Obamacare Tag

Obama promised, repeatedly, that you could keep your plan if you like it.  Period. When called out on that, he tried to deny such a categorical promise, the video notwithstanding. Politifact gave him a "Pants on Fire" rating for trying to make the promise conditional:

According to Obama, "What we said was you can keep (your plan) if it hasn’t changed since the law passed." But we found at least 37 times since Obama’s inauguration where he or a top administration official made a variation of the pledge that if you like your plan, you can keep it, and we never found an instance in which he offered the caveat that it only applies to plans that hadn’t changed after the law’s passage. And seven of those 37 cases came after the release of the HHS regulations that defined the "grandfathering" process, when the impact would be clear.... We rate his claim Pants on Fire.

Tonight Obama said he was "sorry" that some Americans have had their health insurance plans dropped after his repeated assurances that they could keep their plan if they liked it. From NBC News:

President Obama said Thursday that he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his promise that no one would have to give up a health plan they liked.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the Senate Finance Committee this morning on the troubled rollout of HealthCare.gov. Not surprisingly, Sebelius was pressed on the President's promise that "if you like your health plan, you can keep it," a promise that's been repeated in various forms numerous times, including on the White House website. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas addressed the issue with Secretary Sebelius. "We know that lying to Congress is a crime, but unfortunately lying to the American people is not," Cornyn said. "I'd just like to ask you a simple true or false question. Is that statement on the White House website true? Or is it false?" Watch Sebelius' response below. And in another exchange, Cornyn addressed with Sebelius the issue of background checks for Obamacare navigators.  Navigators can assist individuals in exploring coverage options on the Marketplace, "including completing eligibility and enrollment forms." "Isn't it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check, even though they will receive sensitive personal information from the individuals they help sign up for the Affordable Care Act?" Sebelius calmly responded, "That is true. States could add an additional, um, background checks and other features, but it is not part of the federal requirement." "So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them," Cornyn pressed.

Last week, White House press secretary Jay Carney admitted that Obamacare would force around 15 million people -  5% of the US population - to drop their current insurance. This number doesn't seem like a big deal to him, however:

“That’s the universe we’re talking about, 5 percent of the population,” Carney described. “In some of the coverage of this issue in the last several days, you would think that you were talking about 75 percent or 80 percent or 60 percent of the American population.”

That number is close to some other estimates for the individual market, but does not include people whose employers drop coverage, multiplying that number several fold. But how many people is 15 million? Is it really such a small number, something we shouldn't care about? Let's put it in perspective, and visualize 15 million people:

1. The combined population of 13 states

Yes, you read that correctly. 15 million is approximately the number of total people living in Wyoming, Vermont,  North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, New Hampshire,  Maine, Hawaii, Idaho, and West Virginia combined.  And more than all of the New England states!

Hey, remember when Nancy Pelosi triumphantly predicted that Obamacare would allow artists to have health insurance without worrying about their day jobs?

Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or, eh, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance....

Nancy Pelosi Helath Care Will Give up More of... by GWHH19 It's a dream come true, and you are subsidizing it, as this NY Times spotlight piece about two artists in Albequerque who quality for free Obamacare plans demonstrates:

Elisabeth and Mark Horst, artists in Albuquerque who earn $24,000 a year between them, qualified for a zero-premium plan.

I have nothing against the Horsts. Living and painting in Albuquerque is a dream for many people. But why should the taxpayers have to subsidize what clearly is a lifestyle choice? The Horsts are not exactly uneducated or without choices in their lives. Here's a part of Mark Horst's bio at his art website:

Mark Horst grew up in small town Minnesota. He studied pottery and printmaking in high school and college, but his encounter with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker led to years of very different work. After earning a Ph.D. in theology from Yale University, he spent time teaching and working toward neighborhood renewal in south Minneapolis. He pursued the craft of painting and drawing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the New York Studio School. He lives in Albuquerque. If paint were a means of freezing time and protecting us from the dangerous life of the spirit, I would put down my brushes. But, for me, painting is a way of breaking time’s grip and setting loose something wild and strong.

Elizabeth also is highly educated and closed her psychology practice to paint:

Heritage came out with a disturbing report on its blog last night that highlighted another security concern with the Obamacare website, in which a user evaluating his health insurance options was presented with downloadable letters that contained insurance eligibility information about other people. https://twitter.com/Heritage/status/396796928949620737 From The Foundry:

[Justin] Hadley, a North Carolina father, buys his insurance on the individual market. His insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, directed him to HealthCare.gov in a cancellation letter he received in September. After multiple attempts to access the problem-plagued website, Hadley finally made it past the registration page Thursday. That’s when he was greeted with downloadable letters about eligibility — for two people in South Carolina. (Screenshot below.) The letters, dated October 8, acknowledge receipt of an application to the Health Insurance Marketplace and the eligibility of family members to purchase health coverage. One of the letters was addressed to Thomas Dougall, a lawyer from Elgin, SC.

Both Hadley and Heritage spoke with Dougall about the situation.  Dougall had apparently registered on healthcare.gov in early October but had decided not to sign up for a plan.  He had not seen the aforementioned letter until Hadley had shown it to him. Not surprisingly, Dougall said, “I want my personal information off of that website.” Hadley and Dougall have both contacted various representatives with healthcare.gov and HHS, but neither seems to be making much progress in rectifying the situation.  Both have also reached out to their elected officials, according to Heritage.

