host: coming up, we will play you a bit from the speakers holiday message. right now we are joined by sue keenan for a discussion on what has turned out to be a news the holiday week when it comes to implementing the new health-care law. walk us through what took place over the past 48 hours and it comes to health care enrollment. millions of people came to the website of the past few days. it did not crash. it did something called cueing. if too many people are on, it puts them on a list. so there were times where there

were so many people that they did a waiting room. those people could have back. they did not get the purple air we wereerror messages seeing in october. it worked pretty well. why is becausen they were big deadlines this week. guest: yes. last night was the deadline for most people. you can still get health care coverage all the way through march but if you want it on january 1, last night was the deadline, except they put out an announcement that if you were genuinely stuck on the website, had tried to make the deadline, there will be a know it chronic footprint of whether you were there or not and you got ,verwhelmed by the website which was not the world's best website, then you have more time and will work if you.

idea.not have an somewhat case-by-case. we do not know how many millions of people ended up having a problem. how does the process work? guest: the call center is off today. 10,000 old working until midnight tonight. the call center does give christmas day off. tomorrow it will be back. if you had a problem, you can call the website. just announced this yesterday. they put a post on the website it self. they sent out an announcement. the do not have all of the mechanics. the insurance industry people we talked to yesterday that it is not a wide open door. it is for people that got caught up on the website, but i do not know what that number is. stats about the number of

people that have visited the website this week. centers for medicare and medicaid services put out an announcement that as of monday, 850,000 visits. visits overn site the weekend. do we know what this translates to in terms of the number of ?eople signing up ya guest: we will not know for a while that way how many people signed up. we know the numbers have gone up. thatdent obama did say at point it was roughly over a million. plus a couple of millions and medicaid exchanges. that was last friday. we know we had millions of

people. that is just the federal exchange. that includes new york and california. they have given up this in pieces of numbers. new york had 25,000 in one day. i do not remember all the numbers. i may be rattling off numbers from memory. you may want to check. there are hundreds of thousands that have signed up. getting into serious numbers. host: the goals before the website, the administration looking for over 3 million sign- ups? something like that. the big numbers in march looking for 7 million. that is a member of that basically came out of the budget cost. this was a budget number.

we think this many people will do this and will cost us this much. it became the policy goal. the white house had to wiggle a little bit recently. from a political view on the they are stuck with that number. this look shaky. could they get them, yes. host: if you want to talk about the health care act, give us a call. the phone lines are open. we actually have a special line for this segment for those that are recently enrolled. we want to hear about your experience on the website, especially if you went through the process or try to go through the process this week or last week when we are talking about the large volume of all.

also some of the state exchanges. if you are recently enrolled, --t number -- 202 -- 583 5883. we talked about pushing back the deadlines a little bit this month on the 15th to the 23rd to the 20 fourth. what is the multiple push backs of the deadline doing for the insurer who had to make this happen on the back end? thought you got up early on christmas morning, i would not want to work for an insurance company. bureaucratic red tape. sure you aremake on the list of people that should have the insurance card by january one.

there are lots of lands and insurers. the website was having trouble. these are the companies you are familiar with that are in the exchanges. headache. that is why they cannot make the deadline. that is why they originally wanted this number 15 to straighten this out. host: do they get a say in the deadline? did they say we can still make this happen? guest: i think they are saying we are doing the best we can to make this happen and not promising january 1 will be a completely flawless state. talk about the insurance and when it starts. there is a difference between signing up and paying your first payment, reich? guest: there is a little wiggle room there, too.

if you signed up at midnight last night, you are covered january 1. there are variations on state deadlines. you need to check your own states. basically they are asking insurers. they have to do invoicing and mapping of. it is complicated. giving most people until january 10 to pay. check with your carrier. later, some are earlier. yesterday,ed up coverage is january 1 and have until january 10 to pay. talking with joanne keenan, politicos health care editor. one of several pieces that you

wrote yesterday, this one early in the morning, final countdown to midnight. there has been a couple of more pieces that you have written since then. to take your calls and questions on the affordable care act implementation effort that has been going on. we have a line set up specific before folks that were recently enrolled. bruce. line waiting is he is an independent. thank you for joining us. thank you very much. i wanted to make read comments. i tried to sign up one of program first opened. i decided to wait and give the to fixr people a chance it. i am rolled yesterday and spent a lot of time, but most of the

time was shopping for a plan, not signing up. looking at the dental part was not but i will do that later. i said i did not have a computer so i will sign you up. overall, i think it was a good experience. host: how many hours would you say you spent on it this week? yesterday i started at 9:30 and data on until -- stayed on until 9:00. i was also doing other things. i was working and having to stop and go to things. it was really hard.

