What do you think about Obamacare?

Yeah. A whole lot of oldsters need coverage for birth control, an obstetrician, drug abuse counselors, the list goes on. All that crap is required in EVERYONE'S coverage under Obamacare. Nice set of criteria to make care affordable for everyone. People will not be able to tailor a plan according to their individual needs. That's the real reason people are being dropped.

Wait until 2015 when we see the true rates and deductibles under this plan.

BTW, I don't give a crap what you or anyone else drives. That's actually none of my business. The politics of envy are ugly.

long war & peace answers wear people down....can we be less wordy...I'm even putting myself to sleep typing this....thanks

There are so many problems with Health Care in this country. Something has to be done. For example: My brother in law, who is a CPA and buys his own health insurance, well educated, middle of the road politically, has a genetic heart problem. At 61 his meds are no longer working. The other option is surgery or death. He is friends with people in high places at the University of Miami. However, his cardiologist would not write the letter of referral he needed to have the surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Didn't want him to go there. So much foot draggery. Now finally after my brother in law wrote the letter himself and strong armed the cardiologist into signing it, the insurance company wants a letter from my BIL's primary doctor. MORE foot draggery.

It seems they want this good man to die. Something needs to be done in the country about the health care business, and it is a business, who puts profits above the welfare of the patients.

Whether it is Obamacare or not that takes us in the right direction, something had to be done. And we all need to understand what we hear on Foxx, or MSNBC, or any liberal or conservative publication is slanted.

Personally, I hope Obamacare works.

Windytown, my BIL has his own accounting firm. Paid 20K for insurance last year for just himself. His wife is on Medicare. He spent 3 hours today trying to get the insurance company to approve life saving surgery for him. His heart is giving out and he is only 61. That simple.

My neighbor's daughter was employed by Disney. Decided she want to quit her job and get her masters degree in Education. My neighbor thought she would add her back to her teacher's insurance program. No, the daughter had taken Accutane (an acne med) or they thought. So no, she had a preexisting condition. But she never took Accutane, so they decided, yes, we will insure you after all. But we are going to charge you 75.00 a month more. Why? who the hell knows.

So, I am guessing you have very good insurance or are on Medicare. And if not, I hope you don't get sick.

What the young people and those that qualify for subsides for their premiums don't realize is the fact that they will have to lay out the full amount of the premium monthly and then only when they file their tax return will they be reimbursed the difference, so in affect over all they paid a lower cost. Unless they are smart enough to claim a higher number of exemptions on their paychecks so that they are given more of their with held taxes on W-2 forms they still have to come up with the full premium monthly. This is my understanding......

Looking at stories of 90+ year old people being kept alive against their DNR wishes, maybe we could use a good "Death Panel" to stop such extreme treatments.

have seen so many screw ups re.DNR wishes..I feel people who have taken the time and carefully filled out thier living will, should wear a bracelet or necklace stating same...before someone jumps on your ribs or shoves a breathing tube down your throat ...as we all know once this is done ..your wishes have been violated....and this poor soul may haunt you nightly.

I'm a Massachusetts resident and I can tell you that Romneycare is working here. I frequently had to take my father to the ER for a blocked catheter. The uninsured who used to clog up the ER with a case of the sniffles are gone. The ER waiting rooms are empty. My dad was seen right away and we got out the door in reasonable amount of time.

@palmtrees - maybe your BIL's cardiologist is right by not wanting him to go to the Cleveland Clinic. Does he have any alternatives?

@LloydBraun - you're lucky re: ER rooms being empty. I used to work in a hospital that belonged to the Cleveland Clinic system. The ER was never empty.

Once I was a patient myself, admitted with an attack of gallstones. I can tell you firsthand, they are frequently understaffed, and I could feel it.

I don't know about your 'sniffles' stats... Sounds like an attitude. In my working years, we had uninsured admitted and they did have problems requiring hospitalization. Not 'sniffles'.

Spoony,

I didn't mean to offend with my broad generalization. As a frequent visitor to the ER at all hours of day and night, I see the empty waiting rooms. With 98% of residents insured in Massachusetts, people who used to use the ER for their primary care are able to go to primary care docs or drop-in med centers. The ER is now freed up for true emergencies and we no longer have to subsidize the free riders.

