Feds: Celebrate the Fourth By Reciting Obamacare Talking Points to Your Family
HHS would really appreciate it.


Another holiday, another opportunity to explain to friends and family members why the Affordable Care Act is so great. Would you mind?
The Department of Health and Human Services is asking Americans to celebrate the anniversary of our country's independence from a tyrannical government by reciting government-approved talking points about the wisdom of the president's healthcare policies. From the HHS website:
This Fourth of July, families across the nation will gather around hot dogs (or their favorite vegetarian alternative) and potato salad to spend some quality time together, watch fireworks and reflect on the holiday's meaning. But as much as we love our families – and we do, seriously –we don't always agree when it comes to current events, like last week's Supreme Court decision upholding tax credits that help make insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) more affordable for millions of people.
Misinformation about the ACA is everywhere, and there's been a lot of money spent to spread that misinformation – as much as half a billion dollars in ads, according to one 2014 estimate. Not surprisingly, many Americans still don't know how changes the law made to insurance and the health care system can help improve their lives.
You should be prepared when Aunt Janine says something like, "Obamacare hasn't helped anyone!" So here are a few points to remember during this long holiday weekend.
Situation: Uncle Ted claims Obamacare is a train wreck and has cost jobs.
You say: Uncle Ted, you've gotten ahold of some old talking points. With greater access to affordable, quality health insurance, the Affordable Care Act is helping individuals and strengthening our economy!
Full list of suggested propaganda points here.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody.
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Yes, you fascist retards, there's been a lot of money spent to spread misinformation about the ACA - like the money in your budget.
The fact that the government mongoloids keep putting this stuff out--from the Obama campaign begging incessantly for money during the election, to ridiculously condescending ads about the ACA, to this, etc--is the greatest indicator you could possibly ask for for what they think of us, the peons.
They think we're fucking idiots. And, seeing as they live as parasites off our money and toil and we don't do shit about it, they're not entirely wrong.
What can we do? Seriously.
Very little. Which is partly why they feel so superior. They have us over a barrel as individuals; we can't fight their gang on our own. We will lose. Which is why they spend a lot of time trying to get people to focus on and obsess over idiotic KULTUR WAR divisions as opposed to all the horrible shit they do. And since it works, they have another reason to think the peons are stupid...because a lot of them are. Because they allow themselves to be distracted by idiotic political crap.
Anyone who is wrapped up in KULTUR WAR bullshit is their useful idiot.
Divide and conquer.
Honestly? Disengage from political thought and get about the business of living the only life you're ever going to have.
You can ignore politics, but that doesn't mean it will ignore you.
There are few people from the mid 1700's who would agree.
But the second part is true either way.
I'm just saying, I have spent some extended periods of time out of the country recently, disconnected from the US media, and unable to read much of the local media, with the effect being, for example, that I didn't happen to know who was in charge of congress, until about May. And this was very enjoyable, because really, in your day-to-day life, it makes exactly zero difference.
When's the last time you went to the doctor?
25 years ago or so, I suppose.
Yeah, because anyone who's been to the doctor (*or had their kids go to the doctor) since the ACA? very much understands the difference that bullshit politics can make in their "real life"
I think you didn't read what I wrote.
" in your day-to-day life, it makes exactly zero difference."
you didn't write very much. Was there some number above Zero you had actually intended?
Read up a few posts, to where I originally replied to sarcasmic -- the "it" in your quote is not referring to what you apparently think it is.
I'm not saying that politics, or the political world, is somehow not going to touch you, because of course it will; I'm only saying that it's your choice to invest much time thinking about it, when statistically speaking, it will make no difference whether you do, or not.
Or to put it another way, since you mention having kids, if you still have them right now, yet are on H&R, there's a distinct possibility that at some point in time, you're going to think back on this very moment, and say, I should've been playing hide and seek.
Speaking of which...
"it's your choice to invest much time thinking about it"
No, i wouldn't think about it at all if it didn't cost me, and a whole lot of other people a whole lot of time and money whether or not anybody 'chooses' to let it.
No, I don't have kids. And if anyone's wasting their time its you trying to convince me that you had some very-insightful point that everyone's failed to get.
