55 Comments - OneMan - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 3:48 pm: That is kind of a sad number…. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 3:54 pm: “For those looking for a ‘Presidential Midterm Narrative’…” - Northsider - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:01 pm: Ah, Republican crocodile tears. How moving. - Mason born - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:02 pm: OUCH - nothin's easy - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:09 pm: The numbers are trending as those experienced in Massachusetts…perhaps Ms. Senger could explain her comprehensive, funded plan with which to replace the ACA? Until then, please ignore the person behind the curtain (press release)…using words like “failure” is like declaring summer over because of a late spring. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:13 pm: Who wants to pay premiums in November for coverage that doesn’t start until January? How many new Illinoisans are now covered by Medicaid? - walkinfool - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:14 pm: She must be trolling for out-of-state PAC dollars. - Bill White - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:15 pm: === How many new Illinoisans are now covered by Medicaid? === Indeed. Medicaid expansion is a big deal. What I find sad is that the GOP cares more about scoring political victories than they do trying to figure out how to solve the problem. Of course, for many Obama resigning as POTUS and returning to his native Kenya is the only reform of the ACA they would find acceptable. /snark - Empty Suit - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:17 pm: So is that about $18k per person? Been cheaper just to give each one $5k-$9k per year for insurance. - Stones - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:18 pm: It’s easy to identify problems - much tougher to suggest a workable solution. - Phenomynous - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:21 pm: Enrollment numbers will be fine. I mean, the 5+ million people who liked their health insurance but weren’t able to keep it will have to purchase it from somewhere, or pay a tax. It’s fine. - Michelle Flaherty - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:23 pm: And if there’s anyone who would know a vivid demonstration of failure when they see one, it would be a House Republican. - hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:26 pm: FWIW, only 148 people signed up in the first month of Romneycare. I don’t disagree with anyone who says the website implementation has been a disaster or the law has wound up working in ways that people were not properly prepared for, but these first-month enrollment numbers don’t mean a whole lot when coverage doesn’t even start until January. I am most likely (barring an employment status change between now and January) a future enrollee in Obamacare, but have been waiting to make my enrollment complete until I know for sure that I won’t have health insurance through an employer starting next year. There may not be very many people like me, but I am sure I am not the only one in this spot. The reason I am going to be enrolling in Obamacare is not because I am being forced to by my government, but because I have been denied the chance to purchase individual health insurance no matter that I’ve been willing to pay practically anything for it, for the past 18 months because an awful 48-hour migraine I got when I was 19 that sent me to the E.R. counts as a preexisting condition. I’m trying to not get too soapboxy on this as a national issue but as someone who has FINALLY been given the chance to purchase insurance thanks to this law, man is the pooh-poohing of Obamacare by the Darlene Sengers of the world pretty offputting to me as a voter and man does the concern for people “losing” health insurance coverage come across as pretty insincere. - dupage dan - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:31 pm: Nationally, as well as state-wise, most GOP ideas were ignored or belittled. Attempts to come to the table with ideas were batted aside. Very little coverage by the media led many folks to believe the GOP had no ideas - the party of no. How many folks remember the attempts to make tort reform part of the ACA? How about the ideas of opening up competition between insurance companies? There were many ideas - to say that the GOP had none or proffered none is either an obtuse observation or a result of profound ignorance. - Skirmisher - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:34 pm: This whole thing is beyond awful I had a guy in this week putting down new flooring in my house. He has never had health insurance and wishes he could afford it. However, after taxes and child support, he has $1350.00 per month on which to live. He checked and found that the cheapest policy he could get under Obamacare is $450.00 per month. Do the math. This guy wasn’t brought up in a culture that would allow him to accept a government hand-out, so he will just pay the fine like millions of others and continue to do without health insurance. What a deplorable, disgraceful mess! - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:41 pm: ===There were many ideas - to say that the GOP had none or proffered none is either an obtuse observation or a result of profound ignorance.