In our last dispatch on the 405 Tolls controversy, we intimated that a convenient convergence between Federal law and state law on low-emission vehicles and carpool lanes had opened up an opportunity for the forces on OCTA who have always wanted to put toll lanes on our highways. Now they are able to say that, due to new federal laws that require single-occupancy low-emission vehicles to not have to go under 45 MPH during rush hour too many times in a month, combined with state laws that allow these velhicles to ride for free in carpool lanes, Caltrans is going to force us to put tolls on those lanes, and if we don’t let OCTA do the tolling first, “we” will lose the ability to keep all this new revenue in our County!
It really doesn’t make much sense, putting tolls on the two inner lanes as OCTA is dying to do would slow the hell out of the other lanes, AND be a ripoff of us OC taxpayers who voted to tax ourselves to widen the 405, and are ready willing and able to shell out $1.4 billion of our already-paid taxes to build TWO NEW FREE LANES. And most of us, conservative moderate or liberal, dislike the whole idea of a two-tiered society enshrined in a toll-lane world.
In any case, Westminster councilwoman Diana Lee Carey, who’s been fighting the OCTA on this issue since before most of us ever heard of it, has deemed it worthwhile to write letters to the OC’s federal delegation – our six Congresscritters and California’s two senators – apprising them how UNHELPFUL current Federal law is to our efforts to keep our Freeways Free. Here’s the one to DiFi:
#############
Senator Dianne Feinstein
331 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Feinstein;
We have a troubling situation centering on transportation planning in Orange County and across the State. In 2012, Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress Act (MAP 21). This act requires that Low Emission Vehicles using the HOV lanes must travel at 45mph, 90% of the time during the morning and evening rush hour. The LEVs make up less than 1.5% of the HOV lane users, but they have triggered a degradation report that finds nearly all HOV lanes in the State to be out of compliance. MAP 21 requires the agency to come up with a transportation plan within 180 days of the certification of the report. We have approximately 120 remaining. This is not a good transportation planning process.
Caltrans has stated that the solutions need to be far-reaching. The Corridor Cities position is that the OCTA, and Caltrans, through the Federal government, are usurping ten years of careful transportation planning relating to our M2 sales tax funded projects. We feel that a County and inter-jurisdictional solution to transportation issues is the only prudent way to proceed forward.
Let me give you one example. I am sure you are aware that Caltrans would like to convert the HOV lane from the I-605 to LAX into a HOT lane. When I asked Ryan Chamberlain of Caltrans, if the agency was going to force that solution on the MTA, as they are forcing it on the I-405 in the OC, he said they could not because Caltrans and the MTA did not have any money. But, this is the very thing they are promoting to the OCTA Directors in Orange County. Caltrans has said many times, that if the OCTA does not build a HOT lane, they will build it and keep the proceeds. The Board is very fearful of this occurring. It is very clear that they are only able to build these lanes in Orange County because of the infrastructure provided by M2 sales tax revenues.
The Corridor Cities would like a moratorium on MAP 21, until such time as a well thought out County and inter-jurisdictional plan can be developed. We do not want to be subject to a toll lane experiment merely because we are the next project in line to be built in the County. Nor do we want another NB I-5 bottleneck to be created at the NB I-405 approaching the County line. M2 requires that plans be developed in conjunction with local agencies. Since 2005, all of our cities have stood firm in rejecting the imposition of toll lanes. For the last year, this stance has put us outside of the planning process.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
Sincerely,
Diana Lee Carey, Councilwoman, Westminster
Corridor Cities Representative: Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Westminster, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa.
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Actually, since this blog helped the late Gus Ayer get Diana onto the Westminster council, it’s kind of dizzying to try to keep up with everything this lady does, so a couple months ago I made her a Facebook page, which I am continually having to update (she is not exactly of the Facebook generation.) It’s worth checking out, liking, and following, if you do that Facebook thing – a lot of what she does affects the whole county.
Oh, and here she is a couple weeks ago on John and Ken, talking about the 405 tolls. Diana Lee Carey, the OC’s most happening Councilperson!
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This your (repurposed) Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that, or anything else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of decency and decorum. (NO Dearthwatch this week; last week’s took way too much out of me!) – GD
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UPDATE: The OCTA Board had a meeting this morning, Diana dragged me there and she spoke again. The Caltrans threat (and Caltrans seems to be willingly operating as OCTA’s “bad cop”) to put tolls on our OC highways is pure theft from hardworking OCTA taxpayers. They have just as much reason to put tolls on the LA highways but they admitted that “there is not the funding there” to rebuild the highway that way. SO they are using our Measure M2 taxes – stealing them, to force us to either pay tolls or suffer in even worse traffic if we don’t want to pay. Should be grounds for a good lawsuit…
*This is wonderful. The Reason Foundations would love to strike a blow for “Congestion Pricing for every vehicle in America”. These people are worse than black dots on a banana. Just a squishy. Thank yoo Councilwoman Carey…..finally ONE elected has the courage to tell OCTA, Cal-Trans and Feds…..to take a hike!
No one happy or sad about Corinthian colleges get sued? You know, the Santa Ana-based for profit colleges (Trump Univ?) that target “isolated,” “impatient” individuals with “low-self-esteem,” and who have “few people in their lives who care about them” with bogus stats of placement?
I suppose it is their fault that they are social media’s rejects, and therefore are deserving of a lifetime of debt struggling to remain alive after their graduation.
Free markets rule! Ask Kamala Harris to stop governmental intrusion into private business.
I think that it’s an interesting and important issue about which I really haven’t had the time to read — and that you should accept our invitation to write a story about it (or about anything, for that matter!) Signed, A Fan.
This is one of the most disgusting displays of bureaucratic and dem legislator arrogance and condescension I have seen in my life. It betrays a horrifying deeply ingrained institutional lack of respect for the American people.
“Rep. Gerry Connolly (D., Va.) asked at one point if Ms. Ingram had been “consorting with the Devil.” “Not to my knowledge,” she responded. As for reports that she can fly, she said, they are “greatly exaggerated.”” Connolly and Ingram should be ashamed of themselves.
What, you don’t think Anonster will find you over here?
“6103 Skidoo”.
Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS’s top ObamaCare official, “attempted to counsel the White House on a lawsuit from religious organizations opposing Obamacare’s contraception mandate.”. Emails between Ingram and White House officials Ellen Montz Jeanne Lambrew, “had numerous redactions with the signifier ’6103′ “
Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code forbids a federal employee from “disclosing any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee.”
An extremely disturbing contradiction has just passed before your eyes, which essentially amounts to an admission that the IRS has perpetrated a major felony. Pause for a moment and see if you can find it.
Give up? Here’s the rub: The IRS has redacted the emails sent to Issa on the grounds that the redaction was required by law to prevent the disclosure of confidential information that must be kept internal to the IRS. However, the letters that have been redacted are the texts that were sent to the White House by the IRS.
In other words, in asserting that the IRS was required by law to redact these emails supplied to Issa, the IRS is tacitly confessing that that same law was broken when the IRS sent the original texts to Obama’s senior people.Welcome to Obama’s America.
WSJ –
Sigh…….
File this under; you can run, but you cannot hide.
THE TRUTH ( for hysterical halftruth see above);
From the Washington Wire;
…”The emails by Ms. Ingram and other IRS officials responded to White House questions about rules relating to filing requirements for religious schools. The questions stemmed from lawsuits by several of the religious schools, which were objecting to a mandate to cover contraception in the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul. The email discussions don’t appear to involve non-public information from the schools’ returns.
Ms. Ingram suggested during Wednesday’s hearing that such discussions can be appropriate under exceptions to the IRS confidentiality rules. But the IRS still might feel obligated to redact the information when turning over documents or emails to Congress or the public, she said.”…
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/09/irs-official-not-consorting-with-devil-on-obamacare/
skallywag you and your brethren are so anxious to find an Obama SCANDAL that you continue to fall for exaggerated half truths, racially motivated smears and outright lies. It begs the question; WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LEARN????????????????
Don’t you EVER fact check your sources?
Your gullibility only damages YOUR credibility (not that you ever had any) and when there is a REAL scandal no one will listen.
Fuck your “TRUTH.”
This is not a direct reply – it is an evasion of the truth:
“Ms. Ingram suggested during Wednesday’s hearing that such discussions can be appropriate under exceptions to the IRS confidentiality rules. But the IRS still might feel obligated to redact the information when turning over documents or emails to Congress or the public.”
See above video for her disgusting display of bureaucratic arrogance before the Representatives of the American People.
