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View Full Version : Another Obamacare horror story goes Down in Flames. Are Republicans even trying?



Cigar
02-21-2014, 09:24 AM
Given how horrible Obamacare supposedly is, it's bizarre the GOP has such a hard time finding real victims

BRIAN BEUTLER

Given how horrible Obamacare supposedly is, it’s a little bizarre that Republicans and their allies have such a hard time finding victims who are unambiguously worse off as a result of the law.

GOP leaders trotted out a woman named Bette during their official response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Once reporters with even rudimentary understanding of the law began poking around, they discovered that Bette was more a victim of anti-Obamacare histrionics than of the genuine article. (http://www.salon.com/2014/01/31/gops_obamacare_fiction_series_latest_horror_story_ a_creation_from_start_to_finish/)

The ad makers at the conservative pressure group Americans for Prosperity are the Jerry Bruckheimers of atmospherically devastating campaign spots attacking Democrats who voted for Obamacare, but like nearly all Bruckheimer films the plots of these ads fall apart upon the mildest scrutiny.

The “victims” in one of their ads attacking Sen. Mary Landrieu, R-La., turned out to be paid actors. Now in Michigan, they’ve found a genuinely sympathetic character — Leukemia patient Julie Boonstra — who seems to earnestly dislike the Affordable Care Act. But neither Boonstra nor AFP can quite put their fingers on why she’s worse off under the law than she was before. That’s not to say she should be an Obamacare fan — who am I to tell her that? But there’s almost no denying that she’s more protected now than she was before, and probably better off financially as well.

more



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpjyr1x7mC0&feature=player_embedded

The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler beat me to the fact check (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/02/20/a-hard-hitting-anti-obamacare-ad-makes-a-claim-that-doesnt-add-up/?wprss=rss_fact-checker). It turns out that in a separate interview with the Detroit News (http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140128/POLITICS03/301280098), she acknowledged that her premiums under Obamacare ($571 a month) are half as much as they were last year ($1,100). Her annual savings — $6,348 — are actually just $2 shy of the Affordable Care Act’s $6,350 “Out of Pocket Maximum” for an individual plan, above which the insurance company must pay every penny.

Either she’s unaware of that, or doesn’t want to admit it, because she told Kessler, “the premiums are half, but the out‑of‑pocket costs are so high that, for me, it’s unaffordable. My coverage is 80/20. Blood work, I’m paying 20 percent. If I needed a bone marrow transplant, I would only be covered 80 percent. Everything, everything I do now, I have to pay a percentage of.”


http://www.salon.com/2014/02/21/are_republicans_even_trying_another_obamacare_horr or_story_bites_the_dust/

Captain Obvious
02-21-2014, 10:08 AM
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/5x3E-6GmmyM/hqdefault.jpg

Common
02-21-2014, 11:02 AM
My friend who passed wife signed up yesterday for the ACA silver plan. The way it works is 603.00 a month 4700.00 copay but not a copay as in you pay upfront.
Dr Vists are 35.00 Specialist 45.00 and Generic Perscriptions 8.00, zero cost for hospitals and procedures.

None of the 4700 is paid upfront, Dr visits and specialsts and drug copays and any othre out of pocket expense gets deducted as you go along from the 4700 it was her understanding if you reach 4700 out of pocket, you pay nothing for the rest of the year. The copay sets yearly.

That forum folks is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than any private plan for the same coverage. Her copays for drugs are cheaper than the union copays and they are cheaper than even my copays.

Captain Obvious
02-21-2014, 11:04 AM
My friend who passed wife signed up yesterday for the ACA silver plan. The way it works is 603.00 a month 4700.00 copay but not a copay as in you pay upfront.
Dr Vists are 35.00 Specialist 45.00 and Generic Perscriptions 8.00, zero cost for hospitals and procedures.

None of the 4700 is paid upfront, Dr visits and specialsts and drug copays and any othre out of pocket expense gets deducted as you go along from the 4700 it was her understanding if you reach 4700 out of pocket, you pay nothing for the rest of the year. The copay sets yearly.

That forum folks is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than any private plan for the same coverage. Her copays for drugs are cheaper than the union copays and they are cheaper than even my copays.

You do realize that this was with a private insurance company?

There is no "ACA Silver Plan", what was gotten was a market insurance plan with some commercial carrier.

Comparing it with... anything needs a more direct comparison just to make sure you're talking apples and apples.

Common
02-21-2014, 11:05 AM
In any thread that show something good about obamacare the right is eerily absent or just make their usual assinine troll comments to detract from the Thread.

I was dead set against obamacare and believed it was not going to work, the more I learn the more I learn it will work.

My friends wife is NOT POOR she has a very decent income above average and she gets NO govt subsidy and her insurance is FAR cheaper under the ACA

That disproves in itself the right wing bullshit that its going to cost every american more money

Codename Section
02-21-2014, 11:07 AM
We should have expanded Medicaid.

/thread

Captain Obvious
02-21-2014, 11:09 AM
We should have expanded Medicaid.

/thread

We did basically.

It comes in Phase II

Kalkin
02-21-2014, 11:26 AM
If it's so great, make it voluntary and don't penalize those who decide to opt out. Case closed.

Peter1469
02-21-2014, 04:30 PM
Don't you mean this story? (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-admits-obamacare-fall-short-1-or-2-million-enrollees_782684.html)


Vice President Joe Biden admitted that the number of Obamacare enrollees will likely fall short by one or two million people. "We may not get to seven million, we may get to five or six, but that's a hell of a start," Biden told folks in a Minneapolis cafe today. "I'm here to say thanks."

