Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Welcome to Obamneycare! (A.K.A. Affordable Care Act, ACA, and Obamacare)


For the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, we have resurrected the term “Obamneycare,” coined in 2011 by Tim Pawlenty, one of many 2012 Republican Presidential candidates.
During the political circus surrounding the Republican primary season, Mr. Pawlenty coined Obamneycare in an attempt to discredit fellow Republican Mitt Romney, the architect of the successful Massachusetts experiment known as Romneycare.
In 2011, months before the primary season, Pawlenty, in a Fox News interview, said, “President Obama said that he designed Obamacare after Romneycare, and basically made it Obamneycare. We now have essentially the same features. The President’s own words is that he patterned in large measure Obamacare after what happened in Massachusetts.” 
Mr. Pawlenty was absolutely correct in his assessment, and we believe that Obamneycare is a perfect bipartisan term for what is now the Affordable Care Act, for it does reflect how the ACA has been very much a bipartisan effort, despite the myriad Republican denials.
Love it or hate it, Obamneycare is here to stay.
Unfortunately, its rollout has been less than stellar:

·Healthcare.gov has proved to be a disastrous website

· Some states have refused to expand Medicaid

·In some states, healthcare navigators are actually being thwarted in helping citizens to find plans best suited to them

·President Obama’s claim that “If you like your plan, you can keep it” turned out to be untrue. Plenty of folks found their plans being canceled – mostly due to their substandard benefits, but still...

We love the idea of Obamneycare, but it will only work if the kinks are worked out – and soon.
We would like to hear your Obamneycare stories, both positive and negative, because we believe that knowledge is power, and if your stories are told, perhaps someone in power will listen and actually fix the problems.
In addition, we have included important healthcare information for each state, including links to official state sites and state exchanges and expanded Medicare sites.
Whenever a link ends in .com or .org (instead of .gov), we have verified that the site is, indeed, sanctioned by your state. Some of the links we found were dodgy, and it is important that you avoid the myriad scam sites popping up.
The best way to avoid sketchy websites: link through your official state website, Healthcare.gov, or call the Obamacare hotline: 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325).

For each state, we have included the following information:

Name of State

Name of Capital

State Exchange or Expanded Medicare
links for States Participating
in Obamneycare

Link to Official State Website

Link to Official Capital Website

Link to Wikipedia Article

We have set up individual state threads (see right side panel for links); simply tell your story in the comment section for your state.

If you would rather not reveal your state, you can post here.



U.S. Map


U.S. Map Illustration, ZooFari
Wikipedia
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