His point makes perfect sense to me. Why fret and worry about a political situation that you have virtually zero impact on? Any change you can bring about will be marginal and fleeting. Instead, just live your life and choose to be free. Obviously the state will have an effect on you and your life - foregone conclusion.
Political buddhism
What can we do? Seriously.
Get the talking points ready. Maybe we can out-talking point them
My talking points were written 239 years ago. I get to stand up at or community patriotic sing-along and read the Declaration of Independence, in full.
http://www.mostgraveconcern.com/quotes/indep.shtml
That is incredible. May I ask roughly where your community is?
Small town about an hour from San Antonio, Texas. This will be my 14th year.
"They think we're fucking idiots"
I knew that. It was just that I was unprepared for just how idiotic they expect the average person to be.
I'm still shaking in horror. Uncle Ted... hold me.
Did Uncle Ted touch you down there too?!?
Uncle Ted is the only person I trust anymore.
It's nice to see you all trust me. 🙂
"...they're not entirely wrong."
You get the government they deserve.
Pajama Boy goes a picnickin'
They think we're fucking idiots.
Incorrect. They know that they have an army of progressive zombies willing and able to mindlessly repeat these talking points, in support of the "cause". They issue them, because they actually know that these people will read and follow their marching orders.
Can we set it to music? Do we have a gov't-appointed folk-singer to record it?
Situation: Uncle Ted claims Obamacare is a train wreck and has cost jobs.
You say: Uncle Ted, you've gotten ahold of some old talking points
OOOH, BURNED UNCLE TED!!! BURNED!!
Forget that Uncle Ted runs a business and has recently had to fire people.
Also, = using Talking Points that instruct you to claim that other people's 'Facts' are just "talking points"....?
It is a good thing no one is self-aware enough at HHS to suggest that maybe people might find this intellectually insulting.
Or rather, should we be horrified that HHS honestly believes no one will read this and immediately go, "but these are ...just.... talking points...."?
I am apparently not cynical enough. I thought i was hard, I thought i had seen it all. but no.
Pretty much what I read into this too - I mean where are the facts and figures to help this O-Care talking point? Considering the numbers of part-time workers and the people who have dropped out of the work force, I would call this - or any recent gvt policy - a rousing success.
" where are the facts and figures to help this O-Care talking point?"
'Facts and Figures are just a republican Talking Point, Uncle Ted. HERE, DRINK THIS KOOL AID'
But they're not *out of date* talking points.
Old talking points = this month's jobs numbers.
too bad Pete Seeger is dead... I'm sure he could make some shitty banjo tune about Obamacare.
I almost wonder if this should be illegal for an administrative agency to do.
Almost? Say that an administrator at your school district supports a referendum in the school paper (your district prints a nominally "free" paper, right?). That's generally going to be illegal, and it's easy for people to understand why. The question is why they tend to see this less clearly, the further from them, physically, the government in question. But that's not so much of a mystery, is it -- and we find ourselves discussing the various problems inherent to an ever more centralized government.
(an aside: this happened once in my district, and the administrator in question, who was the editor of the paper, actually had the temerity to quote himself in the third person -- as in "Joe Blow, District Administrator, said 'My opinion is, blah, blah,'" in an article on the referendum... which was depressingly hilarious)
It gives us an idea of how leftists are going to get around campaign finance limits on private corporations: they're just going to use publicly funded government agencies to promulgate their propaganda.
Uncle Ted, you've gotten ahold of some old talking points.
They can't conceive of anyone figuring out anything without some central authority handing down decrees.
The fact that we are to answer "Uncle Ted's" talking points with...wait for it...talking points is what makes my head explode.
Yeah, but they are NEWER talking points. Noting like Uncle Ted's old fogey grandpa talking points.
If only we could put chips in people's brains so that we could update their talking automatically,we wouldn't have to worry about uncle Ted trying to operate on outdated software.
See that $150 of grade A steak on the grill? None for you jackass. Shut ya piehole and stay out of my way.
No meat for you.
Maybe I'm asking too much; but I would love it if people did a point by point rebuttal to the talking points there that are actually incorrect.
