"Public support for health law drops in poll; But few think federal program will be repealed" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Dennis Junius | Associated Press March 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — Despite a late surge in sign-ups, support for President Obama’s health care law is languishing at its lowest level since passage of the landmark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll.
The Associated Press-GfK survey finds that 26 percent of Americans support the Affordable Care Act....
That itself is a dismal failure.
“To get something repealed that has been passed is pretty impossible,” said Gwen Sliger of Dallas....
Well, yeah, unless it is beachfront home insurance premiums for the wealthy.
Sliger illustrates the prevailing national mood. Although a Democrat, she’s opposed to Obama’s signature legislation. Yet she thinks the law is here to stay.
“I like the idea that if you have a preexisting condition you can’t be turned down, but I don’t like the idea that if you don’t have health insurance you’ll be fined,” said Sliger.
I don't like the idea that you can be charged more for preexisting conditions.
That central requirement that virtually all Americans have coverage or face fines remains unpopular....
Americans do NOT like being TOLD what to do!
Obama, insurers, and most policy experts consider the so-called individual mandate essential to creating a big insurance pool that keeps premiums affordable.
The poll was taken before Thursday’s announcement by the White House that new health insurance markets have surpassed the goal of 6 million sign-ups, so it did not register the potential impact of that news on public opinion.
As if it would.
Related: 6 million sign up for plans under health law
I don't believe them, but either way the back-end is not built and insurers have no way of accessing the information.
But don't worry; the payment system still works so start sending in those premiums. You may not have coverage, but the government will at least have money to wave at bond buyers.
Open enrollment season began with a dysfunctional HealthCare.gov website last Oct. 1. It will end Monday at midnight, on what looks to be a more positive note.
So we are told!
Impressions of the coverage rollout while low, have improved slightly....
Teresa Stevens, a factory supervisor from Jacksonville, Fla., and a supporter of former President Clinton, said the economy has soured for working people under Obama....
Related: The wealthiest philanthropists did not give as much in 2013 as they gave before the Great Recession, even as a strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent of earners.
And you wonder why I'm sour?
The poll found that much of the slippage for the health care law over the last four years has come from a drop in support, not an increase in opposition.
In April 2010, soon after the law passed, 50 percent of Americans said they were opposed to it, while 39 percent were in favor.
Now, just 26 percent say they are in favor, a drop of 13 percentage points. Forty-three percent say they are opposed, a drop of 7 percentage points since four years ago.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted March 20-24 using KnowledgePanel, GfK’s probability-based online panel designed to be representative of the US population. It involved online interviews with 1,012 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents.
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Related: Democrats’ Obamacare albatross
That's why he loses the Senate.
"Latinos’ health care enrollment lags" | Associated Press March 25, 2014
WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest minority group is at risk of being left behind by President Obama’s health care overhaul....
That is a loss both for Latinos who are trying to put down middle-class roots and for the Obama administration, advocates say.
As in lo$$ of revenue.
Hispanics who remain uninsured could face fines, not to mention exposing their families to high medical bills from accidents or unforeseen illness. And the government will not get the full advantage of a group that is largely young and healthy, helping keep premiums low in the new insurance markets.
‘‘The enrollment rate for Hispanic-Americans seems to be very low, and I would be really concerned about that,’’ said Mark McClellan, a Brookings Institution health policy expert. ‘‘It is a large population that has a lot to gain. . . but they don’t seem to be taking advantage.’’
McClellan oversaw the rollout of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit for President George W. Bush.
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Well, "there appears to be no turning back. The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services is sticking to an Oct. 1 deadline to roll out the updated and vastly expanded system known as ICD 10. Get ready for a paperwork meltdown."
Another one?
"Mass. extends deadline to enroll in health coverage" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff March 27, 2014
The extension follows a similar one granted earlier this week by the Obama administration for people who have been frustrated by the federal health exchange.
Both delays are recognitions of the technical problems that have bedeviled the launch of the federal Affordable Care Act, policy specialists said.
“I would suspect this isn’t the last one we see,” said Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank. “It seems only fair, given the failure of the Connector website, that they would grant something along these lines.”
Still, he said, it could lead to higher premiums because of the uncertainty it adds to the insurance market....
Related: State Health Site on Iselin
Told they fixing it.
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Two more weeks before they start grabbing your cash.
How odd that the tax filing deadline is near that time.
At least the doctors will be getting paid:
"House, Senate agree on Medicare fix" Associated Press March 27, 2014
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that he and top Senate Democrat Harry Reid have reached agreement on legislation to forestall a looming 24 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said the legislation would fix the issue for 12 months and the House will vote Thursday.
Because of a flawed formula dating to 1997, Medicare doctors face big cuts almost every year. Congress has always stepped in to prevent the cuts and must act by Monday.
When Congress has blown the deadline in the past, Medicare has dealt with the problem by simply delaying processing payments until the formula had been raised.
Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is likely to seek to speed the measure through the Senate as early as Thursday, but it would take cooperation from all 100 senators to make that happen.
The move for yet another temporary fix to the problem comes as efforts for permanently solving the problem are foundering. There is widespread support for bipartisan legislation to repair the broken Medicare formula, but there’s no agreement on how to bear the 10-year, $140 billion cost.
The temporary measure is financed by a variety of familiar cuts to health care providers, though some gamesmanship is being employed.
Dicking around again, huh?
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"Medicare reprieve for doctors OK’d" by Andrew Taylor | Associated Press March 28, 2014
WASHINGTON — Legislation to give doctors a yearlong reprieve from a looming 24 percent cut in their payments from Medicare overcame turbulence in the House on Thursday and appears on track to clear the Senate next week, possibly just hours before a Monday midnight deadline.
The bill passed the House Thursday on a surprise voice vote after an hour-long delay signaled GOP leaders were having difficulty mustering the two-thirds vote to pass the bill under fast-track procedures. Prominent Democrats withheld support, as did a host of rank-and-file Republicans, which led top leaders in both parties to call off a roll call vote and ease the measure through with a wink and a nod.
Your "democracy" in action!
The vote was engineered by majority leader Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, with cooperation from minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
For all the rancorous parti$an$hip....
It came after several leading Democrats weighed in against the bill, which would ‘‘patch’’ the Medicare fee system for 12 months. They complained that the temporary measure would set back efforts to find a permanent fix for the program’s payment formula.
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Doctors had a back-up plan B ju$t in ca$e:
"Doctors draw critics for aid from drug firms" by Charles Ornstein and Ryann Grochowski Jones | ProPublica March 25, 2014
Pharmaceutical companies pay for the clinical trials that Dr. Yoav Golan conducts on antibiotics at Tufts Medical Center.
They also pay him tens of thousands of dollars a year to give speeches and advice about their drugs.
If Golan worked at some teaching hospitals, he would be barred or severely restricted from accepting both research funding and personal payments for promotional speaking or consulting from drug makers. These hospitals fear the money could influence clinical findings or at least create the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Yet Tufts and many other academic medical centers allow doctors to accept overlapping payments, and some doctors still take them.
I knew there was something wrong with Tufts!
Related: Police investigate threats against DCF in Justina Pelletier case
I don't take it back, sorry.
A ProPublica analysis shows....
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Closer to home, the big news (in the business section for four straight days) back this way is the closing of the Berkshire hospital in North Adams. Was the lead segment on the local radio when going to get a Globe.
