Obamacare Is Succeeding!

There are no shortage of irresponsible ingrates as of late who feel they owe nothing to a nation that has provided whatever security and opportunities they enjoy.

Anyone who argues that a health care system that costs twice as much as most advanced nations, fails to cover 50 million fellow citizens, and where those who are lucky enough to be covered under employer-administered plans depend upon a $250 billion annual taxpayer subsidy sells his nation awfully short.

Americans are capable of far better than such an inferior level of achievement.


If they can point to a system that rivals those of nations that have actually managed universal, quality coverage at half the cost, they can name that country. If all they have are airy-fairy ideological pipe dreams with no real paradigms, they need to honestly admit it.

We need pragmatic approaches and practical solutions, not make believe.


.

 

I dunno, nothing in Obamacare caused United Healthcare to raise my premiums by $200/mo. to $1,350.

 

I don't believe you have the same policy with the same coverage with 600% increase. Just not reality. But no, obamacare didn't cause your premiums to go up.

 

If....Romney Care which was developed when Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney brought in the absolute best and brightest to develop a very specific system of Universal Healthcare which has been extremely successful in Massachusetts as the amount of money spent to pay for Emergency Room and Ambulance Costs left unpaid by the uninsured FAR EXCEEDED the cost of paying for Massachusetts Universal Healthcare.....IF....this plan is used IN WHOLE AND UNCHANGED on a Federal Level it WILL SAVE MONEY.

Massachusetts installed Universal Healthcare in 2011 and it IMMEDIATELY saved over $175 Million right out the gate and because of it Massachusetts went from having a year after year budget deficit now has a LARGE BUDGET SURPLUS.

The PLAN WORKS....but ONLY....if it is not tinkered with as it has been designed to work as a whole as it was designed to do and even the very Hyper Critical Massachusetts Taxpayers Association....a group DEDICATED to detailing to the General Massachusetts PUBLIC ACTUAL DATA OF COSTS AND SAVINGS as the MTA is well aware of the penchant of Politicians to fudge data and numbers in order to make failing programs look like they are working for reasons of reelection.....the MTA in great detail published it's findings and determination and declared ROMNEY CARE to be an OVERWHELMING SUCCESS!!!

Now....Romney Care is essentially the exact same Universal Healthcare Program that will be used on a FEDERAL LEVEL and as long as no Politicians tinker with it or change it....Universal Healthcare will be an overwhelming success on a Federal Level....as it is a COLD HARD DOCUMENTED FACT.....that the COST of Universal Healthcare even using HIGH END CALCULATED COST FIGURES....are 50% LOWER than the costs currently incurred by the Federal Government to reimburse States a percentage of the costs that Hospitals and Ambulance services in all states incurred since IT IS A FEDERAL LAW NO ONE CAN BE REFUSED AMBULANCE SERVICE AND EMERGENCY ROOM TREATMENT.

What was happening in Mass....and IS happening in all other states is the poor and uninsured who could or can not afford insurance or afford to pay for a Doctor's visit would show up at a Hospital Emergency Room for anything from a Chest Cold to a Hang Nail....and since it is a Federal Law no one can be refused treatment....the uninsured or poor would bring themselves or their kids to an ER....just to see a Doctor and get an Rx for some Amoxicillin to treat the Viral Cold symptoms such as a now Infected kids nose or sinuses or lungs from a combination of constantly blowing their nose and rubbing it with tissues and constant coughing and although a Cold is a Virus and can only be cured by the Human Immune System....poor families with an inability to give their children proper nutrician or a daily vitamin will result in a lowering of the kids immune system thus the Virus takes longer to kill by kids body and thus longer Cold Symptoms resulting in BACTERIAL INFECTIONS of the nose membranes, sinuses, lungs, ears, throat...etc.

So....what should only cost $35-$50 for a Doctors visit or only $15 Co-Pay if they had insurance....NOW COSTS OVER $2000 Dollars for an Emergency Room Visit which such poor or uninsured cannot afford to pay which is then paid by the State and Federal Government.

And THAT is only for a kid with a COLD....imagine the over $10,000 to $30,000 cost of a kid who is brought in to the Emergency Room with a broken arm.

And imagine the close to $1 MILLION cost of an uninsured patient who has a stroke or heart attack.

