Already tapped, tal.

"The leech is invaluable in microsurgery when faced with the difficulties of reattaching minute veins. Ears have such tiny veins that, in the past, no one was able to successfully reattach them. Then, in 1985, a Harvard physician was having great difficulty in reattaching the ear of a five-year-old child; the tiny veins kept clotting. He decided to use leeches and the ear was saved. This success established leeches in the modern medical world. Since then, leeches have saved lives and limbs, reducing severe and dangerous venous engorgement post-surgery in fingers, toes, ear, and scalp reattachments; limb transplants; skin flap surgery; and breast reconstruction. "
NATURE. Bloody Suckers. Leech Therapy | PBS

everything has a purpose

Yes leeches are useful but I prefer hospitals equipped with cutting edge equipment over those equipped with snake oil.

Hospitals never have menus or price lists.

Menus? Why yes, "I think I'll have a frontal lobotomy today. What's that run"

With or without leeches?

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With or without leeches?

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The question now is with or without drugs?

No, You Can't Keep Your Drugs Either Under Obamacare

Hello again,

So, you can't keep your policy. You can't keep your doctor. You can't keep your hospital, and now you can't keep your drugs. The deductibles are out of sight. The premiums are unaffordable, the co-pays are wayyyy too high, and the caps are wayyy to low. Plus, Obamacare DOESN'T cover babies!

Hmmmm... Now I know what those FEMA death camps are for.

excon

I did not know Obamacare wouldn't cover babies, I don't recall having used that one do you? Feel free to rebut the Forbes column though. Meanwhile, from your state...

Guest: I like my insurance plan but I can't keep it under Obamacare | Opinion | The Seattle Times

The burden is between regulators, insurances, and drug companies and there are 50 different approaches. There is no universal standard. Except when you turn 62/65. One reason that makes buying insurance across state lines impossible.

If you're smart you investigate global drug markets online for drugs, or talk to your doctor, and let them deal with each other. My doctor has a great staff in that regard. But of course you may not be aware that doctors and hospitals are forming their own regional cost sharing groups to get around state restrictions that limit federal dollars for drugs and care access.

I think your article specifically applies to the private insurance market, and how some states are still scrambling to finalize regulations that save them all a few bucks. That's often what market solutions are about. Even the employer reporting exemption only affected a very narrow group of larger employers.

Hello again, Steve:

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I did not know Obamacare wouldn't cover babies,

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That was a FOX Noise scare for a few days, until their crack reporters revealed that the guy who MADE that claim, forgot to put his youngest kid on the application..

excon

He still blamed Obama. But that's not unusual, that's what they have been doing for a long time. This is an old story, but the tactic is the same still.

Revealed: Letters From Republicans Seeking Obamacare Money | The Nation

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Whether cutting a ribbon or signing a letter, no Republicans have acknowledged that the health programs they are endorsing are provided by Obamacare.

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If these grant letters—sent since the ACA's implementation in 2010—are any guide, GOP opposition to the law will be seriously tested when the open enrollment period for ACA exchanges begins this fall. What will these Republican lawmakers say to their uninsured constituents who want to sign up?

To the extent that the law is successful, it places its Republican critics in a bind, which is why they're working so hard to undermine it. “The thing about reading these letters is that they're well-drafted. If you were to read them as stand-alone, you would say, 'Gosh, the Affordable Care Act is great,' not 'Let's repeal the bill,'” says Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, a pro-reform advocacy group. Rome points out that Republican lawmakers are not “holding press conferences in front of a community health center saying, 'I'm here to get this defunded.'” He adds, “Now that would be political courage.”

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Facts don't matter just blame Obama.

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Facts don't matter just blame Obama.

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Congressmen looking out for their districts? Quelle horreur!

If you are going to holler, throw rocks, and call names, at least be honest.

You are so busy looking for someone to blame, you have forgotten the game you are playing. It's not about wealth distribution or redistribution, it is about public health. The more sick people you have who are untreated for whatever reason the bigger the pool of potential disease. there is a cost, and because the system has degenerated the costs are bigger than they should be. Studying medicine should not mean acquiring a license to print money. the ACA has tried to address the access problem, no person should be excluded from medical assistance by reason of income or relationship with an insurer

Nice try Clete, but this is about power and redistribution.

No it is about access, they shouldn't have included a tax the way they did, but the whole idea is imperfect anyway, you can't have half a public system

Obamacare Wealth Redistribution: Health Reform To Add $52,000 To 1 Percenters Tax Bill To Pay For Benefits For Poorest Americans

How Did the 1 Percent Get Ahead So Fast? - Bloomberg

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A disturbing implication is that if the top earners experience big income growth while everyone else gets stuck, there will be growing disparities in the opportunities of rich children and poor children.

