It seems the ACA/Obamacare is creating another generation of ungrateful tea partiers

[Phokus]

Reading this TOTALLY reminds me of your typical 'Gubmint better not touch my Medicare'! Tea Partier. In 20 years time, will the rallying cry of the Tea Partier be, "Gubmint better not touch my Obamacare!"?


http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/01/21/the-cognitive-dissonance-in-west-virginia/

So far, the results are quite striking: the number of uninsured West Virginians has dropped by a third since the ACA became operational. A third. And the sole reliable statistic we have as to the impact of that event is, appropriately at this early stage, mental health.

Waitresses, fast food workers, security guards and cleaners described feeling intense relief that they are now protected from the punishing medical bills that have punched holes in their family budgets. They spoke in interviews of reclaiming the dignity they had lost over years of being turned away from doctors’ offices because they did not have insurance. “You see it in their faces,” said Janie Hovatter, a patient advocate at Cabin Creek Health Systems, a health clinic in southern West Virginia. “They just kind of relax.”

Sounds good so far, lots of stress relieved for these people that they can finally get access to medical care when they had none before

But just as interesting to me is how culture still impacts that kind of psychological and real relief from acute, permanent anxiety and sickness. Obama will get no thanks for tangibly improving the lives of poor West Virginians. They may like the new law in practice, but in theory, many loathe it:

Recruiters trying to persuade people to enroll say they sometimes feel like drug peddlers. The people they approach often talk in hushed tones out of earshot of others. Chad Webb, a shy 30-year-old who is enrolling people in Mingo County, said a woman at a recent event used biblical terms to disparage Mr. Obama as an existential threat to the nation.

Mr. Webb said he thought to himself: “This man is not the Antichrist. He just wants you to have health insurance.”

Eventually, though, people’s desperate need for insurance seems to be overcoming their distaste for the president. Rachelle Williams, 25, an uninsured McDonald’s worker from Mingo County, said she had refused to fill out insurance forms on a recent trip to the emergency room for a painful bout of kidney stones. “I wouldn’t do it,” she said. But when she got a letter in the mail saying she qualified for Medicaid, she signed up immediately.

Isn’t that, in some ways, the entire story of this administration? That what it has actually done – from rescuing the auto-industry to ending wars, from the stimulus to universal access to health insurance – is actually popular on the ground, but still powerfully toxic to a vast swathe of Americans. Maybe history will help us understand that critical cognitive dissonance. Or maybe we’re just fucking complicated human beings, whose emotions – primarily fears – alternate and contradict each other with increasing impunity. Obama’s gift is his liability. He sees through the psyches to the actual pressing needs. He does not feel the way his opponents does. Which has made him far more effective and pragmatic in implementing his vision, while losing political altitude in a very emotional and ideological country precisely because of these successes.

Oh fuck off, maybe universal access to healthcare should only be reserved for states without ingrates (aka blue states). This also reminds me of Jimmy Kimmel interviewing people who were totally against Obamacare but were FOR the ACA here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx2scvIFGjE

Edit 2: Sweet jesus, more stories, good job Fox News, you have created a nation of morons:

http://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2162940,00.html

"When they came to my office, Stephanie told me right up front, 'I don't want any part of Obamacare,' " recalls health-insurance agent Barry Cohen. "These were clearly people who don't like the President. So I kind of let that slide and just asked them for basic information and told them we would go on the Ohio exchange"--which is actually the Ohio section of the federal Obamacare exchange--"and show them what's available."

What Stephanie soon discovered, she told me in mid-November, "was a godsend." The business that she and her husband had launched--which sells a product that enables consumers to store their DNA or that of family members for future genetic testing--had recently received investor interest after being featured on an episode of the television series CSI. So she estimated to Cohen that their income would be about $90,000 in 2014. But even at that level, her family of four would qualify for a subsidy under Obamacare.

The Recchis and their agent soon zeroed in on a plan with a $793 monthly premium that provided full coverage, though with a deductible of $12,000 for the entire family, meaning the Recchis would pay the first $12,000 in expenses. After the deductible was reached, there would be no co-payments for anything, including all drugs. However, the Obamacare subsidy, assuming a $90,000 income, brought their cost down to $566 a month. If their income was the same $40,000 Stephanie had estimated for 2013, the subsidy would increase and their premium would be just $17 a month.

"They had budgeted insurance at $1,200 for each of them for their new business," says Cohen. "That's $2,400 for the two of them, compared to $566, so they were thrilled ... They had seen all those stories on television, and because of their views about Obama, they believed what they wanted to believe--until they saw these policies and these numbers."

"Here I get full protection for $566, compared to no protection for almost $500," Stephanie says, referring to her old plan that had cost $469 monthly and that MD Anderson had scoffed at. "This is wonderful."

It ended up even better than that. Because Cohen could enter only the Recchis' actual reported 2013 income onto the website, not their anticipated income when and if the investment deal is completed, and because that reportable income turned out to be significantly less than the $40,000 Stephanie had estimated, the website moved them automatically into Medicaid--meaning their coverage, for now, is free. That's because Ohio Governor John Kasich decided to buck a majority of his fellow Republican governors and accept Obamacare's subsidies so he could expand Medicaid coverage.

 

[Moonbeam]

Conservative brain defect in action, brainwashed morons who are brainwashed slaves of the 1 percent.

 

[senseamp]

God bless Obama, and God bless America!

 

[compuwiz1]

God bless Obama, and God bless America!

Your words make no sense.

God Bless America! (I can agree with that)

God Bless Obama (he would never go along with that) He's a Muslim, you idiot.

 

[senseamp]

Your words make no sense.

