Today, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

Nationwide Enrollment for Health Care Coverage Surged in December

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.

Today, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler

You’ve got to be kidding! I just received a letter rejecting my ObamaCare sign up even tho’ by law I have to sign up in the DC Exchange! 11:25 AM – 27 Dec 13

Some of the responses:

Matt Tharp ‏@matt_tharp

Musta been her forged birth certificate MT “@RepHartzler: You’ve got to be kidding! I just received a letter rejecting my ObamaCare sign up” 11:37 AM – 27 Dec 13

Ouch.

Snarkcasm ‏@Ontheotherhand

@RepHartzler Ppl w pre-existing conditions (fill in ur own GOP ailment) can’t be denied benefits. Maybe pay ur fine out of farm subsidy $$ 11:45 AM – 27 Dec 13

Jeff Reed ‏@JeffReedMO

Forget to check Are you a Birther box? “@RepHartzler: You’ve got to be kidding! I just received a letter rejecting my ObamaCare sign up…” 11:53 AM – 27 Dec 13

You’ve just got to love social media.

A bill, prefiled in the Senate on December 9th by Senator Brian Nieves (r), containing the standard right wingnut list of grievances:

SECOND REGULAR SESSION

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 38 [pdf]

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY SENATOR NIEVES.

Pre-filed December 9, 2013, and ordered printed.

TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.

4386S.01I

JOINT RESOLUTION

Submitting to the qualified voters of Missouri, an amendment to article I of the Constitution of Missouri, relating to state sovereignty.

Be it resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring therein:

That at the next general election to be held in the state of Missouri, on Tuesday next following the first Monday in November, 2014, or at a special election to be called by the governor for that purpose, there is hereby submitted to the qualified voters of this state, for adoption or rejection, the following amendment to article I of the Constitution of the state of Missouri:

Section A. Article I, Constitution of Missouri, is amended by adding one new section, to be known as section 35, to read as follows:

Section 35. 1. That the state of Missouri hereby enforces its constitutional sovereignty and the sovereignty of its citizens under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America over all powers not enumerated and delegated to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States of America, nor prohibited by it to the states.

2. The state of Missouri shall:

(1) Uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America by hereby prohibiting the Missouri legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government from recognizing, enforcing, or acting in furtherance of any federal law, executive order, judicial ruling, administrative ruling, collection of revenue, dispersal of revenue, or other action by the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of the federal government that exceeds the limited powers enumerated and delegated to the federal government;

(2) Not recognize, enforce, or act in furtherance of the following:

(a) Federal actions restricting the right of private citizens to bear arms;

(b) Federal actions legalizing or funding abortions, or the destruction of any embryo containing human DNA from the zygote stage onward through all stages of development;

(c) Any federal action requiring the sale or trade of carbon credits or imposing a tax, fee, fine, or penalty on the release of carbon emissions;

(d) Federal actions involving a public option for health care, mandating end of life counseling, rationing health care, dictating or limiting the type of treatment a doctor may provide to his or her patient, authorizing or mandating the collection of a patient’s medical record into a database, covering illegal aliens under health insurance or prohibiting enforcement of laws regarding coverage for illegal aliens, mandating the benefits health insurance must cover, requiring insurance providers to cover abortion services, restricting the ability of patients to purchase health insurance in another state, or assessing fees, fines, or penalties on employers who do not provide health insurance to their employees or Missouri citizens who do not purchase health insurance;

(e) Any federal action mandating the recognition of same sex marriage, civil unions, or any relationship other than the marriage of one man and one woman;

(f) Any federal action increasing the punishment for a crime based on the thoughts of the perpetrator or the designation of the crime as a “hate crime”;

(g) Any federal action regarding the establishment clause based upon a “wall of separation” between church and state;

(h) Any federal action restricting the right of parents or guardians to home school, enroll their children in a private or parochial school, or placing restrictions on curriculum;

(3) Interpret the Constitution of the United States of America based on its language and the intent of the signers of the Constitution at the time of its passage. The several amendments shall be interpreted by their language and the intent of the congressional sponsor and co-sponsors of the amendment. Any interpretation of the Constitution based on an emerging awareness, penumbras or shadows of the Constitution, a theory of the Constitution being a “living, breathing document”, or any interpretation that expands federal authority beyond the limited powers enumerated and delegated to the federal government, without an amendment to the Constitution, shall be deemed to exceed the limited powers enumerated and delegated to the federal government.