A lot of work needs to be done to specify the reasons for the post-1970s increases in economic inequality. But one point is clear: Through 2012, the gains from the current recovery were concentrated among the top 1 percent, and that pattern, extreme though it is, fits with a general surge in economic inequality over the last 40 years.

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.95 cents of a dollars goes to 1% of the people and you say that's fair? So its okay to redistribute the wealth upward and nothing trickles down? That's hoarding.

Hello Steve:

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Obamacare Wealth Redistribution: Health Reform To Add $52,000 To 1 Percenters Tax Bill To Pay For Benefits For Poorest Americans

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This is supposed to elicit what from a liberal like me???

Look, wingers... Any tax that ISN'T flat, ISN'T going to appeal to you.

Personally, MY interests are with the POOR. Yours are with the rich.. I DON'T understand that.. I've NEVER understood that. I NEVER will understand that, and I'm GLAD I don't.

excon

If you have health insurance how does your tax bill increase? Last time I looked tax can increase two ways, you earn more or the tax rate changes. The tax rate needs to change on the 1% to make up for the free ride they have been having, but guess who won't let that happen?

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello Steve:
This is supposed to elicit what from a liberal like me???

Look, wingers... Any tax that ISN'T flat, ISN'T going to appeal to you.

Personally, MY interests are with the POOR. Yours are with the rich.. I DON'T understand that.. I've NEVER understood that. I NEVER will understand that, and I'm GLAD I don't.

excon

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It isn't supposed to elicit anything from you, that was for Clete. And until you can dispense with this BS that we love the rich and hate the poor we will never come to an understanding. Only one side is being honest about it and it isn't you. I don't understand the need to continually paint me as someone I clearly and emphatically am not.

Meanwhile, this sort of crap ought to have you angry, too.

Man with Critically Ill Son Gives Up on HealthCare.gov After More Than 50 Tries | National Review Online

Please Pray for Me… I Am Losing My Insurance | The Gateway Pundit

"Why is our government doing this to us?"

Of course Speech I have to supply the rest of the story that you seem to have missed.

Obamacare

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Gisler in Utah has filed an appeal with the federal exchange and is hoping to eventually gain coverage through the marketplace. For his son, he sees the health-care law as a mixed bag. For the first time, he was able to gain coverage in the individual market despite having a serious medical condition. And his new premium is half of what he paid in the state program, which was about $700 per month.

But technical difficulties have prevented Gisler's son from accessing the tax credit he believes he should receive. That would knock an additional $250 each month off his premium bill.

“It's a net gain for us, that preexisting conditions no longer preclude coverage,” Gisler says. “But in terms of the government's ability to process us through the system, they're still working on that. We've given up. We don't even try anymore.”

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I will also point out the Utah governor is not co operating at all with the new law.

Utah Seeks Obama Approval For Health Insurance Exchange

You're welcome.

You should really stop assuming so much and start laying the blame where it belongs instead of blaming everyone but the morons that passed the dang thing without reading it.

What does that have to do with your factually incomplete post? Or the fact that every horror story you come up with, the ACA has a solution for? This wouldn't be an issue if you dug deeper than a headline and gotten the whole story.

There's nothing factually incomplete about my post. I assume you can read, but obviously you can't find that compassion you're so famous for when it comes to real lives being screwed by Obamacare. Without fail you jump to defend this crap sandwich instead of the people negatively affected by it. We should not have to jump through hoops or go broke because you screwed us out of our insurance while lying through your teeth about it. You ought to be ashamed.

So you are going to stick to your BS and ignore the guy you holler about saved money by finding better options than what he had and is waiting for further confirmation of tax credits?

And he though he liked what he had, many do, but more will find out they like what they can get even better. I can see where you don't want to admit you were wrong and adjust your thinking accordingly, but not blame me when you ignore verifiable facts, in favor of rhetoric.

Sorry I am not ashamed of dragging you off the track of your own inconsistency in order to move us forward. Even Paul Ryan recognizes the folly of resisting compromise. Why can't you? But I would be mad too if my elected officials lost the power to control the money, and failed repeatedly to get it back.

The real shame, if one so choose to view it this way. Its conservatives who will reap the same benefits as liberals while they holler against liberal ideas and policy. Sort of like you hating unions, but benefiting from their fight for prevailing wages in YOUR region and vocation.

You could have told the boss you didn't want what the unions have. You didn't, and you never will. Go ahead keep disparaging your benefactors, while enjoying the benefits. That's utter hypocrisy and its you who should be ashamed of yourself.

I want MO" MONEY, and I want you to have more too!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right on cue. As I was saying...

The regime is no longer even pretending the ACA is actually relevant or that they can fix it.