=== Excuse me Dan, but the entire ACA is a Republican idea. Your party just wouldn’t vote for it. If this was a Democratic health care law, it would be single payer or Medicare for everybody. Then your charges of “socialized medicine” would be accurate. - Sgt Schultz - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:50 pm: Yes, yes it is. - Joe from Joliet - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:51 pm: ===anyone who would know…failure…would be a House Republican=== Being in the majority is now considered to be failure. Got it. - Phenomynous - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:53 pm: -The entire ACA is a republican idea- Is this talking point working? - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:54 pm: - Joe from Joliet - , Senger comes from the Illinois House GOP. Please, keep up. - Michelle Flaherty -, one of your best, but really, when aren’t you Spot-On? - Bill White - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:55 pm: Would Darlene Senger support Mary Landrieu’s proposed bill to help fix the ACA or is bashing Obama a higher priority? http://www.landrieu.senate.gov/?p=news&id=4037 - Katiedid - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:56 pm: ==Being in the majority is now considered to be failure. Got it.== Um, pretty sure Michelle was referring to the *Illinois* House Republicans, of which Rep. Senger is currently a member. They are decidedly not in the majority. - Wordslinger - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:10 pm: Phenom, is it a talking point when it’s true? Try the google. Start with ACA Heritage Foundation. Why do you think the AMA and insurance companies backed it? - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:10 pm: ===Is this talking point working?=== http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/assuring-affordable-health-care-for-all-americans - Michelle Flaherty - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:14 pm: Joe, Rep. Senger is in the super-minority party. - walkinfool - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:17 pm: There were a lot of ideas in this giant bill that came from all over the political spectrum. This is hardly a “talking point”. The drive to expand Medicaid was clearly a Dem goal. The idea of exchanges to sell on behalf of private insurance companies, instead of single-payer system, was primarily a Republican demand. The Dems’ goal of broad coverage to absolutely everyone, was trimmed back in compromise. The individual mandate was previously proposed by the American Enterprise Institute, and the controls on benefits were part of an amendment offered by a Republican Congressman. Some of it was obviously modeled on Romneycare, despite Romney then claiming those parts should only be considered on a state-by-state basis. They all got folded in, over a five-month, bi-cameral, eight-committee process. The strange reality, in our environment of spin and inter-party warfare, is that rather than the ACA being rightfully praised as a combination of ideas from both parties, it became a partisan bludgeon. Implementation fails, of course, are another matter, and in the Dems’ lap. - Yikes - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:19 pm: “Illinois has spent over $25 million on top of the federal government’s multi-million dollar website, to enroll the hundreds of thousands of eligible citizens into the Affordable Care Act” Well ,when you put it THAT way. - Downstate Illinois - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:25 pm: Sorry, you bunch of sorry Dems. Not one Republican voted for this bill. That makes it a Democrat bill, and the biggest policy failure ever. Your side owns this. There were plenty of other ways to address the health problem, but it’s your side that wanted the government, not individuals and the market in control. As to hisgirlfriday and her sob story. You didn’t need Obamacare to get insurance. Illnois has operated the Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan now for a number of years. It’s designed specifically for those who have been turned down due to pre-existing conditions in the private market. The Louisiana senator coming up for re-election is grabbing at straws trying to get ahead of the wave that’s going to make her campaign chances look like Eighth Ward after Katrina. Abolishing parts of the bill will only make it worse. It needs to be repealed totally. - Downstate Illinois - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:25 pm: Sorry, you bunch of sorry Dems. Not one Republican voted for this bill. That makes it a Democrat bill, and the biggest policy failure ever. Your side owns this. There were plenty of other ways to address the health problem, but it’s your side that wanted the government, not individuals and the market in control. As to hisgirlfriday and her sob story. You didn’t need Obamacare to get insurance. Illnois has operated the Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan now for a number of years. It’s designed specifically for those who have been turned down due to pre-existing conditions in the private market. The Louisiana senator coming up for re-election is grabbing at straws trying to get ahead of the wave that’s going to make her campaign chances look like Eighth Ward after Katrina. Abolishing parts of the bill will only make it worse. It needs to be repealed totally. - MrJM - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 5:49 pm: Concern troll is concerned. – MrJM - pensioner - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 6:30 pm: ACA “failure”. Much ado about nothing. - pensioner - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 6:31 pm: A vivid demonstration of failure would be any republican. - Reader - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 7:10 pm: @Bill White In an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Barack Obama opined on Iraq, “There’s an old saying in politics: when your opponent’s in trouble, just get out of the way … in political terms, I don’t think that Democrats are obligated to solve Iraq for the Administration.” Turnabout is fair play in politics. Clean up your own huge mess, Democrats. - Sun - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 7:16 pm: @Reader Then stop your obstructionist ways(i.e. closing the