Reason and CATO are not on the level

No, America Is Not Turning Libertarian by Jonathan Chait

MAP: Your State Lost Billions by Refusing to Expand Medicaid by Jonathan Cohn

federal exchanges set up for the states' benefit or state exchanges run by the feds

THE 4TH CIRCUIT BIGFOOTS THE REPUBLICAN DC PANEL'S ATTEMPT TO WIN THE DAY WITH ITS ANTI-OBAMACARE DECISION... by DeLong

Sarah Kliff: Separate circuit court rules in favor of Obamacare subsidies: "The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals...

ruled Tuesday afternoon that Obamacare subsidies could be offered through federally-run insurance marketplaces.

It is... clear that widely available tax credits are essential to fulfilling the Act’s primary goals and that Congress was aware of their importance when drafting the bill," the Fourth Circuit Court ruled. 

We'll have more coverage soon...."

Will Voters Make Mitch McConnell Pay for His About-Face on Medicare? by Brian Beutler

...
So the record here is crystal clear. It's almost as clear as his position on the Affordable Care Act, which is that it should be repealed "root and branch." But in Kentucky, that would mean eliminating the state's popular insurance exchange, Kynect, and its successful Medicaid expansion. So McConnell is also trying to disclaim that position as well, suggesting—again, not credibly—that Kentucky could keep all of Obamacare's goodies even if Republicans repeal the law in its entirety. That swindle would be impossible to perpetrate under most circumstances, but McConnell's managed to pull it off because the Grimes campaign doesn't really want to make Obamacare an issue, even when they can use it to press their own advantage.

If you follow domestic politics closely, this is pretty disorienting. Its reminiscent of Mitt Romney's first debate with President Barack Obama, when he disavowed the fiscal agenda that defined his candidacy. At the time, Obama aides cited that about-face as one of the reasons Obama performed so poorly that night.

That strategy backfired on Romney as the campaign wore on. The question now is whether it'll backfire on McConnell—if not for what it suggests about his forthrightness than for what it says about his effectiveness as a potential majority leader.

Repealing Obamacare and implementing the Ryan budget is what the GOP exists to do. And if the top Republican in the Senate won't defend his party's positions politically, there's every reason to suspect the party itself wouldn't be able to execute on the vision, if ever given the chance.

Obamacare

GOVERNOR BESHEAR: 413,000 SIGN UP FOR HEALTH CARE IN KENTUCKY: LIVE FROM THE ROASTERIE CXLIII: APRIL 29, 2014 by DeLong

Obamacare

The Number of People Helped by Obamacare is Far Larger Than the NYT Says by Dean Baker

In an article on the likely political implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the November election, the NYT wrongly implied that the beneficiaries are a relatively small segment of the population. It told readers: 

"Democrats could ultimately see some political benefit from the law. But in this midterm election, they are confronting a vexing reality: Many of those helped by the health care law — notably young people and minorities — are the least likely to cast votes that could preserve it, even though millions have gained health insurance and millions more will benefit from some of its popular provisions." 

Actually, virtually the entire pre-Medicare age population stands to benefit from the ACA. Millions of insured people lose their insurance every year, typically because they lose their job. These people will now be able to get insurance through the exchanges, in most cases at prices far below what they would have paid in the individual market previously. In this way, the ACA is effectively giving the insured population security in their insurance that they did not previously have.This is especially important in cases where the reason people lost their job was due to bad health. 

This is a huge benefit that is being extended to tens of millions of people who will be voting in November. Due to poor coverage of the impact of the law, it is likely that most of these people do not recognize the extent to which the ACA provides them with security in their insurance coverage.

Obamacare

Everything you need to know about Obamacare by Sarah Kliff

Obamacare

Four ways to tell if Obamacare is working by Sarah Kliff

Do more people have health insurance? ...

Do Americans have better access to health care? ...

Are Americans getting healthier? ...

Is health care becoming more affordable? 

Does the U.S. become more like other advanced nations?

Obamacare economics

Economically it will work. Politically it will work. Obamacare is here to stay.

