I signed up. I saved. And so will millions of Americans.
…. I logged onto the New York State health insurance exchange website. Yeah, I had a few false starts – the website was down a lot early on either because of service glitches or overwhelming traffic … But finally, I was able to log-in and complete my registration and check out all my options for insurance.
There were literally 50 plans that were better than my current insurance …Within a week, I had settled on a “gold” plan offered by Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield … This option will cost my family $931 per month — $408 per year less than my previous crappy plan and a $5,000 savings in deductibles. A big win for me and my family financially and in terms of what’s covered.
Plus in the past, I spent several days looking for and comparing insurance options. Under ObamaCare, even with the slow and sticky website, I spent a total of four hours — to save over $5,400. That kind of return on investment would make Warren Buffett drool.
….. Ideologues may not like ObamaCare, but my wallet and my family’s health sure do.
Consumer Reports: Obamacare opponents have misrepresented Consumer Reports’ position – HealthCare.gov problems do not negate benefits of new health law
Pundits opposed to the new health care law and some media outlets have tried to suggest that our coverage of the troubled HealthCare.gov site means that Consumer Reports has turned against the Affordable Care Act.
Not true. Consistent with our mission to inform and protect consumers, particularly in this complicated health care market, our advice remains the same: The best place to buy coverage on your own is through the Health Insurance Marketplace in your state. That guarantees you will get comprehensive coverage, and it’s the only way you can lower the cost of your premiums and possibly even your deductibles and copayments.
ThinkProgress: Confronted With Example Of Obamacare Success, GOP Rep Freaks Out
A CNN host confronted a Republican congresswoman on Tuesday for dismissing some of the successes uninsured people have has in signing up for Obamacare, accusing the GOP lawmaker of rooting for the law’s failure.
The heated exchange came in response to comments made by Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY), who told CNN that his state-operated exchange, Kynect, is working well in Kentucky. “We’re signing up people at roughly a thousand a day. It’s a great rate and a great success so far,” he told on CNN’s “New Day,” describing the market as “a gold standard because it’s working.”
ThinkProgress: No, Obamacare Isn’t Creating A Part-Time Economy
Politicians and media figures opposed to Obamacare regularly insist that the health law is creating a part-time economy. But independent analyses and monthly employment data reveal that claim to be false.
The monthly jobs report that was released on Tuesday found that the U.S. economy had added 148,000 jobs in September and that the national unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent. And as University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers pointed out on Twitter, the report also found that the economy has been adding full time employment while actually shedding part-time jobs.
In fact, full time employment rose by over 1.6 million between September 2012 and September 2013. The number of people saying they worked a part-time job for economic reasons — such as part-time work being the only kind available — fell by nearly 700,000 in that same time period…
On This Day: President Obama jokes with Robert Gibbs and David Plouffe backstage prior to the start of the third presidential debate with GOP candidate Mitt Romney, at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., Oct. 22, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Today:
The President has no public events scheduled
12:30: Jay Carney briefs the press
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Steve Benen: U.S. economy added 148k jobs in September, jobless rate ticks lower
The monthly job totals for September were scheduled to be released a few weeks ago, but were delayed as a result of the government shutdown. It makes the data seem somehow stale – we’re looking at month-old figures just as we’re nearing the end of October.
…. So, how’d we do? Not especially well. The new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added 148,000 jobs in September, below modest expectations. After years of public-sector layoffs serving as a drag on the overall economy, we’re starting to see a slight turnaround – the private sector added 126,000 jobs last month, while the public sector added 22,000 jobs. That may seem like a fairly modest number, but it’s the most in recent memory.
The overall unemployment rate dropped to 7.2%, which is the lowest it’s been since November 2008.
Ending months of debate, a legislative oversight panel approved spending $2.56 billion in federal money to expand Medicaid coverage to about 275,000 low-income Ohioans.
Almost immediately after the bipartisan 5-2 vote, Senate Republicans said they planned to use the expansion to offer a $400 million income tax cut, about 4 percent, with money largely coming from Ohio hospitals that would see additional federal funds from the expansion.
