The White House Thought They Knew What Health Plan You Should Have. They Were Wrong.

[Valin]

Our Brothers and Sisters (although in order to be PC and not get into trouble I should say Sisters and Brothers) at Democratic Underground Are having a bit of a food fight over the ACA.

 

 

 

My opinion is that the ACA is the single most important piece of social legislation of my lifetime.

No, wait. That isn't my opinion -- It is a fact.

I've read posts by DUers trying to tear it down for the last six years, and frankly I've found their arguments to be unconvincing. No, wait, that's not quite right. The truth is that I've found their anti-ACA crusade to be wrong-headed and maybe even a little offensive. I get that many of them are motivated by a desire for single-payer.....(Snip)

 

[Valin]

ObamaCare's Latest Legal Challenge

Can the White House simply declare that the federal government is the 51st state?

March 23 2014

 

A defining feature of President Obama's second term is his willfulness in defying limits on executive power to suit his political goals, and no more so than with the Affordable Care Act. The judiciary is the last check on those abuses, and this week it will have another opportunity to vindicate the rule of law.

 

On Tuesday the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear one of the more important legal challenges to ObamaCare's lawless implementation. Unlike the challenge to the individual insurance mandate, Halbig v. Sebelius involves no great questions of constitutional interpretation. The plaintiffs are merely asking the judges to tell the *Administration to faithfully execute the plain language of the statute that Congress passed and President Obama signed.

 

The Affordable Care Actat least the version that passed in 2010instructed the states to establish insurance exchanges, and if they didn't the Health and Human Services Department was authorized to build federal exchanges. The law says that subsidies will be available only to people who enroll "through an Exchange established by the State." The question in Halbig is whether these taxpayer subsidies can be distributed through the federal exchanges, as the Administration insists.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

* Radical Concept Alert!

[Valin]

Halbig v. Sebelius

By Jonathan H. Adler and Michael F. Cannon

November 18, 2013

 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA or Act) provides premium assistance tax credits for the purchase of qualifying health insurance plans in health insurance Exchanges established by states under PPACA Section 1311, 42 U.S.C. § 18031. The Internal Revenue Service rule purporting to implement those premium-assistance tax credits is contrary to the plain language of the PPACA and cannot be justified on other grounds. The rule exceeds the agencys authority and subverts congressional intent by subverting the balance Congress struck between the Acts competing goals.

 

The PPACA mandates the creation of health insurance exchanges to regulate health insurance within each state; declares that Each State shall . establish an Exchange; directs the federal government to establish one in states that do not; and offers health insurance subsidies to certain qualified taxpayers who enroll in a qualified health plan through an Exchange established by the State under Section 1311. This language originated in the Senate Finance Committee, was clarified and strengthened thereafter in the Senate, and was approved by both chambers of Congress and the President. The legislative history of the PPACA is fully consistent with the plain text of these provisions.

 

(Snip)

 

Contrary to the clear language and purpose of the statute, and without any reasoned basis, the IRS rule attempts to dispense premium-assistance tax credits in the 34 states that have opted not to establish an Exchange. Under the PPACA, those tax credits directly trigger penalties against employers and indirectly (but no less clearly) trigger penalties against individual taxpayers. The IRS rule therefore has the effect of triggering spending and imposing financial penalties that Congress never authorized. On that basis, the Plaintiffs challenge to that rule should be sustained.

 

Full Brief PDF

[WestVirginiaRebel]

It's come to this: White House turns to cat pictures to sell Obamacare

[Valin]

It's come to this: White House turns to cat pictures to sell Obamacare

Should my head hurt...real bad?

[Valin]

One Liberal Womans Experience With Obamacare

John Hinderaker

March 24 2014

 

Nancy Wurtzel writes for the Huffington Post, on her own site www.datingdementia.com, and occasionally for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It is safe to assume that she is a liberal; worse, she makes no bones about the fact that what attracted her to Obamacare was the prospect of a subsidymaking someone else pay her bills. So the heartbreak that she experienced trying to get that subsidy via MNSure, Minnesotas Obamacare plan, as she described it in the Star Tribune, could reasonably be a source of schadenfreude: MNsure Made Me Cry. My Five-Month Quest for Health Insurance.

 

 

 

 

As a self-employed, small business owner, I had high hopes for the Affordable Care Act. I was giddy at the thought of lowering my premium costs, which now total $6,000 a year for an individual policy with a very high deductible.

