Paul Ryan Admits That The GOP Plans To Win The Senate and Take Healthcare Away From Millions

"I’d go back to the pre-Obamacare baseline is what I would do. I think that’s the way to go. We shouldn’t assume we’re going to have an explosive entitlement then replace it with our own. I would start over again, quite frankly."

What Ryan was suggesting is that if Republicans take control of the Senate, they are going to begin the process of repealing Obamacare. The real target date that Republicans have in mind is 2017. If Republicans control Congress and win the presidency, they will be able to repeal the ACA and replace it with a voucher system.

A Health Care Success Story

Pretty minor Oregon update today, with no Medicaid update and total QHPs up around 800; the main significance is that the net QHP enrollment, having gradually dropped every week since around mid-July, has leveled off at 78,616 for the past 2 weeks:

Medical enrollments through Cover Oregon: 354,291
Total private medical insurance enrollments through Cover Oregon: 101,909

Oregon Health Plan enrollments through Cover Oregon: 252,362*

*OHP enrollment data is current as of August 13, 2014. An updated number will be posted soon.

Dental enrollments 
Total private dental insurance enrollments through CoverOregon 1: 20,686

Net enrollments 
Net private medical: 78,616
Net private dental: 14,195

This means that Oregon's net attrition rate since July 14, which I had down as 2.5% per month, is now down to just 2.1% monthly.

This Just In...

77 new health insurance issuers means greater choice and competition for consumers

A report released today by the Department of Health and Human Services shows that consumers will have more choices as they shop for quality, affordable coverage on the Health Insurance Marketplace in 2015, because there will be a net 25 percent increase in the number of issuers offering Marketplace coverage in 2015.  In total, 77 new issuers will offer Marketplace coverage. 

“When consumers have more choices, we all benefit,” said Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.  “In terms of affordability, access, and quality, today’s news is very encouraging.  It’s a real sign that the Affordable Care Act is working.”

Today’s report examines preliminary data from 36 states run or fully supported by the federal government (Federal Marketplace) plus eight states operating State-based Marketplaces, and finds that a larger set of insurance issuers will offer plans in the Marketplaces in 2015.  Specifically:

(sigh) I debated whether to respond to the latest nonsense spewed forth by FOX News' Jim Angle (he's their "chief national correspondent", don'cha know?), since I've already pre-debunked (pre-bunked??) pretty much every mouse pellet that he drops in this article, but what the hell:

President Obama’s claim last spring that 8 million people had enrolled in ObamaCare recently got a significant downgrade from the head of the agency overseeing the plan.

• STOP: No one enrolls "in" ObamaCare. They enroll in either a commercial healthcare policy via a healthcare exchange providede for by the Affordable Care Act or they enroll in Medicaid or CHIP thanks to provisions within the Affordable Care Act.
• No, Tavenner did not give a "significant downgrade". She was actually quite happy (and rightly so) to report that a good 90% or so of ACA QHP enrollees have paid their first month's premium and continue to do so from month to month.

Go on...

OK, I suppose there have been worse U.S. Senate candidates in the past, and it's conceivable that there are worse ones this year thrown in by one major party or the other as "Some Dude®" sacrificial lambs in deep Red or Blue states. However, Terri Lynn Land is certainly the worst "serious" contender this cycle that I can think of.

Anyway, Land, who somehow managed to win statewide office twice as Michigan's SOS in the past, has apparently decided that 630,000 of her potential constituents shouldn't have decent, affordable healthcare coverage, so she's signed a pledge vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Well, OK, technically this isn't the same lawsuit that Speaker of the House John Boehner (that's "John Boehner", by the way, not "Ted Cruz" or "Mitch McConnell") is still supposedly planning on filing against President Obama, but it might as well be:

A federal appeals court has summarily tossed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s delay of Obamacare’s employer mandate — a case that is similar to the one that House Republicans plan to file against the president.

This suit was filed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which argued that the delay could hurt doctors financially. But the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Friday said the plaintiffs don’t have a right to sue.

Minnesota's QHP numbers continue to quietly rise slowly despite the news last week that the MNsure's largest participant, PreferredOne, is pulling out of the exchange for year two. Meanwhile, their Medicaid number is up another 6,541, and MinnesotaCare (which isn't actually Medicaid proper, but is sort of a quasi-Medicaid-like program allowed for & funded by the Affordable Care Act) is up 1,489.

I've generally sort of lumped Medicaid and MinnesotaCare together, but it's worth noting that the successful addition of 73.4K people to MinnesotaCare is one of the main reasons for PreferredOne pulling out of the exchange in the first place.

latest enrollment numbers 

September 21, 2014

Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 207,089
MinnesotaCare 73,449
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 54,818
TOTAL 335,356

For the most part, this press release from CoveredCA is just a nice overview of the new offerings available on the little-discussed SHOP (small business) ACA exchange. As you may recall, CA was one of the few SHOP exchanges which ever got off the ground at all last year, and even then technical issues resulted in the exchange taking it offline back in February. When I last updated CA's SHOP total, it was at only 4,900 people...however, according to this PR, that number has more than doubled since last spring, and now stands at 11,510:

Sept. 19, 2014

COVERED CALIFORNIA ANNOUNCES INSURANCE PLANS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES IN 2015

Carriers Remain Consistent, but New and Expanded • Choices Are Now Available to Employees

Apparently some insurance companies haven't been complying with the byzantine hoops that anti-choice forces demanded be included in the Affordable Care Act (although for the most part they still voted against it anyway):

The new GAO study shows that, instead, taxpayers are subsidizing abortions. Customers in five states have no abortion-free plans available to them, and in many states, customers can't tell which plans cover abortion and which don't.

...Fifteen issuers and the Washington Health Benefit Exchange ... did not itemize the premium amount associated with non-excepted abortion services coverage on enrollees’ bills nor indicate that they send a separate bill for that premium amount.