CNN Feed Goes Dead As Obamacare Victims Begin Speaking

originally posted by: Sharparrow
Do any of our current members of ATS experienced a disadvantage with Obamacare? I live in another country so I cannot really comment but I would be interested to know if it has been a detriment to your lives and businesses.

Yeah, my friend's fakily was already struggling to get by. All of a sudden their monthly premium jumped up $200 as a result of Obamacare. As for me? I can't afford it now. I make too much money to qualify for everyone else to pay for it, but if I were to have got my own insurance then my family wouldn't afford to eat much. Well, not if we wanted to stay dressed too or live under a roof. Also a result of Obamacare.

a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

Another question. "Who" watches them?

From what I understand their ratings are in the commode.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

Another question. "Who" watches them?

From what I understand their ratings are in the commode.

I suspect that TVs in office lobbies, restaurants, and other public places make up a huge fraction of CNN's ratings. Perhaps even the majority of it.

a reply to: xuenchen

Surely CNN was not the only news crew in the room? Can you direct me to Fox? Or the WH feed or any complete video of what you are bitching about?

originally posted by: Sharparrow
Do any of our current members of ATS experienced a disadvantage with Obamacare? I live in another country so I cannot really comment but I would be interested to know if it has been a detriment to your lives and businesses.

I am a court-appointed volunteer to investigate elder abuse and guardianship cases. Along with those jobs, I helped people get on ACA when it first came out.

I had two clients - one in Mississippi and one in Georgia. Both had Hep C and needed care. Neither had an insurance plan.
I proceeded to sign them up for ACA. The process through the exchanges was very easy. The support was very good - no problem calling in with questions, etc. My two clients were signed up within a week and their insurance cards were issued within 10 days. The premiums were small and the co-pays negligible. Sovaldi, the new drug which cures Hep C, was not on the acceptable drug list. The drug is $125,000 for the 12 week regime. I was able get it free for both clients through Gilead, the manufacturer of the drug. Most drug companies have programs for indigent and low income people.

That was in 2014. Now comes the hard part. Their premiums and co-pays remained the same for about 1.5 years. Early in 2016 both received a letter that their premiums would be increased as well as their co-pays.
The original premium of approximately $35 per month was now over $500.
The deductible went from $1,000 to $7,500.00
The co-pays were increased as well including drug co-pays.

So here's their status now: both are still enrolled but can't pay the premium and deductible. They were dropped from the insurance provider for non-payment. For the year 2016, they will have to pay the tax penalty. Trump has signed an executive order cancelling that portion of Obamacare (I'm not sure if it's retroactive).

There are millions of people who are currently in the same predicament. What looked like a great deal for healthcare when they signed up has now become a nightmare. These people are right back where they originally started - unaffordable premiums and deductibles and no healthcare.

Here's the scam (IMO): the insurance companies knew that they would recuperate their original costs etc after 18 months.
This is the only way (again IMO) that they would initially sign on to Obama's plan because the first 18 months would be losers for them. If you look at stock prices for companies like Aetna or Anthem, none of them suffered any great loss due to the new regulations. In fact, since 2014, their stock prices have soared partly due to the Obama Administration agreeing to pay more to the companies for their services. What looked like a "sacrifice" for the insurance companies, actually became a profit boom for the stockholders.

The media continues to say that "millions are covered who were not covered before". What they don't tell you is that millions have had to drop their insurance due to the higher costs. The ACA enrollment numbers appear to be the same only because people wanted to avoid the tax penalty and didn't officially drop ACA themselves. But the insurance companies dropped them from their rolls when they couldn't pay.

Obamacare was a huge scam IMO. The actuarial calculations had to show the increased costs after 18 months. The administration effectively hid that information until the 12th hour - just as Obama was about to leave office.

One more note: The ACA prohibits insurers from denying applications because of a pre-existing condition. However, my two clients, who both had Hep C when they signed up for ACA, had their premiums and deductibles raised more than the average person who didn't have a pre-existing condition when they signed up. I wonder why??

a reply to: Sharparrow

well for the last 2 years the the top quality insurance offered by my company was dropped because obamacare considered the 2 ppos cadillac plans and promised my company that they would charge a fine for each employee still using them. so we were all forced to get crappy hmo plans and or hsa expense accounts.

originally posted by: Sharparrow
Do any of our current members of ATS experienced a disadvantage with Obamacare? I live in another country so I cannot really comment but I would be interested to know if it has been a detriment to your lives and businesses.

Personally My insurance from my company is not as good but cost more. I pay $200 a month for an inhaler for asthma)QVAR), its about $10 in europe

In the private sector any and all wage gains are getting sucked up by insurance cost increases.

H1B to crush to the professional class
Obamacare to crush the middle class
Illegals to crush the working class

It's creating a really nasty moral hazard where sick people are better off quitting their job and getting on medicare or getting massive subsidies.

Wealth has become extremely concentrated around D.C. at the same time.

I don't think we will be able to stop single payer and price controls in the healthcare sector. Even if I don't agree with it.

