Year: 2013

A new report from Heritage’s Edmund Haislmaier claims that the healthcare exchanges won’t encourage competition:

For the vast majority of states, the exchanges will offer less insurer competition than the state’s current individual market. Most of the insurers whose principal business is employer-group coverage appear to expect significant erosion in that coverage segment due to Obamacare inducing employers to drop their current group plans. Given that the distribution of exchange enrollees will likely be skewed toward the lower end of the 100 percent to 400 percent of FPL income range (and thus, eligible for reduced cost sharing), participating insurers are offering exchange plans with limited provider networks and a significant number of Medicaid managed-care plans opted to join the exchanges.

The insurers who have elected to participate in the exchanges are mainly a mix of Blue Cross carriers seeking to extend their current market dominance, group-market carriers seeking to retain enrollees when employers drop coverage, and Medicaid managed-care insurers expanding into a market that they view as very similar to their current business.

In fact, Obamacare’s complicated, income-based design of premium and cost-sharing subsidies will result in the exchange market essentially offering something like Medicaid managed-care for the middle class.

Avik Roy is worried about Healthcare.gov’s security:

One of the most underappreciated, but important, problems with Obamacare’s troubled health insurance exchanges are their inadequate safeguards against identity theft and misuse of private information. We’ve now learned that an important government report detailing “high risks” to the security of the Obamacare website was concealed from a key official, Henry Chao. The concealment misled Chao to believe that there were no longer any high security risks to the launch of the federal exchange, prompting him to recommend the approval of healthcare.gov. “I’m not even copied on this,” exclaimed Chao in aNovember 1 interview with the House Oversight Committee, where he was presented with the security report for the first time. “It is disturbing…This is…a fairly non-standard way to document a decision.”

It’s not clear whether or not the concealment was intentional. “I don’t want to think the worst of people,” Chao told investigators. But he acknowledged that it was “kind of strange” that he wasn’t included on the email that contained this critical information, given that there were people that report directly to him that were included on it, along with his direct superiors. “Why I’m surprised is that [Teresa Fryer, the Chief Information Security Officer] had me do this, file this process, but [didn’t] copy me on the [Authorization to Operate] letter. I mean, wouldn’t you be surprised if you were me?”

And Peter Suderman takes the administration to task for inflating its enrollment numbers:

[T]he administration isn’t actually counting enrollments. Instead, it’s counting the number of people who have placed health plans in their online shopping carts—not necessarily people who have signed up and agreed to be billed, and certainly not people who have actually paid the premium for the first month of coverage. It’s the equivalent of Amazon counting a TV sold every time someone puts a TV in his or her online shopping cart, regardless of whether or not they actually go through the checkout process.

 

The breakthrough in our attempt to go independent this time last year was when we discovered – well, Chas discovered – a small, newish company called Tinypass, that was able to run our meter system and take paid subscriptions from readers. Without any business staff, it was a godsend. Like us, it was a small group of people; and like us, we were refugees from traditional media, trying to start over. Throughout the last ten months or so, we’ve bounced around ideas, brainstormed problems, and shared reflections on this experiment. But we’re not alone, as this short video about the company and what it offers writers, journalists, musicians, artists and bloggers demonstrates (with a small cameo from yours truly):

With your help, and with six weeks to go, we’re now at $807K in our first year revenue, closing in on our goal of $900K. Tinypass made that possible; you made it happen. If you are a regular reader of the Dish, all we ask is that you consider if what we provide each day is worth $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. If it is, please [tinypass_offer text=”subscribe”]. As you can see, this model is not just about us. It’s about building a future for a whole range of new media on the ashes of the old. [tinypass_offer text=”Help us get there.”] For subscribers who want to support us further, you can purchase a gift subscription for someone who might like the Dish. If you want to revive the future of actual content online – rather than ever-invasive ads and advertorials and traffic gimmicks – this is a place to start. A reader writes:

When you went indie and started your new website, I agreed that the only sustainable way of doing what you had planned was to start charging for the site. Yet, I never subscribed. Until today. Why? Still working on my dissertation with limited financial resources, the yearly fee was holding me back. Or more precisely, the subscription model was holding me back. I don’t like to subscribe. I currently don’t subscribe to any newspapers or magazines, though I have in the past. And it wasn’t the $19.99. That’s a more than reasonable amount. It was something else, too. I often read posts that I didn’t agree with, that held me back from subscribing. Do I really want to pay someone who held some views I was opposed to?

What changed? I realized that just as with any newspapers and magazines I buy or bought in the past, I just wouldn’t agree with everything. I love the Economist but I have serious reservations regarding some of their views. Looking at your blog the same way as a magazine, I figured out that I could disagree with some posts, ignore others, and skip over those that didn’t interest me.

So, my reservations are gone. Actually, I feel like I have to subscribe to The Dish because I want to support a journalistic effort that pays its employees fairly. And one that takes care of its interns. Having been an intern myself and never having gotten any pay (whether it was at museums, theaters or interning for a member of the European Parliament), I really appreciate this aspect the most. Your monthly subscription model is also an incentive and allows me to give more, as it’s easier to pay $5 a month than $50 or 60 once a year.

What finally made me commit though was setting up a website for my photography. After having done that, I visited The Dish and discovered that you were also hosted on WordPress. And I could press the follow button. But I could not in good conscience do so while not subscribing. So I subscribed. And then I clicked that “follow” button.

A few more emails of new media pioneering are below. But first a dissent:

Count me as a paid member who will not be renewing his subscription next year. I have enjoyed your blog for a long time, but increasingly it seems you are using your public “voice” to push your agendas.

