There are 72.7 million Americans on Medicaid (free healthcare). Obama says healthcare is a right, just like it’s Obama’s right to tax you to death to pay for somebody else’s free healthcare.
We also have 112 million people welfare/disability, and Congress is about to extend unemployment benefits so people can get more paid vacation from working. We have more people on welfare than the entire population of Germany, and a full 8% of the population of China on welfare.
The free shit will never stop flowing in this country, at least until it all collapses. My question is, do YOU get free healthcare? Or did your premiums go up, and did your deductibles double or triple? I’m quitting working and signing up for free shit. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Americans on Medicaid Exceed Population of UK
April 7, 2014 By Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) – The number of Americans who were enrolled in Medicaid at any time during fiscal 2013 exceeded the entire population of the United Kingdom, according to new data published by the federal government’s Medicaid and CHIP Payment Access Commission (MACPAC).
Were Medicaid a nation instead of a U.S. entitlement program it would be the 20th most populous country on earth.
“The estimated number of individuals ever covered by Medicaid remained steady at 72.7 million in FY 2013, compared to 72.2 million in FY 2012,” said MACPAC’s statistical report, released on April 1.
The United Kingdom has a total population of 63,742,977, according to the Central Intelligence Agency. Thus, Americans who were enrolled in Medicaid at some point last year outnumbered all of the people in the U.K..
The 72.7 Americans on Medicaid in fiscal 2013 also exceeded the populations of Thailand (67,741,401), France (66,259,012) and Italy (61,680,122), according to the population numbers published in the CIA’s World Factbook.
The latest report from MACPAC revised downward by 0.4 million (from 72.6 million) the number of people who had been enrolled in Medicaid in fiscal 2012. “The number of individuals ever covered by Medicaid grew by less than 2 percent, from an estimated 71.7 million in FY 2011 to 72.6 million in FY 2012,” said a MACPAC report released a year ago.
Medicaid, a federal-state partnership, is a means-tested entitlement program that provides health care to low income individuals.
The Affordable Care Act, which requires all individuals to have health insurance, also expanded Medicaid, requiring states to extend Medicaid coverage to people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not compel states do this, making the expansion optional for state governments.
– See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/americans-medicaid-exceed-population-uk#sthash.y9ouK7OU.dpuf
One good thing about Medicaid is that it’s reportedly pretty shitty. So the FSA gets what they paid for. If they want better health they should try a diet devoid of Hot Cheetos and Takis.
I have written / worked on Medical Clinic software.
Here’s what many people don’t understand: Medicare and Medicaid have a fee schedule. Another words Medicaid: TELLS THE DOCTOR what they are willing to pay. This is called the ‘reimbursment’. The trouble is that the reimbursment is so low, many physicians refuse these patients, or take only a small number.
When a Medicaid patient needs tests, then the doctor usually must contact Medicaid and provide more info / justification. This takes even more time.
Since the FSA is lazy and stupid, they have not a care what they are really going to get – hey that’s just a detail.
What the FSA doesn’t understand is that there is a lot of difference between have quality medical care, and an ‘insurance card’ that says you have been enrolled.
Post this one more time, in case you missed it:
ObamaPhone: Progressive Speed Dial
All ObamaPhones are coming with the following numbers programmed into speed dial. Older phones will be updated by via an over-the-air update. Phones not compatible with remote updating will be replaced. Don’t get up, we are sending some Acorn people around to take care of you.
ObamaPhone Speed Dial
1 Food Stamps
2 Free Health Insurance
3 Housing Hotline
4 Planned Abortionhood
5 Report Hurt Feelings / Racism
6 Amnesty And ID
7 Your Low Income (Apply for SSI or welfare)
8 Your Disability (Apply for SSDI)
9 Add Another ObamaPhone
10 Increase SNAP/EBT spending limit
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Medicaid is going to bankrupt the states that voted for the Obamacare expansion. It’s illegal to force states to increase Medicaid spending, and many opted out. Medicaid is a joke, but a very expensive joke. People that can’t see a doctor simply go to the ER, every day or 3x a day if they want.
