"The Pied Piper of Pipe Dreams"

[Aho Old Guy]

I'm not the biggest fan of Charles Blow at the New Yawk Times, but he skewers The Donald today in ... A Ticket to Hell

...as is Trump’s wont and calling card, he oversold his voters a bill of goods that he would never be able to deliver. The Pied Piper of pipe dreams did in politics what he had done in business: He got people to buy into a success mythology in which he was a wizard. In this mythology, ethics, honor and truth are casualties.

Everything is going to be the greatest and the best and the most successful simply because he deems it so.

What caught my attention, at the bottom of the article, is this little nugget:

... “An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 6.3 million of the 11.5 million Americans who used the A.C.A. marketplace to buy their insurance last year live in Republican congressional districts. Policy analysts say that a rollback of the A.C.A. would hurt older and rural Americans — two populations that favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the presidential election.”

VERY interesting in that there is a rising tide of "ObamaCare Saved My Life" stories where folks admit voting for Trump and are presently astonished they now face the loss of their health insurance.

[Pwns]

Trump did not need to be pied piper when the other side's message is basically "blah blah blah white privilege blah blah blah war on wimmin™ blah blah blah systemic racism blah blah blah dumb white trash only cares about guns, god, and gays".

[JohnStOnge]

He got people to buy into a success mythology

That is a key statement. Somehow, people got the idea that this guy has won more often than he's lost. And that's not true. He's a guy who was born rich and so had lots of "slush" to fall back on when he failed. And he failed more often than he succeeded when it came to business ventures. He had high profile losses. Like challenging the NFL when he was a USFL owner and ending up with nothing. In the meantime he pretty much destroyed any chance the USFL had at succeeding.

[YoUDeeMan]

Another asinine statement from A-hole.

Take a few dramatic stories to gain an emotional edge...and imagine those individual stories add up to a majority of the voters who voted for Trump in those districts.

And, imagine healthcare as a closed entity that isn't impacted by other issues.

Classic Lib FEAR campaign.

It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

[Aho Old Guy]

He got people to buy into a success mythology

That is a key statement. Somehow, people got the idea that this guy has won more often than he's lost. And that's not true. He's a guy who was born rich and so had lots of "slush" to fall back on when he failed. And he failed more often than he succeeded when it came to business ventures. He had high profile losses. Like challenging the NFL when he was a USFL owner and ending up with nothing. In the meantime he pretty much destroyed any chance the USFL had at succeeding.

Give The Don some credit -- he single-handily took down the USFL in less than 2 years even as the league won its antitrust lawsuit against the NFL.

[89Hen]

... “An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 6.3 million of the 11.5 million Americans who used the A.C.A. marketplace to buy their insurance last year live in Republican congressional districts.”

I'll admit that I'm really ignorant when it comes to health care. I'm lucky enough to have always been covered by Mrs89's employer and I've never had to spend a day thinking about. But haven't a lot of people been forced to use the ACA marketplace to buy insurance since Obamacare was enacted? Even ones that previously had coverage?

[Baldy]

I'll admit that I'm really ignorant when it comes to health care. I'm lucky enough to have always been covered by Mrs89's employer and I've never had to spend a day thinking about. But haven't a lot of people been forced to use the ACA marketplace to buy insurance since Obamacare was enacted? Even ones that previously had coverage?

Since when do the facts matter?

[Aho Old Guy]

I'll admit that I'm really ignorant when it comes to health care. I'm lucky enough to have always been covered by Mrs89's employer and I've never had to spend a day thinking about. But haven't a lot of people been forced to use the ACA marketplace to buy insurance since Obamacare was enacted? Even ones that previously had coverage?

I don't really know ...
I suspect that you are not required to specifically use the Marketplace for coverage, only that some level of coverage is 'mandated' to avoid a penalty --- and personally, the penalty can be somewhat nebulous to calculate at times.

In 2015 I only had insurance for 5 out of 12 months (Carolinas Healthcare dumped 66K United Health policy holders in May ). Not wanting to peese-off Uncle IRS (after being denied 'special circumstances' by the Marketplace), I paid my *7/12s* penalty . . . and the Treasury sent me a refund reflecting all but $6 of my penalty.

Go figure.

[89Hen]

I'll admit that I'm really ignorant when it comes to health care. I'm lucky enough to have always been covered by Mrs89's employer and I've never had to spend a day thinking about. But haven't a lot of people been forced to use the ACA marketplace to buy insurance since Obamacare was enacted? Even ones that previously had coverage?

I don't really know ...
I suspect that you are not required to specifically use the Marketplace for coverage, only that some level of coverage is 'mandated' to avoid a penalty --- and personally, the penalty can be somewhat nebulous to calculate at times.

I was referring to stories I've heard of people who were previously covered privately and now are covered under ACA because that's what their employer is having them do.

This is about all I could find with a quick search...

First, how many of the newly insured people would have gotten health coverage anyway, through some other mechanism (like their workplace)? In other words, is the law simply crowding out other forms of private coverage?...

The Goldman analysis suggests that the law has indeed crowded out some employer coverage....

Yet the number of people insured through work was flat by many other estimates, and according to the Goldman analysis, actually declined. This strongly suggests the ACA is displacing private coverage.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottl ... 9435b7788a

[Aho Old Guy]

My 'shields' and Forbes are not cooperating, Hen. I can't read the article.

As far as "the ACA is displacing private coverage" my understanding is what action that is happening is minimal as to what was originally predicted in 2009/2010 --- which I suspect is due as much to out-sourcing, stagnation of manufacturing jobs, and the rise of 'McJobs' and 'service industries.'