Got a letter from my insurance company last week saying that the policy I've had for many years is being cancelled at the end of the year because the company isn't offering health care coverage in my area next year. For getting coverage, it refers me to HealthCare.gov.
I'm sure this has nothing to do with Obamacare.
Assurant? If so, my wife just got the same letter. If not, them too.
Assurant.
Apparently your insurance company has gotten ahold of some outdated talking points.
"But as much as we love our families ? and we do, seriously..."
We're not even lying.
We actually love them.
No! Really!
Yeah, that disclaimer seemed a bit...defensive?
It's not defensive, they're being smarmy about having to put up with crazy uncle Ted's talk radio politics. "Yeah, we love our family, even if they don't watch Stewart every week. *SIGH*," followed by a chagrined smirk to punctuate JUST HOW MUCH THEY SUFFER for the cause.
This seems eerily accurate.
ACA fan : ACA has increased insurance rate among the uninsured.
Me : Why haven't you purchased insurance?
ACA fan : I can't afford it / I was already on medicaid.
Did any of your lefty friends actually buy insurance (subsidies)? I'm surrounded by Asians and Latinos and nearly all of them are either hiding in the shadows or were already on medi-cal.
They say 20 million people gained coverage since the passage of ACA, but 2/3 of that is from expanded meidcaid and medicare. Some people merely jumped from existing medicaid or government plans to existing meidcaid.
Can someone explain to me how medicaid is now "insurance"? I'm on medi-cal now, so I'm insured! Even though I pay no premiums and I'm screwed if hospitals don't accept medi-cal patients or offer benefits under expanded medicaid.
Did I mention that I pay no monthly premiums? But I'm insured.
*jumped to expanded medicaid"
The fact that he was "insured" through Medicaid was undoubtedly of great comfort to my dad when he died at 58 in May after spending 2 and a half months with a UTI that escalated into sepsis under the care of no less than 3 bottom-of-the-class welfare doctors (because nobody else takes Medicaid patients).
That's horrible! I'm very sorry to hear it.
You know, I did wonder about the Oregon study. Now I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry to hear that.
Most of the ACA fans are still on their parents insurance.
I'm actually young enough to be on my parents' plan (the limit's 26 right?) They made me get my own plan anyway, the bastards. I should sue.
Jesus fuckin' Christ. Craven pieces of shit.
There just aint enough woodchippers.
Maybe we can all build one big one the size of DC?
Since someone asked, I will tackle the last one.
Your younger cousin is about to graduate from college. She's found a great internship that could really help her career, but it doesn't offer any benefits.
Their answer: she is covered by parents until she is 26.
My answer: Get a real fucking degree, and people will pay you to work after college.
"But after she turns 27, she will be taxed for her insolence. It's all so grand!"
My answer: Get a real fucking degree, and people will pay you to work after college.
Yep. My company has interns this summer. All of them are paid.
Engineering co-ops make decent money before they graduate.
Damn straight!
Most jobs are paid. Do they have insurance?
My answer - its an *internship*. Of course it doesn't offer benefits, outside, you know, actual *job experience*.
And she's 22 now, she should already have her own heath insurance. If she can't afford that then here parents could cover the premiums until she gets a paying job - which should be next year, right? Because she didn't take a *studies major, right?
If her parent's are footing the bill until she's 26 then she needs to re-evaluate the course of her life.
When I was 22 with a worthless degree (international relations) and working a job without insurance I was able to buy coverage that would take car of any significant disease or accident for $36/month. I could afford the one-off $180 of urgent care the few times I got sick. I was able to use the $300/month savings of not having full coverage to get a better degree (computer science) and a real job with amazing benefits.
Kids today can't do that anymore.
Uncle Ted, you have some old talking points. If I could get a job with this $120,000 piece of paper from oberlin, I'd be more than happy to pay far more than my risk so that all the elderly people can have an easier time. Thank FSM I can ride on your brothers plan for another 3 years!
Situation: Uncle Heinrich claims Jewish policy is an "evil, moral train wreck".
You say: Uncle Heinrich, you've gotten ahold of some old talking points. By providing the Jewish diaspora with greater access to affordable, quality rail transportation, Operation Reinhard is helping Jews settle in optimal locations and is strengthening our economy by adding good train conductor jobs!
