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Congresswomen Cathy McMorris tries to slam ACA and got a suprise response

Congresswomen Cathy McMorris wanted people to send in horror stories about ACA and got a real surprise. Check out some of the comments she received on Face Book.

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers posted an image on her official Facebook page, slamming the Affordable Care Act on the fifth anniversary of President Obama signing it into law. She asked constituents to share their Obamacare nightmare stories and well, the response probably wasn't what she expected. Below are a small sample of the comments constituents left on her page:


My story is that I once knew 7 people who couldn't get health insurance. Now they all have it, thanks to the ACA and President Obama, and their plans are as good as the one my employer provides--and they pay less for them. Now, that's not the kind of story you want to hear. You want to hear made-up horror stories. I don't know anyone with one of those stories.

I work for cancer care northwest. We actually have more patients with insurance and fewer having to choose treatment over bankruptcy. Cathy, I'm a die hard conservative and I'm asking you to stop just slamming Obamacare. Fix it, change it or come up with a better idea! Thanks

With Obamacare, I saved 300 bucks a month premium.. I have more coverage.. I like ObamaCare and can't wait til we go to the next step... Medicare for ALL.
Jump below the fold to continue reading these heartfelt messages.
And now my daughter, diagnosed with MS at age 22, can have insurance. What do you plan to do with her?

My daughter is fighting for her life with stage 3 breast cancer! We are about to enter a second go round of diagnostic procedures and possibly more treatment after two full years of treatment! So yah! The ACA is more than helping! I resent that our rep thinks the only problems involve her personal story!

My whole family now has coverage. The ACA is the cause for this, I work in health care, I have seen the increase in covered patients first hand. The next step is universal coverage, this will truly lower costs and provide the best care. Cathy, you barely work, spend most of your time catering to special interests so you can be re-elected.. All while receiving a large wage and the best health insurance and care. Stop telling us how it doesn't work while enjoying your tax payer funded care and life.

Instead of trying to repeal it why don't you improve it? Our local rural clinics are packed daily with people who have needed healthcare for years!! it is a godsend. It is pitiful this nation does not have healthcare for all and that doesn't mean the EMERGENCY room!!
Thanks to the ACA, my cousin was able to get affordable insurance despite her preexisting condition. So grateful.

I think we should repeal Obamacare, and replace it … with universal socialized medicine - like the rest of the industrialized nations of the world.

Hello Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers!
I work as the facilitator of a task force that is overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Washington State. I have learned that the ACA is helping people who did not previously have health insurance get it. It is helping bring down medical costs. It is improving the quality of care. It is improving experiences of both patients and their families.

I work with doctors, nurses, hospital and clinic managers, non-profit service providers, citizens-at-large. Each of them can site an improvement they would like to make to the Act. But whether they are Republican or Democrat, from urban or rural areas, powerful or not, they all say the ACA is working.

Can't you and your Republican colleagues stop trying to repeal this Act and work to make it even more effective? Please?
Obama Care saved us when my husband was unemployed and we couldn't afford coverage. We might have been ruined without it. My husband could not have had the eye surgery needed after an accident. So grateful.
We now have patients that can see a doctor in the clinic on time rather than waiting till they are too ill ACA is saving lives and you are too stupid to realize that. Get your political view out of the way and see what is happening in our community because you have shown again and again it is not your community. I see that your son has downs but not everyone in our community has it so get done with this supporting downs to the neglect of everything else.
My plans are intact, premiums have increased as always, but what seems to be a lesser rate, my plan was not cancelled, I did not lose my doctor, I have not experienced reduced work hours, and it's actually freed me from the chains of employer based being the ONLY path to coverage. #FEARMONGER

Duranord and Jeanne Veillard have been married for 82 years now.

Information provided by "TheGrio"
Duranord and Jeanne Veillard have been married for 82 years now.

Now that’s love.

On Saturday, Duranord will celebrate his 108th birthday, while his wife will turn 105 in May.

Duranord was born in 1907 to a fisherman in southern Haiti. He grew up in Port-au-Prince, where he studied law, and married Jeanne in November 1932, the same month Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected.

They raised five children together.

In 1968, Duranord lost his job, and he and his wife moved to the United States after being awarded a visa to visit. He began work as a lab technician at the Good Samaritan Hospital, where he worked for ten years before retiring. Over time, each of their five children came to the United States after their parents.

Now, Duranord is nearly blind and is hard of hearing, but that doesn’t stop him from loudly cracking jokes in French Creole or from sharing his birthday cake with reporters. Neither he nor Jeanne leave the house except to visit the doctor, and both need assistance to walk, but they are still enjoying life as fully as they can.

