Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Friday, January 16, 2015

More Good News About Obamacare







Remember how the GOPers voted over 50 times to repeal the A.C.A. and now that they're in charge of Congress threaten to take insurance coverage away from millions and millions of American men, women, and children covered by the A.C.A. because TYRANNY!?

Remember how the hysterics in the GOP predicted that the A.C.A. would be the end of American civilization?

Well, here's some non-hysterical news that shows they were not dealing with reality, but playing the tired old political game of "Don't Give Support To Anything The Democratic President Is For Because _________________ (fill in the blank).

The following is bad news for the GOPers who vehemently opposed the A.C.A., and good news for President Obama, the Democrats, and Americans who struggled with health care costs and coverage:




BY TARA CULP-RESSLER


For the first time in a decade, the number of people struggling to pay their medical bills has started to decline, according to a new survey released on Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund. The researchers attributed the historic drop to the number of people gaining insurance under the health care reform law.

 Between 2012 and 2014 — as Obamacare’s main coverage expansion took effect — the Commonwealth researchers found that the number of people who had issues paying for health treatment dropped from 41 percent to 35 percent.

Over the same time period, the people who skipped out on health services because they couldn’t afford them declined from 43 percent to 36 percent.

In a press release, the researchers described the declines as “remarkable.” This marks the first time since 2005, when Commonwealth started surveying people on these questions, that the number of Americans struggling to afford medical care hasn’t increased.




h/t ThinkProgress



From The Commonwealth Fund survey:


New results from the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, 2014, indicate that the Affordable Care Act's subsidized insurance options and consumer protections reduced the number of uninsured working-age adults from an estimated 37 million people, or 20 percent of the population, in 2010 to 29 million, or 16 percent, by the second half of 2014. 

Conducted from July to December 2014, for the first time since it began in 2001, the survey finds declines in the number of people who report cost-related access problems and medical-related financial difficulties. 

The number of adults who did not get needed health care because of cost declined from 80 million people, or 43 percent, in 2012 to 66 million, or 36 percent, in 2014. The number of adults who reported problems paying their medical bills declined from an estimated 75 million people in 2012 to 64 million people in 2014.

6 comments:

Uncle Remus said...

More butthurt for the Obama haters.

Ducky's here said...

Of course they aren't reading that story.
Here's one that's making the rounds:

"Neurosurgeon Ben Carson on Thursday said Americans can learn from the Islamic State’s willingness to die for their cause, comparing ISIS to the Americans who waged the Revolutionary War against the British."


It's more important to fan the flames than actually work through problems with these whack jobs.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dr. "Social Safety Net For Me But Not For Thee" should stick to unjoining co-joined twins. He's a terrible politician and totally clumsy with the rhetoric.

His fans are the ones who howled about Mr. Obama's "thin" resume for the presidency (although he was a state and US senator), but think this guy would be quite skillful, because he has absolutely NO resume where it concerns politics (and it's painfully apparent everytime he opens his mouth.)

But hypocrisy is what those whackos run on.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Charlie Pierce eviscerates Dr. Ben:


"I begin to suspect quite seriously that Dr. Ben Carson honed his very legitimate skills as a gifted neurosurgeon by practicing on himself. I further suspect that whatever portion of the human brain is dedicated to the study of history is hanging on the wall of Ben's office, next to the diploma.

In a speech to the Republican National Committee's winter meeting outside San Diego, the former neurosurgeon and conservative favorite praised American patriots for their willingness to give their lives for their beliefs. Then he mentioned the Islamic State group. "They got the wrong philosophy, but they're willing to die for what they believe, while we are busily giving away every belief and every value for the sake of political correctness," he said as Republican officials from across the country interrupted him with applause. "We have to change that."

Because nothing demonstrates a commitment to fighting "political correctness" like inapt analogies involving murderous theocrats.

This is not Dr. Ben's first foray forward...into the past. He previously has compared the current state of affairs in this country to that which existed under the Third Reich, and he has compared the Affordable Care Act unfavorably with slavery.

But this latest jaunt through history may be his finest moment yet as a national political figure. The parallels between George Washington and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi are so striking as to need no further explanation. Of course, the latter arranges for beheadings on YouTube, while Washington wouldn't even torture people, crippled as he was by political correctness, so there's that minor problem with Dr. Ben's comparison.


Poor, poor Dr. Ben "Letting People Buy Good Insurance Policies Is As Bad As Slavery" Carson.

Walter V. said...

Here's what strikes me about Carson's comment , "They got the wrong philosophy, but they're willing to die for what they believe, while we are busily giving away every belief and every value for the sake of political correctness"

Anybody else remember lo those many moons ago when Bill Maher used to have a late night talk show on ABC called "Politically Incorrect"? Anybody remember why he no longer has that show?

It was because, in the wake of 9/11, when it was apparently required by law to refer to the 9/11 hijackers when mentioning them in public as "cowardly", Maher said, "We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. Say what you want about it. Not cowardly."

So, Carson says ISIS is willing to die for their beliefs, and Americans are just giving up theirs. How is that statement functionally different from Maher's? And will anyone not commenting on a dirty liberal blog ever be bothered to point this out?

Shaw Kenawe said...

I think you just did, Walter.