i was probably on the site for five hours. i took an insurance course in college so i was very keen on what i wanted. i went over every plan benefit. a lot of time was spent doing that. then when i started doing my sister-in-law and her husband, i of there's.nd probably an hour. does the same like a normal amount of time that people using the system are on it for? guest: i do not know what a normal amount of time is but we do know the error rate -- it sounds like a normal consumer, sounds like he knew what he needed and would check the bronze and silver. there are different kinds of health care plans. those of us who get insurance through our jobs on my have

three choices and i have trouble figuring out which is the best choice for my family. and you get on the computer with the new options, particularly for people who did not have insurance before, the insurance market has changed. it is not a simple shopping experience. do you mind telling us, were you someone who had your plan canceled? were you insured before, did you get a better deal on the site? caller: i had a major health care -- i do not know if i should use their name on the air but -- guest: you had a plan. caller: my wife and i bought it. -- oh,a high-deductible shoot. guest: catastrophic plan? yes, and our deductible

is $5,000. we paid into it for 20 years but never used it. as we age, the cost kept going higher and higher, pushing $1000 a month. about two years ago we said the heck with this we will pay for our own health care, so we just dropped it. not having health care as you age gets more scary, so i chose yesterday the silver plan in the middle, the high-deductible silver plan, and that seems to be -- it is simple. people will look at that. it is a very simple plan. you pay your deductible and you do not have to worry about coinsurance and this and that and the other. i did not like the bronze plans. they lift -- they left a little much to the imagination to me. the silver plan seemed better. host: we don't know anything about the silver, bronze.

i should explain that. silvercover the least, - covers more, bronze covers the least. most people did what this caller did, and we do not have enough numbers, from enough states, to know if that is going to hold up when we get the final numbers. but we have hints that that is the one that people like. host: appreciate you sharing your experience. we have the special line folks who have used the website and enrolled or tried to enroll recently on the website. the website also has been giving updates through its own twitter page. page ands own twitter talks about the changes and .eadlines noting in one of the tweet yesterday, those who could not get through but started their application would have help and

be allowed to continue their work -- like with medicaid and medicare, there is a system for people who try to enroll but could not, considered on a case-by-case basis, talking about some of the work that might continue after the december 24 deadline. and january 1 is -- if you get on tomorrow, you get covered. if you get on in mid-january, that is until february. then you can get on and get covered in march, get covered through april. the deadline for someone who did not get insurance, that did not go away. the january 1 deadline went away. people have three more months, and the government will be getting people -- trying very hard to get people to sign up by then because there are not enough right now. line forald, all our republicans, good morning.

you are on the "washington journal." caller: thanks. i don't mean to be bashing anybody in particular on christmas day. merry christmas, everybody. but where was the press the past three years and prior to the election echo it seems like you guys were not doing your job in any way whatsoever, figuring this thing out, when reporting to the people of this country what this whole thing was about. how it was going to affect us. we still don't know. i get my insurance through my employer and i am hearing about all kinds of things about what is going to happen to us. you are unaffected. if you get insurance through your employer, you are pretty much unaffected. the vast majority of people who get insurance through their are pretty much unaffected. if it is an iffy plan, you may season changes. if your insurance went up this

year -- mine has gone up just about every year for the last 20 years. so you cannot say my insurance went up this year because -- insurance prices have been rising since there has been insurance. lessyears more, some years . in the 1990's it slowed down a little bit, in the 2000's it went way out of control. but basically the people who are getting insurance on the job, the changes you are going to see should not be that traumatic -- that dramatic. you may pay more, but that is a decision your employer will make, and you may end up paying less. workplaceends in the post 2014 are not that different. you get more preventive care, if you have a 25-year-old, they can stay on your plan. it is very hard to tease out

what prices or cost shifts because of the decisions employers make and what is happening because of care costs have been going up. host: do you want to respond to the comments that donald has made about the press? i did not expect the cancellation numbers to be as big as they were, but we wrote many many stories about essential benefits and how plans had to meet certain requirements. i think that the last few months, because the website -- six people got through on day one. it was a disaster. what were the stories the last two muncy echo a complete -- of the last two months? a complete catechism. then the plan cancellations. a the website was just wonderful consumer experience

