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| Census Survey Revisions Mask Health Law Effects |
| 2014-04-15 |
| The Census Bureau, the authoritative source of health insurance data for more than three decades, is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama's health care law in the next report, due this fall, census officials said. The changes are intended to improve the accuracy of the survey, being conducted this month in interviews with tens of thousands of households around the country. But the new questions are so different that the findings will not be comparable, the officials said. An internal Census Bureau document said that the new questionnaire included a "total revision to health insurance questions" and, in a test last year, produced lower estimates of the uninsured. Thus, officials said, it will be difficult to say how much of any change is attributable to the Affordable Care Act and how much to the use of a new survey instrument. Iris I. Burnell, a tax preparer in Washington, says she has been talking to clients about the tax implications of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.Tax Preparers' New Role: Health-Coverage AdvisersAPRIL 14, 2014 "We are expecting much lower numbers just because of the questions and how they are asked," said Brett J. O'Hara, chief of the health statistics branch at the Census Bureau. With the new questions, "it is likely that the Census Bureau will decide that there is a break in series for the health insurance estimates," says another agency document describing the changes. This "break in trend" will complicate efforts to trace the impact of the Affordable Care Act, it said. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #4 ...expanded mission statement - shut down all 'free speech, assemblies and associations' that are a threat to the Permanent Party? Not to mention actually partisan canvasing of citizens during the election cycle. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-04-15 19:03 |
| #3 The real conundrum is the IRS. Fewer tax-payers each year. Fewer [working Americans] now than during the evil Bushitler presidency. Highest number of IRS agents and reviewers in the history of the agency, but still not able to get the job done. Constantly bitching and moaning about resources and manpower. What am I missing ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-04-15 16:51 |
| #2 Lies from top to bottom, just like the old Soviet bureaucracy. When it all goes Tango-Uniform so many will be perplexed and shocked, not understanding 'the truth will set you free', but then again, they really don't want the truth. They want their fantasies. Hard to have a workable government and society predicated so deeply upon lies. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-04-15 16:42 |
| #1 I plan on being less than truthful during any subsequent surveys. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2014-04-15 13:37 |