Why ignore this sentence, skallywag?
“The email discussions don’t appear to involve non-public information from the schools’ returns.”
Doesn’t fit your !!!OBAMA!!!SCANDAL!!! narrative?
How the hell does the author know that? The 95% of damn thing was redacted. There is no explanation of how the author came to that conclusion.
Where does it say that “95%” of it was redacted? Did you just pull that figure out of your big fat ass? If the republicans had found ANYTHING out of the ordinary they would have exposed it. ALL they have are phony insinuations to try and smear Ms. Ingram with.
There are a lot of people working for congress and attending congressional hearings and many are televised, redacting names and other information seems entirely appropriate. Would you want the whole world to know if you were being audited or part of a lawsuit, etc?
This is just another GOP witch hunt, hence the mocking.
Death on the Range – South Dakota ranchers reel after ‘catastrophic’ storm leaves up to 100,000 cattle dead.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/11/south-dakota-ranchers-reel-after-catastrophic-storm-leaves-up-to-100000-cattle/
29 cent burgers for the next 2 weeks …..
You forgot this;
!!!OBAMA!!!PERSONALLY!!!SENT!!!STORM!!!TO!!!PUNISH!!!CONSERVATIVE!!!RANCHERS!!!IN!!!S.D.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IMPEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I promised this to Big Box:
Yeah, clever. I would appreciate it more if I hadn’t been watching it involuntarily for a week as a YouTube pop-up, but I DID laugh the first time I saw it! I can’t help the thought that this was an assignment that Trump would have given his apprentices, but it seems too clever for the few glimpses I’ve had of that bunch. Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for more!
Skally, That’s funny!
Between you and Vern I’m laughing a lot more than normal today, thanks guys!
Saturday October 12 is a worldwide protest against, my favorite chemical company — Monsanto. There are events happening all over California as well, but I will be participating with Occupy Long Beach in Long Beach. Here are the details if you want to join us.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1376895079209587/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
There is a good documentary on RT called “Golden Rice”, its about Syngenta and Monsanto offering the citizens of the Philippines free rice in exchange for allowing them to grow gm rice on their lands. So far its in trial stage and the gov. seems to be against it, but we shall see, how many officials they can bribe…
http://rt.com/shows/documentary/golden-rice-gmo-people-031/
The shocking part claimed that children in China were fed this golden rice to study its effects on humans. Their parents were never informed either. The kids were basically lab rats.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/06/15735225-china-sacks-three-officials-for-gmo-rice-test-xinhua?lite
See you in Long Beach???
I ran across this and figured you’d already posted it (but no, so here!)
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/protesters-drop-bag-of-cash-in-senate-building-194956851.html
I didn’t see it. Thanks. How much you want to bet there will be zero coverage of protests on cable news?? Check RT channel. It should get coverage there.
Thanks, I had forgotten about RT until recently. Last nite I watched their ‘Burning Man 2013’ documentary – better than network chaff. Our TV is one of the 5% ‘antenna only’!
On the Fitzgerald Distraction, this sounds about right:
That was so good I had to watch it twice to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
What Vegans do for laughs-
Did Young Kim write that title, “sirens of the lambs?”
That is a racist comment Vern and not a very good one. It should have been -The sirens of the rams.
NO, we notice that the L is easier for them (or her) to get when it’s at the beginning of the word. Hence – La Parma, Sirence of the Lambs.
Stop it, or I’ll kick your butt!
Genetic modification
Seeing through the corporate smoke & mirrors
This video is worth watching.
I got cancer from eating a daily diet of rBGH dairy, gmo corn and gmo soy. It took 8 years. I no longer eat anything that contain GMOs and I am still cancer free. Learn from me, don’t eat it or feed it to your kids.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/food-1/genetic-modification.html
The bickering continues in D.C. — meanwhile the TPP negotiations that will affect all of us continue to go on…
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2013
Readout of the President’s Call with Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand
The President called Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand to thank him for successfully chairing the meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) leaders in Bali, Indonesia on October 8 and to discuss the productive outcomes from the meeting. The two leaders welcomed the agreement among leaders that the twelve member nations will work toward the ambitious goal of concluding negotiations this year, and they committed to intensifying efforts to reach that goal. As the TPP Leaders Statement noted, this comprehensive and high standard agreement is a model for future trade agreements and a promising pathway to our APEC goal of building a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/224415/pm-talks-tpp-with-obama
We don’t hear a peep about that…do we? For those of you who think our laws will usurp international law…
“Some civil groups have been concerned that patent and investment provisions in the agreement could allow international companies to usurp national sovereignty and laws in areas such as health care.” http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/asia-pacific-leaders-track-sign-trade-deal-20502469
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/08/1245144/-U-S-Gov-t-Quietly-Pushes-to-Conclude-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-a-k-a-Corporate-Coup-D-Etat
Is Obama caving to big tobacco under the TPPA? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/opinion/why-is-obama-caving-on-tobacco.html?_r=0
Is this the change Obama promised????