and you get a letter from your insurance saying this product will not be available and you can go to the website -- 40% to 50% of people who got plan cancellations are eligible for subsidies. some of those people are better off. some of them are worse off. some of them got a cancellation letter but your insurance said i can offer you this. some prices went up. if you get a subsidy, your price probably went down. i have spoken to people whose prices went way, way up, but there are also people who were paying a lot of money for a pretty skimpy plan, and they will be better off. ,ost: a question from twitter living no limits. "what other parts of the health-care law have to be implemented or have not been fully implemented at this point?" almost all of the information on january 1. the cadillac plans, which are sort of a comprehensive

expensive plan that most of us don't have, that is either 2017 or 2018. pretty much everything else will be implemented a week from today. some of it, things like preventive care -- some of the benefits people are getting they do not even realize that. if you take a kid to the doctor and something for then to that used to pay 20 bucks for is now free, i don't know if people are connecting that -- that is part of the health law. seniors have been getting help with drug costs. this is going to be a bumpy year, and 2015 may be a be year, too. i was not prepared -- i was not prepared for millions of cancellation plans. the cbo was not. they saw a 2 million net shrinkage of the private, individual market. host: projection, not partisan. 10st: it does not tell me

people went out, eight people lived in. we still do not really know how big it was because there is no central repository of every health plan has to write a letter to me saying i canceled 300 people this week. they are estimates and they are across-the-board. they go from a few hundred thousand to 14 million. january 1, was of this will be a demented. -- will be implemented. guest: some new conditions will get added. the a ceo's, which people do not understand -- accountable care organizations. co's. >> it will be interesting to watch, the favorable/unfavorable ratings of the affordable care

act. here is kaiser stanley foundation's polling on favorable/unfavorable ratings. the orange line that has been rising over that has year is the unfavorable rating, ended in december. act viewedble care favorably is the other line. waiting now on the phone is dead from new albany, indiana, on our line for folks -- waiting now on the phone is ed from new albany, indiana. thank you for c-span. i watch it quite frequently. to set the stage, my wife and i are both 62 years old presently, and i am at work -- i am a retired chemical engineer. because ofn 2008

some medical problems. i have a bad heart, i am diabetic, and my wife is a polio survivor. in 2008 we signed up for what was called the healthy indiana plan in the state of indiana. excellent plan will stop your premiums were based on your ability to pay. in some regards, this is what the health-care program that mr. is supposed toed reflect. somewhat it does. however, because we are going on to social security and because mike pence, our governor, decided to cut back on requirements for the health-care indiana plan, we were going to have to enroll in the new national healthcare program. indiana, we have to go through the national healthcare exchange will stop i started that process on october 13, and i got into

some sort of loop that made it almost -- it was impossible for me to get out of. the people at healthcare.gov did work with me, but a lot of it was out of their control, too. i wrote an appeal letter to try to explain my situation and what i thought was causing the problem. either, sonot help finally on november 13, i called -- i'm sorry, on december 13, i called and said today i have got to get health care, i have to get signed up or else. i have to find another that my wifelan and i can be a part of, which i had found one in humana in louisville, kentucky. it is only about five miles from where we live, and their bronze plan will cost me, out of the

marketplace, probably $500 more in the most expensive silver plan would in the marketplace. anyhow, the people at healthcare.gov worked with me and got me to a point where i was signed up. they submitted the information to and from, which, by the way, was the only health-care company that was offered in indiana. -- in foy county, indiana. there was no competition in our state. some -- anthem had the only policy. host: are you set to be covered on january 1? caller: on december 13 i was to give all the information. as said by christmas i would have a packet of information from the insurance company, but

i have yet to receive that packet of information. we are starting to get to a point here where i do need coverage january 1, but i am still sitting here -- i think i am covered but i am not sure. i am hoping that we will be. guest: i think you should call anthem. tellingwhat the hhs is people. if you have enrolled and you have not gotten your call yet -- your card yet, i would start tomorrow. they are answering today. if you have documentation and the e-mails and you paid, you're probably in their records. you have to get the information from healthcare.gov to the insurer. it is not a flawless process. you may be in the system and it is going to come in the mail tomorrow, but you have medical thes and i would call

carrier, the insurer, and see that you are in their bank. your comments about the lack of competition, it varies across the country. we looked at it state-by-state, and we have also seen some studies by various think tanks. states that have a lot of competition out are having a fair amount of competition. more rural areas that did not have a lot of competition, they tend to still be -- the government is trying to do something to create multistate so that there will be an alternative in every state. they will not be in every state the first year. i don't remember whether indiana is or not. they should spread so you will have more alternatives in the future, although you may have found something that is going to work for you very well and you will not need in advance. midland, texas, on our line for independents.

