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**SNIP** The result is an app for the Apple iPhone called Obamacare411; a website at http://www.obamacare411.info; and a Facebook page, Obamacare411_Info. (Do not confuse the Facebook page with www.facebook.com/Obamacare411, which is maintained by a separate group in Virginia.) Developed on what Pinto called a "shoestring budget," the app was available to be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store as of Wednesday. Because of budget limitations, the application is not yet available for other smartphone platforms. "That's why we developed the website, so people who couldn't download the app could still have access to the information through their browser,"...

The Democrats knew what they were doing when they deferred the implementation of most provisions of Obamacare until after the 2012 election. What is surprising, really, is that Obamacare has been so unpopular, given that most of its baleful effects have not yet been felt. But it won’t be long now. The Associated Press reports that health insurers are warning of massive price increases beginning next year: Some Americans could see their insurance bills double next year as the health care overhaul law expands coverage to millions of people.

House Republican leaders have a new problem. They can’t count on their members to support them on procedural votes. Sixteen Republicans defected Wednesday in a vote on the rule governing consideration of a government-funding bill meant to prevent a government shutdown. The defections could have caused the rule to fail since most Democrats voted also voted against it. Even more striking? Seven of the Republicans who voted against the rule then voted for the funding bill. Votes on rules are supposed to be party-line and serve as tests of a caucus’s unity. So it was disconcerting for leaders to see...

President Obama warned Saturday that automatic spending cuts known as the sequester threaten to stifle the surge in job growth the nation saw in February. Switching from the adversarial tone he has used to pressure Republican leaders in recent weeks, the president appealed to what he called the vision both parties share for the country. “As Democrats and Republicans, we may disagree on the best way to achieve our goals, but I’m confident we can agree on what those goals should be,” Obama said in his weekly address. He cited a vibrant middle class, an education system that gives more...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has posted a draft of proposed "health insurance providers fee" (RIN 1545-BL20) regulations. Consumer representatives and others are trying to get the IRS to write the regulations in such a way that the agency will discourage health insurance providers from trying to "recover a large portion of the fee from policyholders," officials said in a preamble to draft regulations. The rulemaking notice is set to appear in the Federal Register Monday. Comments will be due 60 days after the official publication date. The fee The proposed regulations are supposed to help the IRS implement Section...

Obamacare outlawed underwriting by health insurance companies. In other words, if we are diagnosed with cancer, run 10Ks, have diabetes or a family history of heart attacks, we all pay the same price. Fine. But there is one big exception. Smokers, who can be charged a huge insurance surcharge for their unhealthy habit. **SNIP** This financial stick is entirely political. Notice we never hear experts wanting to “punish” the promiscuous for the cost burden they inflict on the health care system. Yet people who sleep around, like smokers and the obese, cost the rest of us plenty–what with promiscuity leading...

The other ObamaCare middle class tax hike arrives in 2014By: John Hayward 12/12/2012 09:14 AM If you think it’s been horrifying to watch ObamaCare pop open like a jack-in-the-box filled with tax increases over the last couple of weeks, just wait until the huge new taxes on health insurance companies hit in 2014. A study commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) lays out the details: The [Affordable Care Act] imposes a new sales tax on health insurance that starts at $8 billion in 2014, increases to $14.3 billion in 2018, and will continue to increase each year. The Joint...

Dems: Federal health programs should cover DREAMersBy Sam Baker - 12/03/12 02:53 PM ET Federal healthcare programs should cover the children of illegal immigrants, a group of House Democrats says. Democrats are asking the Obama administration to make healthcare available to children who are able to stay in the U.S. under the deferred-action immigration policy that President Obama announced earlier this year. The policy — similar to the DREAM Act — allows many children of illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation, as long as they meet certain criteria. A group of House Democrats, led by...

The ObamaCare fiscal cliffBy: John Hayward 11/30/2012 02:34 PM While we’re busy listening to President Obama demand a $1.6 trillion tax increase on some people as the price for disarming part of a $1.2 trillion tax bomb aimed at other people, let’s not forget that he’s already detonated a $1.058 trillion tax warhead on all of us: ObamaCare. As the House Ways and Means Committee noted last summer, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision upholding ObamaCare, it contains 21 distinct tax increases, “a dozen of which target Americans earning less than $200,000 per year for singles or $250,000...

Obama faces huge challenge in setting up insurance exchangesBy Elise Viebeck - 11/25/12 02:45 PM ET The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems. The exchanges were designed as the centerpiece of President Obama’s signature law, and are intended to make buying health insurance comparable to booking a flight or finding a compatible partner on Match.com. Sixteen states — most of them governed by Republicans — have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up...