He has earned his scrutiny and criticism on this. I can tell you, happily, that there is lots of opposition to TPP both in the local and national Democratic party. We’ll need help from outside the party to stop it, though.
There are so many diverse opposition points to TPP, that I can’t imagine how they think they can pass it. Then again they signed the UN small arms treaty too, which has NO chance of being ratified by 2/3 of the Senate, so maybe they get off on posturing more than solving problems, I don’t know anymore what motivates some people.
The crap bowl in Anaheim shocks me. I simply can’t imagine how these people get elected sometimes. Autry must be spinning like the Tasmanian Devil!
Video is from 2011 and still relevant today. The banking system continues to behave the way they did before the crash. Both parties continue to spend, spend, spend.
They complain its the entitlements that are the problem. The war machine is the problem. Sending our tax $$$ to foreign governments is the problem. Allowing corporate welfare is the problem. Citizens who stand behind their parties, no matter what, are the problem.
And the beat goes on…. http://www.usdebtclock.org/
some think growing debt doesn’t matter…the government is not run like a household…tell that to China and Japan, who hold our bonds. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/1008/US-debt-ceiling-How-risky-for-China-and-Japan
Agreed, but they could never be that honest! (glad you fixed it, it was worth watching!)
Neither Congress nor the President have the balls or the honesty.
Perhaps only I’m late on this, and you were already headed there later, but check out the article about the AUDIT on Tom Daly in V of OC! ( And then come RIGHT BACK here, because i’m sure much will be said about it!) Can’t we only have ONE crisis at a time in OC ? What’s next? Locusts?
Zenger’s comment there seemed to be (as usual) informed and literate- maybe (if he’s not already over-occupied!) he’d favor us with some input?
Fund 12D was one of many issues that led me to believe the County has developed an expertise when it comes to covering up, ignoring, and diffusing responsibility for egregious behavior.
One of the reasons nobody would talk about it was because over the course of Daly’s tenure millions of restricted 12D revenues found their way into the County’s General Fund.
Meanwhile the decrepit building at 433 W. Civic Center stands there, essentially useless, a mute testament to incompetence, dissimulation, and the joys of spending other people’s money without a trace of accountability.
I’ll set up a separate article for the topic, but y’all will have to “write it” in comments.
Seems old Tom couldn’t follow the money…
The article link to one on the original audit (preceding the 12-d fund) has a comment from a ‘Mitt Campbell’ REQUESTING a 12-D audit – anyone know if HE has more to add?
400 cities across the globe Marched Against Monsanto today. Here is a snapshot of a few events. http://sustainablepulse.com/2013/10/12/march-against-monsanto-full-live-coverage/#.UloidL7n9jo
I couldn’t add pictures from the one in Long Beach in the comment section, but I heard there is video, when I get it, I will post it.
I was going to ask you the Long Beach activity. Hey, you have not told us about your follow up on the ACA letter at the hospital. ( I miss Dema, don’t you)
re: the ACA. I am still gathering information. A social worker told me that we won’t really know the actual premiums cost until Jan. 2014, when the enrollment numbers are in and letters from insurance companies are still being sent out. She did say employees at UCI are facing higher share of costs for their premiums and less services provided. And who is Dema?
Why would UCI employee’s even be eligible?
I thought the ACA wasn’t available to those whose employer ALREADY provides health insurance. Surely UCI has over 50 employees.
Are you sure of your facts or are you just spreading hysterical caca?
One local contact to ask about the ACA uncertainties and to provide feedback would be this one:
“For additional information about how ACA will benefit you, please stop by my office, call me at (714) 621-0102, or visit me at http://lorettasanchez.house.gov/.
