couch.

    *

  11. 11.

    different-church-lady

    The bad news is: medical insurance in the USA is still an amazing shit-show of misinformation and incompetence, if my experience of last week is any indication.

    While it’s good that fewer people are uncovered, the fact of the matter remains that the level of sheer incompetence in both medical insurance and medical administration is so high it would drive every company who imposed it on their customers out of business were it in any other industry.

  12. 12.

    daveNYC

    @singfoom: I suspect that any studies would show some solid improvements. The initial numbers seemed to indicate a whole bunch of really not-well people signing up and getting insurance, and sick people with insurance are going to be doing better than sick people without.

    I agree that now that people have insurance, making sure they have good insurance is the next step. Ex-GF managed to land in the sweet-spot of making too much for subsidies but not enough to afford a plan that wasn’t complete crap. Basically a ‘pay for insurance and pay for your care’ type plan unless you managed to get hit by something that racked up enough bills to crack through the deductibles and copays and whatnot.

  14. 14.

    burnspbesq

    @different-church-lady:

    I don’t doubt for a second that you had a bad experience, but if you ask my kid whether he prefers dealing with Blue Shield or the NHS, you’ll get an earful.

  15. 15.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    It is good news, indeed.

    However, I can’t see from the 39 page PDF (linked in the tweet) whether this survey includes aliens and undocumented people. We know the undocumented can’t get insurance through the PPACA Exchanges. Presumably they might have difficulty purchasing it outside the exchange, but maybe not.

    Any idea, RM?

    The latest estimate I recall is that there is 11M undocumented in the country. 11+28.6M is a lot more than 28.6M alone.

    From a public health perspective, everyone inside the US (legal or not, permanent or not) should have access to affordable health care. Maybe someday we’ll get there…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @different-church-lady: My recent encounter with our health insurance company left me in a similar state of rage and disgust. But it truly is progress that now 90% of our fellow citizens get to experience the same level of incompetence.

  17. 17.

    MattMinus

    Unfortunately, this must be undone for the greater glory of the political revolution! Don’t worry, though, if you live through 8 years of Trump, the remaining tribes wandering the radioactive wasteland will be clamoring for single payer!

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    Maybe that’s why I can’t get a call back from the hand surgeon’s office?

  20. 20.

    Mike J

    @burnspbesq:

    I don’t doubt for a second that you had a bad experience, but if you ask my kid whether he prefers dealing with Blue Shield or the NHS, you’ll get an earful.

    I think the junior doctors would have a lot to say about working in Cameron’s NHS.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    Slight correction: IIRC undocumented people could potentially buy insurance on the exchanges, but they would not be eligible for a subsidy.

    I don’t have time to do any research but if you’re curious, seeing how Covered California handles undocumented customers might be a good place to start. The state has done (and continues to do) a huge amount of outreach, so if any state is getting undocumented customers to sign up in significant numbers, it’s probably California.

  25. 25.

    NonyNony

    @Mary G: No, that’s because medical administrative staff are just as competent as admin staff in any other office.

    One thing to keep in mind about personal interaction with insurance companies or doctor’s offices is that the people working there are just as competent as the people working wherever you work. Think about some of the people you work with. Now imagine its them on the other side of that phone line dealing with whatever issue you’re trying to work through.

    Basically there are certain things that no amount of legislation will ever fix. Making sure everyone has coverage so they don’t go bankrupt when there’s a medical emergency is something that legislation can fix. Making sure that every doctor’s office and insurance company has staff that is actually good at their job is, sadly, outside the realm of any legislative fix.

  29. 29.

    rp

    Isn’t that tweet a little misleading? Unless I’m reading it wrong, the report says that over 90% of americans had insurance for at least part of the year. The % with no insurance for at least 12 months dropped to 9%.

  30. 30.

    gene108

    @burnspbesq:

    On one level, this isn’t really surprising, but having testimony under oath as to racial motivation for voter ID laws is a pretty big deal.

    Enough Republicans have been “caught on camera” stating the voter ID laws are designed to help Republicans win elections.

    Hasn’t made a difference.

    People, who are conservatives, are willing to do whatever it takes to win because they view us liberals as inflicting unspeakable horrors on America.

    Half the country knowingly approves of these laws because it helps Republicans win elections.

  32. 32.

    bemused

    @gene108:

    Creepy Sen Grothman said there’s no doubt Democrats would do the same if they had the power. I’m sure he really believes that and he’s probably not the only Republican legislator.

  33. 33.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Charles Gaba’s site has a bunch of numbers. Potential Enrollments (click the link if the table there doesn’t display properly – that will give you the spreadsheet). It’s for 2015.

    Of the 47.6M total uninsured in 2013, 14.3M would be eligible for Medicaid Expansion/CHIP, 28M would be eligible for ACA plans with or without subsidies, 6.5M were uninsured undocumented immigrants. It’s not clear how independent all these estimates are (whether some are sums of other columns or not).

    Since the original report in the OP was based on interviews, I would have to assume that the undocumented were not counted.

    Interesting stuff and it’s great we’re making progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @rp:

    If 9 percent didn’t have a full 12 months of insurance, doesn’t that mean that 91 percent of them did? I’m not seeing a discrepancy here, but admittedly I’m not good at math.

  35. 35.

    Mike J

    Erica Werner @ericawerner
    Reid says just spoke w sanders re violence at Nevada dem convention, expects sanders to speak out

  37. 37.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Mnemosyne: The actual text is:

    The number of uninsured persons has declined in the past year. In 2015, 28.6 million persons of all ages (9.1%) were uninsured at the time of interview—7.4 million fewer persons than in 2014.

    There’s more data in there about “at least part of the year” and “more than one year” groups.

    The first graph shows the trend for people 18-64. I don’t see a graph for the entire population (the elderly are generally insured, as are many children).

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Oh, and some simple math answers my original question:

    28.6E6/0.091 = 314.3M people in the group they’re considering.

    The US Census Population Clock says there are 323.6M people in the US at the moment, so about 9 M aren’t in the PPACA bin that gives 9.1%. So, the simplest explanation is that they’re not counting the undocmented and other groups that don’t qualify under the program (subsidy or no).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  40. 40.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Mike J:

    Saw a statement he just released on twitter that essentially offers no apology, blames the party, issues ultimatum. So, yeah. I’ve been right about the fraudulent shit stirring asshole all along. Fish rots from the head.

  43. 43.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @bemused:
    Do what exactly? Thats what I don’t get, they want to pretend that somehow the Democrats would screw over Republican voters if they had the power to do so, but how? Dems as far as I am aware have only ever tried to make voting easier so that more people could exercise their franchise, is that somehow supposed to be the equivalent of preventing people from voting?

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