Page 611 - Implementation News Today

Too liberal. 15% of the opposition comes from people who say that the law isnt liberal enough. in fact, half the country says they either support the law as it is or want it to be more liberal. only 43% say they oppose it because its too liberal. jonathan alter, what do you take away from those numbers? >> yeah, i think theres always been a majority for the law or didnt think it didnt go far enough. and also when you see the numbers oppose the law, a lot of those people oppose it because its bee...

Its a major marker. its progress. and thats something that we shut look forward to. now, implementation is a separate issue. i hope they can get it right. but the bottom line, this is a big step forward. and i think a bigger thing would be on this medicaid expansion. that is not a bad thing. a three to one match, the first three years and after that, the feds pay 100%. why in gods name these states not taking this on is beyond me. that is a win-win. they can hit obama all day long but for the fe...

Up almost an entire page. whats left of obamacare really, steve? >> well, i mean i think you could make an argument there has been a defacto suspension of the individual mandate. it is very hard to imagine theyre going to be assessing fines or penalties or taxes or whatever you want to call them to the people who havent signed up, given the fact weve seen sort of a rolling set of changes to the body of the law, to the heart of the law. so ironic, when you think about just a few months ago, repub...

Word about getting covered. so hes basically saying, talk to your family about it. >> there is a reason for that. the president was very concerned about it, continues to be very concerned about it and on friday when he gave his news conference at the white house, he estimated some 2 million people had already enrolled and he thought that was a good thing. the president also touting the fact he doesnt want people to go broke because theyre sick. however, he realizes that there is a problem with m...

Obviously we screwed it up. im going to be making appropriate adjustments once we get through this year, and weve gotten through the initial surge of people who have been signing up. >> what makes you think 2014 looks better on health care? >> well, i think they have no choice but it get it right. ive said this all along, that the most important thing in the second term was implementing health care reform the right way. 2013 was a forgettable year in that sense. theyve got to do all they can to ...

Premiums are going up, higher copays and you cant keep your doctor even if you would like them and then the issues of computer fraud and identity theft. >> one of the problems the president keep changing the rules as to when implementation is going to happen, the latest is hes pushed off on the insurance companies that people can enroll as late as the 31st. but the insurance companies have to enroll them in a amount of hours, not the weeks. and your colleague from wyoming and tennessee have intr...

Exceptions, et cetera, that he has granted and you could fill a thick volume. one reporter at the friday news conference remarked you might as well delay the entire mandate. what is left of obama care really? >> its a good question. it is one that is probably going to be answered in the first few months of 2014 when the implementation is really taking hold. thats the problem for the president. democrats are saying, well, were not -- like charles schumer. we dont want to repeal it. we want to fix...

That sense. theyve got to do all they can to make the implementation of and the sign-up period as it goes and extends until the end of march, theyve got to make that work. >> listen, there are two issues here. theres first the competency issue. thats by far the most important issue. the most important issue is the mandate issue. basically when you have a government program, you build the system and you say to people, you have to work within the system and sometimes we have to limit your choice. ...

All of the negative impressions about the health care law have really rubbed off on the president. as far as how he can have assurance in the health care implementation, this implementation has been a mess. people argued that the last time there was an implementation like this when george w. bush was implementing his medicare prescription drug plan, it was also rocky. but weve never seen something on this scale. this health care law affects so many more people than george w. bushs medicare presc...

Stringing a bunch of things along here. lets see if we can hone in on a question. >> thats a lot less than ed henry had. >> i thought we were trying to get along for christmas. >> now i can see -- how about i separate out the iran question from the health care question? on the health care question, look, i think i have answered several times, this is a new iteration of it, but bottom line is that you know, were going to continue to work every single day to make sure that implementation of health...