WebProNews

Tag: Obamacare

  • Affordable Care Act Deadline Nears, Obama Urges People to Enroll

    President Obama marked four years on Sunday since he signed the Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010, and urged people to enroll in the program as the March 31 deadline approaches.

    The president celebrated the law’s anniversary and urged people to sign up for coverage, which has come to be more commonly referred to as Obamacare, as the deadline to enroll approaches later this month. Individuals who are not enrolled in a health care program after March 31 will be fined.

    President Obama said in a statement:

    “Since I signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth of health care costs is down, to its slowest rate in fifty years – two of the most promising developments for our middle class and our fiscal future in a long time.”

    Obama admitted the controversial program has been difficult to sell, even as the deadline approaches. In his statement, he promised to spend the next year with his administration making improvements.

    “This is what’s at stake any time anyone, out of some outdated obsession, pledges to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act.  And that’s why my administration will spend the fifth year of this law and beyond working to implement and improve on it,” said Obama.

    Obama concluded by encouraging people to enroll.

    “If you’re an American who wants to get covered – or if you know someone who should – it’s now last call for 2014.  March 31st is the deadline to get covered this year,” Obama said.

    The HealthCare.gov website had a hard time getting up and running, but the Department of Health and Human Services said a wave of people has enrolled in the last week, and enrollment recently passed the 5 million mark.

    Officials have scaled back their original estimate of seven million enrolled to six million. According to recent enrollment figures released March 17, more than one million sign-ups were still necessary to reach the reduced goal by March 31.

    There is a concern that there needs to be an increase in the number of customers ages 18-34 enrolled in the program, and the White House has in recent weeks been appealing to younger people through various media outlets. During the past month, Obama urged daytime viewers to sign up for coverage during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show from the White House.  The President also sat down in the Diplomatic Reception Room for separate interviews with comedian Zach Galifianakis and a health care expert from Web M.D., and dialed in to Rickey Smiley’s hip hop radio show to appeal to listeners.

    From January until the end of March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the HealthCare.gov site and administers the Affordable Care Act, will have spent $52 million on paid media, officials said.

    You can read Obama’s statement on the fourth anniversary of the Affordable Health Act here.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Obama Calls Ellen’s Record Tweet a Cheap Stunt

    Obama Calls Ellen’s Record Tweet a Cheap Stunt

    As you may have heard, the deadline for Obamacare enrollment is fast approaching (it’s the end of the month, fyi). In order to get more people on board, President Obama has been on a media tour of sorts. The latest stop on the Affordable Care Act promotional train was The Ellen Show.

    Remember Ellen’s big Oscar tweet?

    That tweet has now garnered over 3.4 million retweets, and is comfortably the most retweeted tweet of all time. On Oscar night, during the first hour on Twitter, the tweet was retweeted over 1 million times–crushing the record set by the President back in 2012 when he tweeted this after the election:

    780,000? Weak. It’s not even close, right?

    Well, President Obama is calling shenanigans on the whole thing.

    “I don’t know if you know this,” said Ellen, “but i was aiming to break your record of retweets and I apologize for doing it but I broke your retweet record.”

    “I heard about that. I though it was a pretty cheap stunt myself–getting a bunch of celebrities in the background.”

    Jokes aside, we all know that it was a pretty cheap stunt. It was all one giant advertisement for Samsung, paid for from the beginning, and we were all duped. Well, not all of us I guess. 3.4 million, to be exact.

    Either way, nobody forced Twitter users to retweet the selfie. Samsung ploy or not, Ellen is the Queen of Retweets and that’s just a fact. Congrats.

    Image via The Ellen Show, YouTube

  • Obamacare Deadline March 31, Will Numbers Hit Goal?

    The Obamacare enrollment deadline is quickly approaching on March 31st, and numbers are picking up the pace as expected. However, with numbers sitting just above 5 million enrolled, will the number of Americans signing up reach the projected 7 million?

    There are eleven days until the enrollment deadline, and the Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that in the first half of March enrollment rose by about 800,000 people. That’s about 0.4 million per week. At this point, enrollment would have to leap to 1 million per week, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

    The Administration has really gone above and beyond to not only encourage people to sign up, but to also spread the word via social media. The president even went on Between Two Ferns in a ploy to get his message out there.

    They are also riding the coattails of “March Madness” to make people aware of some reasons to get signed up, releasing their own “bracket“. Seems desperate, but will it work?