Obamacare, as it is usually called, was passed in spring 2010, but didnt go into effect until this year. I couldnt wait to sign up.

 

If only it were that easy.

(Snip)

You can read it all if you have a strong stomach, but the short version is, after five months of frustration and countless phone calls with Obamacare navigators who had no idea what was going onone of them told Wurtzel, No one can do anything more for youWurtzel finally found the key to success: political influence. The update to her Star Tribune article says:

 

 

Thanks to some helpful staff of the Minnesota State Legislature, I am happy to report I now have my MNsure health care policy in place and retroactive to the beginning of 2014. I do not like to use my blog and social media platform for this purpose, but I felt I was out of options. This saga took close to five months to resolve.

 

Right. So, if you have Democratic Party connections and you squawk in a major metropolitan newspaper, so that the Democratic Party is embarrassed, functionaries will cut through the red tape and get you a health insurance policy. Not only that, a policy that is subsidized by your neighbors! Yeeaah! Nothing like stealing from your fellow citizens to make you feel good about being a Democrat. If you are not a politically connected Democrat, of course, you are stuck with what the Affordable Care Act actually says, in which casesorry, you poor loser! No one ever cared about you in the first place.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Dating Dementia.com

[Valin]

It's come to this: White House turns to cat pictures to sell Obamacare

Celebrate this

Scott Johnson

3/25/14

 

Justin Sink and Elise Viebeck have an interesting report on the Democrats’ plan to defend Obamacare in the court of public opinion: “Dems plan to ramp up offense on Obamacare.” The report is accompanied by a photograph that seems to me to be of the worth-a-thousand-words variety. It depicts Nancy Pelosi contemplating a board touting the achievements of Obamacare on the fourth anniversary of its enactment.

 

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

Huge Major Incredibly Shocking Never Saw This Coming News Alert!

Obama Administration: We Never Mean a Word We Say
Amy Payne
3/26/14


Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and President Barack Obama at a cabinet meeting. Photo: EPA/JIM LO SCALZO/Newscom


No, it cannot happen. It will not happen. The Obama administration absolutely, positively will NOT extend the deadline to sign up for Obamacare.

This isn’t even a laugh line anymore. It’s just an eye roller. And how silly these guys look now:

“We have no plans to extend the open enrollment period. In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.” — Health and Human Services (HHS) official Julie Bataille, March 11

“Once that 2014 open enrollment period has been set, they are set permanently.” – HHS official Michael Hash, March 11

(Snip)

There was no delay…until there was. The Washington Post reported last night that March 31 is not, in fact, the final word. To get more time, you tell the government that you haven’t been able to sign up yet:

Under the new rules, people will be able to qualify for an extension by checking a blue box on HealthCare.gov to indicate that they tried to enroll before the deadline. This method will rely on an honor system; the government will not try to determine whether the person is telling the truth.

[clearvision]

Speaker John Boehner sharply criticized the White House on Wednesday for again delaying Obamacare, intimating that President Barack Obama was flouting the law.

 

“What the hell is this? A joke?” the Ohio Republican said. “Another deadline made meaningless. If he hasn’t put enough loopholes in the law already, the administration is now resorting to an honor system to enforce it.”

LINK

[Valin]

Reids Obamacare Excuse: People Are Not Educated How to Use the Internet

Andrew Johnson

March 26, 2014

 

Harry Reid not only denied that the new extension to the sign-up period for Obamacare was a delay, but he also blamed Americans Internet illiteracy for the lower-than-projected enrollment figures during his weekly press briefing on Wednesday.

 

Theres no hiccup or delay, the majority leader insisted. We have hundreds of thousands of people who tried to sign up, and they didnt get through.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

The Affordable Care Act at 4

3/24/14

 

Four years ago, on March 23, the Affordable Care Act became law. In every major new poll, more people oppose than support it. Take the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Eighty-three percent of adults surveyed by the pollsters said they had seen, read, or heard a lot or some about implementation of the Act, a high level of attentiveness. In the poll, 35 percent said the health care law was a good idea but nearly half, 49 percent, said it was a bad one. Of the 49 percent, a whopping 42 percent felt strongly that it was a bad idea.

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barry, We've Got A Problem.

[Valin]

Ezekiel's Prophecy

If he's right, ObamaCare's biggest disruptions are yet to come.