When Mass. started Romney Care in 2011 Mass. stopped getting FEDERAL FUNDS to pay part of Emergency Room and Ambulance Costs as EVERYONE HAD INSURANCE.

I am WEALTHY and my cost per month WENT DOWN....as well my Family owns several now large companies and under the new Employee Business Insurance Plan for Massachusetts Companies our total Insurance cost expenditures ALSO WENT DOWN BY 9.7% and our employees have the same coverage and a LOWER CO-PAY!!

I still go to my same Doctor I have ALWAYS gone to and I have the SAME COVERAGE.....and here is the thing....even though I have the same coverage if I wanted to increase my coverage I could do so as it would simply be pro-rated into my cost.

ANYONE....who is claiming the sky is falling as far as Federal Universal Healthcare is concerned will only BE RIGHT....if some IDIOTS in Washington CHANGE what has been designed by the best and brightest people in their perspective fields as the Massachusetts system....WHICH WORKS EXCEPTIONALLY WELL....will ONLY WORK...if it is implemented as it was designed to be.

Any Congressional TINKERING or Senate STUPIDITY....will simply place the system out of balance as Massachusetts Universal Healthcare is very much like a SAILBOAT WITH A LONG KEEL....the sailboats KEEL is a long and relatively thin wooden or metal board or structure set at the bottom of a sailboat so that when the sails of the boat are being filled by wind and this pulls the sailboat along...this keel prevents the sailboat from tipping over as it is much deeper into the water than the rest of the hull.

The keel of any different sailboat may be longer or shorter or even have a winged bottom for additional stability but one thing is for certain...the sailboats keel is designed in length and width and other various specific ways to be of use for ANY ONE SPECIFIC BOAT....and if this keel were to be cut shorter or made thinner or changed in any way or manner that would be adverse to the ability of the sailboat to properly function and move without tipping over.....then the sailboat is DOOMED TO FAILURE even before it leaves the dock or slip.

THAT...is what I WORRY ABOUT!!!!

It is NOT a question of whether or not Romney Care works...IT DOES....AND IT DOES MAGNIFICENTLY and has been PROVEN to work and save taxpayers millions if not BILLIONS of Dollars.

The question is whether or not someone in Washington will mess with it....to make it fail.

AboveAlpha

 

Here's a recent article from USA Today that looked interesting! Killing Obamacare and legalizing marijuana using "Irish democracy".
How Americans can kill Obamacare, legalize pot: Column
Nobody is signing up, and everybody -- in Colorado,at least -- is smoking.
In his excellent book, Two Cheers For Anarchism, Professor James Scott writes:

One need not have an actual conspiracy to achieve the practical effects of a conspiracy. More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by what was once called 'Irish Democracy,' the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people, than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs.

That seems to be happening right now, in two very different areas. In one area, we have the refusal of people to sign up for Obamacare in anything like the numbers that were predicted, or needed to make it work. Writing in the Washington Post back in November, Jennifer Rubin observed:

It is a coin flip, at best, for the president as to whether his signature achievement, his only achievement, will fail. It will be repealed in essence by a popular referendum: The mass refusal of people to go along with Obama's top-down, compulsory system that was set to transform a sixth of the economy. That possibility should traumatize and probably is traumatizing the White House. ... The political implications of this are almost too enormous to calculate.

Now, as February draws near, things don't look much better. Far fewer than half the number needed by March 31 have signed up. And, as it turns out, most of the people signing up for Obamacare aren't the uninsured for whom it was supposedly enacted, but people who were previously insured (many of whom lost their previous insurance because of Obamacare's new requirements). "At most," writes Bloomberg's Megan McArdle, "they've signed up 15% of the uninsured that they were expecting to enroll. ... Where are the uninsured? Did hardly any of them want coverage beginning Jan. 1?" It looks that way.

In fact, there seem to be more uninsured than there were before Obama took office, leaving Jonah Goldberg to ask, "So what was the point of Obamacare again?"

If the program fails, it won't be because Republicans stopped it, despite all the House votes and defunding efforts. It will be because millions of Americans' passive resistance brought it to its knees. Irish Democracy, indeed.

Meanwhile, on the marijuana front, the people of states like Colorado are engaging in an odd, 21st century variety of nullification. Unlike the 19th century John Calhoun version, state laws legalizing marijuana don't purport to neutralize the still-extant federal laws banning cannabis. But the state, and millions of Coloradans, are simply ignoring the federal law and, in essence, daring the feds to do something about it.

