Hey Thom, I just wanted to respond to David Selig, but am unable to call in at my job. I just wanted to say that I'm 24, married, and cannot understand how the ACA is bad for us young people. The choice is between paying a fine, and potentially going completely broke/bankrupt, or, paying a decent rate and staying healthy and not broke. It is not a tough choice for me at all.

Is anyone hearing about attempts to intentionally block or sabotage the on line registration process? These idealogues who were willing to trash the entire US economy certainly would have no qualms about sabotaging the ACA registration process. I over hear groups of people,that support killing Obama Care, tell their friends to go on line to the ACA internet site even if they are not looking for health care. Clog up the works is their message. I would put no despicable act out of the realm of possibility with these right wing Cruz fanatics.

Finally someone notices this. The right wing has spend millions, if not billions of dollars over the pass year, bragged, almost jumping up and down like little childern about going to do whatever it takes to bring down the ACA, shut down the goverment, signed packs, lied and mislead countless millions about what they refer to as a trainwreck. Is it so hard to believe they might be behind the program's problems. Here's a "little problem" I've had with signing up (I've tried to post this before and don't know if it worked, not very good at this stuff) anyway I've tried three times to sign up, I site works fine, I enter my information then it tells me to wait for a phone call to help with quotes, a few minutes later I recieve a phone call, but because they are so busy I will need to hold for a few minutes, I listen to the music for a few moments, then "click click" I'm disconnected and have just recieved an e-mail telling me NOT to sign up with ACA! You do the math.

Apropos to #7 ~ I've just done a websearch on the Heritage foundation and Free Trade. All I've found is complete support for Free Trade. With all due respect to gwiech, I would suggest no one register in the link he/she provided until he/she can verify this claim.

They should consult with the people that set up the system at Kaiser. I've been a Kaiser patient for 30 years and they have set up a great computer system. You can do everything, almost, via computer and no glitches. Doctors have computers in consult rooms and write down what orders they prescribe and print it out for you. Getting prescriptions, making appointments, asking your doctor via email are all a part of a pretty darn good system.

All of these problems and this who is who is going to be looking after your health care. Run Forest run.

Trust me kend, they will run. Why would a young healthy 24 year old working a part time job in the Obama economy get on line and sign up for insurance that is twice as expensive as it was before Obamacare and subsidize the risk pool? The overwhelming number of sign ups so far are for the medecaid additions. The Libs are in denial and this act of government tyranny is going to cost a fortune if it does not collapse under its own weight First. Watch for the blame for the lack of participation to focus on Reagan, Bush, racism, ted cruz, or the tea party because they would never expect their utopian dream of total benevolent government control to be a self induced brain fart.

Can we start calling obamACAre "The Insurance Industry Windfall Act" ? Is that not the case?

And, as far as that goes, how about "The Wall Street Windfall Act" in that top for-profit health insurers invest BILLIONS of dollars in, well, Cigarette Manufaturers and Fast "food" industries alone...not to mention Big Oil, Fracking, Coal, Nukes, GMOs, Pesticides etc etc and even military weapons. Some "health care industry", eh?

Check it out yourself. It's all PUBLIC info at the SEC EDGAR Database...plus Physicians for a National Health Program exposed the angles about Cigarette and Fast "food" insurer investment stuff years ago. Easy search...or I'l do it for you if you wish. J

Thom, daily listener via internet WCPT (live in Red State with 11 Fox and Limbaugh stations)

I am a retired Insurance Agent. I might be retired but I try to stay current about health insurance as I sold that product along with Mutual Funds, Annuities, Life Insurance, Long Term Care, and Disability Insurance. Did well and I always tried to help people who could not speak for themselves.

I want to share with you the experience of ACA and my observations.

First of all, the Kaiser Family Foundation Subsidy website is the only way to estimate how much the ACA subsidy will be. As I talk to people, who will qualify for ACA, the Fox, Limbaugh, Insurance Agents and Republican Politicians are bad mouthing ACA. So, I went to the Kaiser Subsidy Calculator and discovered that a single person making $11,500 is considered 100% of Poverty and eligible for ACA. Non-smoker, male, age 25, will be able to obtain a Silver Health Policy for $19 a month. I then met with a small business owner, age 40, spouse age 36, four kids, and has an AGI income of $50,000 and his premium of $200 a month. He is presently paying $500. He said if this is true, he would be buying a truck with the $300 a month. He is considered 168% of poverty. ACA only goes up to 400 per cent of Poverty which will vary depending on income and family size. There are lots of mis-information from Republicans, Employers, Local Talk and Local Payers with articles from Insurance agents badmouthing ACA. However, Kaiser is the only way to get an estimate for the ACA subsidy.

The ACA, healthcare dot gov linking to the state does not allow you to browse insurance offering unless you enter information like Social Security and other personal information. I cannot help my grandkids or kids, unliess I enter personal information that I don't have. I think that is a weak link. People would like to browse offerings, like the information entered in the Kaiser Family Foundation Subsidy website that gives an idea of how much the monthly premium will be for the silver plan, like the 100% poverty $11,500 a year single non-smoker only $19 a month.

