Thanks To Obamacare, Oregon Cut Its Unsinsured Population By 10 Percent Over The Past Two Weeks

[ProSense]

Thanks To Obamacare, Oregon Cut Its Unsinsured Population By 10 Percent Over The Past Two Weeks

By Tara Culp-Ressler

Over the past two weeks, Oregon has signed up so many low-income residents for health coverage that the state has cut its uninsured population by 10 percent, according to state health officials. The majority of those people are newly eligible for public insurance plans thanks to Obamacare’s expansion of the Medicaid program.

The Oregon Health Plan — which is what the state calls its Medicaid-funded program for poor residents — has enrolled 56,000 new people this month. State officials credit those high numbers to a fast-track enrollment system that allows people to easily sign up. More than 250,000 food stamp recipients in the state received a notice informing them that they’ve become eligible for the Oregon Health Plan, and explaining that they can either make a phone call or fill out a form in order to complete the enrollment process.

“This is tremendous news for the thousands of Oregonians anxious to get access to quality, affordable health care,” Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) said in a statement. “We still have a ways to go, but in reducing our uninsured rate by 10 percent in just two weeks, we’re showing what’s possible when a state is committed to fundamentally changing the health care system to provide better access, better health and lower costs.”

October 1 marked the first day of enrollment for Obamacare’s state-level insurance exchanges, one of the central tenets of the health reform law. That date was also the beginning of the enrollment period for the people who will gain insurance coverage under newly-expanded Medicaid programs, the second mechanism that Obamacare uses to extend insurance to people who don’t currently have it... like other exchange websites across the country, Cover Oregon is currently experiencing some technical glitches. State officials say it will be working by the end of the month. Until then, they’re allowing Medicaid enrollees to bypass it with the fast-track system.

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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/17/2801311/obamacare-oregon-medicaid/

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

1. GREAT News :) n/t

[JoePhilly]

2. wow.

[leftstreet]

3. 56,000 impoverished people in just one state. Sad n/t

[ProSense]

6. Think about the states run by Republicans who refuse to expand Medicaid.

The Cruelty of Republican States in One Chart
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023790604

[leftstreet]

15. Why can't GOPer states opt-out of Social Security?

Or Medicare for that matter

[geek tragedy]

16. Because the Roberts court wasn't around when they were created nt

[ProSense]

17. Because the current SCOTUS wasn't around then?

The President signed into law a mandated automatic expansion of Medicaid. The SCOTUS changed it to optional.

Still, 24 states accepted the expansion. In the other states, including three with Democratic Governors who support the expansion, Republican Governors/legislatures rejected it.

[oldhippie]

33. Because they are not "in" those programs

Hard to opt out of something you are not in.

[Drunken Irishman]

36. Because the federal government runs those programs...

It's not run by the state. Medicaid, however, is a local program. Sure, it's funded by the federal government, but it's operated by the state and always has been.

[IronLionZion]

40. Why can't GOPers go F themselves?

These pro-lifers don't want people to get health insurance.

[davidpdx]

26. It helps that he has a friendly governor and a state that already had a healthcare program

[central scrutinizer]

9. sadly, Oregon is near the bottom in children facing food insecurity

Our economy was too dependent on extractive industries: logging, mining, fishing and all of those suffered a steep decline as owners grabbed as much profit as possible as fast as possible without thinking about sustainability or the communities.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/06/10/2132331/report-child-hunger-is-concentrated-in-rural-america/

Three in ten children in New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. face food insecurity, as do a quarter or more of children in Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Nevada, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina, California, Alabama, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

[Coyotl]

25. About 24% of Oregonians are on food stamps.

Some of those people are very wealthy but have no income. They might own a very large piece of land worth millions and still qualify for full benefits, for example.

[Cha]

4. Good ol Oregon.. thanks PS

[ProSense]

7. You're welcome. Kentucky is also having success:

Kentuckians are signing up in droves–at a rate of more than 1,000 people per day–in a state where more than half a million people have been uninsured.

Kentucky GOP Senators Were Wrong That State Didn’t Want Obamacare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023864125

Kentucky's success makes a mockery of GOP Obamacare foes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023779107

This is upsetting the teabaggers

<...>

Here's another comment from the same poster that also helps further explain their thinking:

wexwuther

Kentucky can go to hell in a handbasket. The people there are flocking to the ACA. We should bring to this fight the discipline of the union workers who hold firm on their strikes and suffer on principle. There can be no worse patriotic move right now than to sign up for Obamacare just to save a few hundred bucks a month. It will end up costing America much more than that.

Takes a minute to truly unpack that one. Everyone who might save money using Obamacare is unpatriotic, destroying America and deserves to rot in Hell for all eternity. Almost wish this was some kind of a liberal plant but the problem is I've met people who think just like this. From the polling it appears the country is finally waking up to the ugly truth of it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/16/1247830/-Best-Redstate-comment-for-today

[Cha]

11. Wonderful.. of all states. But, thanks

to Democratic Gov Steve Beshear.. well I think we know what's coming next..

Obamacare Is Winning in Kentucky, Thanks to Steve Beshear

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/17/obamacare-is-winning-in-kentucky-thanks-to-steve-beshear.html

[sheshe2]

5. Go Oregon!

Obamacare
Signed Sealed and Delivering!

ProSense!

