Republicans in the Legislature are counting their Supreme Court votes before they’ve been cast. As is the case with many in their party, Republicans in Augusta are banking on the high court finding that some or all of the federal Affordable Care Act — better known as Obamacare — will be declared unconstitutional.
Being privately hopeful or even confident of a court ruling is one thing. But failing to do the work required by the federal law to bring funds into Maine and help middle class families have health coverage is unconscionable.
Under the law, states have until Jan. 1, 2014, to create health insurance exchanges. The exchanges will exist on a website at which those who have no health care plans through their employers and those who operate small businesses can shop, comparing policies on coverage and price, and choose a plan that makes sense for their circumstances and budget.
Insurers will become more competitive on price and coverage because they will be on a level playing field throughout the country. Currently, insurance companies often do business on a different basis, state by state.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services has accepted $6 million from the feds to implement the exchange, but has done little to create it. At stake is financial help for thousands of Mainers in getting health insurance. Those eligible for the exchange are middle-income earners who are not eligible for MaineCare.
And it’s real money — up to $10,000 in an upfront tax credit for those who are eligible. Those using the exchanges will pay a portion of the premiums.
Republicans in the Legislature want to create a bare-bones version rather than fully ramp up the program and test it, a move Democrats think will doom it. A consumer-directed board of directors must be formed. And a mechanism to pay the state portion of operating the exchange must be devised. That work will lead to political conflict; should it be surcharges on insurance claims, an assessment on insurance companies? Putting off that fight makes little sense.
The idea behind the exchanges is to make it easy for consumers to understand their options for health insurance and to shop with confidence. Democrats fear that instead of an exchange that caters to and protects the consumer, the governor will create a board made up of insurance company representatives or run the exchange himself. Such outcomes would hurt self-employed Mainers and others who need to find a way to get coverage without going broke paying for it.
If a state fails to create an exchange, the federal government will step in and create one for it. Waiting to do the work to implement this part of the federal health care law is short-sighted at best, and at worst, subversive.
Ironically, as an Associated Press analysis found, states that had done little to prepare for the Affordable Care Act are also the states that have many uninsured residents.
There is no silver bullet to bring health care costs for Maine and the nation into the reasonable range. It will take vigilance to ensure that laws enacted to protect consumers and tamp down costs are working as they should.
Given the nation’s demographics, with 76 million baby boom Americans now sliding into their senior years, the work will continue for decades. Watching and waiting for the demise of a duly enacted plan while Mainers struggle to pay their health bills is shameful.
only republicans can think pollution is good and health insurance is bad
Canada – run by Conservatives – Universal Health Care
Britain – run by Conservatives – Universal Health Care
France – run by Conservatives – Universal Health Care
Germany – run by Conservatives – Universal Health Care
Here’s a statement from the British Conservative Party website:
“We are committed to an NHS that is free at the point of use and available to everyone based on need, not the ability to pay.”
http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Health.aspx
Universal Health Care isn’t Socialist or even Liberal, it’s just civilized.
Problem is Jason, I have been and lived in most of those countries. I don’t want to be like them, I don’t like there health care system, I don’t want to pay the taxes they do. So, many of us are sick and tired of people trying to shove this down our throats. I DON’T want the same type of healthcare, I am happy with our system. Changes are needed, I admit, but not anything like the above you mentioned.
That Seven I ‘s !
And Two Confucius!
And you are “still” not a Majority!
Textbook narcissist.
Your argument: I don’t want it.
Counterargument: Lacks rationality. Pure egoism.
Be careful what you wish for. What happensw when there are budget cuts in Govt care?
What happens when your insurance company deciders not to cover a procedure because it is not “cost effective” for them? The tyarnny is not the government it is the bowing and scraping we do to the insurance companies. At least if there were going to budget cuts you would get a vote. Not so much when your insurance company is deciding what is “profitable” for their share holders.
Universal Health Care. The rich get first class health care, in private hospitals or
in other countries. Everyone else gets second rate health care.
Sadly with our profit driven system a great many don’t get any healthcare, secondary or otherwise.
So, it doesn’t work that way here now? If you can’t pay or even have crappy insurance are you getting first rate health care? Second rate health care is better than zero.
