Above is from: http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2017/Boone-County-News-03-17-17.pdf
Friday, March 17, 2017
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
New anti-Obamacare ads conflate the exchanges with the entire health-care system
New anti-Obamacare ads conflate the exchanges with the entire health-care system
By Glenn Kessler By Glenn Kessler
Analysis
Analysis is interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act. (Brennan Linsley/AP)
“Obamacare has been a disaster for Ohio families. … We’re paying more for health care. A lot more. … It’s time to repeal and replace the health-care mess voted for by Senator Sherrod Brown. … Congress can start by eliminating Obamacare’s one trillion dollars in tax hikes.”
— voiceover in new radio ad by One Nation, a GOP nonprofit, released March 7
“Under Obamacare, our choices are limited and people have lost the coverage they liked.”
— voiceover in another One Nation ad
With the debate over the GOP replacement for the Affordable Care Act at full boil, a Republican nonprofit entity controlled by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has launched a big ad buy to remind people what’s wrong with the ACA in the first place.
The 60-second spots target five Democrats running for reelection in 2018 and seeks to support six Republicans who face challenges or might be considered uncertain on how they would vote on a replacement bill.
But as is often the case, the language of the ads leaves a misleading impression that the problems that afflict the ACA exchanges extend to the entire insurance market. But that’s not the case. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, briefing reporters in support of a House proposal on March 7, even noted: “For most Americans, they receive their health coverage through their employer. It’s about 175 million folks. Those individuals will see no significant change other than there won’t be a penalty for not purchasing coverage.” (Note: the Congressional Budget Office says the figure is 155 million.)
Let’s take a closer look.
The Facts
The ads repeatedly mix up “Obamacare” with the entire health-care system. They flatly state, “Obamacare has been a disaster for Ohio families,” or “Under Obamacare, our choices are limited and people have lost the coverage they liked.” The ads further claim: “We’re paying more for health care. A lot more.”
But premium increases mentioned in the ads have to do with the 22 million individual and small-business policies sold on the ACA exchanges or directly to consumers. That’s significantly smaller than the employment-based market — one-seventh the size.
Employers generally subsidize a large part of the monthly premium for their workers. The ACA was designed to replicate that system for poorer workers, with the government footing the bill, to encourage more people to seek health insurance. Advance payments of tax credits have helped shield many participants in the exchanges from sharp premium increases because the law establishes the share of income that households are expected to pay.
A 2016 Commonwealth Fund study found that for people with low and moderate incomes, the ACA’s tax credits have made premium costs roughly comparable to those paid by people with employment-based health insurance. About half of the adults in the marketplace said their premiums were affordable — and 4 in 5 people who joined the marketplace or Medicaid after the law was implemented said they were satisfied with their health insurance. (About half of the adults said that before they signed up, they had been without health insurance for more than two years.)
About half of the people in the individual market are getting subsidies — and the other half are being hit with increases, in some cases quite high. But, to put it in context, the number of people affected by premium increases is just one-fourteenth the size of the employment-based health-insurance market.
In some states, the ratio is even smaller. The impressive nine pages of backup material for the Ohio ad say that there were nearly 250,000 enrollees in the ACA, many of whom qualified for subsidies. Compare that number to 6 million Ohioans on employer-provided plans, 2.4 million on Medicaid and 1.7 million on Medicare, according to estimates by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Combined with an expansion of the Medicaid program contained in the Affordable Care Act, the number of people in Ohio who lacked health insurance dropped from 1.4 million in 2013 to 681,000 in 2015.
“Ohioans purchasing health care on the exchanges have seen premiums rise, choices shrink, and deductibles so high that it hardly feels like they have insurance at all,” said One Nation spokesman Ian Prior. “This is even worse for middle-class families that do not qualify for subsidies and must devote more resources to health care.”
It’s certainly correct that the ACA market has been under pressure because the mix of people signing up for health care under plans offered on the exchanges has been unhealthier than expected. The feared individual mandate — which Republicans say they will eliminate — did not have the expected result of persuading people to buy insurance. Younger and healthier Americans apparently were more willing to pay a $695-per-person fine than sign up for health care they think is too costly. So the people in the insurance pools have tended to be those who have chronic illnesses and thus require more care and frequent doctor or hospital visits. The makeup of the risk pools is also why insurance companies have sought higher premiums and the biggest deductibles.
But again, the problems in the ACA exchanges do not extend to the entire health-care market.
“Obamacare was marketed to the American people as health-care reform that would make health care more affordable for everyone. It has clearly not done that; that is why we are advocating that it be repealed and replaced with something that will,” Prior said.
In his 2008 campaign for president, Barack Obama certainly promised that his health-care plan would reduce health-care costs by $2,500 a year. He even earned Pinocchios for that statement.
