US health reform launches despite shutdown

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)

Advocates have touted it as a major step forward, while opponents like Republican House speaker John Boehner have insisted the law "is not ready for prime-time."

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:

US government begins shutdown after Congress debates end in stalemate

Opinions turn favorable on health care plan 

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)