If you are uninsured, or you’re a business owner wanting to compare health insurance plans, in the future you might rely on a health insurance exchange. The online exchange is where you’ll be able to see what private health plans are most suitable for you, find out whether you’re eligible for tax credits and, finally, enroll in a plan.
Simple, right?
But Maine doesn’t yet have an exchange, and it doesn’t appear to have a strategy for building one, even though President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act has been ruled constitutional. If the state doesn’t set one up soon, or partner with the federal government to build one, the federal government will do it for Maine.
And it appears more and more likely that the federal government will take the lead. Gov. Paul LePage said recently he will wait to make a decision on the exchange until after he gets answers to implementation questions and until after the November elections, which would be near to the deadline to create one. That’s unfortunate because it makes the most sense for the state to have a say in developing the exchange. We would rather see LePage direct state legislators to return for a special session as soon as possible to approve one.
Maine knows better than the federal government how to reach out to Mainers and educate them about an exchange. Maine knows better the needs of its small businesses. Maine should be the one to choose which plans are offered through the exchange and what the required benefits are. If there isn’t enough time for Maine to help develop a well-thought-out exchange now, it would be good for LePage to announce that he would like to create a state-based one in the coming years.
It would be understandably difficult for some legislators now to work on an exchange when they opposed the health care law. But the benefit to Mainers should come before pride or ideology. If the federal government is going to require an exchange, it’s only to Maine’s advantage to have a hand in it.
And deadlines are fast approaching. The state must submit a declaration letter signed by LePage and an application to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by Nov. 16. It then has until Jan. 1, 2013, to develop more exchange components to show it will be able to enroll people by Oct. 1, 2013, and operate by Jan. 1, 2014.
People who oppose the health care law say that devising an exchange is too expensive and time consuming. Setting one up would be complicated — and the exchange will have to establish a funding stream to be self-sustaining — but the end results, to clarify the best health insurance plans and streamline the sign-up process, are important. And there is financial assistance. Maine has already won millions of dollars in federal grant money to design the exchange, and the health and human services secretary said recently she will open up additional financing sources.
Maine is one of only three states that has decided not to create a state exchange, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The others are Louisiana and New Hampshire. So far 15 states have established state exchanges; one is planning for a partnership exchange; 18 are studying their options; and 14 have no significant activity.
Maine Republicans already put off the exchange in hopes that the Affordable Care Act would be overturned. In March a bill — LD 1498 — that would have set up Maine’s exchange failed in the Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee in a party-line vote. Republicans who hope that the results of the November elections will propel the law’s repeal are again relying on wishful thinking. That’s no way to represent constituents. Legislators should help make the law work for Maine people.
….
Keep on hoping and changing.
Obama 2012
Your aunt is kind’a gross!
>>>><<<<
Maybe, but she’s still kind’a gross.
Too bad obama’s bureaucrats will now oversee her healthcare! Bet she never thought she’d live long enough to see the government making healthcare decisions for her. Hope she survives it until obamatax is repealed and replaced.
You should live so long.
No fear there! It won’t be that long a wait! I outlasted the Carter monstrosity and Ted Kennedy, I will outlast the obama abortion and obamatax, too!
But what I never expected was to see a president that made Clinton look good! But here I am, after obama, I’d take Ol’ Bill any day!
Lets see, Clinton needed 6 years to clean up Reagan and Bush’s mess, then had 2 years to enjoy his work. Bush II made a bigger hole than Reagan/Bush so it will take Obama 7-8 years to clean up Bush II’s mess.
Keep living in your dream world Dane. The Bush recession was already in progress long before Clinton left office.
Congress’ Joint Economic Committee Says Signs Of Economic Slowdown Were Apparent In Mid 2000.
“By mid-year 2000 … signs of an economic slowdown began to proliferate;
it became apparent that an economic slowdown was underway. A number of
key economic and financial indicators provided evidence of such slower
growth and suggested that future growth could weaken.
And the crash of ’08 was caused by welfare queens or 30 years of financial market deregulation?
In my dream world everyone knows that “Trickle Down Economics” and “Tax Breaks to the Job Creators (i.e. Trickle Down 2.0)” were and always will be miserable failures, and making statements like “God wanted me to be President” would require testing by mental health professionals.