I don't think Ryancare will fix anything,

I don't know why specifically cost are skyrocketing but its going to collapse everything.

originally posted by: Sharparrow
Do any of our current members of ATS experienced a disadvantage with Obamacare? I live in another country so I cannot really comment but I would be interested to know if it has been a detriment to your lives and businesses.

Yes.

Current monthly cost $2,875 or there about.

I live in a very expensive place to live, where the minimum to live a lower middle class lifestyle is around $80,000 a year.

I earn slightly too much to qualify for anything and combined with my age and deductibles it sends the cost so very high that I'd actually be better off if I quit working.

I had three surgeries last year and in addition to the monthly costs, I ended up with over $40,000 in debt on top of the $140,000 due, even though everyone worked with me and gave me large discounts.

The insurance is unusable due to the deductibles in the best of times.

Nothing takes into account where you live and housing costs here are sky high, food is far higher than it costs in other parts of the country and ...................

I lost my preferred MD on the first year and was left to seek out medical care other places after 15 years with the same trusted MD.

I've discussed this at length with multiple MD's and they know that many people were hurt by this. One said he thought the number who had been placed in untenable positions and harmed by the ACA was in the neighborhood of 7 million people.

The costs at area hospitals have risen dramatically and the care is not what it once was due to the incredible regulatory burden on them. The hospital I chose was having huge communications problems due to regulations and inability to even share information from one office to another in the same hospital. I had to fill out identical documents each time I went to a lab or had a different procedure as part of the same stay in the hospital. They could not even view a copy of the document that had already been provided, even though in the same hospital on the same stay.

One serious error was made and nearly killed me when I had to return as my kidneys had shut down and they could not even look at the record of my stay just before that, which had the answers to what was going on.

When I started asking questions about the obvious, the Staff was so scared to talk about the ACA and the regulations, they actually covertly sent an administrator off duty to talk to me as a friend to give me the real answers to seeming confusion, all of which was due to ACA regulations.

I've likely confused you, but then nobody understands the giant mess that is the ACA.

originally posted by: Phantom423


Obamacare was a huge scam IMO.

The Affordable Care Act was never meant to be a singular, one-time magic wand. It was meant to be a PROTOTYPE...With tweaking and fixes as reality bore out it's weaknesses. You don't change an industry that represents 20% of GDP with a one-time bill.

Unfortunately the GOP took the House Majority and then REFUSED to tweak, repair or fix the ACA as problems with the prototype became apparent. It was in their political interest to have people see increased rates and insurance companies drop out of some markets.

3/2014
Moderate Senate Democrats Propose Nine Obamacare Fixes
talkingpointsmemo.com...

5/2015
Dems to GOP: We’re ready to fix ObamaCare, why aren’t you?
thehill.com...

9/2016
Dems to GOP: Help us fix ObamaCare
thehill.com...

INSTEAD the GOP worked to MAKE ACA/OBAMACARE WORSE...

9/2015
GOP scores early win in ObamaCare lawsuit
thehill.com...

5/2016
Republicans win Obamacare legal challenge, add to insurer concerns
www.reuters.com...


House Republicans Win Lawsuit Over Obamacare Cost-Sharing Payments

12/2015
Marco Rubio Quietly Undermines Affordable Care Act
www.nytimes.com...

Specifically...you want to know what happened to the premiums for your two Hep C friends?...Marco Rubio Happened

Sen. Marco Rubio may have dealt the biggest blow in the GOP’s five-year war against ObamaCare.

A 2014 budget measure inspired by the Florida Republican and presidential hopeful is pushing some insurers to drop out of the ObamaCare exchanges, experts say.

“I think this is one of the most effective things they’ve done so far in terms of trying to undermine the Affordable Care Act,” Tim Jost, a healthcare law professor at Washington and Lee University, said of Republicans in Congress.

This fall, more than a dozen health insurers representing 800,000 people have dropped out of the ObamaCare exchanges, many out of fear that the administration no longer has the cash to cushion their losses in the costly early years of the marketplace.

thehill.com...

So, here's my latest Insurance nightmare.

The company I work for switched providers. They BARELY informed us of this, covering it up with a "Your premiums do not go up this year!" email.

However, the coverage went down. All copays went double what they were.

I have a medicine that I've been on for going on 16 years now. I went to refill, 2 months ago for my 30 day supply and the pharmacy told me that my new insurance did not cover that medicine, it was "non formulatory" and that I would have to contact my insurance company.

So, I go home, and call them. They tell me that no, it's not covered, and there is no alternate medicine that they would cover. (Preexisting conditions? Hello?). I start looking for discounts of any kind, ended up using a coupon from GoodRx, and got it at a price I could pay. Although I was going to cut back on other things (like groceries, let a bill slide for a month) because of this.

30 days later, I was still fighting with them to cover it. Finally, my Doctor's office stepped in and did something, because I got a call from the Insurance company saying there are now three alternatives to choose from, and they would need a letter of Prior Authorization from my doctor. It took 30 more days for that to happen from them, my Dr sent it in that very day they asked for it.

Here's the kicker, the new medicine? it 6 times as expensive as the one I was one before. They would only cover the expensive versions of the medicine, and not the cheapest. Sounds like some Big Pharma collusion going on if you ask me.

