"Patience urged on health insurance exchanges; Websites might not be efficient for several weeks" by Abby Goodnough | New York Times, September 30, 2013
PORTLAND, Ore. — Tuesday is the long-awaited kickoff for President Obama’s signature health care law, when millions of Americans can start signing up for new insurance options. Yet across the country, officials are issuing warnings that despite fevered efforts, their new insurance exchanges — online markets where people can shop for health plans and see if they qualify for federal subsidies — will not be fully operational for weeks or even months....
Then WHY NOT DELAY IT for a YEAR!?!?
Then WHY NOT DELAY IT for a YEAR!?!?
“I have no idea what this thing’s going to look like on Oct. 1,” Rocky King, the executive director of Oregon’s new health insurance exchange, said one afternoon last week as dozens of tense-looking programmers on laptops, scattered through the exchange offices outside Portland, rushed to finish testing and fix problems. “We could crash and burn and have to close it down.”
Today has been a crash and burn day.
Today has been a crash and burn day.
The outcome could hardly be more important for Obama. With Republicans threatening to shut down the government unless Democrats agree to delay the law for a year, even small problems with the exchanges could be powerful fodder for the law’s opponents.
Related: I'm Glad the Government is Shut Down
Btw, why are those exchanges up when the rest of the government is down?
Related: I'm Glad the Government is Shut Down
Btw, why are those exchanges up when the rest of the government is down?
Any insurance coverage acquired through the exchanges will not take effect until Jan. 1, when the health care law will start requiring most Americans to have insurance or to pay a tax penalty.
But big business gets an exemption!
Ferguson and other officials are predicting that while people might flood the exchange websites in October to learn about their options, few will actually enroll so soon....
Because they can't.
But big business gets an exemption!
Ferguson and other officials are predicting that while people might flood the exchange websites in October to learn about their options, few will actually enroll so soon....
Because they can't.
"Health care fraud probes scaled back" by Fred Schulte | Washington Post, July 26, 2013
WASHINGTON — Facing major budget and staff cuts, federal officials are scaling back several health-care fraud and abuse investigations, including an audit of the state insurance exchanges that are set to open later this year as a key provision of the Affordable Care Act.
No wonder they are such pos.
The Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Inspector General, which investigates Medicare and Medicaid waste, fraud, and abuse, is in the process of losing 400 staffers.
‘‘As [the agency’s] budget resources decline, so do our enforcement and oversight activities,’’ reads an agency document obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. The Office of Inspector General noted that it ‘‘will not be able to keep pace’’ with the rapid growth of taxpayer-subsidized health care anticipated under the Affordable Care Act, the signature health reform effort of the Obama administration....
You thought there was fraud and abuse before! Just wait!
You thought there was fraud and abuse before! Just wait!
Among them, a planned audit into computer security at state marketplaces — known as exchanges — that will sell individual health insurance policies under the Obama health-care law. The inspector general’s office said ‘‘time pressures’’ to get the exchanges up and running by Oct. 1 may increase risks that states will fail to shield private medical information from ‘‘hacker exploits, unauthorized data access, and data theft or manipulation.’’
Are you flipping kidding? And yet they ROLLED IT OUT ANYWAY?
Stay AWAY from the Obamacare exchanges, folks!
In addition, the Office of Inspector General document said, about $3.8 billion in grant money to develop the exchanges is ‘‘potentially at risk for wasteful spending.’’
Remember the $67 million cut for navigators? Can't find it.
Are you flipping kidding? And yet they ROLLED IT OUT ANYWAY?
Stay AWAY from the Obamacare exchanges, folks!
In addition, the Office of Inspector General document said, about $3.8 billion in grant money to develop the exchanges is ‘‘potentially at risk for wasteful spending.’’
Remember the $67 million cut for navigators? Can't find it.
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Also see:
WTF?
"Tarnished by shutdown battle, health law moves ahead; Crucial provision on marketplaces debuts today" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, October 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — Americans lacking health insurance will be able to sign up for coverage beginning Tuesday, federal officials say, despite Tea Party Republicans’ efforts to torpedo President Obama’s health care law or cripple its implementation.
