"The Obamacare implosion is worse than you think"

[bigrebnc1775]

27 Democratic senators who promised you could keep your health coverage | WashingtonExaminer.com

thank you for the link sent ms hagan a word or two and asked her why she lied.

Edit
I haven't heard from her as of yet.

 

[Amelia]

Obama struggles to save his cherished health law from the clutches of his own administration - The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s health care law risks coming unglued because of his administration’s bungles and his own inflated promises.

To avoid that fate, Obama needs breakthroughs on three fronts: the cancellations mess, technology troubles and a crisis in confidence among his own supporters.

Working in his favor are pent-up demands for the program’s benefits and an unlikely collaborator in the insurance industry.

But even after Obama gets the enrollment website working, count on new controversies. On the horizon is the law’s potential impact on job-based insurance. Its mandate that larger employers offer coverage will take effect in 2015.

....

 

[Zoom-boing]

Ruh-roh

The voters who vaulted both Barack Obama and Harry Reid to power and national office are seeing what must be shocking headlines today. On Thursday, the president offered an apology and an unworkable and possibly illegal “fix” to his troubled healthcare law. Today, the Chicago Tribune has had enough and wants the president’s signature law repealed.

In an editorial titled “Stop Digging. Demolish Obamacare” or “Stop Digging. Start Over,” the Chicago Tribune rips into Obama’s signature law.

For perhaps 5 million of those Americans thus far — estimates vary — the Washington-ordered cancellation of their policies is especially maddening. In the past these people took responsibility for their coverage and bought policies that balanced their needs, finances and personal choices. Congress and President Barack Obama, by enacting the Affordable Care Act, in effect ordered insurers to dismantle many of those individual plans — and cancel those policies.

The Americans manhandled by this exercise in government arrogance now find themselves divided into warring tribes: Those with chronic ailments who have found new plans on Obamacare exchanges and are pleased. Those who don’t want or can’t afford the replacement policies Obamacare offers them. Those whose new policies block them from using the health providers who have treated them for many years. The estimated 23 million to 41 million people whose employer-sponsored plans are the next to be imperiled. And on and on.

Most of these tribespeople only wish their big problem was a slipshod Obamacare website. On Thursday, their plight grew more frightful. With even Democratic members of Congress storming the White House over the cancellations, Obama declared — by what legal authority is unclear — that he would overrule the law he signed in 2010 and allow insurers to extend those canceled policies for a year.

The Tribune concludes that Congress should repeal Obamacare: “Many of the Americans who heard their president say Thursday that ‘we fumbled the rollout of this health care law’ would have been pleased to hear him add: So we’re admitting it. This law is a bust. We’re starting over.”

The Tribune is joined by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Published in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state, the LVRV also calls for Obamacare, which Reid shepherded through the Senate on its way to passage, to be dismantled in an incisive editorial titled “Obamacare woes beg for repeal.”

The PJ Tatler » It Begins: Major Newspapers in Reid?s and Obama?s Home States Call for Obamacare Repeal

 

[Jroc]

(CNSNews.com) - Doug Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said in a presentation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School on Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act—AKA Obamacare--will push a net of seven million people out of employer-based health-insurance plans. “About 7 million fewer people will have employment-based health insurance,” says one of the slides from Elmendorf’s presentation. “(That is the net decline: More people who would have had such insurance will not have it under the ACA, but others who would not have had such insurance will gain it under the ACA.)” Elmendorf attributed this information to the CBO’s and the Joint Committee on Taxation’s joint projections for the impact of Obamacare through 2023. Elmendorf’s presentation also said that another 10 to 15 million people who would have bought health insurance plans in the individual market if Obamacare did not exist would end up buying plans with higher premiums under Obamacare because of mandates Obamacare imposes on the insurance companies offering plans.

CBO: Obamacare Will Push 7M Out of Employer-Based Plans | CNS News

 

[Jroc]

University Drops Student Health Insurance Due to Obamacare

If you like your health insurance plan, you can keep your plan, unless you are a student at Maryland’s oldest historically black university.