State laws, of course, can't neutralize federal law, as the Constitution's Supremacy Clause makes clear. But, bloated as it is, the federal law enforcement apparatus isn't up to the task of prosecuting all the marijuana users in Colorado. And if it tried, it would have to bring them to trial before juries in Colorado, who would probably acquit most of them. There would also be massive political backlash, amplified in the coming 2014 and 2016 elections because Colorado is a swing state. And in response to Colorado's example, other states look likely to follow suit, making the feds' problem much bigger.

So, despite all the federal laws on the books, Colorado has de facto nullified them, and started a process that may very well snowball, all without directly attacking the federal laws, or the federal government, at all. Meanwhile, millions of Americans may be in the process of effectively killing Obamacare simply by staying home.

As we struggle, mostly in vain, to rein in the metastasizing power of a federal government that has grown out of control, perhaps Irish Democracy offers a solution. Sometimes it seems like that's the only kind of democracy that's likely to make a difference.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...lth-exchanges-insurance-obama-column/4913341/

 

Pot is basically LEGAL in Massachusetts as if a person is caught with an ounce or less they get a TICKET as it is no longer a CRIME.

But here is the FUNNY PART....since it is not a criminal offense...a Cop can't even ask a person for their ID if they get caught with an OZ or less so the Cop's have publicly stated they WILL NOT ENFORCE THE TICKET LAW!! LOL!

AboveAlpha

 

You ignored what I posted.............

The median waiting time has doubled in the last 20 years....it's gotten worse rather than better. I love the folks that think single payer is some kind of efficient utopia. It's not. When your kids are screaming in pain after waiting 2 weeks with 16 more to go like Canada before they actually get treatment OR they end up in a pine box like England.......

Dementia victims 'have twice the risk of dying in hospital while a third are not properly diagnosed by staff'

University professor, 37, dies from lung cancer after string of doctors dismissed symptoms as 'anxiety and depression'

Premature twins died after being given 10 times too much morphine, nursing tribunal hears

Failings in NHS cost 30,000 lives every year

Inspections highlight 'barbaric' home care failings

NHS watchdog to tackle malnutrition in hospitals

Elderly warned of growing isolation as face-to-face care cut

Family of RAF's finest who shot V1 rockets out the sky forced to sell medals to pay for care home

Closing the Independent Living Fund shows how low the government will go

Elderly patients diagnosed with 'acopia' - a disease that does not exist

Mid-Staffs scandal: Sir David Nicholson could face corporate manslaughter and misconduct charges

Growing fears of Bolton hospital death rate 'cover up'

Patients 'are still in danger from nurses who can't speak English' say MPs, as they call for urgent action

Older diabetics are suffering 'needless' amputations and blindness because they get the worst care

Pensioner placed on Liverpool Care Pathway WITHOUT family's permission dies after spending eight days without food or water

‘Basic errors in care cause kidney deaths’

Choosing a GP means gambling with your life – this must stop

Seventeen NHS hospitals have dangerously low numbers of nurses

Hospital patients won’t complain for fear of retribution

New avoidable-deaths scandal to put more pressure on NHS chief

Nurse linked to the death of premature twins killed by '10 times too much morphine' is allowed to keep working

NHS neglect: elderly patients ‘denied help with food’

Hip fracture patients suffering 'indefensible postcode lottery'

Snap inspections expose scandal of 'institutionalised abuse' in care homes and hospitals

Children's lives are being put at risk by a 'chronic shortage' of hospital doctors on weekends and evenings

Hospital that left patients lying in soiled sheets and shivering with cold is given a stark warning to improve by health watchdog

Mother-of-three dies of meningitis just five days after being admitted to hospital with EARACHE

A&E patients being forced to wait in ambulances for up to eight hours because of lack of beds

An unprecedented crisis is approaching, say the health service’s most senior figures

Number of patients being tied up and locked in rooms by care staff DOUBLES as MPs issue warning about hospital abuse

Thousands dying of thirst on NHS: Watchdog forced to issue guidelines on giving patients water

Woman who was sterilised is horrified to discover metal surgical clip had travelled from her groin to her CHEST

'My daughter was sent home from A&E to die of croup': Grieving mother to sue hospital after one-year-old's death

The little girl who could have been saved from meningitis - by jab NHS refuses to fund

