<p>Those Kaiser specialists did a great job on my daughter. </p>
<p><a href=“Request Rejected”>Request Rejected;
<p>"“Kaiser Permanente’s excellence in clinical care is now the standard that others around the country are striving to achieve,” said Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. “Seamless, integrated, prepaid health care has a demonstrable, major advantage over antiquated, episodic, fee-for-service medicine. As a result of the excellence of our physicians, technology and structure, our members have a 30 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, a 10 percent lower risk of dying from cancer, and a 40 percent lower chance of dying from sepsis compared to those who are not Kaiser Permanente members. These are remarkable accomplishments and consistent with the Leapfrog Top Hospital designation.”</p>
<p>I thought the problem with Kaiser is that they made you wait forever. Not good when bacteria are eating your flesh. Is that wrong?</p>
<p>Ezra Klein of the Washington Post awarded Laszewski the third annual Wonk Award as pundit of the year for being more accurate than anyone else of what was going on with Obamacare</p>
<p>"While the failed launch of HealthCare.gov was bad news for the Obama administration, it was great news for Bob Laszewski, a health industry consultant who turned up on the front page of most national newspapers. Laszewski was in a unique position: He was willing to tell reporters what he heard from insurers at a time when the health plans themselves, and the Obama administration, weren’t talking.</p>
<p>Laszewski doesn’t hide his point of view; he’s no fan of the Affordable Care Act. And the information he shared was rarely good news for HealthCare.gov, but more a portrait of chaos behind the scenes. But it was also one of the most accurate and public accounts of how poorly things were going during the first few months of Obamacare."</p>
<p>He also said the following about Laszewski’s blog:</p>
<p>“Robert Laszewski is president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a policy and marketplace consulting firm that has him working closely with many in the heath industry as they try to navigate the Affordable Care Act, as well as the author of the excellent Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review blog.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/31/presenting-the-third-annual-wonky-awards/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/31/presenting-the-third-annual-wonky-awards/</a></p>
<p>BTW, the others who got these awards are Janet Yellin, John Kerry and the Kaiser Family Foundation, hardly right-wing fanatics.</p>
<p>dstark, you may want to go into a hole like a groundhog and ignore the voluminous information out there painting a picture far different than the idyllic impression you have of this law. The only problem is the reality keeps intruding in your myopic view of the consequences of this law.</p>
<p>No. The problem with Kaiser is too many of their patients are middle class. I am not kidding. </p>
<p>It is hard to speak generally about Kaiser. People may have different experiences. </p>
<p>I have anecdotes that support relatively short waiting times at Kaiser, but I dont have huge information on the waiting times.</p>
<p>I think the paragraph I highlighted right before your post is accurate. </p>
<p>If you come down with something really rare, I can see going to Stanford or UCSF instead of Kaiser. </p>
<p>Yeah…maybe flesh eating bacteria… A patient should go to Stanford or UCSF or some place besides Kaiser. </p>
<p>GP, I have a question about a statement you quoted:
</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, the January total of 817,000 enrollments represents enrollments via the exchanges.</p>
<p>As you know, the cancellation notices that went out in California didn’t actually cut anyone off --they told people that their previous plan was being ended, and if they did nothing at all they would automatically be rolled into a new plan. </p>
<p>So everyone who was “cancelled” had 3 basic options for insurance: A. They could do nothing at all and remain insured; B. They could shop the for an alternative plan directly via an insurance company; and C. They could shop on the exchange. Also, if they did either B or C in December, then they would have insurance in January.</p>
<p>So Laszewki said that more than 817,000 policies were “canceled” as of January 1st, but he didn’t tell us how many policy-holders had already selected new policies prior to January 1; how many of the cancelled policy holders opted to accept the automatic rollover; or how many previous policy holders who were uninsured January 1st opted to buy directly from private insurers rather than go to the exchange.</p>
<p>Could you please provide those numbers for me? I’d like to have them so I can figure out how many of those 817,000 had previously been insured, refused their insurance companies offers of new choices, decided to buy on the exchange instead, but then waited until after January 1 to select a new plan. </p>
<p>Yes… GP, answer calmom. </p>
<p>If you listened to me instead of this guy, you wouldnt have made the bet and lost. ;)</p>
<p>Calmom, so he said Ca and Washington cancelled MUCH MORE than 817,000 policies. The question is how many of those subscribers went to the exchanges. I don’t know if we know but one would have to think it would be quite a few if many qualified for subsidies. I think the point he is trying to make is that very few of the people who got insurance since Jan 1 were uninsured. Elsewhere in the article he elaborates upon this with additional information he was able to amass.</p>
<p>Edit: What would be interesting to know is how many people were in my shoes. Some of those notices informed you that your policy was being cancelled and you were being transitioned into a ACA-compliant health plan with an enormous premium increase. I wonder how many people decided they couldn’t afford it and chose to go uninsured.</p>
<p>So… The guy is guessing…</p>
<p>He was the best guesser according to Ezra Klein. :)</p>
<p>dstark, you’re up late tonight!</p>
<p>GP, I know. Way past my bedtime. I used to wake up at 3:30 am everyday. I might feel really crummy in a few hours. </p>
<p>I am helping you become informed. Same as calmom and CF. </p>
<p>Why are you up so late?</p>
<p>GP, you did see the Gallup poll showing the drop in uninsured people? </p>
<p>You know… We might make a multi year new low in percentage uninsured in 3 months…</p>
<p>I think we will. Do I get an award if we do?