The Ultimate Obamacare Chill-Out Post by Jonathan Cohn

positive outlook

“Disgust” as Political Motivator by Jared Bernstein

Let me get this straight:

–Sen. Murray and Rep. Ryan may actually agree on a budget, i.e., top line discretionary spending numbers, that shaves a bit off of the mindless 2014/15 sequester cuts?

–The healthcare.gov website is on the mend—not perfect, but much better.

–Speaker Boehner, as per the link above, is solidly on record against another shutdown; Sen. Cruz is nowhere in sight.

Must one pinch oneself? Is Dysfunction Junction applying for a name change? Is this the beginning of some sort of turnabout?

Surely not, but instead of the usual “everything’s as bad as ever, don’t be fooled!” let’s contemplate one aspect of this (briefly, as I’m on the road, scrunched in an airplane seat that would be a tight fit for a four-year old; btw, here’s a thought: you can’t lean your seat back in coach! Sorry, but unless I’m your dentist, it just doesn’t work).

That aspect is not pretty, I grant you, but it is: disgust. Polls quite clearly reveal that most people, even if they’re not paying that much attention, have pretty much come to loathe the DC dysfunction act.

Three things we learned from today’s Obamacare update by Sarah Kliff

There were 1 million visitors to HealthCare.gov Monday. And there have been 380,000 visitors to HealthCare.gov as of noon today. This is slightly higher traffic than Monday, when 375,000 visitors came to the Web site by noon.

"We know that consumers are actively shopping and enrolling in coverage every day," Medicare spokeswoman Julie Bataille said. "We believe there's an indication that these will grow over time." 

 According to Massachusetts, all of the healthy people will sign up last minute in March.

vast majority Sunday

White House Says Healthcare.Gov Finally Working for Most People by Jonathan Cohn

The White House says it met its Obamacare goal. There’s still more work ahead. by Sarah Kliff


Inflationistas at Bayes by Krugman

Minimum Wages, Bargaining Power, Poverty, and Work by Jared Bernstein

Obamacare

DeLong linked to John Cassidy on healthcare.gov.

Liberalism Will Survive Obamacare  by John Cassidy

On one level, the “bed-wetters”—according to Franklin Foer, the editor of the revitalized New Republic, this is the term that White House officials reserve for the Administration’s worrywart supporters—are obviously right. The launch of healthcare.gov has been horrendously botched, and Obama’s misleading statements about what would happen to Americans who wanted to keep their individual policies have come back to bedevil him. In Foer’s words, the Administration “has stifled bad news and fudged promises; it has failed to translate complex mechanisms of policy into plain English; it can’t even launch a damn website. What’s more, nobody responsible for the debacle has lost a job or suffered a demotion.” 

Actually, that isn’t quite accurate...

On one hand it's obviously bad that White House officials didn't nail healthcare.gov's launch. But it's heartening that they aren't panicking over the media feeding frenzy. They seem to be making progress. One possible explanation is they got more confidence after winning the government shutdown and being proven right.

bubbles and Obamacare

Two Simple Reasons to Not Fight Bubbles With Higher Interest Rates by Mike Konczal

Dead Filipinos and Housing Bubbles Are Not Good News by Dean Baker

Neil Irwin gave us a list of five economic trends to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Two of the items do not belong there, or at least not without serious qualification.

Three good items from Irwin:

2) Fewer layoffs.

4) More job openings.

5) Debt burdens keep on falling. The ratio of Americans' income going to meet debt obligations has plummeted in recent years, as consumers have both reduced debt burdens (by paying them down and in some cases defaulting) and benefited from lower interest rates. The debt service ratio was only 9.89 percent in the second quarter, hovering near an all-time low of 9.84 percent from late 2012 (the data go back to 1980). That ratio was 13.5 percent in the third quarter of 2007, before the crisis. Congratulations, America! You're making progress in getting your household debts to a more manageable level.

And all five trends are a reminder that, even, as dark as the economy has looked in recent years, there are still some happier things going on that are worth toasting.

