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For 18 months, Joe Titus constantly worried about getting seriously ill after he lost his medical coverage after he was laid off from his job as a drug and alcohol counselor. Titus was able to sign up for a Premera Blue Cross plan. The plan’s monthly premium is $349.13. However, because Titus has no income he qualified for tax credits to cover his premium and co-pays for his diabetes and asthma medication and doctor visits, reducing his co-pay and premium to zero. Vancouver resident Guy Kirchgatter also said he had a good experience with in-person navigators, getting help at the...

Behold the Hollywood bubble. This week, actress Olivia Wilde starred in an Obamacare propaganda video targeting young people. "You can sign up for health care online in 10 minutes," her co-propagandist chirped as she cheered. Cue the laugh track. Back on planet Earth, Americans nationwide are still struggling with the $634 million online health care exchange nightmare. One reader asked me to share his story. Like me and 22 million other citizens in the private individual market for health insurance, he recently received his You Can't Keep It cancellation notice. Here's what happened when he went online to find alternatives....

Obamacare's main signup engine attracted just 6,200 new customers on its launch day and 51,000 after the first week At the same rate, the 6-month open enrollment period would sign up just 2 million Americans, including 14 states and D.C., which have their own insurance exchanges The Congressional Budget Office says Obamacare needs at least 7 million customers to stay afloat financially Numerous Obama administration officials have denied seeing any enrollment figures at all MailOnline's sources are two Health and Human Services workers who have access to the data as it's crunched Texas congressman says anemic national enrollment numbers are...

<p>Until glitches plaguing the online rollout in Pennsylvania of the Affordable Care Act are corrected, the uninsured should enroll by phone or mail, a high-ranking federal health official said here.</p> <p>"You can actually go through the whole application process over the phone," said Joanne Corte Grossi, a regional director for the Department of Health and Human Services. "I really encourage that."</p>

More than a week after the launch of the new federally run health-insurance marketplaces, Mary Webster joked yesterday that her enrollment headaches seem to be turning into a “chronic condition." Health insurers in Ohio told The Dispatch they have had Ohioans successfully enroll in their marketplace plans. CareSource said it has had enrollees from six regions in Ohio, with “double-digit” enrollment to date. “Enrollment appears to be slow,” said Ed Byers, a spokesman for Medical Mutual of Ohio.

House Republicans are asking the federal government exactly how many people have been able to enroll in the new health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. It's a question the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been asked by reporters for more than a week but the administration has so far refused to answer.

Several days into enrollment, California's insurance exchange still has no answers for people wanting to know if their doctors are included in health plans being sold on the state-run market. The issue is especially important because many insurers in California have sharply limited their number of doctors and hospitals to help hold down premiums in the exchange. That has fueled concerns that some patients may struggle to get the care they need.

* High number of log-ins hearten Obamacare supporters * Some uninsured fill out paper applications * No enrollment data expected until mid-November

Leslie Foster, a 28-year-old freelance filmmaker in Hollywood, Calif., is among the first wave of enrollees in new insurance plans under the federal health law. Because he earns only about $20,000 a year doing freelance videography and odd jobs, Mr. Foster qualifies for federal subsidies that cut deep into the premiums for health plans available in the new marketplaces, which opened Tuesday morning. The total monthly premium is $213.68 according to an online confirmation page Mr. Foster retained for his records. But the subsidies will cover more than $150 of those costs. Mr. Foster's enrollment won't formally be complete until...

Three insurance companies confirmed Thursday that they have enrolled customers through the federal online marketplace created by the health law, but the numbers were meager and signup frustration continued for many people. “This is not solely a traffic issue,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of consultant Avalere Health. “There are more underlying issues that have to be resolved.” “This is not a glitch. A glitch is a minor problem,” said Robert Laszewski, a consultant and former insurance executive. “The real story is that the Obamacare computer systems simply are not working.

Health insurers and individuals began reporting a trickle of enrollments in the new online marketplaces created by the health-care law, as federal and state officials scrambled to try to fix technical problems that have prevented many consumers from buying coverage. After two days without any word on sign-ups, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana received some reassuring news Wednesday night: Seven people had signed up for its plan on the marketplace that day. “The first day and second we received no submissions,” spokesman John Maginnis said. “This being day three, we were notified through the healthcare.gov website that we had...