From the description, wouldn’t you think she’s already on (gasp) Medicare?
….
The government bureaucrats can’t do any worse than the bureaucrats at the insurance companies.
If the Insurance company screws up you can go to the Government. Where do you go when the government screws up?
The same place you go now. Why would it change?
How do you figure the government is willing to correct injustices that it deem not to be.
They have until 2014 to set up the exchange, so why spend more money and call a special session to create it now?
====
So if he doesn’t what then? There are nearly 30 states doing the same thing Maine is doing or simply dilly-dallying. The Supreme Court already said Maine’s medicaid funding can’t be challenged. What then? President Obama gonna wag a finger????
zzzzzzz
Looking into something is not the same as actually doing something. The feds want an exchange, let them set it up themselves.
zzzz
Totally correct. I expect him to “pull a Palin ” and quit if things don’t go his way on 11 / 6 / 2012 .
Maybe the one that suits the citizens best is the one that doesn’t exist.
So the current system with 50 million uninsured nationwide is better than creating an exchange that will help to cover some of the uninsured?
Give us your guarantee you’llbe happy with the Feds-only plan. No griping now, promise?
Its the Feds program anyway. As they proved in its passage, they are willing to go to any lengths, even against the desires of the American people to get exactly what they want.
If the State fails to set up the exchange the feds will do it for them and if Lepage doesn’t want to accept medicaid money from the Federal government to cover the un-insured then he can rest assured he won’t be around for a second term. My bet is he won’t be anyway.
So whats the difference. Let the feds do it. It’s their healthcare plan not the states.
Get back to us when the Feds roll out their program due to inactivity by the Maine R’s. Oh wait, by doing nothing, they can’t beblamed for anything, right? Wrong!
So, we have to lack the wisdom of 30 other states? Must be typical R mentality.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/06/bobby-jindal-health-care-supreme-court-ruling-exchanges/1#.T_S2mvVhRI0
Becasue foot dragging is irresponsible and not what they were elected for.
Becasue it will take more than a week to create an effective well designed exchange, something LePage does not want.
Don’t want one, Don’t need one. See you in November.
Funny how liberals are so fast to declare any debate over obamatax over!
“But Maine doesn’t yet have an exchange, and it doesn’t appear to have a
strategy for building one, even though President Barack Obama’s
Affordable Care Act has been ruled constitutional.”
Actually, it WAS declared unconstitutional as it stood, until Roberts pointed out that Congress only has the ability to TAX, not penalize.
This is FAR from over, Libs. Now you can hope it is over. You can even pretend it is over. But nothing is over, even after November. You can delude yourself with the misguided belief that Republicans will never again hold all three branches. (After all, we all know you don’t learn from history!) But we will, and obamatax will be delegated to the trash heap of useless, destructive Liberal ideas, where it belongs!
The Democrats approaching this in Borg-like “Resistance is futile” fashion may find November not to their liking.
They passed the law without the support of a majority of Americans and in 2010 they felt that at the polls loosing 63 Congressional seats and a half dozen Senate seats.
In a battleground states poll taken by CNN after the Supreme Court decision shows 60% of voters favor repeal of all provisions and 38% keeping all provisions of the healthcare plan in place. The same poll found 51% favor Romney 43% favor Obama.
Exactly. They may feel more comfortable thinking it]s all over, but they are only kidding themselves. Like it or not (and they certainly don’t) Democrats are not in the majority. This is, and will always be, a center Right country. That’s why they ram things like obamatax through when they think they have the chance. Little else of their agenda stands up to an honest, bipartisan vote. It’s just too radically Progressive.
The Left/Democrats mistook the anti-Bush sentiment in 2008 for validation of a Progressive agenda. They were wrong.
They are wrong more often then they know (or will admit). Look who they they elected last time. They all know he’s been a disaster, but they keep backing him because they can’t admit to themselves or the world that they screwed up.
It takes a big man to admit he made a mistake. Democrats are sorely lacking in that respect.
When was the last honest bipartisan vote? What’s the opposite of progressive?
