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“Bob, let’s look at the bottom line. The bottom line is this: 10 million Americans have health insurance today who would not have had it without the Affordable Care Act. Ten million.”

– Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Feb. 9, 2014

Sometimes, talking points persist even in the face of new evidence negating the previous claims.

Update: After this column appeared, Durbin spokesman Max Gleischman provided this statement: ”Fact check after fact check has confirmed that more than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage through Affordable Care Act. Many of the more than 9 million Americans are being covered for the first time. No matter the number of new enrollees, there is no question that the law is working and millions of people are realizing the benefits of affordable health coverage and the protections it guarantees.”

[The Fact Checker is unaware of any fact checks that have confirmed these figures as all ACA enrollments or evidence that "many" of the enrollees are being covered for the first time.]
The Pinocchio Test

Even if one took the high end of these estimates, the most one could claim is that about 4 million people have gained insurance because the Affordable Care Act, but that’s being extraordinarily generous.

In the section of the rules discussing navigators, the Obama administration’s document says “a state or an exchange must not require that all navigators be agents or brokers or carry errors and omissions coverage.” Further, the rule says that if navigators were to be required to carry E&O insurance, this would disqualify them from being considered a “community and consumer-focused nonprofit group.” Federal law requires that at least one such group be listed as a navigator.

The rule is largely a directive to states, so they do not begin any sort of E&O requirement, but Peter Marathas, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP specializing in employee benefits, executive compensation and ERISA litigation, says that brokers should be watching navigator regulations closely.

“The whole concept of the navigator is to be education-based and not pushing consumers toward any result, so [this rule] is a reminder to keep that in mind,” he says. “Now, human nature being what it is, there will be a demand if someone’s using a navigator to say, ‘What do you mean you can’t tell me what to do? You’re taken me to the well and you can’t tell me what well to drink from?’ Human nature being what it is, [the navigator] might step over some lines there.”

So, in that case, who is liable if a consumer feels they’ve been misinformed? Marathas says that part is still a “mystery.” The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services did not respond to a question Monday on how they will monitor to ensure navigators are not giving advice.

Members of the Covered California board met in Sacramento today. The state-based exchange has faced some Web glitches, but the carriers selling qualified health plans through the exchange already have attracted about 1 million enrollees. Many of the enrollees already are using plan coverage to see doctors.

Doctors say plan reimbursement rates are 20 percent to 40 percent lower than traditional plan rates.

“Our physicians describe these payment reductions as unaffordable to their practices,” Dressner says.

In some cases, Dressner says, carriers seem to think they can change contract terms by simply sending letters to the physicians.

Physicians have trouble finding out what the plan contract terms are, or even finding out whether they’re really in a plan provider network, Dressner says.

Batboy2/75 wrote:Fucking Morons. Where is Spells? I could use a laugh

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Batboy2/75 wrote:Fucking Morons. Where is Spells? I could use a laugh

You gave me one by citing "The Washington Free Beacon" so I guess I'll have to owe you one. Reid's an idiot.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Batboy2/75 wrote:Fucking Morons. Where is Spells? I could use a laugh

You gave me one by citing "The Washington Free Beacon" so I guess I'll have to owe you one. Reid's an idiot.

DARTH wrote: Out of the Whore's mouth, so tell us again why the Washington Free beacon is any worse than the Washington Post, the New York Tones, NBC and ABC, who run interference for these pricks?

U.S. consumers eligible for Obamacare health plans could see double-digit price hikes next year in states that fail to draw large numbers of enrollees for 2014, including some states that have been hostile to the healthcare law, according to insurance industry officials and analysts.

The early estimates come as insurance companies set out to design plans they intend to sell in 2015 through the state-based health insurance marketplaces that are a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement that is widely referred to as Obamacare.

WellPoint Inc, which sells plans on 14 Obamacare exchanges, expects health insurance rates nationwide to be higher. Increases for the Obamacare market that has signed up about 5 million people to date is expected to outpace those in the employer-sponsored market, which serves about 170 million people.

"Looking at the rate increases on a year-over-year basis on our exchanges, and it will vary by carrier, but all of them will probably be in double digit plus," Ken Goulet, president of WellPoint's commercial business, told investors in New York on Friday.

Just days after the deadline to enroll for insurance coverage through Nevada Health Link, the first class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of residents who say they signed up and paid their premiums – but were never given coverage.

Law firm Callister & Associates filed the lawsuit on behalf of Larry Basich, who signed up for state health insurance and paid premiums as far back as November, but then was not covered following a Jan. 3 triple bypass procedure that saw his $400,000 in medical expenses passed between the wrong insurance companies, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Nevada on Tuesday alleges gross negligence and failure to do due diligence against the state of Nevada, the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange (which runs Nevada Health Link), and the company that won the contract to build the exchange, Xerox.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Nevadans who have been paying premiums for 2, 3, 4 months, not receiving any coverage whatsoever,” Callister told KTNV-TV. “I talked to a mom an hour ago who has skin cancer and she can’t go in to have her skin cancer treatment because her doctor says, ‘Who is your carrier?’”

As of Saturday, 40,500 consumers had selected qualified health plans through the exchange. Of those, 24,000 had paid for coverage, the Associated Press reports.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:The thread is active, but it appears recent news is being linked very selectively. There was a pretty big deadline that just came up. Any news?

Thousands of Californians who couldn't sign up for a health-care plan by 11:59 p.m. Monday because of the state insurance exchange's sluggish website are getting a second chance to do so.

And they have until April 15.

There's only one catch: They must attest that they had tried to apply online by the deadline, either to a certified insurance agent, enrollment counselor, call-center operator or county social worker for help completing their applications.

"People can lie; we think people won't,'' Peter Lee, Covered California's executive director, told reporters Monday.

The number of Americans with health insurance held steady in 2012, according to a Census Bureau report issued Tuesday morning. The number of insured Americans should increase significantly in 2014 when Obamacare is expected to cover an estimated 14 million Americans.

The rate of Americans without health insurance declined to 15.4 percent and the number of uninsured people fell slightly to 48 million people in 2012, according to the report.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Rea ... d_Medicine

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:All the crowing about how the ACA is a victory and how republicans should shut up about it is a bit premature.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:All the crowing about how the ACA is a victory and how republicans should shut up about it is a bit premature.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfAeMtcURg0[/youtube]

Grandpa's Spells wrote: I haven't heard any crowing. The administration was rightly slammed for a bad roll-out. They appear to have hit their deadline though. The GOP doesn't have a coherent alternative to a serious healthcare problem. The public is certainly open to something that's better than Obamacare. Republicans have, for a long time, dug their heels in very hard against any public healthcare initiative (Bush's unfunded expansion notwithstanding) and used the same language about future disasters that never came to pass. There is a 0% chance this gets repealed without something better taking its place. Until that proposal shows up, complaints revolving around a mindset of "I wish this would go away" are yelling at the moon.