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Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare

imyoda

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Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare | TheHill
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare


…………The pitch from Obama comes after he abandoned pursuit of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers during the long legislative battle over healthcare because of opposition from some Democrats in Congress. “Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers,” Obama writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

………“The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president. The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option………..

Correct me if I’m wrong………Wasn’t this a Republican proposal……..
 
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare | TheHill
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare


…………The pitch from Obama comes after he abandoned pursuit of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers during the long legislative battle over healthcare because of opposition from some Democrats in Congress. “Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers,” Obama writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

………“The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president. The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option………..

Correct me if I’m wrong………Wasn’t this a Republican proposal……..

no single payer was what he (Obama) wanted in the first place along with Bernie and some others.
They could fix the competition limitation by allowing people to buy insurance from any state not just the one they live in. but the agenda has been single payer for them all along.
 
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare

should have been part of the bill in the first place.
 
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare | TheHill
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare

"...Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president. The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option……….."

Correct me if I’m wrong………Wasn’t this a Republican proposal……..

You might be speaking of ACA or of the public plan single payer option. Regardless, the answer is no. The actual plan authored and adopted was designed and approved by Democrats, passed with their votes. This plan was almost 100 percent opposed by Congressional Republicans.

The Democrats own it. Get over it.
 
no single payer was what he (Obama) wanted in the first place along with Bernie and some others. They could fix the competition limitation by allowing people to buy insurance from any state not just the one they live in. but the agenda has been single payer for them all along.

This isn't a private sector good anymore. It's a public good. I live in Alaska. No one would sell us insurance, even if we could buy across state lines.
 
This isn't a private sector good anymore. It's a public good. I live in Alaska. No one would sell us insurance, even if we could buy across state lines.

no one would sell you insurance because you live in Alaska?

looks to me like you can get plans from IHC or Tokio
 
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no one would sell you insurance because you live in Alaska?

looks to me like you can get plans from IHC or Tokio

Don't know what those are, but we're basically down to Premera BCBS, Medicare and Medicaid. Moda just pulled out of Alaska, and Premera has been losing money and rates have been skyrocketing. Our problem isn't the lack of ability to buy a lower-48 plan. Our problem is the cost of our health care.
 
Don't know what those are, but we're basically down to Premera BCBS, Medicare and Medicaid. Moda just pulled out of Alaska, and Premera has been losing money and rates have been skyrocketing. Our problem isn't the lack of ability to buy a lower-48 plan. Our problem is the cost of our health care.

I just saw those two in https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ I check her for what private plans are available for me where I live periodically so I just checked using an Alaska zip code
 
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare | TheHill
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare


…………The pitch from Obama comes after he abandoned pursuit of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers during the long legislative battle over healthcare because of opposition from some Democrats in Congress. “Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers,” Obama writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

………“The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president. The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option………..

Correct me if I’m wrong………Wasn’t this a Republican proposal……..

You are wrong.

There are many things in the ACA that were republican proposals. A public option was not one of them.
 
no single payer was what he (Obama) wanted in the first place along with Bernie and some others.
They could fix the competition limitation by allowing people to buy insurance from any state not just the one they live in. but the agenda has been single payer for them all along.

er uh SD, nobody denies President Obama wanted single payer but you seem to believe Obamacare could be fixed by simpy allowing buying insurance across state lines and its part of some 'conspiracy' to get to single payer. I know it never happens but I would really like you to explain your "narrative". We know you believe it so repeating it isnt necessary. Just some sort of explanation would be nice. And insurers are free to enter any market they want so I dont know how you think somebody in Kentucky being able to buy insurance in Tennessee fixes anything. thanks in advance
 
They could fix the competition limitation by allowing people to buy insurance from any state not just the one they live in.

Insurance companies are free to sell insurance in any state they want.

Tell me why would anyone want to buy insurance that only covers doctors in a different state?
 
er uh SD, nobody denies President Obama wanted single payer but you seem to believe Obamacare could be fixed by simpy allowing buying insurance across state lines and its part of some 'conspiracy' to get to single payer. I know it never happens but I would really like you to explain your "narrative". We know you believe it so repeating it isnt necessary. Just some sort of explanation would be nice. And insurers are free to enter any market they want so I dont know how you think somebody in Kentucky being able to buy insurance in Tennessee fixes anything. thanks in advance

First of all I'm not saying just that is going to 'fix' Obamacare. But it was a proposal brought up.
a forbes article here discusses why it would be beneficial Forbes Welcome
Not that you need to read it as you said a lot know it would help.

Anyway I was responding to imyoda who posted the article about 'Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare'
From that article Imyoda included the comment from Obama that said "I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited'
and added his comment 'Correct me if I’m wrong………Wasn’t this a Republican proposal……..'

So I was saying no it wasn't a republican proposal it was something Obama and other dems wanted.. I then said they could fix the competition problem ( the one Obama mentioned )
By implementing the ability to buy from out of state. in reading further into this there is a sort of provision for it. however HHS has failed to fulfill what they were supposed to do regarding it and quite a few states are not resisting it.
Further info on that below but point is their is already a mechanism to fix the competition issue.

This was an article from Jan 6 us US News &World Report
An Obamacare Provision Even Republicans Can Love | US News

The little-known provision, found in section 1333 of the roughly 1,000-page Affordable Care Act, allows for states to create "health care choice compacts" permitting insurers to sell policies to consumers in any state participating in the compact,
as long as they follow specific rules. So why haven't consumers taken advantage of the provision? Probably, at least in part, because the administration hasn't fully implemented it – a lapse that could provide additional ammunition for Republicans seeking to dismantle Obamacare.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services was directed to consult with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on regulations for the compacts and issue them by July 2013.
The regulations would clarify how such plans would work, given that health insurance plans usually offer coverage in specific areas.
Consumers were supposed to be able to buy insurance in states other than the one in which they live – should they reside in a state that had joined a compact – starting Jan. 1 of this year.
However, the NAIC says HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell has not even reached out to the group for consultation. "Under the law they were supposed to come up with regulations and they haven't yet," an NAIC spokesman says.
Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services did not provide comment despite multiple requests.