I have lived in Britain, Germany and France. In two cases; once in Britain and once in France I had personal acquaitances pay for private care out of their own pockets because they did not want to wait MONTHS. One friend was on crutches who needed knee surgery and the other torn rotator. No thanks, let me earn money and take care of myself. Your govt crap don’t work so good when you’ve seen it up close
Wait for it… wait for it… guess what? He still could pay for it if he had the money! However, in our current status if you don’t have the money you would wait a LIFETIME for that type of care. The number one cause of good hard working people in this country declaring bankruptcy is medical bills. That is a serious problem.
Freedom to CHOOSE. This is America. Welfare is not your right.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.”
PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE!! Not PROVIDE!! Fell free to show me anywhere in the Constitution where it says it is ok to take form those who earn and give to those who do not. Maybe you can show me where it says the government will be responcible for the medical care of the people? Maybe where it says we will feed them.
It gives you the FREEDOM to make you way not to have one handed to you.
Once again the right-wing selectively reads the Constitution, but doesn’t understand anything about it. Article I Section 8, “… and provide for the common Defence and general welfare of the United States;…. Provide, Provide, Provide. “Promote” is in the preamble that section of the Constitution which broadly defines the role of the Federal Government, not Article I which specifically enumerated the powers of the Congress. Secondly, So-called Conservatives (they are really radical Capitalists.) want you to forget our more than 200 years of experience which has modified the meaning of the Constitution (not the Constitution itself). The most significant being the Civil War amendments and the experience of the Civil War which changed America from a Federal form of government to a National form (The Federal Government actions subsede and actions of the states i.e. the Federal Government is supreme, states subservient. We are a nation not a loose collection of individuals or states.
Thank you!
ObamaCare is an expensive and burdensome new book of laws on insurance companies and states. We are still finding out what is in it and what we continue to find is not good. Hopefully, Maine will not go along this bad plan.
Maine’s own Bureau of Insurance has predicted the ACA will raise rates by 38%+ in Maine. Why is no one talking about that?
Thank goodness someone is looking out for the little guys (insurance companies)……
Because its not true.
Remember these words:
“Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services has accepted $6 million from the feds to implement the exchange, but has done little to create it. At stake is financial help for thousands of Mainers in getting health insurance. Those eligible for the exchange are middle-income earners who are not eligible for MaineCare. ”
When it comes time to blame Obamacare no one will remember that they did “little to create it”…why?
“Republicans in the Legislature want to create a bare-bones version rather than fully ramp up the program and test it, a move Democrats think will doom it. A consumer-directed board of directors must be formed. ”
Because obviously Republicans want it to fail….and no one will remember THEY set it up to fail because they’ll be so busy blaming Obama and no one will remember….otherwise.
A “consumer directed board”? Oh no, another big No-No!! Give some power to the people??? Never! They have favors to return to the big Pharma boys…..
And also: ” If a state fails to create an exchange, the federal government will step in and create one for it. “–then they can blame “Big Government” for stepping in…..
I’m glad for this article….I only hope people remember…
.how did that old song go? Re mem, mem, re membemember…remem mem…..
Mainers, the court has yet to decide this issue. Until the ruling comes down Chicken-Littles will be making many regular appearances here and in similar threads screaming and squaking through their panic attacks.
a new voice? Your voice doesn’t sound very new–it’s the same old thing–name calling. Another opinion than the one you hold is a panic attack? Sticks and stones….oh, I better hope my bones don’t break…..
Already have one. It’s called Dirigo. It was and is a miserable failure whose only accomplishment was keeping Trish Riley living in the style to which she was accustomed.
Dirigo is not the same as a more comprehensive health exchange with many more insurance companies in the mix thus increasing competition and more dramatically reducing prices. Also, the snag with Dirigo has been the funding mechanism. It was well intentioned and did help thousands of Mainers, but there has been difficulty with the funding and not enough companies in the mix to get the rates down enough. The new exchange program offers more promise. So what is your answer? Just allow the insurance companies full reign to keep throwing people off if they get sick or have a pre-existing condition and to keep taking thirty cents on the dollar in profit instead of directing it to care? Same old same old. Help the CEOs, the people be damned.
and it also struggled for the same reasons that any attempt at changing the status quo will
Hogwash. If the profits were 30%, you would have to beat the insurance companies off with a stick. You couldn’t open your front door without hitting three people trying to sell you health insurance. They would be three times as ubiquitous as real estate brokers.