3. Missouri citizens shall have standing to bring a cause of action to enforce the provisions of this section. Enforcement of this section shall apply to federal actions taking effect after approval of this section by Missouri voters, federal actions enumerated herein, and any federal action, regardless of its effective date, the general assembly or Missouri supreme court shall hereafter determine, in accordance with subdivision (3) of subsection 2 of this section, to exceed the powers enumerated and delegated to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States of America.

4. As used in this section, the following terms mean:

(1) “Federal action”, any federal law, executive order, judicial ruling, administrative ruling, collection of revenue, dispersal of revenue, or other action by the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of the federal government that exceeds the limited powers enumerated and delegated to the federal government by the Constitution;

(2) “Public option”, any health insurance plan passed after January 1, 2009, operated by the federal government or its agent that competes directly or indirectly with private health insurance providers;

(3) “Constitution”, the Constitution of the United States of America.

5. The provisions of this section are self-executing. All of the provisions of this section are severable. If any of the provisions of this section is found by a court of competent jurisdiction, in compliance with subdivision (3) of subsection 2 of this section, to be unconstitutional or unconstitutionally enacted, the remaining provisions of this section shall be and remain valid. Any ruling by a court of competent jurisdiction in violation of subdivision (3) of subsection 2 of this section shall be invalid and not recognized, enforced, or otherwise furthered in the state of Missouri.

Section B. Pursuant to chapter 116, RSMo, and other applicable constitutional provisions and laws of this state allowing the general assembly to adopt ballot language for the submission of a joint resolution to the voters of this state, the official ballot title of the amendment proposed in section A of this resolution shall be as follows:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to prohibit the state of Missouri from recognizing, enforcing, or furthering any federal law, executive order, judicial or administrative ruling, collection of revenue, dispersal of revenue, or other action by the federal government that exceeds the limited powers enumerated and delegated to the federal government by the United States

Constitution?”

[emphasis in original]

This is not a new thing for Senator Nieves (r):

HJR 88: a veritable thesaurus of tenther drivel (April 8, 2013)

…Let’s see. Guns! Check. Abortion and stem cells! Check. Cap and trade! Check. Health care reform! Check. Gay marriage or civil unions! Check. Hate crimes? Check. Religion! Check. Home schooling and parochial schools! Check…

SJR 45: Sen. Brian Nieves (r) – same tune, different concert hall (January 11, 2012)

Just call it a feeling, but this is going to be the most productive legislative session ever. Not.

From Talking Points Memo we learn that the following Missouri Republicans signed up for Obamacare through the D.C. marketplace without indicating that they would refuse the employer contribution: Billy Long (R-7), and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-3)

So what you say? We all know that the employer contribution was reinstated for congressmen and their staff in order to restore fairness – after all, 80% of Americans get their insurance through their work where all or much of the costs are borne by their employers – which was also the case with congress before an anti-Obamacare stunt on the part of GOP Senator Chuck Grassley backfired, forcing congressional employees onto the exchanges which had only been intended for folks who had to purchase their insurance on the open market without benefit of an employer group’s buying power.

But the big deal is that these particular members of congress were unwilling to give up the talking point about unfair treatment for government workers and were pretty vocal that the subsidy should not be restored; both voted in September to strip the employer contribution for members of congress and their staffs. As TPM puts it, these folks now have the chance to “practice what they preach” – and some Republican members of the House have had the integrity to do just that. Or like Missouri’s Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2), they either have coverage through a another source, or sufficient private means to buy their own insurance, and so can afford to spurn their employment-based insurance and avoid the issue of “do as I say, not as I do” altogether.

But not Long and Luetkemeyer, even though they were specifically called out on the issue during the disastrous GOP “defund-obamacare” government shutdown by the new Chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, Roy Temple, who called upon members of Missouri’s GOP House delegation to “put your money where your mouth is”:

On the seventh day of a Republican government shutdown, due to the US House majority demanding a dismantling of the Affordable Care Act before they fund basic services, Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple issued a challenge to Representatives Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Vicky Hartzler, Sam Graves, Billy Long, and Jason Smith: that they voluntarily forfeit their employer contributions to their health care plans – contributions they have lately labeled “special treatment.”

Long even felt entitled to crudely grill HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius – who is not subject to the congressional mandate to buy insurance from the exchanges – about why she is not giving up her federally supplied insurance and buying from the exchanges. As for Luetkemeyer, he actually voted to suspend all subsidies under the pretense that they are liable to fraud, a consideration that apparently doesn’t bother him when he’s the recipient.