    There are still some issues that are slowing enrollment. There are still website kinks that seem to never end, there are coverage issues, and there is the fact that the costs (higher than promised) are not as affordable as just remaining uncovered and paying the penalty.

    There was the problem last week during a WebMD interview wherein the President admitted that actually, you may not get to keep your doctor after all. And of course, there’s the problem of some 51% of Americans in the new Bloomberg National Poll saying the mandate should be repealed.

    The true test of success will be after the deadline passes, all are enrolled, and the dust settles. Will the Americans who received coverage through Obamacare like their new coverage? Will the promises made hold water?

    That remains to be seen. As for the enrollment goal, 1 million per week seems steep, but stranger things have happened…

    Image Via YouTube

  • Jonah Hill’s Mom Wants You to Sign Up for Obamacare

    The open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act is dwindling, as the March 31st deadline is fast approaching. Let’s call this part two of the White House’s celebrity-oriented campaign to get people to sign up in the next two weeks.

    The White House’s new hopefully viral video promoting Obamacare comes with its own hashtag: #yourmomcares. It features the mothers of some famous actors and musicians urging Americans to sign up for health care, you know, for your mommas’ sanity.

    “Trust me, us moms put up with a lot,” says Sharon Feldstein in the video. “But one thing we should never have to put up with is our kid not having healthcare.”

    Feldstein is joined by the mothers of Adam Levine, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Lopez–as well as by Michelle Obama to urge people to get covered.

    “Get covered at healthcare.gov. Moms put up with a lot, but there’s nothing worse than feeling their child isn’t protected. Go to healthcare.gov and get covered before enrollment ends on March 31. Do it for your mom,” says the Your Mom Cares initiative.

    It’s unlikely that this video will further the White House’s goals as efficiently as the last one the President participated in. Earlier this week, Obama appeared on an episode of ‘Between Two Ferns,’ Zach Galifianakis’ long-running online comedy show. That appearance on the Funny or Die-produced webseries caused a giant spike in traffic at healthcare.gov.

    According to the White House, 4.2 million people have enrolled via the marketplace in the last five months. The administration not only hopes, but needs that number to rise sharply in the next two weeks.

    Image via Your Mom Cares, YouTube

  • Obama’s ‘Between Two Ferns’ Tactic Leads to Healthcare.gov Traffic Spike

    Let’s just assume that President Obama had reasons to sit down with Zach Galifianakis on “Between Two Ferns” other than showing the country that he could expertly pull off a fat joke.

    Of course, Obama’s move to star in one of the internet’s longest-running and funniest quasi anti-comedy bits had everything to do with pushing signups for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges as the signup period dwindles. Americans now have until March 31st to purchase coverage. It’s crunch time, and the White House made a calculated decision to reach out to the younger crowd by throwing them an (admittedly pretty funny) elevated sales pitch.

    And it looks like it paid off–if the White House’s measure of success was simply getting people to the healthcare.gov site.

    Time will tell if a sudden boost in signups can be directly attributed to the Funny or Die video, but in terms of a sheer traffic driver, it looks as though the move payed off to the tune of a 40% spike in healthcare.gov visits.

    The video has seen over 12 million views on the Funny or Die site alone, and that figure doesn’t include the countless views the video saw on YouTube before Funny or Die removed it.

    According to Google data, “healthcare.gov” has seen a spike in searches over the past 24 hours and “Between Two Ferns” is one of the hottest search trends since Tuesday morning.

    “I can assure you that the Funny or Die video will be one of the reasons we get young Americans to HealthCare.gov–one of the reasons we get young Americans to enroll in health insurance programs, but not the only one,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

    Pageviews aren’t signups, but it’s clear that Obama got people curious when he made mentions of the open enrollment period–you know, between all the Hangover 3 jokes.

    Images via YouTube, reddit

  • President Obama Interviewed On ‘Between Two Ferns’

    Okay.

    Between Two Ferns is a deadpan internet comedy series hosted on video website Funny or Die starring comedian Zach Galifianakis as a talk show host who invites various celebrities to sit down (literally, between two ferns) for an interview on a set that resembles something out of 90’s public-access television.

    *Phew*

    If you’re familiar with The Hangover star whose last name is too complicated to type and causes anxiety levels to sky rocket, you’ll find that he’s just as awkward as he’s always been by making his guests uncomfortable.

    Filmed two weeks ago and shortly released after 7:00 AM EST on Tuesday, President Barack Obama appeared on the hot seat, plugging his Affordable Care Act, urging young people to sign up for health insurance before March 31st. If you’re like Galifianakis and “don’t have a computer”, you can get coverage by calling by telephone. If you’re without a phone (like Galifianakis) and wary of “staying off the grid” for the sake of not wanting the President’s “people looking at” your texts, you can apply for healthcare in person.

    “Have you heard of the Affordable Care Act?” Obama asked.

    “Oh yeah, that thing that doesn’t work,” Galifianakis chimed in, later unveiling to Obama his various spider bites – the President assured that his preexisting condition wouldn’t  stop him from being covered.

    Aside from the President’s plug, Galifianakis dished out questions concerning “Ambassador Rodman” and what to do with “North Ikea”, asking if Hulk Hogan would be sent to Syria, the President’s birth certificate, which team he rooted for in the Winter Olympics, and suggesting that he make same-sex divorce illegal.

    Typically, Galifianakis would take jabs at his guest, showing complete disinterest as well as hurling passive aggressive insults and other various forms of mockery.

    Mixing up food with country, he asked Obama: “In 2013 you pardoned the turkey. What do you have planned for 2014?”

    Obama, vigilant in the skit, fired back at each remark his host made: “We’ll probably pardon another turkey. We do that every Thanksgiving. Was that depressing to you? Seeing uh.. uh..  one turkey kinda taken outta circulation a turkey you couldn’t eat?”

    Image via YouTube

  • U.S. Uninsured Rate Still Falling Fast

    U.S. Uninsured Rate Still Falling Fast

    Though Republicans in the U.S. House are still dreaming up ways to get rid of Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act, ACA), they will now have to contend will millions of Americans who have health insurance as a result of the program.

    Gallup this week released poll data showing that the rate of uninsured Americans has dropped precipitously since the botched rollout of the ACA’s health marketplace websites. The survey shows that just 15.9% of U.S. adults were uninsured as of late February. This is down from an average of 16.2% in January and far below the peak of 18% seen near the end of summer 2013.

    This rise in insured Americans crosses nearly all demographics. The uninsured reate among Americans aged 26 to 34 dropped to 26.6% in January and February, and the rate among 35- to 64-year-olds dropped to just 16.3%.

    All major ethnic categories in the U.S. (white, black, and hispanic) saw drops in the uninsured rate, though black Americans saw the most significant change. The uninsured rate among black Americans now sites at 18.3%, down 2.6% from the nearly 21% that were uninsured during the fourth quarter of 2013.

    All economic categories also saw a rise in the percentage of insured. The lowest economic category grouped by Gallup, those that make less than $36,000 per year, saw the largest drop in uninsured, down 2.8% from the fourth quarter of 2013 to sit at just 27.9% now.

    As in the past, Gallup is hesitant to directly cite the implementation of Obamacare as the cause of the drop in uninsured Americans. It seems clear from the poll percentages and the numbers recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, however, that the new healthcare exchanges – and the law’s mandate on health coverage – are driving more Americans toward healthcare coverage.

  • Sarah Palin Uses Dr. Suess to Knock Obama

    Sarah Palin Uses Dr. Suess to Knock Obama

    Sarah Palin knocked President Obama and his healthcare plan during her appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday. She channeled the children’s author, taking a heft dose of literary liberty with his famous rhyming words.

    “I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his healthcare scam,” Palin said. “I do not like these dirty crooks or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress stills. I do not like their crony deals. I do not like the spying man. I do not like ‘Oh yes we can.’ I do not like this spending spree. We’re smart we know there’s nothing free. I do not like reporters’ smug replies when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hope. And we won’t take it, nope, nope, nope. Hat tip the Internet.”

    In addition to her rhymes, Sarah Palin criticized the president not only on Obamacare but on his response to the attack in Benghazi and the IRS scandal. She even accused Democrats of “demeaning women.” But Democrats weren’t the only ones in Palin’s crosshairs. She also slammed a few lawmakers in the Republican party, too.

    “I do believe that the eyes of America are open. Unfortunately though, some would want you to hit the snooze button and roll back over. Like ‘Hush America, go back to sleep little lambs,’” Palin said. “Some of these folks are in the GOP establishment.”

