Google – AFP, Kerry Sheridan (AFP), 1 October 2013
 |
A woman
looks at the HealthCare.gov insurance exchange Internet site
on October 1, 2013
in Washington, DC (AFP, Karen Bleier)
|
Washington
(AFP) - A key stage of President Barack Obama's drive to offer cheaper health
insurance to millions of Americans opened Tuesday despite a government shutdown
but technical glitches blocked many users from signing up.
Republican
opposition to the plan forced the US government to close its doors and kept
hundreds of thousands of workers home without pay, but administration officials
vowed health reform would forge ahead.
Known
widely as "Obamacare," the Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress
and signed by Obama in 2010, on the promise of helping 30 million uninsured
people get health care coverage.
Despite its
ambitions to revolutionize American health care, the plan is not free and will
not be able to cover tens of millions of people in America who lack full
insurance coverage for health care.
 |
A woman
looks at the HealthCare.gov
insurance exchange Internet site
on October 1, 2013
in Washington,
DC (AFP, Karen Bleier)
|
Indeed, in
the first few hours of Tuesday, the new health insurance exchanges that were to
begin enrolling people via the website healthcare.gov were jammed.
Frustrated
users flocked to Twitter to complain that healthcare.gov and others linked to
the exchanges were not working.
An attempt
by an AFP reporter to check the prices offered in Virginia resulted in the
message: "Important: Your account couldnt [sic] be created at this time.
The system is unavailable."
The NY
State of Health site said that "overwhelming interest" had led to two
million visits in the first two hours of the launch, and asked people to come
back later if they had been unable to log in.
"Today
is launch day for Obamacare and so far it's like a giant online traffic jam on
the first day of summer vacation," said analyst Jeff Kagan.
"No
one knew what to expect, but chaos is what we have."
US
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had pleaded
for patience in the run-up to October 1.
She
expressed the hope that consumers would give the government "the same
slack as they give Apple" when the computer giant releases new
technologies.
"Today’s
launch begins a new day when health care coverage will be more accessible and
affordable than ever before,” Sebelius said in a statement issued early
Tuesday.
About seven
million Americans are expected to seek coverage by 2014, according to the
Congressional Budget Office.
The
policies available on the health exchanges range in price according to a
person's income, location, family size and the level of coverage on a scale of
bronze, silver, gold or platinum.
All
Americans must sign up for some kind of health insurance by January 1 or face a
fine.
The
government said last week there will be around 53 plans to choose from in the
federally-facilitated marketplace.
"The
vast majority will have a choice of at least two different health insurance
companies -- usually more," said a statement from Health and Human
Services.
"Nearly
six in ten uninsured Americans could get insurance for $100 or less, with
financial assistance and expanded access to Medicaid."
Most
Americans have health insurance -- 82.6 percent according a July report from
the Department of Commerce based on data from the 2010 Census.
About half
get it through their employer, and about 30 percent are enrolled in government
programs like Medicare, mainly for seniors, and Medicaid, which covers the poor
and disabled.
That leaves
17.4 percent of Americans uninsured, or about 53 million people.
An analysis
in the journal Health Affairs earlier this year projected that around 30
million Americans will still not get health insurance through the Affordable
Care Act.
Those gaps
are due in part to the Supreme Court's decision to allow some states to opt out
of expanding Medicaid programs, coupled with a cut in funding under the reform
plan to safety-net hospitals.
The
Affordable Care Act "will leave tens of millions uncovered. It will do
little to alter racial disparities in coverage," said the Health Affairs
report published in June.
"The
ACA, whatever its merits, will fall well short of its stated goal of providing
affordable care for all Americans."
Related Articles:
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| President Obama reaches for a pen to sign the health care bill Tuesday. A poll finds increased support for the measure. (March 23, 2010, Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP) |
Opposition to President Obama and the Transition to Uncorrupted Governments - New
goldenageofgaia.com, Steve Beckow, An Hour with an Angel, September 30, 2013, with Archangel Michael
SB: All right. Maybe I can squeeze in one or two questions just before we go.
At this moment it seems as if in the American political spectrum the same blind opposition to President Obama is still apparent. When and how will the governments of the world emerge as uncorrupted institutions, given that there will now be a wholesale move towards new administrations? I don’t mean a toppling of administrations, but a reformation throughout the world.
AAM: The political landscape, not only in the United States but in many places, is going to shift rather dramatically in the coming year, and particularly within the next several months. Do not be overly concerned about opposition to Obama. What it is doing is bringing to the forefront — and making it very public — those who do not wish this energy [Obama] to be in a leadership position. That is not going to change. It will come to the forefront and the light will win.
SB: Oh, that’s very reassuring.
AAM: We are very present in the White House.
SB: Oh! Very good! Okay. I think I recall you mentioning Medicare in Canada. Canada has a wonderful system of universal medicare. When will the United States enjoy the same quality of medicare? Or other nations, for that matter.
AAM: You see, this is one of the fundamental rights, and your United Nations has just begun to peek at this. All of your — yes, all — of your medical systems have been based on false grids that you are eligible for disease. Many, many industries have grown up around this belief system.
Now, we would not dismantle this in a day, because the displacement would be very large, but you have already begun to see the shift to wellness, to healing centers, to alternative methods of energy healing. And with the arrival of your star brothers and sisters this will become even more so.
So not only universal medical care, but universal healthcare and the right to wellness is going to become the simple stand-alone fact over the next year to two years. Oh, and it will happen much more quickly in the United States.
SB: Oh, that’s good to hear. So many people are bankrupted by a sudden illness. And it never should be that way.
AAM: It is an atrocity that one may suffer and die because one does not have adequate money. That is absurd.
"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: ... I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. ....) - (Text Version)
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