It sucks, bigtime!!!!!

Here in California we were able to get a very good plan through CoveredCalifornia, our state's federal program, that will save us over $400/month over my husband's employer's plan, is with a great company we have had in the past, covers more at 90/10, and will include my 17-year-old son with a pre-existing health condition and get him back to his specialists at UCLA when our current Kaiser plan refused outside specialists and can't offer anywhere near the expertise for him. It is truly a win-win for our family. Our state went right into action on putting this program out there so that we were signed up before the national rollout even began. This will improve my family's lives greatly.

I understand you and I are having a split opinion on the subject. Here's my take. Things happen when (some) baby boomers find themselves in a situation when they need health care while being uninsured. The hospitals are non-for-profits for which reason they enjoy a tax break but then have to give back to the community by serving those less fortunate. The hospitals of course offer financial assistance, at least theoretically. Practically, they are good at finding loopholes around it.

These people worked and paid taxes. Now that they don't work any more and having no health insurance for a number of reasons (pre-existing conditions is one of them), what are they supposed to do? I myself can't afford health insurance for that very reason; hope I won't end up at the ER.

Then again, regular visits to a doctor don't prevent one from an emergency situation.

But I digress.

Don't like it. I have had my plan cancelled (the one Obama promised I could keep if I liked it). This whole plan needs to axed and redone. The people who choose to change plans should have that choice (remember choice)? Whenever you make something mandatory...it doesn't work. Help those in need but leave my plan alone.

well since we were told you would have to read it away from the fog its not surprising that that all our leaders who never read the bill ....are all looking foolish and now we have one ongoing toxic sitcom which reminds me of the tower of Babel interrupted by advertisements.....stock up on your popcorn....

I would rather see Obamacare repealed and let the private sector come up with a plan for those who cannot get health coverage and make it a requirement for employers to provide some medical benefits as well with a subsidy from the government if needed. Government control of our medical will be a COSTLY with bad consequences yet to come for all Americans. Look what our government has done to Medicare and social security. No one in their right mind would want them in your healthcare.

I have a friend who is self employed and went on the Obamacare site and found out to cover her family, would cost them $1,000.00 per month for the insurance and a deductible of $10,000.00 per year. So, basically before it pays anything, they will have to shell out $22,000.00 now, has the public been deceived by this President, yup you betcha!

Starting last year, Obamacare began to raid medicare. It culminated, for me, this year when my plan has been raised from the $140 I paid for an Advantage plan to $290. It is a disgrace.

When massachusetts enacted the RomneyCare, the state established Commonwealth Care Health Insurance, a subsidized health plan for low-income Massachusetts residents. It is now being cancelled due to Obamacare and the health exchanges established in this state. Seems to me the state is shifting the cost of subsidized healthcare onto the federal government taxpayers. Wonder how many other states are doing the same thing. My sister was on Commonwealth Care and had to find coverage on the health exchanges. She will be paying more for the same type of coverage. I would definately not call it the Affordable Care Act. I would call it the Required Health Care Act of America.

The Affordable Care Act is so complicated and has so many glitches right now that it's almost impossible for me to understand whether or not it is going to be a good thing or a bad thing. I do have a couple of things to bring up, however:

I know a person who didn't have insurance. Every time she and her children got sick, they went to the emergency room for care. Why can't we provide care in less expensive places than the emergency room for people who don't have health insurance? We need a lot more low-cost clinics and I would think the health systems who are raking in millions of dollars and building fancy new hospitals while not paying taxes should be responsible for building and maintaining them. When people without insurance end up in the emergency room and can't pay that debt, don't all taxpayers end up paying the bill anyway?

This would definitely include dental care; we just had a free two day dental event here in Des Moines and people had driven from miles away and lined up for hours to get dental care.

The other thing that infuriates me is that Wellmark BC/BS just built a huge lovely building here in downtown, pays its CEO a huge salary, and has a excessive amount of money in its coffers. Yet they want to continue raising premiums. Aren't they supposed to be a non-profit? Doesn't that excess money belong to rate-payers?