Bowie State University is dropping its health care coverage for students due to rising costs associated with Obamacare, the Maryland school announced Thursday.

“Due to new requirements of the Affordable Care Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2014, the cost of insurance for domestic students will increase to approximately $1800 per year,” Bowie State announced.“If you were covered by the university health insurance last Spring 2013, your policy will expire on August 29, 2013.”

University Drops Student Health Insurance Due to Obamacare | Washington Free Beacon

 

[Amelia]

President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 41.2
Disapprove 54.2
Spread -13.0

 

[Jroc]

$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy

Under Obamacare -- as it is being implemented under a regulation issued by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) -- a middle-aged member of Congress who earns an annual salary of $174,000 from the taxpayers, and who has a wife and children, will get a $10,000 subsidy from the taxpayers (over and above his $174,000 salary) to buy a health insurance plan that a regular citizen making almost $80,000 less than the congressman will not get. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, included language mandating that members of Congress and their staff buy their now-mandated health insurance plans through a government exchange.

$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy | CNS News

 

[MeBelle]

$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy

Under Obamacare -- as it is being implemented under a regulation issued by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) -- a middle-aged member of Congress who earns an annual salary of $174,000 from the taxpayers, and who has a wife and children, will get a $10,000 subsidy from the taxpayers (over and above his $174,000 salary) to buy a health insurance plan that a regular citizen making almost $80,000 less than the congressman will not get. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, included language mandating that members of Congress and their staff buy their now-mandated health insurance plans through a government exchange.

$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy | CNS News

Americans in the private sector who buy health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges only get a federal subsidy (a tax credit) if their income/family situation is below 400% of poverty, the ceiling for which is $94,200 for a family of four.

If they surpass that 400% level, then no subsidy. Theoretically, a family bringing in $174,000, like a member of Congress, would have to have 12 children dependents to even be eligible for a subsidy under the Obamacare rules. (See Federal Poverty Guidelines.pdf )

Under the OPM deal arranged in August, the average member of Congress who makes $174,000 a year will be able to keep his approximately $10,000 health insurance subsidy, like he used to get under his old plan, before Obamacare. Congressional staffers who buy through the exchange will also get to keep the subsidies they were receiving. (See Congress Salary CRS Report.pdf)

Before Obamacare, Congress’ plans were administered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and the government paid a yearly contribution to those plans of $4,966.80 for singles and $10,048.76 for families.

The Obamacare law was supposed to eliminate that FEHBP subsidy but the OPM essentially put it back in.

Hypocrites!

 

[Amelia]

After Obamacare fix, consumers remain uncertain


Obama is evil. And the media should quit calling what he did a "fix".

To take political heat off himself and cast the blame on someone else, he tells insurance companies to fix in a month what he and his people spent 3 years effing up.

Vile political animal without any redeeming qualities to justify him having any say in our lives. And I continue to be spitting mad at the people who pushed him on us and let him get away with the frauds and abuses he and his admin have committed because they realized they were above scrutiny. The people who promoted Obama for the presidency had no respect for the office. They clearly thought it was of small enough importance that it could be done by someone with nothing but speech-making abilities to recommend him.

I've been trying to take a break because I'm so stressed out and as I woke up with throbbing pain in my neck this morning I realized that break should probably be a long time. But that's easier said than done.




President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 41.2
Disapprove 54.3
Spread -13.1

 

[Amelia]

Obamacare: So, what could go wrong next? - David Nather - POLITICO.com

Busted website, canceled policies, lousy early enrollment numbers. And that could be just the warmup.

Because the lesson of the last six weeks is that when it comes to the Obamacare rollout, if it can go wrong, it probably will.

The stumble-filled debut of President Barack Obama’s health care law is drawing new attention to the other risks that have been on the radar screen of health care wonks for months. Think health insurance plans sinking under the weight of sick customers, newly insured people being stunned that they still have to spend on health care, and possibly another wave of canceled policies — right before the 2014 elections.