An article in our local newspaper written by an Insurance agent was filled with mis-information mixed with some fact. As an Insurance Agent, I had to main duties, writing new business and Protecting my old line of business. What I am finding out, local Insurance agents are spreading false information to "conserve their existing higher priced Health Care Policies". The higher the Premium, the higher the commission and residuals. Most Insurance agents, if not all, want people to Not go to ACA and are giving their clients all kinds of reasons to stay away. Even though their clients will save a lot of money, like the small business owner $300 a month.

I want to share with you the Insurance Companies crying that ACA does not give them good information to enroll people in ACA policies available. The Insurance Companies are most likely repeating the same strategy they have done for 30 plus years, making it difficult to process applications they do not want or in the case of Health Care Providers to get Paid. What they did to eliminate independent Billing by doctors who had their own billing department, the Insurance Companies consistently rejected the billing of independent doctors, using excuses like wrong codes, not filled out correctly, that prevented the health care provider from getting paid from the insurance companies. The Insurance Company created "Billing Services Companies" that would contact the health care providers to "solve the getting paid from the insurance companies". The doctor could eliminate their BIlling staff and funnel all their services through the "Billing Services" sub companies owned by the Insurance Companies, hence, eliminating any competitive independent billing from health care provider. The doctor would use codes that would be used to bill for services via the "Billing Company" Once all independent health care Billing was consumed, the insurance Companies had eliminated any competiton and could, from that point, like the last 15 years, create a nationwide computer network of like computer systems, that contained an internal program like "Charge Master" to raise costs of all health care services and products 7% annually, doulbling the cost of healthcare every 8 to 9 years, It appears the elimination of health care billing by independent doctors, in order for the insurance Companies to fix prices was complete 20 years ago.

Today, the Insurance Companies are repeating the same strategy, it appears, making it difficult to get enrolled in the Government mandate ACA. I am not surprised as it had worked before. Hopfully, the Government will have agents that are computer literate, like me, to pay a visit to these insurance Companies who are having trouble. I bet, they find fraud. Hopefully these insurance companies will get more than a fine, with an executive or two going to jail.

I called our State ACA processing center, got right in, and told him that not having the ability to look at offerings of health insurance that my grandkids can get without SS and other presonal information was a real disadvantage. Income, Age, smoker, non-smoker, and family size should be the only criteria and that does not be required just to shop before buying. They need to fix that. I could help all my family if I did not need their personal information. I left them feedback. I also told them that the Media, Insurance Agents, and Republican Governor are doing everything possible to make ACA not attractive. The Republican Governor elected not to Expand Medicaid for ACA. The People making less than $11,499 annually, single person, non-smoker. There are over 200,000 peopel that are eligible for expanded Medicaid under ACA but will fall through the cracks.

I thought of a side benefit of ACA. In our state, we have the lowest income level of any state, the biggest drop of income over the last decade about $11,000 annually with three out of four jobs being created as minimum wage. Since we are an agraian state, empplyers pay Under the table. Cash avoiding paying taxes. The ACA cut off is $11,500 to qualify for ACA at the highest subsidy. I think the employers will be receiving a lot of pressure to start paying above the table, so enough income will be reported for tax purposes to get ACA health insurance. Their employees will probably put pressure on their Under the table employers in order to have enough income to at least make 100% of Poverty. Could be more tax dollars to help our underfunded schools.

I support the ACA, lest us not forget that 750,000 families declare bankruptcy every year, one and half million families lose their homes every year for medical bills. I visited Australia, with single payer Universal health Care and there are Zero, none, no bankruptcies or people losing their homes for medical bills. The Health Care Monoply own a lot of homes, mansions they took from the outrageous charges for getting sick in a city of 500,000.

Thanks Thom but please review the Kaiser Family Foundatin Subsidy Calculator estimate website as people who are calling in, saying their insurance went up, might be the insurance agents wanting to conserve his high commission issued policy. Of course, the Kaiser calculator is a ball park but I will share that ACA has eliminated Junk health Insurance My sister declared bankruptcy and lost her house at age 62 having health insurance that was capped at $250,000. The bills kept rising, they cashed in their savings, their IRA's, Stock, used Credit cards maxed out, and their home equity to get followup appointments for treatment until it was all consumed, the bill was over One mIllion dollars. My sister never told the family why she no longer lived in her home. Until, we had lunch with the family and I share the eyeopening 750,000 families that have bankruptcy for medical bills and the 1.5 million home foreclosures every year for medical bills. She cried.

The Insurance Companies are Not a friend of ACA and will do what they did before, make it as difficult as possible to enroll. It worked before, hopefully, the ACA police will visit the Insurance Companies that seem to have difficulty enrolling people in the ACA policies.

Thanks Thom, I listen every day. You maintain our sanity.

