Affordable Care Act Credited With Reducing Ranks of Young Uninsured

“The good news is today one million young adults are no longer living with that fear and uncertainty.”

Sorry, but no young American under 26 that didn’t have health insurance before Obamacare lived in fear and uncertainty because of it. Not one.

“Democrats and the White House have hailed the findings as evidence the controversial health care law is having a positive effect,”

So what’s the positive effect they are claiming? The removal of “uncertainty and fear” for 22-26 year olds? Wow, that’s quite a reach.

“The good news is today one million young adults are no longer living with that fear and uncertainty.”

Is she talking about the young adults of Cuba? Oh, young American adults. Here our youths haven’t been as carefree as those lucky Cubans, having still to worry about that old-fashioned concept of taking responsibility for themselves but Obama will get us there.

Do you know where premiums are very high and so are the number of uninsureds?

Rick Perry’s Texas. What a miracle…. (lot of people living in poverty, too)

KIMBERLY: “Do you know where premiums are very high and so are the number of uninsureds? Rick Perry’s Texas. (lot of people living in poverty, too)”

Many of the problems specific to Texas and the other border states can be attributed to the illegals more than anything. That’s why conservatives have been in favor of real immigration reform. The current system is broken and getting much worse. Thanks for pointing that out for us.

Also, being uninsured, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Some people save their money for the unexpected or are young and take the relatively small risk of not buying insurance.

And the cost of health insurance keeps going up and up.

Anonymous, I realize that the unpopular tea party cheers the death of uninsureds, but it is still important to be aware of research and facts, see “Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance” and from John Hopkins’ Children Center, “Lack of Insurance May Have Figured In Nearly 17,000 Childhood Deaths, Study Shows”

see “Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance” and from John Hopkins’ Children Center, “Lack of Insurance May Have Figured In Nearly 17,000 Childhood Deaths, Study Shows”

Posted by: Kimberly | September 21, 2011, 7:06 pm 7:06 pm

So?

Posted by: Mary | September 21, 2011, 8:44 pm 8:44 pm

During the tea party debate, Rep. Ron Paul said that the uninsured should “take (their) own risks,” and Blitzer rejoined, “are you saying that society should just let him die?”

Yeah! The crowd yelled and cheered amidst laughter.

Right on, Mare. No! So? Yeah!

The unpopular tea party is out of step with mainstream America.

So what’s the positive effect they are claiming? The removal of “uncertainty and fear” for 22-26 year olds? —-oh for God’s sake are you wingnuts so obtuse you dont understand that having 1 million LESS people uninsured means that 1 million LESS people went to hospital ERs to get their sinus infections, sore throats, etc, checked out and walked out without payingand without stiffing the hospital for that $500 and therefore,over MILLION bills WERE paid to hospitals and NOT passed on to those of us who DO buy our health insurance. Are you so soft as grapes you dont understand that bills being PAID means that healthcare costs that much LESS this year than last than if those bills went unpaid and healthcare would have gone up all that much more because of it. No matter how much healthcare went up this year, it went up LESS than if those people were NOT covered. FACT.

Obama Administration: “The good news is today one million young adults are no longer living with that fear and uncertainty.”

Since they didn’t mention the bad news . . . the bad news is, premiums are going up as a result.

–uhhh, no, they’re not. It’s CHEAPER to cover them and NOT have the unpaid bills from them be dispersed because when they’re covered, their healthcare is CHEAPER to provide than when they go to the ER and dont pay their bills. What wingnuts need to understand is that we ALREADY pay for the uninsured to get healthcare…in the form of ER unpaid bills. WE ALREADY PAY THAT, every year, in the form of our premiums going up. But the ER is the MOST expensive care you can possibly get. It is CHEAPER to give them a healthplan that pays for a $25 doctors office visit than it is to pay their ‘after-the-fact ER bills.

Hope his health care plan isnt anything like his mandatory liability insurance law for Texans. If Rick Perry is involved whatever your hospital bill is will probably be doubled because of tickets and surcharges. Perry supports Tx law that requires proof of liability insurance. Is this the war on poor people I lost my job,now they don’t deserve to drive. Most people aren’t aware that if you get caught in TX with no liability insurance your vehicle can be towed, you will be assessed a $450 ticket, must provide proof that you have obtained insurance which cost $100 to file and a $260 annual surcharge for 3 years or you lose your license. Nearly $1,500 in fines and surcharges for someone that was obviously too poor to afford insurance. Is this fair well its the law under Rick Perry and yet he thinks mandatory heath care is unconstitu­tional and socialized­. How much did the insurance companies donate? Perry you try your lousy public transportation in a 110 record breaking heat wave and try to look professional through the severe sweat stains after your 2 hour commute.

Radioman, you do realize, don’t you, that the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, so the number you list as proof that it did not work is the rate at which the number uninsured was rising BEFORE IT WAS PASSED. Please try to think at least a little before you post your tripe.

“What are the uninsured, hunger and wage figures for Rick Perry’s Texas again?” – Kimberly

Do you mean the numbers for the American Citizens or the numbers with the Millions of illegal invaders included?

The Good News

The percentage of 18- to 25-year-olds without health insurance dropped 3.6 points since the third quarter of 2010, when a key provision of the Affordable Care Act allowing many young adults to remain on their parents’ health plans first took effect, Gallup found.