I have to go to sleep now.</p>
<p>I need to go to sleep, too. I been fighting off a cold which I can’t blame on Obamacare. Trying to avoid the doctor, even though I have good insurance.</p>
<p>BTW, that graph of the uninsured which I remember looking at a while back fluctuates quite a bit. If my memory serves me correctly, it was showing less uninsured in the past than today. I think it correlates very closely with the economy.</p>
<p>
Yes, but wouldn’t most of those have enrolled prior to January? Remember, they all got letters at the end of September telling them they had to make a choice and they had 3 months to do so. Some also got letters telling them that they could keep their old policies for an additional 3 months, into March – but those who elected to take the extension would have no need to shop the exchange in January. </p>
<p>
But he presented no evidence or facts to support that assertion. I think it’s more reasonable to assume that the vast majority of the previously insured either chose to stay with their existing insurers, or shopped for new insurance in November and December, so that they could be continuously insured. </p>
<p>Ok, so I’ve missed about 200 posts, but someone tell me, is that cash still stowed under the park bench in SF?</p>
<p>Because my son’s gf’s folks are en route from SF for a visit today and I was thinking if Dstark didn’t mind I’d have them swing by the park on their way :)</p>
<p>Now that with the help of this thread we’ve figured out healthcare in Michigan, it looks as if McSon may be headed to CA in May with gf when she graduates. I may have to go re-read this entire thread…but I may not live long enough :)</p>
<p>Commonsense tells me people who like insurance get reinsured no matter what. So if 800k policies were cancelled, 95+ percent of those would have found insurance somewhere else. Uninsured who got insured for the first time outside of medicaid - I would love to see real numbers. Gallup polls just don’t do it for me.</p>
<p>kmcmom - per GP, no point getting insurance in CA since they may have doctors listed who claim not to be in the plan. Per dstark, there is a spreading case of flesh eating bacteria which has no cure. So two reasons for your son to stay put in Michigan.</p>
<p>Kmcmom13 and texaspg, :).
Kmcmom13, California can be a pretty nice place. By the way, my daughter went to the Univ of Michigan.</p>
<p>I would not use the gallup polls on their own. More to see if there is a confirmation.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/13/a-guide-to-understanding-obamacares-sign-up-numbers/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/13/a-guide-to-understanding-obamacares-sign-up-numbers/</a></p>
<p>The medicaid numbers do count. If you are poor and uninsured you are less likely to use an exchange. You are going to sign up for medicaid. Half the people who dont have health insurance say the reason was they couldnt afford health insurance. So it makes sense that many uninsured are going to sign up for medicaid. This year, it is expected that more of the uninsured are going to sign up for medicaid than on an exchange. </p>
<p>Medicaid sign-ups happen every month with or without ACA so are you accounting for how many f those would have happened anyway. Also, since they don’t pay anything it’s not exactly buying insurance.</p>
<p>I like CA. Michigan is way too cold.</p>
<p>Actingmt, from the prior link. We will have to have a little patience.</p>
<p>“A handful of states do also report the number of people gaining coverage because of Obamacare, although this is the exception rather than the norm. Washington, for example, counts a total of 381,000 people who have signed up for Medicaid since October. Of those, about one third – 134,000 people – are newly eligible for the program. An additional 63,000 were eligible already but are now signing up for the first time. And, last, 183,000 people were previously covered under Medicaid and were re-determined eligible to stay on the program.
Similarly, in Maryland, Charles Gaba’s analysis suggests that about one-third of Medicaid sign-ups were people renewing policies.
Will we ever know the true number of Obamacare’s Medicaid sign-ups?
Actually, yes – and we only have to wait a few months. The states that expanded Medicaid will have to tell the federal government how many people are getting signed up through the Obamacare at the end of the first quarter of 2014. They have to do this for reimbursement purposes: The federal government pays the full cost of anyone gaining coverage through the Medicaid expansion, but only a part of the price for people signing up for the traditional program (the state pays the rest of the bill). So by some time this spring, we should actually know how many people gained Medicaid because of the Affordable Care Act.”</p>
<p>Thank-you. No doubt people will gain coverage through the expansion of Medicaid. If it’s free people will take it. I don’t find that at all surprising. And, still am not convinced those numbers should be included. But, thank-you. </p>