Seattle Transit Blog have published their endorsement of ST3. On the one hand, this is probably the most predictable endorsement of the campaign season. On the other hand, it’s such a refreshing change of pace from The Seattle Times’ uninformed screeds or Reuven Carlyle, all of a sudden and way too late, deciding he wants different financing.
Of course, I agree with them. It’s a great thing to be able to travel so easily to the U District and to South Seattle. Expanding the rail system is exactly the right thing to do.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been talked about more. Surely as we move closer to the election it will gain traction.
Even someone who shopped wisely this year and is willing to switch plans to get the best deal next year is looking at an average premium increase of 11 percent, according to an analysis of rate filings in 18 states and the District of Columbia provided by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform.
That’s more than double the increase McKinsey measured last year for the same plans in the same group of states.
To get the best deal, more than half of last year’s bargain hunters will need to switch. The plans that were least expensive this year in the popular “silver” category are no longer the price leaders in most markets, according to the analysis. People who want to stay in their current plan — either because they like the coverage or want to keep a certain group of doctors and hospitals — could face much larger increases.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09.....&_r=0
Of course, that’s only 18 states. What about the other 32?
In many of the remaining 32 states with the health exchange plans, insurers have been requesting large price increases, and lower-cost insurers have left.
Two years ago the increase was 2%. Last year, 6%. Now, 11%.
Not exactly bending the cost curve downward, are we?
Oh, and for those who still have any opportunity to keep their current health care provider (remember “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”?), they need to bend over and lube up. It will be pricey.
Own it, Dems.
“Own it, Dems.”
Fair enough. But with only about 83% of plans reporting performance for 2014 So far the picture is far from complete. And part of that “traction” may center on the remarkable differences in plan performance from state to state (and even plan to plan), as opposed to nationwide averages. Only fools (and Republicans) suggest that market based health care finance solutions are going to be simple. And I for one won’t be a bit surprised to see market failures concentrated in basket case Republican States.
@ 2
Fair enough.
When the performance reports are fully in, DR, do you think those numbers of 5% last year and 11% this year will be revised….
Upward?
Or downward?
(Hint: “Unexpectedly!”)
@1 and why don’t you tell us the increases that individuals and employer plans were facing prior to Obamacare? I know my employer, that offered excellent plans, was talking about increases in cost and shedding more of those costs to the employees way before the implementation of the ACA.
Or why not tell us how individuals under (21?) weren’t able to be on covered plans by their parents?
Or why don’t you tell us how prior to Obamacare how pre-existing conditions was a problem (more so than now?).
Who ever said, or would ever think, that without the implementation of the ACA that these types of increases weren’t going to be experienced. What is the effect of an aging population doing to the cost of healthcare with or without Obamacare?
Boob, stop being a Boob, and start getting real. The biggest negative of Obamacare, that I can see, is getting stuck with you as a doctor or you tending to my medical care as a medical care professional.
Or why not tell us if it was more wasteful or costly to care for someone in the emergency room because they didn’t have health insurance prior to ACA.
Your post at @1 simply doesn’t address anything other than a statistic.
I have a friend and co-worker that leans Republican. He retired early but his wife still worked because they needed to be on her employer based healthcare plan (prior to Obamacare). He was dead set against Obamacare (maybe even to this day – because of the increasing costs).
But he and his wife made a decision for her to retire early because they could get Obamacare – cause she disliked her job and of course not working is better than working.
So she quits her job and now they pay for their own medical that is supposedly more affordable than prior to ACA. Is this some benefit created by Obamacare? Jobs are scarce today and instead of her working until she reached medicare, she left her job and created a job opening for someone else that needed to work. I think this is a benefit that needs to be associated with ACA.
Has anybody got an up to date on Republican “plans” for amnesty?
Where are they today? Softening? Hardening?
Buehler?
Some of us appear to be forgetting that one of the gnarliest problems pre-ACA was that even people who could afford to pay the premiums couldn’t find coverage because of pre-existing conditions or “high risk factors”…or worse, that after paying for years, they lost their coverage when they actually got sick. That’s a little like Macy’s letting you go shop for a leather couch, collecting your down payment and then saying, “Sorry, but your butt doesn’t meet the specs for the use of this product, so we can’t deliver it to you. See here it says in the teeny weenie fine print of your contract that we get to keep what you already paid us.”
Softening? Hardening? I don’t know, but size matters, and Drumpf’s got little hands, as probably all White Supremacists do.
continued @5 – and maybe they aren’t happy with the increasing costs….but you know what…..everytime I talk to him, they are happy as pigs in shit, traveling back and forth to Florida, whenever they feel like it. Sounds to me if I can offset a couple of $100 to a $1000 in annual expense and not have to work….maybe I’d take it.
Oh, and he is a big beer drinker….Probably spends thousand of dollars in beer on an annual basis….maybe he should cut out the beer…it would be healthier for him…then Fuckabee doesn’t have to find some way to cure Cancer as bad as he want, after drinking three 40 Oz. fucking cokes.