Concerns over nursery worker who raped child 'were not investigated'

GPs predict longer waiting times - survey

NHS waiting lists are longest in five years

Pensioner died in agony after developing a horrific bedsore in hospital which left her spine exposed

Grandmother, 55, died from cervical cancer after her GP dismissed her symptoms as the MENOPAUSE

Children left disabled by meningitis after GPs failed to diagnose them are paid £28m in compensation

Girl, two, 'died after doctors failed to talk to each other about MRI scan that showed she had water on the brain'

Surge in elderly abuse and neglect claims

'I would worry if my family was taken to hospital at weekends': NHS boss admits he is concerned about staffing levels

How GPs are paid £50 bonus to put elderly on 'death lists'

Christian missionary, 49, died of heart failure and brain damage after waiting more than an HOUR for ambulance to arrive

'You condemned my sweetheart to death'

Doctors, nurses and managers to face five years in jail if they neglect patients

Dehydration and malnutrition led to 2,162 deaths in care since 2003

Jeremy Hunt says 32 hospitals are under investigation over links to claims of sexual abuse by presenter

Colchester hospital faces criminal investigation over waiting list figures

Brain haemorrhage patients face unnecessary delays, study finds

Four hospitals understaffed, says NHS watchdog

Royal College of Nursing claims that as many as one in six nursing posts at some NHS hospitals are lying vacant

.............you may see things differently.

 

You are talking about CANADA.

The Canadian Heathcare Infrastructure is not even 1/500th what exists in the United States.

The facts are we in Massachusetts have had Universal Healthcare since 2011 and because of it we have a massive surplus budget and we IMMEDIATELY saved over $175 Million as soon as Universal Healthcare was implemented...and we had ZERO Federal Money to help us pay for it.

The FACTS are that it cost more money for the Federal and State Governments to pay for Emergency Room and Ambulance Bills left unpaid by the poor and uninsured that the cost of Universal Healthcare.

Fact....Emergency Room's had over 45% less patients as poor and uninsured no longer had to go to ER's to get Rx's that any Doctor could write.

Fact....Average Insurance payments and co-pays went DOWN.

FACT....actual coverage INCREASED for less money paid.

FACT...it works...and has worked in Mass. since 2011.

AboveAlpha

 

He needs to cherry pick and fixate exclusively on the negative aspects of just one system to prop up his ideological dogma, rather than take a comprehensive look at pragmatic efforts toward practical solutions.

Meanwhile, we'll soon have in the US an actual reform that reflects the approach of the most successful nations.

With 50 potential paradigms, the nation needs to facilitate such innovations. Just as WillardCare provided the model for the current law of the land, Vermont - or some other state - may demonstrate how further progress can be achieved.

 

Mass Healthcare was enacted in 2006 and they now have the highest healthcare costs in the entire nation.


Health care spending in Massachusetts is the highest in the nation, at 36 percent above the national average.
http://www.golocalworcester.com/news/massachusetts-healthcare-spending-highest-in-the-nation/

 

Further proof that Obamacare is succeeding - more Red states politicians are accepting it:


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/2014-gop-candidates-medicaid-expansion


GOP Candidates Suddenly Find Love For Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion


comments -- or the lack thereof -- from some GOP candidates in state and national elections suggest that opposition might not be as ironclad as previously believed, as the Washington Post's Greg Sargent has documented. In at least one case, in fact, a Republican in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country effectively endorsed the expansion.

It's a huge shift from the "defund or repeal" mantra during the government shutdown of October, a possible indicator that some conservatives are recognizing that Obamacare is here to stay -- and that proposing to knock the newly enrolled off Medicaid is politically perilous.

"Coverage is great and having more people covered is excellent ...








Coverage is expanding and lives are being saved because ACA is working!


Thank you President Obama!

 

What we need is a Federal government once again instead of the national government that has usurped the individual's rights and the rights of the 50 states. The Federal government has no role in health care. Its involvement is why our health care is expensive beyond necessity. A statist will always find a reason for the state to meddle.

 

Patrick-Murray Administration Announces $205 Million in Savings From Municipal Health Care Reform

Comprehensive Report Shows Potential for $250 million statewide, More Than Double Initial Savings Estimates

BOSTON – Friday, January 25, 2013 – Delivering his welcoming remarks at the 34th Massachusetts Municipal Association's annual meeting Friday, Governor Deval Patrick announced that more than 204 communities and school districts across the Commonwealth have collectively saved more than $200 million in health insurance premiums as a result of the landmark municipal health care reform law.

