ObamaScare Sabotage and ACA Success: Who Pays?

Quote from Daily Kos

"ObamaScare".  The definition of ObamaScare?  The pathological lies and disinformation being spread by opponents of the Affordable Care Act in an attempt to make the law a failure. 

...the merciless refusal of Republicans ...to expand Medicaid under the ACA's quite generous rules that cover all costs of expansion for a decade and 90% thereafter...has a boomerang effect because hospitals will also be losing funds from the Feds that cover the costs of caring for the uninsured who can't pay for their hospital bills, which has in Georgia at least caused some hospitals to announce they are closing.

Quote from another Daily Kos writer

My wife, age 55, had breast cancer 6 years ago. Thankfully, we had insurance coverage through my employer. Two years later I was laid off. I have been self-employed since. Due to her pre-existing condition, my wife is uninsurable. Denied period. Denied her healthcare. Denied her right as a human being. Marked as unfit. 

Well we and our kids now have healthcare at $4.00/month Silver 94 Plan. Through tears of joy and relief, she said, "Finally, I can move forward to live my life. I know I have healthcare. I am not afraid anymore." 

Another success story recounted here

JoAnn Smith, a 60-year-old Florida woman, is making headlines as the latest Obamacare success story. Smith told NBC News that she "just instantly burst into tears" when she was able yesterday to sign up for a $3.19 a month health insurance policy through Obamacare. 

Smith described the low-cost of her federally-subsidized plan as "totally mind-blowing" and praised the Obamacare call center agent who assisted her sign-up as "the most loveliest of helpers." 

Previously, the aging Smith had been uninsured. The company for which Smith is a medical transcriptionist does not offer coverage to its employees. "They took a vote at the company and people wanted more money in their pockets," 

Smith was reported as saying. "I have had four paycuts in one year." 

Smith's new, highly affordable Obamacare policy will cover her household, including her unemployed husband Eric, age 56. 

Republicans who are praying for the failure of Obamacare do not want stories like the one told by JoAnn Smith to get out, but Smith's Obamacare success story bodes well for Democrats running for re-election in 2014.

This Daily Kos article summarizes this longer one from The New Republic which explains who benefits from and who pays for Obamacare and concludes:

The ACA transfers money from the lucky to the unlucky.  And when it comes to health, you don't have to be poor to be unlucky.

Instead of Chargemaster Casino, How About Reference-Based Pricing?

Read this DailyBlague quote

http://www.dailyblague.com/blog/?p=10375

from this New Yorker article about California Reference-Based Pricing of hospital bills:

Controlling Healthcare Costs

instead of what we have now, Hospital Chargemaster Roulette, described in"Bitter Pill" Time Magazine article cited in Reader Supported News:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/272-39/16241-time-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us

Couldn't resist this satiric New Yorker piece by Andy Borowitz that popped up during the search:

CRUZ: “THE DREAM OF KEEPING POOR PEOPLE FROM SEEING A DOCTOR MUST NEVER DIE”

Get the Facts About The Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare)

at this site:

http://obamacarefacts.com/

and this one:

http://www.factcheck.org/

and read this eye-opening article about the so-called safety net without insurance:

http://www.texasobserver.org/a-galveston-med-student-describes-life-and-death-in-the-safety-net/

Do we really want 7 million Americans -- the working poor -- to go without health insurance because governors in half the states won't accept the federally funded Medicaid expansion that is part of ObamaCare?

http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacares-medicaid-expansion.php

Health care discrimination is the cruelest form of bigotry.  In Texas it's known as The Other Death Penalty.

Stumbled Onto This Quote

As millions of Americans at last see a path to affordable, lifesaving health care, despite imperfect bodies labelled as preexisting conditions or damaged goods like some dented car eyesore in a parking lot full of shiny new automobiles -- and the right wing busies itself penning vitriolic comments below any blog post or video that tries to light a candle to sharing or caring, I stumbled onto this quote:

"I believe in the writer as a witness to evil, as a reporter of injustice, as a chronicler of human compassion, even on occasion of greatness, as one whose skills illuminate the Truth with a capital T, without irony. I believe it is the job of the writer to put into words what is worst - and also what is best - about us. To light up our possibilities, discover the finest lives to which we can aspire, and to inspire our readers to greatness of soul and heart."

by this man who wrote this song

Under the Hatteras Light



and this essay

Under The Hatteras Light

and this book among others:

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Book-That-Makes-Difference/dp/1884910440

And it cast a ray of hope. Thank you Philip Gerard.