You know how the media always does the same story every year about the people who waited to the last minute to mail their income taxes, sitting in line at the post office to get their return post-marked before midnight on April 15th?
The “ObamaCare” deadline today is something like that.
People have been standing in lines all weekend long for help from assisters and navigators to get signed up, having waited until the last minute.
So many people are online today that they are overwhelming the system. HealthCare.gov Reports ‘Record Volume’ On Obamacare Deadline Day:
The federal Obamacare website is experiencing “record volume” Monday (1.2 million through Noon EST), the deadline for enrolling in coverage, the Obama administration said.
The marketplace’s call center is also experience record demand, the administration spokesperson said: 350,000 calls as of 12 p.m., three times higher than the previous record for that time period.
Those who signed up earlier are making their first premium payments. (We won’t have numbers for this last minute late surge for at least a couple of months). Sebelius: Insurers Say 80-90% Of Obamacare Enrollees Have Paid First Premium:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that between 80 and 90 percent of Obamacare enrollees had paid their first premium, according to estimates from insurance companies, the last step to initiating their coverage.
Insurance companies “tell us that, for their initial customers, it’s somewhere between 80, 85, some say as high as 90 percent, have paid so far,” Sebelius said. “Lots of companies have different timetables for when their new customers have to send their first payment.”
The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll has “ObamaCare” support improving to 49% today. Poll: Obamacare Support Breaks Even For First Time:
The poll, released Monday, the law’s enrollment deadline, found 49 percent of Americans support the law and 48 percent oppose it. It was the first time, dating back to August 2009, that support outweighed opposition in the poll.
[This despite the fact that the “Kochtopus” and other right-wing organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on negative attack ads since last October. The fact checkers proving every one of these attack ads to be false or misleading may have produced a backlash. People don’t like being lied to.]
Support among Democrats jumped from 65 percent in January to 76 percent in the new poll. Independents (44 percent support; 54 percent oppose; and Republicans (20 percent support; 78 percent) was more stable, according to the poll. Surprisingly, the poll found a significant shift in support for the law among conservatives, with 36 percent of them backing it now compared to 17 percent in November.
The RAND Corp. estimates that some 9.5 million uninsured have benefited from “ObamaCare.” That number would be much higher if Chief Justice John Roberts had not created an opt-out for expanded Medicaid, and GOP governors and legislatures did not reject expanded Medicaid in an effort to sabotage “ObamaCare” and to deny their citizens access to health care. In those states, the Kaiser Family Foundation finds 75 percent of the uninsured are children.
Study: Obamacare Covers 9.5M Uninsured:
The numbers break down like this:
- 6 million people have enrolled in private coverage through Healthcare.gov and its state counterparts. The Times estimated that about one-third of them — or about 2 million — were uninsured, based in part on new numbers from RAND.
- 4.5 million previously uninsured people have signed up for Medicaid since the law launched in October, according to RAND.
- 3 million young adults age 26 and younger have gotten covered through their parents’ insurance plan, as the law allows.
RAND also estimated that about 9 million people have signed up for coverage directly through their insurer, though most of those people were already insured.
Remember this? 12 Times Republicans Claimed Nobody Would Sign Up For Obamacare. Eat shit.
So how many people have signed up for the GOP alternative to “ObamaCare”? That’s right, a big fat ZERO, ZIP, NADA, ZILCH — because the GOP does not have an alternative to “ObamaCare” other than repeal — going back to the old bad system where consumers are at the mercy of predatory insurers. And repeal means taking away health care from 9.5 million people who desperately need it and now have access to health care thanks to “ObamaCare.”
Letter to U.S. Rep David Schweikert, 4/1/14
Your Message:
Issue: WEBHEA
Message Subject:
Our Family Enthusiastically Supports the Affordable Care Act
Message:
Mr. Schweikert,
You have often demonstrated dripping contempt for the Affordable Care Act – including your shameful participation in the unconscionable action of shutting down the government of the USA to make your “point”.
I want to remind you that there are a great many of your Arizona Constituents who understand the reason that law was enacted, and that express gratitude to the Federal government for the millions of American citizens that have already benefited from the scope of the ACA. While our family does not require the life-saving medical insurance provided under the ACA, we do know many friends and relatives who have and are about to have enriched lives as a result of the law.
My 36 year old Niece, Jennifer, for example, who after losing her career job due to illness 2 years ago was finally able to secure an affordable insurance policy that enabled her to re-start her physical rehabilitation after running out of COBRA coverage.
There is our hair stylist, Lara, a Type 1 diabetic whose non-employee job status at **** ******* failed to provide health insurance for her and her teen-aged daughter. Two weeks ago, she was able to initiate an ACA health insurance plan that covers both of them – for the first time since her divorce years ago.
There is our single 61 year old neighbor, who lost her job with ******** ******* in 2011 due to “downsizing”. Joanne was about to apply for Medicaid, and discovered that she could instead obtain an affordable health insurance policy through the ACA, avoiding the humiliation of asking for outright public charity.
You may not realize that your so-called “free market” insurance companies routinely refuse coverage to diabetics, people with previously diagnosed heart disease, Barrett’s syndrome, etc.
Or, if they do offer coverage for chronic pre-existing conditions, the “free market” insurance companies have priced policy quotes so high that only a wealthy person can afford the costs.
Those facts had forced more than 50 million Americans into using Emergency Rooms for Primary Care, which had been a terribly expensive and wholly ineffectual default option. Further, “E/R Default” health care delivery has been proven to cost taxpayers (that’s me) much more than the projected subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
Maybe you don’t understand because you’ve never had to struggle financially for day to day basic needs, but whatever your excuse may be – you were elected to represent *ALL* of the citizens of this District, not only the rabid Republicans whom you cater to.
Please remember that every time (50, and counting!) you vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, you are telling my wife and I, my niece, our hair stylist, our neighbor and millions of other American citizens that demonstrating your ultra conservative right wing ideology is more important than we are.
That’s just WRONG, and we will respond accordingly in November.
Have a Nice Day (sort of).