"Massachusetts leads the nation in health care coverage, and working together we are lowering the cost of health care so it can be as affordable as it is accessible," said Governor Patrick. "With labor at the table, municipal health care reform has had a powerful and immediate impact on municipal finances across the Commonwealth, while maintaining quality, affordable health care for working families.”

“The successful implementation of municipal health care reform has achieved real results and great savings for cities and towns across Massachusetts,” said Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray. “During tough fiscal times, our Administration has worked closely with cities and towns and public employee unions through this reform to help preserve essential local government jobs and services.”

According to the report, there is the potential for an additional $45 million dollars in savings were more municipalities and regional school districts to use the reform process. Combined with savings announced today, this reform has the potential to achieve over $250 million in savings statewide.

"Municipal health care reform has changed the way cities and towns negotiate their health insurance plans and helped municipalities stem the rising costs of health insurance to save jobs and deliver core local services like education and public safety," said Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor.

To date, 81 cities and towns have completed the process and made changes to employee health plans or joined the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) resulting in nearly $70 million in employer and employee premium cost savings. Employers and employees share almost equally in the $70 million in reform savings after accounting for sharing savings with employees through mitigation programs in addition to direct employee premium savings. In addition, more than 122 communities and school districts have used the new law as leverage to negotiate health plan insurance changes with local unions without actually adopting the reform, yielding more than $137 million in total premium savings for employers and employees in the first year.

Municipal health care reform is providing significant and immediate savings to cities and towns, while preserving a meaningful role for organized labor in the process and protecting health care quality for retirees and municipal employees. Cities and towns now have the choice of a new, expedited process to implement changes to existing local health care plan design or join the state’s GIC. Since the law was adopted, 16 new communities and school districts have joined the GIC - 7 using the new reform process and 9 negotiating outside of the reform process. The GIC now has 43 communities and school districts representing over 45,000 municipal subscribers.

According to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, this reform could produce as much as $2.8 billion in cumulative savings over 10 years if implemented by all communities and school districts.

Two years ago at the Mass Municipal Association’s Annual Meeting, Governor Patrick introduced his municipal health care reform bill to allow communities to either join the GIC or come up with their own plan or program of equivalent value and cost. Together with the Legislature, labor, and municipal managers, this reform has given municipalities another tool in the toolbox to support the continued delivery of critical local services.

“As we approach the second anniversary of municipal health insurance reform, municipalities have been assured economic relief while providing quality, affordable health care for municipal employees and their families. This resulted from cooperation between municipal officials and public employee unions,” said Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne F. Goldstein. “Massachusetts continues to bring all parties into the decision-making process that is respectful of their interests.”

"Municipal health insurance reform is one of the most important legislative acts to benefit cities, towns and taxpayers in decades, and the MMA applauds Governor Patrick, Speaker DeLeo, Senate President Murray, Representative Dempsey, Senator Brewer and the members of the Legislature for their leadership and support in achieving this landmark accomplishment," said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "Communities are using the new law to save millions of dollars for taxpayers, protect essential municipal and school services, and preserve jobs for teachers, firefighters, police officers and other vital employees all across the state."

“This is among the most meaningful municipal reforms in decades, and its success has surpassed all expectations,” said Michael Widmer President of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “The early and widespread adoption by communities across the state shows the importance of this tool in providing municipal budget relief, both now and for years to come.”

Reasons for costs.

Massachusetts also has more medical professionals than almost any other state, which means more services are provided, McDonough said. Massachusetts has a large number of teaching hospitals, which must cover the cost of teaching their residents, he added.

Additionally, Massachusetts has some of the best-known medical facilities in the country, which deliver high-priced care. “Whenever there is a center for excellence type of care system that everyone wants to have in their network, it gives them a lot of bargaining power vis a vis the insurance company,” said Cathy Schoen, senior vice president at the Commonwealth Fund.

Other factors relate to how the state’s insurance market is structured.

Dr. Judy Ann Bigby, the state's secretary of health and human services, said she believes the Commonwealth Fund study does not adjust for what kind of coverage the premiums buy.