your online with joanne kenen. president obama symbolically signed up with the washington, d.c., plan. that wasbroad plan $400 a month. i was really stunned. about 1000 employees. we have insurance. my monthly premium is like $100, about $125 per month. ishospitalization deductible -- the one thing about our plan, we do not have maternity because 10% of our employees are women. i am just wondering, with the new health-care plan, we will probably have to take on maternity. that will probably cause our rates to go up. how is thatndering

type of situation going to affect certain company like ours , a freight company, who does not have a lot of female employees and now we will have to probably take on maternity. cause the other 90% house rates to go up. if taking on maternity causes your rates to go up, it will not cause them to go up that much. there will have to be more mental health coverage for people. and you cover more -- i don't know if your company covers spouses or just a worker, but if it is family coverage as an option, there are people who -- you have a mostly male workforce, if their spouses are covered, there may be more people needing that than they need.

you may be thinking i don't want to have to cover a 30-year-old having a baby, but they will also be covering a 60-year-old with cancer. that is what insurance is about, having a people -- a pool of people who are covered. younger people subsidize older people, and that is the way it works. what are you going to go from $100 a month to $400 a month because of maternity? i would be stunned if that happens. host: the president signed up this week for -- guest: somebody signed him up, yeah. host: cbs news reported that president obama could not use the website to sign up for obamacare. they did not let us watch. they did not let the press watch. there was no photo up, i just said by the way he did it. his personal information is not kept in the databanks, the

normal databanks that the d.c. exchange and the federal government would have. if you or i signed up -- so they cannot process the president like they process you or me. secondly, he is not supposed to be -- he is not going to fit into the normal checkboxes. he is the president. care. other health it was a symbolic thing. he has plenty of health care. he has white house physicians, he can go to walter reed. yes, he did it as a symbolic thing. he said back in 2010 he would do it as a symbolic thing. i don't know that we can -- whoever was on the call line or the ipad or who at -- or however they did it, i would guess they -- that thishe six is 1600 pennsylvania avenue. bob from fayetteville,

tennessee, on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question. i was wondering if the people going onto medicaid are aware that they could possibly lose , -- assets is coming in and out, so i cannot hear the question entirely, but if you're --ing for tests for medicaid i am guessing what you're asking. dedicate is the program that the federal government does for the poor. the asset question comes in when people are older and needing nursing health care, and there are certain assets that do not count.

if you got $3 million in the bank, they will not pay for your nursing on this. or other kinds of long-term care. there is a spend down requirements. that is not new to the health law, and that is not specific. there are variations of those rules state to state. there are variations of the protected assets and there are variations in how the states enforce it, but it is not new. medicaid is meant for low income people. if you're talking about the spends down that exists in terms of getting into medicaid now, it is all income based and i am not sure of all the asset rules, but it is not meant for health -- for wealthy people. you can get a subsidy. if you own a nice house and you are a middle-class class person but you still have an income, below a certain level you can get a subsidy in the private exchanges now, in the health care private lands -- private plans. i apologize if i am not

answering exactly what you wanted to know because i cannot hear it perfectly. host: bob, did that answer your question? caller: the reason i am asking this is because it was reported there was a lady in wisconsin that had a health plan that was canceled. when she went in to check on the new health plan, because of her income, she was pushed into medicaid. so i just don't think that's right. guest: wisconsin had a medicaid plan that was actually -- i don't know if this is an individual case -- wisconsin, medicaid is for people with low income. wisconsin did not expand medicaid, which they had an option of doing. everybody --aw, the subsidies are available for

the lower working middle-class people. about half the states did not go for that option, and once the sticker in court -- once the supreme court made it optional -- they did their own solution, which they are taking some of the federal money, taking some of the people over the poverty line, putting them in the exchanges where they can get federal subsidies. if you are too poor for a federal subsidy, then the law does not allow subsidies over -- below a certain income. it allows medicaid. she can either pay for insurance herself if she wants -- no one is forced to go into medicaid -- there are strategy -- there are for catastrophic options people who have the money, or she can go into medicaid. -- there'sthing from nothing stopping her from buying a plan on her own. if she wants to subsidize the plan, her choice will be medicaid.