Say what you will about hypocrisy, perhaps Long’s and Luetkemeyer’s actions simply demonstrate what everybody else has known all along. The entire brouhaha about “special treatment” for congress was simply an effort by the GOP to keep stirring up trouble and generating false anti-Obamacare scandals. Don’t you think that these folks are maybe going to cry “wolf” just once too often? Like any day now?

 

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2) offers a case study of what is wrong with the pathetic Republican anti-Obamacare crusade. Wagner has had this request posted on her congressional Webpage for some time:

Have you had your health insurance plan cancelled as a result of ObamaCare? Have your premiums increased or even doubled? Have you had to switch doctors? Have you lost your job or had your hours cut?

You are not alone and the American people need to hear your story. Give Obamacare a face and share your story with me at ObamaCare.Wagner@mail.house.gov

.

Notice that Wagner makes it clear that she’s only interested in hearing from those who’ve got a beef with Obamacare – or think they have; she has no interest in learning what’s working or how any of her constituents may be benefiting from Obamacare. So much for unbiased fact-finding.

A few days ago I learned from a video embedded in  Rep. Wagner’s constituent email newsletter (which I have included over the fold) that her call for ammunition against Obamacare has been fruitful to some extent; she wants us to know that she  has heard “far too many heart-wrenching stories” about the ravages of Obamacare from the folks in her district.

If you bother to play the video, you’ll be struck by how few details she offers as she recounts a few sketchy anecdotes that meet the criteria she specified in her Website invitation. As is the norm for the GOP’s anti-Obamacare “real-life” stories, she doesn’t tell us what her informants’ old coverage offered as compared to the new policies they can get through the exchange, or if they’ve even gone to the exchange. Nor does she tell us if any of these folks are eligible for subsidies. Neither, apart from her angsty evocation of “far too many,” does she quantify the complaints she received, or tell us how that number compares with the  31,474 Missourians, seeking coverage for 62,964 individuals who have completed applications for healthcare through the federal Website. But hey! Who cares about folks getting healthcare coverage, many probably for the first time, when you can get a few folks to grouse about maybe having to change their coverage plan or their doctor?

There’s lots more about Obamacare implementation that Wagner doesn’t seem to want folks to know. For instance, she doesn’t drop a hint about state Republicans’ all-out efforts to hobble the process in Missouri in order to keep people from signing up. Nor does she have a single word to waste on Missourians who will be caught in the “Medicaid gap,” those whom Obamacare intended to cover by exending Medicaid coverage, an extension that Wagner’s fellow partisans in the state legislature refused to enact after the Supreme Court gave them an out. Individuals in the gap make too much for Missouri’s current Medicaid eligibility rules, but not enough to qualify for subsidies through the Obamacare healthcare exchange. Wagner evidently isn’t interested in the “heart-wrenching” stories these victims of what Kevin Drum has called “one of most sordid acts in recent American history” will have to tell.

And then finally there’s all the misleading or just flat out dishonest assertions that Wagner stuffs into her performance, most of it the usual drivel that has long been discounted – as in this Factcheck.org report on Obamacare myths or this Bill Moyers’ piece on the failures of Obamacare media coverage. Rep. Wagner – and the hysterical rightwing media – to the contrary, 80 million people aren’t going to lose their insurance – this number is just one more example of the type of “bait and switch” logic that the demonstrably dishonest conservative economist Avik Roy employed when he came up with a similar extravagant figure in Forbes earlier this year. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill knows what she’s talking about when she observes that when it comes to Obamacare, Missourians “are being told that it’s something that it isn’t.”

But that what’s last ditch warfare is like – just before defeat, the losers will latch on to any weapon that comes to hand, even if they have to lob slime from the bottom of the trench. Fortunately, the muck Wagner and her GOP pals are tossing makes a poor weapon; eventually all this hyperventilating will have come to an end. The Website is improving, folks will get insurance, those who  have been terrified by GOP fear-mongering will emerge into the light of a new day, at least as far as health care goes. As Michael Tomasky argued yesterday, it’s looking more and more likely that HealthCare.gov is going to be a plus for Democrats in 2014 – and even further:

… in two more years’ time, and indeed less than that, many millions of Americans will see that what they thought was decent health insurance before the Affordable Care Act was like gaslight before electricity.

Step over the fold if you want to watch the expensively dressed and groomed Rep. Ann Wagner, who will no doubt get gold-plated insurance through her wealthy husbands’ employer – she has declined the coverage offered to congress – emote about how middle class and poor folks are going to suffer because of Obamacare:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) today on Obmacare, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Why are more people losing their insurance than getting it? #AskSebelius (….) 6:59 AM – 10 Dec 13

[with a link to a photo/poster]

What are your numbers? Who’s doing the counting? Like insurance companies would report how many people with substandard insurance they gouged in the past?  Do you count people who lost substandard insurance with very expensive deductibles and then gained affordable health insurance with standard benefits twice? Shouldn’t you wait until after the signup deadline in March to count? Just asking.