[sheshe2]

8. Kick!

[spanone]

10. this is why the virulent attacks on the Affordable Care Act

republicans KNOW this will destroy them

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Governor Kitzhaber is an emergency room physician who has been working

on the Oregon Health Plan since 93 when he was in the State Senate. Oregon has been working hard to make the most of the ACA.

[Downtown Hound]

13. Can't be! Obamacare is going to be the death of America!

Not just America! But the entire Western World! The Islamists are taking over! It's the end of days!

Or so I keep hearing the right say. I can't wait until it has had more time to kick in and watch the uninsured rates collapse, and then get to remind everybody next election just who it was that shut down our government and drove us to the brink to prevent it from happening.

[tabasco]

14. We shall see why the America-hating republicans were so desperate

to kill this this huge step forward for the American People.

[ProSense]

19. Yup. The regressive Republicans can't have that. n/t

[ZRT2209]

18. people with health care and stability in their lives have more political power

they can maybe contribute a few bucks to campaigns, they can volunteer, they can stop gasping for breath trying to survive and start organizing for the things they want from their government.

RW does not like that.

[Coyotl]

20. Oregon Health Plan comes with some real conditions, like the State gets your estate when you die.

The state can go after your estate to get the money they spend back!

[Lars39]

23. DRA look-back for Medicaid is already 5 years.

[Left Coast2020]

21. Rock & Roll!!!!

[BluegrassStateBlues]

22. Another success story. nt

[tammywammy]

24. Technically aren't they still uninsured until Jan 1? n/t

[area51]

27. +1

Yes, they're fucked until Jan. 1. Also, getting insurance is very different from getting -- and affording -- actual medical care.

[ProSense]

28. Yes, they will be (un)"fucked" on Jan 1. n/t

[Barack_America]

29. So, new Medicaid enrollment are clearly not counted in the "Obamacare" tallies...

Considering this number from Oregon alone exceeds what we've seen in the "total enrolled" graphics. Those numbers must only represent those signed up on the exchanges by the insurance companies.

Further proof that the government does it better, I guess.

[Scurrilous]

30. K & R

[B2G]

31. This is great, but

How many have enrolled that don't qualify for 'free' healthcare?

Isn't that how all of this is to be funded? Why aren't they fast tracking some of the demographic that they need to fund the ACA?

[ProSense]

32. This makes no sense. n/t

[obama2terms]

34. I wouldn't exactly call it free

I don't know about Oregon but in my state (Tennessee) even a family of four who make 25,000 dollars a year still have to pay 500 dollars a year, the rest is covered by subsidies.

[obama2terms]

35. No wonder the GOPers in congress are throwing a hissy fit

So far other than the website glitches sign up has been a success and based on this article in particular, the law is already helping people. The GOPers in congress see the writing on the wall just like with social security, medicare, and medicaid all being very successful programs ( which even republicans of that era tried to stop) the ACA is already making a difference in millions of peoples' lives and on top of all of that a democrat created this program. These republicans aren't really scared that there are going to be dire consequences because of this law, they're are scared of the success it will have, and that it just might make another democratic president look good. The republican party is already in a hole and many of them are aware of this, and if the ACA is truly a huge success ( and time will tell) they'll be in a hole so deep that they can never get out of it.

[grantcart]

37. In December there will be 50 stories like this.

[bluestate10]

39. 49. Massachusetts is already at 99% insured, not much upside left. Massachusetts shows where

the ACA will be within the next 2-5 years.

[great white snark]

38. K&R

Very nice. Lots more of these stories coming soon.

Thanks ProSense.

[ProSense]

41. Billionaire Koch Brothers Spending Millions To Deny Health Coverage To Low-Income Americans

Billionaire Koch Brothers Spending Millions To Deny Health Coverage To Low-Income Americans

By Igor Volsky

Conservative advocates funded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch have launched a massive campaign pressuring states to deny health care coverage to lower income Americans through the Medicaid expansion contained in the Affordable Care Act.

The effort, orchestrated by the group Americans for Prosperity, is targeting lawmakers in Virginia tasked with deciding whether the state should accept federal dollars to provide insurance to individuals and families below 133 percent of the federal poverty line ($31,321 in income for a family of four). Volunteers with the organization are distributing flyers through door-to-door canvassing, attending committee hearings, and according to one lawmakers who has become a target of the campaign, intimidating constituents.

As many as 400,000 Virginians could qualify for coverage if the state expands the Medicaid program, but AFP is warning Virginians that the system “will cost Virginia taxpayers billions,” require “future tax hikes and budget cuts to vital services like schools, police and fire departments,” undermine the “doctor-patient relationship,” increase wait times and even endanger lives. “Medicaid patients are almost twice as likely to die during surgery than individuals with private insurance,” the group writes on its website.

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will pick up 100 percent of the cost of growing the program from 2014 to 2016 and states would contribute 10 percent thereafter. Analysis from the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis in Richmond finds that “net savings from Medicaid expansion would average about $135 million per year in the upcoming budget cycle” since expanding Medicaid “would allow the state to use federal funds instead of state dollars for these programs that already provide care to the uninsured in Virginia.”

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/19/2806521/billionaire-koch-brothers-spending-millions-deny-health-coverage-income-americans/

The Cruelty of Republican States in One Chart
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023790604

[itsrobert]

42. 10 percent cut due to Obamacare Death Panels

that's why.

[gussmith]

43. DU

You would think after a week that you would correct the spelling in your headline. See "check spelling" below?