Economics for Dummies Part II
In the Great Depression the banks held insurance companies that insured their loans. When this went bad millions of people lost their homes and their jobs. Sound familiar? It should.As I promised, I...
View ArticleProgressive Music
Hey, want a brake from this election stuff, come here and share some proggressive music. Please, no videos . Make sure you provide the artist.
View ArticleEx:change - Change has come to America
Change. It so captured our individual and collective attention that record numbers stacked up at polling booths around the country. No matter whose name we selected on our respective ballots....
View ArticleWake Up Call: 02-04-09
I’m standing at Mike’s Autobody in Walnut Creek, CA. This wasn’t in the plan. Highway 97 drops out of Klamath Falls, Oregon and onto the long northern shoulders of Mt. Shasta and the state of...
View ArticleEx:change - Change has come to America
Change. It so captured our individual and collective attention that record numbers stacked up at polling booths around the country. No matter whose name we selected on our respective ballots....
View ArticleGroundhog's Day: 02-02-09
EX:CHANGE exits Portland ORTonight the stars in Ashland, Oregon swan dive earthward out of their blue-black air... I stepped out of my car a few hours ago and looked up. The magnificence overhead, a...
View ArticleEX:CHANGE IV: The Buzz of LA: 02-09-09
The buzz of LA comes in part from its paradoxes. There’s the manic aggression of drivers on the roads that drape the curving hills – the drivers competing for time and space, the roadways dipping and...
View ArticleEX:CHANGE V: Fresh Picked Oranges: 02-11-09
Rudy and I stood in the living room of the house he and his wife have lived in for 30 years“The rise over there to the left – hazy in the distance,” Rudy Suwara pointed out the window. “That’s Tijuana....
View ArticleEX:CHANGE VI: Cattle Trail
The interstate from Albuquerque, NM to Kerrville, TX is … well … long. On either side the land is vast and mostly empty. Exception springs from the brief chorus of rush hour and billboards in Las...
View ArticleEX:CHANGE VII: Coffee Klatch as Foretold by Mayme
These days I’m listening and listening.Over the past month, I have listened to people in pre-arranged interviews and impromptu conversations. Both ways have revealed American insights and wisdom richer...
View ArticleEX:CHANGE VIII: Two Things
The highway left Oklahoma and dumped me into Arkansas. I made my way into the county of Searcy. Like much of rural America, the population of Searcy County is aging and the infrastructure is suffering...
View ArticleResponse to Joe Lieberman: Why Health Care Reform Can't Be Scaled Back Or...
Joe Lieberman yesterday on "State of the Union" that we should just scale back the scope of health care reform, and do it incrementally. Except you can't. Let me explain as an actuary why this is the...
View ArticleOn the Public Option and Controlling Health Care Costs
Folks, I hate to tell people this, but the public option, which I support, is not some panacea for controlling health care costs. Far from it. According to the Commonwealth Fund study mcjoan...
View ArticleHow the President didn't cave to Blue Dogs and the Blue Dog Napoleon Complex...
It seems once Congress gets back into session, we will enter the final stretch of a battle that has lasted all summer long and has cost us a lot of our resources, both mentally and physically. We've...
View ArticleMike Ross (FU-AR): A Day in the Life of a Blue Cross Blue Dog (With Action,...
Note: The following diary will be written like a fanfiction.It is the first week of August 2009 and Mike Ross is heading home to his lovely house in Prescott, Arkansas. It has been a long summer for...
View ArticleSen. Snowe -- The Latest Moron On Health Care Reform
Ezra has the scoop on Senator President Snowe:
View ArticleWhat Real Compromise Looks Like
A vast majority of Democrats in Congress want health care reform to include a robust public option. As I have discussedConrad/Ross' co-ops and Snowe's trigger are not in any way compromises. They are...
View ArticleWhy insurance companies will end up supporting a Public Option
As unfortunately my wife has incured very large medical bills this year and we fortunately have very good private insurance in the state of NJ that does not allow recision, medical underwriting and...
View ArticleWyden and the Baucus Debacle
When the Finance Committee eventually gets around to voting on the bill they cobbled together last week, it's still not entirely certain that it will pass, the New York Timesreports:Senator John D....
View ArticleThe "Read the Bill" Challenge - DKos Wiki for Senate HCR Bill
It started before the bill even came out. Chicken Littles of all shapes and sizes trying to tell us that this was a "government takeover", or that the public option was too wimpy, or that we were all...
View ArticleTriggered PO Ok by me if Exchange is open to EVERYONE
So it seems the senate is too conservative to get this thing done with a nation PO.Sad but true.
View ArticleMy mandate in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has had a health insurance mandate for two years. It seemed scary at first, but it is now part of the wall paper. The GOPERS can screech all they want, but the mandate is going to help...
View ArticleMy exchange with a Big Tea Partier and Faith
Now I have a facebook and found out some of the old classmates were into the tea party. One of my largest regrets in the 60's was remaining silent even though I was just a mere teen. I have more than...
View ArticleHCR: Where Do We Go Now, Sweet Child 'O Mine?
Update: Note I missed the cost-sharing subsidies in the Senate bill, which significantly improves affordability, though it doesn't get it down to the level where I would like.And so the U.S. health...
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Good Grief, do you believe this?
Click below link for a real eye-opener as to what the Tea Party Movement Is Really About $$$$!Dayton Tea Party activist starts conservative business exchange The Tea Party Republican Leaders or...
