By Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Posted December 31, 2013
Since the beginning of open enrollment, millions of Americans are gaining access to health coverage-many for the very first time-thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The most recent data indicate that more than 2.1 million people have enrolled in a private health insurance plan through the Federal and State-based Marketplaces since October 1.
Both states and the federal government have seen a surge in enrollment in December. Our HealthCare.gov enrollment nearly doubled in days before the January 1 coverage deadline compared to the first weeks of the month. Nationwide, including state and federal marketplaces, December enrollment so far is nearly 6 times that of October and November combined.
We expect these numbers to continue to grow through the end of March when open enrollment ends.
Additionally, 3.9 million Americans learned they’re eligible for coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October and November. These numbers include new eligibility determinations and some Medicaid and CHIP renewals.
We are encouraged that over 6 million people have been enrolled in Marketplace or Medicaid coverage since October 1, and will work to give millions more Americans the peace of mind that comes with health security in the months ahead.
[emphasis added]
In a few hours having a preexisting medical condition can no longer be used to deny someone medical insurance. Canceling your policy because you got sick or because you made a minor error on your insurance application will be a thing of the past. Lifetime coverage can no longer be set to a fixed dollar amount. Eighty cents of every premium dollar must go toward your health care.
It’ll be interesting watching right wingnut republicans continue to try to repeal Obamacare.
Tomorrow, billions of dollars will begin to flow to states to improve & reform health care, but Missouri won’t be one of them. #momedicaid 12:50 PM – 31 Dec 13
Wait until Missourians realize they’re paying for those other states to do so.
Update:
Governor Jay Nixon @GovJayNixon
Tomorrow, MO taxpayers will start subsidizing health care in other states. That’s wrong and we should resolve to fix it in 2014 #momedicaid 2:23 PM – 31 Dec 13
If Congress fails to extend the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, more than 21,000 people in Missouri are set to lose their insurance coverage immediately on Dec. 28, according to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. An additional 35,400 people in Missouri will lose their coverage in the first six months of 2014 if Republicans continue to block an extension of the program, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Federal unemployment insurance took effect in 2008 and has been reauthorized several times since as Americans continue to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Despite the real progress the economy has made since its near collapse in 2008, there are still 1.3 million fewer jobs than there were before the recession began and long-term unemployment as a percentage of the unemployed is 37 percent, near historic highs.
Failure to extend federal unemployment insurance would also hurt job growth throughout the nation, costing the economy 240,000 jobs, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The CEA estimates that in Missouri alone, failing to extend the program will cost 2,456 jobs.
Petition to retroactively abrogate the two illegal elections of Barack H. Obama to the presidency of the U.S.A. on the basis that the man fraudulently represented himself as constitutionally eligible to be president while knowingly not so.
Mr. Obama/Soetoro publicized himself as having been born in what is now called Kenya for over 16 years through his literary agent before being illegally elected to the presidency.
His illegal and illegitimate administration has published a fraudulent electronic file on the official White House website as purported authentication of his constitutional eligibility to be president.
The electronic file that he claims is a true representation of his original birth certificate is a proven manufactured forgery as is his Selective Service Registration card.
Created: Dec 11, 2013
Issues: Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Defense, Government Reform
Signatures needed by January 10, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000 99,539
Eight hundred thirty posts (so far) this year. And it wasn’t a big election year. What follows is a list of our top traffic generating posts written in 2013. One such post generated the equivalent of two to three months of normal traffic in the period of two days. That one went viral. Posts from previous years still generate considerable traffic – that’s another beauty of the Internets. We didn’t include those posts on this list.
Yes, the rodeo clown/Obama incident at the Missouri State Fair. The promoted post (and photo) by a registered user garnered around 35,000 unique hits over the course of two days. The thing is, if the poster had known how to attach a photo at the Great Orange Satan his post over there would have probably dropped like a rock in the queue. Instead…
A tenther gun nullification bill (what else is new?) in the Missouri House. Who knew that people were interested in lunatic fringe right wingnut legislation making its way through the General Assembly? The bill was sponsored by Representative Casey Guernsey (r).
Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), one of “…fourteen Republican representatives who voted – are you ready – to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from the farm bill while retaining massive agricultural subsidies they themselves receive…”
Representative Hartzler (r) consistently provides us with plenty of material to cover.
A sampling of Lieutenant Governor (and possible 8th Congressional District candidate) Peter Kinder’s (r) newspaper editorials written back in the days when they didn’t buy electrons by the terabyte.
The National Rural Letter Carriers Association held their convention in St. Louis. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) spoke:
“…And keep in mind that when I left Washington, uh, almost two weeks ago Congress had sent thirteen bills to the President’s desk. The smallest number in the history of the republic. And most of those were naming post offices. [laughter, applause] That’s hardly postal reform. [laughter]…”
Our posted videos of Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s (D) town hall on Syria were cited by Digby (another a-list national political blog). They didn’t provide the post URL, but instead linked to the main Show Me Progress URL. It did generate a lot of traffic.
Over the course of the last year we covered a number of government and political events in Missouri (and elsewhere), in the process taking thousands of photographs. Most of them didn’t make it into the blog. Some of the things we saw and heard made us smile, made us think, made us gasp, made us hope, and made us despair. We thought we’d provide a retrospective of some of the pictures and stories we consider to be memorable.
We took our annual road trip to the Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa on September 15, 2013:
Vice President Joe Biden, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, and Senator Tom Harkin in Indianola, Iowa (September 15, 2013).
Over the course of the last year we covered a number of government and political events in Missouri (and elsewhere), in the process taking thousands of photographs. Most of them didn’t make it into the blog. Some of the things we saw and heard made us smile, made us think, made us gasp, made us hope, and made us despair. We thought we’d provide a retrospective of some of the pictures and stories we consider to be memorable.
Ah yes, August:
It wasn’t our photo.
August. The Missouri State Fair Rodeo caused quite a stir. And we were close to the center of it. Yes, the rodeo clown incident:
….Most of the traffic spike has subsided. Near as we can tell, the main post, ancillary posts, and our site entry URL combined for a traffic spike of 35,000 unique hits. That’s the equivalent of three to five months (depending on the time of year) of normal traffic. We’ve had traffic spikes in the past, just nothing like this[.]…
Then there was Syria. Our coverage of Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City town hall on Syria on September 5, 2013 was noted at another a-list national blog:
Over the course of the last year we covered a number of government and political events in Missouri (and elsewhere), in the process taking thousands of photographs. Most of them didn’t make it into the blog. Some of the things we saw and heard made us smile, made us think, made us gasp, made us hope, and made us despair. We thought we’d provide a retrospective of some of the pictures and stories we consider to be memorable.
In May we witnessed the end of the republican controlled General Assembly train wreck in Jefferson City:
Representative Chris Kelly (D) on the floor of the House in Jefferson City (May 14, 2013).