But the debut of the health insurance marketplaces — a critical component of the law that mandates most Americans obtain insurance by January — has been tarnished, politically and practically, by the threat of a government shutdown.
It's the glitches, not the shutdown.
Consumer advocates and health policy experts say recent talk of a shutdown has stirred up even more consumer confusion over an already controversial law. They fear that the added uncertainty will deter people from signing up for health insurance.
I thought we were patients, but....
“This is a distraction to people, and threatens the ability to reach out to those who can really benefit from enrollment,” said Dr. Jay Himmelstein, chief health policy strategist for UMass Medical School’s Center for Health Policy and Research. “A lot of people think the bill has either been repealed or will be repealed imminently, so why should they take the time to invest in learning about something that is going away?”
The Obama administration, including the president himself, is trying to reassure the public that benefits under the 2010 law remain secure. Obama’s key domestic achievement has survived a Supreme Court challenge, a presidential election, and more than 40 attempts by House Republicans to repeal it.
“Let me be clear about this: An important part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect tomorrow no matter what Congress decides to do today,” Obama said Monday evening, referring to the tens of millions of Americans who will be able to shop for insurance on healthcare.gov. “The Affordable Care Act is moving forward and funding is already in place. You can’t shut it down.”
In its contingency plans in the event of a shutdown, the Department of Health and Human Services was prepared to furlough 40,512 employees, or more than half of its staff. However, many of the employees from call center operators to computer technicians and administrators, all responsible for overseeing the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, would be retained, said an HHS spokeswoman.
Even in Massachusetts, whose groundbreaking universal health care law served as the model for the federal overhaul, public confusion abounds.
At a fund-raising walk for a senior center in Dorchester on Saturday, many participants expressed worries about the “ills of Obamacare because all the fear mongering coming out of Washington,” said Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, executive director of Health Care For All, a Boston-based advocacy group.
“When I said that we have Obamacare here already, they were surprised,” Whitcomb Slemmer said. “At first they disagreed with me, but after a 10-minute conversation they seemed convinced that all would be well and that next Saturday would be exactly like last Saturday, or even better.”
Beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Bay State residents will be able to apply for insurance online instead of filling out a paper application that now takes 30 to 45 minutes to complete, said Jason Lefferts, spokesman for the Commonwealth Health Connector, as the insurance marketplace is called in Massachusetts.
Related: Filling Out the Obamacare Forms
You'll love it!
The new online application will eventually be connected to a federal data hub that will be able to determine immediately whether individuals qualify for federal subsidies. That feature will not be ready until November, so applicants seeking subsidies must wait 30 to 45 days to find out how much their subsidies will be.
About 150,000 low-income Massachusetts residents who currently qualify for state health insurance subsidies must choose a new plan and apply for federal subsidies, Lefferts said.
White House officials, mindful that any snags will become instant fodder for Republicans opposed to the health law, have warned that technical glitches will be likely during the initial weeks as the marketplaces come online.
Then why roll it out? Why can't contractors make a decent product instead of a pos?
“News flash: there will be glitches. And when there are glitches, we will fix them,” said David Simas, a White House adviser overseeing the government’s national marketing of the health law, during a briefing with reporters last week.
The federal government helps oversee insurance marketplaces in 36 states, including in Maine and New Hampshire; the rest of the states are running their own marketplaces. Consumers are supposed to be able to shop for health insurance online as easily as they would compare prices of plane tickets.
They mean patients were lied to again.
Those who qualify for federal insurance subsidies will still be able to receive them in the event of a shutdown, according to HHS, because the pool of money that funds the subsidies comes from mandatory spending and not the annual appropriations that are the subject of political wrangling.
This whole budget thing is being overblown.
In addition, a federal call center open 24 hours, seven days a week to help consumers apply for insurance will continue to be staffed. And federally-paid staff, known as navigators, are still fanning out among the states to educate residents about the law and help them sign up.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Obamacare Creating Jobs
They are all part-time and temporary.
Republicans on Monday continued to fight the health care law and blamed Democrats for the looming shutdown because Obama wants “to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care,” Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said.
