Bill Moyers: Obamacare - The Right Wing's Alamo
Monday, 04 November 2013 09:07By Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company | Video
As Republican members of Congress demand apologies and administration officials dutifully offer up mea culpas for the botched Obamacare rollout, Bill wonders, wouldn’t it be fair to expect just a morsel of apology from the right as well?
The right has been relentless in its battle against the Affordable Care Act – as if it’s their version of the Alamo, Bill says. Despite the law’s passage and its constitutionality upheld by the Supreme Court, they refuse to give up, even shutting down the government to try to force a delay of funding: “And yet, the darn thing survived, despite the administration’s own serious mistakes.” What’s more, Bill points out, this isn’t the first time a major government initiative hasn’t gone according to plan. Where are the apologies from the other side for the war in Iraq? “Mission Accomplished” indeed.
Cuts in Hospital Subsidies Threaten Safety-Net Care
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: November 8, 2013
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The uninsured pour into Memorial Health hospital here: the waitress with cancer in her voice box who for two years assumed she just had a sore throat. The unemployed diabetic with a wound stretching the length of her shin. The construction worker who could no longer breathe on his own after weeks of untreated asthma attacks and had to be put on a respirator.
Many of these patients were expected to gain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act through a major expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor. But after the Supreme Court in 2012 gave states the right to opt out, Georgia, like about half the states, almost all of them Republican-led, refused to broaden the program.
Now, in a perverse twist, many of the poor people who rely on safety-net hospitals like Memorial will be doubly unlucky. A government subsidy, little known outside health policy circles but critical to the hospitals’ survival, is being sharply reduced under the new health law.
Equal Coverage for the Mentally Ill
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
A struggle over decades to force insurers to cover mental health and addiction services on the same basis as medical and surgical costs is headed for success under new rules issued on Friday by the Obama administration. The rules will cover most Americans with health insurance, including those in many employer-sponsored plans, in other group plans, in some but not all Medicaid plans, and in policies bought on the individual markets.
The rules strengthen a 2008 law that required parity in coverage — but only when an insurer actually offered mental health and addiction benefits. It did not require such benefits. The new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, does require coverage for mental health and substance abuse as 1 of 10 essential benefits in any new health plans. Combined, the two complete the job of offering both parity and coverage.
What the new rule would mean in practice is that limits on the amount of co-payments and the number of doctor visits or hospital days cannot be less generous than those that apply to most medical and surgical benefits. The same would be true of other rules, like those requiring prior authorization.
The benefits for the American public could be substantial, bringing help to many people previously unable to get it because of the cost. About a quarter of Americans 18 and older have a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, and 6 percent have a seriously debilitating disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Nearly 60 percent of the people with mental health conditions and 90 percent of those with substance abuse problems don’t get the treatment they need, according to the administration.
The ACA and High-Deductible Insurance — Strategies for Sharpening a Blunt Instrument
A primary goal of the Affordable Care Act is to increase access to health care. But some insurance plans in the new online marketplace restrict where a patient can receive insurance-covered care. In Maine, of the two insurance companies that offer products in the marketplace, only one provides out-of-network coverage that extends beyond Maine's borders - at an added cost. Patty Wight reports.
Related Media ACA's Maine Plans Frustrate Consumers 
Duration:
4:9
A primary goal of the Affordable Care Act is to increase access to health care. But some insurance plans in the new online marketplace restrict where a patient can receive insurance-covered care. In Maine, of the two insurance companies that offer products in the marketplace, only one provides out-of-network coverage that extends beyond Maine's borders - at an added cost. Patty Wight reports.
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