And, of course, this being the Internets, Representative Hartzler (r) gets some replies:

Steven McCain ‏@Steven_McCain

@RepHartzler Insurance companies refuse to step up to a minimum level of care. An American disgrace 7:25 AM – 10 Dec 13

Bob Yates ‏@OldDrum

@RepHartzler It is good to know that you take stands based on posters. Facts are so much more difficult, aren’t they? 7:47 AM – 10 Dec 13

We await Representative Hartzler’s unimpeachable numbers and sources for her assertion.  

Heh.

Yesterday, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Just signed up for ObamaCare. Ugh! ‘Only’ a 68% increase! So much for the ‘Affordable’ Care Act! 11:43 AM – 7 Dec 13

Interesting. No mention of her experience navigating the web site.

And, as is becoming the norm these days, there were a number of responses:

carl klopfenstine ‏@Carl23b4

@RepHartzler Had some really cheap shit before Huh?Can’t afford it get Medicaid Expansion in Missouri 11:48 AM – 7 Dec 13

That was within five minutes.

Steven McCain ‏@Steven_McCain

@RepHartzler Hope you socked away some of that $536,000 in farm subsidies! 11:50 AM – 7 Dec 13

That one was within seven minutes.

Bob Yates ‏@OldDrum

@RepHartzler Share with us your previous plan what it covered to your new plan. You are aware the GOP made you signup for Obamacare? 2:29 PM – 8 Dec 13

Yes, we would like to have a comparison of the previous plan with the new one. And the employer contribution, if any, for each.

That signup requirement would be Senator Chuck Grassley’s (r) idea:

Why Congress is (or isn’t) exempt from Obamacare

Gregory Korte, USA TODAY 6:44 p.m. EDT September 27, 2013

….Members of Congress are treated differently under Obamacare, but they’re not exempt. In fact, by forcing them to purchase health insurance through publicly run exchanges, they’re impacted more by that key provision than similar employees in private sector – or even in government.

But members of Congress will also be able to purchase their insurance under terms that are more favorable than other employees – in government or in business – who have access to employer-provided health care…

….During the 2010 debate over the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, proposed an amendment requiring members of Congress and their staffs to purchase health insurance though state exchanges. Democrats, viewing the amendment as a political stunt, co-opted the idea as their own and inserted it into the bill…..

Recently Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker claimed the overweening Republican problem to be messaging. According to Parker, the GOP needs to present a more positive, hopeful face to the country. She thinks their negativity permits Democrats to cast them – unfairly – as cruel and heartless villains who consequently can’t compete with a president who wins hearts and minds by tossing – ready for the conservative meme du jour, a riff on the old bread and circuses schtick – “coins and candy into the crowds.”

Unfortunately for Parker’s thesis, which largely centers on Obamacare, access to basic healthcare is a little more substantive than “coins and candy.” In fact it isn’t overstating the case to say it’s a matter of life and death. Healthcare reform is long overdue and although Obamacare, as a product of compromise reflecting diverse interests, is far from perfect, its problems are all eminently fixable. It’s a real and considerable achievement that will make all our lives a little better.

It is not the ineffective and naively liberal president they consistently  invoke that bothers Republicans, but the calm, measured, do-something-for-the-99% president who is driving them bonkers. And the resulting GOP tantrum simply reveals what they really stand for – and the picture is, as Parker correctly discerns, not very pretty, but, Parker to the contrary, the problem is more essential than bad self-presentation. Based on their actual policy preferences and lack of concern for the real problems of the vast majority of Americans, nobody can deny Republicans are a seriously bloody-minded bunch.

Slate has published this interactive map prepared by Kantar media that tracks where money is being spent on Obamacare attack ads relative to the numbers of uninsured. Guess what? More uninsured, more ads. Here in Missouri, the let’s-kill-Obamacare folks are hammering the Springfield Market where 23.5% of the inhabitants are uninsured. It’s also one of the poorest areas in Missouri.

Then, of course, there’s the content of these ads. For the most part, they seem filled with distortions and outright falsehoods. What kind of people tell lies to  make their points? Especially when those very people here in Missouri are refusing to take federal funds, our own tax dollars, to expand Medicaid coverage, all the while while bleating about the imagined evils of depending on a federal hand-out – but never one word about the evil situation where over 20% of their constituents lack access to good healthcare.