It may be sunny in Los Angeles, but dark clouds hang over union members at the final day of the AFL-CIO convention. Union leaders are so unhappy with Obamacare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that the convention is expected to vote on a resolution calling for changes to the law. According to Bloomberg, the unions are worried that the health care law will endanger member health care benefits and argue that the “multi-employer plans should be eligible for tax subsidies.” The law currently only allows for low-income individuals who do not have employer-sponsored health care coverage, or...

Let’s face it. It’s been a little political, this whole Obamacare thing, and so what you’ve had is an unprecidented effort that you’ve seen ramp up over that month or so in which those who have opposed the idea of universal healthcare in the first place, and have fought this thing tooth and nail though Congress and courts and so forth have been have been trying to scare and discourage people from getting a good deal, and some of you may have seen the commericials out there that are a little wacky. And the main message we have, and we’re...

President Obama vowing that Syria would “cross a red line” by using chemical weapons is far from the only marker he’s laid down or promise he’s tried to keep since running for president in 2008. The president has made more than 500 campaign-related promises alone. And just last week he re-drew a line in the sand for congressional Republicans flirting with shutting down the government over his Affordable Care Act and looking for spending cuts as part of a separate deal to increase the federal debt limit. “That’s not happening,” Obama said. “I will not negotiate over the full faith...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans united Wednesday around a plan to use the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to repeal President Obama's healthcare law, confident the American people are on their side. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) yielded to his right flank by agreeing to attach the healthcare law repeal to a must-pass bill to keep the government funded past Sept. 30. A vote is expected Friday on a bill that would allow the government to stay open for the next few months. The measure is all but certain to pass the Republican-led House, but faces rejection in...

A mere three weeks remain before the Obamacare exchanges open for business. The likely result will be the closing doors on Main Street, as shopkeepers and entrepreneurs shut down, unable to make ends meet. It’s clear that the wounded economy can’t cope with the exploding costs ahead. Ohio announced that premiums would rise in the individual market by an average of 88 percent next year. Premiums will rise 72 percent in Indiana, 125 percent in Wisconsin. Even California, with its relatively robust individual market, is bracing for increases of 66 percent. The Obamacare train wreck bearing down on us is...

With fewer than three weeks until the kickoff of the new Obamacare health-insurance exchange, Florida's 3.8 million uninsured residents still don't have answers to key questions, such as how much will the plans cost, what they will cover and how to sign up. Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature opted not to participate directly in Obamacare, making Florida one of 26 states that have left it to the federal government to set up the online "exchange" that will enable individuals and families to purchase subsidized coverage. Obamacare requires that most uninsured people purchase coverage — either through their jobs,...

For the past week, debate over Syria has overwhelmed Capitol Hill -- even though Congress has just about two weeks left to pass a budget bill before the federal government partially shuts down. Democratic and Republican leaders are meeting Thursday morning to discuss the looming budget issues, but before the two parties forge a path forward, the GOP may have to sort out its own issues. The Republican-led House had planned to vote this week on a bill to temporarily fund the government (referred to as a continuing resolution, or CR), but the vote was delayed Wednesday because Republicans divisions...

President Obama acknowledges there are some glitches as his massive ObamaCare reorganization launches. And one major problem is, contrary to the Democrat's confident prediction when signing it, the more Americans learn about his signature transformation of the United States, the less they like it. Much less. A new CNN/ORC International Poll just out shows that today a strong majority of Americans oppose most or all of the plan's provisions, now scheduled to begin registering Americans on Oct. 1. While support for the so-called Affordable Care Act has plunged by 23%, or 12 points. In January a majority of Americans, 51%,...

Reuters) - The Obama administration has delayed a step crucial to the launch of the new healthcare law, the signing of final agreements with insurance plans to be sold on federal health insurance exchanges starting October 1. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified insurance companies on Tuesday that it would not sign final agreements with the plans between September 5 and 9, as originally anticipated, but would wait until mid-September instead, according to insurance industry sources. Nevertheless, Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for HHS, said the department remains "on track to open" the marketplaces on time on...