The Wall Street Journal has published this report that Aides Debated Obama Health-Care Coverage Promise, revealing that some questioned whether the promise was one that could actually be kept. But apparently, it was important that the President's message not be cluttered. Pesky details. As President Barack Obama...

They own all of our Obamacare problems, completely. CNN reports, Senate Democrats supported rule that led to insurance cancellations:

Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it. “The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time. “The administration's own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House's own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,” the Iowa Republican said. On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year.

These vulnerable Senate Dems who are up for reelection in 2014 helped kill the grandfathering fix: Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich.

Hey, remember Cash for Clunkers? We sure do, we wrote about it frequently and predicted negative unintended consequences:

• We Are All Car Buyers Now
• Cash for Clunkers Driving Up Prices
• Cash For Clunkers Rear Ends Rhode Islanders
• “I Didn’t Buy A Clunker, But I’m Paying Anyway”
• My Cash-for-Clunkers Bill = $183

Seth Mandel at Commentary Magazine has an update, Speaking of Failed Big-Government Programs…:

The ongoing debacle that is the administration’s rollout of ObamaCare has reignited debate about technocracy and big-government liberalism. But Democrats who worry that their mode of coercive politics will be discredited by ObamaCare should be thankful it took this long. A very well-timed reminder of this arrived yesterday from the Brookings Institution. Scholars at the left-leaning think tank analyzed the so-called “Cash for Clunkers” program, the 2009 “stimulus” program intended to get cleaner cars on the road by providing cash vouchers for those who trade in older gas guzzlers and buy newer, more efficient cars. The administration patted itself on the back when the program ran out of money, apparently pleasantly surprised that people took free money during an economic downturn. But Brookings confirms that this was, of course, a terrible program. Here are their major findings:

There is so much wrong with Obamacare and HealthCare.gov that the news is swarming.  Or is it swirling? So we'll just keep a running list today of what's new in the past 24 hours.  If you have links, post them in the comments. We'll have a separate post, if needed, for "Breaking" news or if we just feel like it. Let's start with this Al-Jazeera America story about Colorado (via Weekly Standard): From Media Trackers, Obamacare Navigator Sign-Ups Remain Low in Pennsylvania:

As the first month of the Obamacare rollout comes to an end, most of Pennsylvania’s navigator organizations said they have not guided anyone to enrollment in the federal health insurance exchange. The organizations attributed the low enrollment to the lack of a fully functioning website.

We reported on this before.  Health insurance execs afraid to talk on record about Obamacare computer problems. CNN reports today, White House Pressuring Insurance Companies To Not Criticize ObamaCare:

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Now more breaking news, evidence that the Obama administration is leaning on insurance companies to keep a lid on problems with the healthcare law rollout. Now Drew Griffin on CNN’s investigations did the reporting. So Drew, What’s going on here, what have you learned? DREW GRIFFIN: Anderson, what’s going on is behind the scenes attempt by the White House to at least keep insurers from publicly criticizing what is happening on this Affordable Care Act rollout. Basically, if you speak out, if you are quoted, you’re going to get a call from the White House, pressure to be quiet. Several sources tell me and my colleague Chris Frates that insurance executives are being told to keep quiet....

https://twitter.com/whpresscorps/status/395410470653661184 Why would the insurance industry be worried? Maybe because like all Obama critics, they are only one speech away from being demonized.

More is coming to light in recent days and weeks to suggest that concerns about potential security issues with the healthcare.gov website may be justified. In an article today from CNN, it was revealed that lack of testing of healthcare.gov presented a security risk, according to an internal government memo written by IT officials at CMS days before the launch.

An internal government memo obtained by CNN and written just days before the start of open enrollment for Obamacare warned of a "high" security risk because of a lack of testing of the HealthCare.gov website. "Due to system readiness issues, the SCA (security control assessment) was only partly completed," said the internal memo from the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "This constitutes a risk that must be accepted and mitigated to support the Marketplace Day 1 operations." The memo goes on to explain that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services would create a "dedicated security team" to monitor the risk, conduct weekly scans and, within 60 to 90 days after the website went live, "conduct a full-scale SCA test." The memo did not detail the security concerns. It was written by IT officials at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and was sent to and signed by the agency's director, Marilyn Tavenner, who testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that she thought the website was ready to go when it began its crash-riddled rollout on October 1.

And in an earlier article at CNN Money titled Security hole found in Obamacare website, it was also reported that a cybersecurity expert discovered a security flaw that went unaddressed for more than three weeks after healthcare.gov’s launch.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will testify Wednesday morning at 9:00am ET before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  The session, entitled PPACA Implementation Failures: Answers from HHS, is expected to focus on issues with the troubled rollout of healthcare.gov and address questions about why, despite such issues, HHS officials "repeatedly assured the public that implementation was progressing on time and as intended," according to an advance memo on the hearing. The livestream below will be available once the hearing begins.  A secondary video feed will be available at C-SPAN if there are any issues with the other feed. Live streaming video by Ustream CNN reported Tuesday afternoon that the Obama administration was warned only a month before the launch of the federal health care website that were still some significant issues facing the project, according to a list of open risks outlined in a document from CGI, the main contractor on the project. Updates: https://twitter.com/amandacarpenter/status/395543787470340097