Even one last blast of wintry weather could not keep down the indomitable New York spirit as the city’s denizens looked forward to spring, so much so that they were practically dancing in the streets in anticipation. Or perhaps they were dancing because many of them finally had access to affordable and comprehensive health insurance. But Sister Peggy Noonan of the Order of Hangover Whiskey Farts could not share in her fellow citizens’ joy. Moping along the city’s bustling avenues like the Grinch moping through Whoville, she felt as if she were trapped onstage during a gaily lit musical number in one of the city’s numerous Broadway theaters, with brightly costumed flamenco dancers or smiling nuns or people in cat costumes swirling and leaping around her in time to the uplifting notes emanating from the orchestra pit. It was a living nightmare.
I live well beyond the Edge of Nowhere and yet I had a choice of four different plans at my chosen metal level. Just one more reason why I am glad that I live in an extremely blue state.
You're probably right, but I kinda think that advocacy/hard-nosed negotiation/deal-cutting may have had something to do with it too. Things done by an insurance commission that probably had strong backing from the politically muscular who were in turn committed to making this new thing work.
I prefer to think so, anyway. Doing so will make it a bit simpler to make the right choices on the ballot in our next state election.
True enough, but all the MDs I talk to are passionately in favor of single-payer, nonetheless. And I can't say they're all that liberal or lefty. Many are highly paid specialists. But they hate having to hire whole staffs to manage the endless paperwork and the ridiculous and ever-changing formularies, to battle the insurers if they want to prescribe a treatment that is randomly considered "experimental," to plead on behalf of patients who are being screwed, etc. etc.
The doctors and the hospitals are mostly allies of single-payer, but they have not been nearly as organized as the insurance lobby. And the AMA is a bunch of neanderthals, which doesn't help.
Many of Peggy's arguments against the ACA in this piece could easily be used as arguments that it doesn't go far enough and we need a single-payer system.
"But six million people lost their coverage and were forced onto the exchanges!"
Back in the 1980s, I was a young freelancy Mal, and could only afford a low-end Blue Cross Blue Shield policy. It covered nothing except emergency care and hospitalization (not including surgeons' fees and most other ancillary stuff). It had a huge deductible too. In other words, I was paying a low premium for a big box of nothing.
At some point the Blue Cross folks sent me a form letter that said, "Mal, honey, this coverage we've been selling you is the shite and we are not going to offer this plan any more. We will sell you the next one up, which covers a modest spectrum of the main things, and costs a bit more."
I cried. I called them on the phone and cried some more. The bastards would not continue my old plan. And I could not afford the new one. Only actually, by the time the better coverage and lower deductible panned out, it turned out that I could afford it, though not easily. I had to scrimp a bit, in order to buy insurance that was not a big fat bag of zero, but actually paid for things when I was sick.
In short: what this parable teaches us is FUCK YOU NOONAN YOU SHIT-EATING BOX OF NOTHING.
So the GOP's opposition to the ACA has progressed like this.
2012: Communism! Don't tell us what to do! Why should we pay for other Americans to not die of preventable and communicable diseases? While we're at it, let's end public education, what a scam! No one really wants it! Big Government invading our lives!
2013: This clause here about women getting coverage for the stuff women need is bad! It is social engineering! It is a War on Religion!
2014: There weren&#039;t really 7 million people who were dying for lack of health-care insurance, or losing their homes, or going bankrupt, or taking only half their insulin to make the meds stretch til the end of the month, or choosing between surgery and food for the kids. Really, at most it&#039;s like, maybe <i>four</i> million. Or five. Or like six. But <i>definitely</i> not seven.
Hey GOP, you want to play the numbers game? Here&#039;s some numbers.
2008 presidential election popular vote: Dem 69,498,000, GOP 59,948,000 (differential 9.5 million votes)
2012: Dem 65,915,796, GOP 60,933,500 (differential 5 million)
Number of adults who now have health insurance (factoring in Obamacare enrollments, Medicaid expansion, and young adults age 23 to 26 now covered by parents&#039; plans): 10 million and counting.
Now, how many of that 10 million are people who never bothered to vote, as opposed to, say, ardent Democrats who always vote? And the parents of those unemployed college grads? How are they gonna vote?
National elections these days are won or lost on turnout and the swing numbers are never much more than 10 million.
