Trump Rejects Obamacare Special Enrollment Period Amid Pandemic

Trump Rejects Obamacare Special Enrollment Period Amid Pandemic by Susannah Luthi.  Politico.  March 31, 2020.

Judge Finds Insurance Company Reason For Pulling Out Of Obamacare Exchanges Was Misleading; Pullout Cited As Evidence That Exchanges Were Collapsing

Column:  U.S. Judge Finds That Aetna Misled The Public About Its Reasons For Quitting Obamacare by Michael Hiltzik.  Lost Angeles Times.  January 23, 2017.

Enrolling People In Obamacare Who Have No 'Concept Of Insurance'

Enrolling People In Obamacare Who Have No 'Concept of Insurance' by Marissa Evans.  Kaiser Health News.  September 3, 2014.

In Federally-Operated Obamacare Marketplaces, 7 Out Of Ten Pay Less Than $100 A Month; Range of $15 to $127

Millions Paying Less Than $100 Per Month For Obamacare by Aimee Picchi.  CBS News.  June 18, 2014

Republican States Exchange Enrollments Often Exceeded Expectations

Red States Like Obamacare Than You Might Think.  Forbes.  May 4, 2014.

As Initial Obamacare Enrollment Period Closes, At Least 9.5 Million Previously Uninsured People Have Gained Health Coverage

Obamacare Has Led To Health Coverage For Millions More People by Noam N. Levey.  The Los Angeles Times.  March 30, 2014.

Georgia's Exchange Enrollees Numbers Jump By 73%

State's Exchange Enrollees Now Exceed 100,000 by Andy Miller.  Georgia Health News.  February 12, 2014.  

Obamacare Enrollment Efforts Receive Support From Mayors And Corporations

Corporate Backing Is Helping Obamacare Go Mainstream by Noam N. Levey.  The Los Angeles Times.  February 8, 2014.

Obamacare Enrollment:  Mayors Hold The Key by Kyle Cheney.  Politico.  February 9, 2014.

Opinion Piece: Moving Past Obamacare To Universal Quality Health Care

The Obamacare We Deserve by Michael Moore.  The New York Times.  December 31, 2013.

(1)  To what cause does Moore attribute the rocky start for Obamacare?

(2)  What are some states doing to institute a public health care option?

(3)  When will Vermont's plan for a single payer system begin?  What could be the result of the successful implementation of such a system?

A Principal Architect Of Romneycare And Obamacare Assesses Healthcare Rollout

Will Health Care Reform Work Out?  An Interview by Andy Miller.  Georgia Health News.  December 19, 2013.

This interview with Jonathan Gruber, economics professor at MIT, provides a unique prospective to the rollout thus far.

Health Care Exchanges Challenge Human Decision Making Shortcoming

Are Our Brains Just Not Wired For Obamacare?  by Dhruv Khullar.  Politico.  November 26, 2013.

(1)  The selection of health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges or marketplaces requires many choices by citizens.  Humans have difficulty making optimal decisions under conditions of ______________.

(2)  People have difficulty weighing probabilities  of long-term ________________________ and in analyzing complex products with multiple _________________________.

(3)  They have difficulty in estimating the likelihood of _______________________.

(4)  "Choice overload" refers to making suboptimal decisions as the result of _____________.

(5)  What is an example of a heuristic in the Obamacare exchanges?

(6)  Why are the "navigators" important in Obamacare?

(7)  The results of Massachusetts shows that consumers prefer a manageable __________________
which differ _____________________.

More Insurance Options For Part-Time Workers Beginning In January

Health Law May Offer Part-Time Workers Better Options by Michelle Andrews.  Kiser Health News.  November 26, 2013.

(1)  Mini-med plans are favored by ______________ with large numbers of _______________, generally provide _______________________ with total coverage _________________.

(2)  The Affordable Care Act requires that nearly all plans eliminate _______________________________________.

(3)  A waiver from HHS has allowed some employers to __________________.

(4)  True or False:  Almost all employers offer coverage to part-timers.

(5)  If a part-time employee is not offered coverage at work they can shop for insurance ____________________ with subsidies available to those with incomes ___________________.

Supreme Court Ruling And State Decisions Not To Expand Medicaid Results in Coverage Gap For Five Million Poor

The Coverage Gap:  Uninsured Poor Adults In States That Do Not Expand Medicaid.  Kaiser Family Foundation.  October 23, 2013.

The Coverage Gap:  Uninsured Poor Adults In States That Do Not Expand Medicaid.  Kaiser Family Foundation.  October 23, 2013.