Additional resources:
•Healthcare.gov – More information on ACA
•1-800-318-2596– ACA hotline
•Facebook.com/Healthcare
•Coveredca.com – sign up for Covered California”
Dema is Demagogue. I hope he comes back with his interesting comments.
any thoughts about Dylan Ratigans post in Huffington Post?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/why-would-we-let-them-rig_b_302480.html
Inge, You did realize it was written in 2009, right?
Dylan has a new blog and continues that conversation here… http://www.dylanratigan.com/2013/10/11/bypassing-the-organized-dysfunction/
That article was written in 2009, but his views have not changed
Nor should his view change. He’s dead on target.
Everyone’s insurance (from what I am told) will change to reflect the new ACA laws. If someone knows differently… please do present verifiable evidence. Employees who already were told by their union reps and social workers that they will pay higher share of costs, co-pays and deductibles are a pretty reliable source, unless they were given incorrect information and since it comes from our government, I wouldn’t be surprised. On the other hand insurance companies will use whatever excuse they can find to raise premiums.
The fact remains no one knows for sure how it will play out until Jan. 1, (when the final enrollment numbers for 2013 are in) unless they have a crystal ball. If the younger, healthier enroll to cover the costs of older, sicker ones, then the premiums should be true as stated, but if not, the insurance companies are not about to “eat” the difference…that Economics 101…Insurance companies are a business and they exist to make money, not get or keep people well.
I found this article interesting but not surprising…chemo drugs are expensive (no kidding!)
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/09/5807513/spending-on-chemotherapy-drugs.html
1st round – Chemo, started May 2011
3 rounds, 3 weeks apart
Wed.-Fri 8hrs pump time/day 4 major drugs plus supplemental shots and all the pills that go with it.
2nd round of Chemo started mid June 2011
4 major drugs one day/week, 6x– concurrent with IMRT radiation, or so they hoped…
Added to the costs of chemo treatments, in my case at least.
Imaging, 3x-CT-PET, 4x- MRI, + whatever else they threw in..
Install/remove port-a-cath, install/remove PEG tube, which I ended up using for only a few days as the feeding formulas made me throw up uncontrollably.
2nd round of chemo, concurrent with the IMRT radiation (69.9gy) had to stop half way through, the skin peeled off my face and they started me on transfusions, finished radiation. Got food poisoning, almost ended staying in Hosp, but talked my way out. (Hey, people die there!)
Then when I started making blood cells again they hit me the remaining 3 rounds of chemo, followed by a couple of blood transfusions again. My neck and shoulder skin peeled off. They gave me the procrit and all of the rest of the gold std drugs to try to keep things going.
Now, two years later, surgical removal of a re-grown tumor, left tonsil, caught at an operable stage, BUT removed without margin because of carotid artery proximity. Post surgical infection, 2 weeks after surgery, both bacterial and fungal, treatment with all kinds of nice drugs too! Nerve damage and swelling to left side of jaw and tongue that drugs really don’t help.
Now I’m trying to establish a relationship with someone who I can trust and work with, for TORS surgical cleanup around the carotid artery as needed in the future. Current post surgical MRI looks clean, no re-growth, but that’s certainly not conclusive of anything.
I went to UCLA and frankly, I wouldn’t go back to them, if my life depended on it!
I am on my way to UCI for evaluation on Friday, we will see…. They wanted authorization for several additional “codes” before my referral so I have NO idea what they are going to do to or for me when I get there, since I don’t know what the codes are for. They are sending me info by snail mail for an appt Friday morning.
In my case at least, the chemo costs are huge, and added to the rest of it….it all insane.
If I had just been diagnosed right now, I would be scared to death. Literally, scared to death!
Nobody knows what the future really holds right now in the cancer care world.
They are all sort of saying, “Oh well, into the abyss we go.” Usually with the same kind of looks they had, when they told me what squamous cell carcinoma was…and that ain’t good!
I have taken to chanting the ride operators’ mantra every time I hand over my insurance card and co-pay, “Ladies and gentlemen please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times…” The response back from all three offices has been a very soft response of, “no shit”, that ain’t good either.
As on the border as I am about vaccine use, I would certainly like others to avoid HPV-16 infection and it is one of the strains covered in the new vaccine. I might consider it.
and I left out…They surgically removed ALL my teeth in between the 1st and 2nd session of my round 1 chemo treatments.