While polls show the health law remains deeply unpopular in many parts of the country, a CNBC poll last week found that 59 percent of Americans were opposed to defunding the health law if it meant shutting down the government or a government default; only 19 percent favored such a move.
And yet we are constantly told Americans like it by the agenda-pu$hing pre$$.
“Opponents of the law continue to not want to accept reality,” said Mitchell Stein, policy director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Maine, whose Republican governor has refused to accept federal money to expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income residents.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Maine and Medicaid
Also see: Sunday Globe Specials: Mini Maine
Americans will be able to enroll in the new marketplaces from October through March, with coverage benefits beginning Jan. 1 for those who sign up by Dec. 15.
Still, nearly three-quarters of the uninsured do not know that people will be able to begin shopping for health insurance starting October, according to Kaiser’s latest monthly poll released on Saturday.
“People will naturally be wondering if the exchanges will really open tomorrow if so many things are shutting down,” said Jon Kingsdale, former head of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority and now a health care consultant helping other states develop insurance marketplaces. “A government shutdown will add to people’s mystification about what all this is actually about.”
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Let the battles begin!
"Battle reignites with rollout of health law near; Across US, GOP officials working to block signups" by Michael D. Shear | New York Times, September 22, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama waged a fierce fight to pass his health care law four years ago. But as his administration prepares to put it in place, he is facing an aggressive Republican campaign to prevent a successful rollout and to deny him his most important legacy.
Starting this week, the White House will kick off a six-month campaign to persuade millions of uninsured Americans to sign up for health coverage as part of insurance marketplaces that open for business Oct. 1. If too few people enroll, the centerpiece of the president’s Affordable Care Act could collapse.
Tax dollars are being used for that?
But instead of offering the kind of grudging cooperation that normally follows even the most bitter of legislative battles, Obama’s foes have intensified their opposition, trying to deepen the nation’s anger about the health insurance program.
They didn't have to try very hard.
Across the country, Republicans are eager to prevent people from enrolling, fearing that once people begin receiving the benefit they will be loath to give it up.
Why is the a$$umption that people will like this monstrosity written of, by, and for the in$urance industry?
And in Washington, lawmakers have cast the law as the evil villain in a legislative melodrama about the budget that is barreling toward another government shutdown.
One group called Generation Opportunity distributed a Web video last week showing a creepy-looking Uncle Sam peering between a woman’s legs at a gynecologist’s office.
I saw that on Bill Maher's show.
“Don’t let government play doctor,” the video says at the end. “Opt out of Obamacare.”
In the face of the intense opposition, the White House is pushing ahead with a fierce public relations effort that will begin ramping up in earnest Monday, according to top White House aides in charge of the program.
I guess I will be needing that health care because I am so sick of the imagery and illusion of public relations propaganda!
Officials said the rollout would include a presidential event next week in New York with President Clinton and a health care speech by Obama on Thursday in Maryland. Michelle Obama will urge mothers and veterans to get their families enrolled.
Vice President Joe Biden will host a nationwide conference call with nurses to enlist them in the effort to spread the word. Members of the president’s cabinet will fan out across the country, lobbying constituent groups to prod their members into action.
Didn't they just flood the zone on Syria?
Those efforts will eventually be augmented by a Madison Avenue-style advertising campaign by insurance companies, which officials say are poised to spend $1 billion or more to attract millions of new customers.
Some of the ads are likely to be aimed at young people, many of whom are uninsured but healthy — and great for the insurance companies’ bottom line.
Of course, this was ALL SUPPOSED to be about YOUR HEALTH, right?
Liberal advocacy groups have also begun to organize door-to-door canvassing much as they did on behalf of Obama’s two presidential campaigns. The overarching goal is to persuade many of today’s 48 million uninsured to sign up for insurance on the new exchanges created by the law.
Just not in Texas.
But even as Obama’s campaign accelerates, Republicans at all political levels are working against the law.
Thank God for that.
The Republican National Committee has begun what it calls a monthlong “awareness campaign,” with a television booking operation to make sure that pundits opposed to the law are always available to counter its boosters.
The committee’s effort has booked local and national politicians on radio programs like “The Hugh Hewitt Show” and cable programs like “The Mike Huckabee Show.”
