Twisted grammar and changing vocabulary are the stuff of the GOP anti Obamacare crusade and Obama's stumbles

Twisted grammar and ever changing vocabulary are the stuff  of which the continuing GOP crusade to destroy Obamacare is  made and the Democrats have their stumbles, too.  The anti Obamacare talking points get the present tense of verb mixed up with future tense.  Some words, like “replace”  disappear from the  talking points, new ones emerge like “repair”. Old words, like “lie”  get new definitions.

One GOP approach is to   turn present tense into a future certainty.  The lines go like this.” No one has signed up for Obamacare now, they will not do it later”, ignoring that. a working web site and  penalties have not even kicked in yet..Another line is.. “ No young, healthy will sign up so it will collapse of its own weight”, though 98% are insured  in Massachusetts, the state system after which Obamacare was patterned.   If  “the tech surge” succeeds in fixing the web site , their verb tense will   become past perfect.

Since Rep. Joe Wilson  interrupted   President  Obama’s 2009 State of the Union speech with, “You lie”, “lie”  has also become a standard GOP phrase.  Mitt Romney, interviewed on NBC’S  Meet the Press  Nov. 3, used the less inflammatory  words,”fundamental dishonesty” instead of “you lie”, but the meaning was the same.

When is a “lie” a lie ?  When it is true at the time when it is told but  it is not true now?  That seems to be how  the GOP defines it. When Pres. Obama made his statements before mid March 2010 when the law was passed it was true at that time,  that” if you liked your insurance,  you could keep it”.      Not explained then ,if the individual insurance you had then is not the one you have now or your policy terms changed in the meantime  and it does not meet new standards, you may have to get a new  policy..   Pres. Obama’s  sin, for which he apologized November 7 was  not qualifying his statement with the adjective  “most”  will keep their insurance, and then doing nothing to clarify  then or later.  

 The President has promised to fix the problem for those who have hardships because of the cancellations.   What would happen without changes ? All would get better, more comprehensive  insurance, about half would  even qualify for a subsidy and pay less  and  others  would pay more. It is the latter the President hints he will take administrative action to help.

For the most apolitical, factual explanation of how Obamacare will impact you personally, go to What's up with Obamacare and my health care? - CNN.com  at  http://www.cnn.com/20  . It is a good way to get real  in future tense. Remember Colorado manages its own marketplace and web at: www.connectforhealthco.com and it is up and running. Do not go to the federal site.

In the Nov. 3 interview,  Gov. Romney did add  a new word to our  health care reform  vocabulary: “repair”   .  “Repair” should  not mean a “fundamental change”.   

 “Repeal and  defund”, the “throw the baby out with the bathwater” approach,   will be only  a whisper  by March 31, 2014 when many  have signed up. Taking away better understood  and valued  benefits from so many will be a tough sell . “Delay” will still be on the tips of some tongues,  but expect no action unless the federal web site is not “repaired” by the end of November.  There is still plenty of time between December 1 and  before the end of March to sign up customers.

 “Replace”  used to be coupled with the word “repeal”, but it  has disappeared from the GOP  lexicon.  Nothing Republicans  ever proposed  in the past four years “replaced” what Obamacare offers: insuring 30 million uninsured and protecting consumers , while providing  a plan  to pay for it without adding to the deficit.

What's up with Obamacare and my health care? - CNN.com

What's up with Obamacare and my health care? - CNN  http://www.cnn.com/20

Recommended before you hyperventilate over what you hear others tell you about Obamacare.