Since I have ulcerative pancolitis and related kidney stones, I'm lucky to have insurance through my job. Otherwise, my pre-existing conditions would make it very hard to get any type of affordable comprehensive insurance.

I think in theory it was a good plan and very much needed. Apparently it has not been handled very well. Romneycare is a good plan. I was one who would have needed ACA b/c I was paying $500 per month with a $10,000 ded. So very glad I have Medicare now. I have a supplement to go with the Medicare. I think the supplement is a necessity b/c it is 80/20.

I agree with 2pupsmom. Nannie, it's best to be careful about getting your info from media matters. That website is funded by GEORGE Soros and an arm of this administration. You will learn onlywhat supports their agenda...not necessarily the truth on an issue. Death panels are reality, though they won't be called that. It will be sold to us as "compassionate care".

Well here's my personal experience. I had attempted to sign up on the old healthcare.gov site. It was a mess and very frustrating. This morning, I bit the bullet and deleted my previous app and started over.

Signed up in about seven minutes on the improved website. My new BC/BS plan (I have BC/BS now) drops my current $2,600 deductible to $1,500. I go from paying $494 a month to $288.06 with my tax credits. I can now afford dental coverage and to join the fitness center associated with my local hospital. At $68/month I didn't feel like I could afford it until now. I now have the funds to take even better care of my health by taking fitness classes and using the swimming pool.

Thanks Obama and thanks Obamacare. I'm stoked!!

THANKS OBAMA!!!

Yeah. Thanks Obama when 80 million lose their employer sponsored insurance next year. That will play out well...

I think the Affordable Care Act will be great once everything is running smoothly. It is surprising the number of people who do not have health insurance or who have inadequate health insurance. We, as consumers, have been paying for the care received by those without/inadequate.

Plus I am so glad that health insurance companies can no longer turn anyone down because of a pre-existing condition. We all have pre-existing conditions that we have inherited from our parents. Plus, insurance companies cannot cancel your policy if your costs are too expensive, that was always the fear for some who were seriously illness or were born with a health related issue.

We also need to pay attention to what are unfounded rumors and total myths. There is a lot of that rolling around the Internet. People need to go to legit websites that can answer any health insurance they might have, instead of listening to those who don't like Obamacare and have wrong information.

If the reason is *political* to for dislike of Obamacare, please note back in 1993 there was the "Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act" which, unfortunately, never made it out of Congress. It was very similar to the Affordable Care Act, and it was written by Republicans.

I think it won't work on a long run. According to Washington CBS local news website, "nearly 5 million Americans will lose their insurance due to Obamacare." The site also states that "Obama has called on states to allow Americans to continue to keep their canceled health care plans" but that some states have declined. Feel free to read more here: I believe that this site is unbiased.

This is where it all is going. Myself, I can't afford any premiums, with my SSD benefits being low, so am prepared to pay the penalty. However this one can't get collected unless I get a tax refund, which I don't because my Social Security benefits are not even taxable. Here we go.

There never were any "death panels" in any proposal. The provision which has been mislabeled that required physicians to have conversations with their patients which conformed to the guidelines for what is called "the living will" - Physicians tend to avoid these discussions, have not been taught how to discuss these concerns. Physicians & nurse-practioners would be expected to have frank counseling discussions, at no cost to the patient - and only if the patient wished, actually. Do you want "heroic" measures? What are your preferences? The women, like Sarah Palin and two other Republican women who promulgated this fake title for these discussions should be ashamed of themselves for telling such blatant lies and frightening so many people illegitimately.

@owlseyes - I think this should be included, although some people might feel uncomfortable discussing this, but they can always refuse.

My preferences are, worse case scenario, a DNR and no tube feeding. I would allow some comfort measures such as IV fluids etc., but if my time comes to go, I wouldn't want to prolong it. I believe Oregon has a Death With Dignity Act, and there is no length of residency requirement. One can probably should be able to locate a participating physician online. I don't see anything wrong with that.

If you even log onto healthcare.gov, you are putting all of your personal info at high risk of being stolen. It's a hacker's dream.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101225308

Proceed with caution and arm yourself with all available information. Healthcare.gov has NO security built into it.

uh oh