God Bless America! (I can agree with that)

God Bless Obama (he would never go along with that) He's a Muslim, you idiot.

God bless Obama for keeping America healthy and Republicans out of power.

 

[yllus]

Your words make no sense.

God Bless America! (I can agree with that)

God Bless Obama (he would never go along with that) He's a Muslim, you idiot.

Sigh.

 

[michal1980]

people like handouts. News at 10.

creating exactly what democrats want, more government dependents.

Democrats wont stop until everyone is on government welfare.

 

[boomerang]

 

[Anarchist420]

In 20 years time, will the rallying cry of the Tea Partier be, "Gubmint better not touch my Obamacare!"?

the U.S. Republic will be gone 20 years from now.

 

[Paratus]

people like handouts. News at 10.

creating exactly what democrats want, more government dependents.

Democrats wont stop until everyone is on government welfare.

We have the name of their next target. The name is Michelle 1970.

BWAHHAAHAHHHAAA

 

[Greenman]

It's good that low or no income people get health care, it's bad that my rates have increased to the point that I may have to drop it. After a 50% hike in January, I pay $1500 a month for medical insurance. It's unsustainable.

 

[fskimospy]

It's good that low or no income people get health care, it's bad that my rates have increased to the point that I may have to drop it. After a 50% hike in January, I pay $1500 a month for medical insurance. It's unsustainable.

Your scenario seems unlikely.

 

[thraashman]

It's good that low or no income people get health care, it's bad that my rates have increased to the point that I may have to drop it. After a 50% hike in January, I pay $1500 a month for medical insurance. It's unsustainable.

I get insurance through my work, but I used one of those online calculators a little bit ago and it estimated that if I didn't get insurance, for the same coverage I get now, it'd cost me less than $2400 a year. How the hell do you have $1500 a month?

 

[Texashiker]

That's because Ohio Governor John Kasich decided to buck a majority of his fellow Republican governors and accept Obamacare's subsidies so he could expand Medicaid coverage.

Who is paying for those subsidies?

What is going to happen, the federal government is going to get the states to accept the program with the promise of subsidies. Then over the course of a few years the feds are going to cut back on subsidies, which means the states will be left with the brunt of the cost.

Or, the feds will tell the states they have to enforce federal law or lose funding.

 

[thraashman]

Your words make no sense.

God Bless America! (I can agree with that)

God Bless Obama (he would never go along with that) He's a Muslim, you idiot.

First off, Muslims believe in a god. The same god as Christians and Jews in fact. They just use the Arabic word Allah which means God. Now, none of that matters as the President is himself a Christian, he's just not an evangelical dickwad who tries to force his religion on the populace like so many conservatives. And even if he were indeed Muslim, thinking it would matter would make you a bigoted asshole.

 

[chucky2]

The article needs to be edited to include * behind words like free...

 

[SaurusX]

Andrew Sullivan? lol.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I seriously doubt the ACA will be in existence in 20 years, if the assessments are correct the ACA will collapse in the next year or so.

 

[Texashiker]

I seriously doubt the ACA will be in existence in 20 years, if the assessments are correct the ACA will collapse in the next year or so.

The government can always print more money to continue the subsidies.

If the federal reserve can dump $85 billion a month into the bond market, surely the fed can do something to shore up ACA.

 

[tweaker2]

I seriously doubt the ACA will be in existence in 20 years, if the assessments are correct the ACA will collapse in the next year or so.

If it ever did, I can see it collapsing one of two ways: It collapsed all on its own, or, it collapses with a "little shove" from getting bombarded to smitherines via the constant virulent propagandizing against it by the Obama haters.

 

[fskimospy]

I seriously doubt the ACA will be in existence in 20 years, if the assessments are correct the ACA will collapse in the next year or so.

Can you point us to 'the assessments'? Basically every nonpartisan analysis I've seen thinks things will be just fine.

Regardless, you seem very confident. If you are interested in a wager on whether or not the ACA has collapsed in the next year I am willing to give you VERY favorable odds.

 

[senseamp]

Who is paying for those subsidies?

What is going to happen, the federal government is going to get the states to accept the program with the promise of subsidies. Then over the course of a few years the feds are going to cut back on subsidies, which means the states will be left with the brunt of the cost.

Or, the feds will tell the states they have to enforce federal law or lose funding.

By "the feds" cutting back on subsidies, you mean Republicans getting elected and voting to cut those subsidies?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

If it ever did, I can see it collapsing one of two ways: It collapsed all on its own, or, it collapses with a "little shove" from getting bombarded to smitherines via the constant virulent propagandizing against it by the Obama haters.

It will collapse on it's own without any help from anyone. The unhealthy and those requiring a subsidy outweigh those that will be paying into the system. This means that the healthy and those that don't receive a subsidy will have to pay huge premiums to support the ACA.

If you think the millennials are crying now that they have too large a burden due to their student loans, wait until they're hammered with high insurance premiums.

 

[Incorruptible]

Your words make no sense.

God Bless America! (I can agree with that)

God Bless Obama (he would never go along with that) He's a Muslim, you idiot.

I thought this was settled a long time ago. obama is a scumbag and moron who has no idea how to fix the economy but he isn't Muslim. There is no evidence that he is Muslim.

The problem is because he is a politically correct idiot he refuses to call Islamic jihad for what it is and says something like violent extremism.

Also if he was Muslim which he isn't then he would be a bad Muslim since he killed innocent Muslims in Pakistan and Yemen including little children along with wanting to attack Christians in Syria and his scumbag supporters on here won't call him out.

 

[senseamp]

I seriously doubt the ACA will be in existence in 20 years, if the assessments are correct the ACA will collapse in the next year or so.

Not with risk corridors for next three years.