florida is waiting in this morning. line, ofndent on the people who enrolled or are trying to enroll in the of care.gov exchange. good morning to you. caller: good morning. she just hit on a good point there. it took them about three weeks on the website, so it is a task. , in theet enrolled silver plan. he could barely pay to his premium site, and the did not bubbles are like six grand. playll not even be able to -- to pay his the dockable's. that is the problem. i know nobody wants to talk about medicaid, but in florida they accepted federal money. so you have hundreds of thousands of people around here that the website just may tell theyo go to medicare, and do not even have the money for

medicare. we are looking at hundreds of thousands of people that this program was supposed to help. the rich do not need it. they have the gold plan, it but what are we going to do? how are we going to make these states take the money and get the poor health insurance? like you said, they can get a premium on insurance policies if they want to. they do not have the money to pay for it. that is my question. guest: yes, it is medicaid that is optional. medicare remains for ever one over 65. medicaid was originally in the law passed in 2010. the supreme court said optional for the states, and he pointed out that florida is not that florida is one of the states that did not expand medicaid. florida governor scott is a republican and supported it. he is a very strong critic of the health law and does not like obamacare, but he actually said there is federal money for me to cover poor people in the state and i want to take it. the state legislature did not agree.

there are a few republican governors -- seven or eight of -- , not even a few anymore kasich, brewer, and scott wanted to. i do not member the exact number of people in florida who fell into the gap where they are too poor for the exchanges or to get a subsidy. too much a little bit money to get into the old medicaid. it is mostly for families with kids. it is very limited. there is this gap of people who are really quite poor and are not getting anything when people who are less poor are getting something. it seems like a million people. in florida, it is about 4 million. it may be too high for florida. i am not that far off. states can still decide to change that.

many of them will do that until after the 2014 elections. virginia might because they just had a democrat elected. host: how many states are we talking about that have not? believe the number was 24 that had not, but -- like iowa just decided, so they might be 25. tennessee is still considering it. virginia thinks will now that mcauliffe was elected. pennsylvania is talking about it. host: american hero joe writes in -- guest: medicaid is free for most populations. some of the borderline people on the higher end of the income scale, they do not have monthly

premiums. some of the states you have to pay a small amount for your medication. someof the states have -- of it is discretionary to states to help pay for some things that differ from states. you do not have to pay to get assetedicaid, and the test comes usually in the long-term care setting. from simi valley, california, on our lines for republicans. caller: good morning. merry christmas. i have two points. i am a small business owner, and i cover about five families. i pay the premiums 100%. forced of the law, i am to pay for three people that are between the ages of 21 and 26, and i have to pay for them 100%, even though they are in the workforce with other jobs. i am actually subsidizing other

businesses. about the 5stion is million people that have been dropped from coverage, whatever the number is. you would have to assume some percentage of those people are in a hospital right now being covered by a doctor, and what happens to them on january 1 if the hospital they are in or the doctors they are being covered by is no longer in their plan? guest: that is two separate and really good questions. if you are a small business owner, under the law with five employees, you do not have to do anything. -- the exchange for individuals, there is a thing called shop, the small business exchange. first year, there is not much there. go through a broker. some of the features that would make it more attractive, letting workers have more choices on

their plans etc. of -- instead of using them all. they could not pull it together. statesappening in some -- not in too many. you may find that on the small business exchange next year, there is more in it for you. will not be you penalized if some of your employers -- some of your employees end up that you are doing more than required by law and more than small business owners. if you have to cover more people, it is going to go up. whether you are required to oner them, it depends whether you are grandfathered or not. it is a technical issue. if they have another job offer, you have to check with your broker or however you get your health care. in a grandfathered plan versus a non-grandfathered

n --i went through this with my employer -- do they have to continue covering or not? atdepends on the option work, and yes, i am still covered. you may decide that you want to cover 95% said of 100% because of the additional costs. you may talk to your workers about let's change the plan a little bit. you have more flexibility as a small-business owner because you are not mandated. if you have under 50 people you're doing it because you want to do it. probably the one reason you have loyal workers if they stick with you, it is probably how you compensate your workforce, at is why they work their bank. host: steve in florida, an independent on that line that we set up for folks who recently enrolled or tried to enroll. caller: merry christmas to

everybody. first of all, i was going to talk about my plan, but then i jean say medicaid is free. -- medicare is free. guest: medicare is not. medicare you pay editable. -- you pay a deductible. caller: medicaid is not free, ma'am. we are talking about does an individual have to pay to get in. the federal government and the state government pays. caller: we can understand it is not free. it costs money. we are putting millions of people more on it. you do not say that. the coverage of this obamacare has been horrible.