    She had good things to say about Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, however.

    “Thank you, Texas because liberty needs a Congress on Cruz control,” Palin said. “The awakening began, and Sen. Ted Cruz helped keep them awake. His filibuster, it worked in waking people up to the folly of a government takeover.

    “He told his colleagues it was time, time to stand up, time to use the tools of the Constitution, the power of the purse and to fulfill their campaign promises and to stop Obamacare,” she said. “But our army balked. We hoped that they were just reloading, but instead they retreated, and worse, worse, they joined the lapdogs in the lamestream to trash the foot soldiers who had fought for America.”

    It was no doubt Cruz who gave Sarah Palin the Dr. Seuss idea. He read Green Eggs and Ham during his filibuster.

    Should Sarah Palin perhaps leave politics and consider writing in the children’s genre? Should she run for president again? A few people in the crowd Sunday urged her to do so, shouting, “Run, Sarah, run!” during her speech.

    Did they mean for president–or maybe out the door?

    She made another funny at their urging, however, perhaps even topping her improvised Dr. Seuss rhyme.

    “I should, I didn’t get to run this morning. I was so busy. Did some hot yoga and didn’t get to run.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • IRS in Hot Water Over New Treasury Inspector Report

    The IRS is facing new scrutiny over taxes that should have been paid for out-of-town travel made by its agents. These accusations have arisen from a Treasury Inspector General report, and have caused new fury amongst those who feel that the IRS already has too much power and shady behavior amongst its top executives.

    Those like Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio are speaking out against the apparent corruption.

    “Here were the top people doing what no other citizen can do,” Jordan told Fox News. “You underreport income, you don’t pay your taxes, you can’t get away with it. And yet the very people who run the IRS were doing just that.”

    To the IRS, however, the report is nothing other than business as usual. They issued a statement saying,

    “Cutting costs is a top priority, and the IRS has put in place a number of steps to reduce expenses involving executive travel. The IRS agreed with (the Inspector General report’s) recommendations and has put in place new steps to prevent future issues in this area.”

    As the troubled agency deals with the fresh investigations into its practices, they continue to ready themselves to implement and enforce Obamacare.

    “That’s going to be a very daunting moment for them, let alone the enforcement mechanisms, so that’s going to be… navigating that is going to be very delicate for the service. Particularly of the fact that this law is so, well, it’s so controversial,” said former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson.

    Some are not so confident in the abilities of the IRS to handle the new strain along with old baggage, as Jim Jordan stated,

    “Now they’re going to have a greater role in ObamaCare? With a website that’s not secure and all the problems we’ve already seen with this, with this legislation? Certainly doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in the minds of taxpayers and citizens across the country.”

    Time will tell if the IRS can handle the pressures of the new healthcare codes and enforcement as well as the old burden of questionable acts.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • HealthCare.gov – More Problems Ahead?

    HealthCare.gov – More Problems Ahead?

    With the shaky start-up of the new Affordable Care Act website, HealthCare.gov and many other problems this site has encountered since its inception, the Obama administration decided a different website developer/contractor was needed to get the site running properly.

    The problem though is that the administration is relying on the consulting firm Accenture to lead the continued construction and maintenance of HealthCare.gov, and they have a history of questionable ethical practices as well as performance problems.

    For example, last year Accenture was hired by the state of North Carolina to streamline their computer program for its food stamp program. The program worked so poorly, however, that it led to a backlog of food stamp distribution to NC’s needy.

    And this is just one example, which was detailed in a Washington Post report.

    Regardless of their sketchy past, the Obama administration granted Accenture a contract worth approximately $90 million to fix the problematic Affordable Care website.

    The University of Michigan is seeing students and faculty members protesting the school’s use of Accenture to help cut costs, after a report by a committee of alumni and graduate students that said the firm has “a disturbing pattern of problematic past performance.”

    The U.S. Postal Service Inspector General’s Office wrote recently, that Accenture had “demonstrated an absence of business ethics” and stated that the agency should consider terminating the firm’s more than $200 million in contracts.

    Accenture has agreed to pay the United States $63.675 million to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit, the Justice Department announced recently. The lawsuit alleges that Accenture was involved in false claims for payment under many contracts with agencies of the United States for information technology services.

    “Kickbacks and bid rigging undermine the integrity of the federal procurement process,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “At a time when we’re looking for ways to reduce our public spending, it is especially important to ensure that government contractors play by the rules and don’t waste precious taxpayer dollars.”

