Cross-posted from Next New Deal.
Massachusetts is the only state in the country where you don't have to worry about losing your health insurance if you lose your job, and it will remain that way if Mitt Romney, the man who signed that Massachusetts bill into law, gets elected president. But if President Obama beats him, every state in the Union will join Massachusetts in 2014.
The number one issue in the election, the issue that will decide who will be living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next January 20th, is jobs. President Obama's reelection prospects will be determined by how many of the small percentage of voters who are up for grabs decide that they might as well give Romney a chance, since their economic prospects are just as shaky now as when President Obama took office. It might help if they could see ObamaCare as a jobs issue, which it clearly is.
Many of the independent voters who will determine the presidential election are confused by the Affordable Care Act, as its passage has offered no relief for a major worry in their lives: if they lose their job, they'll lose their health insurance. Or maybe they've already been forced to take a job without health insurance, or are self-employed or out of work. In that case, they may well be among the 51 million uninsured Americans who are worried that one major illness will wipe out whatever financial security they have left. Other swing voters might like to leave their jobs and start a small business, but they are locked into their current jobs until they reach 65 and qualify for Medicare. All that will change in 2014 if they vote for President Obama -- which they might be more likely to do if they knew that.
Starting in 2014, health insurance will be affordable for the great majority of people who don't get coverage at work. Most will qualify for heavily subsidized private health insurance through the new health insurance marketplaces (exchanges) that will be set up in each state. Many others in low-wage jobs will be eligible for coverage under Medicaid, which will be expanded to cover families up to 133 percent of the poverty level, around $30,600 for a family of four.
ObamaCare is more than a health care bill; it is a major step toward addressing the gaping inequities in our economy, where incomes and wealth for the richest 1 percent keep rising while most Americans are treading water or drowning. Three decades ago, a job came with good health care, along with rising wages and a pension. Now only 56 percent of the workforce gets health care on the job. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act's coverage expansions in 2014, almost all workers will have access to affordable health coverage, even if they don't get the insurance at work.
President Obama and Mitt Romney are both working hard to appeal to the hard-pressed middle class. For Democrats, ObamaCare should be a core part of this appeal and the most powerful rebuttal to attacks on the legislation. The president and Democratic candidates for Congress around the county can reach swing voters on health care if they make the stakes in the election very clear: a vote for Romney and Republicans in Congress is a vote to leave Massachusetts as the only state in the nation in which you don't have to worry that losing your job will mean losing your health care. A vote for Obama and Democrats will mean that, come 2014, Americans will finally have the security that -- job or not -- they will have health coverage for themselves and their families.
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Those of us who are lucky enough to have insurance pay for the uninsured by higher costs to us. Many have large co-payments deducted from their paychecks. The rates are increased however the
insurance is not as good.
I know many people do not have health insurance. They are scared if they suddenly become ill. What will they do?
IF you have healthcare insurance through your employer in Massachusetts, and
IF you lose your job (or decide to leave it to start your own business),
You lose your health care insurance.
What the blogger might mean is that
IF you want to buy health insurance in Massachusetts and
IF your employer does not offer it, and
IF one of the scenarios the blogger describes occurs
You can buy an expensive, age/occupation/geography-rated, low-deductible policy from one of a small set of insurance companies through the Massachusetts Connector exchange
Note that you can only buy this insurance during July of each year except in special circumstances. Also note that about half the doctors in Massachusetts do NOT accept this full-priced insurrance.
Further
IF you want to buy health insurrance in Massachusetts, and
IF your employer does not offer it, and
IF you make less than about $35,000 (scales up based on size of family for family insurance)
You can buy an expensive, age/geography/occupation-rated policy from a smaller set of insurance companies at a substantial discount
Note that to qualify for this subsidized insurance you will have to first apply for Medicaid, which takes about three months, and be turned down for Medicaid. Also note that even fewer doctors in Massachusetts accept this subsidized insurance.
I think the mandate is going to negatively affect single workers.
1. IF you quit, get fired or your employer stops offering insurance, you can get it through the Exchange under the conditions I covered
2. IF your employer doesn't offer healthcare insurance, he or she might get fined
Supposedly there is some similarity between RomneyCare approach and Obamacare (I dunno; I haven't read the 2400 pages). If so, here is what is likely to happen nationwide based on Massachusetts' experience:
1. Many fewer people will get insurance through employers as employers move people to part time (not eligible for benefits)
2. Employers will decide to pay the fine (it's still cheaper than providing the benefit) while doing their lower paid employees a favor (because they can get much cheaper insurance from the state)
3. This affects a very small proportion of the population. About .5% buy the full price insurance available on the Exchange and 1.5% get the subsidized insurance.
The mandate idea was never an issue here because from 90% to 95% of us already had insurance (depending on whose statistics you use). Now the number is somewhere between 94% and 98%. Most of the increase came from people who already qualified for Medicaid but hadn't signed up.
Democrats think Warren Buffet and George Soros will donate money to finance the difference.
Why is Heritagecare, the Republican approach to health care reform, Communism when enacted by Democrats?
"You will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"... P.T. Barnum.
But, they have ceded all dialogue to the GOP and Faux.
We are three years behind in sharing anything positive done by this president.
It is also the state with the highest premiums and emergency room visits have increased since the bill was enacted.
I wouldn't count on CrapCare making it past the Supreme Court.
US Businesses must also pay lower (hourly wages) pay scales to US citizens in the USA that are well below the wages that they pay foreigners in foreign Asian nations because US businesses have to compensate for the additional EPA costs and the additional US labor payroll costs that the NATIONAL HEALTHCARE, UI, Social Security, F.I.C.A., and other Federal Government payroll taxes that are added on top of the costs of US labor payrolls requiring lower pay for US workers.
FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS economically require that US businesses use foreign manufacturing costs if foreign costs are any less expensive than US costs.
In China minimum wage varies from area to area.
Shanghai pays the most. The average minimum wage earner there makes $200 a month.
Is that what you are suggesting?
Are you out of your mind?
US FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS and similar treaties mean that US workers must (generally) compete with foreign worker pay scales, benefit packages (none), the more productive foreign labor work rules (none), foreign corporate tax rates (lower or non-existent), property taxes (lower) and the lower environmental manufacturing costs (none) that are available in foreign countries since these FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS removed the import tariffs that were added to imported products that made the imported product cost as much as the same product made in the USA with US Labor costs.
Before creation of the "FEE TRADE AGREEMENTS", the USA had extremely high import tariffs that increased the costs of imported products to approximately the cost of US made products.
Wrong.
"PREMUIMS STILL HAVE TO BE PAID."
Please read the section about premium support.
NONSTOP.