government, sequestration, defunding ACA 46 (?) times, debt ceiling can kicking, etc), Republicans - Holdingontomywallet - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 7:23 pm: Inept. They had three years to bulid a website and unlimited funds. Obama either intentionally mislead everyone when he said you could keep your plan and your doctor or he didn’t understand his own “signature” law. Either scenario is unacceptable. The NY Times actually called it an “incorrect promise”. The bigger problems are the cost of the plans and the large deductibles for people who do not receive subsidies. When young people don’t sign up and elect to pay the $95, get ready to open your wallet. I - Johnny Justice - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 7:37 pm: Doesn’t Illinoia have its own website for people to sign up for Obamacare? How come we never hear anything about it? Is it having the same problems at the national website? What’s the web address of the Illinois site? - hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 8:01 pm: @JohnnyJustice - Illinois did not set up its own exchange so while the state does have its own web presence (getcoveredillinois or something) to direct people to get coverage, you get filtered through to healthcare.gov and the federal exchange. My experience with the site the first couple of weeks was pretty awful and frustrating, but I was able to get through to complete an application late last month and started comparing the different policies offered. In my case, with the premium supports factored in, I’ll be able to purchase an individual policy from BlueCross/BlueShield in the exchange that is approx. $150 to $200 less per month in premiums than I paid a few years ago for comparable BlueCross/BlueShield coverage via COBRA through my old employer. - Cassandra - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 8:25 pm: I think the website will be fixed in a few months and the sticker shock over having to pay for the new policies will be over in a couple of years at most. In the meantime, the Dems will have to take their lumps. So what? The law will go on. - Anon - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 8:29 pm: *- pensioner - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 6:31 pm: A vivid demonstration of failure would be any republican.* Yes, yes of course. Illinois is in the toilet due to democrat/liberal rule, Chicago is soon to be Detroit due to democrat rule. You need new glasses. - Catrike - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 8:42 pm: “There were plenty of other ways to address the health problem, but it’s your side that wanted the government, not individuals and the market in control.” Name one. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 9:00 pm: When the ACA was being debated, approximately 46 million Americans didn’t have health insurance. Obama and Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate approved a market-based solution that kept private insurance companies front and center in providing coverage. Modeled after Romneycare and inspired by the Heritage Foundation, the ACA free riders in the system by requiring everyone to buy insurance. Sender and others can complain that few people have signed up, but the 100,000 people who now have private insurance, to say nothing of those now covered by Medicaid and those who can stay on their parents coverage, represents a big step forward in tackling the problem. For those of you who have forgotten, the problem was 40 million Americans without health insurance. The ACA is not perfect, the roll-out has been horrible, and the President misrepresented the facts of the bill as far as keeping your substandard, cheap, catastrophic coverage if you loved it so much (ha!). People are going to pay more but on average, more people are going to have better coverage and in the long run, all of us will pay less for healthcare. But if the Republicans are serious about repeal, remember this: if the Democrats have to do this again, it’s going to be single payer and Republicans will regret the day they let the know-nothings in their party dictate public policy. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 9:02 pm: The ACA *eliminated* free riders… - Dazed and Confused - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 9:06 pm: - Skirmisher - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 4:34 pm: This whole thing is beyond awful I had a guy in this week putting down new flooring in my house. He has never had health insurance and wishes he could afford it. However, after taxes and child support, he has $1350.00 per month on which to live. He checked and found that the cheapest policy he could get under Obamacare is $450.00 per month. ………. BS……I’m 63 years old and love in Illinois and without any subsidy can buy insurance (silver) for less than $400. Considering I’m 63 this isn’t too bad. I suspect you are not getting the facts unless he’s 63 also! A lot of hype and misinformation out there. Most GOP crap! - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 9:08 pm: The ACA *eliminated* free riders… which is a very conservative approach by the way. - Holdingontomywallet - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 9:19 pm: “substandard, cheap, catastrophic coverage if you loved it so much (ha!). ” Tell that to the people who liked their plans that weren’t cheap or catastrophic”. An example, is Kirsten Powers a Democratic operative in the Clinton-Gore campaign. She lost her insurance and will now pay 2-3 times the $$$ for the same coverage. How about the 5 million who lost their insurance when they were told they could keep it? Saying all those policies were cheap and substandard is misleading - an “incorrect promise” according to the NY Times. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 9:29 pm: Yes, and my employer is doing its level best to cut back on its insurance coverage so that it doesn’t have to pay the excise tax. Each year for the next three, my deductible goes up and my coverage comes closer to the minimum level proscribed by ACA. Right now, I have Cadillac coverage apparently. In three years, I’ll have average coverage, but will pay more for it. I get it. That’s the way the law works. But I’ll never again have to worry about losing my insurance coverage or going bankrupt if I get sick. I’ll never again have to worry about my sister who couldn’t afford health insurance after a breast cancer scare, or my kids who may get sick and run into lifetime limits. That was the deal, and for those of paying attention in 2010, that is exactly what the ACA promised. Oh, and no American will lack health insurance ever again. That’s the price of living in a civilized society. - b - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 10:16 pm: yeah 47th, and the only way positive things you talk about happen more cheaply is single payer. So let’s make insurance companies as rich as we can in the meantime. sigh - Holdingontomywallet - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 10:22 pm: “Oh, and no American will lack health insurance ever again.” The CBO estimates that in 2022–8 years after the Affordable Care Act has been fully implemented–30 million people will remain uninsured. - bk - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 10:32 pm: Insure 30 million more people and this will save money we have been told. But they forgot to tell me my deductible would go from 1000 to 4000. OOPS! Oh yea and your premium would go up too, SORRY! Typical socialist progressive policy. We know whats best for you. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 10:47 pm: Here is the money quote from that link: Republicans in red states, many of whom have bashed ObamaCare as a federal takeover of the health care system, have chipped away at the law by refusing to launch their own exchanges (in those cases, the federal government will simply do it for them). GOP-led state legislatures in 21 states have also declined to expand Medicaid under the law, potentially leaving out millions who were supposed to be brought under the ObamaCare umbrella. Those states include 11 of the 15 states with the highest uninsured populations (in order, starting at the top: Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Arizona, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Indiana). - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 13, 13 @ 11:15 pm: Last post tonight, I promise. You want a “vivid demonstration of failure?” Start with governors and legislatures in states with the highest numbers of uninsured residents who refuse to expand Medicaid despite the fact that it won’t cost them a dime for the first few years. Those state officials simply said, to hell with the ACA and too bad for our folks who can’t afford insurance. They intentionally sabotage the law and then complain that too many won’t get insurance coverage under it, as if that justifies why they sabotaged the bill in the first place. Why would these states deny coverage for their residents? Can anyone offer a rational explanation for that? Why do these states want their residents to go without insurance coverage when it won’t cost them anything in the short term? What conservative principle is being served with this strategy? It’s like refusing to plug in the light and then complaining because it’s too dark. Did I mention that the light and the electricity were free? - AFSCME Steward - Thursday, Nov 14, 13 @ 7:44 am: As usual, politicans with the next election in sight, only state the facts that suit their, or their party’s purpose. This statement by Rep. Senger is misleading & inaccurate. In fact, thousands of Illinois residents have signed up for insurance under the ACA. Apparently Rep. Senger forgot about the new Medicaid rules, that allow adults that were previously income eligible but failed to meet other criteria, to sign-up for Medicaid. Rep. Senger, the new Medicaid rules are a part of the ACA. Illinois began signing up potentially eligible Medicaid recipients prior to October 1. The last number I heard was in excess of 40,000 signed up for Medicaid. For the record, I am an opponent of the ACA. I believe it was poorly conceived and has large design flaws, so of which are becoming apparent. However, I also believe that public officals should conducted themselves with integrity. It is dishonest to only state part of the case. If she meant that only 1370 residents signed up through the exchanges, then that is what she should have said. - Powell - Thursday, Nov 14, 13 @ 7:52 am: I felt senger’s comments were pretty measures. Sounds like an wants it fixed. Wanting it to work properly, ie you can keep your plan if you want it, seems pretty mainstream and rational to me. - Amuzing Myself - Thursday, Nov 14, 13 @ 8:53 am: “Why do these states want their residents to go without insurance coverage when it won’t cost them anything in the short term?” I find it typical of today’s culture - especially “progressives” - who gloss over that little “in the short term” detail. That’s how this state got into the budget mess its in, and that’s how individuals end up with tens of thousands of dollars of personal debt. Let’s do it now, because “no payments until 2015!” ignoring the balloon payments later because that won’t be our problem. And as for labelling Senger a failure simply because she’s in a minority caucus, I would point to the current budget situation in Illinois. Yes, after ten years in complete control of state government, the Democrats are a shining example of how to govern. - otoh - Thursday, Nov 14, 13 @ 9:13 am: Gotta go sit down. This thread is spinning too fast. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.