A Republican committee website counts down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until what it calls the “Obamacare Train Wreck.”
Republican state and local officials are trying to thwart the administration’s enrollment efforts by imposing restrictions and requirements on volunteers.
The Heritage Action Fund organized a “Defund Obamacare” bus tour this summer that helped convince House Republicans that no budget deal should be made without stripping the money from the health law.
And in Congress, House Republicans are threatening to shut down the government and risk a default unless Congress eliminates all of the financing for the law, effectively killing it.
“Today, the constitutional conservatives in the House are keeping their word to our constituents and our nation to stand true to our principles, to protect them from the most unpopular law ever passed in the history of the country — Obamacare — that intrudes on their privacy and our most sacred right as Americans to be left alone,” Representative John Culberson, Republican of Texas, said Friday.
White House officials bluntly call the Republican efforts a “sabotage campaign” and concede that the assault on the law will make it harder to persuade people to sign up for insurance.
In Florida, Ohio, and Missouri, state officials have moved to undercut efforts to enroll people in coverage. In Georgia, the insurance comjmissioner, Ralph T. Hudgens, has said he will do “everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”
The result, White House officials said, is likely to be confusion among some members of the public and the potential for a muddled message at the worst time. People may get a knock on the door from someone urging them to sign up for insurance, only to see a TV commercial a few minutes later urging them to “opt out” of the program.
Last week, Obama joined a conference call with thousands of health law volunteers to encourage them in their efforts.
“So we’re on our way to make sure that health care is affordable for every single American, and they’re not using the emergency room as their primary care provider,” Obama told the volunteers. “But that only happens with all of you.”
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"A wide divide across New England on health overhaul" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, August 24, 2013
WASHINGTON — Massachusetts residents will be able choose among insurance plans offered by 10 companies when a key element of President Obama’s health care law takes effect on Oct. 1. But Connecticut residents will be choosing from only three, while New Hampshirites will have just one option.
These are among the disparities — some of which are just now coming to light — that consumers who lack employer-provided plans and are ineligible for Medicare will face as they begin shopping online for health insurance under the federal health reform law.
The differences highlight how the consumer experience will vary widely under health reform, despite the law’s intent to make the complex world of health care more transparent, affordable, and equitable. That has led some supporters of the health care law to worry that consumers will be confused and upset by the state-by-state variations, just as the heart of the law — an online portal allowing people to shop for insurance, called a marketplace — is being implemented.
I thought we were patients, not con$umers. That alone tells you where the agenda-pu$hing corporate pre$$ is coming from.
“For consumers in some states, it means there’s less choice. It’s a real problem because it reduces the competitive pressure on pricing and on other performance criteria,” said Jon Kingsdale, who set up the Massachusetts health insurance marketplace under the state’s groundbreaking 2006 law and who is now a consultant helping other states start their own marketplaces.
The wide range in the number of insurers reflects the states’ varying market conditions. Uncertainty about how the new system will work has led some carriers to postpone participation, especially in states like New Hampshire, which has actively resisted the health care overhaul.
About 10 percent of consumers are expected to buy insurance through the marketplaces for benefits that would start in January. The law requires most Americans to obtain insurance by Jan. 1 or face a financial penalty.
New England’s six states reflect the patchwork manner in which the 2010 law is being adopted across the country.
***************************
Consumer advocates said the federal government is overwhelmed by the challenge of implementing the law on a national scale amid widespread resistance. The vast amount of work required prevents the government from tailoring its efforts to the unique insurance markets of each state.
“The feds never thought they would be running 34 marketplaces,” Kingsdale said. The federal government is not spending as much to publicize the law in these states, he said, “and now they are facing the threat of Republicans shutting down the entire government to starve Obamacare.”
The online insurance marketplaces — a key underpinning of the federal law — are supposed to serve as a one-stop shop for consumers to compare insurance plans, making the experience of purchasing insurance as simple as buying a plane ticket....
I sure as hell hope Deloitte didn't design the system.
*******************************
Vermont, meanwhile, is simultaneously moving ahead with plans for a first-in-the-nation state-based, single-payer system, which is slated to begin in 2017.
