Obamacare is in trouble. With just two weeks to go before Election Day, the White House announced Monday that premiums on the healthcare law's state-level exchanges will increase by an average of 22 percent next year.

Premiums on the federal exchanges will jump an average of 25 percent.

Yikes...

All this comes, of course, after three major healthcare companies almost entirely pulled out of the exchanges because they said they couldn't afford all the sick people who were signing up for coverage.

As a result of these dropouts, 1 in 5 Americans looking to buy insurance on the exchanges have only one healthcare provider to choose from.

That's right -- one.

And while next year's premium hikes will be somewhat moderated by the often very generous subsidies Obamacare provides, there's still a sense out there that this isn't just a bump in the road but instead a preview of dark days to come for healthcare reform.

Of course, Republicans screaming about a death spiral are being disingenuous -- they've never had a healthcare reform plan and still don't have one 5 years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law -- but there is some truth to the Obamacare freak out.

For all the good things it does -- like do away with discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions -- the law still keeps in place the for-profit health insurance system, the root cause of most of our problems.

The most likely scenario to come out of this latest batch of Obamacare bad news is a few tweaks here and there, but that's not going to do much in the long run.

We have two choices here: we can either create a public option to inject some real competition into the market place, or we can work towards single-payer, i.e. Medicare-for-all.

Repeal is not an option, not when Obamacare is already in place and so many people have benefited and continue to benefit from it.

We can, however, use it as baseline to move forward.

But are Republicans willing to accept this reality?

That's the question.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... No Show Tonight - Studio Maintenance (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Community Square  

 "Republican and Democratic platforms/Please vote and pass this along."
  Posted by LongBeachUnplugged.

 

 "Prop 61 in California - NO POSITION - Really?"
  Posted by jggrieco.

 

 "The Humans Rights Watch and ACLU report"
  Posted by DdC.

 

 "Republicans Plead With Voters to Help Them Continue Their Seditious and Treasonous Ways"
  Posted by PhilfromOhio.

 

To upload an image click on the "add new blog post" link over at the community.

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

In for Thom today, Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel News Co-Op.

 

Hour One: Why Trump is BAD for Labor
- Joshua Armstead, Unite Here 23 (AFL-CIO)  

Article: "'Angry protesters' to storm D.C. Trump hotel grand opening" by Paul Bedard.

Article: "Picket Planned For Trump Hotel Grand Opening Wednesday" by Metro Council AFL-CIO.

 

Article: "Donald Trump plans to cut the ribbon on his D.C. hotel. Protesters will be there too." by Rebecca Cooper.

Article: "Trump's Donors Paid For His Jetliner, His Hotels And Now, His Books" by S.V. Date.

Article: "Trump's Got A New Hotel Venture, But You Didn't Hear About It From Him" by Jason Linkins.

Video: Donald J. Trump was live - at Trump Tower New York 24 October 2016.

Article: "Ballot Measures overview" by Ballotpedia.

Article: "Vote "NO" on shady, not smart, solar amendment | Editorial" by Sun Sentinel.

Article: "Two more Broward voters report ballots missing medical marijuana amendment" by Rafael Olmeda.

Article: "Single Provider: 5 States Will Have Only 1 Obamacare Insurance Provider" by Terence P. Jeffrey.

Hour Two: What Does It Take to Survive Where You Live?
- RJ Eskow, The Zero Hour/Campaign for America's Future    

Article: "What Does It Take to Survive Where You Live?" by Richard Eskow.

Article: "Rising Student Debt Places Living Wage Even Farther Out of Reach: Report" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "Waiting for the Payoff: How Low Wages and Student Debt Keep Prosperity Out of Reach" by People's Action Institute (pdf).

Site: Strike Debt!

Quote: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy.

 

Article: "N.J. public television to undergo name change, cuts in staff" by Peggy McGlone, June 07, 2011.

Article: "Holder admits megabanks are 'too big to jail'" by Darrell Delamaide, Mar 7, 2013.

Site: District Sentinel.

Article: "States Repped By Energy Science-Denying Republicans Leading Way on Wind Power" by Sam Knight.

Article: "America is an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic, university study finds" by Cheryl K. Chumley.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief 

Article: "Carter orders Pentagon to suspend collection of CA Guard bonuses" by Loree Lewis.

Article: "Trump gets political at hotel opening" by Justin Duckham.

Article: "Playbook 26 October 2016" by Anna Palmer (includes who is campaigning where).

Article: "Renewables overtake coal as top global electricity source" by Luke Vargas.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Hour Three: Carbon Tax...Where Do We Start?
- Vien Truong, Green for All/The Dream Corps      

Article: "The Network Journal - For Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins It's Easy Being Green" by Ann Brown (68% of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal plant).

Article: "Themes and Findings from a Survey of African-Americans on Climate and Clean Energy", October 28, 2015.

Article: "That's 4 straight debates without a single question on climate change. Good job, everyone." by Brad Plumer.

Article: "Clean Power Plan" by Wikipedia.

 

Article: "Federal Election Commission" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Campaign Finance Watchdog: Both Sides Are Breaking the Rules in This Election" by Russ Choma.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "Tuberculosis Outbreak In Alabama: 3 Dead And 47 Positive Cases Reported With Numbers Rising" by Manasi Gandhi.

Article: "What Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton have promised to do to Obamacare" by Tom Kludt.

Article: "Iraq-Bound Troops Confront Rumsfeld Over Lack of Armor" by Eric Schmitt.

Article: "If Donald Trump wins debate, stocks likely to tank" by Heather Long.

Article: "Economists: A Trump win would tank the markets" by Ben White.

Article: "Americans Vastly Underestimate Wealth Inequality, Support 'More Equal Distribution Of Wealth': Study" by William Alden.

Article: "Amendment 69 in Colorado: What you need to know about ColoradoCare" by The Denver Post.

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

I'll be talking to Kenneth Lipp of The Daily Beast about AT&T's Spying on Americans for Profit

 

Plus Ian Vandewalker of the Brennan Center will tell us abut his new report, "Election 2016 Spending".

 

And Adam Hodge, DNC Communications Director, will be calling in.

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...