“Massachusetts is a state with a lot of mandates for coverage which other states may not have,” Bigby said. “What that means is with our health-care premium dollar, we’re buying more coverage per individual than in, say, Mississippi.”

Massachusetts, for example, requires coverage for prescription drugs. (The discrepancy will decrease once the Affordable Care Act is implemented, which includes some national mandates for coverage, including for prescription drugs.)

In addition, insurance co-pays and deductibles also tend to be lower in Massachusetts than in many other states, according to the findings of the Commonwealth Fund study.

Some of the cost relates to state’s 2006 reforms, which expanded insurance access but did not address cost control. Since Massachusetts requires individuals to have health insurance, nearly the entire population is covered. And insurers cannot turn away someone who is sick. (Both these features will be implemented nationally through Obama’s reform.)

When it comes down to it everyone has Healthcare...and we have a Surplus Budget.

AboveAlpha

 

It will work, that is if the right doesn't try and create a scheme to hijack the law first. If it works in Massachusetts it can work anywhere.

 

Not sure of your point. Nothing there contradicts the fact that Mass. has the highest healthcare costs out of 50 states.

 

Yes, Massachusetts had had the highest medical costs year after year in the nation before WillardCare was enacted (followed by Alaska) and it still does.

Since 2009, medical-cost growth has slowed more in Massachusetts than nationally, where it has been on the rise for decades, but more work is still needed.


Higher income, higher cost of living, better quality of medical care, and higher cost generally coincide, only a lower age demographic significantly lowering the cost.




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Gee, if Obamacare is succeeding, gotta wonder why Michelle is begging money to help protect it?

Just when you think this administration can't get any cheesier...

Hope she raised enough for a pound of gouda.

 

Let me explain....Mass. DOES have the Highest Healthcare Costs in the Nation....but that means nothing as the money we are spending on Healthcare which is the very BEST quality Healthcare in the Nation and as well almost every single person is covered....does IN FACT cost on average more per family but because the yearly cost of Universal Healthcare for the state costs LESS than the cost of paying Hospital Emergency Room Costs and Ambulance Bills.....and because this saving is SO LARGE IN THE MULTI-MILLIONS....it is allowing Massachusetts NOT to increase other taxes and in many cases DECREASE TAXES in many areas that a Family would have had to pay for.

Sop basically this means....the TOTAL TAX BILL PLUS HEATH CARE COSTS....for a Family and ESPECIALLY for a Business or Company like the several companies my Family owns....is LESS than the TOTAL TAX BILL AND TOTAL HEALTH CARE INSURANCE COSTS PER FAMILY OR BUSINESS in the past prior to Rmney Care being instituted.

As well...Massachusetts has been running very LARGE Budget SURPLUSES EVERY YEARS SINCE ROMENY CARE HAS BEEN IN PLACE.

Also...since Romney Care has been put in place....Massachusetts Economic Growth has dramatically increased and Mass in the Fiscal year into 2014 has Economic Growth of 3.1% well above the national average.

As well Massachusetts home prices rose a wopping 14% and an increase of 19% is predicted for this coming year.

You have to understand that Massachusetts IS the home of the highest number of the Highest Quality and knowledgable Health Care Professionals IN THE WORLD.

Even the average Heath Care Specialist say in Ears, Nose and Throat, Cardiologist, Neurosurgeons...etc....and these are just the AVERAGE SPECIALISTS....if located in another State would be considered the VERY BEST IN THEIR FIELD.....if these Massachusetts Doctors were moved to another country they would be considered THE VERY TOP SPECIALIST IN THAT NATION.

The ONLY thing that matters is that PEOPLE IN MASSACHUSETTS ARE MAKING MONEY AGAIN....our State Government has a SURPLUS BUDGET....our Businesses are HIRING....our Home Prices are RISING DRAMATICALLY and at an ever increasing rate....EVERYONE HAS HEALTHCARE....and not just OK healthcare or adequate healthcare....but Massachusetts is rated NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD....for the quality of healthcare to the level of population which is close to 7 Million.

A person does not have to wait long to get into an ER because there are 20 uninsured mothers bringing their kids in to get an Rx because they cannot afford insurance and cannot afford to pay a Doctor Bill....Business Healthcare Programs for employees such as the ones we use are SAVING busineses money....and a co-pay for an Rx is $10.

AboveAlpha

 

It certainly is!