Question #1 Probably sometime in the Bush Administration though I can’t point to the piece of legislation. Maybe it was the Iraq invasion vote.
Question #2 Moderate.
The answer to #2 is regressive, but thanks for playing. Also, if the Iraq war vote were honest, the war would not have been waged.
delete
There are bipartisan votes all the time! Conservatism!
You sure need a lot explained, don’t you.
One doesn’t have to be a “lib” to be in favor of ACA.
So true, there are plenty of self-destructive individuals on both sides.
Anyone still in the middle needs to grow a backbone.
LOL, yeah, so go vote for the guy who created the template for what you hate so much. Sounds logical ;)
Roberts was referring to withholding Medicare funding for programs already in place when he was talking about a penalty. Congress certainly has the ability to penalize. Try not paying your income tax and then argue that point with the IRS.
He’s the chief justice and what he says goes, but was he ever being illogical. I’m supposed to drive within the speed limit. If I fail to do so, the money I may end up paying is a penalty. It isn’t a tax. I’m supposed to pay my income taxes. If I fail to do so, I may very well pay an extra amount, but it is a penalty. It is not a tax.
Roberts was trying to save the reputation of the Supreme Court. Another 5-4 conservative decision would have done even more to make the Supreme Court look like just another political institution. On the first day of argument, the Anti-Injunction Act had to be considered. That act makes imposition of a tax necessary before it can be adjudicated. The Supreme Court ruled that the ACA mandate was not a tax, and the case continued. That was last spring. Three months later, Roberts did an about face. Why? I think to save the court and to frame the issue as one of taxation in time for the fall election.
Democrat talking points all!
If that’s what you need to believe to swallow it, fine. Of course there are those that directly disagree with your assessment, but you know that.
Of course I know that. Some people think the earth is flat, too.
You and most liberals are dismissing a key part of Obamacare: that the government will be telling us what we are allowed to pay for insurance. They will not let a company provide insurance for $1,000 a year. They will be placing minimum insurance premium amounts – Nancy Pelosi calls them “qualified” premiums, I believe. Therefore, those families in Virginia who currently pay $3,000 per year for their insurance, will see that cost increase by $8 or $10k – depending on what the government decides to call “qualified”. That is not a penalty for not complying – that is what Roberts was referring to as a tax. Romneycare does not have this provision.
It’s over for the libs because the Supreme Court ruled in their favor. We still have the matter of the Bush-Gore election to settle but healthcare is done.
Oh Come on… all the left wanted to do is count votes over and over ’til they won.
Or, you know, just count the actual votes that were cast.
While at the same time declaring the military ballots in 5 counties from overseas not valid because the FPO didn’t put a date on the postmark…..
They were very eager and excited about the prospect of using the equal protections clause for their purpose, because more often than not, the 14th Amendment tends to work against them/their causes.
But its particularly low for Democrats to not want to count overseas military ballots.
So Democrats told the Conservative SCOTUS what to do?
No, The Democrat voter registrars that were trying to not count military ballots were over turned by the courts.
They wanted to count votes cast for Gore and not count votes cast for Bush. The Supreme Court made them count all of the votes and they lost.
If that was the case then why did the Supreme COurt rule that a recount would be detrimental to a Bush victory. The only way a recount would have harmed the Bush Administration would have been if Bush did not win FL. Why was the party of State’s Right so quick to over rule a State’s right to run the election since the recount woudl have been automatic because of the closeness of the vote.
The Supreme Court knew that Bush did not have the votes in FL and a recount would show that
Prove it because we all know that you can’t but one thing is certain, it proves that you libs are not over that election at all but the recent ruling, because it is what you wanted, it now established law in your minds. No one really understands how you guys think.
Prove that Bush won the vote in Florida…. you can’t because the Party of State’s Rights went straight to the RW loaded Supreme Court to over rule a STATE LAW requiring a recount because of the closeness of the election.
What was the Republican Party afraid of? They had a RW lackey as Florida’s Secretary of State in Kathleen Harris, a Secretary of State that had been working tirelessly for the Bush Election Committee and working to eliminate as many as possible legal Democratic voters as she could.
And the Left knows how people like you think…. the end justifies the means…. legal or not, moral or not, right or not.