This. Now that we have a fairly adequate if wildly unequal patchwork of insurance plans, the next step is an actual national health-care system. If the medical establishment would fight harder against the insurance lobby, we might get somewhere, too. And if we can hold the Senate.
It would have been nice to just establish single-payer by fiat, like the UK in 1951, but that was always a pipe dream. And yes, the GOP is so raving frenzied about the ACA because it is indeed the thin edge of the wedge. So yay us.
Like all the dishonest right wing hacks, that sodden cunt is lying through her whiskey stained teeth about the Pelosi quote. Everyone of those fuckwits intentionally misquotes her- &quot;we have to pass the bill so that YOU can find out what is in it&quot;- completely changes the meaning of the quote. Fuck you Peggy, if you can&#039;t carry your argument without lying then you have no argument. Also too, your numbers are complete bullshit. The number of people who previously had insurance before going on the exchange is nowhere near 6 mil and so what if there are? I&#039;m one of those people who dropped group coverage for an exchange plan because of the $2400 or so annual savings for a better plan. Somehow I don&#039;t count? The ACA is about far more than new enrollees- fuck you again, you nasty crone. 6 mil also didn&#039;t lose coverage, that&#039;s just another zombie GOP lie that they pulled out of their collective ass.The consensus from the experts is that we&#039;ll see 85-93% honoring their payments- that is amazing considering how many of them never had an insurance obligation before. The 7.1 mil enrollee number is also old news, estimates are that California alone still has 500,000 people in the pipeline- we&#039;ll probably break 8 mil for the first- note FIRST- open enrollment period. Factor in the millions extended on their parents plans, the millions who now have Medicaid (despite the fucking GOP&#039;s best attempts to prevent them in so many states) and the millions they conveniently neglect to include who signed up for insurance without actually going to the exchange (this number is in fact where most of those whose policies went away show up, either their own insurance offered a new compliant policy or their agent simply found them a new one with a different company) and this has been a rousing success despite the rocky start and the full court press from the GOP. These assholes have nothing other than their lies to run on, so they&#039;re beginning to go into full screech mode hoping their torrent of bullshit drowns out the truth. Fuck every one of those heartless bastards.
OK, but how old is she in gin years?
I take issue with the alcoholic stuff .. you have any idea how many of us started drinking hard between 2000-2008?
I live well beyond the Edge of Nowhere and yet I had a choice of four different plans at my chosen metal level. Just one more reason why I am glad that I live in an extremely blue state.
Yeah, it must be getting pretty hazardous for you out there, especially with all of those Fox pundits launching themselves over your head.
Bonus: it&#039;ll stop trying to strangle your piss-plumbing.
Best wishes.
You know who else took something from SIX MILLION people?
You&#039;re probably right, but I kinda think that advocacy/hard-nosed negotiation/deal-cutting may have had something to do with it too. Things done by an insurance commission that probably had strong backing from the politically muscular who were in turn committed to making this new thing work.
I prefer to think so, anyway. Doing so will make it a bit simpler to make the right choices on the ballot in our next state election.
True enough, but all the MDs I talk to are passionately in favor of single-payer, nonetheless. And I can&#039;t say they&#039;re all that liberal or lefty. Many are highly paid specialists. But they hate having to hire whole staffs to manage the endless paperwork and the ridiculous and ever-changing formularies, to battle the insurers if they want to prescribe a treatment that is randomly considered &quot;experimental,&quot; to plead on behalf of patients who are being screwed, etc. etc.
The doctors and the hospitals are mostly allies of single-payer, but they have not been nearly as organized as the insurance lobby. And the AMA is a bunch of neanderthals, which doesn&#039;t help.
Sorry, but I don&#039;t think Ms. Noonan could see the truth about Obamacare even if it were etched in the bottom of her whisky glass.
Many of Peggy&#039;s arguments against the ACA in this piece could easily be used as arguments that it doesn&#039;t go far enough and we need a single-payer system.
We&#039;re <i>all</i> commies, now.
Needz moar Hitler.
&quot;But six million people lost their coverage and were forced onto the exchanges!&quot;
Back in the 1980s, I was a young freelancy Mal, and could only afford a low-end Blue Cross Blue Shield policy. It covered nothing except emergency care and hospitalization (not including surgeons&#039; fees and most other ancillary stuff). It had a huge deductible too. In other words, I was paying a low premium for a big box of nothing.
