Posted on 11/04/2013 2:29:53 PM PST by Libloather
Administration officials were concerned that once users were able to view the available policies for purchase on HealthCare.gov, they could be disappointed with the cost and options available.
The concerns were expressed in meeting notes from the ObamaCare "war room" obtained by CNN.
"In some cases, there will be fewer options than would be desired to promote consumer choice and an ideal shopping experience," the meeting notes read. "Additionally, in some cases there will be relatively high cost plans."
The discussion last week among officials at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight appeared to reveal a behind-the-scenes concern that broke from public assurances made by President Obama and other top administration officials.
At an event last week in Boston, Obama said "choice and competition in the new national marketplaces have helped keep costs lower than even we projected."
The New York Times reported last week that those cost savings were harder to find in some rural areas because of reduced competition. In some 530 counties serviced by federal exchanges, only one health insurance company was offering coverage.
White House press secretary Jay Carney downplayed those concerns to reporters last week.
"Nearly all consumers -- about 95 percent -- will have a choice of two or more health insurance issuers, often many more," he said. "And nearly all consumers -- about 95 percent -- live in states with average premiums below earlier estimates."
The White House spokesman said that for many consumers living in rural areas, a limited number of choices was nothing new. Carney said that the White House knew it couldn't "transform these markets overnight."
"The individual market has long been dominated by one or two carriers, particularly in rural areas," Carney said. "So this is a problem that significantly preexists the Affordable Care Act."
On Monday, Carney fought with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl over questions about whether the White House deceived Americans with claims they could bypass the broken HealthCare.gov website by using the phone or mailing in an application.
A separate set of meeting notes showed that consumers who called the ObamaCare hotline or applied for insurance would still have their information eventually inputted on the glitchy HealthCare.gov website, which has been plagued by technical problems since its launch on Oct. 1.
That prompted reporters to ask whether Obama had been deceptive when he said during his address in the Rose Garden that consumers could bypass the website by phoning a call center or sending in a paper application.
Carney said that the White House "never pretended" that the call centers wouldn't eventually route consumer information through the website. The point, he argued, was to shift the burden of waiting for the technical glitches to be ironed out from applicants to the government.
"In terms of the user experience, the whole point was to alleviate the frustration that so many Americans were having online and to take that frustration away from them and allow a live person at a call-in center to handle their questions and their sign-ups and their enrollment for them," Carney said. "So I know it's spoken in tones of dramatic revelation, but it was a known fact at the time."
Yeah, seriously, they give a crap?
It is not just teh choices offered, it is the price and the physicians and hospitals who will accept Obamacare. The morons who elected him are going to get a very hard lesson.
Well, that settles it!
Actually, they do give a crap. This disaster knocked the “shutdown” out of the headlines and made it a distant memory. They were counting on pushing that story into next year’s elections.
This article is a lie. They don’t care.
Yes, it did. In fact, it made the Republicans appear prescient for suggesting a delay.
I was watching a Jon Stewart (of all people) Youtube clip on the topic and he started the bit off with "yeah, we had the Republicans right where we wanted them on the shutdown and then this happened," and then segued into an extended mockery of the very mockable 0bamacare website. He was making fun of it but there's an awful lot of truth hidden in humor.
Now, what they'll actually do about it is another issue. Up till now brazening it out has been an effective ploy because the media have been unindicted co-conspirators. That facade is cracking a little here, which is one indication of just how bad it really is. Can they stonewall and spin for an entire year before the 2014 elections? The calculators are being pummeled and arms being twisted in DC to figure that one out. I suspect the numbers aren't good.
My guess is that their plan is to take their lumps in '14 and hold onto the law by hook or crook until the '16 Presidential race. That means incessant media spin, Presidential vetoes, lawsuits, Congressional maneuvering, all that fun stuff we've come to expect from this "most transparent" administration. Transparent liars, yes. The rest, not so much.
I’d hate to be roaming WDC looking for an honest person. Liars...liars...and more liars.
And this is the FIRST TIME it crossed their minds??? BS!!!! That is one reason they lied about it coming out of the gate.
“”In some cases, there will be fewer options than would be desired to promote consumer choice and an ideal shopping experience,” the meeting notes read.”
Wow! Dims are for choice only when killing babies and sodomy.
They are aiming for single payer, 100% government controlled distribution of medicine.
(Note I did not say healthcare.)
White House press secretary Jay Carney downplayed those concerns to reporters last week.
Maybe Obama knows about this - he reads the New York Times right?
My prediction is they will kick the can down the road past the next elections by postponing the individual mandate. They would seriously screw over the insurance companies and probably render the “exchanges” a fail, but this bunch doesn’t care about anything but their own power.
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