Now THAT is worth LOOKING INTO!
The state would fund all Vermonters’ coverage through some combination of federal money, state taxes, and individual contributions.
Health reform advocates hope that just as Obama modeled his health care overhaul on the Massachusetts plan, other states will follow the Bay State’s lead on developing a marketplace for insurance that attracts many companies.
Since Mitt Romney signed the health reform law as governor in 2006, the number of insurers serving the individual market in Massachusetts more than quadrupled over the seven years of reform, jumping from two in 2005 to nine in 2013.
During that time, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ share of the marketplace dropped from 80 percent to less than 40 percent, according to a June report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The state will add one more plan to the marketplace in 2014, offering Bay State consumers a total of 10 carriers from which to choose.
A state report found that average individual premiums in Massachusetts were 33 percent lower in 2008 than prior to reform....
Even as costs have been going through the roof.
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And what we ALL SAID WOULD HAPPEN:
"Mass. firms mull cuts in health benefits; Fear rising costs under new US law" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, September 02, 2013
WASHINGTON — Some Massachusetts companies are considering trimming employee insurance benefits as they prepare to implement provisions of President Obama’s health care overhaul, a move that follows announcements by several national firms that they plan to cut coverage, according to business leaders.
In recent weeks, UPS and Delta Airlines, among others, have said they would scale back benefits to make up for new expenses incurred under the health law. That has prompted employers across the country, including in Massachusetts, to study whether to cut the number of hours in a typical workweek and eliminate coverage for spouses who can get insurance through their own employer, among other changes.
The potential cutbacks in coverage come just months before the law requires most Americans to obtain health insurance by Jan. 1. Some Massachusetts industry leaders say they are worried that progress made under the state’s first-in-the-nation health reform law will stall — or that advances will be lost.
“It only takes one or two companies like UPS to start the trend. And that makes me nervous because in Massachusetts, there’s nowhere to go but backwards,” said Kristen Lepore, vice president for government affairs at the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state's largest employer association. “Both small and large employers are concerned.”
The uncertainty is echoed by other New England business groups, which are watching Massachusetts companies closely as they weigh whether to drop health insurance coverage and move workers into government-run marketplaces where many will qualify for federal subsidies to buy private insurance.
They are going to dump workers like Nevada dumps mental patients -- which is EXACTLY WHAT WAS PREDICTED by those that OPPOSED THIS!
Companies in New England that are known to be considering coverage cutbacks refused to speak on the record because they do not want to incite employee backlash before a decision has been made and risk losing workers to competitors, say trade group representatives.
Where are they going to go?
“They’re still trying to figure this out, and they don’t want to tip their hand,” said Don Nokes, president of the Rhode Island Business Group on Health.
Similar concerns were raised in 2006, when Massachusetts passed its health reform law on which the federal legislation was modeled.
At the time, businesses worried that costs would skyrocket and eat into their bottom lines. Consumer advocates worried employers would drop coverage.
The fears proved unfounded. The number of employers offering health insurance grew from 70 percent in 2005 to 76 percent in 2011 — compared to a stagnant 60 percent nationally, according to a report by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.
Because they SEE a PILE of MONEY for their BOTTOM LINE! Aren't you paying attention?
Now Massachusetts employers are increasingly worried about the ramifications of the federal law, which, in some instances, imposes more stringent — and more expensive — requirements than the state law.
Related:
"New federal regulations written to implement the Affordable Care Act threaten to saddle thousands of Bay State businesses with big increases in premiums."
Some to be TRIPLED!
The federal law requires companies with 50 or more employees to offer insurance to full-time workers — those working 30 or more hours a week.
That is why employers are cutting back to under 30 hours for employees now.
The state law, on the other hand, defines full-time as over 35 hours a week.
As a result, Lepore and others said, many companies that employ low-wage, seasonal, or part-time workers — including retail and fast-food businesses, and even colleges and universities — are contemplating reducing employees’ schedules to under 30 hours a week so they do not have to bear the cost of providing health insurance.
Related:
"Provisions of the law, such as a per-participant fee to subsidize premiums for high-cost people in the individual policy market, encourage employers to reduce the number of people they cover."