The average insurance company payout ratio is closer to 88-92 cents of premium. That tells us all that it is really the physicians and hospitals that are screwing us.
The idea of requiring all to purchase health insurance began with the insurance industry and the Republicans. That’s a stubborn fact.
But it never got passed as law or implemented under republicans. Just shows that bad ideas occasionally come from republicans as well. Progressive republicans that is.
Thanks. What’s the conservatives solution to the problem?
Not even close. The ACA requires health insurance companies to keep profit and overhead under 20%, most are above that now and pay out less than 80% in claims. You are right that costs are too high, although I wouldn’t use your phrasing. When a doctor gets $1,000 for a 30 minute colonoscopy there is something wrong. We need an actual healthcare system that controls costs, the ACA is a step in that direction.
You said it…. “And overhead”. Much of that overhead is because of government mandates in the first place.
The 20 % number was literally pulled out of a hat with no real study to determine if it was practical. It was justified by using the official government claim that government run health programs have an overhead of only 3 to 4 %. An entirely bogus number that ignores different accounting standards and methods used to determine those costs as well as ignoring the cost shifting to other agencies that occurs with the government programs.
Good post. The Affordable Care Act, demonized by the GOP Tea Party and their corporate right wing masters, is actually a very MODERATE law full of planks that the Republican Party used to fully support before it went of the TeaNut deep end. The idea of PRIVATE insurance company exchanges was always something that the GOP used to support. And this absolute LIE about the Affordable Care Act being some “government takeover of healthcare” is just absolute and utter right wing propaganda and nothing more. It is a complete and total LIE. The GOP is a wholely-owned subsidiary of the healthcare insurance industry and Wall Street that worships at the feet of its corporate masters, the lower and middle classes be damned. Whatever is best for the rich, they do. Whatever is best for a health insurance company CEO living in a mansion is what they want, healthcare for more Americans be damned. The “sort of” GOP presidential frontrunner, Mitt Romney, put in virtually the same law in Massachusetts and went around the country talking about how it should be a model for the nation. Now he says he’d repeal the Affordable Care Act, which also ends discrimination and allows young adults to stay on their parents’ plans longer. But what else from a multimillionaire who hides his money in the Cayman Islands and would crawl through a tornado to give another mansion to an insurance company CEO. What a flip flopping hypocrite. The GOP is going get pounded come November, and rightfully so.
Just for kicks and giggles I wondered how much of your above post could have been presented without hatred and class warfare so I decided to find out. After eliminating all criteria-qualifying rhetoric the slimmed down version was 40% leaner while still retaining your Progressive opinion as per word counts.
Do you really think your hatred and class warfare helps to win hearts and minds?
In a way you are right. It’s a shame that the politics of today are so partisan that people become enraged at the mere thought. Rhetoric is extreme and not at all polite. I try to be polite most of the time. In fact I’ve chastised people for being in the face of others opinions. It is so rude and accomplishes absolutely nothing. Yet from time to time I come across something so offensive, so egregious, that it brings out the worst in me. It is indeed a shame that the national dialogue is not a dialogue at all but an expression of anger. I want to put this nicely; I believe it was Gingrich, DeLay, Boehner and a couple of others who came up with the Contract with America in 1994 that set the stage for the “all or nothing/rape, burn and pillage” politics of today. Their contract with America was decidedly unAmerican and we continue to suffer the effects of it today.
I’m glad you pointed out the Contract with America. It originated with The Heritage Foundation which which was funded by the illustrious Koch Bros. which you can trace their lineage back to the John Birch Society. They later went more behind the scenes (aka the Wizard of Oz behind the curtains) with many other foundations with touchy feeling names slowly destroying this country and we are just pawns. It’s just a big board game to them. Anyone really interested in our country should do some research on them. Talk about “trickle down” theory, it has trickled down even to our local levels.
As Waslazy said: I believe that insurance companies deserve the right to a profit, just like the rest of us. There shouldn’t be limits to this margin either. But the over the top, price gouging, absurd terms and conditions are ruining too many American’s lives. Why do so many allow this?
Sorry, anewvoice, the sky IS falling…
ummm….speaking of hatred and class warfare:
screaming and squaking through their panic attacks.
Signed,
Chicken Little
P.S. Because you know what…..the sky IS falling
No hatred there! I love chicken…
LOL…Remember in November !!!
