Understanding Obamacare

Gary Stein of Tampa, retired public health professional turned advocate for health reform, has written a column about the unfortunate stereotypes that some doctors (and others, including politicians) have about Medicaid patients.

To keep you from having to search for it in the river of news, we're putting some basic information on the Affordable Care Act as it pertains to Florida in a prominent place at our home page, HealthNewsFlorida.org. 

All of our Affordable Care Act coverage can also be found here, with the latest posts at the top.

President Barack Obama said Monday that "nobody's madder than me" about the problems infesting Healthcare.gov, the enrollment website for plans through the Affordable Care Act.

But he added with a chuckle, "That means it's going to get fixed."

In the meantime, he said, Americans can pick up the phone. There are operators waiting to walk Americans through the sign-up process at the Health Insurance Marketplace's toll-free line, 800-318-2596.

Joe Paduda, a consultant to many Florida employers on workers' compensation, writes at his blog Managed Care Matters that the Health Insurance Marketplace needs to be closed until it is really ready.

President Barack Obama will speak to the press shortly before noon about the problems still plaguing the Health Insurance Marketplace that is intended to help the uninsured in 36 states, including Florida, the New York Times reports.  

Some low-income Floridians who can't get Medicaid coverage now will qualify for it after Jan. 1, under new Medicaid eligibility guidelines that apply nationwide.

Savings accounts, a car and child support will no longer count against eligibility, which should make it easier for low-income parents to qualify, according to an account in the Orlando Sentinel.

U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster was a reluctant yes and Rep. Steve Southerland was a defiant no as 17 Florida members of Congress voted to re-open the federal government and raise the debt limit on Wednesday, and 11 said no.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was one of the "no" votes when the Senate took action in late afternoon. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, voted yes with the majority.

Pasco County is heavily Republican, judging by the party of almost all its officeholders and the fact that it went for Mitt Romney by 7 points. But in today's election a Democrat has at least a decent chance of winning the state House District 36 seat being vacated by Republican Mike Fasano.

Fasano was appointed as tax collector when the man who held that office died, leaving his seat up for grabs in a special election. (Editor's note: An incorrect office was listed in an earlier version.)

John Petrila, professor at University of South Florida's College of Public Health, writes in a column published by the Tampa Tribune that there is a very good reason why the Florida Chamber of Commerce and other groups are asking the Florida Legislature to accept the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Leonard Pitts Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald, unfurls some of his colorful phrases to say just what he thinks of the "right wing of the right wing" of the Republican Party is holding the nation's economy in crisis in a childish tantrum over the Affordable Care Act.

Here's a sample:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who swooped into Tampa for a 90-minute visit on Tuesday, said "today is better than yesterday" for the still-balky Health Insurance Marketplace. Each day the online enrollment site, HealthCare.gov, will work better than the day before, she said.

The Obama administration promised "significant improvements" in accessing the federal health overhaul website this week, after taking down the system for maintenance over the weekend. But many in Florida were still unable to enroll at the start of week two. 

The White House is still blaming the overwhelming turnout for the difficulties millions of Americans encountered when they tried to enroll in the health-plan Marketplace after its rollout last Tuesday. But a tech expert interviewed by the Washington Post said that’s only one of the two problems; the other is bugs in the software that there weren’t time to fix before launch. 

Unbeknownst to the public, the current government shutdown was planned in February, right after President Obama was sworn in for his second term, the New York Times reports. That planning meeting was organized by Edwin Meese III, a Reagan administration official who resigned following a Defense Department scandal called Wedtech.

Floridians have enrolled in health insurance plans offered by Cigna using the new online insurance Marketplace, the Washington Post reports.

There is no charity in the hearts and souls of the members of Congress who are trying to block the access to health care of working families who for too long have been unable to get health insurance, writes health policy consultant Paul Gionfriddo of Lake Worth.

He says the views of Rep. John Culberson of Texas were particularly unsettling in a CNN interview, where the Texan when he said, “We do not want the federal government socializing health care as they have in England and in France.”

Floridians don’t have to wait until the crowds and glitches diminish on the federal website to see which local plans are available. They can view a PDF with all of the plans available in Florida and can also download information about the plans and prices for Florida and other states at this site.