Affordable Care Act Volunteer Jim Nelson is pictured above. (Submitted photo)
An open house to provide information about the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called “Obamacare,” will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Grace Lutheran Church in Woodland.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about the new health care act is invited to attend this educational event, especially those who need to get health insurance in the new marketplace. Those attending will be able to access both printed information and computers to get online resources, a press release said.
Community volunteers, including some experienced with the Tennessee Health Care Coalition, will be present to make sure their neighbors have access to affordable, quality health care, and accurate information about the ACA, the release said. Among them will be Carl Wheeler and Dr. Mary Headrick, an internal medicine physician and member of the League of Women Voters of Tennessee. Volunteering with the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, both have considerable knowledge of the ACA, the release said. Materials will be available in Spanish, and bilingual volunteers will be available to assist as needed.
The open house will feature a short slide show presented by Jim Nelson, based on materials from the Tennessee Health Care Coalition; the presentation of basic information on health insurance for those who have never had it; and computer access to helpful websites such as healthcare.gov, KFF.org and valuepenguin.com. Paper registration forms for the ACA will be available as well as the 800 phone number for getting information and signing up.
Those in need of additional personal assistance with the enrollment process may contact the Knoxville Area Project Access, or KAPA, which has navigators to serve Anderson County. The navigators are certified to assist with the enrollment process. The phone number for KAPA is (865) 531-2766.
Grace Lutheran Church is at 131 W. Gettysburg Ave.
David A. Vudragovich says
See you there!
David A. Vudragovich says
It was a good event! No Navigators showed though.
The volunteers were very well trained, confirmed much of what I had already been trained on and were able to offer me some insights so I can better assist the people I work with.
If they have another event, I suggest attending if you think you qualify/want to know if you qualify for assistance (a Subsidy) to pay your healthcare premiums in 2014.
Volunteers are not allowed to give advice on selecting a plan. They are trained and able to help individuals/families through the government website to apply for a subsidy. (or paper application).
Insurance agents are licensed professionals to help people in the plan selection process, understanding what is covered and how the different plans work.
Our purpose is to work together for the insured’s benefit.
We also service different segments of the population.
Volunteers service those below 400% FPL (Federal Poverty Limit)
Insurance agents service those over 100% FPL.
We have some overlap.
johnhuotari says
Thank you for the extra information, Dave.
TJ Garland says
The government health care people just testified to Congress that the website was only 30% ready Oct 1– and still is not workable. Everyone has just preregistered so far.
One just can’t get much for $600 million today.
TJ Garland says
Why Obamacide is a Fantastic Success
By Wayne Allyn Root
There are 2 major political parties in America. I’m a member of the nave, stupid, and cowardly one. I’m a Republican. How stupid is the GOP? They still don’t get it. I told them 5 years ago, 2 books ago, a national bestseller ago (“The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide”), and in hundreds of articles and commentaries, that Obamacare was never meant to help America, or heal the sick, or lower healthcare costs, or lower the debt, or expand the economy.
The GOP needs to stop calling Obamacare a “trainwreck.†That means it’s a mistake, or accident. That means it’s a gigantic flop, or failure. It’s NOT. This is a brilliant, cynical, and purposeful attempt to damage the U.S. economy, kill jobs, and bring down capitalism. It’s not a failure, it’s Obama’s grand success. It’s not a “trainwreck,†Obamacare is a suicide attack. He wants to hurt us, to bring us to our knees, to capitulate- so we agree under duress to accept big government.
Obama’s hero and mentor was Saul Alinsky- a radical Marxist intent on destroying capitalism. Alinksky’s stated advice was to call the other guy “a terrorist†to hide your own intensions. To scream that the other guy is “ruining America,†while you are the one actually plotting the destruction of America. To claim again and again…in every sentence of every speech…that you are “saving the middle class,†while you are busy wiping out the middle class.