James Taranto

March 27,2014

 

Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm's elder brother, is a physician who helped design ObamaCare and has been one of its most intense champions. So you may be surprised to learn that in his new book, "Reinventing American Health Care," he predicts that tens of millions more Americans will lose their medical plans in the coming decade.

 

In its "You're the Boss" small-business blog, the New York Times quotes his prediction that by 2025, "fewer than 20 percent of workers in the private sector will receive traditional employer-sponsored health insurance." As of March 2013 such benefits were available to 85% of full-time private-sector workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If Emanuel is right--and especially if, as he implies, ObamaCare was designed to produce such an outcome--the president's repeated pledge that "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan" was a far more widespread fraud than has yet been realized.

 

In the next two to three years, Emanuel predicts, "a few big, blue-chip companies will announce their intention to stop providing health insurance. Instead, they will raise salaries substantially or offer large, defined contributions to their workers. Then the floodgates will open." Small businesses will be even more eager to drop coverage.

 

The main reason Emanuel expects this result is the so-called Cadillac tax, which takes effect in 2018 and has nothing to do with the bailout of General Motors. Rather, it is a levy on what the Times calls "especially generous health plans."

 

(Snip)

[SrWoodchuck]

LIAR & FRIAR

 

 

Via BonedJello

[SrWoodchuck]

"Nobody we care about will believe ..."

 

 

 

 

OBAMA-

 

“We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms in my conversations with His Holiness,” Mr. Obama said at a press conference in Rome. “In fact, that really was not a topic of conversation.”

 

POPE-

 

The Vatican, however, issued a statement saying the president’s discussions with Francis “on questions of particular relevance for the [Catholic] Church in [the United States], such as the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection” — issues that have fueled divisions between Mr. Obama and the church.

 

From the comments @ the link:

 

#####

Then too, Captain Bullshit obviously likes to rub elbows with celebrities, is in fact a collector of celebrity, and the Pope is another check on His To Rub list. In addition, He thinks that particular rubbing might help polish His scraped and tarnished image.

He forgot the Pope as the Vicar of Christ welcomes sinners and believes in confession, so Captain Bullshit's reception was not for the reason he thinks was the reason. He committed muzzie apostacy too. Heh heh.

Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

 

# posted by Anonymous : 3/28/14, 3:03 PM

 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

#####

0bama's comment that “We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms..." probably was an accurate statement. I imagine the Pope did most of the talking on that subject. And 0bama just stared at his navel.

 

# posted by Snackeater : 3/28/14, 6:05 PM

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

#####

All Dear Leader wanted out of this was the photo of His Biliousness and His Holiness next to each other with some kind of smile. As to what was said, il Papa spoke from the heart, Obama from somewhere a bit lower. Given the choice of believing the Ministry of Propaganda or the Vatican - I stand with the Pope.

 

- One Man Gang

 

# posted by Anonymous : 3/28/14, 6:23 PM

 

Via BonedJello http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/2014/03/whos-liar-obama-or-pope.html

[Valin]

[Valin]

[Valin]

Maryland to reportedly abandon $125M ObamaCare exchange for new system

March 29, 2014

 

 

With just days to go before open enrollment ends on March 31, Maryland officials are reportedly planning to abandon its glitch-ridden ObamaCare website and replace the health exchange with technology from Connecticuts marketplace.

The Washington Post reported late Friday that the board of the Maryland exchange will vote on changing the system that has cost at least $125.5 million at a meeting on Tuesday, the day after the end of the first enrollment period under ObamaCare.

 

Maryland residents will still be able to use the exchange as it is being replaced with technology from the Connecticut exchange, Access Health CT, officials told The Post. The state is expected to tap consulting firm Deloitte for the overhaul.

Maryland's online health exchange has been bedeviled by computer problems that have made it difficult for people to enroll in private health care plans since its debut Oct. 1. Although improvements have been made, computer problems remain.

 

(snip)

[Valin]

The Insiders: Is Obamacare working?
Ed Rogers
March 28 2014

As we inch toward the March 31 enrollment “deadline,” I think it is fair to ask, “Is Obamacare working?” And by working, I mean both politically for the Democrats and substantively for the country. White House senior official Dan Pfeiffer tweeted out, “Important to remember that back in Oct and November, everyone thought getting to 6 mil was impossible. Amazing comeback story.” We can discount that; Team Obama’s credibility is shot. So what do we really know? What does the information available really tell us, and what can we discern from the constant evasiveness of the administration?

