Quote:

Don't you know it's a Ponzi scheme? It's so terrible that Obama's natural constituents, the unions, are BEGGING him to slow or stop implementation and let the status quo.

What does Obamacare do to reduce the cost of healthcare, on a current benefit basis? Isn't the issue the rise in the cost of healthcare? What part of Obamacare addressed tort reform?

Look at the poll numbers of US citizens against Obamacare. Are they all Republican, lol? If so, we wouldn't have Obama as POTUS, would we?

And for the tens of millions who've chosen not to have insurance, but now have to buy or pay penalties-how is their cost trending downward? How do you go downward from zero?

The clue is, that in states where exchanges were set up, Insurance rates are trending downwards. Obamacare can work if it's used properly. Why NJ has to be part of the Republican obstinance on this subject is beyond me.

yeah, yeah, the jersey comeback....Pathetic.

Whose fiasco? Why aren't individuals afforded the same delay that the more advantaged individuals who work for companies are getting re:implementation?

Wait till the 100,000 plus IBM retirees see what the effect of having their company insurance dropped in favor of a cash payout for them to buy their own will have.

Isn't the fiasco the lie of 'you'll be able to keep exactly what you have, with the same doctors' that Obama promised?

Is there a bigger lie ever told by a politician, that will affect more and cause more harm, in our country's history?

And this is now a Christie problem? Please buy a clue, if you can't find one.

Christie's Obamacare fiasco: Editorial
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on September 08, 2013 at 6:02 AM,
It?s becoming increasingly clear that Gov. Chris Christie made a big mistake by refusing to set up a state-run health insurance exchange as part of the Affordable Care Act and leaving the job instead to the federal government.

This exchange is intended to allow people to sign up for health plans at reduced rates. But many still don't know about it and time is running out fast. Advocates are now scrambling to reach hundreds of thousands of the uninsured, with the Oct. 1 start date for applications less than a month away.

Nearly half of those without insurance are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. And if they do not sign up, they?ll still rely on hospital emergency rooms when they get sick. That?s not just bad for their health, since they aren?t getting needed preventative care; it?s also expensive for taxpayers, who will pick up a much heftier emergency room bill later. And for many other low-income, uninsured New Jerseyans who do not sign up, the hospitals will not receive any federal support.

Keep in mind that this crisis was entirely avoidable. A Rutgers study commissioned by Christie?s own administration found that most health experts believed New Jersey would do a better job implementing the exchange in its own state.

Yet Christie ignored this advice. And now, his hands-off approach ? aimed at pleasing national conservatives who hate the health reform law, also known as ?Obamacare? ? has left our state at a real disadvantage.

Had Christie decided to allow New Jersey to run its own health exchange, as New York did, our state would have been eligible for $15 million in federal grants for outreach efforts, possibly more. Now we?ve lost that funding, and are stuck with a measly $5.4 million for our enrollment drive. Since the feds didn?t expect to be running these exchanges in so many states, their money for outreach is spread more thinly.

And when people don?t enroll, we all pay more. Not just for emergency room bills. Also for insurance premiums, which will be higher if we don?t get young, healthy adults to sign up. Then there?s the 3.5 percent fee that the federal government will apply to all insurers because we chose a federal exchange ? a cost that is likely to be passed down to consumers.

Christie had plenty of opportunities to mitigate this damage, yet did nothing to support the exchange. He?s been sitting on his hands as this next big deadline approaches. Our state got an influx of federal money when he finally agreed to expand our Medicaid program, and he could have spent more of that on outreach. Instead, he used it to plug his state budget.

And he still hasn?t said how, or even if, he will use the $7.6 million in federal grants that his administration already received for planning the health exchange that it never created. Why not use it now to boost enrollment?

We?ve seen this indifference to the hardships of low-income families before. Christie scaled back the earned income tax credit, effectively hiking taxes on the working poor. He cut funding for women?s health clinics, and restricted eligibility for FamilyCare, leaving tens of thousands of poor parents and children without health insurance.

What we need from him now is action. The $7.6 million is still on the shelf, and he should come up with a specific plan to grab it so it can be spent immediately on advertising and counseling to get more people enrolled. That?s the least he could do, after leaving New Jersey in the lurch.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page ... obamacare_fiasco_edi.html