Colorado Health Institute

Colorado Health Institute surveyed 10,000 Colorado households and just released its report. The survey will be taken again in 2015 and 2017 . The 2013 survey will be used as a base to see how the impact of Obamacare will be in getting its citizens covered by insurance. The results from the web site in greater detail can be found on the link to the Colorado Health Institute web site.
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• One of seven residents - 741,000 Coloradans – does not have health insurance.
• The percentage of Coloradans without health insurance is 14.3 percent compared to 15.8 percent in 2011 and 13.5 percent in 2009, when the last surveys were fielded. This suggests a slight uptick in health insurance coverage. It shows, however, that an improving economy has yet to translate into a robust increase in the number of Coloradans with health insurance.
• Employer-sponsored insurance, the backbone of coverage for most Coloradans, has not returned to 2009 levels. That year, 63.7 percent of Coloradans were covered by health insurance obtained through an employer. In 2013, it is 59.0 percent.
• Four counties in northwest Colorado – Routt, Moffatt, Jackson and Rio Blanco – have the highest percentage of residents without insurance at 24.8 percent. Douglas County has the lowest rate at 5.4 percent.
• Nearly 8 percent of Coloradans said they needed mental health services or counseling services in the 12 months before the survey, but did not get them, with the most frequently cited reasons relating to cost.
• The high cost of health care deters many Coloradans from receiving treatment when they need it. Citing cost, about one of five Coloradans (19.3 percent) report foregoing needed dental care, 12.3 percent did not seek a doctor’s care and 11.2 percent report that they did not fill a prescription. 
• Nearly half (46.7 percent) of Colorado’s uninsured say they have gone without health insurance for more than five years. One of 10 have never had health insurance."

GOP's Obamacare gotchas...not so much.

The GOP hyped their  anti  ObamaCare crusade with some gotchas  recently .  One   is   “aha, the President lied” about Obamacare (ACA, Affordable Care Act) when he promised “if you like your insurance, you can keep it.” . The other is  “the web site does not work”.  Gotchas? Maybe not so much.

 When the President first made those promises in 2010, he was not lying.  If your  individually purchased policy   in 2010 when the law was passed  was the same now, you get to keep it if you want to.  However, in the small print, if there were any new policies  issued or changes after March 2010, you would have to either upgrade it to meet new standards or find another one.

The other gotcha is the federal  web site does not work, but most concede that it eventually  will. Remember, too, Colorado runs its own marketplace and site and it is working. As of October 25, Connect for Health Colorado saw 44,935 accounts created and 3,164 people enrolled, not including Medicaid enrollments. This even beats the first month’s experience of Massachusetts, after which ObamaCare was modeled.

,The individual insurance  issue may not be a big deal for most of us, but it is a big deal for those individuals affected. Some are understandably  livid.    An estimated 8 million of the 12 to 15 million  who had bought insurance individually got letters recently from their insurers dropping their insurance or raising their rates because the old policies did not meet the new standards required by ObamaCare. Those impacted are about 5%. The rest of us , over 200 million with Medicare, Medicaid, employer provided insurance,  are not.

What may be of consolation to many of  those who got the drop or premium increases notices, is that they  are not  left without insurance.  The new policies are comprehensive, unlike their old policies , called by some as “ Swiss cheese full of holes”  or “junk”, as Consumer Reports called most of  them in March.  An estimated 50% of those dropped  will qualify for subsidized premiums in the exchanges and  pay less and get a better policy for their money. The rest can   have access to the exchanges which function much like large group policies and could even offer  a better deal. Shop first in the exchanges to get a grip on the alternatives..

The  minimum provisions  now required to be included in all insurance policies are   ambulatory patient services ,emergency services, hospitalization ,maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use services , prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices ,laboratory services, preventive and annual checkups and cancer screenings, chronic disease management, and pediatric services, including oral and vision care. There are also consumer protections in the new standards,  such as forbidding caps on the amount of coverage, denial because of pre-existing conditions, dropping  coverage when you get sick or are in the middle of treatment, charging more for women, outrageous out of pocket co pays and deductibles, and  administrative costs exceeding 20% of the policy spent on actual services.

Those liking their old policies may  never need all of these basics  such as maternity and child coverage ,  and they  treasure their  right to  gamble they will never need others . Their  right to buy underinsurance is indeed trampled, but the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate over other rights. All  need to be in the pool to make any of the advantages of  the law financially feasible, including covering women’s health needs without charging them more, which has been the case in the past.   Grandfathering in substandard policies may be one of the tweaks that could be considered  by Congress..The issue then becomes  the  impact on financing the  law’s implementation and how to make up the difference with a “pay for”.