John Cassidy Explains That Those Parts of ObamaCare That Are “Liberal” Are Working Very Well by DeLong

And what about the liberals—the ones who pushed the White House to pursue something more radical than a souped-up version of Romneycare? Even if the A.C.A. were to collapse before it got going—and as I’ve said several times, I don’t expect this will happen—they wouldn’t be routed; they would be vindicated. Far from slinking away and conceding that their grand plans had failed, they would once again take up the campaign, which has been active in various forms since the nineteen-sixties, for the public option, and perhaps even a single-payer system…

The Obamacare Worm Turns by Krugman

Soon, Obamacare Will Become Benghazi by Krugman

The Importance of Bubbles: Who's Pocketing the Cash by Dean Baker

Obamacare working where people can sign up

Americans Like Obamacare Where They Can Get It. by John Cassidy

health care reform

This chart should be getting more attention by Adrianna McIntyre

Obama Administration Government Failure: Hoisted from the NEC Archives from May 11, 2010: ObamaCare Implementation Weblogging: Noted by DeLong

In the "blue states"--where 60% of the country's population making 70% of the nation's income and owning 80% of the nation's wealth live--the implementation of the Affordable Care Act is likely to be like the implementation of RomneyCare was in Massachusetts: a somewhat bumpy ride, but a clear success that nobody wishes to repeal after the fact. In the "red states" where the Republican political infrastructure digs in its heels? Who knows?

ACA

Insurance Policies Not Worth Keeping by NYTimes editorial board

Most people in Medicare, Medicaid or employer coverage. People in substandard individual plans may lose them but will be offered better plans which may cost a little more if people can afford them. Overall though, the ACA should work and help to bring down costs, make people more healthy and financially secure. Republicans don't like it because it involves government regulations and intrusion into the atypical health care market.

This Is Why We Need Obamacare by Nicholas Kristof

individual health care market

JS: I am not terribly different than some other writers who have been in the individual market: Noted

JS: I am not terribly different than some other writers who have been in the individual market....

We have BCBS covering a family of four.... BCBS of Illinois informed us that our policy would no longer be valid after January 1, 2014. They also informed us that they would role us automatically into a slightly more expensive (and largely comparable) plan if we did nothing. Here is where it gets a bit more interesting. The "cancellation letter" directed us to the BCBS website, where we could shop through various other options.... And, since getting the letter, we have gotten follow-up emails and telephone calls from BCBS encouraging us to compare our options at the BCBS website. It has become quite clear over the past couple of weeks that BCBS does not want us shopping on the Illinois Exchange....

We have suddenly become much more attractive and important to BCBS than we were. Getting through underwriting a few years ago was ridiculously difficult. Now we are being marketed heavily and encouraged... [to] shop exclusively at BCBS. Count me among those who think the ACA will ultimately work to the net benefit of the vast majority of people in the individual market--myself included.

ACA

The corporate media misinforms. People with critical thinking skills can deduce the facts see through the BS.

Jeff Bezos' Newspaper Works With Republicans to Create Scandal Over Obamacare by Dean Baker

There’s only one way to win the war over Obamacare by Greg Sargent

2014

Valium for Obamacare Worriers  by Krugman

Suppose that healthcare.gov isn’t fixed by the end of next month. How bad is it for Obamacare? Would the program be doomed?

No, says Jonathan Cohn, because there are two layers of protection against poor signup. First, there is a system of cross-subsidies to insurance companies that was intended to prevent companies from surreptitiously gaining an advantage by only signing up healthy people (hey, our policy is available to anyone — but you have to sign up in our sixth-floor walkup office.) As it turns out, this system would end up compensating insurance companies in general if the risk pool is worse than expected. Second, the subsidies to individuals are designed to hold health costs down to 8 percent of income, which means that they will rise if costs are higher than expected.

Neither of these would be a good thing, since they would increase the budget cost, but they do mean that Obamacare’s survival probably isn’t on the line.

Actually, the biggest reason Obama and co. should be anxious to fix these things now, I’d argue, isn’t the fate of the program itself, which can survive even large early wobbles, but the midterm elections. If Obamacare is fixed, Republicans will be in the position of attacking a program that is benefiting millions of Americans; if it isn’t, they can still run against the legend, not the fact.

So a lot is riding on fixing the technological botch — but not in quite the way people imagine.

I think Chait is freaking out. Jared Bernstein responds also.