Maybe LePage will “shake-up” DHHS?
Why haven’t billionaire Democrats like the Kennedys, Pingree, or Soros created their own insurance company/co-op? It could address all of the shortfalls that they find with the current industry making healthcare much more affordable and have greater access. The answer is that someone would have to pay for it.
the “current industry making healthcare much more affordable”? I don’t know where you live but I don’t see healthcare being very affordable for very many people and any attempt to change is fought against pretty hard. Who said it doesn’t have to be paid for?
How will it be made affordable other than by requiring middle class, working families like mine to pick up an even greater burden of the healthcare costs of other people? If you do not understand the logical fallacy of “tragedy of commons” please learn about it before extolling some universal health plan.
wow, if you subscribe to that philosophy I can’t even find the words to show my shock. I guess you apply the haves vs the have not way of looking at it. Isn’t any insurance based the company playing odds on many people paying for the few that need the insurance and the more that are in the pool the better it is for all. If you need it you’re selfish?
Plus, it seems to me that your middle class family is going to pay one way or the other, you can shift the cost all you want. It would seem to make sense to do it in the most economical way for everyone.
BTW, how come Medicare has worked all these years (except when the politicians want to dip into the kitty or use scare tactics. Maybe it would help if you understood more about that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3EuUlS-kVzA
Have your healthcare, just don’t make me pay for it!
Make NO mistake about it.
You pay for it one way or another!
Why don’t you ask the greedy Republican insurance company CEO’s why they need more mansions and limosines while they toss Americans off their health plans for pre-existing conditions or if they get sick? Why not ask them why they won’t let young adults remaiin on their parents plans longer until they can better secure a plan they can afford? Why not ask them why they need to keep thirty cents of every premium dollar as profit rather than invest it more directly in care? Why do elderly Republicans LOVE their Medicare plans but do not want to allow us a chance to move to a national program of Medicare for all which would be cheaper, more efficient, and better for American industry? Why? Because the GOP is a wholey-owned subsidiary of the insurance companies that worships at the feet of the insurance company mansion owners and Wall Steet fat cats, the American people be damned.
You clearly missed my point. If there is a better way why hasn’t one of ultra-rich Democrats identified above created a separate health insurance company that does all you ask? And again the answer is someone will have to pay for it. So the default is burden the +/- 32% of Americans that pay income taxes with picking up the majority of the tab for others. The Wall St. cats supported Obama in the last election and then received bailout money from his administration and were allowed to keep their bonuses.
LOL, it always comes down to Soros!
the idea of requiring everyone to purchase health insurance began with the republicans and the insurance industry, never forget that truth.
It was Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan, now sneeringly called ObamaCare. The people of Massachusetts like the plan very much, well all except Howie Carr.
{{The GOP is a wholely-owned subsidiary of the healthcare insurance industry }}
Make No mistake about it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBqtyvn7OVw
Great clip. Thanks.
WOW, this picture says 2,000 words. . and we though we lived in a free country? Freedom of speech? This country is in a very scary place …I so hope people can try to have open minds & really research what’s going on and make their own decisions….it isn’t about Democrats or Republicans it’s about the salvation of this country and our lives
Maybe I’m a bit confused. Didn’t Governor LePages recent health care plan get pushed through with the promise that we would be able to have options of companies all across this country? Then when the final ink dried it seems that we only have the options of those companies that operate in New England.
Would Obamacare expand to what Governor LePage promised? Choice of policies nationwide? Or is this not what the Republican/MHPC/ALEC/Tea Party wish for the citizens of Maine.
” A nation of laws, not men” is the phrase used to differentiate a country that is democratic not authoritarian. In this case we have to rephrase that motto to “A nation of laws, when they are convenient, not men”
There is no silver bullet to get health insurance premiums decreased. It is high because health care is expensive. I use MEGA Health @$395/month for myself and I am 63. It works just fine and I have not found any insurance cheaper for the same coverage.
MEGA is fake insurance. You don’t have real health insurance. Google MEGA and fraud and you’ll see what I mean. You’re better off flushing that $395 a month.
Beware health insurance companys that wants you to buy towing insurance for your car in an attachment!
I am only quessing but I think that it is to avoid the Ambulance Care in case of a crash!