Hi Carl, you may have read this 2007 article about the quality of cancer care. It seems that it has not improved much since then:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/health/29Cancer.html?_r=0
In this link, readers are asked to describe the strategies used to keep drug costs manageable:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath.html?
I hope you are feeling OK today.
Ricardo,
I had seen the 2007 piece on cancer. I didn’t feel lost at all. St Joes has been very good in their cancer center and their care. I am a part of their HMO program, and was referred by my GP to my ENT surgeon, who referred me into the my chemo oncologist and radio oncologist at St Joes.
They have a good integrated program that includes a nurse navigator (nn) who is available all the time to answer questions, point you in the right direction and get things done in the system. I doubt anyone has a better nn than I do, but other programs, breast, brain, bowel have them as well, but our head and neck nn is the BEST! Love ya, Heather! Patient advocate, consul, expediter and friend all rolled into one magical cheerful person.
I’m very happy with the quality and care received by all of my Dr’s I have. I’m happy to have gotten what I got, but the cancer has a way of coming back to haunt us sometimes and we just don’t know why.
They have the basic robot, the da Vinci, to do the surgery at St Joes, what they lack right now is a qualified operator for TORS.(Trans Oral Robotic Surgery) If they had one, I assume I would still be within the program rather than out-sourcing it to UCI who has an operator.
All my Dr’s were shocked by what I told them about my trip to UCLA, but I won’t get into what would probably be actionable slander, if it weren’t true, describing that adventure. So, we are looking closer to home with UCI’s head and neck program.
—
As for reduction of Rx costs, referred to in the second piece, I have some different ideas than conventional practices in some ways. I am the kind of guy who “cured” my own asthma by avoiding situations that spark it, like bonfires on the beach, (sorry guys!) and learning how to relax those bronchial tubes by mental exercises. I also carry an emergency inhaler with powdered medicine that last tons longer than the pressurized versions and cost way less. (I should probably get a new Rx for it too, they are way out of date.) But it seems trivial right now.
I hate taking Rx’s so, I’m not a good one for that subject. I worry about all the side effects and complications or interactions and wonder how anyone grows old with all the side effects. I sure as hell want to reduce mine back down to nothing!
“Everyone’s insurance (from what I am told) will change to reflect the new ACA laws.”
You mean these laws;
*Requires insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing health conditions
*Helps you understand the coverage you’re getting
*Holds insurance companies accountable for rate increases
*Makes it illegal for health insurance companies to arbitrarily cancel your health insurance just because you get sick
*Protects your choice of doctors
*Covers young adults under 26
*Provides free preventive care
*Ends lifetime and yearly dollar limits on coverage of essential health benefits
*Guarantees your right to appeal
Horrors!
—————————————————–
” Employees who already were told by their union reps and social workers that they will pay higher share of costs, co-pays and deductibles are a pretty reliable source, unless they were given incorrect information and since it comes from our government, I wouldn’t be surprised. ”
So were all supposed to take Inge’s word that some anonymous “employees” were told by their union reps and social workers(?) that they will pay higher premiums BECAUSE of the ACA (like union workers NEVER have had to negotiate these issues in past, LOL).
I spent a good deal of time trying to track down information on how UCI employees would be hurt by the ACA and found; bupkis.
—————————————————
“The fact remains no one knows for sure how it will play out until Jan. 1…”
Ah, but that hasn’t stopped Inge from spreading negative rumors and other bullshit about stuff that she knows NOTHING about.
Please, just leave your sample on the tray and move on….
Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal
Before, during and after the birth of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama repeated one talking point over and over: If you are happy with your current insurance, nothing will change.
Robert Hare was happy with his insurance. So were Gregory Rothrock and his family. Yet, their insurance must change, and it will cost them more money.
The individual insurance plans Hare and Rothrock bought from Presbyterian Healthcare Services will become illegal under the act, also known as Obamacare, starting Jan. 1.
Presbyterian, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, and Lovelace Health Plan all sell individual insurance and have each come up with a strategy to keep individual insurance customers while complying with the ACA.
Presbyterian is offering a new insurance product to the 23,000 members who have purchased an individual plan in the past, but for only one more year. Presbyterian will stop offering that plan after 2014. Those members who don’t want the plan are encouraged to purchase individual insurance on the federal health insurance exchange.