This study looks at the effects of state decisions not to expand Medicaid as a result of the option made available by the June 2012 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.  The coverage gap resulting from the states' decision not to expand means that five million poor uninsured adults will likely remain uninsured.

Up To Seven Million People Could Qualify For Health Insurance Entirely Paid For By Subsidy Under Obamacare

Under Health Care Act, Millions Eligible For Free Policies by Reed Abelson and Katie Thomas.  The New York Times.  November 3, 2013.

(1)  Most of these plans are the ______ plans which are the least __________ and require people to pay most ___________________________.

(2)  A large number of these individuals who could qualify have incomes just above the ________________________.

(3)  The availability of zero-premium plans may make health insurance especially enticing to the ______________ needed to make the health marketplace succeed.

(4)  According to the McKinsey researchers about _____________ eligible for zero-premium plans were under _______ and _______.

Medicaid Expansion Critical, Hospitals And MDs Say

Medicaid Expansion Critical, Hospitals And MDs Say by Misty Williams.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  October 31, 2013.  This article is available to online subscribers and in the physical newspaper.  The link above is not to the complete article.

(1)  The Medical Association of Georgia recently voted to endorse expansion of Medicaid by using Medicaid money to buy_________________________________ similar to an approach used in Arkansas.

(2) Doctors object to traditional Medicaid because they say it ___________________.

(3)  Expansion of the program would include an estimated _____________ low-income Georgians.

(4)  Governor Deal objects to expansion because he says ______________________.

Why State Exchanges Sites Worked While the Federal Site Faltered

Why State Exchange Sites Worked While the Federal Site Faltered by Patrick Marshall.  The Seattle Times/Kaiser Health News.  October 31, 2013.

(1)  Several states running their own exchanges including ______________________ have exceeded federal enrollment targets.

(2)  The federal system must be capable of integrating with _______________________.

(3)  The federal Data Services Hub provides one connection to _____________________ to verify consumer application information for _______________________.

(4)  In Washington state eliminating legacy hardware and out-of-date software has made it easier to ___________________________________, an option not open to architects of the federal site.

(5)  Proximity to those with a stake in the system, ______________________, provide another advantage to state systems.

(6)  Managing contractors is another advantage possessed by state exchanges.  For example Washington state had ________ outside contractors while the federal site had ________.

(7)  Vendors at the federal level may have been more hesitant to alert the sponsor of problems because ________________________.

(8)  How does having a "single throat to choke" aid in the implementation of such a large project?  How did the states and federal efforts contrast in this regard.

Success Stories Of Those Who Made The Exchanges Work For Them

The Obamacare Success Stories by Eleanor Clift.  The Daily Beast.  October 23, 2013.

Contrary to impression one might get from the flood of accounts of trouble with the healthcare exchanges, people are signing up and getting substantial help with their personal health insurance situations.  This article contains several such stories.

Brief Guide To Health Insurance Exchange Rollout

Your Guide To Obamacare's Bumpy Rollout by Igor Volsky.  Think Progress.  October 21, 2013.

(1)  The federal website required users to ________________________ which created a bottleneck.

(2)  Insurers complained about receiving ___________________________.

(3)  Experts are attributing some of the problems to the use of ____________, last-minute__________, messy __________ and an inability to ____________________.

(4)  Also questionable was the ability of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to _____________________________.

(5) About _____________ people have already begun applying for insurance through federal and state exchanges.

(6)  State-run marketplaces are proving more adept at ________________________.

(7) Problems that could healthy people from signing up are critical for the risk___________________.

Reflecting Varying Costs Of Care And Lack of Competion, Georgia Exchange Premium Variation Is Biggest In Nation

Georgia Premium Rate Variation Is Worst In Nation by Andy Miller.  Georgia Health News.  September 30, 2013.

(1)  In Southwest Georgia the cost of care is high because of the large number of people with _______________ and lack of ______________.

(2)  In southwest Georgia the premiums for the cheapest "silver" plan on the health care insurance exchange were _____________ those in three other regions.

Dawn Of A Revolution In Health Care

Dawn of A Revolution In Health Care by The Editorial Board.  The New York Times.  September 28, 2013.

(1)  Exchanges will offer _______ levels that will have the same ________ benefits required of  by the Affordable Care Act.

(2)  Federal __________ will help enrollees pay for the premiums based upon their incomes.

(3)  Thanks to subsidies more than half of uninsured Americans may pay less than __________ per month for coverage.

(4)  About ______ percent of all people seeking coverage will have a choice of two or more insurance companies.