The GOP is so stupid they can’t see it. There are no mistakes here. This is a planned purposeful attack. The tell-tale sign isn’t the disastrous start to Obamacare. Or the devastating effect the new taxes are having on the economy. Or the death of full-time jobs. Or the overwhelming debt. Or the dramatic increases in health insurance rates. Or the 70% of doctors now thinking of retiring- brining on a healthcare crisis of unimaginable proportions. Forget all that.
The real sign that this is a purposeful attack upon capitalism is how many Obama administration members and Democratic Congressmen are openly calling Tea Party Republicans and anyone who wants to stop Obamacare “terrorists.†There’s the clue. Even the clueless GOP should be able to see that. They are calling the reasonable people…the patriots…the people who believe in the Constitution…the people who believe exactly what the Founding Fathers believed…the people who want to take power away from corrupt politicians who have put America $17 trillion in debt…terrorists?
That’s because they are Saul Alinsky-ing the GOP. The people trying to purposely hurt America, capitalism and the middle class…are calling the patriots by a terrible name to fool, confuse and distract the public.
Obamacare is a raving, rollicking, fantastic success. Stop calling it a failure. Here is what it was created to do. It is succeeding on all counts.
#1) Obamacare was intended to bring about the Marxist dream- redistribution of wealth. Rich people, small business owners, and the middle class are being robbed, so that the money can be redistributed to poor people (who vote Democrat). Think about it. If you’re rich or middle class, you now have to pay for your own healthcare costs (at much higher rates) AND 40 million other people’s costs too (through massive tax increases). So you’re stuck paying for both bills. You are left broke. Brilliant.
#2) Obamacare was intended to wipe out the middle class and make them dependent on government. Think about it. Even Obama’s IRS predicts that health insurance for a typical American family by 2016 will be $20,000 per year. But how would middle class Americans pay that bill and have anything left for food or housing or living? People that make $40K, or $50K, or $60K can’t possibly hope to spend $20K on health insurance without becoming homeless. Bingo. That’s how you make middle class people dependent on government. That’s how you make everyone addicted to government checks. Brilliant.
#3) As a bonus, Obamacare is intended to kill every decent paying job in the economy, creating only crummy, crappy part-time jobs. Why? Just to make sure the middle class is trapped, with no way out. Just to make sure no one has the $20,000 per year to pay for health insurance, thereby guaranteeing they become wards of the state. Brilliant.
#4) Obamacare is intended to bankrupt small business, and therefore starve donations to the GOP. Think about it. Do you know a small business owner? I know hundreds of them. Their rates are being doubled, tripled and quadrupled by Obamacare. Guess who writes 75% of the checks to Republican candidates and conservative causes? The GOP. Even if a small business owner manages to survive, he or she certainly can’t write a big check to the GOP anymore. Money is the “mother’s milk†of politics. Without donations, a political party ceases to exist. Bingo. That’s the point of Obamacare. Obama is bankrupting his political opposition and drying up donations to the GOP. Brilliant.
#5) Obamacare is intended to make the IRS all-powerful. It adds thousands of new IRS agents. It puts the IRS in charge of overseeing 15% of the U.S. economy. The IRS has the right because of Obamacare to snoop into every aspect of your life, to go into your bank accounts, to fine you, to frighten you, to intimidate you. And Obama and his socialist cabal have access to your deepest medical secrets. By law your doctor has to ask your sexual history. That information is now in the hands of Obama and the IRS to blackmail GOP candidates into either not running, or supporting bigger government, or leaking the info and ruining your campaign. Or have you forgotten the IRS harassed, intimidated and persecuted critics of Obama and conservative groups? Now Obama hands the IRS even more power. Big Brother rules our lives. Brilliant.
#6) Obamacare is intended to unionize 15 million healthcare workers. That produces $15 billion in new union dues. That money goes to fund Democratic candidates and socialist causes- thereby guaranteeing Obama’s friends never lose another election, and Obama’s policies keep ruining capitalism and bankrupting business owners long after he’s out of office.
Message to the GOP: This isn’t a game. This isn’t tiddly-winks. This is a serious, purposeful attempt to highjack America and destroy capitalism. This isn’t a trainwreck. It’s purposeful suicide. It’s not failing, it’s working exactly according to plan. Obama knows what he’s doing. Stop apologizing and start fighting.