You then: Report Uncle Heinrich to the Polizei.
Threadwinner.
I agree. This is a beautiful piece of art comparable to Condom Pope.
Concurred.
*standing ovation*
+Eleventy-thousand thumbs up
(Holy shit. You, sir/ma'am win today's internet. Thank you for playing.)
In ancient times when I was a kid the John Birchers used to say that the Soviets would interfere with family relations and have us doing this sort of thing after they took us over.
So the Soviet Union disappeared and we're doing it to ourselves.
I remember seeing a Conservative Book Club ad as kid in the late '60s. It talked about how all the new-fangled sexual promiscuity would lead to venereal diseases and single motherhood and poverty. I laughed at it then, but I have to admit, they were right.
"So the Soviet Union disappeared"
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled...
Sorry, I've been experiencing a horrifying Kafka-esque transformation into Christopher Walken's character in Blast from the Past.
In Soviet America, child teaches parent!
God, the condescension of that example is unbelievable. They can't settle for trying to "get the record straight," they have to make the explanation as condescending as possible.
Uncle Ted, you're only saying that because you're parroting what you've heard! There is no way you have personal experience or considered analysis about the bill and its effects; this wrongthink must be something you picked up from interested parties.
Now, let me clear things up by parroting what I've heard from an interested party.
This shit is Orwellian as fuck.
Nuance.
You say: Don't worry, brother. The ACA means that you will keep your insurance policy while you fill out reams of licensing paperwork, attempt to get the required permits from the appropriate local, state, and federal officials, sit around for months worth of regulatory red tape, before being told that you will not receive a certificate of need because existing local businesses don't want competition.
By the way, my in-laws are hardcore lefties that swallow this kind of bullshit hook, like and sinker. One of the more morbid thoughts I'd have during the occasional family get-together when EVERYTHING MUST BE MADE POLITICAL was about what should be inscribed on their gravestones when they eventually depart this mortal coil. The one that kept popping into my head was...
AWAITING INSTRUCTIONS
I think I'll finally pitch it to the wife this weekend.
*line, not like.
They do like it, though. right?
Awaiting instructions from the healthcare lobby?
Perfect.
The disturbing thing is maybe HHS isn't giving these out spontaneously; maybe they're just filling some demand. I.e., some proggies emailed them: "Hey, I want to propagandize for the State but I don't have talking points. Can you help me out?"
Thinking is hard, can you do it for me!!! Lol.
Nah, the healthcare lobby is worried the the Republicans will shut down the gravy train so they write up talking points to pass to HHS to publish on their website.
I was just wondering where I could find an example of writing that was overwhelmingly condescending on the one hand, and nostalgically reminiscent of Soviet Propaganda on the other. I was going to head over to the Hillary campaign website to see what I could see, but decided at the last moment to drop by HitNRun beforehand. Am I ever glad I did! This HHS talking points document fills the bill, hits the spot, rings the bell!
No, because *that* guy doesn't get invited to family gatherings anymore after the shit-storm he stirred up over the holidays because he wouldn't stop talking about Obamacare.
Pajama Boy in Exile.
I've been trying to buy a policy through the exchange for over a month because it's the only place that I can seem to do that, and even after countless hours on the phone with brain dead government workers we still can't seem to get the deal done. I can buy auto insurance online and close the deal in five minutes, but health insurance which I'm legally required to have is nearly impossible to purchase. Obamacare is making my life a miserable fucking hell, and if anybody tries to defend it while I'm enjoying my vegetarian alternative to a hot dog (I prefer tofurkey brand because they use wheat gluten instead of soy) I'm going to tell them to suck a million dicks.
Maybe it would help if you had a preexisting condition. The worse, the better, I suppose.
I can imagine. We really needed this, to put yet another industry entirely under government supervision.
So far this all seems spottier than my postal service. Which is pretty bad. People send me things in the mail, then ask me if I got it; once in awhile I actually it. Half the time they reroute it to the post office for some reason. Then I show up at the post office to which I was directed and they say they have no record of it. Or worse, they do have a record of it, but it's already been picked up. Yes, the post office has, on multiple occasions, given my mail and care packages to other fucking people. What the hell?