Starting Jan. 1, mostly childless adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $16,000 for a one-person household, can begin receiving health care coverage under the state-federal program. The childless adults who would gain health coverage include many long-time unemployed, mentally ill, veterans and prison inmates.
…. Under Obamacare, expansion costs will be fully funded by the federal government for three years beginning Jan. 1, and 90 percent or more in subsequent years, bringing an estimated $13 billion to Ohio over the next seven years. Kasich says the funds will help treat those with mental illness, drug addictions and others, but conservatives opposed to expansion argue that the nation cannot afford to expand Medicaid and the additional spending will drive up the federal debt.
Steve Benen: Ohio’s Kasich expands healthcare access through Obamacare
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is one of several Republican governors eager to expand Medicaid in his state, even though it means implementing the Affordable Care Act, though it hasn’t been easy. The Republican governor has faced unyielding opposition to the idea from state lawmakers in his own party, who are convinced it’s important to combat “Obamacare,” even when that doesn’t make sense.
Kasich tried nearly everything he could think, up to and including asking his party to consider what Reagan would do. Yesterday, however, the governor played the only card he had left: he circumvented the state legislature altogether and approved Medicaid expansion on his own.
Alec MacGillis (New Republic): How Republicans Became Accidental Champions of Obamacare
Yes, it is awfully rich that Republicans and conservative commentators, after doing their utmost to undermine the Affordable Care Act these past few years, are now carping about the serious flaws in the Web sites set up to process applications for health insurance coverage. While the administration bears responsibility for the technological problems, there is no question that odds for success would have been greater if it had not been denied the funding it needed to set up such a complex new system, if it had not had to handle the new insurance exchanges in so many states that refused to build their own, and if it had not had to delay stages of the exchange construction to avoid political opposition. Then there’s the larger fact that the administration went with such a complex approach to expanding coverage precisely because of the political (and industry) opposition to the far simpler solution of Medicare-for-all single-payer coverage…..
Greg Sargent: Outside the conservative bubble, GOP sustains epic damage
The Washington Post and ABC News have released a new batch of polling that shows in quite striking terms just how badly the shutdown fight has damaged the GOP.
The question, however, is: Do Republicans actually think it matters that their image is in such disastrous shape, or is that rendered inconsequential by the degree to which the House GOP majority is believed to be invulnerable? The numbers:
Only 20 percent think Republicans are “interested in doing what’s best for the country,” while 77 percent think they’re “interested in what’s best for themselves politically.”
Are people finally waking up??
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TPM: U.S. Carbon Dioxide Pollution Down 3.8 Percent
Federal officials said the United States cut its energy-related carbon dioxide pollution by 3.8 percent last year, the second biggest drop since 1990.
The only year with a bigger percentage drop was in 2009, when America was in a large recession. American cars and factories spewed 5.83 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2012, down from 6.06 billion in 2011. It is the lowest level for U.S. emissions since 1994. Carbon dioxide is the chief man-made global warming gas.
ThinkProgress: Just 0.003 Percent Of Eligible Texas Voters Have Received A Free Voter ID
Texas’s voter ID law took effect Monday, as voting in the first Texas election since five Republican justices killed a key prong of the Voting Rights Act also began this week. By conservative estimates, this voter suppression law will prevent 2 to 3 percent of registered voters from casting a ballot, with left-leaning constituencies such as women, students, low-income voters and people of color all feeling a disproportionate share of this blow.
President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have lunch in the Oval Office Dining Room of the White House, Oct. 22, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama peers out a window with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in the Doheny Memorial Library to scope out the crowd size at a rally at the University of Southern California Alumni Park in Los Angeles, Calif., Oct. 22, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama waits backstage before a rally at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif., Oct. 22, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
Vice President Joe Biden and his daughter Ashley Biden watch the third presidential debate from a hotel room in Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 22, 2012 (Photo by David Lienemann)
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MooooOOOOoooorning! Huuuuuuge thanks again to UT for all the blissful posts and help with links for this R&S: legend.
The Obama Diary 
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