Oh and one more thing…Conservatives aren’t “terrorists.†We are patriots and saviors. We represent the Constitution and the Founding Fathers. We are the heroes and good guys. Unless you get all this through your thick skulls, America is lost…forever.
Ben Smith says
TJ, you are about as far as one can get from being a “patriot and a savior”. With people like you in charge, the United States would be truly doomed.
TJ Garland says
Never said I was. Never said I wanted to be in charge. I am permanently retired; but, I, like Gallager, am forced to point out stupidity.
I can even offer solutions when asked in a nice way.
How would you fix Obamacare?
Ben Smith says
How would I fix Obamacare? I would have the Republicans (and people like you) quit doing everything possible to make it fail.
TJ Garland says
So, pointing out that Unaffordable Death Care Act is FUBAR is causing it to fail?
It was designed to fail from the beginning. Do you really think these socialists are/were that stupid?
Americans will eventually beg for a single payer system- the goal all along.
Doctors will retire by the thousands.
It’s simply about control of the population/ economy, and it will cost thousands of jobs.
Ben Smith says
It’s sort of hard to claim that something has failed when it hasn’t even been fully implemented, except of course for people (again like you) who don’t want it to succeed. Telling lies about “death panels” and then the jewels you gleefully repeat about doctors retiring and the loss of jobs are just a few of the examples. It’s simply about the hatred (aka Obama Derangement Syndrome) of the President. BTW, my congratuations to David V for working with the system to make it work.
Helen Standifer says
Negotiate prices
with BigPharma and give the saved money to the doctors. Plus, single payer is all set up. Just give everyone medicare! Raise the salary cap of fica deductions to pay for it. There you go problem solved.
Helen Standifer says
You are quoting Wayne Allyn Root? Wasn’t he the one who predicted that Obama would lose the 2012 election in a landside? Yep, think he was!
Ben Smith says
Wow, Helen, I never would have guessed!
TJ Garland says
http://www.prisonplanet.com/healthcare-site-crashes-while-sebelius-tries-to-sign-person-up-at-media-event.html
The web site didn’t work for Sebelius either. Time to resign woman.
Hard to make a buck, isn’t it, David, off a broken system?
Helen Standifer says
Wow, I just looked a the web sites you referenced here. Do you believe that stuff? If you do, you really need professional help. No one should have that much hatred toward anybody. I really hope your wife doesn’t agree with you!
David A. Vudragovich says
Unfortunately the video is what I am hearing from my clients, prospects and other agents. I have gone to the paper application, print it out, hand write it in and mail it (the 5 page app only uses 1 first class stamp). Then I can help them enroll directly through the carrier’s website.
FYI the gov’t website is for the Subsidy application. To enroll in the policy, they send you to the carrier’s website (what they told me, none of my clients have been able to enroll online).
Also, just because they are able to enroll online for a subsidy, does not mean they took a marketplace plan. They maybe like two of the people I work with that take more expensive tier 4 brand name drugs and learned there is greater savings (deductible and co insurance) outside of the Exchange/Marketplace. (when looking at annual premium and drug costs)
The gov’t website is ONLY if you make less than 400% FPL and want the subsidy (or qualify for Medicaid). If you want to private pay then you do not need to waste your time at the gov’t site.
For a ball park of what your subsidy could be, http://www.kff.org seems to be pretty close. Search “Subsidy Calculator” and enter your info (including zip code).
Or call/email me. I have an ad on the right column here.
David A. Vudragovich says
IF you need coverage January 1, 2014 (surgery, meds, etc.) you MUST be signed up by December 15th for the Jan 1 start date. Otherwise you will have a Feb 1 start date (cut off Jan 15th).
Do not get caught in a too little to late or not knowing and not taking action can hurt you if you need coverage immediately (aka Jan 1)
johnhuotari says
I think the comments in this thread have run their course, so I am closing it. I have removed a link to one questionable website, and I want to remind commenters to try not to make their comments personal. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for understanding and reading Oak Ridge Today.