Romney has declared it over.
This is pretty straightforward. Congress passed a law, the President signed it, and after review, the Supreme Court found it constitutional. Let’s get on with its implementation.
Even if the Republicans keep the House of Representatives, gain a majority in the Senate, and elect Mr. Romney to the presidency, there still won’t be a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. This bill will not be repealed any time soon.
It’s time to put ideology aside and do what’s best for Maine. We can disagree civilly about what that might be, but being proactive rather than reactive would seem to be the best course.
Finally: Someone with the “point of view” that doesn’t denigrate anyone. Thank you!
I don’t buy into the “Resistance is futile” mentality.
The sad fact is that this law was backed by Republicans up until they lost their collective minds in ’08, or was it after 911?
I thought it was the left that was into the “collective”.
Nice deflection ;)
Anytime ;)
I know, you’re good at it.
Non-sequiturs deserve non-sequiturs.
Get a room.
Am I the only one who thinks it is funny how liberals are proud that they are now supporting old Republican ideas? From health care, to immigration to cap & trade. Liberals now argue that their positions were originally GOP policies.
The GOP has progressed. Why are liberals so far behind the intellectual evolutionary curve?
If you think I’m proud of the ACA, think again. Just because clowns like Ben Nelson have a D after their name, is no reason to think that they’re progressive. The GOP is currently demonizing their health care plan from the ’90’s, cap and trade, and rational immigration laws, how is that GOP progress?
Don’t need a filibuster proof majority! A simple majority will do!
For all of you on the Left, that’s 51 votes!
You would need to defeat a filibuster to get the chance to vote on it. A filibuster stops the vote process from going forward.
In this case it won’t need to have a filibuster proof majority vote to cut off debate. It can be done in reconciliation. Just as it was passed the first time. Perhaps we can even deem and pass it. A Pelosi idea.
All you need is a cut to the budget to gut it. You only need 51 votes.
In order for reconciliation to be used a bill has to be passed in both houses but be different enough the the bill is reconciled in committee. If either the Senate or the House does not have a similiar bill then no reconciliation is possible.
So if the Senate does not pass a bill that includes the removal of the penalty then it is unlikely a bill would be reconciled to remove it.
You don’t need a filibuster proof majority to pass a budget resolution. Its not removing anything. The mandate will still exist. The law will just not be funded.
If Congress had passed it, you might be right. They “deemed” it and refused to vote on it. Big difference.
When you don’t have facts on your side, just make some up!
Since this was found to be legal my wife and I have checked into insurance that we havent had in years, we just pay our bills as they come up but we dont go to hospitals unless there is something very wrong, now they want 1100.00 a month with a 5000.00 deductable per person and if we dont pay there price we are going to get fined! this is not the land of the free we all were promised growing up
My suggestion. Pay the fine/penalty/tax. When you need healthcare sign up. Remember no pre-existing conditions means you can sign up any time. Paying $2g’s is cheaper than $13k.
Because taking “personal responsibility” for one’s health isn’t part of the Republican philosophy…. Nope. Just do without preventive care, then when you get desperately ill you finally buy health insurance.
$13k??? Insurance for a family is close to double that. Tell me where you can get insurance for 13k.
If we were to take profit out of the equation insurance would be 31% cheaper
Oh you really think the government is cheaper?? I suppose it is if you don’t count taxpayer expense.
If the costs of everything stays the same then yes, 2% overhead compared to 31% overhead means the cost is less.
Why would overhead stay as high as it is if you take out the profit incentive? Other countries with government run healthcare provide thier citizens with healthcare for less why couldn’t ours?
That’s bizarre. How on earth do you get to 2% overhead on medical care.
Medicare’s administrative overhead is 2% by law.
That is right, like medicare with much lower overhead and delivery costs. Health care should not be a for profit industry. Note, that I did not say that providers should work for free.
In Switzerland the health care insurance is provided by private companies, but they are very well regulated. No one is gouged and all are covered . They have a mandate and the State subsidizes those who cannot afford the premiums. It works splendidly.
Even with the ACA for profit insurance companies still get 20% for “administration” costs, down from an average of 31%.