How many times to I have to repeat myself?
To mitigate employer concerns and give businesses across the country time to adjust, the Obama administration announced this summer that it would delay the employer mandate to offer health insurance by one year, to 2015.
But YOU still have to buy a crappy corporate policy -- remember, Obama wouldn't even give us the public option -- or face a tax penalty!
After 2015, large companies that do not offer their full-time employees insurance will be fined $2,000 per employee. In comparison, the fine for not covering employees in Massachusetts was $295, but that has now been abolished to make way for the federal penalty.
Notwithstanding the Obama administration's decision to put off the employer mandate for a year, some companies have already decided to cut employee hours, which would enable them to provide coverage to fewer workers when the law does go into full effect.
And we were told, no, no, no, this won't happen!
Forever 21, a national teen clothing chain, said in August that it will cut the hours for full-time nonmanagement staff to 29.5 hours a week. The company denied the change was made in response to the federal law, known as the Affordable Care Act, or, colloquially, as “Obamacare.”
What else could it have been?
Some advocates for expanding health care have said companies are using the law as a scapegoat in explaining coverage cutbacks.
What does it matter why? What matters is they are DOING IT!!
UPS, the shipping company, recently said it will not cover spouses of employees if the spouses have jobs that provide health coverage. The company said that the decision, which will affect 15,000 spouses, was made in part because of higher costs associated with the Affordable Care Act.
And UPS is a huge multinational that is damn near indispensable. If they are going to cut off spouses, what hopes do the rest of us have?
“This change is consistent with the way many large employers are responding to the costs associated with the health care reform legislation,” said the company in a memo to employees. Before reaching its decision, UPS said it studied other companies’ health benefits and determined that 35 percent plan to exclude working spouses in 2014.
Delta Airlines has reduced the generous health benefits offered to its pilots in order to avoid a new federal tax on costly health plans, known as the “Cadillac tax.” Starting in 2018, most employers must pay a 40 percent excise tax on the amount that premiums for a health plan exceed $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family.
So even the GOOD PLANS are going to be SHREDDED!
“Given enough years, all plans will eventually risk being subject to the Cadillac tax and as they do, the natural reaction will be to continually reduce benefits provided,” wrote a Delta executive in a memo.
The myriad new taxes imposed under the federal law make Massachusetts companies nervous, Lepore said. Many are awaiting insurance rates for Jan. 1 to be announced before making a decision on benefits.
Better get that anxiety checked out by a doctor.
“If prices keep going up, they may entertain a plan with less coverage,” said Ryan Kearney, general counsel of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which represents smaller businesses. “For some businesses, depending on how their numbers work out, it may be more optimal for them to drop coverage and just pay the fine.”
Obama told me that wouldn't happen.
Among the primary concerns for companies with fewer than 50 employees is that the federal law requires Massachusetts to dismantle its own insurance rating system that allowed insurers to consider about 10 factors in setting the rates for small businesses.
The federal law mandates that insurers use only four rating factors — age, number of family members, geographic area, and tobacco use — and does not take into account the size of the company, a change that small businesses fear will drive costs up by more than 50 percent.
The federal government has agreed to allow Massachusetts to phase in the change over three years, but the Bay State business community, as well as the Legislature, will continue seeking a federal waiver.
Patrick isn't pushing for it that hard.
“If we don’t get the waiver and some employers see those big rate increases, we might see some employers dropping coverage,” said Richard Lord, president and CEO of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
In Warwick, R.I., a manufacturing company employing about 100 workers has eliminated health coverage for employees’ spouses, going as far as calling the spouses’ employers to check whether they offer health insurance, said Amy Gallagher, vice president of major accounts at the Cornerstone Group, a benefits advisory firm based in Rhode Island.
The company expects the move to save 15 to 20 percent in health benefit costs, Gallagher said. Gallagher said the company’s owner did not want the business to be named.
While national business groups have been hostile to some elements of the federal law, Massachusetts companies for the most part bought into the state’s reform efforts in 2006, a key reason why the state law has been so successful, advocates and business leaders say.
