"He said, 'If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.' Oh yeah?" This was my mother yelling at the president, which I hadn't heard her do since Bush II. This was a woman who can hardly believe how much the Republican Party has changed since she registered to vote for Richard Nixon. Who voted for Obama twice. "And I would again," she says. "I really think he's been good."
i am very sorry for your mom's experience alex.
I can't speak for PA obv, but i can speak as a navigator in IL. we do a significant amount of financial counseling within a very limited remit (e.g., technically we are not allowed to give financial or tax advice, help people pick insurance plans, etc.)
we joke that we have in fact become policy wonks on everything from SSI and SSDI income, IRA distributions, line 37 of the tax form (and how to minimize or maximize that number depending on need), green cards, work visas, exceptions to the Medicaid residency requirement (cubans!), the HH employer ins gap, the LPR complex case issue and which blue cross plans cover which doctors in Chicago. we work closely with the shriver center, immigrants' rights groups and HHS.
however, i suspect we have a leg up as IL did take the expanded medicaid and is very committed to training us / making the ACA work (in fact, launch day, 10/1, the feds thought only IL had problems with the website b/c we found issues so fast)
and i'm glad your mom's situation worked out. certainly there are still many problems with obamacare.
then again, it's a 25 year old republican plan that comprised its way thru obama's futile effort at bipartisan outreach and 2 congressional chambers and never got reconciled b/c ted kennedy died and the centerfold got elected.
For me, there's a way of thinking about it that strongly highlights how utterly, completely, thoroughly bullshit he Medicaid decision was.
Nobody, ever, anywhere ever said that it would be unconstitutional to terminate a Federal program. Similarly, no one ever said it would be unconstitutional to start a new one. If you think about the ACA as repealing "old" Medicaid and establishing "new" Medicaid, it would without the slightest shadow of a doubt be constitutional to condition all the funds on compliance with the new terms. But that is functionally identical to the way the law was written which was struck down. The court relied on a distinction without a difference to reach heir verdict, and that's unsupportable.
because ted kennedy died.
i am very sorry for your mom's experience alex.
I can't speak for PA obv, but i can speak as a navigator in IL. we do a significant amount of financial counseling within a very limited remit (e.g., technically we are not allowed to give financial or tax advice, help people pick insurance plans, etc.)
we joke that we have in fact become policy wonks on everything from SSI and SSDI income, IRA distributions, line 37 of the tax form (and how to minimize or maximize that number depending on need), green cards, work visas, exceptions to the Medicaid residency requirement (cubans!), the HH employer ins gap, the LPR complex case issue and which blue cross plans cover which doctors in Chicago. we work closely with the shriver center, immigrants' rights groups and HHS.
however, i suspect we have a leg up as IL did take the expanded medicaid and is very committed to training us / making the ACA work (in fact, launch day, 10/1, the feds thought only IL had problems with the website b/c we found issues so fast)
and i'm glad your mom's situation worked out. certainly there are still many problems with obamacare.
then again, it's a 25 year old republican plan that comprised its way thru obama's futile effort at bipartisan outreach and 2 congressional chambers and never got reconciled b/c ted kennedy died and the centerfold got elected.
... which is why anyone with any sense wanted single payer.
tl:dr
No, I kid. I read every word. Well done.
This is a lot like journalism, which I am old enough to remember. Thank you Alex.
For me, there's a way of thinking about it that strongly highlights how utterly, completely, thoroughly bullshit he Medicaid decision was.
Nobody, ever, anywhere ever said that it would be unconstitutional to terminate a Federal program. Similarly, no one ever said it would be unconstitutional to start a new one. If you think about the ACA as repealing "old" Medicaid and establishing "new" Medicaid, it would without the slightest shadow of a doubt be constitutional to condition all the funds on compliance with the new terms. But that is functionally identical to the way the law was written which was struck down. The court relied on a distinction without a difference to reach heir verdict, and that's unsupportable.