Doctors and hospitals will go bankrupt seeing medicaid patients, because instead of paying for all the new free shit Medicaid recipients, states simply don’t pay their bills, or pay 10 cents on the dollar (of submitted bills). Specialists get almost nothing, and won’t see Medicaid patients. But it’s great for government and bureaucracy, as it’s created millions of union government drone jobs, pensions and non-medicaid healthcare benefits. That’s the whole point.
Still work for a living? Your healthcare costs are going to soar…….
Health Insurance: 14.5 Million to Get Massive Increases
The Fiscal Times By Brianna Ehley 6 hours ago
The price of health insurance premiums on plans purchased outside of the federal and state exchanges are much higher than expected, a survey of brokers found.
A proprietary survey of 148 brokers conducted by Morgan Stanley analysts revealed the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in the survey’s history, Forbes contributor Scott Gottlieb of the conservative American Enterprise Institute first noted.
Obamacare: Expect Premium Prices to Soar
The survey found that the prices for off-exchange plans in the small group market increased by an average of 11 percent, while off-exchange plans on the individual market increased by an average of 12 percent. Analysts noted that the prices tended to vary by state, with some states showing increases 10 to 50 times that amount, Gottlieb wrote.
According to the latest Census data, about 14.5 million—or 5 percent of the U.S. population gets health insurance on the private exchange.
The Morgan Stanley report attributed the increases to “changes under the ACA” including the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and the new requirements that plans provide more robust coverage.
An earlier survey conducted in January also found rising rates, but the newest numbers show even steeper hikes. The older survey indicated that rates were increasing by 6 percent in the small group market and 9 percent in the individual market.
The latest survey found that states seeing the steepest price increases for off-exchange individual plans include Delaware—where off-exchange plans increased by 100 percent, New Hampshire increased by 90 percent, Indiana by 54 percent, California by 53 percent and Connecticut by 45 percent.
Meanwhile, as Forbes noted, small group market plans increased the most in Washington by 588 percent, Pennsylvania by 66 percent and California by 37 percent.
Meanwhile, premiums for plans purchased on the state and federal exchanges tend to have cheaper premiums than comparable employer-based plans, though they have higher deductibles.
A report released by PwC’s Health Research Institute found that the average cost of premiums sold on the Obamacare exchanges is about $5,844 annually —or 4 percent less than the average cost of $6,119 for an employer-provided plan with comparable benefits.
Obamacare–Taxpayers in the Hole for $1.5 Trillion
Meanwhile, a HealthPocket.Inc study found the average individual deductible for Obamacare’s bronze plan was $5,081 a year—42 percent higher than the average deductible of $3,589 for an individually purchased plan.
Premiums on exchange plans are also likely to increase next year. The Hill reported that industry insiders are expecting premium prices to increase significantly—in some states by as much as 300 percent—all depending on a combination between the final mix of enrollees and new taxes imposed under the new law.
I am seeing collections rising every day as a result of deductibles. With the average savings of Joe Sixpack, a 5k deductible might as well be 20k, it will not get paid.More bankruptcies , more SSDI ,more Medicaid. Rinse and repeat.
@AWD, Acorn hasn’t existed since 2010, how are they going to assist the FSA in getting their new phones?
CNN reported today that Walt Disney’s new film called “Jet Black,” the African-American version of “Snow White” has been canceled. All of the 7 dwarfs: Dealer, Stealer, Mugger, Forger, Drive By, Homeboy, and Shank have refused to sing “Hi Ho” because they say it offends their black prostitute friends. They also say they have no intention of singing, “It’s off to work we go.”
Thank goodness for the most obese generation in the history of mankind: Baby Boomers!
Obesity Economic Data
Estimates of the medical cost of adult obesity in the US range from $147 billion to nearly $210 billion per annum.
Obesity costs Medicare $61.8 billion per year
Obesity makes up 8.5% of the Medicare budget
Obesity makes up 11.8% of the Medicaid budget
Based on current trends, the cost of obesity to the US are expected to increase by between $50 and $70 billion per year
And that’s not including indirect costs such as lost productivity, insurance premiums and lost wages. It has been estimated that America could be losing up to $580 billion in GDP per year thanks to lost productivity due to obesity.