“He remembers everything,” said his son, Vely Veillard, 62. “Look at him! He don’t want to use a cane. He’s a superstar.”

Both Duranord and Jeanne are already looking forward to the next milestone in their lives. “Thank you very much,” Veillard said to well-wishers. “Merci beaucoup.”

The Uninsured rates are Dropping

Uninsured rates drop faster in states embracing Obamacare: Study

By Morgan Whitaker




The Affordable Care Act is working better in states that have worked to fully implement the law.

That’s the conclusion from a new Gallup survey that found the uninsured rate for adults dropped faster in recent months in states that implemented Medicaid expansion and set up their own exchanges in the health insurance marketplace, compared with those that didn’t.

The uninsured rate for those 18 and older dropped by 2.5% on average in the 21 states, and Washington, D.C., where governments implemented the two central Affordable Care Act provisions. The 29 the states that implemented only one or neither provision saw their uninsured rates drop by a mere 0.8%.

An earlier Gallup survey showed that states opting out of Medicaid expansion, on average, had higher uninsured rates to begin with. And the slower rate of decline in recent months means states without Medicaid expansion or its own insurance exchange (or both) now have an average uninsured rate of 17.9%, compared with states with both, which have a 13.6% uninsured rate. In the last quarter of 2013, states that had not implemented both provisions had an average uninsured rate of 18.7%, compared with 16.1% in states that had.
0% in the third quarter of 2013. According to the most recent Gallup data, it has dropped to 15.6% since the open enrollment began.

To read more: click the link below

http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/obamacare-working-states-embracing-it

OP-Ed The President’s pushes back on those trying to demonize ACA

President Obama asked the question, why don’t the Republicans and others not want the American people to have health insurance? The death panels have not occurred and the Armageddon have not arisen as some in the Republican Party promise. He stated that most of the industrial world have universal healthcare and history will not be kind on those pushing against healthcare.

The Republican congress has voted 51 times to get rid of the law and have refused to put forward a plan that would cover all Americans. Political pundits point out that it would be very difficult for them to put forward an alternative healthcare plan because those on the right want to maintain the status-quo and members of both parties are taking PAC money from the insurance industry. Data watch reported that between 1990-1992 the medical and insurance PACs gave over 16.3 million to congress. Most of 16.3 million went to senators and congressman in the Republican Party. Congressman who oppose healthcare have invested a lot of money in healthcare stocks according to Hispanicvista.

“Legislators held significant investments in pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Amgen, the Center for Responsive Politics has found. Through 2008 -- the most recent year for which lawmakers filed this information -- many congressional members' personal funds were also invested in big-time insurers Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and Metlife, among others.”


Consumers signing-up with the ACA will be able to get preventive healthcare at no additional cost, regardless of whether they have met their financial cap. Preventive care will cover such things as:
(1) alcohol counseling,
(2) blood pressure screening
(3) Cholesterol screening
(4) depression screening
(5) diabetics type 2 screening
(6) diet screening
(7) Hiv screening

These preventive services will drive down the cost of healthcare in the future because people will be spending less time in the hospital and at their Doctor’s office. Preventive health care will extend the life of low-income people and create more happy Families

The ACA benefits covers pre-existing conditions and Children can stay on their parent insurance until they turn 26 years old. The Council of Economic Advisers list six economic benefits below:


Six Economic Benefits of the Affordable Care Act

Council of Economic Advisers



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Six Economic Benefits of the Affordable Care Act
Posted by Jason Furman on February 06, 2014 at 12:47 PM EDT

This week has seen the release of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis that refuted claims by opponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that it is a “job killer” and demonstrated that, by giving families more options for obtaining affordable health insurance outside the workplace, the ACA will make it easier for people take a risk and start a business, take time out of the labor force to raise a family, or retire when they are ready.
As CBO made clear, however, its analysis was not a comprehensive analysis of how the ACA will affect the labor market in particular or the economy as a whole. This blog post illustrates six ways that the ACA is helping the labor market, laying the foundation for future economic growth, and improving families’ financial security and well-being.
1.Putting more money in families’ pockets, boosting demand, and bringing down unemployment today. As of January 1, more than 2 million people had selected a plan in the health insurance marketplace, and nearly 80 percent of those people will – thanks to the ACA – benefit from tax credits to help pay their premiums. All told, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that over the entirety of 2014, 5 million people will benefit from premium tax credits and help with cost-sharing averaging $4,700 per person. In 2015, 11 million people are estimated to benefit, rising to 19 million in 2016. Many millions more will gain affordable health insurance coverage through Medicaid.
These provisions of the ACA make it easier for families to access health care services and to meet other pressing needs, which will increase the demand for goods and services throughout the economy at a time when the unemployment rate is still elevated. For this reason, as CBO Director Doug Elmendorf testified, the ACA “spurs employment and would reduce unemployment over the next few years.” The ACA is thus – today – helping ensure that every American who wants a job can find one.