Doesn’t work for everyone, but I’m sure Boob can afford it.
@ 5
Is this some benefit created by Obamacare?
Well, Nancy Pelosi said it was.
You can find it buried in U-6 in today’s data.
one last thing before I get back to work.
It has been expressed here by the loon that Gays should be happy with conditions here in this Country because in Muslim Countries they’ll toss you off a rooftop or behead you for being gay.
Well, I guess the same applies here regarding healthcare and having money……be happy if you got it because in Africa they don’t have much of it, you dumbfucks.
And if you don’t have money in this Country…then too fucking bad… be happy, cause you could always be living in Africa.
How’s that you fucking loons?
@3,
I think for most plans in more affluent “Blue” states it’ll be downward to flat. I think for most plans in poorer “Red” states it’ll be sharply upward. And I think an emphasis will emerge on identifying ways to make health insurance markets in poorer “Red” states behave more like wealthier “Blue” states. And if Congress continues to be controlled by Republicans it’ll be left to those “Red” states to figure it out one by one. Which probably means that aggrieved racist uneducated white Republicans will continue to spend more on assault rifles, televisions, junk food, and cigarettes than on health care while blaming black lesbian feminists for their hypertension. Because that is exactly what you and Matt Drudge will tell them to believe.
I’m in Houston, about as red as can be.
Front page analysis in the long time conservative Houston Chronicle yesterday that was still kicking around this coffeeshop…
“Trump immigration plan would devastate Houston and Texas economy. ”
Now he’s losing the lax regulations cheap labor crowd.
Fuck this state, I’m moving to Wyoming.
@14 Ireland would be better.
@14,
might make a lot of sense if you have the right kind of highly portable skills that are not tied to fixed location. I know a few such folks in the Northern Rockies. They really love their areas for recreation, outdoor scenery, and affordability. A couple are lawyers with firms doing work on the West coast. One is a consulting winemaker. One is a air quality chemist. Two are docs who take fill-in assignments all over the place. One makes custom mountain bike frames for wealthy people.
Their neighbors are a different story. Many are affluent retired. Those that aren’t tend to work multiple jobs involving some seasonality. A roofer might wait tables at night and during ski season. A housekeeper might supplement guiding fly fishers. Damn hard place to be unemployed, or low income. Unskilled work is not abundant and competition is stiff. Probably a pretty good place to retire modestly for those lucky enough to be healthy and fit. Seems to me the trick is being fit enough in old age to get enough exercise throughout the winter months.
I guess this explains the twelve-year-old running the Denver field office.
The most troubling part is that a majority of these folks who would respond indicated that they were not “volunteers” but that they simply had never been paid, despite issuing invoices. That kind of information probably has a way of circulating in private among the experienced professional consultants. But now that this is being widely reported on, it’s gonna make it even harder to attract the local newbies for the field offices. Other than guys like this.
I’m sorry for all my angry screeds lately but this election has got me pulling out my hair.
@1 and why don’t you tell us the increases that individuals and employer plans were facing prior to Obamacare?
Yeah, mine was stable with no increases. ObummerCare comes along and increases occurred. Wife’s plan has had massive increases now and it’s just Puddy and Mrs Puddy cross insuring each other!
Kinda like when we moved here and Puddy’s car insurance rates went up 20%. Puddy asked why? Puddy was told because WA State allows uninsured IDIOTS to drive. Back east you had 10 days to reinsure the car or your car registration was null and void! You drove an unregistered car and that was even more painful if caught. It was impounded!
Sux to be the hanging teabag sucka!
“Sorry, but your butt doesn’t meet the specs for the use of this product, so we can’t deliver it to you. See here it says in the teeny weenie fine print of your contract that we get to keep what you already paid us.”
Still pizzed over that after all these years eh FartyArt? Maybe you need to go to 4th and Union and complain to Hellen Wait!
I could have picked this up at a Houston grocery store. Theobiology. Always a treat.
@21,
The video for Mr. Thomas’ latest soon to be published book:
“Scientists have discovered fossilized Republicans who died in distressed body positions. Why are Republicans found in mid-drunken-bender, or… re-registering as “Independents”? Why are Republicans fossilized in kneeling positions with mouths agape? Democrats claim these poor creatures were slowly cast out of Republican politics over decades, although the fossils indicate that the creatures exited rapidly. What could have caused such a violent, cataclysmic collapse of Republican cohesion? Maybe… Cheeto Jesus?”
Behold the true face of “Repubican Religious Freedom”.
Isn’t that just SPAYSHUL!
No. As a matter of fact it’s not special. As a matter of fact it’s really fucked up. And that my friends is what Republican religious “conservatives” are really talking about when they plead for special protections. Some pretty sick shit.
Of course the ACA could be improve. The problem is that the R’s in the states and the Congress want it to fail.
