Last updated on 2014.05.01
Mr. Epp's Northern Plains News points us toward a November report by the Center for Rural Affairs on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on senior citizens. Far from grannies being thrown under buses by death panels, report author Jon Bailey finds the ACA is a pretty good deal for our elders:
According to Bailey, it is clear that the Affordable Care Act provides a variety of benefits to seniors without imposing additional health insurance coverage obligations. The ACA provides seniors enhanced benefits in terms of wellness and preventive care and referrals to needed specialists. This will be important for rural communities, which have greater percentages of senior citizens as residents than do urban centers, and whose residents generally receive fewer medical screenings and preventive care procedures. The ACA also provides seniors continuing benefits directed at paying the costs of their prescription drugs ["Rural Seniors and the Affordable Care Act," Center for Rural Affairs, 2013.11.11].
Some more specifics from Bailey's full report:
- The ACA is closing the "donut hole" in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.
- The ACA eliminated Medicare co-pays and other cost-sharing for preventive services in 2011.
- The ACA "adds an annual wellness visit for Medicare beneficiaries with necessary advice and referrals without additional fees or co-pays."
- The ACA includes Section 3601, which says, "Nothing in the provisions of, or amendments made by, this Act shall result in a reduction of guaranteed benefits under title XVIII of the Social Security Act (Medicare)." In other words, it guarantees that Grandma and Grandpa see don't lose any Medicare coverage.
Senior citizens, please remember when you go to the polls in 2014, Kristi Noem, Mike Rounds, and pretty much every other Republican wants to repeal the ACA and take away those benefits. A vote for a Republican is a vote against your own interest.
What that report clearly shows is that the new republicans can only exist by lying. Most folks understand that lying is wrong, but seem to accept it from this corrupt crowd as being the truth. It seems like the Stockholm Syndrome at its finest. Ignorant voters listen to the distortion (lies) from the republicans as if they could somehow change. The sad facts are that the only thing that the new republicans are interested in is stealing your moolah to give to their benefactors and political allies.
The ACA has been working well and will continue to do so. It will save seniors serious money and give them the security they deserve. It will also show that government can actually work for the betterment of all its people, not just the well heeled.
I just turned 60 so this business concerns me a great deal. But I hear and read only rhetoric. So far, no health care hurricane has hit me. If it ever does, I'll deal with it then.
People calling each other liars and deceivers and greedy and evil ... I am sick of it.
Mr. H has gone into raving lunatic mode.
Stan, what can you call someone who is reckless with the truth? If that is not lying, then what is it? It is not hard to disprove these things as you already know, you actually did that. You proved that in your own quest for health insurance. So, it begs the question, why do you still think that these new republicans are speaking the truth?
Like you, I personally know that this will save money. I know this will save money from the fact that there are now too many people discussing there savings and not only that, they are discussing the fact that they could not have ever hoped to think about coverage until they reached 65. For some, they may not have made it with the health conditions they presently suffer from. I know of a lady who is now 64 years young with diabetes and other health issues. She was able to get a plan through the marketplace for under $29.00 bucks a month and also to sign up for a Delta Dental plan for another $30 some buckaroos. A health and dental plan for under $75.00 bucks a month for a 64 year old! I think that the new republicans are lying there fannies off and I think you know it my friend. By the time she hits 65, the doughnut hole will be gone as well. In her plan, she will pay $1.00 for a generic drug. One BUCK Stan. One Buck. You all may not like the black dude, but you sure as the wind blows, will like saving moolah and having good protection.
Whatever you say, old woman.
Okay that was to Grudz.
No difference Bree, no difference.
Old woman or grudz, same alike
Now it is just a trip to Mexico to find a dentist who will treat you in that program Jerry. This aint the end of the rainbow yet. I will concede publicly when I am proven wrong. There has been few dentists accepting Medicaid for years.
Your killing me Les, your doing all you can just to go to Mexico cause its cold here, you ain't foolin me. Here is the deal, I am speaking of Delta Dental of South Dakota. This is a plan that really is the best we have to offer here and has a very large group of providing dentists all across the state.
