Obamacare Tag

Odious Obamacare is about more than crippling families with massive cost increases and destroying the market for innovation that has created so many lifesaving drugs and treatments. The small-business regulatory compliance costs for restaurants and grocery stores to report calorie counts for each and every menu offering, which would go into effect in December 2016, are threatening to add yet another burden to ma-and-pa outfits across the country. Wednesday, the bipartisan"Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act" was approved by voice vote to move to the full House committee and means some relief from the insanity of Big Government may be on the way. The bill seeks to ease the requirements of restaurants and grocery stores to disclose the calorie counts for their foodstuffs, regulations that add up to nearly 400 pages of national disclosure requirements from the FDA. The compliance required is overwhelming enough for some Democrats to part from their Dear Leader and join Republicans seeking to amend the process. But what's more awkward for the Obama nutrition-gestapo is that a study from NYU reported on in the Wall Street Journal this week shows that there is virtually no difference in menu-ordering when consumers are provided with calorie counts.

Consumers living in the country's fourth largest city will no longer be able to purchase an individual PPO. Market changes sparked by implantation of Obamacare are putting the squeeze on the self-employed and those who purchase health insurance outside of a large employer sponsored PPO. The Lone Star State's largest PPO provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas announced earlier this month that beginning in 2016, the would no longer offer individual PPO plans, though some enrolled in certain plans in 2010 might be grandfathered in. Just yesterday, I received a notification from my health insurance provider that my plan, an HMO, would be cancelled.

Needing a break from the computer screen, I wandered out to the mailbox to find an “OPEN IMMEDIATELY, THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH” envelope from my health insurance provider, tucked between the junk mail and a cooking magazine. Sure enough, it was a cancellation notice. Now, I too am a victim of Obamacare’s reign of insurance premium of terror. Not to worry though. I can pay 20% more for less coverage and a deductible increase from $500 to $3250. But my story is small potatoes compared to many families who are forced to watch in horror as their health insurance premiums triple and their deductibles multiply faster than rabbits. The Obama administration acknowledged Monday that consumers would see health insurance premium increases across the board in 2016. They claim the average premium increases clocks in at 7.5%, though I have no idea where they’re getting these numbers. Don’t want to pay more? Then go back to the exchanges and shop around. You might pay less, but you’ll also have fewer benefits and higher deductibles.

I started writing this post before I checked the mail today. Needing a break from the computer screen, I wandered out to the mailbox to find an "OPEN IMMEDIATELY, THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH" envelope from my health insurance provider, tucked between the junk mail and a cooking magazine. Sure enough, it was a cancellation notice. Now, I too am a victim of Obamacare's reign of insurance premium of terror. Not to worry though. I can pay 20% more for less coverage and a deductible increase from $500 to $3250. But my story is small potatoes compared to many families who are forced to watch in horror as their health insurance premiums triple and their deductibles multiply faster than rabbits.

Seems like only yesterday we were reporting the fifth state level health insurance co-op closing in Kentucky. Since Thursday, the co-op closure toll has jumped to eight. Twenty-three tax-payer funded co-ops were created under Obamacare. Last year, Forbes Opinion Editor Avik Roy testified before Congress saying, "there are fundamental flaws in the way the co-op program was designed."

Kentucky's nonprofit health insurer cooperative established under Obamacare announced it will be shutting down due to financial troubles. As a result, 51,000 individuals will lose their health insurance plans at the end of the year. It turns out, not everyone enrolled in health insurance plans through state-level co-ops pay their premiums. Gee, it's almost like Republicans predicted this might be an issue. The fifth such co-op to close, the remaining 18 are all on equally unstable footing. 21 of the 23 co-ops were losing money at the end of 2014, and 11 have received warning letters. According to The Hill:

Kentucky Health Cooperative, a nonprofit insurer known as a co-op, explained that it could not stay financially afloat after learning of a low payment from an ObamaCare program called “risk corridors.” That program was intended to protect insurers from heavy losses in the early years of the health law by taking money from better-performing insurers and giving it to worse-performing ones. ...However, the Obama administration announced on Oct. 1 that the program would pay out far less than requested, because the payments coming in were not enough to match what insurers requested to be paid. Therefore, insurers only will receive 12.6 percent of the $2.87 billion they requested. “It is with sadness that we announce this decision," the insurer’s CEO, Glenn Jennings, said in a statement. "This very difficult choice was made after much deliberation. If there were a way to avoid it and simultaneously do right by the members, providers and all others that we serve, we would do so.” The Department of Health and Human Services says that it recognizes that the low payments to insurers could have raised financial concerns for some insurers, and that as start-ups, not all co-ops would succeed. ...Twenty-one of 23 co-ops nationwide were losing money as of Dec. 31, the HHS inspector general report found in July. Furthermore, enrollment was falling below projections for 13 of the 23 plans.

The Kentucky co-op closure announcement comes only a few weeks after the nations largest co-op in New York announced it would be shutting down.

When President Obama was pushing Obamacare, he stated  before a joint session of Congress in September 2009 that it would not be opened up to illegal immigrants. Remember what happened next? Representative Joe Wilson yelled, "You lie!" and it caused quite a stir. Here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vt_OrSeWk Wilson may have violated the rules of decorum, but was he wrong? It has taken some time, but President Obama may owe Wilson an apology. From Forbes:

The White House released a memo for all Americans on Thursday. They want us to be sure to defend Obamacare from any disparaging family members. Sarah Ferris of The Hill:

White House: Have you talked to your family about ObamaCare lately? The Obama administration wants you to bring a side of healthcare politics to your family picnic this weekend. After ObamaCare’s big win at the Supreme Court last week, federal health officials are serving up some tips about talking to family members who may be less-than-enthused that ObamaCare is here to stay. “You should be prepared when Aunt Janine says something like, ‘Obamacare hasn’t helped anyone!’” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services wrote in a blog post on Thursday. For instance, if your Uncle Ted starts calling Obamacare a train wreck, you should calmly explain that he’s “gotten ahold of some old talking points," the spokesman recommends.