@awd…..dat raciss
TJF Acorn is still in business. They just changed their name and letterhead.
Survey: US sees sharpest health insurance premium increases in years
9:47 PM 04/07/2014
Americans have recently been hit with some of the largest premium increases in years, according to a Morgan Stanley survey of insurance brokers.
The investment bank’s April survey of 148 brokers found that this quarter, the average premium increase for customers renewing an insurance plan is 12 percent in the small group market and 11 percent in the individual market, according to Forbes’ Scott Gottlieb.
The hikes — the largest in the past three years, according to Morgan Stanley’s quarterly reports — are “largely due to changes under the [Affordable Care Act],” analysts concluded. Rates have been growing increasingly fast throughout all of 2013, after a period of drops in 2012.
While insurers were hiking premiums since 2012 by smaller amounts, the lead-up to the Obamacare’s launch has seen the average rate at which premiums are growing fourfold.
The small group market saw a jump from a growth rate of close to 3 percent during Morgan Stanley’s September 2013 survey to just above 6 percent three months later in December — the month before a surge of Obamacare regulations hit insurance companies.
Over the next three months, the rate doubled again to the current average small growth premium growth rate of 12 percent.
Individual policies saw a much starker jump after the Obamacare exchanges launched, in anticipation of the health care law going live in 2014. Morgan Stanley’s September 2013 survey, like the previous three quarters, found a fairly constant growth rate around 2 percent — but in December, the rate had shot up to above 9 percent.
Morgan Stanley’s results echo what consumers are already seeing: the Affordable Care Act’s intensive regulation of the insurance market is driving health care premiums up strikingly.
The survey found that premium increases are due to several specific Obamacare policies. The most talked about may be the new benefits all insurance plans are required to offer and excise taxes targeted at insurers themselves, Forbes reports.
But there are two other big contributors to the rise in costs. Age restrictions on premiums prevent the insurer from charging older customers who cost more to cover a higher premium — hiking the costs for young and healthy people disproportionately. Commercial underwriting restrictions also bump up insurers’ costs and are reflected in premiums.
53% Expect Quality of Care To Suffer Under Health Care Law
Obama’s Job Approval Rating Drops Two Points in March
53% Expect Health System To Get Worse Under Obamacare
46% Oppose Health Care Law’s Individual Insurance Mandate
Voters Still Strongly Favor Health Insurance Choice Based on Costs
33% Say They’ve Been Personally Hurt by Health Care Law
Monday, April 07, 2014
Unfavorable opinions of the new national health care law are at their highest level in several months, while the number who think the quality of care in this country will get worse is at its highest level in over three years.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of Likely U.S. Voters have at least a somewhat unfavorable opinion of the health care law, with 43% who view it Very Unfavorably. Just 39% have a favorable view of the law, including 16% with a Very Favorable one. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Despite the Obama administration’s claim that it has exceeded its March 31 goal of signing up seven million Americans through new health insurance exchanges, overall unfavorables for the health care law are up from 54% two weeks ago. Most voters have had an unfavorable opinion of the law in regular surveys since the beginning of last year. But the latest finding matches the all-time high first reached in mid-November. Favorables fell to a record low of 36% in that same survey.
Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters now believe the quality of health care will get worse under the new law. That’s up six points from 47% a month ago and the highest level of pessimism since mid-March 2011. Twenty-four percent (24%) predict that health care will get better as a result of the law. Seventeen percent (17%) expect the level of care to stay about the same.
Eighty percent (80%) now rate the quality of the health care they receive as good or excellent.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of voters think Obamacare will force up the cost of health care. Just 20% believe costs will go down instead, while 16% say they will stay about the same. These beliefs are consistent with findings since November following the troubled rollout of the law.
Seventy-six percent (76%) feel it is at least somewhat likely that the health care law will cost more than officially projected, with 57% who say it’s Very Likely. Only 17% think the law is not very or Not At All Likely to cost more than estimated. These views, too, have changed little in the past 16 months.
At least us Injuns are exempt from the Obamacare mandate. Too bad for you white-eyes.
Fuck! The injuns finally caught a break. Lucky bastards!
Yup, whenever I see some Indians, I think “there go some lucky ass motherfuckers”.