I enjoy spirited debate as much as the next guy, but that isn’t what we seem to be getting at the Dish anymore. Sure you post a few dissents and opposing opinions, but it occurs to me that those posts are chosen at your discretion. Are you really blogging both sides in your “debates”?

Enough with Pope Francis already! Is legalizing pot really worth the time you give it (medical benefits … please!)? Bush and Cheney are war criminals, always and forever, but Obama is nuanced and not given a fair shake. Sure Obama lied about the details of the ACA, but that is ultimately ok because the good outweighs the bad. Sounds like an excuse for torture as well! And I have yet to hear from one animal scientist or reputable meat industry professional in your crusade agains the meat industry (not concentration camp, torture industry). Your anthropomorphic inclinations are clouding your judgement and your perspective is suspect given the fact that your only dealings with animals seem to be your relationship with a house pet. Yeah Yeah … everyone has a right to their opinion, I know!

I refuse to lend my hard-earned dollars to a site that is pushing agendas. You can dismiss me. You can chastise me. You can call me ignorant. What you can’t do is have my membership or endorsement anymore! Doubt this will make it on your blog.

Another reader points to a new media writer trying to make it with a subscription model as well:

I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for about 4 years now. I first learned of you while I was living in China, and your blog was a great source of American news for me, especially since your blog pretty much flew under the radar of the Great Firewall. When you first started collecting payments for your blog, I wanted to help, but I was unemployed at the time, and I needed to save money. I kept telling myself that when I got my job, I’d sign up. But I got my job back in June, and I kept putting it off. I’d find reasons to do it later whenever I hit my limit. Though reading on my phone and on my PC gave me a little extra breathing room. I don’t know why I kept putting it off, maybe there was some part of me that just didn’t want to pay for web content (I know, it’s selfish).

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Bill Bishop over at sinocism.com, he runs a fantastic China-focused newsletter. It’s mostly a collection of English and Chinese news about the country, but he clearly puts a lot of work into it every day and adds commentary whenever he can. He has been asking for donations and subscriptions for a while, since it takes a significant amount of time every day. He recently made a make-or-break request. He was looking to hit a certain threshold of subscribers so he could justify the time he put into it, but he only made it a little over halfway his goal. So, he announced that at the end of the month he was going to transition from a daily newsletter to a weekly one. Although I like reading his newsletter and will be sad to see it less often, I can understand his reasons.

I wouldn’t like to see your blog go the same route. I feel incredibly guilty for free-riding off your content for so long. So I’ve subscribed finally. Keep up the good work!

Another plug for new media pioneers:

I am a big fan of yours, and as a journalism teacher, I’m also a big fan of your new publication model (and I’m hoping it will work, so I can show my students that they can do this successfully too). I have purchased my own subscription and I’m thinking about buying one for my father-in-law, who is quite conservative but whom I have spirited, if still cordial conversations with.

I am also a fan of a man named Dan Carlin. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of him, but I think you’d find him particularly interesting. Carlin is a podcaster. He’s a former TV reporter who then became a radio host for a few years in the Pacific Northwest, but eventually left that world because, being a staunch independent in what I think is the truest sense of the term, he didn’t quite fit the ideological mold. So he became an early adopter of the podcasting format not long after you hit it as a blogger.

Carlin does two podcasts. His “baby” is “Hardcore History,” where, as a self-professed “fan” of history and not a scholar, he tells stories on historical subjects. These are like extemporaneous audiobooks or long-form essays, and his storytelling is incredibly thorough from a research perspective while also being phenomenally entertaining.

His other podcast is called “Common Sense,” which is a current events podcast where he discusses his point of view on the current political topics of the moment. He reminds me very much of you as an independent thinker who has become disillusioned with the current political state of play in Washington and has ideas on how things can get better.

I’m sure you have more than a few Dishheads in the mix who, like me, are also fans of Dan. I also think it’s worth pointing out the remarkable similarities between your current model and his. As a loyal fan of both you and him, I encourage you to check out a few of his podcasts, which are available for free on iTunes: Common Sense and Hardcore History. (If you’re looking for a good sample of both, I particularly encourage you to listen to “Show 42 – Logical Insanity” from Hardcore History, and “Show 258 – Snow Storm” from Common Sense.) Carlin’s antiquated though reportedly soon-to-be-updated website is here.

I don’t know how ultimately useful you will find this information, but at the very least, I believe there’s a new media kindred spirit-ship to be found between the two of you.

Obama’s approval rating is dropping:

And Obama’s advantage on healthcare has disappeared. How Weigel understands Obama’s recent numbers:

The only explanation for any of this? The “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan” controversy, or IYLYPYCKYPgate. (Maybe that acronym won’t take off.) What should worry Democrats (not that they need the help) is that the broken promise actually isn’t affecting a huge proportion of Americans. Maybe 6 percent of them are losing individual plans; 52 percent of them distrust Obama.

Bernstein considers what these numbers mean:

Presidential approval has real effects on midterm elections. Right now, what matters is perceptions among elites, and potential candidates, about those elections. There’s some evidence Dems benefited from the shutdown, with a small wave of successful recruitment. If the conventional wisdom shifts to a sense that Obama (and Democrats) are doomed, it’s unlikely Democrats could build on those successes. We might see some Republican recruiting coups. Separate from that is the direct effect of presidential popularity; the better Obama is doing in November 2014, the better Dems can expect to do.

“I erred in not editing that one sentence more carefully to make sure it could not be misinterpreted,” – Fred Hiatt, Richard Cohen’s editor.