Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”
The Republican primary looks like a poorly-made reality TV series–but unfortunately, it’s real. It’s even more unfortunate that contrary to popular belief, one of those incompetent demagogues could be our next president. If we’re to believe polling data, America is becoming a much more liberal country. In fact, it’s likely directly responsible for President Obama’s epiphany that support of same-sex marriage …
A couple of weeks ago President Obama mocked Republicans who are “down on America,” and reinforced his message by doing a pretty good Grumpy Cat impression. He had a point: With job growth at rates not seen since the 1990s, with the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance hitting record highs, the doom-and-gloom predictions of his political enemies look …
Just ten days ago we described the latest unintended (we hope) consequence of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, when Colorado’s largest nonprofit co-op health insurer and participant in that state’s insurance exchange, Colorado HealthOP, announcing it was abruptly shutting down ahead of the November 1 start of enrollment for 2016, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016. …
Except for maybe the Affordable Care Act, nothing gets Republican politicians fired up like Iran. In the first GOP debate alone, Scott Walker promised that he’d tear up the Iran nuclear deal on day one of his presidency. Carly Fiorina blamed the country for “most of the evil that is going on in the Middle East.” Mike Huckabee vowed to topple the “terrorist Iranian …
Jack Rasmus and guest, Eric Laursen, discuss the current condition of social security programs in the US today, on this month’s 80th anniversary of the passage of the social security law. A program which has immense popular support by Americans of all political persuasions is nonetheless still under attack, with plans by business and conservative forces to somehow privatize it and let Wall St. get their hands on the money to charge fees and interest. Jack explains how the privatization of defined benefit pension plans in the US since the 1980s and the ongoing privatization of health insurance have led to dual crises that will eventually explode in costs, loss of income, and great hardships. Social Security privatization would lead to the same. Jack and Eric discuss the different conditions of the various funds within social security—the retirement and disability funds, Medicare hospital and doctor coverage, and the prescription drug plan. Both explain how minor changes can ensure funding for all funds to the end of the century. Initiatives to expand social security to provide more benefits are also discussed.
President Obama’s supporters are quick to tout his record as one of tremendous success, especially his “reform” of health care, but that is largely because they like him personally – not because Obamacare has been a rousing success. By any measure the law, which has routinely been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as constitutional despite the use of dubious …
In the uninsured rate, that is. Gallup reports another low in the uninsured rate, which they’ve been tracking for the past seven years. The rate fell another half of a percentage point, from 11.9 percent to 11.4 percent, in the last quarter. The uninsured rate has dropped nearly six percentage points since the fourth quarter of 2013, just before the requirement for …
If birth control were free, there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies. This is the longstanding hypothesis put forth by women’s health advocates (and correspondingly written into the Affordable Care Act). Over the last six years, a private grant fund from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (billionaire investor Warren Buffett [3]’s late wife) has given Colorado a unique opportunity to test this hypothesis. …
The Supreme Court’s recent blessing of Obamacare has precipitated a rush among the nation’s biggest health insurers to consolidate into two or three behemoths. The result will be good for their shareholders and executives, but bad for the rest of us – who will pay through the nose for the health insurance we need. We have another choice, but before …
Health insurance companies across the US are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent and more, according to filings by the insurers with state insurance commissions. Insurance companies cite a larger than expected pool of unhealthy enrollees, high drug prices, and diminishing profits as contributing factors requiring the premium hikes. The rate increase requests are the latest demonstration …