    Accenture will be in charge of not only improving the current site, but also preparing it for open enrollment next fall.

    “We are honored to be part of the team of technology and healthcare companies and government professionals helping the federal government meet the healthcare coverage needs of its citizens,” said David Moskovitz, the chief executive of Accenture’s federal services. “Accenture will bring deep healthcare industry insight as well as proven experience building large-scale, public-facing websites to continue improving HealthCare.gov.”

    One can only hope this information does not lead to further HealthCare.gov problems, and that the previous and present problems are remedied.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Health Insurance: Reimbursement to Cause Bailout?

    Health insurance is taking a mighty turn for the worse after this ill-fated attempt at “affordable care” by the Obama administration.

    Things are looking very bleak indeed after Thursday’s Moody’s rating downgrade of the outlook for inurance industry from “stable” to “negative”.

    The downgrade was put in effect because of “ongoing unstable and evolving environment,” as the Obama administration fumbles and flails, imposing “new regulations and announcements that impose operational changes well after product and pricing decisions were finalized,” according to the New York Post.

    This is due to the slow implosion of Obamacare and its ravaging of the health care industry, as well as the recently revealed Section 1342 of the Affordable Care Act, which demands the federal government (read: taxpayers) reimburse losses suffered by the insurance companies that are written into the Act and selling their policies cheaply through Obamacare.

    Section 1342 will reimburse losses accrued through 2016. You know, the date of the next election. This is what Sen. Marco Rubio so accurately described as the law’s “dirty little secret”. This thing didn’t come to light until the outrage last fall over Obama’s “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan” fiasco. It most likely wasn’t intended to come to light at all. Until 2016.

    Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius then grudgingly revealed that the Obama administration had never once tried to estimate what the guarantee to insurance companies on the Obamacare train could cost us, the taxpayers. How considerate! Basically, unless at least section 1342 is done away with, we could be on the hook for a bailout of Obama’s own giant failure.

    This will keep Obamacare going long enough for the free market to die out, leaving healthcare in the feeble hands of our government with no other option to be had and stranded way beyond the turning point.

    This downgrade is coming on the heels of the latest of many snafus with Obamacare, which has parents and children separated, as parents qualify for plans through the market place, but children are automatically shuffled to medicaid programs. There is no way to get them back, either, according to the AP.

    “The children are getting stuck in this spot where we’ve enrolled the parent, but we can’t bring the children back on the family plan,” Maria Proulx, who is the senior legal counsel for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire said.

    This was the experience of Russel Clouden of North Port, FL, “Based on your income, they’ll separate your kids from your primary policy and they shift them off to Medicaid or Healthy Kids and there’s no way you can bring them back. I’m kind of in limbo with her because I’m just hoping she doesn’t get injured or sick.”

    Yeah, we’re all kind of in limbo here, hoping this gigantic mess doesn’t bring complete ruin on us and our children. Time will tell.

    Image via wikimedia commons

  • Percentage of Uninsured Americans is Dropping

    Percentage of Uninsured Americans is Dropping

    Much debate has surrounded the Affordable Care Act (AKA “Obamacare”) since the legislation’s health insurance markets went live late last year. Since that time some encouraging numbers have shown that the program is working, at least a little. In December 2.2 million Americans signed up for health insurance using either the Healthcare.gov website or a state-sponsored healthcare exchange site. Now it appears that Obamacare’s heath insurance mandate is having a significant effect on the percentage of Americans who are still without health insurance.

    Gallup today released a new poll showing that 16.1% of U.S. adults were still without health insurance during early January. This represents a slight drop from the 17.3% who were still uninsured during December, but a much more significant drop from the 18.6% peak that number reached in mid-2013.

    According to Gallup’s survey, unemployed Americans are benefitting most from the new legislation. The percentage of unemployed U.S. adults in January without health insurance was measured at 34.1%, down from the 40.8% who were uninsured in December.

    Women are also becoming insured at a faster pace than men, with the percentage of uninsured American women seeing a nearly 2% drop from December to January. This is more than double the 0.6% drop in the percentage of uninsured for men during the same period, despite the overall percentage of uninsured women (14%, as of January) already being lower than that of men (18.3%).