But, at the same time, health costs for employer-provided plans have grown much slower than expected since the ACA was implemented. The average family premium is now almost $3,600 lower than if premium growth had kept pace with the rate in the decade before the law was passed, while all out-of-pocket costs would have been nearly $5,000 higher if they had continued on the previous inflationary path. However, there is little consensus among health-care experts about whether the ACA can be credited with the slower rise in health-care costs.
Finally, the Ohio ad highlights the law’s $1 trillion in tax hikes. The factual backup even lists a Washington Post fact check as a source. That’s a 10-year number, for the years 2013-2022. But it’s important to provide some context for that figure.
As we noted in the fact check, almost a third of those tax hikes were aimed at couples making more than $250,000 and individuals making more than $200,000. The Joint Committee on Taxation identified only about $130 billion in taxes with direct impact on the middle class, and $247 billion more in taxes with possible indirect effects. Most calculations show that middle-income Americans were expected to get more in tax relief, such as health-care subsidies, than in additional taxes. Indeed, the tax increases mostly were used to pay for the tax credits, which were estimated to total $1 trillion in the 10-year period.
The Pinocchio Test
If you were driving in your car, listening to the radio, these ads might get you rather worried about what a “mess” Obamacare has made of the health-care system. But it would be a misplaced concern.
These ads conflate “Obamacare” with the entire health-care system. The ACA was intended to provide additional options in the individual market for people who could not afford health insurance. Most people on the exchanges get tax credits that mitigate the cost of premiums, which has resulted in a substantial decrease in the number of Americans without health insurance. In the meantime, people who have employer-provided plans saw little or no change, except that the law may have added benefits, eliminated lifetime caps on coverage, and barred the denial of insurance for preexisting conditions.
The “mess” extends to people in the individual market who do not qualify for tax credits — and their premiums have increased because of mandates in the law, a sicker-than-expected pool of applicants and decreasing competition because insurance companies have found it too difficult to make money. Whether Republicans will find a solution to this problem — without creating more havoc — is open to question. But the ads need to make clear, as Price did, that the turmoil on the exchanges has not affected most Americans.
Two Pinocchios
Overall crime in Belvidere was down in 2016
Overall crime in Belvidere was down in 2016
Tuesday
Posted Mar 14, 2017 at 9:00 AMBy Susan Vela
Staff writer
BELVIDERE — Belvidere leaders are touting their city as safe and sound after the overall crime rate declined last year.
Police Chief Jan Noble released his annual crime report to City Council in late February. Findings included 1,784 offenses reported for about 30 categories, which was about 11 percent less than in 2015. However, there were increases in some categories such as larcenies, sex offenses and weapons violations in 2016.
Noble has emphasized several statistics indicating the city is safe, including a mere three robberies for all of 2016. That compared with 14 in 2015 and 12 in 2014.
"Probably most prevalent throughout the ... report was the lack of violent crime, as compared to our good friend next door, the city of Rockford," he said.
Some report highlights were as follows:
— Belvidere's approximately 40 police officers received about 2,800 hours of training in 2016. The city paid about $1,300 for each officer's training.
— Police officers were busiest on Fridays and Saturdays. In 2016, their busiest month was August, when they responded to 231 incidents. In 2015, the busiest month was March.
— The Gang Intervention Unit issued 60 traffic citations and made 28 arrests.
— There were no homicides in 2016. There was one in 2015.
— Police responded to fewer burglaries, fraud offenses and property destruction, damage and vandalism.
Meanwhile, sex offenses spiked nearly 30 percent to 65. Deputy Chief Shane Woody said young people are more aware of sex offenses and are more willing to report the crimes.
There also were 45 percent more larcenies, which jumped to 266, and more weapons violations, which jumped more than 200 percent to 47.
Woody said police officers are constantly trying to do community outreach. They also do their best to be proactive with certain types of crimes. For example, they might warn senior citizens of fraud schemes over the phone.
He also credited the police department's Volunteers in Police Service program. Volunteers help with traffic, parades and other community events.
It was the second year in a row overall crime had dropped. Crime was down 15 percent in 2015.
"Our crime rate is so low to begin with," Mayor Mike Chamberlain said. "It's the safest town I know of to live in. I'm ecstatic."
Susan Vela: 815-987-1392; svela@rrstar.com; @susanvela
Above is from: http://www.rrstar.com/news/20170314/overall-crime-in-belvidere-was-down-in-2016
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Trump says "everyone will be covered" by the replacement for Obamacare.
Trump says "everyone will be covered" by the replacement for Obamacare. Indeed.
Trump's Backing a Healthcare Plan That Breaks His Promises
1 / 26
Benjy Sarlin
President Donald Trump rode to the White House making big promises on health care — pledges that he is now in serious danger of breaking. Let's look at how the president's words on the campaign trail stack up against what we know today.
In addition to Trump's comments on the stump, his administration has spent weeks raising expectations on its Obamacare replacement. Among the claims: The Republican plan would cover more people, reduce their premiums and costs, avoid cutting Medicaid, and leave no one worse off than under the former president's signature achievement.
