Obamacare Co-Ops Defy Forecasts to Win Market Share
Source: HIX (Health Insurance Exchange)
(Bloomberg) In Maine, the insurer that has enrolled the most Obamacare customers isnt the states well-established Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, owned by WellPoint Inc. Its WellPoints only rival: Maine Community Health Options, a startup that didnt exist three years ago.
The newcomer, funded primarily by taxpayer money lent under the U.S. health care law, has won about 80% of the market so far in Maines new insurance exchange, exceeding its own expectations, said Kevin Lewis, the chief executive officer.
Obamacare opponents predicted early on that insurance co-ops created by the law would fail, and that much of the $2.1 billion they were loaned to get started would be lost. Instead, the 23 co-ops that now exist nationally have enrolled about 300,000 people in health plans by combining low premiums with a certain homespun appeal, according to company executives.
Were doing really well, Lewis said in a telephone interview. Taxpayers face no risk whatsoever that Maine Community will go under, he said. A lot of those early, dire concerns just need to be re-examined.
Read more: http://eba.benefitnews.com/health-insurance-exchange/news/obamacare-co-ops-defy-forecasts-to-win-market-share-2739928-1.html
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)and his twisted bootstrapping fantasies.
tofuandbeer
(1,314 posts)at what point do you think the right will stop calling it Obamacare (because it's honoring his name with a successful program)?
okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)tofuandbeer
(1,314 posts)By changing the name they created, they're admitting it's successful.
No Vested Interest
(5,157 posts)In some states, people will sign up for the ACA, or state-named plan, but, when asked how they fell about Obamacare, may will say they're against it, even though they are enrolled.
I feel we Dems would do well to refer to health reform as the ACA, or a term other than Obamacare.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)"oppose" it only because they would prefer something more to the left (e.g. Public Option or single-payer). Personally, I'm in the latter camp, but I'd rather have Obamacare than no Obamacare.
No Vested Interest
(5,157 posts)not to the act itself, of which we can be very proud and grateful.
You know, as well as I, that single-payer is not possible at this time; best to give energies to that which is doable, such as raise the minimum wage, etc.
You also know that many Dem. office-holders are not willing to campaign with Pres. Obama and that many attack ads, which I see regularly here in Ohio on behalf of Mitch O'Connell in nearby KY demonize the Dem candidate's embrace of the ACA. In the hills of KY the people were signed up on kynect, the KY exchange. They were okay with that. When Obamacare- another name for the same thing- is mentioned, they said they were against it.
okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)embraced it.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)I wonder, though, if the name itself might not become more popular as the system itself grows in public favor.
In any case, I think it's a terrible mistake for any Democrat to campaign against it, whatever the name. By November, as more people experience the reality of the improvements in their own lives and those of the people around them, standing against Obamacare by whatever name will be a losing position, and one that I would only wish on Republicans.
No Vested Interest
(5,157 posts)President Obama will become an ex-President, and it will be better to have the legislation stand on its own.
Agreed that no Democrat should campaign against it. It should be more than defended, it should be proclaimed.
Not even a need to say "it needs fixing" - that is a given with any legislation, and health care is so much more complex than Social Security, for example, where money is simply deducted from a paycheck and the individual's account is built up over many years.
I also believe that with the ACA, for the first time many Americans have had to think for themselves about their own medical and physical needs, about the risks one is willing to take in regard to personal health and insurance, and to make decisions in that regard.
In many ways, it's been mind-boggling, to digest all this information.
Fred Gilmore
(80 posts)Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.....
frylock
(34,825 posts)ymetca
(1,182 posts)back in the early 1990's. The premiums were low, there were no deductibles, and regular checkups were free. They had a help-line that a person actually answered when you called. More and more businesses were dumping their for-profit insurance plans for the non-profit one. I worked for a large employer and everyone loved it when we switched to it.
Then the Republican-controlled state legislature killed it at the behest of United Healthcare, which now owns close to 90% of the Oklahoma market. So much for their so-called "free market" approach to solving America's health care crisis.
When a Republican squeals about Obamacare that's code for "we are water-carriers for the insurance cartels".
For profit health insurance should be illegal, IMHO.
ramapo
(4,585 posts)the Blues (Blue Cross/Shield) were non-profit. That ended here in NJ a long time ago.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Obamacare has been a largely silent revolution in terms of the people who are getting benefits. But then, those people didn't have any voice but PBO. And we see how he gets covered.
hue
(4,949 posts)For example, Kentucky: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/27/2690781/kentucky-governor-obamacare/
Botany
(70,291 posts)n/t
freshwest
(53,661 posts)By Charles P. Pierce on May 12, 2014
It's really time for the Republican party, at the local, state, and party levels, to man up here, or else to say clearly that individual acts of seditious lawlessness are part of the party's basic philosophy of government ...
Lyman said the much-publicized ride on the northern section of the 11-mile trail is less about the canyon specifically and more about public access to trails in general. "This is not about Recapture. It is not about ATVs. It is not politics, it is not economics," he said. "It is part of who I am. It is part of Blanding, and it is our culture, too. We don't not want to see groups come in and say these trails did not exist ... it was a thoroughfare since the mid-1800s"
... This is an elected official, not some racist wrinkle-bag like Cliven Bundy. If you vote for Phil Lyman, you are voting for sedition. If you are Fox News, and you celebrate him, you are celebrating sedition. It is long past time for the Republican party to fish or cut bait on this end of movement conservatism. Either support the seditious philosophy of local control, or oppose it. But they shouldn't be allowed any more to use its energy during election years and then walk away after the votes are cast ...
There far too much loose talk in respectable Republican circles about nullification, secession, and the crackpot theories of county government that used to be the exclusive ideological province of the Posse Comitatus movement ... Increasingly, there is no apparent fringe to conservative rhetoric, let alone any real limits. Somebody within that party has to step up and rein this lunacy in, or else embrace it publicly.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/utah-blm-battle-protest-051214
to struggle4progress:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024946258
Charles Pierce warned about this media driven phenomena before:
SEAN HANNITY'S CONTINUED EFFORTS TO GET SOMEBODY SHOT - By Charles P. Pierce
to kpete:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024830610
But then, Hannity's been doing that for years, with his weekly two-minute hate feature on his show. I saw it when he was doing it on television, and here is what some others thought of it and their words explain it:
Sean Hannity: Enemy of the State
http://voices.yahoo.com/sean-hannity-enemy-state-168225.html?cat=9
10 Worst Lies Spewed By Sean Hannity
http://www.alternet.org/10-worst-lies-spewed-sean-hannity?paging=off¤t_page=1
The horror show never ends with these guys.
IronLionZion
(45,261 posts)K+R+B. We should all keep sharing this info until everyone we know, knows that non-profit insurance exists, can compete directly against for-profit, and win.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I think a lot of people wrote them off because of that.
hue
(4,949 posts)Open enrollment in the fall will, IMHO, bring another wave of interest, knowledge & increase in numbers for the marketplace.
So I think Obamacare is a fixed feature of everyday US life & will have a huge impact on the 99%.
But that won't stop the 1% from scraping the bottom of the barrel with their lies & propaganda!