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During the Obamacare rollout, stories have spread about millions of Americans losing their current health insurance coverage, preferred doctors and hospitals as plans restrict networks to comply with the law, and losing their prescription drug coverage.

On Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was “strongly encouraging” insurers to help the department fix a raft of problems created by the rocky rollout of President Obama’s health care law.

Among the guidance the HHS announced:

- It is requiring insurers to accept payments until Dec. 31 for coverage starting on Jan. 1. It is also “urging” insurers to give individuals more time beyond that to pay for coverage. In other words, if somebody pays for coverage in the middle of January, HHS is asking insurers to retroactively make that person's coverage effective as of Jan. 1. HHS is also asking insurers to cover individuals who offer a "down payment," even if that payment only covers part of the first month's premiums.

— In a press release, HHS said it was also "strongly encouraging insurers to treat out-of-network providers as in-network to ensure continuity of care for acute episodes or if the provider was listed in their plan’s provider directory as of the date of an enrollee’s enrollment."

— HHS is also "strongly encouraging insurers to refill prescriptions covered under previous plans during January."

On a conference call, an HHS spokeswoman emphasized: “We are just proposing it as an option and we’re encouraging issuers. There is no requirement.”

Translation: HHS has a huge mess on its hands and it hopes that by getting ahead of this news, it can foist the blame for the problems on insurers.

Of course, for insurers who have spent years designing plans to comply with the law, this would present huge and unreasonable logistical hurdles.

HHS also announced there would be a "special enrollment period" for people who tried to purchase insurance by Dec. 23 but couldn't because of a "system error."

HHS 'encourages' insurers to fix problems created by Obamacare | Mobile Washington Examiner

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As Philip Klein said, "At this point HHS may as well ask insurers to simply declare everybody in America covered."

'embrace the suck '...

Somebody has to be for consumers because you guys sure ain't.

Nice spin, but as I was saying you're always ready to jump to the defense of this crap sandwich no matter how screwed up it is. Get a clue, Tal, this has nothing to do with protecting consumers, it's a shameless CYA job by the regime. Forcing us out of our policies and costing us more than we can afford is not protection.

Besides, I thought you were all about "the law is the law." It is not something the emperor can bend to his will and make up as he goes.

P.S. You also forget if the evil insurance companies end up losing money because of this taxpayers will bail them out, and we the people get hit again.

No they won't read the conditions of the transition period.

Hello again, Steve:

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P.S. You also forget if the evil insurance companies end up losing money because of this taxpayers will bail them out, and we the people get hit again.

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Many times, on these pages, I've spoken about the health care industry being out of control.

Making a deal with THEM, and hoping its gonna work out, was Obama's folly. Single payer is the ONLY system that will SAVE this country.

Look. As a committed capitalist, I LAMENT my conclusions. But, my capitalism is NOT unfettered, and when an industry puts ITS health above that of the NATIONS health, it's time for government to step in.

Intellectually, I HATE that. A for profit industry will be destroyed. However, I take comfort in the knowledge that with the money we'll SAVE, we'll be able to fund ALL of our needs, forever - even right wing ones..

What's not to like?

excon

Insurers Could Get Multi-Millions in Obamacare Bailout - Yahoo Finance

As I was saying.

http://www.actuary.org/files/Risk_Ad...NAL_060811.pdf

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Even with the three risk mitigation programs, total adjusted loss ratios are projected to remain above the 78% to 80% targets for Scenarios 1A and 1B. This is due to the cost-sharing formula of the risk corridor program and the high loss ratios during the 2014 to 2016 period: while the federal government provides risk corridor payments when loss ratios are at least 3% greater than target, the health plan must share any excess below its target. A health plan that cannot implement adequate rates and rate increases on a timely basis may have difficulty attaining its target loss ratio, especially with the one-sided nature of the ACA MLR rebate formula (health insurers are required to provide rebates to consumers if their MLRs fall below 80%, but are not compensated if their MLRs exceed 80%).

Transitional Reinsurance Program

The reinsurance program will be funded by large group (including self-funded plans), small group, and individual markets through an assessment. The ACA requires total funding of $10 billion in 2014, $6 billion in 2015, and $4 billion in 20164. Reinsurance benefits are only available to health plans covering individual market members. The details of the program are described in Attachment A.

Section 1341 of ACA also requires additional payments totaling $5 billion be made by health plans that do not benefit the individual market, but are paid directly to the federal government. States may also choose to levy other assessments related to the reinsurance program. The impact of these additional federal and state levies on premium rates is not reflected in our analysis.

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Lots of data I know.

You guys hold the fort down and solve all the problems, I must go bid my father a fond farewell.

good luck speech

Take the prayers of my family with you.