Posted on 10/20/2015 2:03:10 AM PDT by Libloather
A federal judge on Monday denied a request from the Obama administration to immediately appeal a ruling in House Republicans' ObamaCare lawsuit.
The district court judge, Rosemary Collyer, last month gave House Republicans a big win by ruling that their lawsuit against the administration could move forward.
The Obama administration strongly objected to that decision and asked for the ability to immediately appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. But on Monday, Collyer denied that request, deciding that she will first decide the substance of the case.
Collyer wrote that a ruling on the substance of the case would not take much more time -- "a matter of months" -- and that the appeals court "will be best served by reviewing a complete record" on both the standing issue and the substance of the case.
In the case, House v. Burwell, GOP lawmakers argue that President Obama is overstepping his constitutional powers by spending money on an ObamaCare program that Congress has not appropriated funds for.
The money, $136 billion over 10 years, is known as "cost-sharing reductions" and helps ObamaCare enrollees afford their out-of-pocket healthcare costs. The administration argues that it is justified in spending the money because the funds are built into the law and do not need to be appropriated. Read more here.
SASSE THREATENS TO BLOCK NOMINEES OVER CO-OPS Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is throwing up roadblocks to the confirmation of two top Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) nominees over what he describes as "systematic failures" of an ObamaCare program for start-up insurers.
"I will act to block consideration and confirmation of every [HHS] nominee until families who lost their co-op insurance plans get straight answers," Sasse announced in a press release Monday.
The Senate has two pending nominees for high-level HHS positions: Andy Slavitt to be head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and Karen DeSalvo to be an assistant secretary.
Sasse is blasting the Obama administration for the failure of nine state-run health insurers known as co-ops, which he and other Republicans have said needed stronger oversight. The co-op program, which is now down to 15 insurers, has received billions of dollars in federal loans. Read more here.
TEXAS MOVES TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD Texas officials announced Monday that they are moving to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood through the state's Medicaid program, the latest in a series of battles around the organization.
In a letter to Planned Parenthood, Texas officials cited the series of controversial undercover videos from an anti-abortion group that sparked months of conflict.
"Texas has stepped forward and shown its unyielding commitment to both protecting life and providing women's health services," Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in a statement. "The gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed in Texas and the barbaric practice must be brought to an end."
The decision is expected to draw a legal challenge, as have similar efforts in Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas.
Earlier Monday, a federal judge ruled that Louisiana must keep making Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for two more weeks as the case continues. Read more here.
RATS won’t be wiped out ever if establishment ‘pubs keep treating Constitutional Conservatives and Trump as the enemy.
What about the GOPe that supports OdumboCare? lets face it the GOPe has done very little to end OdumboCare. The money is allocated through the House of Rep, each and every time I hear that OdumboCare will not be funded, in the end it gets funded with Republican Support. So is this just another in a series of so called wins that when it gets to the nex level, he Odumbo administration will utilize delay tacics so in the end the OdumboCare is fully fnded as a travesty that destroys the American Economy. Look what has been done the Odumbo Adminisraion has taken money for Medicare illegally and transferred into OdumboCare. This year Medicare premiums are to go up anywhere from 50.00 to 100.00 for elderly and disabled individuals.
Flat Enrollment Estimates For 2016--Has The Obama Administration Given Up On Obamacare?
Why isn’t Obamacare growing?
Because, other than for the lowest income people who enjoy the biggest subsidies and lowest deductibles, the insurance products health plans are required by Obamacare to sell people are just plain unattractive with their still after subsidy premiums and high deductibles and co-pays. The value simply isn’t there for the working and middle class–unless of course you are sick.
But the Risk Pool is Going to Get better Over Time
If Obamacare fails to grow past its now anemic enrollment levels, each open enrollment will be just another bad dream lived over and over. If we once again, as the administration is now projecting, get a 40% take-up rate the healthy people will disproportionately cycle out of the pool and the sick people will disproportionately cycle into it. And, this can go on year after year. In health insurance industry terms, we will just keep churning the block with no underwriting improvement.
To break this cycle we need to see the risk pool grow to closer to that 75% industry standard so we are assured of getting lots of healthy people.
But the Average Lowest Cost Silver Plan is Only Going up 4.4%
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) also points out that while rates are going up for many health plans, the baseline second lowest cost Silver Plan will only cost 4.4% more than it did last year in the 13 states it surveyed. Which only proves that after one full year of claims data there is at least one insurance plan in most of these 13 states that still doesn’t understand its risk pool and hardly represents the actions of the plans with the most data and sophistication.
Nor does the KFF report accurately portray the sustainability of a national market where, as the Obama administration’s report on risk corridor payments showed, carriers losing money are doing so at a rate eight times greater than those making money. Add to that these 2016 rates were filed before the health plans knew the feds were stiffing them out of $2.5 billion in reinsurance payments they had earlier promised to pay and I will suggest that it will be a while yet before we see the full set of true costs accurately displayed across the full market.
a legal challenge can go forward for months and months, but absent Medicaid funds, PP will wither on the vine and be dead by the time a judgement is finally rendered.
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