 

Substantively, the administration is refusing to acknowledge a few essential points. One, the original definition of “success” — the CBO number they adopted as their own — was 7 million enrollees. And next, an estimated 20 percent of the alleged 6 million enrollees have not paid their premiums, which means they do not actually have insurance. That leaves us with 4.8 million enrollees at best, without discounting duplicate enrollments, unfinished applications and any other factors that would diminish the number who have actually signed up for Obamacare.

 

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius continues to stonewall Congress and to claim that HHS does not know how many people have paid their premiums. In response, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) wrote her a letter saying, “We have recently obtained information that suggests your most recent testimony before the Ways and Means Committee was at best evasive and perhaps misleading.” (Camp and Brady are such gentlemen.) The letter continued, “Insurers are submitting information to CMS about who has effectuated their enrollment, i.e. who has paid their premium. Please provide this information in its most updated form immediately.” In other words, the administration has the data but doesn’t want to release it because it would derail their narrative that Obamacare has reached a point where something meaningful has happened.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Comments

 

Pilgrim1620

3/28/2014 5:54 PM CST

The fundamental problem is that the ACA IS NOT health care reform! It is government subsidized health insurance. The systemic faults in our health care system have not been addressed. Doctor and hospital fees have been limited by fiat, not the free market. Tort reform has not been addressed which can be expected with a government composed of lawyers. Redundant testing is still rampant and is tied to tort reform. Medical records keeping and access to those records is in the dark ages and, judging by the disastrous ACA rollout, the government is incapable of managing information technology projects. When you add to that the fact that the previously uninsured aren't buying in, it's apparent that Obamacare is a "bridge too far."

[Valin]

Support for Obamacare dips to 26 percent
Paul Mirengoff
3/29/14

A new survey by the Associated Press-GfK survey finds that only 26 percent of Americans support the so-called Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. In April 2010, shortly after the law passed, 39 percent supported it.

 

The most significant change since that time has been in the number of Americans who neither support nor oppose the law. That percentage has shot from 10 percent to 30 percent since April 2010. The percentage of those opposed to Obamacare has dropped from 50 percent to 43 percent.

 

I imagine that the large number of “fence sitters” gives Democrats hope that campaigning in favor of “fixing” Obamacare will be a viable political strategy this year. But I’m far from convinced that it will be viable for Democrats who voted to pass legislation on such a vital subject that is opposed by 50 percent more people than support it, and that is viewed skeptically by so many others.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/BtV2pBBvlmI

[clearvision]

Healthcare.gov pushed beyond capacity; new applications halted

 

 

Well I guess another extension is in the works.

[clearvision]

[Valin]

Healthcare.gov pushed beyond capacity; new applications halted

 

 

Well I guess another extension is in the works.

 

HUGE MAJOR SHOCKING NEWS !!!

 

HealthCare.gov Glitch Prevents Users From Creating New Accounts

Second Glitch Hits Health-Care Site Around 12 p.m. EDT

Spencer E. Ante

March 31, 2014 2:31 p.m. ET

 

Two separate software glitches took HealthCare.gov offline on Monday as the site struggled to stay open during this year's final day of enrollment under the Affordable Care Act.

 

The new problem hit around 12 p.m. EDT and was preventing users from creating new accounts and logging in with new accounts, said a person familiar with the matter. The glitch was related to the part of the system that processes peoples' identities, the person said. Users trying to log in were told "HealthCare.gov has a lot of visitors right now" and put into a queue.

 

A rush of consumers was expected on the final sign-up day.

 

A separate software bug took down the site earlier on Monday for a number of hours. Despite the two problems, the site has been very busy and was handling more than 100,000 simultaneous users at one point, the person said.

 

The initial error, which took the site offline after midnight Sunday until around 7:45 a.m. EDT Monday, was related to how the site processes enrollment dates, said the person.

[Valin]

[Draggingtree]

The Joke’s on Us

By Heritage Foundation Amy Payne (Bio and Archives) Tuesday, April 1, 2014

 

It really writes itself: ObamaCare as the ultimate April Fools’ Day punchline.

 

You can’t make this stuff up. On the health law’s pseudo-deadline day, following a huge push for people to visit the website, HealthCare.gov went down. Politico summed it up:

 

HealthCare.gov was down for six hours early Monday morning. Then it was up. Then it activated its “virtual waiting room.” Then it blocked newcomers trying to create accounts. Then it was working again…

 

More… http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/62116