At some point the Blue Cross folks sent me a form letter that said, &quot;Mal, honey, this coverage we&#039;ve been selling you is the shite and we are not going to offer this plan any more. We will sell you the next one up, which covers a modest spectrum of the main things, and costs a bit more.&quot;
I cried. I called them on the phone and cried some more. The bastards would not continue my old plan. And I could not afford the new one. Only actually, by the time the better coverage and lower deductible panned out, it turned out that I could afford it, though not easily. I had to scrimp a bit, in order to buy insurance that was not a big fat bag of zero, but actually paid for things when I was sick.
In short: what this parable teaches us is FUCK YOU NOONAN YOU SHIT-EATING BOX OF NOTHING.
So the GOP&#039;s opposition to the ACA has progressed like this.
2012: Communism! Don&#039;t tell us what to do! Why should we pay for other Americans to not die of preventable and communicable diseases? While we&#039;re at it, let&#039;s end public education, what a scam! No one really wants it! Big Government invading our lives!
2013: This clause here about women getting coverage for the stuff women need is bad! It is social engineering! It is a War on Religion!
2014: There weren&#039;t really 7 million people who were dying for lack of health-care insurance, or losing their homes, or going bankrupt, or taking only half their insulin to make the meds stretch til the end of the month, or choosing between surgery and food for the kids. Really, at most it&#039;s like, maybe <i>four</i> million. Or five. Or like six. But <i>definitely</i> not seven.
Hey GOP, you want to play the numbers game? Here&#039;s some numbers.
2008 presidential election popular vote: Dem 69,498,000, GOP 59,948,000 (differential 9.5 million votes)
2012: Dem 65,915,796, GOP 60,933,500 (differential 5 million)
Number of adults who now have health insurance (factoring in Obamacare enrollments, Medicaid expansion, and young adults age 23 to 26 now covered by parents&#039; plans): 10 million and counting.
Now, how many of that 10 million are people who never bothered to vote, as opposed to, say, ardent Democrats who always vote? And the parents of those unemployed college grads? How are they gonna vote?
National elections these days are won or lost on turnout and the swing numbers are never much more than 10 million.
This. Now that we have a fairly adequate if wildly unequal patchwork of insurance plans, the next step is an actual national health-care system. If the medical establishment would fight harder against the insurance lobby, we might get somewhere, too. And if we can hold the Senate.
It would have been nice to just establish single-payer by fiat, like the UK in 1951, but that was always a pipe dream. And yes, the GOP is so raving frenzied about the ACA because it is indeed the thin edge of the wedge. So yay us.
Like all the dishonest right wing hacks, that sodden cunt is lying through her whiskey stained teeth about the Pelosi quote. Everyone of those fuckwits intentionally misquotes her- &quot;we have to pass the bill so that YOU can find out what is in it&quot;- completely changes the meaning of the quote. Fuck you Peggy, if you can&#039;t carry your argument without lying then you have no argument. Also too, your numbers are complete bullshit. The number of people who previously had insurance before going on the exchange is nowhere near 6 mil and so what if there are? I&#039;m one of those people who dropped group coverage for an exchange plan because of the $2400 or so annual savings for a better plan. Somehow I don&#039;t count? The ACA is about far more than new enrollees- fuck you again, you nasty crone. 6 mil also didn&#039;t lose coverage, that&#039;s just another zombie GOP lie that they pulled out of their collective ass.The consensus from the experts is that we&#039;ll see 85-93% honoring their payments- that is amazing considering how many of them never had an insurance obligation before. The 7.1 mil enrollee number is also old news, estimates are that California alone still has 500,000 people in the pipeline- we&#039;ll probably break 8 mil for the first- note FIRST- open enrollment period. Factor in the millions extended on their parents plans, the millions who now have Medicaid (despite the fucking GOP&#039;s best attempts to prevent them in so many states) and the millions they conveniently neglect to include who signed up for insurance without actually going to the exchange (this number is in fact where most of those whose policies went away show up, either their own insurance offered a new compliant policy or their agent simply found them a new one with a different company) and this has been a rousing success despite the rocky start and the full court press from the GOP. These assholes have nothing other than their lies to run on, so they&#039;re beginning to go into full screech mode hoping their torrent of bullshit drowns out the truth. Fuck every one of those heartless bastards.
Remember your high school math class, Peggy, 7.1 million is a real number. 7.1<i>i</i> million is imaginary.