Enzi stands by story that he and Dick Cheney are “fishing buddies”, notwithstanding Cheney’s denials.
“I’m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor. That if you’re poor, somehow you’re shiftless and lazy.”
That’s not from Bernie Sanders of Jesse Jackson. It’s from confirmed supply-sider and Republican Gov. John Kasich (OH), after tangling with a recalcitrant state legislature dead set against his effort to accept Medicaid expansion in his state.
From TPM Reader GF …
In a recent letter from a reader he noted:
“My premium, for a plan fairly equivalent to “gold” level on the exchanges is increasing by $1.59 per month…”
I’ve been self-employed since about mid-1997 and live in Seattle. Washington State has had very powerful insurance commissioners, so much so that a bunch of carriers left the state briefly in the late 1990s until the state and they could rejigger some of the actuarial stuff. As a result, when I compare my premiums and benefits to people in other states, I’m generally pretty happy. I suspect Washington’s overall average healthcare costs remain lower than elsewhere, too. Seattle’s big “chain” is a non-profit that has highly compensated executives but it is, nonetheless, pretty great.
New poll finds that 22% of Americans are libertarian or “lean” libertarian. The poll also found that “libertarians tend to be non-Hispanic white, young and male.”
In case you didn’t see this when I posted it last night (only late night google research and a well placed ad could have brought me to it), take a look at this low low price program to teach your family how to survive the imminent breakdown of law and order and electricity and everything in America.
TPM Reader GC tells us her story from California …
I am a RN. When I worked in health care for big hospitals or surgery centers I received pretty decent health coverage from my employers that covered me and I paid to cover my husband and two kids. When both my husband and I became self employed we ended up having to buy four separate plans on the individual market for the four of us, mostly because of some preexisting conditions. Every year on our birthdays our premiums have gone up.
As you’ve seen I’ve been reading many dozens of testimonials from TPM Readers (and publishing a handful of them) about their experiences so far with Healthcare.gov, Obamacare, the different options it provides. I’d like to put out another call for your stories. As before, I’m particularly interested in hearing about your recent experiences with the HealthCare.gov website – particularly if you tried it earlier in the month and have tried again in the last few days. The upshot of emails we received last week was that there were pretty substantial improvements in the site over the first three days of last week. But for every couple of emails noting real improvements and successes using the site, there was at least one saying, no, it’s still a complete f’ing mess. So again, let me know what you’re seeing now.
TPM Reader MD helps us understand the power of building a robust state based exchange …
I also live in California, and my experience is very similar to that of the family in “Real Lives, Part 6.”
Our exchange is very effective, clear as can be, and the call center has no wait times of any significance.
27 Republican Senators vote to “disapprove” of their two week old votes to raise the debt ceiling.
Ongoing coverage of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at TPMLivewire.