So now that the House GOP's American Health Care Act (AHCA) is here, how do these pledges look?
Not good, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released on Monday. The report found the House plan — which the Trump administration has thrown its support behind — would cause millions to lose insurance and raise costs for vulnerable populations.
The White House pushed back against the report, claiming the findings were not accurate, but some independent analysts have made similar predictions. Here's a look at where we are:
COVERAGE
"We're going to have insurance for everybody"— Donald Trump, Washington Post interview, 01/15/2017
Trump was clear both as a candidate and as president: No one would be left behind under his health care plan.
"We're gonna come up with a new plan that's going to be better health care for more people at a lesser cost," Trump told ABC's David Muir in January. "Everybody's got to be covered," he said on CBS' "60 Minutes" in 2015.
In addition to Trump's comments, the House GOP website denies that people will lose coverage under the Republican bill and Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney told CBS News last week he believed the legislation "will cover more" people. "We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in January.
The House bill would fall far short of these promises, according to the CBO.
By the agency's estimate, 14 million fewer people would be insured in 2018 versus current law and a whopping 24 million fewer people would have insurance in 2026.
Some people would voluntarily drop their coverage because the bill repeals the individual mandate that requires people to buy insurance, but others "would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums."
The coverage losses would be "disproportionately larger among older people with lower income," according to the CBO, who would face higher premiums under the House GOP bill and less federal aid to pay for them.
COSTS
"I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we're going through" — Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, NBC's "Meet The Press," 03/12/2017
Trump and his allies emphasized affordability, saying their Obamacare replacement would lower premiums and provide more help for out-of-pocket costs.
Trump, for example, told the Washington Post that Americans would see "much lower deductibles" in January and complained on Monday that under the current system "deductibles are so high you don't even get to use [insurance]." He promised "great health care for a fraction of the price" in a speech in Las Vegas last year.
The CBO news is mixed, but overall its estimates show these goals won't be met.
The analysis is especially harsh when it comes to Price's claim "nobody will be worse off financially." Instead, it finds some of the patients who need coverage the most would see their costs soar.
Related: White House says CBO has it wrong on health care
Health insurance premiums would initially rise 15% to 20% than they would under current law, but would eventually decrease, ending up 10% lower than Obamacare's projected prices by 2026.
But costs wouldn't go down for everyone and the worst hit by the GOP plan would be one of the most vulnerable groups: Older patients.
While CBO projects the average 21 year old could expect a 20-25% decrease in their premiums, a 64-year-old would see their premiums go up 20-25%. This is because of a change in the law that would allow insurers to charge older customers more than they can under Obamacare.
But it gets much worse for these patients: Most people who get individual insurance through Obamacare receive subsidies and older customers would get less help under the House GOP plan. The bill would give people a fixed amount of help while Obamacare's subsidies rise according to their income and the price of insurance.
For a 64-year-old making $26,500 a year, the effects would be devastating: They would pay, on average, $1,700 total for health insurance under Obamacare in 2026, but $14,600 under the House bill.
On the other end, some higher-income seniors and younger customers would pay less for insurance than they do now.
As for lowering costs and deductibles, the CBO projects that "individuals' cost-sharing payments, including deductibles, in the nongroup market would tend to be higher" under the House bill.
The bill reduces premiums by allowing insurers to offer plans that cover fewer expenses. But it runs directly afoul of Trump's personal pledge just two months ago to lower deductibles.
The White House argues it can bring premiums down further by loosening regulations on what insurers have to provide, but that could face legal challenges and it's not clear how far the administration can go without further legislation.
MEDICAID
"I'm not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid" — Donald Trump, Daily Signal interview, 05/21/2015
Trump said in his speech announcing his run for president that he would "save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts" and bragged on Twitter that he was the first Republican contender to make that pledge.
But the CBO found Trump would break his promise — by a mile.
Related: Trump voters would be hit hardest by healthcare changes
Obamacare expanded Medicaid to cover about 11 million more people, but the House bill would reduce Medicaid spending by $880 billion by 2026, at which point it would spend a full 25% less than under current law. This would leave many people without coverage: 14 million Medicaid patients would fall off the rolls, according to the CBO projection.
This could have repercussions for another Trump promise to "give people struggling with addiction access to the help they need" which he made in a speech on the topic last October.
A number of lawmakers, including key Republicans, have expressed concern that cuts and changes to Medicaid could affect patients who receive substance abuse treatment through the program.
Above is from: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trumps-backing-a-healthcare-plan-that-breaks-his-promises/ar-AAojptD?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Belvidere to use $1,000,000 in reserves to “balance” its budget
Special Note: This budget is open for public inspection and will not be considered for approval until April 3.
Above is from: http://www.rrstar.com/news/20170307/belvidere-city-council-considers-171m-budget
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