“It’s critically important to maintain the underpinnings of what made health reform successful in Massachusetts, which includes employer responsibility,” said Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, executive director of the Boston-based Health Care For All.
That underpinning is being knocked out as I type.
Indeed, the Obama law has spurred at least one Massachusetts company to expand employee access to health coverage beyond federal requirements.
The one corn kernel of a silver lining in this log of s***.
Framingham-based Cumberland Gulf Group, which owns the Cumberland Farms convenience stores and Gulf Oil gas stations, is reclassifying more than 1,200 part-time workers to full time to make them eligible for health insurance beginning Oct 1. The company said the move will cost the company several million dollars but will help it retain valued workers, which it said would please customers and pay off in the long run.
“Some companies are taking full-time people and converting them to part time. We’re taking the opposite approach,” said John McMahon, Cumberland Gulf Group’s senior vice president and chief human resources officer. “It’s not just the right thing to do, but it’s also a good business decision.”
Maybe that's where I need to apply for a job.
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I'm sure the Globe has all the an$wers:
"No easy answers for containing health care costs" by Robert Weisman | Globe Staff, September 22, 2013
David Seltz, executive director of the new Health Policy Commission, a watchdog agency created by last year’s state law, said at a Boston forum last week, “We need to trust what many of the [health care leaders] have said, but we also need to verify.”
The health care leaders are enemies?
Related: Holding On to the Joint
If so, that does stink. What is a country's soul if it's health care leaders must be watched like enemies?
Seltz was referring to the answers given by the chief executives to pointed questions posed by members of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization about what steps they were taking to restrain health costs. Many of their answers, offered during the often emotional session at Temple Israel in the Longwood Medical Area, had a self-congratulatory tone....
Do I even need to type jewspaper?
In stark contrast, patients and business owners said the cost of care — as well as the medical bureaucracy — has become an albatross for ordinary people and a drag on the economy.
And we had a seven year head start on you, America.
Myron Miller, principal in the Boston architecture and planning firm Miller Dyer Spears Inc., which has about 40 employees, said the firm’s health premiums have climbed an average of 10 to 20 percent annually for the past decade, nearly tripling over the past six years alone. To compensate, he said, Miller Dyer Spears has moved to health plans with higher deductibles, requiring its employees to contribute more to their insurance.
“The result has been a continued erosion of benefits,” Miller told more than 150 people at the interfaith forum. “The net effect is the firm has fewer resources available to increase employee salaries and bonuses. We’ve reached the limit of our ability to fund the increases.”
But it is still the best health care system in the world!
Charlene P. Harper, an athletic trainer from Natick, said her dealings with the health care system have been nightmarish....
That's what happens in a fa$ci$t dictatorship.
The meeting at Temple Israel marked the first of several health-cost events scheduled in coming weeks. The Health Policy Commission will hold two days of cost trend hearings Oct. 1 and 2 at the University of Massachusetts Boston to question some of the same business leaders — and others — about what they are doing to cut costs.
How about giving up he multi-million dollar salaries and benefit packages?
One trend that is likely to be talked about is the ongoing wave of hospital consolidation, an issue that didn’t come up at Temple Israel.
It's the future of health care.
The commission has launched a cost and market impact review of Partners’ bid to acquire South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, a proposed takeover that is also being investigated by the antitrust division of the Justice Department and state Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office.
“We’re concerned not only about Partners, but about the whole restructuring of the health care landscape,” said Stuart Altman, chairman of the state commission. “One of the reasons that Massachusetts is so expensive is that we disproportionately use our most expensive facilities for routine care. That’s where the money goes.”
To lower prices, Altman said, the commission wants providers to offer more basic care in community settings, and use Boston teaching hospitals only for more complex services.
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Related:
"Separately, Obama came to the rescue of members of Congress and their aides Friday, saying the federal government would continue paying a large share of their health insurance premiums. Ambiguous provisions of the health care law had created serious doubts about whether such contributions would continue."
But you will still be face with paying a bigger share of expenses anyway.
Also see: A Healthy Insult For the American People
No Obamacare for them?
Of course, it really is no mystery as to why they charge different amounts, and you will never know if they made an error as they store all the records in a cloud.