Yeah, we really need that kind of service in healthcare.
Well, there's a reason for this:
thom, I'm afraid you've gotten ahold of some old talking points...
Why measure your own blood pressure with a device you can use for decades, when you can use ACA covered services to pay a doctor hundreds of dollars for a "screening"?
This kind of b.s. is why costs continue to spiral out of control.
You say: Thanks to the ACA, most health plans must now cover recommended preventive services
And the next available appointment for a blood pressure screening is October, 2017, by which time costs will have risen to the point that men* your age** will no longer be recommended for blood pressure checks. So do what everyone else is doing and go to the emergency room and wait for the nurse who takes your blood pressure to say, "Holy shit! Your BPs through the roof. You must be trying to get on the insurance exchange."
* Expendable.
**Double expendable.
*Paging Nick Gillespie, Paging Doctor Gillespie*
You care to take back your article about how we've reached the pinnacle of stupidity and "really, it's going to get better?"
Because ever since you penned that article, I gotta be honest, everything on this site makes it look like some higher power is trying to tell you something, Nick.
"DERP" isn't like other materials; it doesn't obey normal laws of physics,material science, or even cause and effect. It's like "dark matter" or a Black Hole. You might have some mathematics and some theories about why it should be a certain way, but you don't really have any fucking idea. You can't even measure it directly.
Einstein was perfectly correct: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
The fed wants you to believe that without them you'd be dead. They are the ones that create the tools and the medicines to deal with tumors, that without them would grow bigger than your head.
You're too stupid to understand, so go back in your shed, if it weren't for top men no one would have even invented a hospital bed.
So remember the day of independence, for through force you will all be the state's dependents, and they will be sure to screw your future decenfants, and will exterminate those not wearing their slave to the gov't pendants.
Situation: Uncle Ted claims Obamacare is a train wreck and has cost jobs.
You say: Uncle Ted, you've gotten ahold of some old talking points. With greater access to affordable, quality health insurance, the Affordable Care Act is helping individuals and strengthening our economy!
Uncle Ted: Never stops slapping you.
Brian, Uncle Ted would simply be returning the violence to the individual that is advocating the gov't use violence against others by mandating coverages, implementing extortion schemes, and manipulating the market and so on.
Maybe when folks advocate the gov't force people to do things against their will by violence if they were to refuse; should take their threats seriously and defend themselves from such threats. Have you thrown your slipper at a "conservative" that advocated protracted conflict while sitting in their home?
Folks don't face consequenses when they advocate thievery and violence. If someone robbed their neighbor, they would indeed face consequenses for their desire to use violence against their neighbor. Yet, folks like liberals or what have you advocate force be used, and complain about libertarians and how they are evil and don't care about people. They are holier then thou, and can advocate top men force people to do what they think is right.
Stop hiding behind "top men", and go out there and try it your damned self.
As the family dog is gnawing on you, while wishing you had the gov't ban dogs, I doubt you would likely participate in thievery again.
What do they have against uncles?
It's always uncles.
Who writes this stuff? HHS is obviously speaking only to the short-bus crowd.
An excellent demonstration of the kind of brainwashed zombies that progressives are. Mindlessly repeating government-issues talking points. Though that is barely different from what they do normally, which is mindlessly repeat whatever they heard in the prog media, like it was the gospel truth and anyone who should take issue with it is an insane right-wing retard.
And more expensive for every tax payer.
Ultimately, it's a redistribution scheme.
"Situation: Uncle Ted claims Obamacare is a train wreck and has cost jobs.
You say: Uncle Ted, you've gotten ahold of some old talking points. With greater access to affordable, quality health insurance, the Affordable Care Act is helping individuals and strengthening our economy!"
Ha! Nothing like responding to alleged "talking points" with literal, overt, pre-packaged talking points!
This makes me incredibly sad.
The propaganda operation is overt now and it's full steam ahead. Either join the Borg Collective, or be cast aside by mainstream society. The only question worth asking anymore is how much more of this are we going to take from our rulers?