The ACA way back machine.

[No Elephants]

Remember the summer of 2009, when Obama and other D.C. Democrats were at town meetings all over the country, trying to sell people on Obamacare (while simultaneously dismissing the public option)?

One of the selling points being "If you like your insurance, you can keep it, period," or words to that effect?

This Fact Check article, dated way back in August 2009, states that was not true.

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/keep-your-insurance-not-everyone/

Guess no one in D.C. reads fact check. (Why do each of these people have such large staffs?)

Seems they also expected employers to cancel plans and a few other things.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/10/31/obama-officials-in-2010-93-million-americans-will-be-unable-to-keep-their-health-plans-under-obamacare/

But, the important thing is that Obama will go down in history as having passed a national health care plan, something Teddy Roosevelt had mentioned in passing.


And, if you don't think that is meaningful, you should have listened to Senator Kennedy, who called health care "the cause of my life," admitting that he had blocked Nixoncare (employer mandate, but no individual mandate) because he did not want a Republican President to get credit for passing a national health care plan.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/08/31/774631/-Kennedy-s-greatest-regret


Contrary to the Kos article linked above, I saw and heard Kennedy saying that was his biggest regret in a video of an interview with Kennedy shortly before his death. However, I don't know if that is the same 2004 interview to which the Kos article refers.

In the video, Kennedy looked much as he did shortly before his death, but I don't know if the interview took place before or after his bran cancer diagnosis.)

According to Kennedy, he regretted his actions and attempted to get Nixoncare going again, but, by then, Nixon was too embroiled in Watergate to pay attention. Candidly, I don't know if I believe that. Congress did not need Nixon's permission to pass a bill, which Nixon could then either sign or veto, at his peril.

Even if the regret part of the story is accepted at face value, Kennedy's delaying a health care plan for even a few months is astonishing, no matter who was in the Oval Office at the time.

And then, there is the claim of Jimmy Carter, that Kennedy also blocked a health care plan that Carter wanted, also for purely political reasons, namely, Ted's desire to wrest the nomination from incumbent Carter.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/09/17/carter_still_blames_kennedy_for_blocking_bill/

the more you know......

To be very fair, Kennedy did get a heck of a lot of health care legislation passed during his life. However, the Carter and Nixon stories are shocking, especially for a man who says that an airplane crash made him realize that many Americans could not afford the kind of health care he needed and received after the crash.

While Kennedy was protecting the Democratic Party and/or his personal political ambitions, Americans were dying and going bankrupt by the millions between Nixon and obamacare--and I rather suspect many will continue to do so: 60% of all individual bankruptcies were due to health costs. And, in a majority of bankruptcies due to health costs, including prescription costs, both spouses filing had had health insurance.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/insured-but-bankrupted-anyway/?_r=0

Now, some creditors get stiffed in bankruptcy, though probably not mortgage lenders, who get the home, subject to whatever state homestead laws may be protect the bankrupt. (I have not checked Mass law lately, but it used to be that you got a maximum of $X of protection if you thought to file a homestead before you incurred the debt in question and you were "head of a household," whatever that may mean under Mass law. I filed one even though, at the time, I wasn't sure I was eligible because, what the hell? Worst case, it would not protect me, same as if I had not filed.)

But creditors who have no collateral, like credit card issuers, aka banksters, could get stiffed badly in a medical bankruptcy. So, don't ever believe that it was only poor, uninsured sick people clamoring for a solution to health cost bankruptcies. It was the creditor lobby, aka banksters.

As far as health insurers, they loved the individual mandate. They did not love the part of Obama that limits their administrative spending, though. So, their first preference was the ability to have their cake and eat it, too. Whose isn't? But, make no mistake, they loved the individual mandate

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/06/25/busted-health-insurers-secretly-spent-huge-to-defeat-health-care-reform-while-pretending-to-support-obamacare/

[Enthusiast]

1. If the health insurance lobby spent $102.4 million

in 15 months in an anti Obamacare effort we should enact a medical loss ratio that forces them to spend 95% on care. They are too profitable for their own good and all due to their history of denying care(killing people).

I didn't know that about Ted Kennedy and Nixoncare. Fascinating stuff, No Elephants.

[No Elephants]

2. Nixoncare and Cartercare. Glad you found it interesting.

I especially did because I emailed and called the offices of both my Senators so often about the public option. And when I did, I would get a form letter email back from Kennedy, well, Kennedy's office, calling health care "the cause of my life." (Kerry's office could not be arsed to reply to anything, even when he was running for President. In fact, his staff was ruder then than it was later on.)

As I said, he did get a lot of legislation passed, although a lot of it was later undone. For instance I think the neighborhood health center in my neighborhood came into existence due to a bill of Kennedy's. But, in the 90s, a lot of hospital mergers took place, so I am assuming that legislation facilitated that.

At some point, Massachusetts General Hospital, the model for the fictional Boston General of Dr. Kildare fame, acquired all the neighborhood health centers for towns around the hospital. It also owns some the nursing homes. So, it's basically a health care monopoly. I imagine that gives MGH a little more leverage when it bargains over rates with the state health insurance agency that takes care of insuring state employees and with Medicare.

After the acquisition, the Center began to change from this little neighborly place with friendly doctors to a slick place where doctor's visits were strictly timed, 20 minutes for a sick or follow up visit and 30 minutes for an annual check up. More charges that my insurer did not cover began showing up on the bill.

For example, for years, I required frequent blood tests. The clinic always charged to draw blood, which my insurer covered. Then, the clinic would send the blood off to MGH to be tested; and my insurer covered the test, too. However, after the acquisition, the clinic added a new fee for "handling" the blood sample, which my insurer would not cover. And so on. Anyway, the whole atmosphere changed.