2. Helping slow the growth of health care costs, boosting hiring in the near term, and bolstering workers’ paychecks. The United States is currently experiencing a historic slowdown in the growth of health care costs. From 2010 to 2012 real per-capita health spending grew at an average annual rate of just 1.1 percent, and preliminary data and projections imply that this slow growth continued in 2013. The spending growth rates recorded over the last few years are the slowest on record, and less than one-third the long-term historical average of 4.6 percent that stretches back to 1960.
As documented in a report by the Council of Economic Advisers, the ACA is contributing to these trends through reforms to Medicare that reduce excessive payments to medical providers and private insurers and by deploying innovative new payment models that incentivize more efficient, higher-quality care. A growing body of evidence suggests that, in addition to reducing costs and improving quality in Medicare, these ACA reforms may be generating similar benefits system-wide.
Slower growth in health care costs reduces the growth of the health insurance premiums paid by employers, which has important benefits for workers. In the short run, lower health insurance premiums reduce the cost of hiring an additional worker, making it easier for employers to add jobs. One study co-authored by a leading health economist found that reductions in health care cost growth due to health care reform could increase job growth by 250,000 to 400,000 per year by the second half of this decade.
Economic research shows that, over time, an increasingly large fraction of the premium savings are passed on to workers in the form of higher wages. If only one-third of the recent slowdown in health care cost growth persists, the savings after a decade will amount to $1,200 per person, much of which will show up in worker’s paychecks as higher wages.

3. Reducing our long-term deficit and laying the foundation for future growth. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that over fiscal years 2013 through 2022, the ACA will reduce the deficit by $109 billion. The ACA’s deficit-reducing effects will grow over time. CBO estimates that over the decade from 2023 through 2032, the ACA will reduce the deficit by an average of 0.5 percent of GDP each year, corresponding to total deficit reduction of nearly $1.6 trillion over that ten-year period. Lower long-term deficits due to the ACA will mean higher national saving, which will increase capital accumulation and reduce foreign borrowing, thereby making workers more productive and increasing national income and living standards over time.

4. Improving health and making workers more productive. The ACA is improving health both for people who would otherwise not have had health insurance and for people who are already insured.
By expanding coverage, the ACA will expand access to needed medical care. Greater access to care as a result of being insured has been shown to reduce mortality, improve mental health, and improve self-reported health status. For Americans who had coverage before the ACA, the ACA guarantees access to preventive services recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force without cost-sharing, services that have been proven to improve health and save lives. Since 2010, more than 71 million Americans have received at least one preventive service without cost-sharing.
In addition, the ACA is helping to improve the quality and efficiency of care for all Americans, contributing to better health outcomes while reducing costs. One striking example comes from an ACA initiative that gives hospitals incentives to reduce the number of patients returning to the hospital after discharge, such as by ensuring higher-quality care during the initial hospital stay or making appropriate arrangements for where patients will receive care after discharge. Medicare has also funded community-based organizations that help patients move more smoothly from a hospital stay to care at home. Hospitals have responded to these programs, and, over the last three years, Medicare 30-day hospital readmission rates have turned sharply lower, and are now more than a percentage point below their average level from 2007 to 2011. Through August 2013, this decline corresponded to 130,000 avoided hospital readmissions.
People who live longer, healthier lives will miss fewer days of work, are less likely to become disabled, will tend to spend more years in the workforce, and will be more productive while on the job.

5. Reducing “job lock” and encouraging job mobility and entrepreneurship. Before the ACA, many Americans’ only source of secure health insurance coverage was through their jobs. For people with pre-existing medical conditions, purchasing coverage on their own was often unaffordable or even impossible since insurance companies could simply refuse to provide coverage. For others, buying coverage on their own meant living with the fear that their insurer would raise their premiums without warning or even cancel their policy altogether. This could have the effect of locking workers into jobs. As economists at the Heritage Foundation wrote before passage of the ACA: “Individuals who wish to take a better job, change careers, or leave the workforce to raise a family or to retire early take substantial risks…This health insurance obstacle to labor mobility is sometimes called ‘job lock.’”
Because of the ACA’s ban on discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions and its other strong consumer protections, all Americans now have secure access to health insurance, whether or not they can get coverage through their workplaces.

