Must…control…Fist…of Snark!
Oh, never mind. They do it to themselves without my help.
I'm mostly going to post the news of the day to start off, and then go collect other goodies for your delectation and amusement in the updates. [Done. Enjoy.] But you have to check out Animal Nuz #194 today, for which I heartily thank EarwigLoris the 0th.
Thokk!
Ben Ghazi? Ben Hurf Hurf Hurf.
And you have to check out the moving goal posts below.
Update #1: The crazy, it burns!
Update #2: Up! With Steve Kornacki led with 7.1 million today. I just now started it from the DVR.
April 5
Moving the Goal Posts: Now it's "How many of the UNINSURED have paid???"
Oh for heaven's sake. Having grudgingly given up on the general "But how many have PAID????" argument (answer: around 85%, plus another 8% or so who will pay by the time they actually receive the bill or shortly after it's, you know, actually due), and having conceded some ground on the "But how many were ALREADY INSURED???" argument (answer: At least 33% of the first 6 million, more likely a good 40% or more when the additional 1.1M+ are added in, and possibly even as high as 49% by some right-winger's own admission...see below), at least one Forbes writer openly opposed to the ACA is now moving onto the next tactic: Combining the remnants of these two arguments, Voltron-like, into a new talking point:
OK, most people have paid, and a high percentage of the total may be newly insured after all...but how many of those who are newly insured have paid???
A summary cannot do justice to this meshugas. You have to read it all to savor the full bouquet of the crazy.
April 4
New Mexico: Huh? 37.4K QHPs & 14K SHOP Enrollees as of 3/31? (UPDATED)
Minnesota: 47K QHPs, 128K Medicaid
President Obama's "7M on Medicaid Thanks to the ACA" Now True!! (UPDATE x2)
President Obama's DGA speech gaffe from February 20 (he claimed at the time there had been "7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion."), which got him into some hot water with several fact-checkers, is now true!!
OK, so he was about 6 weeks early, but still…
Also, this stuff is really complicated, as brainwrap demonstrates at length.
The February CMS Report is out! (UPDATED)
CMS is announcing that in February, an estimated 3 million additional individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP compared to prior to open enrollment…
It is important to note that the enrollment numbers reported today are underestimates of what the actual enrollment for February will ultimately be.
Updates
Earlier I promised more good news and lots more meshugas. The day does not disappoint.
Update #2: Up! with Steve Kornacki
7.1 million Americans, and counting.
MSNBC embed links have stopped working for me. Can anybody help?
UP 04/05/14
A benchmark week in health care reform
Up’s Steve Kornacki and panel discuss the enrollment goals reached by the Obama administration for their health care plan.
The big accomplishments
7.1 million Exchange policies
More than 3 million new enrollments in Medicaid and CHIP
and then
- The House took its 55th vote to repeal part or all of Obamacare.
- Darrell Issa held hearing on Obamacare Exchanges.
- Bobby Jindal offered a replacement health care plan that even Sarah Palin called "a joke".
- A new crop of Republican attack ads on Obamacare has come out.
Kornacki reviewed Republican obstructionism going back to before the bill passed and up to today, when Lindsey Graham has a bill to allow states to opt out of Obamacare, and many Republicans are claiming that the 7.1 million signups number was cooked or faked or a flat-out lie.
Panel:
Alex Seitz-Wald, political correspondent for National Journal
Kate Nocera, Capitol Hill reporter for Buzzfeed.com
Michael Steele, former RNC Chairman and current MSNBC analyst (feh)
Krystal Ball, co-host of MSNBC's The Cycle
Blah-di-blah-di-blah, yadda yadda yadda.
But are they too old, but are they too sick, but but but…
But Democrats still can't run on Obamacare, and Republicans cannot fail to run against it, at least in this cycle, in the midterms.
People hate Obamacare, but love the new health care system
Steve played a clip of Stephen Colbert:
7.1 million people have signed up for Obamacare. Now when I go to see my doctor, there'll be 7.1 million people in the waiting room ahead of me.
Seitz-Wald made one good point at the very end of the segment. Obamacare can help Republicans in the midterms, and it can also help Democrats to GOTV.