 

More like guesstimate. The self insured are usualy small business folks making slighty more than median income which means a) they don't qualify for subsidies and b are going to be stuck with some crappy bronze or silver plan which cost them more than their old insurance and comes with a deductible that is higher than a used car.

- - - Updated - - -

Only if by working mean screwing the middle class while doing almost nothing to hel the poor and the old.

 

The middle class and the poor were even MORE screwed, under the old system.

I'm not against improving what we have now.

I put healthcare right up there with national defense.

 

Sorry the middle class weren't crewed under the old system. They had insurance that didn't come with a 12k deductible and covered a crap load of stuff they neither needed nor wanted.

 

Johnny.....anytime the Mega-Corp Insurance Companies pool their money together in a strategy meeting in Hartford and hire a plethora of Lawyers, consultants, Marketing Companies and then hire former Political Strategists to develop Faux Grass Roots Political Organizations with the specific agenda to energize the Ultra-Right Extremist Wing of the Republican Party....who as a former Reagan Republican myself....I find such Ultra-Right Wing Religious Extremists a scourge and creating the downfall of the Republican Party.....so that toothless, penny less racist Flag waving morons will ACTUALLY PROTEST THE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE THEY SO DESPERATELY NEED!!!

But anytime such Mega-Corps spend several BILLION DOLLARS on adds and other techniques in an ALL OUT ATTEMPT to KILL UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE.....well a person just KNOWS that this is something GOOD for the average person.

AboveAlpha

 

For the people that keep insisting that there is nothing to see in Massachusetts.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapot...0-of-small-biz-to-see-premiums-rise-up-to-97/

"Conventional wisdom has held that Obamacare’s impact on Massachusetts will be small. Some high profile academics have gone as far as to attack presidential candidates with colorful language if they suggest otherwise. Well, the conventional wisdom has had a nuclear bomb dropped on its head with the release of an independent analysis by the major insurance companies in Massachusetts. The implications are clear: the ACA will supply a rough ride for many small companies in the state. Unlike other states where the rate shock will be most pronounced in the individual marketplace and/or for younger adults, the ACA will cause the most turmoil in the much larger small business market in the Bay State. For some companies in Massachusetts, the shock will be a premium spike of over 100%, when you include healthcare trend."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...ous-leaders/Ybp4abvqXW0k05I8iTk9aM/story.html

"The heat keeps getting turned up on Massachusetts hospitals and health insurers as rising health care prices eat deeper into the budgets of working families, small businesses, and governments.

While other states will start insuring more residents this fall under the US health care overhaul, Massachusetts — which expanded health insurance access through its 2006 law — has moved past enrollment to grapple with an even more intractable health care problem: exorbitant costs.

State lawmakers passed a cost containment law in 2012 that attempts to limit medical expense increases to the Massachusetts economic growth rate, projected at 3.6 percent this year. The success of efforts to reach that target can’t be gauged until 2014, but pressure already is mounting on doctors, hospitals, and insurers to get prices and premiums under control."

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2013/april/09/massachusetts-health-care-costs.aspx

"Seven years after its groundbreaking health reforms, which became the model for the Affordable Care Act, Massachusetts boasts an uninsured rate of less than 2 percent, compared to a national average of 16 percent. But the cost of health care in the state, the highest in the country before the reform law was passed, remains so. Nationwide, health care costs per person are higher in the U.S. than in any other country in the world.

Without change, people in the Massachusetts health care industry say rising costs will unravel the state’s nearly universal health care coverage, bankrupt businesses and crush the state budget. Chapter 224, as the law is known, is projected to save $200 billion over the next 15 years."

The irony is that this is the perfect example of why states and ONLY states should have anything to do with health care. MA had issues to work out already but in the Forbes link they are going to see massive increases for small businesses in MA precisely because of Obamacare. In fact its so bad that Democrats in the state forced their own governor to request a waiver for parts of Obamacare.

Health care reform is failing in Massachusetts and it is undeniable at this point. If it won't work in one of the wealthiest most educated and already highly insured states in the union how exactly is an average or poor state supposed to pull this off? Obamacare supporters seriously need to pull their heads out of Obama's ass and see the ACA for what it is, a greedy grab for power by liberals and insurance companies.

 

Yep!!

And not too long ago, I decided that if some politician or talking-head is NOT advocating actively for the middle class, then I'm not paying much attention to them.