COVID-19 & Healthcare

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare" is based upon and was designed by the same people who built "RomneyCare" in Massachusetts, and "RomneyCare" originated from a plan from the Heritage Foundation back in the days when it still had some modicum of crediblity as a conservative think tank. During the 2012 election, i mocked Willard "Mittens" Romney for his hypocritical attacks on "ObamneyCare" — it was his plan!

The media villagers, as they are wont to do, are irresponsibly behaving hysterically about the rollout of the federal health care Marketplace — which had to be set up only because of Tea-Publican sabotage of "ObamaCare" in red states, a critical point the media villagers always fail to mention — while the Marketplaces set up by individual states as the law intended are working just fine, something else the media villagers always fail to mention.

The media villager concern trolls have adopted the GOPropaganda line that the slow sign-ups will doom "ObamaCare" (the GOP does not care how many Americans sign up, they are committed to sabotaging and killing "ObamaCare," and are rooting for it to fail).

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Because nothing says sober, serious, responsible government like someone rooting for it to fail . . .

There is something deeply disturbing about Tea-Publicans. GOP
hopes Obama heath care woes have staying power. What kind of patriotic American roots for their country to fail? Whatever happened to "American exceptionalism" and our can-do spirit? Who are these people?

Remember back when the GOP pushed through its Medicare Part D government subsidy to Big Pharma and tried to set up its program? The Tea-Publicans are all pretending to have amnesia about this disaster now. Jon Perr remembers How Democrats Saved Bush's Medicare Drug Program:

President [Obama] declared, "It's time for folks to stop rooting for its
failure because hard working middle class families are rooting for its
success."

["I’m willing to work with anyone, on any idea, who’s actually willing to
make this law perform better.  But it’s well past the time for folks to
stop rooting for its failure.  Because hardworking, middle-class
families are rooting for its success." Transcript of Weekly Address: Enrolling in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace (10/26/2013).]

Which is exactly right. After all, when President Bush's Medicare
prescription drug program nearly crashed and burned in late 2005 and
early 2006, Democrats in Washington and in the states stepped in to save
it.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Proverb: “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones”

Yes, the healthcare.gov web site has had serious problems with its roll out, and criticism is both fair and warranted if it is meant to identify problems and to offer solutions on how to fix them.

But there are those who live in glass houses who are in no position to criticize. Case in point, the Arizona Daily Star which has the least user-friendly absolute worst piece-o'-crap web site I have to use, hands down. Who ever designed and manages the Star's piece-o'-crap web site should have been fired years ago. Can I get an Amen!

So the Star today, like so many other news organizations this week, assigned a reporter to open an account on healthcare.gov to see if they could complete the application. (Here's a thought: maybe if it wasn't for all these reporters signing on to healthcare.gov to do the same damn story, the system would not be so overloaded. Just sayin'.) Reporter among Tucsonans who find insurance sign-up problematic.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

For those of you who may be experiencing problems with the HealthCare.gov Health Insurance Marketplace (the web site has now been revised and updated), you have another option.

Remember, your application is first reviewed to determine whether you are Medicaid (AHCCCS) eligible. If you are, you will be enrolled in AHCCCS. If not, you may purchase insurance at the Health Insurance Marketplace. You can start the application process at the Health-e-Arizona Plus (HEAplus) web site.

The State of Arizona has been working to modernize its eligibility
system for Medicaid, SNAP and TANF to increase efficiency and provide a
better customer experience for Arizonans.

The Health-e-Arizona Plus web site is now live. On
January 1, 2014, changes to Medicaid eligibility will go into effect.
This is an exciting time; I hope you're as excited as I am about the
changes that are coming! Please take a moment to watch this short video (below the fold)
— the second in a series of messages about the changes to Medicaid and
our new Health-e-Arizona Plus program.

UPDATE: There is also a Quick Start Application Toolkit
here (.pdf).

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The key to GOPropaganda is the insidious "Big Lie" technique — keep repeating the lie over and over again until in the minds of low information voters the repetition of the lie becomes ingrained in their consciousness as a fact — "yeah, I remember hearing that somewhere."

One of the most prevalent GOPropaganda lies in recent years is the claim that the Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare" is making America a part-time employment country. There is not one GOPropagandist in the conservative media entertainment complex or GOP politician who has not repeated this claim.

Just this past Sunday, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, a fluffer for Wall Street CEOs, was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press Gregory and claimed "As a result of Obamacare, we are becoming something of a part-time employment country." Of course, "Dancing Dave" did not challenge her to support her assertion.

But with the belated release of Labor Department statistics on Tuesday, there was a raft of reporting debunking the GOPropaganda "part-time" lie.