Perhaps Parker’s candy meme tells us more than she intended about who today’s Republicans really are. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s hilarious variation on the old bread and circuses business suggests that the GOP ought to be careful about which talking points they want to promulgate:

They [i.e. Democrats] are giving away candy, and it is tasty stuff,” he said. “We’ve got the drill and the Novocain to fix the cavity.

So a functioning safety net, good health care, quality education, strong infrastructure and a prosperous and growing middle class – all the concerns that animate progressives – are just like cavities? And the folks running around waving their metaphorical drills? Parker is at least partly right. Nobody wants sadists running government.    

A tenther anti-Obamacare bill has been prefiled in the Missouri Senate:

“…The power to require or regulate a person’s choice in the mode of securing health care services, or to impose a penalty related thereto, is not found in the Constitution of the United States of America, and is therefore a power reserved to the people pursuant to the Ninth Amendment, and to the several states pursuant to the Tenth Amendment. The state of Missouri hereby exercises its sovereign power to declare the public policy of the state of Missouri regarding the right of all persons residing in this state in choosing the mode of securing health care services…”

Uh, the United States Supreme Court has already weighed in on this.

The bill:

SB 546 Modifies Missouri’ Health Care Freedom Act by prohibiting the state from implementing a health insurance exchange, prohibiting insurers from accepting remuneration that may result in penalties violative of the act, and prescribing duties of the Attorney General for enforceme

Sponsor: Lamping

LR Number: 4499S.01I Fiscal Note not available

Committee:

Last Action: 12/1/2013 – Prefiled

Current Bill Summary

SB 546 – This act modifies what is commonly known as the Health Care Freedom Act which was approved by the Missouri voters in 2010. The act restates Missouri’s public policy of allowing its citizens the freedom to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services without facing a penalty and provides that it is against Missouri public policy to implement or operate a health insurance exchange in Missouri. The act also posits several findings of fact of how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and implementing a state-based exchange would subject Missouri citizens and employers to penalties. The act further provides that if a health insurance issuer operating in Missouri accepts any remuneration that may result in the imposition of penalties contrary to Missouri’s public policy, then the Director of Insurance shall suspend the issuer’s license to transact business in Missouri. The suspension will stay in place until the issuer represents that it has returned the remuneration to its source and will decline any such future remuneration. The act further imposes a duty upon the Attorney General to seek injunctive relief and other appropriate remedies whenever the public policy set forth in the act is being violated.

This act is identical to SB 473 (2013).

Yes, yes, we can already tell that the 2014 regular session is going to be the most productive in Missouri history.

Today, at the Washington Post:

Wonkbook: HealthCare.gov will work. That means Obamacare can work, too.

Posted by Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas on December 2, 2013 at 8:30 am

….here’s what’s indisputable: HealthCare.gov is improving, and fast. Or, to put it differently, HealthCare.gov will be fixed. In fact, for most people, it is probably fixed now, or will be fixed quite soon….

Also today, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

#Obamacare isn’t looking so hot. #25DaysofObamacare [….] 9:14 AM – 2 Dec 13

(Along with a photo of Macaulay Culkin from the film Home Alone.)

And some responses:

KCLiveMusicBlog ‏@KCLiveMusicBlog

@RepHartzler Oh so website operating at intended capacity by the end of Nov as stated is a failure? KY uninsured rates are down 9% also. 9:15 AM – 2 Dec 13

KCLiveMusicBlog ‏@KCLiveMusicBlog

@RepHartzler You aren’t even trying anymore are you? 9:16 AM – 2 Dec 13

Heh. Evidently not.

Bryant Hileman ‏@bryanthileman

@KCLiveMusicBlog @RepHartzler She is very good at cashing her farm subsidy check while denouncing programs for others. 9:19 AM – 2 Dec 13

KCLiveMusicBlog ‏@KCLiveMusicBlog

@bryanthileman @RepHartzler Her motto in life is: “What’s good for the goose is socialism for the gander.” 9:21 AM – 2 Dec 13

carl klopfenstine ‏@Carl23b4

@RepHartzler Try it,you’ll like it.It’s not green like Brocoli,and good for you too. 9:29 AM – 2 Dec 13

Hunter Buckworth ‏@HunterBuckworth

This is not a tweet from a serious person. RT @RepHartzler #Obamacare isn’t looking so hot. [….] 10:18 AM – 2 Dec 13

Social media certainly does allow people to talk back.