    Though these poll results seem to show that Obamacare is reducing the number of uninsured Americans, Gallup is cautioning that recent numbers may not represent a long-term trend. The percentage of uninsured Americans has been falling since mid-2013, possibly indicating that other factors are influencing health insurance coverage in the U.S.

  • Medicare Funding Decreases, Hurts UnitedHealth

    The UnitedHealth Group (UNH) spoke out this Thursday about its fourth-quarter profits, which was the first quarter under ObamaCare. UNH says that they still saw a slightly better than expected fourth quarter, due to an “overall lower medical spending trend” as fewer customers were checking into hospitals. (The rise was from $29 billion to $31 billion, about 8%.) However, funding cuts to their Medicare Advantage plan hurt the company in its shares, which fell 3%.

    The Medicare Advantage plan is a program provided by private companies (like UnitedHealth) to provide both Part A and Part B benefits to people already enrolled in Medicare. The insurer claims that overall, their Medicare Advantage program has always been “underfunded.” UnitedHealth estimated that the government underfunded the Advantage program by almost 7% in 2013. CEO Stephen Hemsley says the cuts are to be blamed on “ObamaCare savings,” and that the company will “continue to be watchful of funding pressure” and “advocate for strong and reasonable funding.”

    Despite the cuts, UnitedHealth is still sticking to its pre-ObamaCare outlook, which projects a revenue of $128 billion for 2014, and around $5.40 per share. The projections are based on an upward trend of more and more people signing up for the program; UnitedHealth added 425,000 Medicare Advantage members in 2013, a 17% gain.

    The Centers for Medicare are expected to announce a proposed funding plan in February.

    Image via Dept. of Health & Human Services

  • Obamacare Enrollment Hit 2.2 Million in December

    Obamacare Enrollment Hit 2.2 Million in December

    Despite the difficult and broken start the Healthcare.gov website got off to in October, the Affordable Care Act (AKA “Obamacare“) is now quickly becoming effective, providing millions of Americans with access to health insurance.

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today reported Affordable Care Act’s latest numbers, boasting that nearly 2.2 million people have signed up for health insurance under the program as of December 28, 2013. With the Healthcare.gov site’s technical problems largely resolved by December, that month accounted for a full 1.8 million of those new sign-ups, through the federal website and individual state-sponsored sites.

    “Americans are finding quality affordable coverage in the marketplace, and best of all, because coverage began on New Year’s Day, the promise and hope of the Affordable Care Act is now a reality,” said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Our outreach efforts have ramped up, so whether it’s through public service announcements, events, our champions or other means, we are doing all we can to find, inform and enroll those who can benefit from the Marketplace. There is still plenty of time for you and your family to sign up in a private plan of your choice, so visit HealthCare.gov to learn more and sign up now.”

    Along with the enrollment information, the HHS today provided some of the first demographic information for the Affordable Care Act. Around 30% of those who have signed up for health insurance via the federal or a state website have been age 34 or younger and nearly one quarter (24%) of those 2.2 million people are between the age of 18 and 24. A large majority of those signed up through the program (79%) are receiving some type of financial assistance for their healthcare insurance.

    Despite a big December for the program, Obamacare’s slow ramp-up has left many Americans with a negative perception of the healthcare reform law. A Gallup poll released last week showed that 48% of U.S. adults believe the Affordable Care Act will make eventually make U.S. healthcare worse, while a majority (54%) say that they generally disapprove of the legislation.

  • Uninsured Americans Still Having Negative Experiences With Healthcare Website

    If it hadn’t been for the government shutdown that coincided with the launch of the Healthcare.gov website, the site’s messy rollout would have been the largest political story of 2013. Americans flooded the site in its first weeks of availability only to see technical glitches if they could even access it at all.

    Eventually the Obama administration was able to get a handle on the technical issues, declaring that the site should be fully-functioning by December. Though the website has improved and over one million Americans have signed up for health coverage through the site, it seems that those needing the site most are still struggling against it.

    A new Gallup poll out today shows that uninsured Americans are still having mostly negative interactions with the Healthcare.gov website. Around 450 uninsured Americans who visited the site were surveyed in December by Gallup, with 59% saying their experience using the website was either negative or very negative. Only 39% of those same uninsured Americans were able to call their experience with the website positive or very positive.

    Though these numbers suggest that the Healthcare.gov website is still giving Americans trouble, experiences with the site have improved since the website launched. The 59% of uninsured who had negative experiences with the site is a marginal improvement from the 63% who had overall negative experiences with the site in October and November.

