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Obamacare Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2013 36 Comments
So often we hear Democrats demand Republican capitulation on a host of issues -- some social, some economic -- because Republicans are on "the wrong side of history." That argument was made, in highly perjorative, eliminationist ways during the epic struggle of Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and others to stop Obamacare before it inflicted more pain. That effort to stop Obamacare prior to the failed rollout of healthcare.gov was belittled by people like Timothy Egan in The New York Times as being on the Wrong Side of History, writing on October 3, 2013:
They are not righteous rebels or principled provocateurs. They are not constitutionalists, using the ruling framework built by the founders. Just the opposite: they are a militant fringe of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government trying to nullify an established law by extortion. This is not the design of the Constitution. Nor are they Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa Parks or Winston Churchill — preposterous comparisons made on the floor of Congress by those whose only real fight is with progress.... We know now why Senator Ted Cruz, the most hated man in Washington, said he fears that once Obamacare is up and running people will like it — and then it will be too late for the obstructionists.... They wrecked the car, dug their own grave; no matter what you call it, history’s verdict came early.
Little did Egan or the others belittling the warnings about Obamacare realize that history's verdict would be against them; that Obamacare was it was not as it was sold and would cause Democrats to scramble for distance; that the Tea Party would be viewed as more in touch with American values than the ideology behind Obamacare; that big government would become the most hated thing outside Washington, even if Ted Cruz remained "the most hated man in Washington." The sweep of history is upon us, and it is not with the bigger government Democratic Party.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2013 10 Comments
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a hearing yesterday on the cyber security of the healthcare.gov website. The prepared testimony is available on the Committee's website. The testimony of so-called "white hat hacker" David Kennedy reflected the findings in a report from TrustedSEC, LLC (full report embedded at bottom of post) which concluded:
What this analysis shows us is that as an attacker, there are known exposures in the healthcare.gov website today that could lead to significant compromise of the website and information. Additionally, the website is integrated into multiple agencies including some of the largest collections of United States citizen data – this includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other federal agencies. Based on our evaluation of the website, we have serious concerns over the security of the website and the ability to protect information.
The testimony was featured on Greta: ABC News further reports:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 19, 2013 18 Comments

It’s been another busy couple of days for news on the Obamacare rollout.  Chief among those is a report from the Washington Post that private consultants warned of risks before HealthCare.gov’s Oct. 1 launch: The Obama administration brought in a private consulting team to independently assess...

Posted by New Neo on November 19, 2013 9 Comments
The insurance business would not be possible without some sort of "discrimination"---as in "the ability or power to see or make fine distinctions; discernment," rather than "bigotry or other arbitrary distinctions." Those with greater risk are usually charged higher than average premiums or are sometimes even refused coverage in the first place, in order to keep premiums reasonable for the rest. But the Obama administration and liberals as a whole have been using the word "discrimination" in that second manner, to signify something pejorative and/or arbitrary and unfair when referring to health insurance. They don't raise a hue and cry because life insurance "discriminates" against the elderly, or because flood insurance "discriminates" against those who live in flood plains. But they refer to health insurance as unfairly discriminatory when, for example, insurers limit coverage for pre-existing conditions. Compare and contrast these slogans: "Health insurance discriminates against people with pre-existing conditions!" and "Health insurance discriminates against smokers!"  Obamacare "discriminates" against smokers but not those with preexisting conditions.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 18, 2013 11 Comments

In June of 2009, when what became Obamacare was in its earliest discussion stages, we noted that Deception and Tyranny Were The Key To Health Care Reform. We are seeing how that is being exposed through the knowingly false sales pitch that you could keep your...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2013 40 Comments
As the sham sales pitch and flummoxed policy behind Obamacare are exposed the attempts to portray opposition as a reaction to Obama's race are ramping up with renewed vigor. Yet the evidence is becoming more clear that it is not race that is the problem, it's Obama. Fouad Adjami has a perceptive column (h/t Hot Air), When the Obama Magic Died:
A nemesis awaited the promise of this new presidency: Mr. Obama would turn out to be among the most polarizing of American leaders. No, it wasn't his race, as Harry Reid would contend, that stirred up the opposition to him. It was his exalted views of himself, and his mission. The sharp lines were sharp between those who raised his banners and those who objected to his policies. America holds presidential elections, we know. But Mr. Obama took his victory as a plebiscite on his reading of the American social contract. A president who constantly reminded his critics that he had won at the ballot box was bound to deepen the opposition of his critics. A leader who set out to remake the health-care system in the country, a sixth of the national economy, on a razor-thin majority with no support whatsoever from the opposition party, misunderstood the nature of democratic politics. An election victory is the beginning of things, not the culmination.
It started long before Obamacare.  It started at the earliest point in Obama's presidency, the Stimulus.