Robmu1
You lazy ass, you need to create the logos, trademark them, and THEN you’ll get royalties. Always trying for an easy buck, just like the FSA.
To: Admin
Be cautious with generalizations.
Born to hard working parents with high school educations, having gone to work when I was 12, I progressed through education and many, many often simultaneous jobs to earn 6+ figures in media until 2008. Then financialization threw me, most of my colleagues and all my contacts off the roof. The few left are in their sixth year of 80 to 100 hour work weeks that only spare them rarely coming home to a nightmare of underwater mortgages and collection calls. They struggle with depression, anxiety and rage disorders. Their once privileged and brilliant children are futureless and lost in horrible social problems.
I have been unable to find work other than odd jobs for six years. I have applied for everything imaginable down to shoveling gravel at a concrete factory. I am in excellent health. I have cut meat, done farm work, run a store, managed sales, every kind of office work, cut timber, operated heavy equipment, made movies and tv shows, published web sites, broadcast radio, driven trucks, painted, pulled warehouse orders and shipped them. HR says I am no longer qualified to run a cash register and they have better candidates to handle luggage.
This month I began receiving food stamps and filed a health care application under the medicare expansion being undertaken by the arguably last functional state of the former United States, Oregon. Do not confuse us with Portland in the silly tv show, Oregon still has a solvent working government and society for as long as it can hold on. We have problems with influences on our national representatives but on the whole have resisted so far all the expansionist foolishness from urbanists, still can feed and cloth ourselves and live within our means while watching out for each other against venal globalist corporatist advances.
I paid taxes into these programs for decades. They presently are the fine line that prevents me from taking what I need from local TBTF offices per common law 223. I think you will know what that is.
I enjoy your writing and dread the state of our once great nation. Practical reality often comes with a set of rules and options very different from our wishes and ideals.
Generalizations often fail us when applied to practical reality. Be temperate with their use.
Keep up your work, I would miss it if it ends.
Age of Chance – this was not a thread from the Admin. You need to read more carefully.
You also say “I paid into these programs for decades”. So? What is your point? That money is gone. If you think that because you paid in, that you are somehow owed, or that the money should be perched waiting for you to claim it, then you are mistaken.
Sorry about your personal circumstances, but if you earned 6+ figures, and have been working for decades, and did not accumulated enough for yourself and your immediate family, you need to man up and take responsibility for that. It is not my, or anyone else’s problem, and we should not be forced at gunpoint to support you (I happily would contribute to charity to help out if I was not being held at gunpoint).
Fact is, there are very few truly innocents out there.
Age of Chance is not one of them. He made choices, and in the end they were unsuccessful ones. But he, by playing the “I worked hard, educated myself, and got fucked through no fault of my own” card, is trying to avoid responsibility for his own choices and decisions.
That Age of Choice can not at least be honest and say ” I fucked up, I picked the wrong profession and I filed to save enough when I had the chance” is not unusual. But it is indicative of where the world is. Everything is someone else’s fault.
The point, obviously, is only that condemning everyone who uses public benefit programs, including those who were charged by govt many times over what they could possibly ever use, in todays world will mean condemning many people other than the infamous “free shit army.”
Statements like unemployment benefits are for people to get “free vacation from working” are ridiculous. Try going from a professional paycheck to unemployment and see how much of a vacation it is.
Yes, many failed to plan for permanent unemployment. Not something we’d ever heard of in the country I grew up in. So when it happens and you only last five years that is just plain irresponsibility? You evidently would last indefinitely without income? You must be a pretty smart chap and all set up for life. Good for you. Those of us who put more faith into the old systems and our countrymen just weren’t as clever as you must be.
Only imagining the admin probably reads these comments and he might consider that generalizations such as “anyone who cashes a government check is a bum” are far below the level of intellect of his writing. Though evidently not below that of some of the readers.
Posts like these are useless and distracting. Forget about the “free shit army” for a while and pay attention to the real enemy FSA – Financialize Shit Army. Us bickering among ourselves over who is a better person because we worked harder or planned better with our nickles and dimes will allow them to continue strip mining the world with impunity.
Good luck.