    According to Gallup, just over one-quarter of uninsured Americans have now visited the Healthcare.gov website. That would leave around half of uninsured Americans still needing to visit the site or face the fines that the last quarter of uninsured Americans say they intend to pay rather than get health insurance.

  • Obamacare Reaches One Million Signups

    It is almost the end of 2013, and I am sure that most of us are sick and tired of hearing about the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as “Obamacare”) with all of the woes that the registration website HealthCare.gov has encountered these past few months. Nevertheless, hope for Obamacare is in sight, because its registration count recently reached a remarkable milestone.

    According to Time Magazine, Obamacare reached a little under one million registrations within most of December alone. The reason why the registration count for Obamacare is this high is due to the recent repairs to the main registration website itself. With the Obamacare sign-up numbers being this high for December, the totals for the past few months have been on the upswing as well. In October, there were 27,000 registrants, and 137,000 in November, as observed by the Federal Health Care Marketplace.

    Even though one million registrations have been completed for Obamacare, President Barack Obama’s administration had hoped for a higher number to have been achieved by now. According to Time, the Obama administration had hoped that the number of registrants for Obamacare would have been at 3.3 million by the end of the year. The Obama administration is still hopeful, and if you are still interested in Obamacare and want to register, please be sure to sign up by January 1st.

    White House officials have yet to release the registration counts for the 14 states that manage their own healthcare exchanges; however, the Obama administrations remains optimistic and forecasts that 7 million Americans will register prior to the first-year open enrollment period that ends in March.

    With the registration numbers being so high, many Americans have already encountered success and benefits by registering with Obamacare, and have shared their experiences on Twitter.

    Image via HealthCare.gov

  • Tonsillectomy Surgery Leads to Brain Dead Diagnosis

    Tonsillectomy Surgery Leads to Brain Dead Diagnosis

    What started as a typical tonsillectomy for thirteen-year-old Jahi McMath ended in a mother’s worst nightmare. Due to complications, McMath bled during the surgery and suffered cardiac arrest. On December 12, 2013, the teenager was declared brain-dead. Two physicians (a hospital staff neurologist and a family practitioner) have concluded that the complete mass of McMath’s brain (including the brain stem) no longer has the capacity to function.

    The chief of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Oakland, Dr. David Durand, released the following statement regarding Jahi McMath’s condition. “When one’s brain ceases to function, it never restarts. We have the deepest sympathy for Jahi’s mother, but the only thing maintaining this child is a ventilator machine. It would be unfair to give false hope that Jahi will come back to life.”

    The hospital where McMath was placed on a ventilator (Children’s Hospital Oakland) released a memo regarding whether life support should be maintained. “Ms. McMath is dead. Children’s is under no legal obligation to provide medical or other intervention for a deceased person.”

    Nailah Winkfield, McMath’s mother, does not share the same opinion. “Despite what they say, she is alive. I can touch her, she is warm. She responds to my touch. Given time I know (God) will spark her brain awake.”

    On Friday, Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ruled that McMath remain on life support while at Children’s Hospital Oakland. Grillo ordered the girl’s family to search for another neurologist to assess her condition. The ultimate decision to stay on life support will hinge on this evaluation. If McMath is found to be brain-dead, then the court cannot force the hospital to keep her on life support.

    According to Christopher Dolan, who is the attorney for McMath’s family, there is an extra incentive to search for another physician to complete an evaluation. The family does not want to rely on the hospital’s physicians.

    Image Via Wikimedia Commons

  • White House Extends Health Care Enrollment Deadline by One Day

    White House Extends Health Care Enrollment Deadline by One Day

    Today was the deadline specified by the Affordable Care Act – infamously known as Obamacare – for Americans to enroll in the healthcare marketplaces in order to have insurance coverage by January 1, 2014.

    But in a move that doesn’t surprise many as the entire process has been fraught with not only controversy but several speed bumps along the way, the Obama administration announced on Monday that it will extend the enrollment deadline by one day.

    “Anticipating high demand and the fact that consumers may be enrolling from multiple time zones, we have taken steps to make sure that those who select a plan through tomorrow will get coverage for Jan 1,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman Julie Bataille said in a statement.

    HealthCare.gov has been tweeting updates from its official Twitter account:

    The extension brings to mind the policy on voting days: if you’re in line at the polling location before the cut-off time, you’ll get a chance to cast your vote.

