The LuLac Edition #2454, June 24th, 2013
HEALTH CARE ON THE WAY!
Rep. Cartwright Marks 100 Days until First Day of Enrollment for New Health Insurance Marketplaces
Today, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright marked the 100th day until the first day of enrollment for the new Health Insurance Marketplaces on October 1st by announcing that a new consumer-focused www.HealthCare.gov website and a 24-hours-a-day toll-free call center have been launched.The new consumer-focused www.HealthCare.gov website and new toll-free call center, 1-800-318-2596, are designed to help Americans who are looking for health coverage prepare for open enrollment and ultimately sign up for private health insurance.
“Available now, the new HealthCare.gov website and toll-free call center are designed to make sure every American who needs health coverage has the information they need to begin preparing for the new coverage opportunities coming in October,” said Cartwright. “Then starting in October, HealthCare.gov will become the online destination where consumers can actually compare and enroll in affordable, qualified health plans.”
Already over the last three years, due to the Affordable Care Act, numerous patient protections and consumer cost savings have gone into effect, benefiting millions of Americans, including: 6.6 million young adults up to age 26 have obtained insurance through their parents’ plans, of whom 3.1 million would be uninsured without this coverage;
6.3 million people with Medicare have saved over $6.1 billion on their prescription drugs.
34 million people with Medicare have received a free preventive service.
71 million privately insured people have gained access to free preventive services.
105 million Americans have had lifetime limits removed from their insurance.
$1.1 billion in rebates from health insurance companies last summer helped benefit nearly 13 million Americans.
Now, on October 1, with the opening of enrollment in these new Health Insurance Marketplaces, Americans who are looking for health coverage will have new access to quality health insurance coverage. The Marketplaces will provide a choice among numerous private health plans and provide sliding-scale premium tax credits to make the coverage affordable. “The new Health Insurance Marketplaces will make quality private health insurance affordable for millions of Americans for the first time,” Cartwright said. “The sliding-scale tax credits are designed to ensure that families can find a health plan that both meets their needs and their budget. These new Marketplaces will ensure the peace of mind that comes with health coverage for millions of Americans.”
1963
The latter part of the month of June 1963 was filled with news events that would become part of historical lore. In movies, the release of the film Cleopatra is met with critical acclaim starring Elizabeth Taylor……..After Gordon Cooper’s historic Mercury Flight in May of ’63, the cancellation of Mercury-Atlas 10 effectively ends the United States manned spaceflight Project Mercury……Next up, Project Gemini set for launch in 1965…..
FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE
But as the U.S. pats itself on the back for six successful manned Mercury missions, Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman into space. She returns safely a few days later…….The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state-mandated Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional.
THE NEW POPE
Giovanni Battista Montini succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope. One of Pope Paul’s first acts was to reaffirm the Vatican Council started by John XXIII. Montini was always considered Papal material, so much so that when Pius XII died in 1958 he was speculated as being the logical choice even though he was not yet a Cardinal.
JFK AT THE WALL
and John F. Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin, East Germany. The speech is regarded as one of the seminal moments in the Kennedy foreign policy and would be remembered for years to come….and fifty years ago this week the number one song in LuLac land was Sukiyaki Kyu Sakamoto.
posted by David Yonki @ 5:20 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Wow, Dave, great edition and history lesson of the great events of 1963. You can't get this stuff anywhere else!
I'm amazed, I have to say. Actually barely ever do I experience a site that's both educative and entertaining, and permit me notify you, you may well have hit the nail on the head. Your notion is excellent the problem is anything that not adequate folks are talking intelligently about. I am extremely joyful that I stumbled throughout this in my find for something referring to this.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is going to make health care unaffordable to a shockingly large number of poor people—many of them single and childless. This should come as no surprise, though: The burden of regulation falls all too often disproportionately on the relatively poor, especially the working poor—the very people this law was supposed to help. Obamacare, sadly, is merely the latest and most painful hit from the regulatory onslaught of Washington, diverting resources that could be better used to address larger and more immediate risks.