you are sticking up for mr. youa with his big lie that can keep your insurance come you can keep your doctor. many of us cannot, and now that we do not have insurance, we cannot get on that line out and when we do get on that line, my primus was $6,000. my deductible -- my premium was $6,000 -- my deductible, i'm sorry. that was up $3000. this is not affordable, and i cannot stand the press sticking up for this plan. instead of being a repeater, you should be a reporter. you sound like you were -- caller, joanne kenen works for politico. you can check out all the work they have done on this subject at politico.com. you can follow joanne kenen on twitter. #joannekenen. had a plan canceled

and the prices went way up. the government announced the other day you have some new options and you may want to look into catastrophic. it will not be available on every county and it may not help you personally. i have talked to other families like yours that had their the constables -- their delectables and premiums go up and they are not happy. from 3000 to $13,000. they are very unhappy. there are people finding this to not help them. there are other people who are finding things that they could not afford before. there are definitely winners and losers here. medicare is a whole different issue. medicare is more solvent now than it was a number of years ago. right.st fund -- you are the trust fund has a few more years. congress has been comple .

. that we have agreed on on medicare. some health law provisions, some trends in health care delivered and how they spend their money in a recession. the rate of growth has gone down. it is not a solved problem. nobody in washington or the country thinks it is a solved problem, but that is different from what happened in the exchanges. those who had canceled plans and it went through the roof such as this caller, you should check into this catastrophic option is available in your area. it is a high deductible plan. he covers preventive care and gives you a few free primary care visits a year, and it costs less. but not everybody is happy with this law. host: let's get a quick call in in texas.n an independent caller.

job, i have issues on my job. i get paid every two weeks. it is the idea of helping other people. when i amre than that just out doing crazy things. the bad part about it is the different people that want to and keep other people them from having health care. it is a shame where we would rather have people be without health care than pete will -- then care for the people who cannot have health care. people that have good health they might be in a position where they need health care. the same thing they fight

against they are going to need one day. that is what i called in about. amazed the money people make that they throw away , and they could put that money to good use. guest: i think what has been upsetting people about this law, the irritant particularly from day one, is the mandate. people being told they have to do something by the government. that has been controversial. the democrats don't like that. you are saying you feel like it is part of my social obligation. i may need it some day. people would rather do it through a charity, and they do not want the government to tell them to buy a health plan and what it is going to cost. that is why this has been this hot button that is not going away for years. you also raised a point where people get sick and they do not know when, and the rest of us subsidize that. a -- ourd up on

insurance is as high as it is because part of what we pay, those of us who are insured, a portion that we pay every year is going to the hospitals. so we are already paying in ways we may not see. one of the other callers asked a really good question. the question about what if you are in the hospital right now and you are sick and have a different plan on generate one. if you have a chronic disease, if you are sick right now, some people who have to change doctors are not happy about that. the insurance industry often make some kind of accommodation when you're changing from plan a to plan b. if i am in the hospital today and my health insurance changes tomorrow, are they going to kick me out of the hospital tackle apparently the industry has ways of working through this. this willink necessarily be perfect for every person in the world who has to change doctors, but the administration did ask insurers to get them their current

prescription through the month of january. insurers do not have to do that. it is voluntary. some will, some won't. it takes time. you are trying to find a new doctor, they can appointment, and it is not something you can necessarily do overnight. if your insurance changes on january 1, i think they have some way of -- i would hope they have some way of accommodating. you are still insured. some people will end up not being very happy with the bill they get. host: joanne kenen, the health care

i will start by having everyone introducing themselves. i will start. kessig.is austin

i was at the stanford business school and spent a lot of time and energy thinking of big issues with food, and now working with michelle and edible startups, we are a blogger introduces entrepreneurship in the food space. we will not flood your in boxes because we do not publish that often, but we are inspiring to do more. i am working on two projects, and one is a food startup, but let's get the focus on the panelists, where it belongs. introduce yourself and tell us about your organization, and then i will kick it off. ashley? she is a public relations person for zero waste energy. >> first of all, thank you for having me and our company represented today. like you said, i am with the zero waste energy based out of lafayette, california, and we handle waste management with and emphasis on organic waste . what we are focusing on is our