Florida State Seminoles

[Bklyn]

They would still have an Oldsmobile in the mix...and at least one Town Car.

[eCat]

The Affordable Care Act cannot be broken down into sound bites. This holds true for both its most ardent supporters and its most fervent opponents. The law is simply too complex to be labeled either a total failure or a smashing success.

But that doesn't mean it isn't trending in one of those two directions. Across the country, individuals and families are beginning to learn whether their insurance premiums will change for 2015—early estimates indicate an overall national increase of 7.5 percent, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis. That's what is expected despite the early promise that the ACA would lower overall premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.

These hikes, which add to those experienced by many consumers last year, are likely just the tip of the iceberg. In recent months, I have worked with Dr. Stephen Parente, a professor of Health Finance at the University of Minnesota, to assess how the Affordable Care Act will affect Americans' access to health care over the next decade.

Our findings don't bode well for the law's long-term success.

We estimate that within 10 years, the number of uninsured Americans may increase by 10 percent. At the same time, premiums will rise faster than federal subsidies. The latter problem will be most severe when insurers release their 2017 rate increases in the summer and fall of 2016—perhaps the most awkward timing for the law's supporters.

We reached this conclusion using the 2014 enrollment numbers, which the Health and Human Services Department announced in April. We analyzed them using a consumer simulation model funded in part by HHS. The model uses the regulatory requirements mandated by the ACA to estimate the cause-and-effect relationship between health care plan pricing and consumers' buying habits.

The law will play out in two phases. The first will take place between now and 2016. During that time, the price of health care plans will increase. We already saw this happen last year and will likely see the same again this summer and fall. Another event will also likely repeat itself. This is one the law's opponents may prefer to ignore. The number of uninsured will decrease as people sign up for Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act's health exchanges.

But this trend will come to a sudden end in 2017. That year, health insurance companies will lose their ability to artificially depress health care costs using taxpayer money. (Two ACA provisions, both of which expire in 2017, currently let insurers tap federal taxpayer funds for various reasons.)

This will send shock waves through the health care world.

We estimate that average annual costs for the cheapest individual plans—the "bronze" plans—may increase by 96 percent, from roughly $2,100 to nearly $4,200. Bronze family plans prices, meanwhile, may increase by nearly 50 percent. The average plan in this category could come close to $13,000 a year in total premiums. Almost every plan will see a price increase of some kind.

Consumers will learn these unpleasant truths in the fall of 2016 when they attempt to extend their policies.

No matter where you live, the effects will ripple across the entire industry. The dramatically higher prices will almost surely drive some consumers out of the exchanges. But they won't have many places to turn. Many—perhaps most—won't be eligible for Medicaid, while others won't have jobs that offer replacement health insurance. People in this position will thus choose between health insurance they can't afford and becoming uninsured. Not even the IRS penalty will convince everyone to bite the bullet.

[crashcourse]

what a debby downer

[Jungle Rat]

Seriously.

[eCat]

I wonder if anything is gonna get blown up today

[Jungle Rat]

Hopefully Pittsburgh

[sardis]

Both your adversaries are playing in Baltimore.

[Jungle Rat]

Doesn't change my opinion.

[hedge]

I wish you would change your address. To Hell...

[Fifer]

I'm still selling quite a bit of ACA insurance and am expecting a big season come November. For many people it has been a godsend.

[hedge]

I wish god would send you to Hades....

[eCat]

I was sitting around this morning waiting for the kids to get off to school and I stumbled on this documentary about the shooting at then Kenyan mall.

Its a really graphic documentary.

Somali Muslim's armed with AK-47's , roughly 6-8 of them stormed a Kenyan mall called Westgate. It was in the news and it was a fairly big event but just watching a 3 minute news clip about it during dinner doesn't give you the scope of it that the documentary does.

These fuckers went up to the roof of the mall where they were having a kids cooking contest and just opened up on people - children, women pregnant, elderly. The only mercy they showed early into the attack was if someone was praying to Allah before they were about to be shot.

At any rate, the mall had security cameras everywhere and the documentary does a great job of piecing it together, with interviews of survivors.

About 3 hours into the crisis, local plains clothes policeman and a couple of civilians with guns were fed up with the Kenyan military playing keystone cops so they went in.

They interviewed a guy - his heart was in the right place, he was saying "I had no fear, I went in feeling I was invincible" and you're thinking - ok, this motherfucker is gonna kick ass - and then about he is the first to get shot and dragged out by a cameraman. The only shots he fired were as he was being dragged away (the cameraman took some amazing photos - this guy , without a weapon went in to the thick of it )

Anyways, once the Somali's had pretty much realized they were at the end of the line, they holed up in a warehouse. They saw the surveillance camera and ripped it off the wall which was pretty anti-climatic because the documentary relied on the footage to drive the narrative. The Kenyans ultimately decided the best approach was not to go in and shoot these guys with their own police, because in the first attempt the police went in and just shot anyone that moved, the first of which being mall shoppers hiding behind displays and counters, etc. - so they sent a rocket into the mall and blew all the shit up after 40 hours of negotiating with the terrorists.

It not the best documentary I've watched as far as topic and delivery, but the usage of the surveillance footage , along with the cameraman who dived right in tells a complete minute by minute story which is seldom in these type of situations.

The only complaint I had is the music choice they had. The story is bad enough without this borderline horror story background shit going on. It was one step above Vincent Price on a cathedral pipe organ.

Speaking of music, the cameraman was talking about how fucked up it was that you're walking around this mall, bullets ricocheting off walls, stepping over dead bodies and muzak is still playing - like an orchestra version of Moonriver or some shit

[hedge]

Where's the mall ninja when you need him?

[hedge]

What were they trying to accomplish? Doesn't sound like they were trying to steal anything. Just general mayhem?

[eCat]

they wanted to kill as many people as possible, only about halfway thru did they realize they were killing fellow muslims so they started asking them if they were muslim or not.

Allah Ahkbar bitches!

[Jungle Rat]

Every time someone posts something like Allah Ahkbar I always hear Robin Williams as the Jeanie.

[sardis]

I thought Barbara Eden played Jeannie

[Jungle Rat]

Horrible

[sardis]

Good for Walmart. When you help folks at the lower rung of our economy, you realize that banks screw them over, big time. I am holding money for a few people now because they can't afford to lose too much on their deposits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/busin ... .html?_r=0

[eCat]

Good for Walmart. When you help folks at the lower rung of our economy, you realize that banks screw them over, big time. I am holding money for a few people now because they can't afford to lose too much on their deposits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/busin ... .html?_r=0

I guess $100 a year isn't bad if you keep bouncing checks.

I see all these fees for checking and what not and I can see how it would be costly if you didn't have the cashflow to reach the targets.

I've bundled my home loan, car loan, checking, savings, line of credit and bill pay with my bank and I don't get any of these fees.

I did it for the convenience but the side benefit is I guess pretty good rates on everything I do with them.