What was all the hoopla about regarding 6 million signing up just a couple days ago?

Some people got fed up with the web site problems and bought compliant plans directly from insurance companies. BCBS has been running TONS of radio ads here trying to get people to go directly to them instead of the exchanges, for example.

And a large chunk of that 42M is people in Republican states who are not going to be insured thanks to the refusal to expand Medicaid.

These numbers will be added in later as many people have not done the website thing and bought ACA compliant policies from insurance companies...

See the best info here on signups:

http://acasignups.net/

1. https://www.facebook.com/acasuccessstories

2. https://www.facebook.com/acasignupsuccessstories

3. https://www.facebook.com/ilikeobamacare

4. https://twitter.com/ACASuccessStory

5. http://acasignups.net

(I retired from the state 3 years ago at 55), and was shocked to see that my monthly out of pocket coverage thru Kaiser had tripled, from $35 a month to $105 a month! Guess I figured nothing would change since I was already covered, but it did.... I'm sure I'm not the only one confused by the ACA. The increase drops me back to what I was receiving when I retired. One step forward, three back....

Still, I'm glad others that had no insurance are being covered now. There's no worse feeling than being uninsured with a young family, or someone previously uninsurable with pre-existing conditions.

I have the very hazy impression that some people do pay more, but maybe your premium went up because the policy had to be improved to meet the new standards?

And I wouldn't be surprised if Kaiser took the opportunity to also rip people off. But they have to meet some new x% had to be spent in healthcare metric, so hopefully you'll get a refund at the end of the year.

deductibles did. Happens every year.

My company policy for self & spouse used to have 500/yr deductible and $10 copays. this year will be $6700 deductibles and $25 copays. We were clobbered.

Have more things covered and that's why your paying more

no, it's kaiser, but definitely not a junk plan. it's the same one I had when i was working, nothing really changed. i still pay the same office visit and med copays. i'll be calling them though, next monday.

The Medicaid gap hits home in red states

Joan McCarter
Dec 9, 2013

The politically motivated decision by Republican governors to refuse the Medicaid expansion money offered under the Affordable Care Act is now being felt every day by people seeking health insurance, and the people trying to help them. It's the dark cloud surrounding the silver lining of a functioning HeatlhCare.gov, and the masses of people now flocking to sign up.

Navigators are forced to tell more and more people that they probably won't be able to get covered because their states, all of which had a GOP-controlled legislative chamber or governor, have refused to expand Medicaid. Lynne Thorp, who is overseeing the University of South Florida's navigator program in that state, told TPM that about one in four people who contact her team fall into that Medicaid gap.

"Those are hardest phone calls because it doesn't make any sense to them," Thorp said. "We have to explain that they fall into this gap where this program can't assist them." ...

Florida and Texas lead the nation in uninsured. The two states also lead the nation in dollars lost by their refusal to expand. Now they'll lead the nation in people really pissed off when they realize that the only reason they can't get health coverage is because they are represented by assholes.

Yes, Obamacare and Medicaid expansion will be campaign issues in 2014 and 2016.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/09/1261429/-The-Medicaid-gap-hits-home-in-red-nbsp-states#




Health reform gap: 5 million without health care in states that opted out

by The Associated Press
on December 30, 2013

HARRISBURG, Pa. — About 5 million people will be without health care next year that they would have gotten simply if they lived somewhere else in America.

They make up a coverage gap in President Barack Obama's signature health care law created by the domino effects of last year's Supreme Court ruling and states' subsequent policy decisions.

The court effectively left it up to states to decide whether to open Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor and disabled, to more people, primarily poor working adults without children.

Twenty-five states declined. That leaves 4.8 million people in those states without the health care coverage that their peers elsewhere are getting through the expansion of Medicaid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation estimate. More than one-fifth of them live in Texas alone, Kaiser's analysis found.

Among those in the gap is Cheryl Jones, a 61-year-old part-time home-care worker from Erie, Pa., who makes do without health insurance by splitting in half pills for high blood pressure, which she gets from a friend, not a pharmacist. She'd also like to visit a dentist to fix her broken partial dentures. A new pair of glasses might be nice, too.

"There are a lot of us who need medical help now," she said. "I need new glasses, I need to go to a dentist, I need my medicine. ... Think about us working poor. We pay our taxes."

read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/12/health_reform_gap_5_million_wi.html



[font size="3"]Shame on the GOP and shame on the media for not reporting what is the REAL scandal! CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN went overboard in their coverage of the website glitches. Well this story deserves as much if not MORE attention![/font]

Some other people bought insurance outside the exchanges, and couldn't be barred from it because of preexisting conditions. I know at least two people who did this. And no one is subject any longer, on or off the exchange, to annual or lifetime limits.

And it doesn't include the millions of twenty-somethings and babies who already benefited from the law because those parts went into effect earlier.