Todd Sandman, Presbyterian vice president of strategy and customer engagement, said the company wanted to offer “a transitional plan” that would let customers who are not ready to try the exchange remain in an individual plan for one more year. Only current members can buy the transitional plan.
Maternity coverage
Hare said his individual plan now costs him $87 a month and has a $5,000 deductible. The new plan will cost $211 and includes benefits, such as maternity coverage, that are required by the ACA but which Hare doesn’t want.
Hare – a single, male, 48-year-old software developer – couldn’t have had that coverage in the past anyway, since none of the companies offering individual insurance in New Mexico provided a maternity benefit.
As for Rothrock, depending on which of the three levels of coverage he chooses, coverage for his family of three could be as much as 360 percent more costly. Rothrock, a 59-year-old independent financial adviser, said he also doesn’t have any use for ACA-required maternity coverage, since his wife is 52.
“What’s this about being able to keep your own insurance if you like it?” he asked.
**** Lovelace Health Plan, which has 2,900 members covered through individual plans, is simply going to cancel the plans at year’s end and work to get people to buy ACA-compliant individual products on the exchange or directly from Lovelace.
Complying immediately
“We felt we’d just immediately comply with all the provisions” of the act, said Lovelace Health Plan Chief Programs Officer Marlene Baca.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico is confronting the issue somewhat differently. The company has 18,000 individual members in what are known as grandfathered plans. These are plans that were in place before March 2010, when ACA became law, and are not required to meet the act’s coverage requirements, known as essential benefits, provided Blue Cross does not change any of the benefits offered in those grandfathered plans.
Another 10,000 are in individual plans that were offered after March 2010. These nongrandfathered plans already meet ACA coverage requirements.
Blue Cross will continue offering the grandfathered plans for the foreseeable future, but nongrandfathered plans will be required to meet ACA actuarial requirements in 2014. In simplest terms, that means the plans have to be designed to cover a minimum of 60 percent of the customer’s medical costs.
They must also stop medical underwriting of individual plans, which means they can no longer refuse to sell insurance to people with medical problems. They must instead guarantee they will issue insurance to everyone regardless of health status.
Beating Jan. 1 deadline
Blue Cross will skirt these requirements by changing the renewal date of nongrandfathered plans to Dec. 1. Plans in effect on that date don’t have to comply with ACA actuarial and guaranteed issue rules until Dec. 1, 2014.
****** Blue Cross will cancel the nongrandfathered individual plans Dec. 1 next year and encourage members to buy exchange and other products. No new members will be accepted into existing individual plans.
Janice Torrez, vice president of external affairs, said the plan will cost 9.2 percent more than it does this year, but that includes ACA-required fees.
“The plan gives those members just a little bit more time,” Torrez said. “We knew there’d be a lot of questions and confusion. These folks will have more time to decide whether to go to an exchange product, to go off the exchange, or stay put for a while.”
Companies that offer individual plans have struggled for years to make money with them while controlling premium increases. Presbyterian and Blue Cross have raised premiums on these plans more than 20 percent in some years.
‘Very costly’ plans
“This book of business is very costly,” Torrez said, noting the 9.2 percent premium increase doesn’t cover the escalation in health care costs.
Sandman said that even without ACA coverage requirements going into effect in Presbyterian’s new offering, premiums would have increased in the coming year simply because the cost of medical care for members has been increasing.
Over time, Blue Cross expects members to drop even the grandfathered plans. Torrez said most have remained in those plans, despite ever-rising prices, because they couldn’t get an insurance company to sell them another less expensive product.
These members will likely find that new ACA-compliant products are better and less expensive, Torrez said, especially if they qualify for subsidies offered by the federal government to purchasers earning as much as 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
http://www.abqjournal.com/281020/news/changes-ahead-even-for-happily-insured.html
[If a story is copyrighted, Inge, the rule of thumb is you can use about four paragraphs and summarize the rest. There are exceptions for, for example, taking apart and critiquing the story line by line, but unlike Pedroza we try not to simply reprint things here without permission. (If you can get permission, fine.)]
The bad things you describe are not the ACA, they’re the responses of employers and insurers to the ACA, over which the government has no control. But if company’s keep up like this, then they will eventually lead to the ACA being replaced by single-payer or at least supplemented by a robust public option. Political change doesn’t happen all at once.
