If Republicans had not been such fools by trying to hijack our nations democratic foundation, they could have sat back and taken pot shots at the Obama Administration’s failure to project just how popular ObamaCare would be at its outset and prepare the necessary infrastructure to handle the traffic. To be fair, Republicans have made it more difficult by taking every opportunity to sabotage the ACA. But one state, despite web site difficulties, because the feds have not fixed their end yet, has made the rollout a tremendous success.
Though Oregon’s health insurance exchange is not yet up and running, the number of uninsured is already dropping thanks to new fast-track enrollment for the Oregon Health Plan.
The low-income, Medicaid-funded program has already signed up 56,000 new people, cutting the state’s number of uninsured by 10 percent, according to Oregon Health Authority officials.
Though the new exchange called Cover Oregon was originally intended to be used for Oregon Health Plan enrollment, the online marketplace doesn’t work yet. Instead, new Oregon Health Plan members are being enrolled using a fast-track process that was approved by the federal government in August.
Since late September the Oregon Health Authority sent out notices to 260,000 people already enrolled in the state’s food stamps program since late October.
The notices informed them that based on their income reported to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, they are pre-qualified for the Oregon Health Plan in 2014. Most of them are newly eligible thanks to the state’s decision to expand the program’s income caps under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
To enroll, all they have to do is make a phone call or send a form consenting to be enrolled. So far, 56,000 people have done that, coming on top of more than 600,000 already enrolled.
Under the new Oregon Health Plan income eligibility rules, in 2014 individuals must earn 138 percent of the federal poverty level or less to qualify, as compared to the 100 percent cutoff this year. The new cap means monthly income of $1,322 for an individual,$1,784 for a household of two, $2,247 for a household of three, and $2,704 for a family of four… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Oregonian>
When states and the federal government work together for the common good, they meet people’s needs, and as always, Oregon leads the way.
15 Responses to “How Oregon Is Beating ObamaCare IT Problems”
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I wonder if someone hacked the system or if it was pure incompetence in hiring the IT Corp which was fired by Canada to set it up.
I do know that there have been multiple attempts to hacl the system, includingg at least one DoS attack. In addition, Republicans have put up several look-alike sites that don't work to make people think it was the ObamaCare site.
I think Oregon has something to crow about, but so do many states. Even some of the states that the governors have rejected Obama care/ACA – are signing up thousands. A careful estimate in California, a state that has gone to extremes to make this easy for their citizens have signed up an estimated 600,000 since October 1, and this might stick in McConnell's craw but even recalcitrant Kentucky has signed up at least 3,000 people this week alone.
I don't know who is responsible for the total tech disaster of this computer foul up but, there really is no excuse for this to still be a problem. Get this system up and running, there will be enough real problems coming up later.
Any thing signing up millions of people will have snags, this however, should have been beta tested.
What do you do with a used tea bag? I toss them in the trash.
Kitty, i dod not mean to imply that Oregon is the only state with crowing rights. Kudos to the rest.
On the IT thing, I'm sure it was beta tested. Beta testing cannot duplicate unanticipated demand, and there are always things people do that wiyuld never heve occurred to a beta tester. In the old BBS days (before the internet exixted) there was one guy who was so good at falling through the holed in my programming, that I gave him an official position on the BBS: CrashOp.
WELL DONE OREGON!!! Also California and any other states that are helping the poor have healthcare. That is brilliant – I am so glad to hear it!
It will happen, Pat.
All new computer programmes have issues that escape detection during testing. From my business experience, loading, that is total usage at any one time, is a common problem, but it should be fixed easily and quickly. It has been almost 3 weeks, but is it possible that the shutdown hampered efforts? IF that it the case, this is one more way that the Republicanus/Teabaggers have screwed the country. But even Microsoft has problems with its software roll outs and it tests its products. The multiple glitches in Windows 8 is an example.
Kudos to Oregon, and all other states who are moving forward, for working around the glitches. If all states would coöperate by supporting the exchanges and thinking of their people first instead of ideology or rather than fighting Obamacare, there would be fewer problems. But Republicanus/Teabaggers are dedicated to slowing this process down if they can't repeal Obamacare.
When I was in the research business, I did a ton of work for Mictosoft, and I can attedt to the amont of effort the put into finding bugs, and how some always escape them.
Well all America and even around the world know how smart the ones in congress are. lol Great for Oregon
LOL indeed! Thanks Mama.
Thumbs down to Florida via Governor Rick Scott but, two thumbs up ^^ to my home state of Vermont and my main man Senator Bernie Sanders… 👿 vs 😎
Hey, Rich, Bernie is definitely one of the good guys. We're all lucky to have him.
Amen Richard!
Kentucky is another state that is successful in this venture. Kynect as it is listed here has been up and running since day one. Governor Beshear has backed the ACA from the beginning and even had an op ed in a major paper telling McConnell and Paul the plain truth. Kudos to him.
Kudos to Kenticky. I bet Bough Bitch Mitch and Idiot, Son of Idiot, named after Idiot have a turd in theor bloomers over that!