Free Republic

Have you ever wondered why ObamaCare is burdened with so much complexity? Here's the answer: Barack Obama. Obama? Yes, the president himself. He campaigned on the promise that he would put partisanship aside and unite the country behind sensible answers to pressing problems. Then he didn't. How could that possibly have worked in health care? Easy. Obama could have adopted the approach taken by his 2008 opponent, John McCain. In fact we now know that Zeke Emanuel and others on the White House staff were urging him to do just that. Also, before he became the president's chief economic adviser,...

Here's more fallout from the health care law: Until now, customers could walk into an insurance office or go online to buy standard health care coverage any time of year. Not anymore. Many people who didn't sign up during the government's open enrollment period that ended Monday will soon find it difficult or impossible to get insured this year, even if they go directly to a private company and money is no object. For some it's already too late. With limited exceptions, insurers are refusing to sell to individuals after the enrollment period for HealthCare.gov and the state marketplaces. They...

The problems with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act may be masking another major change in the way health care is delivered to U.S. consumers, experts believe. At a conference in Washington on Thursday, health care and business professionals said that there’s an increasing trend in the industry toward cutting insurance companies out of the process entirely, as large, regional hospital systems move into the insurance business. Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, CEO and president of Mount Sinai Health System, the largest health care provider in the state of New York, said that starting next year, Mt. Sinai will begin...

Major credit-rating firm Moody’s on Thursday downgraded the outlook for health insurers from stable to negative, citing the new health-care law’s botched rollout as a significant factor. Moody’s highlighted the relatively low sign-up rate among young adults and a slew of last-minute regulatory changes by the Obama administration as posing risks to health insurers selling policies on the new exchanges.

Another day, another dose of bad news for ObamaCare. On Thursday, Moody’s Investor Service announced it was downgrading its outlook for America’s healthcare insurance sector from “stable” to “negative,” due to ObamaCare. “While all of these issues had been on our radar screen as we approached 2014, a new development and a key factor for the change in outlook is the unstable and evolving regulatory environment under which the sector is operating,” Moody’s said. “Notably, new regulations and presidential announcements over the last several months with respect to the ACA have imposed operational changes well after product and pricing decisions...

"....... question is whether insurance companies believe in the website enough to put their advertising money where their mouthpieces were before its launch on October 1. “The big tell of if/when people finally believe it’s working is when you see the states, insurance companies, etc., restart their ad buys and outreach programs that they put on hold to drive people to the site,” a Democratic observer of health-care issues told NBC’s First Read. “Once it’s established that you can go from typing in the words ‘HealthCare.gov’ to getting a confirming e-mail saying you’re covered with reasonable ease, then I think...

The U.S. government is proposing compensation to help insurers participating in Obamacare health exchanges who fear that their costs will spin out of control if their plans are dominated by sicker people. Fears about cost burdens from sicker patients increased when President Barack Obama introduced a "fix" to fulfill his promise to let people who like their existing insurance plans keep them. The exchanges were created as part of Obama's healthcare reform law, popularly known as Obamacare. An estimated 7 million people are expected to sign up in the first year. Insurance went on sale on Oct. 1 and goes...

President Barack Obama had some bad news for the insurance company CEOs who met him at the White House: His “fix” might cost them. Obama asked the CEOs to reinstate millions of Americans’ health insurance plans that were cancelled because they fell short of coverage requirements under the law, according to two executives who attended the session Friday. The president offered the execs some sweeteners, but admitted they won’t necessarily add up to enough to cover the full brunt of added costs that the changes to the insurance market could create. The president’s proposed “fix” to the wave of plan...

When setting premiums for next year, insurers baked in bigger-than-usual adjustments, driven in large part by a game-changing rule: They can no longer reject people with medical problems. Popular in consumer polls, the provision in the health law transforms the market for the estimated 14 million Americans who buy their own policies because they don’t get coverage through their jobs. Barred from denying coverage, insurers also can’t demand higher rates from unhealthy people and those deemed high risks because of conditions including obesity, high blood pressure or a previous cancer diagnosis. But the provision also adds costs. To a larger...

To the surprise of no one, President Obama has been busy deflecting criticism of his “If you like your plan” lie by blaming insurance companies: “Just shop around in the new marketplace,” he said. “You’re going to get a better deal.” *** “Remember, before the Affordable Care Act, these bad-apple insurers had free rein every single year to limit the care that you received, or used minor pre-existing conditions to jack up your premiums, or bill you into bankruptcy,” Obama said. Similarly, the New York Times’ widely-mocked Sunday editorial (claiming that Obama “misspoke” when he promised Americans who liked their...

The White House on Tuesday asked health insurers for help in quelling the growing furor over the cancellation of insurance plans under ObamaCare. In a meeting at the White House, Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough asked insurance executives to explain to customers who are losing their plans what new options are available under ObamaCare, and what new subsidies they might qualify for. “He emphasized the need for all involved in the marketplaces, including the administration, issuers and other stakeholders, both federal and private, to ramp up communication and education efforts to consumers who have received or might receive letters...

The uneasy alliance between President Obama and health insurers is being put to the test by the troubled rollout of ObamaCare. With the botched enrollment website dragging Obama’s approval rating to record lows and threatening to undermine his biggest legislative achievement, some Democrats say the president should deflect blame onto the industry. The healthcare companies in many ways represent an ideal political target, as they are unpopular and intimately involved in the rollout — and Democrats haven’t hesitated to go after them in the past. