The ACA Is in a Total PR Free-fall

[clearvision]

HHS awards $30M to health centers to expand primary care services

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will spend nearly $300 million to help thousands of health centers that have struggled to meet rising demand for primary care under ObamaCare.

Nearly 1,300 facilities nationwide will receive the grants, allowing them to hire about 4,700 primary care doctors full time, according to an HHS release Friday.

Those doctors will be able to treat about 1.5 million patients nationwide — and help others sign up for coverage. Health centers have been responsible for 6 million new signups over the last year, according to HHS.

“Health centers are a key part of how the Affordable Care Act is working to improve access to care for millions of Americans,” HHS chief Sylvia Burwell said in a release, adding that many of the patients who benefit could be receiving primary care for the first time.

 

Primary care physicians nationwide have experienced a surge under the Affordable Care Act, with at least 13 million people newly insured.

 

The federal government has already spent heavily to train more primary care doctors, adding about 2,300 new practitioners by 2016.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/11/editorial-charity-by-government/

So there are 4700 doctors sitting around unemployed that now have jobs? Where are 4700 (I assume additional beyond what we normally get each year) doctors coming from?

[Geee]

 

HHS awards $30M to health centers to expand primary care services

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will spend nearly $300 million to help thousands of health centers that have struggled to meet rising demand for primary care under ObamaCare.

Nearly 1,300 facilities nationwide will receive the grants, allowing them to hire about 4,700 primary care doctors full time, according to an HHS release Friday.

Those doctors will be able to treat about 1.5 million patients nationwide — and help others sign up for coverage. Health centers have been responsible for 6 million new signups over the last year, according to HHS.

“Health centers are a key part of how the Affordable Care Act is working to improve access to care for millions of Americans,” HHS chief Sylvia Burwell said in a release, adding that many of the patients who benefit could be receiving primary care for the first time.

 

Primary care physicians nationwide have experienced a surge under the Affordable Care Act, with at least 13 million people newly insured.

 

The federal government has already spent heavily to train more primary care doctors, adding about 2,300 new practitioners by 2016.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/11/editorial-charity-by-government/

So there are 4700 doctors sitting around unemployed that now have jobs? Where are 4700 (I assume additional beyond what we normally get each year) doctors coming from?

 

Crossing over the boarder from Mexico

[Geee]

Of 33 Companies Behind the Obamacare Website, These 6 Got Most of Your Money

Taxpayers will shell out $1.7 billion to build and operate HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s online insurance exchange created under the Affordable Care Act, according to projections last month from a watchdog agency overseeing the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/13/of-33-companies-behind-obamacare-website-these-6-got-most-of-your-money/

[clearvision]

Of 33 Companies Behind the Obamacare Website, These 6 Got Most of Your Money

Taxpayers will shell out $1.7 billion to build and operate HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s online insurance exchange created under the Affordable Care Act, according to projections last month from a watchdog agency overseeing the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/13/of-33-companies-behind-obamacare-website-these-6-got-most-of-your-money/

Could have paid the bills for all those that could not get insurance for preexisting conditions for sure.

[Valin]

Hurdles for ObamaCare in 2nd sign-up season

September 15, 2014

 

Potential complications await consumers as President Barack Obama's health care law approaches its second open enrollment season, just two months away.

 

Don't expect a repeat of last year's website meltdown, but the new sign-up period could expose underlying problems with the law itself that are less easily fixed than a computer system.

 

Getting those who signed up this year enrolled again for 2015 won't be as easy as it might seem. And the law's interaction between insurance and taxes looks like a sure-fire formula for confusion.

 

For example:

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

I Have Seen Healthcare’s Future …

By SCOTT GALUPO • September 15, 2014, 1:00 AM

 

Now seems like a good time to re-up my prediction that we’re headed toward a messy policy convergence on healthcare: a mixed bag I’ve called “Orydencare”—that is, a cradle-to-grave system in which Medicare has undergone premium support reforms along the lines proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden, with Obamacare more or less remaining in place.

This is—very broadly speaking—what conservative healthcare wonk Avik Roy has in mind with his plan to (as he puts it) “transcend,” rather than repeal, Obamacare. In addition to reforms of the Affordable Care Act, Roy’s proposal would shift many Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries into a new, more tight-fisted universal system of private-sector exchanges.

 

While lightly praising Roy’s realism on Obamacare’s essential permanence—and he no doubt deserves praise for this—liberals have balked at his provocative companion plan to reform social insurance for the elderly. Michael Hiltzik of theLos Angeles Times, for instance, writes that “Roy is especially hostile to Medicare and Medicaid. This is entirely consistent with conservative hostility to all social insurance.”http://www.theamericanconservative.com/galupo/i-have-seen-healthcares-future/

[Valin]

PreferredOne pulls out of MNsure
Sep 16, 2014

The insurer with the lowest rates and most customers on Minnesota's health care exchange is pulling out.

Golden Valley-based PreferredOne this morning confirmed its exit from MNsure. It comes as a major blow to the exchange — the next open enrollment period starts Nov. 15 and runs through Feb. 15.

MNsure officials said the online insurance exchange would reach out soon to PreferredOne customers who bought coverage through MNsure last year with information on next steps.

(Snip)
___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[clearvision]

PreferredOne pulls out of MNsure

Sep 16, 2014

 

The insurer with the lowest rates and most customers on Minnesota's health care exchange is pulling out.

 

Golden Valley-based PreferredOne this morning confirmed its exit from MNsure. It comes as a major blow to the exchange — the next open enrollment period starts Nov. 15 and runs through Feb. 15.

 

MNsure officials said the online insurance exchange would reach out soon to PreferredOne customers who bought coverage through MNsure last year with information on next steps.

 

(Snip)

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

This can't be good for MN's exchange, especially with the short notice.

[Valin]

 

PreferredOne pulls out of MNsure

Sep 16, 2014

 

The insurer with the lowest rates and most customers on Minnesota's health care exchange is pulling out.

 

Golden Valley-based PreferredOne this morning confirmed its exit from MNsure. It comes as a major blow to the exchange — the next open enrollment period starts Nov. 15 and runs through Feb. 15.

 

MNsure officials said the online insurance exchange would reach out soon to PreferredOne customers who bought coverage through MNsure last year with information on next steps.

 

(Snip)

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

This can't be good for MN's exchange, especially with the short notice.

 

 

 

The DFL will find a way to blame it on Michele Bachmann.

[clearvision]

About 7.3 million people have paid for their Obamacare coverage and remain enrolled in health insurance plans sold through new government-run markets, a top U.S. official said today.

 

That’s a 9 percent reduction from the government’s 8 million May estimate, which reflected only how many people had signed up, not how many had actually paid and were enrolled in the coverage, a figure long sought by Republican lawmakers who oppose the law.

 

LINK

[Geee]

Report: ‘Family Glitch’ in Obamacare to Impact 1.9 Million Americans

 

Vague language within Obamacare will result in nearly 2 million Americans being unable to afford health insurance, according to a new report by the American Action Forum (AAF).

 

The so-called “family glitch” occurs when an individual is offered health insurance through their employer but the plan is not extended to the rest of their family. Due to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) interpretation of the law, other immediate family members are not eligible to receive subsidies for insurance, even if their income is below the federal poverty level.

 

The AAF has estimated that 1.93 million Americans will be affected by the glitch, making it “practically impossible” for them to obtain affordable health care coverage.

 

“The ‘Family Glitch,’ as it has become known, is an odd and particularly problematic side-effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” the report said. “Since several provisions of the law are rather ambiguous, they unfortunately combine to create a perfect storm where obtaining affordable health insurance is practically impossible.”

 

http://freebeacon.com/issues/report-family-glitch-in-obamacare-to-impact-1-9-million-americans/

[Valin]

CMS Uncooperative in Addressing Healthcare.gov Security Concerns
Delayed, restricted documents requested by Government Accountability Office
Ellison Barber
September 18, 2014

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initially refused to cooperate with the Government Accountability Office to address security concerns surrounding the implementation of Healthcare.gov, according to testimony at a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday.

 

CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner testified before the House Oversight Committee on the current security status of Healthcare.gov and addressed accusations that the administration attempted to cover up the website’s initial failings. Gregory Wilshusen, the director of information security issues at the GAO, and Ann Barron-DeiCamillo, the director of U.S. computer emergency readiness team, also testified.

 

Tavenner’s testimony came on the heels of two newly released reports on the security and functionality of Healthcare.gov, one from the GAO and the other from the committee’s majority staff.

 

(Snip)

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

I'm sure the problems are totally solved and it is safe to put your most personal data on this site.

[Draggingtree]

Minnesota's Biggest Obamacare Insurer Leaves Exchange

Peter Suderman|

 

Sep. 18, 2014 1:55 pm

 

PreferredOne was the least expensive insurer in the Minnesota's state-run Obamacare exchange last year. It was also the most successful at signing up customers, capturing 59 percent of the state's market for private plans, accordingto CBS Minnesota.

 

And now it's leaving the exchange, and the 30,000 people who had enrolled in its coverage.

 

As Jed Graham from Investor's Business Daily explains, this was due to an unusual feature of Obamacare in Minnesota—the existence of a "basic health program" option for lower-income households.

 

http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/18/minnesotas-biggest-obamacare-insurer-lea

[Geee]

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel to Me and Others: Don’t Live Past 75!

 

Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel has just announced that he plans on dying at age 75 and implies that the rest of us should work toward achieving this too. His article is perhaps the single most outrageous and despicable screed written this entire year. One must also consider that this proposal is not being made by just any medical doctor. Dr. Emanuel, brother of Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, is a major advocate of universal health care and was a key advisor to the president on formulating the Affordable Care Act, or as we know it, Obamacare.

 

Indeed, a few years ago, Emanuel was accused by Betsy McCaughey and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, among others, of favoring euthanasia and death panels for individuals. Dr. Emanuel argued that in fact he is a well-known opponent of euthanasia, and that, as the details in his Wikipedia entry note, his talk about “rationing” medical treatment concerned only the “allocation of very scarce medical interventions such as organs and vaccines,” not preventing the elderly who want medical treatment for illnesses from getting what they need. Emanuel said he was angry that what he wrote was taken out of context: “I find it a little dispiriting, after a whole career’s worth of work dedicated to improving care for people at the end of life, that now I’m ‘advocating euthanasia panels.’”

 

There is a serious discussion about how much treatment should be given at the very end of life, especially if a terminally ill patient would be worse off as a result. But in his Atlantic article, Dr. Emanuel makes us revisit the charges made against him some years ago and reevaluate whether his critics were not so far off in their claims.

Here is his argument neatly summed up at the start of his lengthy essay:

But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.

 

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2014/09/19/dr-ezekiel-emanuel-to-me-and-others-dont-live-past-75/

[Geee]

Alaska Physician Shuts Down Practice, Citing Obamacare

 

After a long list of Obamacare failures in Alaska, one physician is shutting down his decades-old practice, charging that the health-care law and other federal programs are “unsustainable” for practicing doctors.

Dr. William Wennen, a plastic surgeon, is closing his Fairbanks practice after 38 years of working in the state. Dr. Wennen blames federal health insurance programs, citing Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare, for shutting down his practice.

“It is an unsustainable system,” Dr. Wennen wrote to his customers in a letter obtained by The Daily Caller. “I am personally writing off upwards of three quarters of a million dollars annually in free/uncompensated care.”

“My reasons for closing down the office are simply economic,” Wennen wrote. “The governmental agencies that are supplying ‘medical insurance’ to the elderly, the disadvantaged, the indigent and the sick, injured, or disabled have placed an unrealistically low value of worth on physician’s services.”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/21/alaska-physician-shuts-down-practice-citing-obamacare/

[Geee]

US Census Data: Uninsured Rate…Increased in 2014?

 

Wait, what? We've expressed a healthy skepticism of the administration's "official" enrollment numbers, and for good reason -- but even I must admit to being a bit flummoxed by the United States Census Bureau's new findings that America's uninsured population increased in 2014 over 2013.

 

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/09/22/us-census-bureau-number-of-uninsured-americansincreased-in-2014-n1894992

[Valin]

Number of ObamaCare enrollees appears to be dropping

Jim Angle

September 23, 2014

 

President Obamas claim last spring that 8 million people had enrolled in ObamaCare recently got a significant downgrade from the head of the agency overseeing the plan.

 

Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a congressional committee that "as of August 15, this year, we have 7.3 million Americans enrolled in Health Insurance Marketplace coverage and these are individuals who paid their premiums."

 

A key part of her statement was Tavenner's reference to those who paid, because just signing up isn't enough to be counted as enrolled.

 

As Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, explained,"its not enough to sign up. You have to sign up and pay on a regular basis to really be enrolled."

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

GAO: Where did ObamaCare’s $3.7B go?

 

The Obama administration has spent at least $3.7 billion to build and promote online marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act, but it can’t prove exactly where it all went, according to a government audit released Monday.

 

Federal investigators said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does not properly track certain data that public officials need to know whether the healthcare law is working.

 

The government tracks its healthcare spending in an outdated records system that cannot easily respond to data requests such as salaries or public relations contracts in certain departments. Instead, officials rely on manually prepared spreadsheets that can take months to produce.

Out of that data, “we were not able to determine the reliability of most of the information,” according to the report by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO).

 

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/218628-gao-where-did-obamacares-37b-go

[Draggingtree]

[Geee]

WebMD Has Received $13.9M to Promote Obamacare

 

WebMD has received nearly $14 million to promote Obamacare, as part of a government initiative designed to get Americans to turn to “official information” on the health care law.

 

The contract amount is much higher than was previously known, new documents revealed on Tuesday.

 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a “limited source justification” to extend WebMD’s contract through September 2015. The government has obligated a total of $13,932,914 for the “Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Health Care Priorities Educational Initiative” thus far.

 

The initiative gives funding to the health website WebMD to provide information to doctors and consumers about the “benefits” of the law.

 

“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010,” the contract document states. “As a result, the Act requires that CMS educate consumers about the benefits now available through that legislation.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/webmd-has-received-13-9m-to-promote-obamacare/

[Valin]

ACA’s Cost-Saving Measures Flounder
September 26, 2014

Two of the ACA’s cost control measures are backfiring. In Los Angeles, Consumer Watchdog filed two more lawsuits against a couple of large insurers, Cigna and Blue Shield, for restricting their provider networks in the wake of the Affordable Care Act. One of the key ways the ACA tries to rein in costs even as it expands access is decreasing the number of doctors and hospitals plans give their users access to. Naturally, this tends to upset consumers, especially ones who have long-standing relationships with providers now excluded from their plans, or who were misinformed about the network status of a chosen provider. Kaiser Health News reports:

According to the Cigna complaint, Sheila Davidson, a 61-year-old from Orange County suffering from pelvic inflammatory disease and other health problems, selected a plan after her former policy was cancelled, and after checking to make sure her specialists were included. At first, the plan paid her doctors’ bills and counted her share of the payments toward her annual deductible.

But the complaint alleges that when Davidson was about to reach the $6,350 annual maximum she had to pay for in-network care, Cigna switched all her doctors to out-of-network status. That meant she had to pay a $12,500 deductible before the insurer reimbursed anything. She has appealed that decision with the insurer, but has not yet received a decision, she said.

Meanwhile, the flagship Accountable Care Organization program created by the Affordable Care Act took another hit this week, according to the WSJ. ACOs are teams of doctors and hospitals that agree to coordinate care for Medicare patients. If they keep costs below certain benchmarks, they get to keep some of the savings as profit. It sounds great in theory, but of the 32 groups that signed up for the ACA’s pilot program, only 19 remain after another four left this week. The four that just left did so in large part because they could not meet the benchmarks set by the program and weren’t seeing any of the savings come back to them. Of the 19 still in the program, the results have been poor to mixed, with only 11 seeing any savings at all.

(Snip)

[Valin]

There Will Be No * SwissSure
Mitch Berg
September 30, 2014

What’s the difference between Switzerland and Minnesota?

• The Swiss don’t have a football team – but if they did, they’d be better than the Vikings
• The Swiss are too smart to socialize their healthcare system:

And it wasn’t even close: 62 percent, mostly German, voted to tube the proposal to socialize Switzerland’s healthcare system.

Hey, speaking of Minnesota – does any of this sound familiar?
(Snip)

* Minnesota Healthcare program is called MnSure

[Draggingtree]

My Aggravating Year With Obamacare

Being forced onto Obamacare will likely lead to me leaving my current career altogether just so I can afford my kids’ health care, ensnaring me in a poverty trap.

By Matthew Lazenka SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Gallup recently noted the rate of people without health insurance in the United States during the second quarter of 2014 had dropped to 13.4 percent and this was below 2008 levels, i.e., a year before POTUS started his presidency. However, one age cohort has not beaten the 2008 level: those ages 26 to 34. Despite passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation acts of 2010, my age cohort is still 1.6 percent above the 2008 uninsured level.

 

One possible reason for this: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) most burdens those of us in this age group. Last year, I discussed my dilemma regarding the loss of my private healthcare plan,

http://thefederalist.com/2014/09/30/my-aggravating-year-with-obamacare/

[Geee]

Second Court Strikes Down Obamacare Subsidies In Federal Exchanges

 

Another federal court has struck down an IRS rule that gives Obamacare subsidies to customers in federally-run exchanges.

The United States District Court in Oklahoma ruled Tuesday in Pruitt v. Burwell that the IRS rule extending health insurance tax credits to Obamacare exchange customers in states that chose not to build their own exchange is illegal.

The Obama administration’s rule is “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or other not in accordance with law,” according to federal district Judge Ronald White.

The question comes down to the repeated instruction in the text of the Affordable Care Act that advanced premium tax credits are to go only to customers of exchanges “established by the state.” The plaintiff in this case, Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, argues that Congress’ text says customers in Oklahoma, which doesn’t run its own exchange, aren’t eligible for the subsidies.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/30/second-court-strikes-down-obamacare-subsidies-in-federal-exchanges/

[Geee]

Obamacare Will Cancel 50,000 More Plans Before November

 

Tens of thousands more Obamacare cancellations are going to pile up over the next month, potentially putting pressure back on the health-care law in the weeks before the election.

 

Insurance companies across the country are slated to send close to 50,000 people cancellation notices before November, according to the Morning Consult. That includes at least 30,000 New Mexicans who will be kicked off their plans, the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday.

 

“We got together and said, ‘This would be the right time to make sure all the citizens in the state who had a plan that wasn’t ACA-compliant would have the opportunity to convert to one,” said New Mexico insurance superintendent John Franchini, apparently without any irony. The state decided in May not to extend plans not compliant with Obamacare past the end of 2014.

 

Another 14,000 people in Kentucky (mostly Humana customers) and 800 Moda customers in Alaska will receive cancellation letters by Oct. 1. Both states accepted three-year extensions of plans not compliant with Obamacare regulations, but top insurers are ending their plans early. It’s a financial boost for Obamacare exchange insurers (both Humana in Kentucky and Moda in Alaska offer exchange plans) to terminate their noncompliant plans.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/30/obamacare-will-cancel-50000-more-plans-before-november/