For the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, we have resurrected the term “Obamneycare,” coined in 2011 by Tim Pawlenty,
one of many 2012 Republican Presidential candidates.
During the political circus surrounding the Republican primary season, Mr. Pawlenty
coined Obamneycare in an attempt to discredit fellow Republican Mitt Romney,
the architect of the successful Massachusetts experiment known as Romneycare.
In 2011, months before the primary season,
Pawlenty, in a Fox News interview, said, “President Obama said that he designed
Obamacare after Romneycare, and basically made it Obamneycare. We now have
essentially the same features. The President’s own words is that he patterned
in large measure Obamacare after what happened in Massachusetts.”
Mr. Pawlenty was absolutely correct in his
assessment, and we believe that Obamneycare is a perfect bipartisan term for what
is now the Affordable Care Act, for it does reflect how the ACA has been very
much a bipartisan effort, despite the myriad Republican denials.
Love it or hate it, Obamneycare is here to stay.
Unfortunately, its rollout has been less than
stellar:
·Healthcare.gov
has proved to be a disastrous website
· Some
states have refused to expand Medicaid
·In some states, healthcare navigators are actually being thwarted in helping
citizens to find plans best suited to them
·President Obama’s claim that “If you like your plan, you can keep it” turned out to be
untrue. Plenty of folks found their plans being canceled – mostly due to their substandard benefits, but still...
We love the idea of Obamneycare, but it will only work if the kinks are worked out
– and soon.
We would like to hear your Obamneycare stories, both positive and negative, because we believe that knowledge is
power, and if your stories are told, perhaps someone in power will listen and
actually fix the problems.
We have set up individual state threads (see right side panel for links); simply
tell your story in the comment section for your state.
If you would rather not reveal your state, you can post here.
In
addition, we have included important healthcare information for each state,
including links to official state sites and state exchanges and expanded
Medicare sites.
Whenever a link ends in .com or .org (instead of .gov), we
have verified that the site is, indeed, sanctioned by your state. Some of the links we
found were dodgy, and it is important that you avoid the myriad scam sites
popping up.
The
best way to avoid sketchy websites: link through your official state website, Healthcare.gov,
or call the
Obamacare hotline: 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325).
For
each state, we have included the following information:
Name of State
Name of Capital
State
Exchange or Expanded Medicare
links for States Participating
in Obamneycare
Link to Official State
Website
Link to Official Capital
Website
Link to Wikipedia Article
If you would rather not reveal your state, you can post here.