Editorial: Obamacare, the ultimate job killerPublished on November 24, 2012 **SNIP** Total: ~6,000+ jobs Of course, the latest is causing quite a stir. Hostess, maker of the ever-love Twinkie, is closing their doors and letting 18,500 employees go. This has hit America’s obese population like a sugar brick. Unfortunately, they have no one to blame but themselves and their votes. While the headlines read that labor negations are to blame, the bigger story is an uncertain economy and new taxation. Part of the increased labor cost is Obamacare, and as a result the union was asked to reduce benefits and/or...

Conflict-of-interest concerns raised as Obama races to implement health reformBy Alexander Bolton - 11/03/12 11:42 AM ET The Obama administration is relying heavily on outside contractors to implement a core component of healthcare reform as it races to set up a federal health insurance marketplace before 2014. The fast-approaching deadline gives the administration little time to scrutinize private-sector partners for conflicts of interest. The purchase of one of these contractors, Quality Software Services, Inc. (QSSI), by UnitedHealth Group, a major healthcare conglomerate, has sparked concerns about a potentially uneven playing field. QSSI, a Maryland-based contractor, in January won a large...

Nancy Pelosi: Last stand or stunning comeback?At 72, Pelosi has lost none of her tenacity, campaigning as if she's ready to take back the House speaker's post. By Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times October 30, 2012, 4:30 a.m. LAREDO, Texas — At an intimate gathering in this border town, Nancy Pelosi was a whirlwind of urgency, a reminder of the force she once was as speaker of the House. Evening was falling, and this was the third stop in what would be a 12-hour day. On pointy heels in a pale cream-colored suit, the 72-year-old grandmother of nine showed no...

Nancy Pelosi says she read Obamacare billPosted By: Debra J. Saunders | Oct 11 at 11:01 am Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came to the Chronicle for an editorial board meeting Wednesday. I used the opportunity to ask Pelosi about her most famous and quoted statement from 2010. On March 9, 2010, Pelosi said of the Affordable Care Act, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.” What did you mean by that? I asked. Pelosi said that the quote “was taken out of context” and it...

As part of its “benchmark” health care plan to satisfy ObamaCare’s requirement of the establishment of Essential Health Benefits (EHB’s) in each state, the state of New York has requested that annual doctor visit limits be substituted for lifetime and annual dollar limits in health care plans. ObamaCare is gradually setting up a two-class system of health care access in this country. Only the very wealthy will be able to obtain the types of treatments and access to health care that many Americans have enjoyed in the past. Everyone else…well, just take a check and wait in line.

Personalized medicine is the future. It's where the science is going. It's where the technology is going. It's where doctors and patients will want to go. Yet, unfortunately for many of us, this is not where the Obama administration wants to go. First, the good news. All this is great news. Unless you happen to be in traditional Medicare. Or in Medicaid. Or unless you acquire subsidized insurance in a health insurance exchange. Or in some cases, even if you get health insurance from an employer. Implantable or attachable devices already exist — or soon will exist — that can...

Vermont could be first in line for single payerBy JOANNE KENEN | 9/17/12 4:28 AM EDT **SNIP** Shumlin can’t get there by 2014. He may not get there by 2017, when states get more flexibility under the health law to design their own health care systems. He may not get there at all. But he believes that even small states must aim big. **SNIP** The rest of the United States has no interest in single payer, of course, not now nor in the near future. Not only did the 2010 health law reject single payer or a public option, its...

80 million hours needed to tackle Obamacare tax rulesPaul Bedard - Washington Secrets September 18, 2012 | 10:02 am A week after small businesses warned that Obamacare taxes will eat up to half of their profits, a new government report reveals that simply complying with the new tax rules in the health care act will cost American families and businesses nearly 80 million hours--essentially a whole new tax. **SNIP** "So, what can be done in 79,229,503 hours? The Empire State building, which took 7 million man-hours to build, could be constructed 11 times. The Curiosity Lander could travel from Earth...

Romney: Obama wants vets to cough up $$$ to pay for ObamacareJoel Gehrke - Commentary Writer August 29, 2012 | 4:31 pm Mitt Romney attacked President Obama, during a pre-convention speech to the American Legion, for raising military health care costs in order to pay for Obamacare. “The Obama administration has also requested $12 billion in TRICARE fee increases,” Romney said today. “I will not ask our wartime military to shoulder more sacrifices while the rest of government grows. I will not ask our service members – active or retired – to pay more for their health care to free...

ObamaCare's 'Great Rebate' Was Supposed To Get Votes, Gets Confusion InsteadMerrill Matthews, Contributor 8/15/2012 @ 11:28AM It appears Democrats have utterly mangled ObamaCare’s much-hyped health insurance rebate that was supposed to be hitting your mailbox. Now, rather than taking credit for putting money in your pocket just a few months before the presidential election, the Obama administration is scrambling to explain, and defend, the plan to millions of confused families and employers. **SNIP** The roughly 12 million people who buy their own health insurance will be mailed a rebate check directly if they’re entitled to it. However, for employer-sponsored coverage...