The Obama administration hoped that seven million people would enroll in Obamacare during the first open-enrollment period.


It wasn't hope. It was a calculation that at least 7M would have to sign up with at least 35% of those being young healthy people. Otherwise premiums will rise, more people will opt-out, creating the death spiral.



Given how horrible Obamacare supposedly is, it's bizarre the GOP has such a hard time finding real victims

BRIAN BEUTLER

Given how horrible Obamacare supposedly is, it’s a little bizarre that Republicans and their allies have such a hard time finding victims who are unambiguously worse off as a result of the law.

GOP leaders trotted out a woman named Bette during their official response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Once reporters with even rudimentary understanding of the law began poking around, they discovered that Bette was more a victim of anti-Obamacare histrionics than of the genuine article. (http://www.salon.com/2014/01/31/gops_obamacare_fiction_series_latest_horror_story_ a_creation_from_start_to_finish/)



http://www.salon.com/2014/02/21/are_republicans_even_trying_another_obamacare_horr or_story_bites_the_dust/

BB-35
02-21-2014, 06:06 PM
Why would those who think they are invincible,sign up for the ACA?

Ivan88
02-21-2014, 06:43 PM
I got a relative who's paying 300$/month more that they paid before this great "benefit".
Her husband's got a construction job, and it's a big dent in their ability to make ends meet.

I told her, stop paying and just pay the penalty. She thinks her husband is forced to pay it because of the employer.

BTW, anyone know how the glorious peoples leaders know if you are properly paying into the pockets of the insurance companies?

Peter1469
02-21-2014, 06:55 PM
I got a relative who's paying 300$/month more that they paid before this great "benefit".
Her husband's got a construction job, and it's a big dent in their ability to make ends meet.

I told her, stop paying and just pay the penalty. She thinks her husband is forced to pay it because of the employer.

BTW, anyone know how the glorious peoples leaders know if you are properly paying into the pockets of the insurance companies?

You don't have to pay the penalty. When you file your taxes you will see what I mean.

Ivan88
02-21-2014, 07:06 PM
Спасивo Петер, Thanks Peter
6103

lynn
02-22-2014, 11:37 AM
Next year tax season will be interesting since that $95 first year tax fine is given for every month not covered. Beginning in April 2014, anyone not having coverage will be fined $95 for the remain of 2014 for each month which comes out to $95 X 9 months = $855. Anyone expecting a refund that did not purchase insurance in 2014 will be upset when they get a much lower refund.

Peter1469
02-22-2014, 11:47 AM
Next year tax season will be interesting since that $95 first year tax fine is given for every month not covered. Beginning in April 2014, anyone not having coverage will be fined $95 for the remain of 2014 for each month which comes out to $95 X 9 months = $855. Anyone expecting a refund that did not purchase insurance in 2014 will be upset when they get a much lower refund.

Adjust your W-4 so you don't get a refund. Too easy.

Cigar
02-26-2014, 08:09 AM
UPDATE: :laugh:

Woman in debunked Obamacare horror story finally speaks ... to Fox News (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/24/1279971/-Subject-of-debunked-Obamacare-horror-story-finally-speaks-to-Fox-News)
The subject of the latest debunked Obamacare horror story (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/20/1279046/-Koch-brothers-pushing-another-Obamacare-horror-story-that-isn-t) is finally talking, and of course it's to Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/24/cancer-patient-defends-obamacare-criticism-after-dem-goes-after-ad/). Julie Boonstra is a Michigan resident with leukemia, and she appeared in an Americans For Prosperity ad against Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Gary Peters, saying that Obamacare made her cancer treatment unaffordable because of out of pocket spending. Subsequent fact checking, though, found that her monthly premium payments were essentially cut in half, and the limits the law imposes on out of pocket expenses means that at worse, she'd break even between those costs and her premium saving. The ad also implied she lost access to her doctor, though fact checking determined that her doctor is included in the plan she picked on the exchange.

So with no real basis to the story she presented in the ad, how does Boonstra respond? The only way she can, the way Republicans always go, playing the victim (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/24/cancer-patient-defends-obamacare-criticism-after-dem-goes-after-ad/).



"They're not scaring me. Cancer scares me," she said. "I battle cancer every day. They're not going to intimidate me." [...] "Under my old policy, I knew what I could afford every single month because I wasn't hit with extra charges. Now I don't know what I have to pay month to month," she said. "Leukemia tests are extremely expensive."


Just to set the record straight, pointing out factual inconsistencies is not intimidation. No one is saying that Boonstra isn't experiencing real angst over having to change health insurance in the middle of her fight with cancer. No one is diminishing her fight with cancer, they're just pointing out some basic truths which show that her story just doesn't add up.

And as Brian Beutler points out (http://www.salon.com/2014/02/24/the_rights_sociopathic_new_scam_encouraging_americ ans_to_oppose_their_health_benefits/), if the Koch brothers achieved what they're trying to with this and other ads—repeal—then she would really become a victim. The protections she now has under this law—to never be kicked off her health insurance plan, to never have to worry about having health coverage because of her leukemia, having her annual out of pocket expenses limited, and never having to worry about reaching an annual or lifetime cap where her coverage is just cut off—would be gone if the campaign she's participating in succeeds. Which is, yes, insane.


If Boonstra is a victim, she's the willing victim of the Koch brothers and AFP who would ultimately throw her to the wolves. But if she hates the law that much, fine, whatever. What she's doing, though, jeopardizes every other cancer patient in the nation.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/24/1279971/-Subject-of-debunked-Obamacare-horror-story-finally-speaks-to-Fox-News?detail=email#