They’re mostly worst-case scenarios, and an Obamacare recovery in the next few months could still prevent some of the biggest ones from ever happening. But health care experts are taking all of them a lot more seriously now — because at this point, why wouldn’t they?

A complete list of possibilities could be overwhelming, but here are the main ones to watch:

....

Turn down your new job, turn down that raise -- you could lose your subsidies and suddenly be on the hook for the full cost of the gigantic new premiums.

 

[Zoom-boing]

I'm sure the left would love for all of us to stop posting these stories showing just how awful the obama, dems, and this pos law is. Aint' gonna happen.

Go against this admin and look what happens:

A day after he questioned President Obama’s decision to unwind a major tenet of the health-care law and said the nation’s capital might not go along, D.C. insurance commissioner William P. White was fired.

…White was one of the first insurance commissioners in the nation last week to push back against Obama’s attempt to smooth over part of the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act: millions of unexpected cancellations of insurance plans.

The now unemployed White had agreed with the statement from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners saying Obama’s hasty solution to the policy cancellation problem, “threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond.”

24 Hours After Criticizing Obama's Healthcare 'Fix,' D.C.'s Insurance Commissioner Fired | Independent Journal Review

 

[Amelia]

Wow

 

[Amelia]

Obamacare's Creative, Or Illegal, Rule-Making - Bloomberg



(re: risk corridors)

 

[MeBelle]

I'm sure the left would love for all of us to stop posting these stories showing just how awful the obama, dems, and this pos law is. Aint' gonna happen.

Go against this admin and look what happens:

A day after he questioned President Obama’s decision to unwind a major tenet of the health-care law and said the nation’s capital might not go along, D.C. insurance commissioner William P. White was fired.

…White was one of the first insurance commissioners in the nation last week to push back against Obama’s attempt to smooth over part of the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act: millions of unexpected cancellations of insurance plans.

The now unemployed White had agreed with the statement from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners saying Obama’s hasty solution to the policy cancellation problem, “threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond.”

24 Hours After Criticizing Obama's Healthcare 'Fix,' D.C.'s Insurance Commissioner Fired | Independent Journal Review

That's just plain wrong!
Is it racist?

 

[Amelia]

Without Massive Republican Opposition, Obamacare Would be in Better Shape

STFU!

Republicans had NO duty to stand silent during the Democrats' rape of democratic principles and they had every obligation to stand against it.

You people who blame Republicans for standing in the way of legislation Obama had to lie to achieve -- and especially you people who have the gall to blame Republicans for Obama's lies themselves -- you are so disgusting I don't have words for it.


Without Democrats' lies and disdain for the will of the people, maybe some sort of reform which didn't damage the constitution or the economy would have been possible. Thanks to you sycophantic, dishonest Democrats we'll never know.

If Republicans help provide Democrats cover for their wrongdoings, then people won't continue to wake up enough to stop Democrats from doing more harm. It is too easy for Democrats to make bullshit promises, and Democrats themselves show no sign that they're willing to let up on their slander of Republicans -- war on women, hate clean air and water, throwing granny off the cliff -- sound familiar? -- so the Democratic agenda and m.o. must be exposed for the danger that it is. Period.

 

[Amelia]

President Obama and His Gang That (Still) Isn't Shooting Straight - NationalJournal.com

Incompetence, deception, and lack of accountability still hound White House and health reform.

Incompetence, deception, and lack of accountability doomed the Obamacare rollout. That's old news. What's new? The nagging durability of the White House's incompetence, deception, and lack of accountability.

1. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the Obama administration will consider the new online marketplace a success if 80 percent of users can buy health insurance. That is absurd. First, it's another broken promise. The president and his advisers responded to the disastrous rollout last month by vowing to deliver an Amazon.com-quality website by the end of November. (If history remembers President Obama for one thing, other than his barrier-breaking 2008 election, it might be the outsized and unmet expectations that paved the path of his presidency.) Second, in what other line of work is 20 percent failure considered a success? If one out of every five meals served by a restaurant is inedible, the joint goes out of business.