For example, the Ohio Department of Insurance recently announced an average expected jump of 88 percent in individual-market health insurance premiums as “consumers have fewer choices and pay much higher premiums for their health insurance starting in 2014,” according to a statement by Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor. This sobering statement comes hard on the heels of calculations by Manhattan Institute analyst Avik Roy showing that premiums in California’s individual market are set to almost double next year.
According to Mr. Roy’s calculations, young, single, childless men and women who do not have employer-provided health insurance will be hit equally because California prohibits sex-based discrimination. If your income exceeds 183 percent of the federal poverty level, you are ineligible for either expanded Medicaid or any subsidies—and you’ll see your premiums almost double. With an annual income of as little at $21,000, a young childless adult could be shelling out $183 monthly, compared to the current rate of $74 for a plan with a large deductible and substantial co-pays, a far cry from the original promises of Obamacare.
Some of this increase is a result of so-called “community rating,” which means insurance companies can no longer fully take differences in health into account when pricing health insurance for residents of a geographical location. The Society of Actuaries, however, calculates that almost 60 percent of the increase is a result of factors other than the inclusion of coverage for high-risk individuals. A significant portion of the increase is driven by top-down mandates of benefits that must be included in insurance plans, and the costs are pushed to consumers in the form of higher premiums.
(continued)
Obamacare was long on promises about helping the poor, but it’s delivering a regressive tax. Just before Obamacare was passed, Congress severely restricted payday loans under the Payday Loan Reform Act, limited interest-rate increases and penalties on credit cards under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, and limited fees these companies could charge merchants under the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act. Payday-loan users tend to be lower income. Limiting availability of such loans has driven cash-strapped borrowers to alternatives such as pawn shops that charge far higher interest rates. Limiting the supply does not reduce demand.
Similarly, when interest rates are capped, credit remains available to higher-income individuals with better credit. It is poorer people with worse credit who lose access to credit cards and are driven to seek even more expensive and possibly illegal options to fulfill their credit needs. This might not have been the intended consequence, but it was entirely foreseeable.
Regulations that seek to achieve safety goals place a disproportionate burden on the poor. As Utah State University economist Diana Thomas has demonstrated, the cost of regulation can absorb six to eight times as much of a poor household’s income as that of a high-income household. Rather than rely on government to improve safety, the poor can get the biggest bang for their buck by moving to safer neighborhoods, which can sharply reduce the risk of injury, illness and death.
Health care works the same way. The poor are the ones who will pay the highest price, in relation to their income, under Obamacare. It’s unfair and it’s unjust, but that’s often how government works. There’s a better way to help the needy: Reduce the burden of regulation so that health care and other services are as affordable as they can be for everyone.
Again with the Popes Yonki. You ever want to be a priest?
IN RESPONSE
Again with the Popes Yonki. You ever want to be a priest?
UP UNTIL THE SIXTH GRADE. THEN I DISCOVERED GIRLS.
Poor little Pope John Twenty Thoird. Brooklyn accent.
Edit
A good friend traces his first gay experience to a Jesuit Seminary. Better yet, why don't they just let priests marry. It would solve many problems and give catholic priests some background for marriage counseling.
IN RESPONSE
Edit
A good friend traces his first gay experience to a Jesuit Seminary. Better yet, why don't they just let priests marry. It would solve many problems and give catholic priests some background for marriage counseling.
SORRY FOR THE EDIT BUT THAT WAS A BLANKET STATEMENT THAT IS NOT 100% TRUE. I USED TO THINK IT WOULD BE OKAY FOR PRIESTS TO MARRY BUT I'VE CHANGED MY MIND. THAT WILL BE A FUTURE LULAC EDITION.
All I know about Health Care is that Insurance companies, especially the non profits can't pad the books with high administrative costs. There is a cap now for these bloodsuckers.
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