There are health insurance exchanges, so you can have a choice, and not have to pay what’s demanded by the first insurer you contacted. However, LePage is hoping to prevent Mainers from participating in the exchange program–he’d like to make this as difficult and expensive for you as possible, then blame Obama.
Being a believer in Liberty, as guaranteed to each of us by the Constitution, I am interested in what is best for me and my immediate family. We are NOT interested in participating in any government run healthcare programs or buying mandatory insurance.
We don’t care what the supreme court found, we believe it is a wrong headed way to go as we have way too much government now and more government is only going to create a bigger disaster for all of us down the road. What do we do?
I suggest you cancel your family health insurance in protest over the government forcing you to buy it. Then when someone inevitably gets sick or injured you can heal yourself with freedom. Merry Christmas.
Actually that’s not true. They can sign up for insurance on their hospital bed and be covered. No pre-existing conditions remember?
And submit to government control of their precious bodily fluids? From my cold dead hand!
“What you mean “we” … (Tonto to the Lone Ranger, old joke)
I suggest you find a way immediately to opt out of Medicare at age 65; that way you’ll never have to worry about Liberty again or about “participating in any government run healthcare programs.”
I’d like the liberty to buy insurance out of state. Whatever happened to LePage’s promise to allow that. Even if it was selective liberty, meaning only being allowed to buy it in four other states where Anthem happens to be the major player, that would have helped. What’s with LePage restricting freedom of choice? They’re all in somebody’s pocket.
You give a perfect description of the self serving Republicans.
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because the millions of people on welfare and general assistance programs care about the we.
class warfare …
how so? how is it class warfare that I work for a living all week and I hate having 30% of my earnings taken from me and spend on a welfare/warfare military industrial complex which I don’t believe in?
How is it class warfare to be more concerned about the future of myself and close loved ones then millions of people I don’t know and who don’t know me and would never left a finger to help me or themselves for that matter?
Not everyone on welfare and GA programs is a fraud however abuses exist and many who utilize these programs either fraudulently or not are not grateful of all the people who work and pay taxes that contribute to their existence. Instead they feel it is their right to receive these things and owe nothing to anyone.
Furthermore we have created an education system that indoctrinates people into this system of thinking. Most American’s have no idea how the economy functions or how much we spend on entitlement programs because we don’t teach it.
It isn’t a war of rich vs poor. I know rich and poor people who are capable of rationale thinking and that’s what it really is. A “war” of ignorance vs intelligence a battle of nativity vs enlightenment.
When you sarcastically write ‘ because the millions of people on welfare and general assistance programs care about the we.’ you are pitting the less fortunate against the more fortunate.
You do cannot know what is in other’s minds. You live in this country and so you do need to pay your taxes. I do not see how ‘gratitude’ comes into this picture.
I believe in a strong safety net for the less fortunate. It seems from what you say that you do not and that you would prefer to see it further weakened.
We disagree and we can leave it at that.
“Liberty” for a conservative means the ability to make as much money as possible with no restrictions, not actual freedoms.
Exchanges offer “private” health insurance policies – not “government” public policies.
People that don’t by health insurance are picking my pocket with higher taxes and health insurance premiums – to pay for their “something for nothing” lifestyle.
Please try to keep up.
YEssah
Time for LePage and the R’s to stop moping and procrastinating and do something. Now.
LePudge can’t go to the bathroom without asking the Koch brothers and ALEC if its OK.
Who wrote this? Its full of contradictions. In the beginning , they say LePage hasn’t decided what to do about exchanges, then at the end, they say Maine is one of three states that has decided to not have an exchange. Which is it?
It is the government that has now decided what an individuals responsibility is to the collective. That is way upside down.
What you call “the collective” I call “America.”
People have always had the responsibility to get preventive health care and to seek medical care when needed.
Some have chosen not to do this, either out of laziness or a sense that they’re invulnerable. Some have not been able to do it because they could not afford health insurance.
Taxpayers have had to pay for these folks’ care when they showed up in the ER at death’s door, often needing very expensive treatments for ailments that would have been a lot less expensive to treat if they’d been caught earlier.
Now, millions of Americans who could not afford health insurance will have access to it. And the folks who don’t have enough personal responsibility to pay for health insurance will have to pay a rather small financial penalty.
A healthier America will be a stronger America.
Don’t wrap up theft of money from the individual in the American flag, then call it personal responsibility.
Don’t dress up irresponsibility and asking the rest of us to foot your bill as freedom.
I suppose that individual responsibility to the collective is ok for war but not for peace!
Maine should definitely let the federal government set up the exchange. It is a federal law, not a State law. Like Joe Biden said, “this is fu..ing big” too big for Maine so let them handle it.
With insurance currently costing more than $22,000 for a family in Maine and Maine small businesses still restricted to buying insurance in state, I’d much rather have the federal government set up an exchange here at home.
Note to liberals – due to your laws, there are very few options for Mainers or Americans. What do you expect the exchanges to look like, seriously? Obamacare mandates what every insurer must cover and even how much each person must pay (but don’t call it a tax). Do you really think there will be any differences from company to company? The exchanges were designed to placate the average voter and make them believe they will have a choice. Don’t believe the hype and blame.
Romney set up an exchange in Massachusetts and there seems to be quite a few options over there.
You would be wrong.
I’m not. For example: individuals have 9 providers to choose from with plans that range from 150 a month all the way up to 1,000+.
That would be correct but only because Mass. didn’t run their insurers out of state on a rail like Maine did.
First of all, those plans are all the exact same, except for co-pay and deductible amount. That really isn’t a choice.
Regardless, as you may or may not know, Obamacare will make all $150/month plans illegal. These plans will not be “qualified plans”. Obamacare makes the IRS (but don’t call it a tax) ensure that everyone must purchase “qualified plans”. The amounts for these will be determined by your friendly IRS agent or Sec of HHS sometime in the future.
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220809,00.html
Nice a typical post with no facts
The exchange is a great idea. What’s wrong with consumers being able to see all their options in one place? Isn’t competition a tenant of capitalism?
Competition is only good if maximum profit can be made.
Competition only works when you are not told what you can sell and at what price. The exchanges are nothing but a ruse so that gullible people like you will believe they have some choice.
Competition only works when you have the ability to tell a company that you do not like their product and choose not to purchase it until they offer something you wish to buy.
It only works when there are no guidelines? So when the government sets a minimum standard for something like automobiles (for example) suddenly ever car is the same and there are no options for consumers?
Atta boy, gov – politics before people.
Affordable healthcare? Those who pay nothing will
still pay nothing. Those who have a good plan get to
pay more. Those who supposedly can’t afford it will
still not be able to afford it and since they don’t pay
taxes, who are the 15000 extra IRS agents going to fine?
Oops! TAX! Ah Ha! The rich will pay for it all and the
sheep will stand in line like sheep. This BS affordable
joke will not affect the affluent one iota and if it was
so wonderful, why did all the unions ask for waivers?
And we get OBAMA to tell us what we will need and can
have for care! When he and his family go on it and all the
pelosi socialists and their families are covered like us sheep,
then we can say it is good. Fat chance of that happening sheep.
Oh and illegals AREN’T covered….want to bet they still will
go to hospitals and be treated for nada?
This is confusing. We don’t have an “exchange” to shop for Life Insurance, refrigerators, cars, or anything else. Why in the world should we have to have a Government created and operated exchange for health insurance? Perhaps it is to ensure that the policies provide the funds for redistribution for Maine’s embedded social programs.
If Maine’s heavy burden of social costs were transferred to DHHS and removed from the health insurance premium payer, the result would be health care costs that reflect the actual cost of service.
Under these circumstances, we would have a competitive health insurance market. By having “Maine have a hand in it” ….. we will have a health insurance exchange operated with similar oversight, control, manipulation and direction of every penny into, through and out of the system that Maine now has with casino operations.
Are Maine’s casino operations a competitive market? Will Maine’s health insurance exchange be a competitive market? They will be managed in similar fashion.
LePage and the GOP wasted $400,000 challenging the ACA in court.
They lost.
Scofflaw LePage is more interested in lining the pockets of his family members and planning his retreat to his home state of Florida in 2014.
Affordable health care for Maine people in 2014?
Can’t be bothered.
Yessah