Now, it you want to go to Mexico, down south of the Texas border, you may find a Chinese dentist that does an outstanding job in a new spotless clinic. Very hi-tech and very fluent in both Spanish and English. So you could go here and get the limit on the policy and then saddle up and head south of the border for the rest. Get your stuff emailed there and you will be ready to show them pearlies at the next dance (be careful who you grin at).
Jerry, you're pretty passionate about this Affordable Care Act, aren't you?
We can flap our fingers on our keyboards about the fine points of the law, this or that, what has happened to Mr. Smith or Ms. Jones, and on and on, we can wear our knuckles out and have our nails fall off ...
... but my insurance company, DakotaCare, tells me that I might just as well do nothing, wait until my annual renewal comes up in June, and then decide what to do, if anything. They have assured me that they won't cancel me outright in any case.
In June we shall see the real animal and get a good handle on the effect, if any, that it will have on my life. I will, like a Vulcan, rationally decide at that time on the best course of action, the path of least resistance.
Meanwhile, the instant anybody calls anybody else a liar or greedy or evil or a cheater or a communist or a fascist or a dirty rat, I will disregard everything they subsequently say.
If your insurance company tells you this, who am I to disagree with that. I will tell you this though and so will they in the letter you received, your plan is out of compliance with the ACA if it was sold to you in 2010 or later. That is a fact. If it was sold to you before 2010, then it is in compliance as a grandfathered plan if there were not upgrades or changes made since then.
Obamacare is not for everyone Stan, as far as savings go. It all depends on your income. If your income warrants a subsidy, then you may consider a change to a marketplace plan. If your income is above the subsidy range, you can go where you please for coverage with ACA compliant plans. This is pretty simple stuff, if you hear or see something different than this, then you may want to research it on your own to make sure that you are not being led down a path of deceit, or the L word.
Some time ago, I posted a link that you could kind of get an idea of what kind of subsidy you would get for your income and your age. You can check that out and see like you did before where you may be in December of 2014 when all of the non-compliant plans will end. In addition to the marketplace for the 33 plans that are available there, you can also go outside of the marketplace for quite a large selection of plans without subsidy.
The collusion between employers looking to cut benefits while freezing payroll and benefits combined with insurance companies doing anything they could to get people out of grandfathered accounts was diabolical at best...bordering on evil.
They knew that this was the back door to their wish to have government fail. Much like the current GOP and our Governor doing everything to have health care reform fail...no matter who gets hurt.
I have had the chance to talk with one business owner who stayed with their grandfathered plan and is now saving a ton, 6 figures, of money.
Blue Cross is making sport of Obamacare in their ads, but I can remember when they were pulling coverage from women who developed breast cancer and denying children with pre-existing conditions. Yet they continue to rackateer up record profits.
Wellmark, Blue Cross Blue Shield...well played...right out of trust and respect. Your only saving grace is that you have no competition in SD.
BTW...the Reich Wing of the GOP is comparing Obamacare with Apartheid. #RickySantorum.
Seems our Gov and his boys feel the same way...more the pity.
Hey Tony and DD...can you name two people who will be hurt by your decision? Have you talked with them? Felt their pain? Are you willing to gamble your hate for Obama with their sacrifice for your ideology?
That's what I was afraid of...you don't care.
49,000 people, the equivalent of the populations of Pierre, Mitchell, Dell Rapids and Yankton that will have their lives impacted by your ideological devotion to party over people.
Funny that the governor's and the governor's son-in-law were willing to gamble that the taxpayers would fund most of their professional careers.
Heck, JT and KN were willing to bet their family's income on government payments...but that's different...right?
DD, TV, JT and KN have all spent a large portion of their lives trusting, manipulating and sucking at the government teat. Yet they proclaim that isn't good for everyone else...especially the poor and most vulnerable.
Hypocrisy, thy name is GOP!
DD, TV, JT and KN...look in the mirror and tell me I'm wrong. Sleep well.
Stan! Happy 60th late!
Jana, you're absolutely right about the hypocritical views of government. That hypocrisy—love and hate of government contingent purely on which sound bites sound better—drove me out of the GOP.