In all I ended up going a month without it. That's a lifetime when your body is used to something.

My plan costs me $350 a month, and my employer pays $450 a month for a grand total of $800 a month for just me, a 45 year old male.

Before Obamacare, I had better coverage, and I paid about $150 a month

My plan is a PPO and no HSA. I pay extra for a traditional plan. I don't like HSA accounts.

a reply to: Indigo5

Well of course there's partisan politics involved. But I have no control over that. The blame game doesn't solve a problem. As I said, and it's just my opinion, the die was caste before ACA was even off the ground. The numbers never worked. And it's my belief that they knew the numbers didn't work.

The millions of people who signed up for ACA expected to pay approximately what was contained in the original document. That didn't work out, did it? Now they're without healthcare and the Obama administration passed the buck to Trump. We'll see how that turns out.

a reply to: poncho1982

You deserve much better than that BS...

And yes..Obamacare as it stands still fails you..

But honest truth...where Obamacare fails your scenario...Trumpcare prison rapes you..And that is non-partisan reality.

You can cheer for whoever you like, or whatever party you like...but what you describe gets nothing but worse under Trumpcare...

My take would be fixing Obamacare, But I am wide open to Trumpcare...if it made it better...but what they are pitching makes it much WORSE.

Somehow CNN made this thread all about healthcare and not CNN.

Do not underestimate them.

originally posted by: c2oden
Somehow CNN made this thread all about healthcare and not CNN.

Do not underestimate them.

Subliminal microwave transmissions.

a reply to: xuenchen

Yeah they cut it because they are pro Obama and pro hilary supporters.

a reply to: Sharparrow

In 2009 (prior to Obamacare), heath insurance premium for my wife and was $564/month, and it was very good insurance.

My 2017 Obamacare premium is $2280/month. Huge deductible , none of our doctors are covered.

2008 monthly premium =$280.00 a month, 20% copay, up to out of pocket limit os $2,000.00, deductible $500.00 and a $5.00 copay on any prescriptions

2016 monthly premium=$980.00 a month, 30% copay, up to out of pocket limit of $15,000.00, deductible $2,000.00 and prescriptions limited to approved list which is very limited, then a 20% copay of actual costs.

As a cancer survivor, my medications are a must, they are now not approved.
Every operation I have had has been denied initially, then approved screwing up schedules for everyone.
No contact from Ins company as to where I stand with my benefits.

53 years old, used to be healthy, now considering a bullet to the head.
Cant work anymore, but unable to qualify for disability because I have been sick for too long.
I am being punished for holding out and trying to do the right thing and get back to work. But I failed.
I want to work. I LOVED my job, I was a firefighting pilot traveling all around the world flying helicopters and airplanes. I got hurt, got cancer and planned on coming back to work. Because I didn't immediately give up and apply for govt benefits, I am now ineligible. Cant afford my insurance anymore. Its a choice between heat and food or insurance.

Obola care ruined my life.

a reply to: Sharparrow

I think the last two posts validate what I said about my experience with my 2 clients. These people are forgotten, not heard from, you never hear about them on NBC nightly news. They're invisible. And covered up.
It's a tragedy.

a reply to: Sharparrow

It all depends on who you ask.

Many young people who are healthy are not allowed to decide to *not* have insurance under law. If you do not have insurance, you are fined during tax time.

You *must* have insurance. Even people who make a very low wage are obligated to buy insurance. So if you made $30k a year you must buy health insurance. This is actually very difficult to pay for if you make that little money.

The only way to get Medicaid (which is the free health insurance), is to make less that $15k a year. Not too many people make that little.

I think the idea behind Obamacare is that too many people were getting healthcare at hospitals without any insurance and running up a bill that they had no intentions on paying. Hospitals in the United States must accept and treat anyone who walks in through the door. Many people take advantage of that fact.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
Is anyone really surprised?
This is CNN.

But if they're vetting by a faction in the CIA harkening back to the Operation Mockingbird days, then it just goes to show how entrenched that old guard really is, and we've seen this from CNN time and time again. Not too biased eh?

When I see how much Trump is hated and loathed by CNN the more I want to support him and his agenda.

It's amazing and appropriate how he turned "fake news" back on them..

Could you imagine working there at the center of a creepy crawly shadowy web? all the humor would drain out of your face and you'd end up looking like Anderson Cooper, or worse pained like Jake Tapper, or non-human like Don Lemon.

They're starting to have a lost and panicky look to them, each to a one. They went all in, doubled, tripled, quadrupled down, and their whole narrative is about to fall apart when Comey, yet again, says first that there has been or is an ongoing Russian investigation and then, provides the all clear at the very moment when CNN is frothing at the mouth.

It's really going to be an utter joy to watch their complete downfall, as they just fall apart in the face of the rising sun of an American Renaissance the likes of which we haven't seen since after WWII or during the Industrial Revolution, with power ceding back to the states and the local level concerns of the people amid the disestablishment of the establishment.

What a wonderful time to be alive and to see and participate in it all.