Seems your DUMMOCRETIN candidate could not remember 40 times. Either Careless Crooked Heilary has a memory problem or Careless Crooked Heilary was slinging BULLSHITTIUM like all DUMMOCRETIN candidates do! What’s the meaning of IS again? http://www.mediaite.com/electi.....something/
Mediaite – Libtard erag!
SOLID!
“and why don’t you tell us the increases that individuals and employer plans were facing prior to Obamacare?”
What a loon! Up to 15% average yearly increases under Bush.
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/.....-premiums/
“Yeah, mine was stable with no increases. ObummerCare comes along and increases occurred.”
What a stupid fucking liar. Sucks to be the loon.
“Of course the ACA could be improve.”
Yes, because it’s a Republican plan, out of the Heritage Foundation, with some pre-existing condition lipstick Obama put on it. There’s no going back. Single-payer is next.
Of course the ACA could be improve. The problem is that the R’s in the states and the Congress want it to fail.
K2 @24 forgets Nancy Pelosi and Max Baucus both told reporters in 2009 they didn’t need Republican input. Puddy didn’t forget it after seven years! Puddy gave multiple links to their comments. Don’t believe Puddy K2? Ask the crazed databaze cretin idiot fool for a perfect replay. WHY Perfect? Because it screen scraped the perfect Puddy commentary on that subject!
Go on and ask… Puddy dares you! Grow some cojones!
@23
St. Ron still holds the record stating ‘I don’t remember’ or ‘I don’t recall’ 89 times.
I wonder if even one rail would have ever been laid if ST had been honest with voters about how much this thing would cost. It’ll top $100 billion by the time they’re done. That’s about $33,000 for every man, woman, and child in the Puget Sound area, or roughly $125,000 for a family of four. You used to be able to buy a nice house for that.
Does anyone really believe ST3 will cost ***only*** $54 billion? I’ll never ride it, won’t live to see it built, it’s just taxes on top of taxes. A plaything for yuppies. Yes, how it’s financed matters. Let commuters and businesses pay for it. Live senior citizens living on stock dividends out of it.
I’m a “no” vote. But it’ll probably pass, because the suckers who live here have no money sense. Can’t even balance their own checkbooks.
@1 Know why? Overpaid radiologists, that’s why. A monkey could do your job.
@25 I don’t remember any of the bad shit I did, either. I only recall the good things I did. I’m sure I must have played with matches when I was a bunny, but I don’t remember doing anything like that. How about you? Do you expect Hillary to be superhuman? Better than the rest of us, including yourself? She only needs to be better than Trump, which she is by a country mile.
@27
“K2 @24 forgets Nancy Pelosi and Max Baucus both told reporters in 2009 they didn’t need Republican input”
Yeah, when you know that they are going to sabotage, why would you want their Input…..that would be like negotiating with terrorists to have let them have any input.
Sux to be Puffyballs the magic dickhead.
18
What are you worried about? Hillary is going to win.
@1 It’s the Republican health plan from yesteryear that was adopted. Glad to see you are now a Single Payer supporter and support socialized medicine for all! Bravo!
@11 Si if you are in an African Muslim country you are double fucked as you can’t afford a condom, and AIDS is a hetero disease.
@29 You rich rabbits could do the right thing and be altruistic and hand over you $66,000 (for you and Mrs. Rabbit) today. Get your rich rabbit friends to pay in full now. You know you could these things called stock even and build the system yourselves today at a cost of much less than the 54 billion spread over decades, and several years before any rails are laid. You truly want users and businesses to pay for this, then show us the magic of capitalism for fun and profit you capitalist rabbit. (I may have a few hundred for stock in this grand endeavor.) If not just vote yes and enjoy paying for a system your children and grand children will enjoy. Or at least the little people like your maid and nursing aides must use, because they can’t afford a new car, insurance, parking, fees, repairs, and maybe concerned over the pollution and associated costs coming out the tailpipe.
@33 Nope. A long time ago TV was called a wasteland, and that was long before Kim Kardashian. TV has affected American politics for a long time. Now we have reality TV. Trump is dialed into reality TV and is in touch with a large segment of Americans unhappy with politics as usual. Face it if Kim Kardashian were running she would be our next President, and the Donald is this elections Kim Kardashian. While Hilliary is not seen, not talking to the press, and is hob knobbing with the rich and raising hundreds of millions and she is going to have to spend every dime and it may in the end not be enough. Nor have we gotten to the debates that should be open to other parties candidates, and she is being very studious, yet the Gipper showed how to win a debate without saying much of substance. And yes there is an unfair dichotomy in that even if Trump does ok and Hilliary does well that could loose her the election due to not living up to expectations and unable to outshine Kim.
Up to 15% average yearly increases under Bush.
The ACA was around during Bush’s years QPPS? Really?
Puddy had no raised costs then QPPS? Even if Puddy brought the cost sheets from 2006-2008 QPPS would not understand or accept them!