The Better News

That provision of YesWeCan Care™ isn’t unconstitutional like the Mandate is.

The Bad News

The amount of money the parents of those 18 – 25 year olds pay for their policies went up.
Hopefully those parents are charging their kids the difference.

Radioman: No, it doesn’t. Any figures from the 2010 census were taken BEFORE THE LAW PASSED. If you can’t tell the difference between cause and effect, you are simply hopeless.

Texas CHIP costs $50 a year for a family of 3 – say a single mom and 2 kids – with $16 doctor visits and $8 copays, and they qualify if they make under $37k a year, which isn’t that low. [Below $18.5k they qualify for MediCaid which is even lower-cost and has zero co-pays.]

If you have a pre-existing condition or been turned down for insurance, and haven’t had insurance for 6 months, you are covered under the Affordable Care Act. HHS pays over 65% subsidy to cover you. You cannot be turned down, and the premium does not vary with health status – you can actually wait until you have diabetes, cancer, HIV, etc before joining. Premiums do not vary based on income and there are no eligibility requirements.

In Texas, a child under 19 would be covered for $133 a month. A 29-yr old $199.
A 44-yr old for $236 premium. The maximum you can pay out-of-pocket in a given year is under $6k in network. Everything is covered – hospital stays, surgery, kidney transplants, prescriptions, all screening and preventative care is free from the get-go, and there is no lifetime cap on treatment.

Yes, you get all that for $199 or 236 a month. You just have to be out of coverage for 6 months, have a medical condition, and be a US citizen. That’s it.
Oh, and they cut the premiums 20-40% this year depending on your state.

The only people who aren’t in these programs are the ones gaming the system by refusing to pay ANYTHING for their healthcare and dumping it even further on the rest of us.
There’s not a single, solitary excuse for *anyone* to be uninsured now in Texas, or anywhere.

And there are a lot of ignorant liberals

Posted by: horn | September 22, 2011, 12:24 am 12:24 am

Oh please, the ‘liberals’ do not have a monopoly on ignorance – far from it.

“people WITH health insurance die each year.”– Tea Party Mary

As the Harvard study explains, uninsured, working-age Americans have 40 percent higher death risk than their insured counterparts. So the deaths of the insured can’t be linked to their insurance one way or another, where lack of insurance does increase the risk that one will die sooner than those with insurance. Your argument ignores the research.

Why are so many people in Texas employed but uninsured, hungry and living in poverty— many jobs don’t pay a living wage or offer insurance. On top of this, the Medicaid program is limited when compared to other states. On top of that the insurance rates are higher than elsewhere because insurers are relatively unregulated and rating isn’t limited.

Regarding employment numbers, Mitt Romney was correct about the aces Rick Perry inherited and had nothing to do with. Despite the aces, the unemployment rate in Texas is the highest its been since 1987, and it’s catching up with the national unemployment rate– with more folks living without health insurance, in poverty, and in hunger.

Since they didn’t mention the bad news . . . the bad news is, premiums are going up as a result.

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Premiums are going up period, but not as a result. Increasing the risk pool with younger generally healthy clients puts downward pressure on prices.

Kimberly, good to see your comments for this article without quoting the usual unknown polling statistics. You offer a great deal of input on your comments? How about this one……in all the nonsense I have read about the nanny generation…ie, the 26 and under crowd without JOBS, that in and of itself doesn’t seem to be reflected in any gurus …including yours….comments. No job….no $ for premium….no insurance. Makes sense to me…………..looks like it all goes back to so and so’s lack of prudent handlling of the economy….including $10,00 brownies….nuff said?

“There have been no studies of the provision’s impact on cost”

That says it all, even though the right-wing blogoshpere has seized on opinion as proof once again.

These are the types of examples that we need to hear about more versus the negative, misrepresented ‘facts’ and lies of the Right. There is NO DOUBT in any educated person’s mind that this nation could keep going the way it was before the Affordable health Care Act became law. If we want this nation to change in a manner that it can be successful in the future…we have to make sure next year that the ‘neanderthals’ do not get elected.

SKIP: “That says it all, even though the right-wing blogoshpere has seized on opinion as proof once again.”

Actually, we just seized on what makes sense. More people taking advantage of insurance will cost more money. Only Skip and other delusional liberals need a study to tell them nothing is free. Thus, the scam that is modern liberalism.

and we all have an obligation to pay for the goods and services of others that we use.

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It’s interesting that you say that when convenient…because it includes government services too. And those obligations are called taxes.

Nobody ever claimed insurance is or should be free, not in the healthcare bill or anywhere else…that is just another typical strawman argument of course. Also nobody has proven that expanding coverage will cost the public more money than leaving millions more Americans uninsured. There is no such thing as healthcare in this country without health insurance.

They’re paying for insurance coverage. It’s not free.

“Like everything else, one can purchase health care without having health insurance”

I’d love to see you walk into any hospital in the country and tell that to people who need medical tests with a straight face…it would be most entertaining. Well like always I think we’ve departed reality over the right-wing ideological horizon.

No the people with no insurance probably won’t be laughing….but the rest of us will be.

When the government and large businesses pool their members in order to get better prices…is that getting free insurance?

“The burden of proof is on those…”

Of course the burden of proof is never on those who can never come up with any themselves.