This guarantee of access to health insurance has a variety of economic benefits. Access to health insurance outside the workplace allows people to structure their careers in ways that make sense for them, like by taking time off to raise a family or by retiring when they want to. It also allows people to take risks that further their careers and benefit the economy as a whole, like going part-time in order to go back to school, leaving a job in order to start a business, or moving to a better job, perhaps at an employer that does not offer coverage. While the empirical evidence on the magnitude of these types of responses is incomplete (and in some cases mixed), there is no doubt that job lock presents an economic challenge. By increasing workers’ mobility across jobs, secure access to health insurance helps them to find the job that is best for them—and thus increases overall wages and productivity. Moreover, reducing job lock encourages entrepreneurship, a critical ingredient for growth and job creation.

6. Improving financial security in the face of illness. By expanding access to affordable health insurance coverage, the ACA is helping to ensure that getting sick no longer means financial ruin. Recent research examining an expansion of Medicaid coverage in the State of Oregon confirmed the important role that having insurance plays in ensuring financial security. The study, which used a “gold standard” randomized research design found that gaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid “almost completely eliminated” catastrophic medical costs (defined as medical costs in excess of 30 percent of income).
In addition to expanding coverage, the ACA is improving financial security for families who have coverage today. Because of the ACA, all insurance plans sold in the United States must cap enrollees’ annual out-of-pocket spending, and insurance companies can no longer sell low-quality policies with annual or lifetime limits on coverage. The ACA is also improving financial security for seniors by phasing out the Medicare Part D “donut hole.” Since the enactment of the ACA, these provisions saved 7.3 million Medicare beneficiaries an average of about $1,200 per person on prescription drugs. Overall, better financial protection makes an essential contribution to the well-being of families and thus the overall health of the economy.



Sources:
Political Contributions from Health and insurance industry
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/11/4/119.full.pdf


How Money in Politics Makes Healthcare Unaffordable
http://unitedrepublic.org/health-care/



Congressional Lawmakers invest in their Financial health
http://www.hispanicvista.com/HVC/Opinion/Guest_Columns/072509_Congressional_Lawmakers_invest_in_health_companies.htm


Six Economic Benefits of the Affordable Care Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/02/06/six-economic-benefits-affordable-care-act

7.1 million sign-up for healthcare

April 1, 2014
President Obama gave a speech at the White House to report that 7.1 consumers signed-up for ACA. He urged the congress to stop trying to kill it and join him in working out any problems which might arise in the future. Anyone who was unable to complete their registration after logging in prior to midnight: March 31, can take an additional two weeks to complete their application. If you would like to read more, click the source below:

Source:
http://www.bnd.com/2014/04/01/3139483/obama-plans-statement-7-million.html?sp=/99/673/150/

ACA (Affordable Care Act) expected to reach 7 million sign-ups

ACA (Affordable Care Act) expected to reach 7 million sign-ups. I think the Republican Tea Party had better re-think their 2014 election strategy.

A Hero is Remembered

A family member posted this on facebook, so I wanted re-post it on the blog because this brother is a real hero


For those of you who are wondering who is this man in the picture.
For some of you may know about an incident occurred that a pregnant woman named Ebony Wilkerson attempted to drown her kids in a SUV in the ocean. He and another man saw and heard the kids scream for help and rescued the children. You see our hero carry the kids out of the car.
Reason why I'm showing a photo of our hero is that mainstream media isn't giving this man credit to where it's due or showing his face that much. I think you and I know the answer to that.
All I can say to our hero Stacy Robinson thank you for taking action instead of standing there doing nothing. Thank you for saving those children.
Even though those kids are going to be haunted they'll remember that hero who risked his life and carried the them to safety.
Once again Stacy Robinson thank you

Last Day to Sign-up for Healthcare

Last Day to Sign-up for Healthcare
March 31, 2014 is the last day to sign-up for Obamacare (Affordable Care Act).
Over 5 Million people have signed-up so for. I think the projected goal is around 6 or 7 million. Don't listen to all the lies coming from the "Koch Brother machine". Go to the website to get the information for your self.





If you would like to sign-up for healthcare,Click the link below:
https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/b/welcome/?gclid=CO7XsNjJuL0CFWXl7AodUh0AMQ

Log Cabin Republicans up set with Obama Care (ACA) Gay Ad

Log Cabin Republicans up set with Obama Care (ACA) Gay Ad
Log Cabin Republicans are upset with this Ad which encourage members of the gay committee to get enroll in Obama Care (ACA). I think It

might be a good idea for them to launch a campaign against the Tea party instead of leading their party like little chickens. What you see in this ad could properly be seen in any gay club.

Get Enrolled