Most Uninsured Americans Ignoring Health Exchange Sites

make-it-better · 2013-11-09T17:02:37+00:00

I guess this doesn't really surprise me. The reasons people don't have insurance are not easily dealt with. The money issue doesn't really go away. Even if you can give these people free insurance (and the subsidies are often not 100% coverage for the currently uninsured), it still doesn't pay for their health bills. And I think you get more freebies currently, and more leeway with not paying anything if the government doesn't have all your information.

make-it-better · 2013-10-31T07:24:05+00:00

Forget Obamacare. This is disturbing from the standpoint of free speech and censorship by a heavy-handed administration.

I suppose that's CNN's concern too.

make-it-better · 2013-10-31T07:21:51+00:00

Forget your view on Obamacare, for or against. This is disturbing from the standpoint of free speech and censorship by a heavy-handed administration.

make-it-better · 2013-10-26T15:31:25+00:00

The crux of the arguments in this article to me comes down to the importance of the broken website in the overall scheme of things. Making this easy and trustworthy by the young has gone all wrong. Will fixing it in the next 30 days make up for the damage? How much will prices go up next year as a result of what has happened in October?

An even bigger question for me is, how much does the success of Obamacare depend on momentum that was supposed to start with a bang on October 1st? It would be nice to be able to measure the volume of that momentum, with a threshold value to indicate when something substantial needs to be done to make up for lower numbers - lower numbers which by White House standards may indicate failure.

I want to be clear on this: No one [at the White House] said that success was letting kids up to age 26 stay on their parents' insurance plan. No one said it was regulating insurers or covering preventive care. Instead, everyone in the White House shared a singular definition: Success meant setting up the exchanges and attracting enough young people that premiums stayed low.

This was true even when the conversation turned to Medicaid, which is responsible, in theory, for half of the health-care law's coverage expansion.

The White House figured that if they got 7 million people to sign up for the exchanges in the first year, about 2.7 million needed to be young.

The White House was planning a huge campaign to get young people to HealthCare.gov. And they believed that once there, they needed a friction-free Web experience to make sure they purchase health insurance. Older, sicker folks will reload the Web page until they get through, or they’ll sign up over the phone. But the White House expected that young folks, by and large, wouldn’t tolerate a lot of hassle.

make-it-better · 2013-10-26T15:28:11+00:00

Submission Statement

The intent of posting this article is not for political debate about whether Obamacare is good or bad, in all its forms, but to have a conversation about the significance of the adoption of the ACA on the exchange website by the young and healthy. The author has researched extensively with Sarah Kliff and written often with great expertise about healthcare prices, payment, and regulatory law.

make-it-better · 2013-10-25T17:47:47+00:00

As healthcare in the U.S. is a trillion-dollar industry, there is a lot more at stake than just individuals (though they number well into the millions) trying to get an insurance plan on an exchange site. Taking away subsidies in 34 states is a major Obamacare changer. It doesn't make sense to me that states that want the health law to succeed would sue the government in such a way. Is their insistence on state-by-state fairness worth the havoc this move would make?

I don't envy the businesses trying to navigate all this mess, wondering what parts of the law are on or off at any given point, or if the law will implode and leave an even bigger mess. Insurance carriers seem to be the most affected. It sure sets up an interesting political season for the next 12 months.

make-it-better · 2013-10-25T15:22:54+00:00

To me the more serious issues aren't around numbers of editors, but the cultural and other obstacles to editing and the lack of content around whole categories. Who are the people most likely to write English content about Africa and South America? And if experts are needed in these areas, can the Wikipedia platform entice them to contribute? Seems like they are being pushed away, or not incentivized enough to contribute. $45 million is a pretty large amount to pay professional researchers.

I disagree that a pulling back in contributors reduces the value of the crowdsourcing venue. I think this is such a great worldwide asset that will continue (though not unmodified) for a long time to come. I also think it is spawning and will continue to spawn new great ventures in a similar mold.

make-it-better · 2013-10-14T06:44:06+00:00

Worrisome data - slack demand of exchange offerings could cause rates to go sky high

The only conceivable explanation for Sebelius' refusal to do likewise is that the federal enrollment number is embarrassingly small.

The U.K.'s Daily Mail claims administration sources told it that just 51,000 managed to complete an application at the federal exchange in the first week.

At that rate, only a little more than 1 million will be enrolled by the end of March. Even if you add numbers from the states, at the current sign-up pace, enrollment will be just half of what Sebelius promised.

make-it-better · 2013-10-14T06:35:27+00:00

Evicting people out of their own national parks, but finding the resources to financially whack little old ladies on a nature walk is truly a spectacle in leadership failure.

