THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT / OBAMACARE IS HERE TO STAY...TELL THE REPIGLICANS & TEA-BAGGERS TO KEEP THEIR HANDS OFF!!!! 28JUN12

THE ink is barely dry on the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare and the repiglican / tea-bagger members of Congress along with their presidential candidate mitt romney are pledging it's repeal. Health Care For America Now needs us to sign their petition telling them Obamacare is here to stay and to keep their hands off the Affordable Care Act. Click the link to sign on, and you can add your own comments to the letter to your Representative (see my letter to Rep frank wolf r VA at the bottom of this post)

 

Obamacare has been upheld.

The Supreme Court says Obamacare is constitutional but the Republicans in Congress still want to repeal it!
Tell the Republicans in Congress to stop playing politics with our health care.
Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the debate over the Affordable Care Act is done. Obamacare is here to stay. The days of health insurance company price-gouging and denials of care are over.
This ruling clears the way for moving full steam ahead on implementing Obamacare. Thanks to this law, working and middle-class families will have financial and health security. More than 30 million Americans will gain insurance coverage for the first time, joining more than 100 million who are already benefiting from the law’s consumer protections and benefits.
The Republicans have already pledged to continue their relentless campaign to undermine the health care security of America’s families. They want to end Medicare as we know it, dismantle Medicaid and repeal Obamacare, including the ban on discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions
Please join us in telling Congress: “The debate is over. Stop playing politics and follow the law.”

Thank you,
Will O'Neill
Health Care for America Now

MY letter to Rep frank wolf r VA
Unless you plan to offer the American public the exact same health care plan you have as a member of Congress at the same cost you pay (the taxpayer subsidized rate) I expect you to keep your hands off the Affordable Care Act! The Supreme Court has ruled: Obamcare is here to stay. This is good for all Americans because
Insurance companies still must provide insurance to children who have pre-existing conditions,
There are no long lifetime caps to coverage,
Adult children will still be able to get insurance through their parents,
Coverage has been expanded for 30 million people,
No costs to consumers for preventative care,
No one will be denied for have a pre-existing condition,
Medicaid will be expanded to people with incomes up to 133% above poverty,
Health insurance exchanges will drive down the cost of private insurance.

This ruling clears the way for moving full steam ahead on implementing Obamacare. Thanks to this law, working and middle-class families will have financial and health security. More than 30 million Americans will gain insurance coverage for the first time, joining more than 100 million who are already benefiting from the laws consumer protections and benefits.

President Obama worked with Congress for more than a year to pass the Affordable Care Act, and even now many of the consumer protections have yet to go into effect. The American people do not have time for Congress to continue playing politics with health care.

You and the Republican Party should side with the seniors, families, and small businesses in your district, not the profit-seeking health insurance companies.

Voices of Health Reform: Jim’s Story 24JAN11

ANOTHER testimony from a regular American about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act....the gop and tea-baggers like to stir up hate and anger and resentment about health care reform for the nation, and are determined to repeal it....WHILE KEEPING THEIR GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED HEALTH CARE AND PENSIONS BECAUSE THEY FEEL THEY ARE ENTITLED TO THEM!
Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series where readers can meet average Americans already benefiting from the health reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
Jim Houser and his wife have owned an auto repair shop in Portland, Oregon for over 25 years, and it’s important to them to retain their employees and keep them healthy. They invest time, energy and money to train their workers and they don’t want to lose valuable employees.
That’s why Jim has always provided health insurance to his employees. But in the last ten years, Jim has been forced to contend with skyrocketing premium increases, with premiums making up over 20% of his payroll.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Jim and small business owners like him are getting immediate relief.
The health reform law provides tax credits for small businesses that offer employees health insurance. Up to 4 million small businesses could be eligible for relief from high health insurance premiums and, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office, the tax credit will save small businesses $40 billion by 2019. And small business owners like Jim are benefiting from the tax credit today. Jim estimates that the tax credits will save him over $10,000.
Tax credits aren’t the only benefit for small businesses in the Affordable Care Act. The law creates new, competitive state-based insurance Exchanges.  Exchanges will enable individuals and small businesses to pool together and use their market strength to buy coverage at a lower cost, the same way large employers do today, giving them the freedom to launch their own companies without worrying whether health care will be available when they need it.
Small businesses are the engine of our economy and President Obama and his team will continue to do all we can to help small businesses grow, create jobs and succeed. That’s why the President called on Congress to eliminate the overly burdensome 1099 reporting requirement requires businesses to report to the IRS all purchases that exceed $600.
As Jim notes, the Affordable Care Act is already helping businesses like his “offer the kind of support that keeps employees with your company.” Listen to his story:

The GOP's rude awakening on health-care repeal from WASHINGTON POST 21JAN11

TEA-BAGGERS and right wing fanatics are finding out actually being responsible for governing is more difficult than just running their mouths.....



This whole health-care thing isn't quite working out the way Republicans planned. My guess is that they'll soon try to change the subject - but I'm afraid they're already in too deep.
Wednesday's vote to repeal President Obama's health insurance reform law was supposed to be a crowning triumph. We heard confident GOP predictions that cowed Democrats would defect in droves, generating unstoppable momentum that forced the Senate to obey "the will of the people" and follow suit. The Democrats' biggest domestic accomplishment would be in ruins and Obama's political standing would be damaged, perhaps irreparably.
What actually happened, though, is that the Republican majority managed to win the votes of just three Democrats - all of them Blue Dogs who have been consistent opponents of the reform package anyway. In terms of actual defectors, meaning Democrats who changed sides on the issue, there were none. This is momentum?
The unimpressive vote came at a moment when "the will of the people" on health care is coming into sharper focus. Most polls that offer a simple binary choice - do you like the "Obamacare" law or not - show that the reforms remain narrowly unpopular. Yet a significant fraction of those who are unhappy complain not that the reform law went too far but that it didn't go far enough. I think of these people as the "public option" crowd.
A recent Associated Press poll found that 41 percent of those surveyed opposed the reform law and 40 percent supported it. But when asked what Congress should do, 43 percent said the law should be modified so that it does more to change the health-care system. Another 19 percent said it should be left as it is.
More troubling for the GOP, the AP poll found that just 26 percent of respondents wanted Congress to repeal the reform law completely. A recent Washington Post poll found support for outright repeal at 18 percent; a Marist poll pegged it at 30 percent.
In other words, what House Republicans just voted to do may be the will of the Tea Party, but it's not "the will of the people."
"The test of a first-rate intelligence," F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." By this standard, House Republicans are geniuses. To pass the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act," they had to believe that the work of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is both authoritative and worthless.
The CBO, which "scores" the impact of proposed legislation, calculated that the health-reform law will reduce federal deficits by at least $143 billion through 2019. Confronted with the fact that repeal would deepen the nation's fiscal woes, Republicans simply claimed the CBO estimate to be rubbish. Who cares what the CBO says, anyway?
Er, um, Republicans care, at least when it's convenient. Delving into the CBO's analysis, they unearthed a finding that they proclaimed as definitive: The reform law would eliminate 650,000 jobs. Hence "Job-Killing" in the repeal bill's title.
One problem, though: The CBO analysis contains no such figure. It's an extrapolation of a rough estimate of an anticipated effect that no reasonable person would describe as "job-killing." What the budget office actually said is that there are people who would like to withdraw from the workforce - sometimes because of a chronic medical condition - but who feel compelled to continue working so they can keep their health insurance. Once the reforms take effect, these individuals will have new options. That's where the "lost" jobs supposedly come from.
The exercise in intellectual contortion that was necessary for the House to pass the repeal bill will be an excellent tune-up for what's supposed to come next. "Repeal and replace" was the promise - get rid of the Democrats' reform plan and design one of their own. This is going to be fun.
It turns out that voters look forward to the day when no one can be denied insurance coverage because of preexisting conditions. They like the fact that young adults, until they are 26, can be kept on their parents' policies. They like not having yearly or lifetime limits on benefits. The GOP is going to have to design something that looks a lot like Obamacare.
Meanwhile, Obama's approval ratings climb higher every week. Somebody change the subject. Quick!
eugenerobinson@washpost.com

HEALTH CARE AD CAMPAIGN ON REPUBLICAN & TEA-BAGGER HYPOCRISY 20JAN11

AD CAMPAIGN CALLING OUT THE REPUBLICANS AND TEA-BAGGERS ON TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THEM BUT NOT FOR THE REST OF US