This page from the National Conference on State Legislatures outlines info regarding this issue.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/out-of-state-health-insurance-purchases.aspx

Apparently it was a law from 1945 which implemented the policy of each state regulating their own health insurance.
A few states previous to the ACA had set up out of state compacts.. a few have since... but a lot of states have voted not too. some passed a law on it and their gov vetoed it.

So I'm not finger pointing. the federal government isn't doing what they are supposed to do with it. and while a few state governments have tried to implement it many have voted it down. or it didn't come up for vote.
Virginia even voted it down and then passed a law opposing it.
 
Insurance companies are free to sell insurance in any state they want.

Tell me why would anyone want to buy insurance that only covers doctors in a different state?

You really don't understand the concept do you?
 
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare | TheHill
Obama calls for adding public option to ObamaCare


…………The pitch from Obama comes after he abandoned pursuit of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers during the long legislative battle over healthcare because of opposition from some Democrats in Congress. “Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers,” Obama writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

………“The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited,” writes the president. The new embrace from the president also comes amid what appears to be a concerted push by the Democratic Party to rally around the public option………..

Correct me if I’m wrong………Wasn’t this a Republican proposal……..

I can assure you that when Obama came to office with a Democratic congress the mood among the liberals was "Medicare for All" aka Single Payer. And he would have signed it into law if he could have but too many Dem Senators balked so others began to push Public Option as a compromise and he would have signed that too but still too many democratic senators said no. So we were left with the ACA which is such a joke in make up IMO. But at least the camel's nose was under the tent so it wont go away... it will just change stripes. You will never be able to go back to the way it was. People should understand that. We had to have something.
 
I can assure you that when Obama came to office with a Democratic congress the mood among the liberals was "Medicare for All" aka Single Payer. And he would have signed it into law if he could have but too many Dem Senators balked so others began to push Public Option as a compromise and he would have signed that too but still too many democratic senators said no. So we were left with the ACA which is such a joke in make up IMO. But at least the camel's nose was under the tent so it wont go away... it will just change stripes. You will never be able to go back to the way it was. People should understand that. We had to have something[/I].


No, we DIDN'T " have to have something ". That narrative generated by the Democrats as they tried to gain support for what was so obviously a disastrous law is how we wound up with ObamaCare, a law so horrible, so unpopular that Democrats in the 2014 midterms were forced to pretend it didn't exist, and they still got their asses handed to them.

Cost Is Foremost Healthcare Issue for Americans

 
So I was saying no it wasn't a republican proposal it was something Obama and other dems wanted.. I then said they could fix the competition problem ( the one Obama mentioned )
By implementing the ability to buy from out of state.

Except that doesn't solve the competition problem at all. Insurers choose which markets they want to sell in--which states and which counties to enter. Unsurprisingly, unattractive markets (e.g., rural areas in many states) don't generate a lot of interest from insurers, which is why some of those counties are down to a single carrier now.

Allowing more insurers to sell to an unattractive market doesn't make that market any more attractive, nor does it compel them to. If you build it, they still may not come (ask Georgia: No out-of-state insurers offer plans in Georgia).
 
Except that doesn't solve the competition problem at all. Insurers choose which markets they want to sell in--which states and which counties to enter. Unsurprisingly, unattractive markets (e.g., rural areas in many states) don't generate a lot of interest from insurers, which is why some of those counties are down to a single carrier now.

Allowing more insurers to sell to an unattractive market doesn't make that market any more attractive, nor does it compel them to. If you build it, they still may not come (ask Georgia: No out-of-state insurers offer plans in Georgia).

Well you are partly right. Many companies do not want to compete with each other.

However, there is a little matter of monopoly building and insurance companies can and do force out competition.
 
I don't see why people would object to additional competition of a public option.
 
I don't see why people would object to additional competition of a public option.

I liked the concept in 2009, but I've got questions about what it's actually supposed to achieve (and how) at this point. Not saying there can't be benefits but people expecting miracles are going to be disappointed.
 
Hardly a surprise that ObamaCare is spinning out of control and down the drain. ObamaCare math didn't add up. It never did.

Gruber, ObamaCare, and the administration really did pull wool over some people's eyes, and it'll be the middle class who, once again, will be footing this bill. This must be the famous 'death spiral' that so many had warned about. Now it's happening. For real.

Also hardly a surprise that Obama is pushing to step in and rescue his oh so precious legacy (this guy really is a serious narcissist isn't he?), with the government option.

True, Obama and others wanted government run single payer from the word go, but I don't see how the political situation that allowed ObamaCare to be passed into law are anything similar to the political situation that we have currently, or likely in the near future. I see little chance for a Democratically controlled Senate and Democratically controlled House and Democratically White House in the near future to change this political situation.

While the administration has altered ObamaCare to suit immediate political needs at their discretion, to give exemptions to favored political allies, I don't think that this is going to be possible for adding government run single pay, aka the public option. It's simply too big a change to be made to the law without passing congress. Obama is going to have to accept other's thoughts on changes to the law that need to be made. He has no choice, if he wants to get this passed in the scant time remaining in his administration.

On that topic, what if this is a poison pill. A setup. A yet another one of Oama's political ploys? He's earned very little trust with either the opposition congress or the electorate.
 
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