Update #1:
I have been providing links to health care stories on Daily Kos for several days, but I now recommend that you look at the list of diaries in the Obamacare Saves Lives group for that. Putting Front Page stories and Diaries there saves me some work so that I have more time to scour the rest of the Web for relevant material. Like this, from NPR, which has sustained enormous damage from Republicans in recent times.
Nearly Half Of Californians Who Used Exchange May Drop Coverage
That headline is incorrect. The story is actually that nearly half of those covered may change coverage in the next year, finding a better policy, getting or losing covered jobs, or going on or off MediCal (California Medicaid). Few are expected to drop coverage completely.
NPR: With Enrollee Goal Met, Obamacare Still Faces Political Trial
A fairly random set of facts masquerading as a story.
NPR: Enrollment Numbers Put Obamacare Battle To Rest?
Now why would you ask a Republican for advice on that? Of course the answer is No.
Yahoo News: IRRATIONAL HATRED OF OBAMACARE IS HARD TO FATHOM
By Cynthia Tucker
Yes, Yahoo News, I know. Cynthia Tucker won a Pulitzer Prize at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, so OK. But no, irrational hatred from irrational haters is not hard to fathom. These are the heirs of the Southern segregationists, the nativists, and others who have been telling us about their delusions for decades, even centuries, currently funded by some of those who want unlimited tax cuts and no regulation of anything they do at any cost.
Fox News: No Republican alternatives to ObamaCare? Think again, by Randy Hultgren (R-Illinois 14th).
He is a sponsor of the bill to redefine "full-time" as nothing less than 40 hours a week. Also,
But we should also keep what is good about the President’s law by safeguarding individuals with pre-existing conditions through state-based high risk pools…
That means to take them out of the general pool and give them super-expensive insurance they can't afford. This, you call an idea? We just got rid of that. Fuggedaboudit.
CBS: How should Democrats deal with Obamacare in 2014?
Run! Run away from Obamacare! Everybody hates Obamacare, and there is nothing good in Obamacare for Democratic candidates. Feh. How about we run away from CBS?
WaPo, Greg Sargent, The Plum Line: The next GOP scheme to manufacture Obamacare “horror stories”
In fact, there’s a new misleading “horror story” on its way: the worker whose hours are being cut back so their boss won’t have to comply with the ACA’s employer mandate.
Sorry, Greg. It's been, and it is partly true that there are employers who will do anything to avoid providing insurance to their workers. We heard that from Papa John's Pizza back in 2012. Those employees will have to buy insurance on the Exchanges, unless they make so little they can go on Medicaid. The horror! The horror! Well, the real horror is for those workers in states that rejected Medicaid expansion, until we can raise the minimum wage to the point where they qualify for subsidies on the Exchanges.
LA Times: Is Obamacare too big to fail?
Enrollment success ends debate on repeal but opens it on fixes.
Nice twist, but no meaningful content. The Republicans have no real proposals that fix anything or have any chance of happening. The Blue Dog proposal for a catastrophic-care-only Copper plan level is also a non-starter.
Forbes: Get Ready For The Real Obamacare Disasters As People Start To Use It, by Jeffrey Dorfman
The hate is strong with this one.
Fox News: ObamaCare makes it more difficult to buy insurance year-round
Oh, you just now noticed that Open Enrollment is ending! (Yes, they quote an insurance broker who only found this out three weeks ago, when it was originally stated to be part of the plan in, what, 1989? By the Heritage Foundation, right? And then in RomneyCare in 2006, and then when the ACA passed in 2010, and again at the beginning of Open Enrollment.) And their solution is of course to allow people to buy insurance only when they get sick, because this is a Free Country! because the purpose is only to destroy Obamacare.
Fox News: Inmates getting coverage under ObamaCare, as states shift cost to feds
Oh, that you like, you Red staters! But not Medicaid expansion for honest citizens, oh no.
Fox News: Fuzzy math from administration over ObamaCare?
No, not particularly. You, on the other hand…
Long Island Newsday: Allen: Obamacare is a touchdown dance after a field goal
Because it was the Democrats who moved the goal posts by cooking the books. Sure.
WaPo: Paul Ryan: Popular parts of Obamacare too costly to keep, alternatives needed
Alternative realities, you mean.
Forbes: Obamacare Shows America Suffers From A President Dangerously Disconnected From Reality
OK, that's enough crazy for today.