ACA is LAW that sets minimum standards that all insurers have to follow

ACA expands Medicaid (or tried to), for the very poor who could never afford insurance on their own, and whose chintzy bosses offer them none

ACA eliminates yearly/lifetime caps/pre-existing condition exclusions

ACA sets in place certain tests/prescriptions that must be covered for FREE

ACA was intended to capture a small sector who were NOT being served (or who were being served poorly)

ACA allows parents to "carry" older "children" on their policies (this is now a problem, because a lot of 18-26ers do not "need" to buy their own)

ACA is the "rulebook"


ACA is the conduit.. the fact-checker (eligibility for subsidies etc)


ACA had to make a deal with the devil .. The Obama admin had to convince insurers that the millions of new customers (some subsidized by the government) would give them enough of a benefit that they needed, to go along with the new restrictions for the way they do business in the future. Insurers were poised to lose MILLIONS of customers, as we Boomers "graduated" into SS, so they should have gotten on their knees in thanks...but we all know how they operate.

Insurers are experts at "details & fine print", and they had THREE YEARS to prepare and comply. They had/have a foot in each camp, and even though they were the ultimate beneficiaries , they chose to do nothing to help, and many went out of their way to become stumbling blocks whenever possible, as do some in the AMA and this delightful portrayal of Pres. O from their website/facebook. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/SoCalDem/174



It's just too damned bad we were unable to just roll everyone who wanted to..into SS on a sliding scale for payments (based on age/income...for those under 65)

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts)Thu Nov-22-07 09:21 PM




He served less than a thousand and thirty-seven days.. a lifetime ago..and yet



People who never met him, and only learned of him by seeing a picture in Grandma's house, or in a book at school, and people all over the world, knew what he stood for, and admired him then, and still do.

He was young, by the standards of the day, and yes he may have been a "player", but he never embarrassed his country. He served 4 years in wartime, and acquitted himself admirably.

He was rich and could have partied his way through life, but he did not. The life he might have lost in wartime, he still lost in service to his country.

He met with "bad people".. He stared down our enemies, and they blinked. He erred with The Bay of Pigs fiasco, and like a man, he admitted it. He had courage and grace.

He was not petulant and secretive. No doubt he kept secrets, but he was not one to embarrass or belittle people .

He focused our hopes and aspirations, and looked to the future with fearless ambition...ambition to help the world and foster Peace..not to dominate and change regimes.

Millions of young people were inspired to put their lives on hold and venture to the four corners of the earth in the Peace Corps.

He "invented" the space program and within the 10-year goal he set, we had men on the moon..sent with computers with less power than your phone.

The world liked us then. We were the hope of the world. Foreign dignitaries came to the US and were treated with respect and decorum..not hotdogs on the grill at Mom & Dad's house.

Every president since him, has served longer, and yet his legacy is the strongest.

The sad thing is that when he died, hope died with him. His brother tried to regain it for us, but was killed for his efforts.

It's almost as if we are afraid to care too much again for a candidate..any candidate, lest we get our hearts broken again.

People of my age remember when hope was limitless.. we could do anything... and then we couldn't.


We've had presidents who were in office longer, but none of them have retained the interest or admiration of JFK. You can go to any country on earth and mention JFK, and they will nod, in silent understanding ..even if they do not speak English.

Presidents after him have come and gone, and most of the time, it's with a kick in the pants and a "Good Riddance". People can name every building in DC after Reagan, and JFK's administration will still shine brighter than any of those "Thousand points of Light" that Reagan/Bush loved to talk about..

Maybe those Thousand points of light were the days we had Kennedy..and the lights have long since gone out.

Maybe someday we will get another president who can inspire us.. I had one in my lifetime, and I wish the same for my children.

It could be that we just have not yet been introduced to that president.


edited to add.. Maybe we have had our "introduction"..only time will tell

One employer years ago stopped co-paying for BC/BS and we ended up with Lone Star Insurance .. We worried about the coverage from them, but that was back in the day when we could afford to pay out of pocket & wait for reimbursement.
They were surprisingly adequate.

We loved Pacificare and had the same medical clinic/doctors for 30 years, and then one year, the boss decided that we all had to go on Aetna

a year later we were told that we now had Kaiser times 5

.

"How's that scandal-investigation into you and your wife going?..Have you been indicted yet?"

Oh wait.... he's being helpful with ACA commentary..

