Obama says health care law is working

Seeking to regroup from his health care law's disastrous rollout, US President Barack Obama has insisted that the sweeping overhaul is working and warned Republican critics that he would fight any efforts to strip away its protections.

'We're not repealing it as long as I'm president,' Obama said during a health care event on Tuesday at the White House.

'If I have to fight another three years to make sure this law works, then that's what I'll do.'

Earlier on Tuesday, the administration released a 50-state report saying that nearly 1.5 million people were found eligible for Medicaid during October.

As website problems depressed sign-ups for subsidised private coverage, that safety-net program for low-income people saw a nearly 16 per cent increase in states that have agreed to expand it, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The White House is trying to cast the health care law in a positive light after the first two months of enrolment for the centrepiece insurance exchanges were marred with technical problems.

With the majority of problems with the sign-up website resolved, by the accounting of administration officials, Obama and his team plan to spend much of December trying to remind Americans why the administration fought for the law in the first place.

'We believe that in America, nobody should have to worry about going broke because somebody in their family or they got sick,' Obama said, flanked by people the White House says have benefited from the law.

Despite Obama's sunny presentation, officials are furiously working behind the scenes to rectify an unresolved issue with enrolment data that could become a significant headache after the first of the year.

Insurers say much of the enrolment data they're receiving is practically useless, meaning some consumers might not be able to get access to benefits on January 1, the date their coverage is scheduled to take effect.

source: skynews.com.au

Stop being so stupid, US voters tweet

The roiling debate over the US government shutdown is extending to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as fed-up Americans turn to social media to register their disgust with federal lawmakers for shutting down the government.

Those posting pulled no punches, calling members of congress 'immature', 'stupid' and 'idiots' who need to 'grow up'. There were a few attaboys, too, by self-described red-state conservatives who cheered on the Republican leadership's unwavering stance against President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, even if it meant suddenly pulling the pay cheques of about 800,000 federal workers and threatening popular federal programs.

But mostly, tweeters said they couldn't understand why a compromise between the two sides seemed so elusive.

'(hash)DearCongress, You should not be getting paid. In fact, you all should be fired!' tweeted Bruce Swedal, a 46-year-old Denver real estate agent who says he is worried about what the shutdown might do to home sales if federally backed loans dry up.

The public outcry playing out on social media sites this week is a new twist.

During the last shutdown of government operations, in 1995, angry Americans would have had to look up their congressman's address and sit down and write an old-fashioned letter or email. But with the advent of Twitter, popular hashtags like (hash)governmentshutdown and the Today show's (hash)DearCongress let voters log their complaints to all 532 members of congress at once - provided they stay within the allotted 140 characters or less.

Voters also weighed in on the more humorous side of things, offering pick-up lines that federal workers could use in bars, some of which were advertising cheap drink specials throughout the day to those furloughed.

'The library is closing, mind if I check you out instead?' one person offered with the hashtag (hash)ShutdownPickupLines.

Added another tweeter: 'It's not like we have to go to work tomorrow.'

For their part, legislators used Facebook and Twitter to reiterate long-held talking points, further angering dissenting voters.

Republicans said Obama's healthcare program would be too catastrophic to allow, while Democrats accused Republicans of sending the government into a free fall to appease a small minority.

House Speaker John Boehner's post urging Senate Democrats to back down earned more than 13,000 'likes' on Facebook and an additional 13,000-plus comments from voters, either hailing the Ohio Republican as a hero or calling him everything from a 'crybaby' to a 'terrorist'.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's Facebook post blaming Republicans for the shutdown earned fewer than 2200 'likes' and 1400 posts.

Meanwhile, federal programs used Twitter to announce that they would no longer be responding to tweets or other social media posts until the shutdown ends. Even the first lady, Michelle Obama, said her own personal tweets would be limited.

One Twitter account, which for two years has been providing detailed updates on NASA's Voyager 2 program, offered this less-than-comforting post before going dark: 'Due to government shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account. Farewell, humans. Sort it out yourselves.'

Swedal, the Denver real estate agent, said in a telephone interview that he doesn't think his tweets will make a difference. In the end, he says, politicians are likely to do whatever they want.

'But at least I feel better,' he said.

source: skynews.com.au