If the ideal is open competition among insurance companies, why have an ‘exchange’? Just remove any bars to their going at it hammer-and-tongs, and provide enough supervision to make sure they do. I have a feeling that one of the purposes of the ‘exchange’ is to make sure that competition doesn’t get out of hand (i.e., cut into profits), to use a favorite phrase of crony capitalists everywhere.
Keep in mind that Big Business contributes disproportionately to the Democrats and is very well represented in the Obama administration. Its motivation for favoring the Democrats may be ‘enlightened self-interest’, but enlightened to what end?
“…. Big Business contributes disproportionately to the Democrats…..”
You may wake up now…..
To cite a well known Tea Party source, The Atlantic….
But don’t let it disturb you: too much education is known to overheat the brain.
Why have an exchange? Massachusetts has one, it’s called “Commonwealth Choice” and all it is is a website that lists all the insurance options available. It compares the rates/coverage/etc side by side and you pick the one that’s right for you. How on earth could that be a bad thing? To have consumers be informed and know what they’re purchasing?
Why not ‘exchanges’ for supermarkets, clothing stores or car dealers, then?
Seems like you’re just having a gut reaction. Answer why you think allowing consumers to be better informed is a bad thing. Answer why increased competition is a bad thing.
Because ‘official’ sites are liable to being captured by their more affluent users (politicians take ‘donations’, you know), leading to badly informed consumers and decreased competition. Five years after the ‘exchange’ is established, the odds are that there’ll be all sorts of obstacles to startup insurers getting listed on it. In the name of ‘consumer safety’, of course.
Do you have factual basis for this or just paranoia/conspiracy theories?
LOL! To answer in the same spirit, are you incurably naive or just in thrall to the 1%?
That’s not even related to anything.
You just have this weird and baseless paranoia that these health insurance exchanges will be taken over somehow. It’s ridiculous.
I’m not able to identify the issues that are holding people (mostly the GOP) back from supporting this….
I believe that insurance companies deserve the right to a profit, just like the rest of us. There shouldn’t be limits to this margin either. But the over the top, price gouging, absurd terms and conditions are ruining too many American’s lives. Why do so many allow this? I’m sure greed plays a lead role…..
The following is an excerpt from Bloomberg News article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-08/why-do-the-kochs-want-to-kill-the-cato-institute-ezra-klein.html
Cato is, well, “the foremost advocate for small-government principles in American life.” It advocates those principles when Democrats are in power, and when Republicans are in power. When I read Cato’s take on a policy question, I can trust that it is informed by more than partisan convenience. The same can’t be said for other think tanks in town.
The Heritage Foundation, for instance, is a conservative think tank that professes to pursue goals similar to Cato’s. Where Cato’s motto is “individual liberty, free markets, and peace,” Heritage’s mission is the advancement of “conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”
In practice, however, whatever the Republican Party wants, so does Heritage. In 1989, Heritage helped develop the idea of universal health care delivered by the private sector through an individual mandate. In the early 1990s, it helped Senate Republicans build that concept into a legislative alternative to President Bill Clinton’s proposed reforms. In the early 2000s, Heritage worked with then-Governor Mitt Romney to implement the plan in Massachusetts. Then, when Obama won office and Democrats adopted Heritage’s idea, Heritage promptly fell into step with the Republican Party and turned ferociously against it.
If you want to see real changes in Maine insurance rules then cut off the free health insurance for the part time legislators. If they have to start paying $15,000 a year for health insurance you’d see changes made so fast that your head would spin. While both the Dems and Repubs in the legislature continue to get free insurance they will continue to ignore the problem.
What are the chances that Our Esteemed Legislature will cut themselves out of the State EMPLOYEE health plan?
The question never answered…. Where is all the money going to come from to pay for these credits and subsidies?
Another BDN editorial: “Democrats Good; Republicans Bad. Repeat.”
Obama/Pelosicare is clearly unconstitutional. It must be repealed, period.
Despite BDN assertions, Republicans have offered many good ideas on how to improve quantity and quality of health insurance. Just because the BDN chooses to ignore them does not mean they do not exist.
You want to influence Republicans after daily bashing them?
All the experts on the health care reform act posting lots of stuff. It is a boondoggle no matter if you like it or not. I am all for it except it does not addresss the real issue. Insurance Companies. Will someone address the Insurance Companies, please?