[quote=FlyerInHi]njtosd, ACA was negotiated over 2 years, and passed in 2010. Obama tried a not successful bi-partisan approach.[/quote]If the (nearly all) Dems in Congress had over 2 years and there was as much “haggling” over the bill as you claim, then why didn’t our 35 (out of 53) Reps in Congress who voted for it (led down that garden path by their “principal hack,” Nancy Pelosi) take into account the laws already on the books of their great state?? Did they have any idea that some of the “fine print” in the ACA would conflict with and/or expand the powers the gubment had due to laws already passed???
By not doing their homework by reading and studying the ACA’s fine print with a fine-toothed comb, even though they purportedly had TWO YEARS to do so, our elected officials who were supposed to be seeing to our best interests essentially sold their constituency (us) down the river …. especially their own “brethren” (the 55-64 year-old set) who were at the core of their most established, diehard supporters. They ALL had Legislative Analysts from their respective local offices who could assist with this while they fulfilled their duties elsewhere. Why didn’t they utilize them??
I don’t believe for one second that NONE of our reps were familiar with laws already on Cali’s books which could override, conflict with and/or muddy the waters of the language in the ACA, including:
And our Reps had to have known that, as a consequence of forming Covered CA (our state healthcare exchange, essentially being created as the “quasi-gubmental gatekeeper” of nearly ALL the healthplans sold on CA’s individual market), that the major carriers long doing biz in the state could vote with their feet after the inception of the ACA’s passage into law … in short order … which is actually what happened. DUH!
They ALSO had to have known that after the ACA was passed into law, the CA DHCS was going to run how Covered CA would operate and in doing so, they would use their County Medi-Cal Agencies (subdivisions of themselves) to essentially run the show! If our reps didn’t “think thru” the enormous ramifications of expanding our (already overloaded) Medi-Cal system before they voted on it (which historically had a dearth of member-providers to treat their existing indigent patients), they either had their heads up their a$$es or were grossly incompetent … or both.
Our own Reps here in the Golden State screwed us all and especially royally effed over their many millions of mostly asset-rich, lower income “brethren.” If overlooking these troublesome facts was not “intentional” during the “negotiation phase” of the ACA then they were hopelessly incompetent and should have never been elected to their post in the first place. That’s 35 votes that should have never gone that direction and Cali is only ONE state! In region 1 (roughly the northern third of the state), providers have been leaving these small towns in droves since 1/1/14, causing residents of rural counties to have to travel ~3 hours just to get a simple routine scan!
It would be very interesting to poll these (mostly former) state reps today one by one and ask them what was running through their heads when they voted the ACA (and expanded Medi-Cal) into law. Did they somehow believe that passing a “law” of which won’t really function well in the “real world” due to neglecting to get all the “moving parts” (i.e. providers and carriers) completely on board with it first would actually work for those it was intended to benefit . . . or even wise?
In some states, the “Obamacare system” is completely hopeless for all ages because few (and dwindling) providers are cooperating with it and the members of “marketplace” healthplans in those states are paying monthly premiums into thin air … for nothing. Thank G@d some of those states have numerous IHS hospitals and clinics to serve their HUGE eligible population. Were it not for the IHS (and tribal sovereignity …. legal and financial) the healthcare situation in those states would no doubt be extremely dire.
The sooner the ACA is scrapped, the better off we’ll all be. Even dumping the exchange bureaucracies and having a “transition period” back to the semblance of the way it was prior to 1/1/14 will be infinitely better than the month-to-month insecurity of marketplace healthplan members and consumers’ major headaches from intractable problems lasting months on end that we have now . . . all caused by the utter incompetence at the “gubment” level. At least carriers will be encouraged to come back into currently “locked” state markets and provide badly needed coverage options, (i.e. not necessarily “ACA complaint” plans) to the uninsured.
