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In the last few weeks, numerous Hawaii healthcare industry leaders have stepped forward to create deniability for themselves in the upcoming Hawaii Health Connector/Health Exchange disaster. Those who are implementing Obamacare in Hawaii are now putting themselves on the record explaining that Obamacare will mean higher insurance premiums, fewer doctors and nurses, and shuttered hospitals. Here are their statements, accumulated in one place so that it can be clearly seen that many of those who are in charge are predicting failure: HMSA Chief Predicts Obamacare 'Rate Shock' for Hawaii Maui News May 9, 2013: If Hawaii consumers think health care...

When open enrollment begins in October under the new federal health care law, nearly 260,000 immigrants in Illinois will be eligible to apply for government-subsidized insurance, according to a study released Thursday. However, many of those now uninsured people are either unaware of the Affordable Care Act or are afraid to seek insurance because they have family members who are in the country illegally, the report by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights found. Those families will be targeted in a monthslong campaign to raise awareness of the new law as it begins to affect millions of uninsured...

**SNIP** According a survey by the American Action Forum, healthy young people in the individual or small-group insurance markets can look forward to rate increases averaging as much as 169%. In addition, ObamaCare requires all insurance plans to offer new and more expensive benefits. Remember President Obama’s promise that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period?” Well, a recent study of more than 11,000 plans on the individual market found that less than 2% of existing plans are fully in compliance with the law’s benefit requirements. While current plans are technically grandfathered...

Tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists hired as "navigators" to help Americans choose Obamacare options starting Oct. 1 could earn $20 an hour or more, according to new regulations issued Wednesday. The 63-page rule covering navigators, drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also said the government will provide free translators for those not fluent in English -- no matter what their native language is. "The proposed requirements would also include that such entities and individuals provide consumers with information and assistance in the consumer's preferred language, at no cost to...

Cheap, no-frills insurance that doesn't cover medication, maternity or mental health services will get the scalpel in 2014. Know that health care plan you just signed up for? Don't get too attached. The Affordable Care Act mandate most commonly known as Obamacare has some tight stipulations that, CNN says, are forcing health care companies to rip up most of their current plans and draft new ones that comply. According to a University of Chicago study, just about half of the individual health care plans currently on the market won't cut it once key provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick...

**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.