Posted by Laurel Conrad on November 17, 2013 14 Comments
In an ironic twist, Bill Clinton is now distancing himself from Obamacare. In an interview earlier this month, Bill Clinton told online magazine Ozy:
I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.
However, this is a far cry from Hillary Clinton's previous support of Obamacare.  As Professor Jacobson pointed out on Wednesday, Hillary was more pro-mandate than Obama. Now, likely in looking forward to the 2016 election, the Clintons have suddenly changed their tune. But with an established track record of supporting Obamacare, will Hillary be able to successfully distance herself from the policy's unpopularity? Here are just five examples of Hillary's support for the Obamacare:

1.  Hillary was "very pleased" by Supreme Court decision

Hillary Clinton's initially reacted to the Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare by saying:
I am very pleased- that's how I hoped it would turn out. I think it's a great moment just to think about what this will mean for the millions and millions of Americans who have already benefitted from the Affordable Care Act, and so many more will continue to do so. There will be a lot of work to do to get it implemented and understand what the opinion says, but obviously I was quite pleased to hear the results.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2013 8 Comments
Hawaii did not submit its Obamacare enrollment numbers in time for the release on Wednesday. Hawaii just released its numbers, Pacific Business News reports, Hawaii Health Connector says only 257 have enrolled so far:
Only 257 individuals in Hawaii have enrolled in health-insurance plans through the Hawaii Health Connector as of Friday, a spokesman confirmed to Pacific Business News. That figure comes two days after the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released an updated enrollment report that found only 106,185 Americans have selected health insurance plans through the online health insurance exchanges out of 846,184 completed applications. Hawaii was one of three states that did not submit enrollment numbers in time for that report. But the state did share in that report that there have been more than 1,750 completed applications, more than 2,370 individuals applying for coverage and 1,156 eligible to enroll.... The Hawaii Health Connector held a meeting with its board of directors Friday afternoon that was aired live on the Hawaii Health Connector’s YouTube channel. Some concerns and suggestions mentioned at the beginning of the meeting included a complex, long application process averaging 40 minutes, as well as needed improvements to the website to improve navigation and make it more user-friendly.
The Honolulu Star further reports (emphasis added):

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 15, 2013 6 Comments

Investigation into the troubled launch of healthcare.gov has continued the last few days, so we’ve rounded up another sampling of recent updates you may have missed for your Friday night reading. Just months before the launch of healthcare.gov, quality assurance issues frustrated a top IT official...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2013 30 Comments
I haven't followed the Upton Bill very carefully. It seems that it is similar to Obama's "fix" except that it also allows insurance companies to sell non-Obamacare compliant policies, not just keep them in force (assuming that even is possible, which it probably is not). The Upton Bill is viewed as a mortal threat by Obamacare defenders (aka Democrats), via The Hill:
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is coming up for a vote on Friday.... Under the administrative fix, insurance companies are permitted to continue offering existing plans to current enrollees — regardless of when they signed up for coverage, or if that coverage was recently altered. But unlike the Upton bill, insurance companies can’t offer the bare-bones plans to new enrollees.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 21 Comments

I'll have more in the morning about the non-fix fix. I've been out of pocket all afternoon and evening. So for now, just sit back and enjoy some move Obamacare navigator fraud via James O'Keefe's Project Veritas: Project Veritas caught Obamacare Navigators counseling applicants to lie on...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 80 Comments
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again
Barack Obama just announced a "fix" for the private individual health insurance market broken by Obamacare. After an estimated 5 million and growing policies were cancelled due to Obamacare, Obama said "never mind" and told insurance companies to just keep selling the cancelled policies. "Insurers can extend plans" into 2014. (Transcipt here.) This does nothing to fix the problem, which is a war on plans people like but the Obama administration dislikes. Democrats -- alone and over vigorous objections from Republicans -- broke the individual health care insurance market. It can't just be put back together again under Obamacare. https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/401015479198052352 Not only that, but Obamas is doing this unilaterally as an administrative matter, without changing the law. So much for Democrats objections to prior proposals from Republicans that Obamacare was "settled law."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 8 Comments
Martha Robertson is the Democratic candidate challenging Republican incumbent Tom Reed in NY-23, my home district. We have highlighted Robertson many times before regarding her unsubstantiated fundraising claim that "GOP ops" tried to take down her website. Robertson's campaign never has provided proof of that claim, leading to a fair amount of negative local television coverage and even national press attention. The fundraising scandal, which I doubt is over, likely will be overshadowed by a much bigger problem: Robertson is a long-time and vocal supporter of mandates with the ultimate goal of single-payer. In light of the Obamacare debacle, and the inability of the federal government even to set up a website portal, a complete federal government takeover of the health care system is a hard sell. Some of Robertson's speeches were captured on video. Here are some excerpts where Robertson discussed her support for mandates, a government option and ultimately single payer: Nationally, Democrats are being hurt badly by the Obamacare debacle. Not surprisingly, Reed already has started to make Robertson's support for single payer an issue:

Posted by New Neo on November 13, 2013 48 Comments
Why should the Republicans try to pull Obamacare's fat out of the fire by correcting some of its most anger-provoking consequences? DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ asks a Good question:
The GOP has to be seen doing something. That's just reality. Millions of people who played by the rules are losing their insurance and quite possibly their doctors as well. It's simply not an option for a political party to say, "Wow, that sucks for you. Should have voted for us, huh?". Campaigns are about generating future support, not punishing voters for past lack of support... Could this all go south and wind up with the GOP sharing blame for Obama's failure? Theoretically, yes. But doing nothing isn't risk free either.
I've pondered this question ever since I heard that Republicans had suggested a Keep Your Health Plan Act to undo the cancellations and make Obama stick to his promises. Why interrupt your enemy when he might already be occupied in effectively destroying himself? Then again, people are suffering, and a failure to help them will not endear Republicans to anyone except the most die-hard tough-love advocates.
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