So how can numbers coming from the Obama admin be reliable?...
Massachusetts will stop trying to fix its deeply flawed health insurance website and instead buy new software to help its residents enroll in coverage, officials there said Monday. But the state will also prepare to join the federal insurance marketplace by the next enrollment period, which starts in November, in case the new system is not working in time.It must be a difficult pill to swallow for the state, given that it had a functioning system prior to revamping its site to comply with the new federal law. And that’s spurred some sharp criticism.The decision follows months of problems with enrollment through the state website, which Massachusetts set up in 2006 under its landmark health insurance law. The site worked well until it was revamped last year to comply with the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s health care law. The state had put CGI, the company that also helped design the initially problem-plagued federal exchange, in charge of the overhaul.
Massachusetts announced in March that it was dropping CGI, but it is still negotiating the terms of ending its $69 million contract, of which the state has paid $17 million. The state received $174 million from the federal government to overhaul its health insurance website and has spent about $57 million so far, including the amount paid to CGI, according to Glen Shor, the state’s secretary of administration and finance.Sarah Iselin, a health insurance executive whom Gov. Deval Patrick appointed to oversee fixes to the website, said the new “dual-track” plan would cost a little more than $100 million through 2015. But she said it was too soon to know whether the state would seek more federal money; that will depend partly on whether the state ends up owing CGI more money.
Funny at White House Correspondents' Dinner, but not in real life for people affected...
Data provided to the committee by every insurance provider in the health care law’s Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) shows that, as of April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process. Nationwide, only 25 percent of paid enrollees are ages 18 to 34.... ...bThe committee has compiled the data that provides a snapshot of the true enrollment picture as of April 15, 2014, after the official end of the open enrollment period. Due to the administration’s repeated and unilateral extensions and changes, as well as the fact that many insurers have reported that individuals will still have time to pay their first month’s premium, the committee plans to ask the insurers in the federally facilitated marketplace to provide an enrollment update by May 20, 2014. On April 17, 2014, President Obama declared the success of his law, claiming that 8 million Americans had signed up for health insurance, but data from the insurance providers reveals that the president’s figure is largely misleading. As of April 15, 2014, insurers informed the committee that only 2.45 million had paid their first month’s premium for coverage obtained through the federally facilitated marketplace. While the administration has relied on questionable nationwide figures to boast the law’s success, the state-by-state breakdown compiled by the committee underscores the serious problems facing some states.
Kathleen Sebelius shook down health care providers to provide assistance to private group helping with Obamacare sign ups....
The Debate Over Obamacare Is Hardly Over President Obama opened his press conference Thursday with a bold proclamation that "the repeal debate is and should be over." But his declaration of victory in the long-running war over his health care overhaul did not last long. Only five questions later, he was forced to offer a softer, almost wistful acknowledgement of the reality that there are many more battles to wage and the debate could go on for years.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, the lone member of the Bay State delegation to vote against Obamacare four years ago, now predicts the law’s botched roll-out will not only cost Democrats valuable House seats but could even jeopardize their control of the Senate in this year’s hotly contested midterm elections. “We will lose seats in the House,” the plain-talking South Boston Democrat said in Boston Herald Radio’s studio yesterday, delivering a harsh diagnosis. “I am fairly certain of that based on the poll numbers that are coming out from the more experienced pollsters down there. And I think we may lose the Senate. I think that’s a possibility if things continue to go the way they have been ... primarily because of health care.”
Dramatic changes in questions by Census Bureau makes measuring Obamacare (in)effectiveness more difficult...
The sudden resignation of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius came as a surprise to many considering that just last week she stated her intention to stay. The Huffington Post reported...
METAPHOR ALERT!...
After spending over $300 million on its exchange, the state of Oregon has failed to enroll a single person online. Somewhere along the way Oregon managed to sign up 44 people for Obamacare, but not through the internet. Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner reported in...
According to a report from Wynton Hall at Breitbart, enrollments in Obamacare are being significantly overstated...
A new report from WHEC in Rochester is painting a very bleak scenario for New Yorkers, some forced to choose between buying groceries or purchasing Obamacare plans, some concerned about going bankrupt after falling ill. So why are New Yorkers concerned about going bankrupt due to...
Maine senator Angus King is an independent who caucuses with Democrats. On FOX News Sunday while being questioned by Chris Wallace, King made an interesting statement. The Weekly Standard reported...
Citing Obamacare and an increase in the state's minimum wage, the owner of Waterford-based Yankee One Dollar is closing down shop on all 23 remaining locations. Via the Times Union: Waterford-based Yankee One Dollar stores will be gone within the next five months, its owner told the...
“What the hell is this, a joke?” Boehner said at his weekly press conference. ...The Speaker called the move “another deadline made meaningless,” adding it to a litany of unilateral changes that the administration has made to the law.
Tuesday, all eyes will be on a high-profile Obamacare case before the Supreme Court. But just a few blocks away, a lower court will hear a lesser-known Obamacare case that could have a far greater impact on the future of the law. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments Tuesday in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, a case challenging the Obama administration's attempt to force private companies to purchase contraceptives for their employees contrary to the owners' religious beliefs. A ruling for Hobby Lobby would restore the religious freedom of potentially millions of employers and workers. Just down the street, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Halbig v. Sebelius. Obamacare supporters call Halbig "the greatest existential litigation threat to the Affordable Care Act." That description, while colorful, is not quite accurate. Halbig does not ask the courts to strike down any part of the law. It merely asks the court to force the administration to implement the law as Congress intended, a prospect that absolutely terrifies Obamacare supporters.The issue is whether the IRS can issue subsidies for people who sign up for Obamacare through federally run exchanges, which would seem to be contrary to the plain language of the statute. Prof. Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy analyzed the issues yesterday:
