{"id":2113,"date":"2010-08-04T13:55:17","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T13:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2113"},"modified":"2010-08-04T13:55:17","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T13:55:17","slug":"i_guess_the_spin_on_healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2113","title":{"rendered":"I Guess The Spin On Healthcare Reform Isn&#8217;t Working"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/2010\/08\/03\/2127002\/mo-voters-reject-key-provision.html\">Kansas City Star<\/a>&nbsp;posted an Associated Press article detailing the results of the election held in that state.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>According to the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p><em>&#8220;About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The Missouri law conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalies starting in 2014.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There are some real questions as to the actual value of the vote (federal law trumps state law), but the vote is an indication of public opinion on Obamacare.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>I live in Massachusetts, where a state healthcare reform law went into effect in 2006.&nbsp; This state health insurance reform was said to be one of the models for Obamacare.&nbsp; Well, the results have been mixed at best.&nbsp; There was a letter to the editor in my local paper yesterday from a Massachusetts couple stating that their monthly cost for the wife&#8217;s health insurance has increased $50 a month.&nbsp; The couple is planning to cancel their health insurance at the end of August because they cannot afford to pay the increase.&nbsp; Since the passage of the state health insurance reform, Massachusetts health insurance rates have increased rapidly.&nbsp; The governor recently turned down requests from major health insurance providers for rate increases that would cover their increased expenses caused by the reform.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>In addition <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkdaily.com\/battles-in-massachusetts-over-rising-cost-of-health-insurance-premiums-804\">Dark Daily<\/a>&nbsp;reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p><em>&#8220;In May, the four largest health insurers in Massachusetts reported first quarter losses that reached a total of $150 million. Three of these insurers drew down reserves. For example, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluecrossma.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts<\/em><\/a><em>,&nbsp;which is the largest health insurer in the state, reported a quarterly loss of $65.2 million, along with an operating loss of $95.5 million. It drew down its operating reserve by $55 million to handle those losses, as well as losses anticipated to occur during the second quarter of 2010.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The article at Dark Daily also points out that small employers in Massachusetts are beginning to drop health insurance coverage of employees and paying the penalty to the state instead.&nbsp; The state&nbsp;will collect money under that arrangement, but there are no guarantees that the money collected would be spent in any way that would&nbsp;benefit or support&nbsp;healthcare.&nbsp; That is ultimately the direction in which Obamacare will lead us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday&#8217;s Kansas City Star&nbsp;posted an Associated Press article detailing the results of the election held in that state.&nbsp; According to the article: &#8220;About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2113\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}