2. The same story by Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin revealed that the Health and Human Services Department hired technology contractors without requiring specific performance criteria. It is customary in the private sector to include benchmarks in technology contracts. Not so with the seat-of-their-smarty-pants Obama administration. "The meaning of success was defined for the first time during the panicky days of October, when White House officials belatedly recognized that the federal exchange had serious software and hardware defects," The Post reported.

....

 

[Jroc]

Who'd a thunk it?

D.C.-Based Health Care Exchange May Have Engaged in Illegal Political Activity Online

A former chief White House ethics lawyer has filed a Hatch Act complaint against a D.C.-based health care exchange, alleging that its online communications with liberal activist group Organizing for Action (OFA) violated rules against federal political activity.

Richard Painter, who served as the chief ethics counsel under President George W. Bush, requested a federal investigation into DC Health Link in a Nov. 13 letter to the Office of Special Counsel’s Carolyn Lerner.

Painter says DC Health Link appears to be subject to the Hatch Act, which limits political activity by federal employees, because the health exchange was created by the D.C. government and is acting on its behalf. He noted that the exchange may have violated the Hatch Act after it promoted OFA’s pro-Obamacare activism on Twitter.

Painter said DC Health Link may have also violated the Hatch Act by “following” OFA’s D.C. twitter account and retweeting one of its messages on Nov. 8.

The Office of Special Counsel determined that federal agencies cannot “friend,” “like,” or “follow” political parties, partisan political campaigns or partisan political groups on social media platforms. Agencies are also restricted to posting content that is related to official business and politically neutral.

“The communications that I believe violated the Hatch Act were made on Twitter and all relate to Organizing for Action (“OFA”), formerly known as Organizing for America, an organization the [Office of Special Counsel] has specifically identified as a ‘partisan political group,’” wrote Painter

DC-Based Health Care Exchange May Have Engaged in Illegal Political Activity | Washington Free Beacon

 

[Jroc]

They all knew and pushed the lie anyway...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NfKV95fgr8]Gillibrand: 'We all knew' Obama was Lying - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Amelia]

Bastiges.

Creeps around here keep saying, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," as if Obamacare is good.

Obamacare is a travesty.

People who call themselves Democrats and say the ends justify the means with Obamacare are delusional. They do not deserve the name "Democrat".

 

[Amelia]

This has already been posted about. Glad some people are trying to keep it in the news:

Review & Outlook: ObamaCare's Union Favor - WSJ.com

The Affordable Care Act's greatest hits keep coming, and one that hasn't received enough attention is a looming favor for President Obama's friends in Big Labor. Millions of Americans are losing their plans and paying more for health care, and doctors are being forced out of insurance networks, but a lucky few may soon get relief.

Earlier this month the Administration suggested that it may grant a waiver for some insurance plans from a tax that is supposed to capitalize a reinsurance fund for ObamaCare. The $25 billion cost of the fund, which is designed to pay out to the insurers on the exchanges if their costs are higher than expected, is socialized over every U.S. citizen with a private health plan. For 2014, the fee per head is $63.

....

"We also intend to propose in future rulemaking to exempt certain self-insured, self-administered plans from the requirement to make reinsurance contributions for the 2015 and 2016 benefit years."

Allow us to translate. "Self-insured" means that a business pays for the medical expenses of its workers directly and hires an insurer as a third-party administrator to process claims, manage care and the like. Most unions as well as big corporations use this arrangement.

But the kicker here is "self-administered." That term refers to self-insured plans that don't contract with the Aetnas and Blue Shields of the world and instead act as their own in-house benefits manager.

Almost no business in the real world still follows this old-fashioned practice as both medicine and medical billing have become more complex. The major exception is a certain type of collectively bargained insurance trust known as Taft-Hartley plans. Such insurance covers about 20 million union members, and four out of five Taft-Hartley trusts are self-administered.

There's no conceivable rationale—other than politics—for releasing union-only plans from a tax that is defined as universal in the Affordable Care Act statute. Like so many other ObamaCare waivers, this labor dispensation will probably turn out to be illegal.

....