Yes, I agree with the opinion ideologues are doing everything in their power to sabotage obamacare.. They proved with the shutdown they have no interest in right or wrong, honor or ethics, or especially what the people want.

Conservatives Apparently feel strongly that the money should be used for tax cuts for the rich, and for war, and that even though the people vited fir healthcare, Democrats should cut Social Security Medicare and healthcare to pay for what republicans want.. How's this for democracy?

To j.jonik -- It is not a pure windfall for the ins industry. Read Mikeguru below. Some windfalling had to happen to get this bill through congress. This is similar to the windfall given to doctors for passing medicare. The main windfall that happened for medicare is the "fee for service" provision. A much cheaper and better approach would have been a managed care system like the Mayo Clinic uses.

Pointofgrille, having just read your post, I agree; these idealogues are mean-spirited enough to intentionally sabotage the ACA registration process. But they will not prevail in the long run. We will get healthcare to people who need it, whether those toadies like it or not. The glitches and barriers are only temporary. - AIW

ditto!

Aliceinwonderland ~ An excellent exchange! However, I fail to see what poster #37 meant by a "system that has operated for 280 years" till Obama was elected. Obama was elected in 2008. 2008-280=1728. I'm trying to envision what system started in 1728 that lasted till 2008. It couldn't be our heath care system? In 1728 they treated pneumonia with leeches and used whiskey for anesthesia. The same guy that cut your hair pulled your teeth. Health care insurance didn't exist. Didn't cost that much. How much are you going to pay for such a service when the bartender is you anesthesiologist?

They also allowed people to own each other till 1865. Another very flawed system. Surely, he can't be talking about the slavery system because that ended way before Obama.

Even our system of government didn't last that long. What system is he talking about?

Am I correct in assuming that Der Speigal, like Thom Harmann, though being the very cerebral sources of information that they are, still attract a fair share of retarded nitwits to the comment section of their blogs? If so, which side of the Atlantic is this particular nitwit from? (Please say the other side.)

I hope I'm not being to judgmental. Did I miss something?

Marc, I think the author of Post #37 was making some vague assertion that the USA was hunki-dory for 280 years, before that "Evil Black Man/UnAmerican Muslim" took office. His numbers are off, however. As I recall, our bicentennial celebration was in 1976, less than forty years ago. So the guy doesn't sound all that bright. Maybe I wasted my time answering him. But it really rankles me whenever anyone suggests this country was doing fine until Obama came along. I'm no fan of Obama's- his foreign policy sucks; he caves in to the oligarchs too often and has dropped the ball more times than I can keep track of. But Obama didn't exactly walk into a rose garden when he took office! Anyway Marc, I think anyone who'd make such a comment is a goddam fool. Frankly, I doubt whether even he could tell us specifically what he meant. Whether he's referring to the history of our healthcare system or of the country as a whole, his numbers are off and he's full of crap. Those Europeans must be gettin' lots of comic relief, reading such silly posts. Your assumption is spot-on. And while I've no proof, I'd bet $$ he's American. - AIW

Aliceinwonderland ~ Thanks for clarifying that. It just seemed too senseless and stupid of a comment to be true; or, a complete thought in context. My brain refused to process it without further information. However, I somehow conjectured it was the ramblings of a nincompoop. I can now rest easy that my suspicions were correct. What is wrong with this tea party/conservative crowd's general brain activity--or lack there of? Could it be sign of the beginning of the Zombie apocalypse? Or, is greed simply making them stupid? Or, is it something in their water? Transfats or flouride, maybe? I so want to believe it is curable. I too must confess that I'd also bet $$ he's an American. Just a terrible gut feeling. You know, like the one you have right before you throw up. For some reason, I just can't picture a European with those words rolling out of their mouth. At least, none of the ones I've met.

One of the key tools that Reagan used to destroy the US economy is hardly ever mentioned. It might be one of the worse. I am referring to the 1987 act that allowed pensions to taken as part of bankruptcy pjroceedings against a company. The reason it is not often mentioned is because it has a couple of layers deception from its effect. The main separation is that no one mentions how that act enables private equity companies to get loans from banks to perform their leveraged buyouts. During the dubya years 50,000 factories were closed in the US. I would venture a guess that half of those closings were precipitated by private equity firms.

The medical industry is tired of uninsured sick and injured receiving free treatment. That is the true nature of obamacare, not to take care of the poor. The herbal supplements and over the counter medications are being reduced to prevent the populace from treating themselves. clinton worked hard on this as well. obama wants everybody to pay the doctor and get prescriptions that will give you cancer later for even more profit. The last thing the medical industry needs is a healthy population. Everyone who makes a living in the medical industry would have to work at Wal-Mart or McDonalds. The medical industry spent a lot of money putting these guys into office. They expect them to do something to earn it! The UK will tell you that medical socialism is failure in Europe. The health insurance guys are going to rape everyone because of mandatory insurance, and people will have to choose between eating or paying hundreds of dollars they cannot afford.