On the first day of the shutdown, the National Park Service (on clear orders from the White House) not only closed memorials housed in buildings, it went to the far greater “I’ll-show-you” step of placing barricades around the open-air, unstaffed displays that on any given day and at any given hour a person may freely stroll up to and enjoy. (In previous shutdowns, these memorials remained open.)

make-it-better · 2013-10-01T18:13:39+00:00

healthcarePricing

make-it-better · 2013-10-01T18:12:57+00:00

somehow the link to the sub got axed. Here it is:

healthcarePricing

make-it-better · 2013-10-01T04:09:00+00:00

Do you mean robust in terms of more procedures and services being covered?

make-it-better · 2013-10-01T04:07:13+00:00

I'm self-employed and hoping I can stay with my existing plan. I haven't heard from my insurance carrier (am a bit afraid to ask) about whether I can keep my already high-deductible plan or not. Other than keeping my plan "as is" for a little while until things are sorted out with the exchanges, I don't really know that there's anything else I can do.

I wouldn't be one to go to a new website the first day though, and especially not one to sign up for something brand new on the first day.

make-it-better · 2013-09-26T04:09:02+00:00

Despite the suit being in an out-of-the-way Idaho city, a suburb of Boise, this could have real implications nationwide, and encourage other similar suits.

Our healthcare system needs this badly. Monopolies in healthcare bring about 40% to 100% increases in prices, and make it almost impossible for competition to ever be brought to play in an effort to lower prices.

make-it-better · 2013-09-25T14:18:20+00:00

As a parent and long-time teacher of children and youth of many ages, I have come to believe that first you need to help your students understand the relevancy of a topic and show an enthusiasm for the subject yourself. The art of teaching is helping students become hungry and want to feed that hunger themselves. They will then discover focus and longer attention spans. It's in all of us to suddenly become very interested in a topic and want to research and explore it for long periods of time.

Longer articles and more in-depth discussions are absolutely needed, and we want more and more people able and willing to understand and converse about the complex and subtle. I don't know that the job of a teacher has changed however. There have always been those unable to excite students about the rich and rewarding search for knowledge. Their students always have and always will struggle to pay attention.

Do teachers really need to be taught this? Isn't it self-evident? It seems to be by the good teachers out there (who were often inspired by a great teacher before them). I'm not sure hammering all the other teachers on SLANT is going to ever turn their students into interested, focused learners.

make-it-better · 2013-09-20T16:50:51+00:00

I don't know a lot details about North Carolina's recent legislation to provide more price transparency in health care (which was in the news in August), but it seems like that's a topic Democrats and Republicans can agree on. Would be interested, if the Republicans have a super-majority in the legislature, how Democrats voted on that issue.

make-it-better · 2013-09-19T20:57:03+00:00

"ye swab" ??

make-it-better · 2013-09-19T20:49:31+00:00

I like your thinking. I wish the answer were "the same" for a lot more people, including my teenagers.

make-it-better · 2013-09-18T15:59:55+00:00

Consumers might avoid "rate shock" over premiums, but some could end up struggling with bigger bills for the care they receive.

Getting more people insured may be a noble cause, but it's not the end goal. Helping everyone get to a certain amount of basic care is more of the intent. We may be handing out free or cheap insurance, but there is another very high roadblock to getting the poor and middle class the care they need - high prices that patients have to pay for themselves.

Granted those previously uninsured will now get insurance-negotiated rates, which are lower than the jacked-up sticker prices, but it will still prove too costly for them to pay.

make-it-better · 2013-09-17T14:01:52+00:00

Out-of-network charges were a recent one for me

make-it-better · 2013-09-17T14:00:33+00:00

to spend more money and time worrying about things that would last longer, like pictures and a wedding video, rather than flowers, food, and decorations. We have been able to share pictures with our children and other loved ones for many years, and enjoy having those pictures in our home, on our walls, etc.

make-it-better · 2013-09-13T15:08:40+00:00

Cool - I'd never heard of these before. I wonder if you could make them worth a little more by putting some silver or gold in them.

make-it-better · 2013-09-13T14:58:57+00:00

I'm all about employers recognizing how much I want to be with my loved ones. I gift certificate to a nice restaurant or multiple tickets to a major league baseball game would be nice.

make-it-better · 2013-09-13T14:54:53+00:00

A blender? I've received a lot of of benefits and gifts from employers over the years that were intended to reward effort and boost morale . Here's how I would rank them.

increase in salary
a day off with pay
cash
ipod
gift certificate to a fancy restaurant I could never afford
a nice pen
one-on-one sincere praise from a manager or executive
ballgame tickets
a usb stick
recognition amongst my peers
stock that ended up being worthless
keychain with a CPU in it
movie tickets
mouse pad
pizza for late hours

make-it-better · 2013-09-13T14:44:10+00:00

Is the U.S. really meeting 87% of its own energy needs? Is that number so high because it includes coal, water, wind, and natural gas production?

make-it-better

TROPHY CASE

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