Thank you for the heads up about copyrights Greg. I had a problem getting to the story when I went to the site and I thought someone else might also have trouble, so I copied it to make it easier. Later I figured it out…but already posted it… I can remove it if you think it will cause you trouble, or you can.
As you know,I did not write the article, I am forwarding them for discussion and it gives Ms. Snarly something to do on a Sunday 😉
I did write another article today and I am waiting with bated breath for my new friend Ms. Snarly to critique it 😀
Why do you bother with an open forum Inge if all you want to do is to vent your spleen?
At least put some disclaimers on your posts/comments;
DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS!
DO NOT FACT CHECK!
DO NOT EXPECT ACCURACY!
IF I BELIEVE IT,THAT MAKES IT TRUE!
ANYBODY THAT DISAGREES WITH ME IS MEAN!
HARUMPH!
Poor Inge, seems like you’re unable to pick sides either that or you’re incapable of understanding the subject.
You hate/don’t trust the government yet claim you want single payer, you hate/don’t trust the insurance companies yet champion their crappy behavior.
For someone who’s so “passionate” about health care what is it that you find so desirable about these “personalized” insurance plans that “omit” all kinds of basic care and not just “maternity benefits”, but other things listed in the very fine print that most folks don’t find out about until it’s too late. These plans are the bottom of the barrel in terms of insurance.
Furthermore I DOUBT that you even READ or UNDERSTOOD the ENTIRE article.
Parts you seem to have missed;
“They must also stop medical underwriting of individual plans, which means they can no longer refuse to sell insurance to people with medical problems. They must instead guarantee they will issue insurance to everyone regardless of health status.”
“Companies that offer individual plans have struggled for years to make money with them while controlling premium increases. Presbyterian and Blue Cross have raised premiums on these plans more than 20 percent in some years.
‘Very costly’ plans
“This book of business is very costly,” Torrez said, noting the 9.2 percent premium increase doesn’t cover the escalation in health care costs.
Sandman said that even without ACA coverage requirements going into effect in Presbyterian’s new offering, premiums would have increased in the coming year simply because the cost of medical care for members has been increasing.
Over time, Blue Cross expects members to drop even the grandfathered plans. Torrez said most have remained in those plans, despite ever-rising prices, because they couldn’t get an insurance company to sell them another less expensive product.
These members will likely find that new ACA-compliant products are better and less expensive, Torrez said, especially if they qualify for subsidies offered by the federal government to purchasers earning as much as 400 percent of the federal poverty level.”
Again; Horrors!
The title is self-evident.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/10/14/obamacares-website-is-crashing-because-it-doesnt-want-you-to-know-health-plans-true-costs/?partner=yahootix
I just skimmed the article, but the title doesn’t seem to tell it all. It’s just hyperventilating nuttiness.
Look: here in sunny California, the Covered California site does let one browse. So it is not the intent of Obamacare generally (of which CoverCal is a part) to deny knowledge of the cost of the plan. The problem is that the federal Healthcare.gov plan is overburdened — first, because that’s common with rollouts of new software like this, and second, because so many of the state refused to set up their own exchanges.
Just relax. We have plenty of time, and as demand ebbs people will be processed in time.
Good article and interview on the link! Thanks BBRW!
Extreme political views not always accompanied with understanding, study shows.
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/06/10/extreme-political-views-not-always-accompanied-with-understanding-study-shows/
Might think about marking your calendars, Greg & I agreed on an issue and now I’m sending a link to a story off MSNBC.
What is the world coming to?
Then again to back up the MSNBC story; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130429130543.htm
Columbus day in Chile:
“Demonstrators took to the streets Saturday to celebrate indigenous culture, demand political self-determination and decry the government’s response to the ongoing disputes over land rights in the South of the country.
This is a national march for people from all over Chile, the indigenous Mapuche from the South, the Aymara and everyone from the North, and from Easter Island, Rapa Nui,” Takano told The Santiago Times. “We are part of the indigenous community Pakarati — from Easter Island — and so we wanted to participate to be a part of everything that is happening, for all the people from all different communities.”
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/chile/human-rights-a-law/26831-indigenous-march-in-chiles-capital-on-columbus-day-
Gee, where was all this stuff on the weekend?
http://news.yahoo.com/radiation-experts-confirm-polonium-arafat-clothing-113941313.html
Didn’t even see it. Can’t say I’d be surprised.