    A White House official told NBC’s First Read: “The deadline is today, but if people are in line, we will make sure they get insurance.”

    White House Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri said in an interview on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports that consumers need to make sure they’re trying to get enrolled on Monday, otherwise the extension may not apply to them.

    Does the extension apply to consumers in states that are running their own healthcare exchanges?

    The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday that officials of California’s exchange – Covered California – were still “working on developing a position.”

    The same sort of confusion exists in Connecticut, another state that is running its own exchange:

    Rhode Island moved its deadline from December 23 to December 31.

    According to NPR’s Julie Rovner Maryland and Minnesota have also extended their enrollment deadlines.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • “Obamacare Heroin” Seized in Massachusetts

    The next time someone asks if you like Obamacare, you might want to make sure they’re referring to the Affordable Care Act and not drugs. State police in Massachusetts seized 1,250 bags of heroin during a traffic stop on Friday, and many of the bags were stamped with “Obamacare.” Some of the heroin bags were also stamped with “Kurt Cobain,” and four people were arrested in the case.

    Trooper Joseph Petty pulled over a vehicle he saw breaking several traffic laws on Friday morning. Upon inspecting the vehicle, the officer found evidence of drugs and called a K9 unit on the scene. Trooper David Stucenski and K9 Frankie eventually found the hundreds of bags of heroin, which led to the arrest of four individuals. Tyler Robenstein, the 23-year-old driver of the vehicle, was arrested, as well as his three passengers–Marquese Jones (22), Sherod Green (24) and Ashley Beaulieu (21).

    Robenstein was reportedly charged with “trafficking in heroin, conspiracy to violate the drugs laws, possession to distribute a Class A substance, speeding, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and failure to change lanes for an emergency vehicle.” Robenstein’s passengers received the same drug charges. According to The Massachusetts Court System, the individuals could spend at least five years in prison if found guilty on just one of the felony charges.

    Check out the post detailing the traffic stop and arrest from the Massachusetts State Police Facebook page:

    Post by Massachusetts State Police.

    People are arrested for possession of drugs every day, but what made this case so interesting was the heroin being labeled with “Obamacare.” According to state police Lt. Daniel Richard, this is the first time he has seen heroin stamped with this name. Lest you think this was some grand political statement on behalf of the drug traffickers, Richard says that dealers often come up with a name to put on heroin bags to identify who is selling the drugs.

    Image via Facebook

  • Obamacare Heroin: Someone’s Idea Of A Joke?

    Obamacare Heroin: Someone’s Idea Of A Joke?

    If you’re in the drug-trafficking business, usually there comes a time when you decide it’s not enough to call what you’re selling by its common name. In this case, heroin. The usual suspects (“Big H”, “smack”, etc.) aren’t working for you either. So why not come up with a unique reference that will make your illegal product stand out from the rest while at the same time showing just how “witty” you are?

    Of course, there’s no way of knowing that this is what 23-year-old Tyler Robenstein of Colchester, VT had in mind. What is known is that the cops who pulled him over on Friday morning were thrown for a bit of a loop.

    State Police Trooper Joseph Petty was in the midst of a traffic stop in the area of Route 91 in Northampton, MA when he says the suspect’s vehicle flew past him. Petty noted several violations (some drug traffickers aren’t that subtle when transferring illegal products), which resulted in a pursuit of the car.

    Petty ended up stopping Robenstein in Hatfield, MA. It was during the course of conversing with the driver and passengers that Petty found evidence of narcotics. After requesting a State Police K-9, law enforcement discovered roughly 1,250 bags of individual packets of heroin in the vehicle.

    Many of those packets had “Obamacare” stamped on them in big red letters. Obamacare is a common nickname for the Affordable Care Act. State Police Lieutenant Daniel Richard says it’s common for drugs to be stamped with words and numbers, usually to identify the product or seller. He does admit this is the first he’s heard of anyone using the term Obamacare for such purposes.

    Tyler Robenstein and his passengers 22-year-old Marquese Jones and 24-year-old Sherod Green, both of Newark NJ, are being held until their appearance in Northampton District Court. In addition to answering to charges ranging from speeding to possession with intent to distribute, maybe they will bother to explain why they named their drugs after the president’s health care bill.

    Image via the Massachusetts State Police Facebook