Ron Paul: GOP ‘Could Be’ Hypocrites For Using Gov Health Care For Themselves, Repealing It For Public 18JAN11

SHOWING THEMSELVES FOR WHAT THEY ARE, HYPOCRITICAL, GREEDY, SELF-SERVING AND CONTROLLED BY CORPORATE INTEREST AND THE WEALTHY THAT PAID FOR THEIR CONGRESSIONAL SEATS, THESE REPUBLICORP MINIONS WILL DO THEIR BEST TO DESTROY HEALTH CARE REFORM (THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT), THROWING THE REST OF US TO SUFFER FROM THE WHIMS OF THE PROFIT DRIVEN INSURANCE COMPANIES AS LONG AS CONGRESS GETS TO KEEP THEIR TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED HEALTH INSURANCE. WHY? BECAUSE, JUST LIKE THE EXECUTIVES OF TARP RESCUED BANKS, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND CORPORATIONS WHO ARE STILL GETTING HUGE BONUSES WHILE THE NATION WALLOWS IN RECESSION, THEY FEEL THEY ARE ENTITLED TO IT.  THIS FROM THINK PROGRESS....
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who campaigned on a pledge to repeal health reform, gained notoriety shortly after being elected when he complained about a delay in receiving his government-sponsored health care benefits as a member of Congress. While repeal efforts have unified most Republicans, Harris’ comments sparked a debate within the GOP caucus over charges of hypocrisy. Several new Republican lawmakers have turned down their government-sponsored plans, but the vast majority have chosen to accept taxpayer money to help pay for their own health benefits and coverage for their staff.
Speaking to ThinkProgress shortly after the swearing-in ceremony for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) explained to us that — although he supports repealing health reform — he hasn’t evaluated his own package of taxpayer-subsidized health benefits for himself and his staff. At first, Paul said he wasn’t sure of the size of the taxpayer subsidy. Asked if he thought it was hypocritical for members of Congress to accept government subsidized and regulated health plans while repealing similar benefits for everyone else, Paul replied blithely, “[c]ould be”:

KEYES: Do you think you’ll be voting for it when it comes up, voting for repeal?
PAUL: I would.
KEYES: Do you think you’ll also be giving up government-sponsored health care for yourself?
PAUL: I would hope so. [...] Well, I will be voting against all of this stuff, but whether I’m going to be changing my policies or not, I have Blue Cross Blue Shield. I pay a fee every month for it.
KEYES: But the government, the members of Congress and their staff are all subsidized by taxpayers, government subsidies.
PAUL: I don’t know how much the subsidy is — [...]
FANG: Do you think it’s hypocritical to take government subsidized and regulated health care as a member of Congress but repeal it for everyone else?
PAUL: Could be.

Watch it:




Members of Congress on average receive a $700 a month taxpayer subsidy for their health insurance plan, which they can choose through a highly regulated exchange offered by the government. The federal exchange establishes a minimum benefit plan, which bars discrimination based on preexisting conditions and other insurance industry abuses, and provides a menu of private sector plans to choose from. Congressional staff members receive the same plan as members. The federal system mirrors the reforms enacted by Democrats and President Obama, which end health insurance abuses by regulating coverage through an exchange, while offering subsidies to individuals and small businesses to make coverage more affordable.
Few Republicans have been as candid as Paul. For instance, Rep. Robert Hurt (R-VA) tried to tell ThinkProgress that his congressional health benefits don’t qualify as any special privilege. “It’s a policy that’s issued by Anthem and it’s a policy that any — it’s open to the public,” Hurt claimed. However, millions of Americans, unlike Hurt and other members of Congress, can be denied health coverage because of what insurance companies deem as “preexisting conditions.” And other than government employees and veterans, few Americans enjoy the type of taxpayer subsidies given to members of Congress like Hurt and Paul.

Related Posts:

• WONK ROOM: Do As I Say, Not As I Do: 97% Of House GOP Still Holding On To Their Congressional Health Plans
• THINKPROGRESS: King Won't Give Up His Government Health Care, But Applauds Those Who Do 'For Standing On Principle'