View ArticleGary Gensler: in Brooksley Born's Footsteps
The battle for derivatives regulation rages on, and the CFTC, led now by Gary Gensler, is in the mix. The financial reform bill didn't end it. Bills only specify the broad outlines of reform, while how...
View ArticleNebraska Hires Rightwing Extremists To Implement Health Care Reform
From the New Nebraska Network:This spring, I attended a forum hosted by the Nebraska Department of Insurance on the state's implementation of the 2010 health care reform bill. Our Republican Governor...
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Gates Foundation Bankrolls ALEC
No, not me. That would actually be awesome. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a right wing group that literally writes state level legislation. Legislators then act as couriers to...
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ALEC - A Really Scary Movie
ALEC - A Really Scary MovieALEC's 'stealth lobbying' does not deserve non-profit status - The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur Current TV I've added overtones of an old-time SCARY MOVIE to this video to...
View ArticleThis Is What Is Wrong With The ACA
Education, education, education of the public. Let me try to explain.I went to the 7/11 like store up the block from me to buy some milk this morning.The person working the place I went to high school...
View ArticleObamacare Looking Good in Arizona!
Headline above the fold on page one in today's Arizona Republic:Arizonans’ costs low under new health law I have to give kudos to the Republic for its coverage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)...
View ArticleOur Premium Under ACA Drops 33% - Exchange Envy
We're a family of three. Health insurance for us is over $1,550 a month plus $250 annually for a dental discount program (my dentist accepts) for an individual policy offering junk insurance on the...
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Big F'n Deal! Healthcare Marketplace Open Now
The Republicans have done a fine job of burying this important news this week. The healthcare marketplace is now officially open. (Yaaahoooo!) Thank you, relentless progressives like Bernie Sanders and...
View ArticleAre Exchange Websites Under a DDS Attack?
I'm putting my tin foil hat on this morning and am going to do some speculating. The ACA websites seem to be having a lot of problems this morning. There should be only 2 reasons for this; 1) Millions...
View ArticleDon't visit healthcare exchange websites today if you don't need insurance.
Just as the title says: Don't visit healthcare exchange websites today if you don't need insurance.The reason is simple enough: The sites are being overloaded. Even well designed sites, like that of...
View ArticleIs the New York exchange working properly for others?
Just a short diary. After yesterday, the initial crush and pressure on the New York exchange (nystateofhealth.ny.gov) seems to be pretty much gone and getting in appears to be working without any real...
View ArticleWhy does Kaiser have the highest rates on the CA exchange?
I was shocked to see this comment from QuarterHorseDem:Kaiser just raised my premium 40%!There is virtually no competition in Northern CA(Aetna dropped out of the market for self employed individuals),...
View ArticleTechnologists Working on Insurance Exchanges, A Big Thankless Job...
Ok I'm a technologist that is also human, spend 25 years in sales and marketing before crossing over to the code side,which I don't do anymore as I wanted a life back. Don't give up on getting...
View ArticleMy Personal Experience with the Marketplace, Part 1
Like most people, I tried to log in to the federal website for the online Healthcare Marketplace in the first week of October and was disappointed. I was never able to get past the login screen. (Tip:...
View ArticleMy Personal Experience with the Marketplace, Part 3: Success, Finally, and a...
After successfully logging on to healthcare.gov several times last month, completing my application, and being approved for a tax credit (subsidy) towards premiums, I got stuck. I tried to log back in...
View ArticleThe GOP wants to hear our ACA stories
So let's tell them our Obamacare stories.The site is here: Tell your story to the GOPI told them this: I can't wait for Jan 1 to have the Peace of Mind the ACA brings to the Individual Insurance...
View ArticleYour senator wants to hear your Obamacare story!
I just received an email from my senator, Bob Corker. In the email, he asks:"How has Obamacare affected you, your family, or small business? Share your story here." I decided to share my story with...
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A Picture Is Worth 1000 Obamacare Lies
I got this in the mail yesterday, eight days after I applied on the Federal Marketplace for health coverage. Blue Cross is on top of things!
View ArticleIf your parents love you, buy health insurance.
I was haunted by the fact that my loving parents would have bankrupted themselves to help me if something bad happened.That is why I've had health insurance since I was 19.I WISH Obama and the 'liberal...
View ArticleMy last minute experience with Healthcare.gov
I've had an interesting experience with the Affordable Care Act today. I don't post here often so I'm not sure how to set up the intro and the body of the post - read below the orange squiggle for the...
View ArticleCheesy Jokes
Ok.... its been a day or two since I've done a diary so I thought I'd write a joke exchange diary.... lets share our favorites.I am down in the dumps, so I thought perhaps a good humor diary might...
View ArticleIncredibly Frustrating Health Care Problems (State Exchange)
I have been a member of this site for 10 years, a lifelong democrat, and one of the champions of the healthcare laws Obama put into place. Now I am finding myself on the wrong side of bureaucracy. I...
View ArticleHealthcare Exchange rates are available now
Just for fun, I went to healthcare.gov and put in a household income of $30k (not my actual income) for two adults, both age 34, no children, and got plans starting at $24/month after the subsidy....
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GOP Health Care Plan - Bad Meds
Excerpt: Last week's oral arguments suggested that Justice Antonin Scalia, at least, found this argument appealing. In what is destined to become the most famous exchange of the session, he asked...
View ArticleIs This Week's RWNJ Outrage Valid?: Hawaii's $205 million Obamacare Exchange...
The beauty of RWNJ false outrage is that they always kind of convince me off-the-top until I look deeper into the thing and realize they're just howling at the moon, as usual. Like on the phony IRS...
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