If ONLY our leaders had truly been interested in US, instead of making sure that the insurance companies had "new" customers to replace all of us Boomers who are FINALLY graduating into health CARE, instead of health INSURANCE.

Medicare is up and operating.. and knows who we all are, and how much money we make (see the FICA-box on your checks). They KNOW who is eligible for subsidies.

EVERYONE should have had the opportunity to enroll in Medicare, and pay proportionally by age/income.. and we would be DONE with the nonsense.

The insurance companies could still sell "add-on" policies, if they choose to....or they could sell their magnificent buildings, racing yachts ..and just be thankful for their 30 year pillage..

and their fat-cat CEO's could find a new way to make $100+ million a year salaries..

Gradually, the VA could be just for the specialized treatments so necessary, and vets could go to anyplace near them...and not have to drive such long distances for treatment.

Employers would no longer control employees through extortion -by-healthcare..

people could start businesses because their healthcare is not tied to their particular job..

companies might actually benefit too because they would not be wasting time & money haggling over care for their employees.. They could go back to hiring people to do a task, paying THEM the extra money they had been wasting .

The insurers have very dirty hands in the ACA.. They actively sabotaged the origins of the law, and then "magnanimously" agreed to participate only because they are the winners... and even then, they could not resist the temptation to meddle and undermine.

There are millions of 30-65 yr olds who would LOVE to be embraced by Medicare..and who would gladly pay premiums to the USA, instead of Aetna..(and all the others)_

That's where I am now, but it's 65 I am longing for..

This coming April, I FINALLY get Medicare eligibility and my husband can retire.

He tells me that's my birthday present.. and then I jokingly say "Wow, I get a persnickety old man hanging around all day for a present"?

I hate the "hurry-up-and-wait" aspect to the whole thing.. Once we are both retired, we can start the epic "last chapter" of our "book". , which starts off with a BIG MOVE to Oregon,,, selling this house we have been in since 1981, buying our last house, and getting to know our grand-daughter who lives in Seattle.

We chose Oregon because it's midway between our 2 California sons and our Seattle son...and of course because Oregon is just so drop-dead gorgeous.

Our destination city (for now at least) is Florence Oregon (on the coast ..west of Eugene)..

I am so antsy.. I want to go NOW.. but I must wait..

It's so reminiscent of being 15 or 20

http://blog.pe.com/court-docket/2013/11/05/moreno-valley-ex-councilman-pleads-guilty-to-accepting-2-3-million-bribe/

MORENO VALLEY: Ex-Councilman pleads guilty to accepting $2.3 million bribe
November 5, 2013 by John Asbury

snip

Moreno Valley City Councilman Marcelo Co agreed to plead guilty Tuesday, Nov. 5, to offering $2.36 million in bribes to an undercover FBI agent posing as a real estate developer, in what officials called the largest bribe by an undercover agent in history. As part of his payoff, Co vowed to line the pockets of other councilmembers to secure a voting majority and inflate the value of a 38-acre parcel to more than $5 million that would be voted on by the council, officials said.

During the undercover meeting, Co vowed to vote in favor of any land use and development proposals by the fictional developer, officials said. In return, officials said the land deal would be approved by the council for $3 million, while Co would keep the additional $2.36 million as a cash bribe. U.S. attorney’s officials believe the proposal never came up for a vote by the council.

The bribe was caught on video — made with piles of cash visible in a public place, officials said.

Co is also accused of taking more than $100,000 in unreported income for his private business.

snip

http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/

I just copy-pasted a random section of this article he "wrote"

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/29/opinion/rand-paul-syria

and had 8 quick hits...

By Kelly O'Mara 8 hours ago

LINK


Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, use a tramway during Mount Rushmore carving (Photo: Charles D’Emery, courtesy …
On Halloween of 1941, carving on South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore was declared complete. The monument, which features the heads of Presidents Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt and Jefferson, was originally intended to show full-body representations of the four presidents. But time and money constraints limited sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who had previously carved the face of Robert E. Lee on Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Construction, using dynamite and involving more than 400 workers, began on Oct. 4, 1927. Washington’s was the first face finished — dedicated on July 4, 1934 — followed by Jefferson in 1936, Lincoln in 1937 and Roosevelt in 1939. However, the mountain monument wasn’t yet complete.

Borglum had planned to include an 80-by-100-foot inscription, but weaknesses in the granite forced him to relocate some of the heads and revise the plan.

snip