Three weeks ago, Donald Trump barked that the Affordable Care Act is “finished. It’s dead. It’s gone. It’s no longer, you shouldn’t even mention it.”
Boy, for being dead, it’s sure getting a lot of customers:
A total of 601,462 people in the first four days of open enrollment selected a plan on HealthCare.gov, the federal Obamacare exchange that serves much of the United States, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
A total of 464,140 customers renewed coverage, and 137,322 new consumers selected a plan on HealthCare.gov.
CMS did not release data for the first four days of open enrollment for last season for comparison with the new data.
However, a CMS release in November 2016 said that in the first two weeks of open enrollment for that month there were 1,008,218 plan selections on HealthCare.gov.
Those two weeks encompassed just 12 days of actual enrollment, given the way CMS measures sign-up periods.
That means that each four-day period last year in the first weeks of open enrollment saw about 336,000 sign-ups on average.
The first four days of sign-ups this year was 1.79 times as much as that tally [Dan Mangan, “Obamacare Enrollments Are Way Up in Trump’s First Sign-Up Season,” CNBC, 2017.11.09].
1.79 times as many Americans signing up early for affordable health insurance—Trump gets credit for that, right?
“When the people have no other choice they will drink toilet water.” ~ OldSarg
“Like these guys and gals are being forced to” – jerry https://wtop.com/local/2017/11/program-pairs-service-dogs-veterans-booted-ft-belvoir-walter-reed/slide/1/
Not only does the ACA help so many folks that fall above the $12,000.00 per year income for single and $48,000.00 guidelines, the ACA continues to allow the safety from pre-existing conditions and continues to allow dependents to age 26 to be covered under mom and dad’s plans. Thank Democrats for having a heart and soul. Meanwhile, see above what Rounds, Thune and NOem are doing to wounded veterans. Hey, anyone know when Veterans Day is? Someone should tell these three, they clearly don’t know or care.
Is this bad news or good news? The Obamacare is bad, it is bad. If it’s being jammed down more people’s maws then that is darned undemocratic and almost communistic.
If people have no other choice, as OldSarg pithily alleges, that means the ACA is working, providing affordable health insurance to people whom the free market fails. It also explains why the Republicans failed to repeal the ACA: they can’t come up with a better plan that does the good things Jenny lists and more.
People are voting with their dollars and their calls to Congress: Americans want Obamacare.
trumpcare is working here in South Dakota and in the nation as a whole. Call it what you will, but the republican/trumpcare that was set out to screw over people, has actually helped them. Case in point, if a couple is expecting a child in the next year and has an annual combined income between $16,240.00 and say $50,000.00, they can now look at a Gold Plan to offset the cost of the delivery of their child and find it extremely affordable given the subsidies now that trumpcare will allocate. Out of pocket maximums of $3,500.00 for the family! For a childbirth, DAMN! There ya go. Even if the bride is pregnant right now and will deliver after January 1, 2018, sign up and make it happen. It is very affordable, so get with it! Thank a Democrat for the coverage and give the republican the big boot for showing their arse.
The crooked republicans and their lying leader have proven Confucius incorrect about digging two graves when you seek revenge, guess you just need one now for yourselves.
Something else, when that little bundle of joy enters into this world, you now have a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) where you add the little feller or fellerete, so then you can even get a better subsidy for being a smart and savvy consumer. Talk to an insurance agent to get this done as the republican/trumpcare has now eliminated Navigators right up old Rounds alley wouldn’t ya think?
I think it is the peoples vote to keep ACA. No viable alternative has been offered.
Obamacare is good, it is very good for over 600,000 that now have insurance coverage, not to mention the number of people already enrolled.
Even with a relentless attack on Obamacare by Trump and the GOP the program is proving itself to be sustainable.
The GOP fears a fierce political backlash going into the 2018 mid-terms, repeal and replace are now nothing more than echo words especially when they don’t offer a constructive replacement.
Rounds and Trump and Daugaard and Thune have screwed the American people and SD openly, criminally, unethically and unconstitutionally, sabotaging the ACA, ignoring local Medicaid expansion for politics sake, circumventing consumer protections, diluting the vote, and stacking the supreme court,…and they need to accept the consequences. Obstruction was their mantra for 8 years, now it just gets worse with sabotaged rates and openly reducing signup time and navigators, leaving the insured participants at the mercy of the insurance companies, and the medical pricing racket on price comparison shopping by consumers. I guess that is no accident. Collusion isn’t just with Russia.
And SD republicans just keep electing crooked Rounds, crooked Trump and crooked Daugaard and crooked Thune. My monthly premiums just went up $550 and exceed monthly income. Annual income only increased $7. Seven dollars. COLA. Its just my life, Rounds and Daugaard and Thune. You guys are clueless. You break the rules the rest of us are accountable to. You are political criminals along with Trump. Thune is becoming the spokesman when directed by McConnell, telling us this is a good tax bill. Based on 3% GDP growth. Fake assumptions. Cronies. Servants to billionaires, Koch-types, and NRA’s high capacity magazines and assault rifle style killing power to protect the billionaires. who leave you crumbs, and I despise you for it. As a friend said, “there is not much to look forward to.”
Vote Democratic. Unite with Progressives and Independents. Do not split the vote. Vote for good and against capitalistic corporate greed “gone wild” of the Republicans. Robert Bly calls it our “sibling society” with no adults in the room. Blinded by money.
For the 2018 midterms, the only thing the regressive Republicans will be able to show are trillions of dollars of tax cuts, mostly for the 1%. Charleston, Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs show the most recent cheapening of lower and middle class human life and Trump’s 800,000 DACA child hostages reflects gross Republican criminality at every level.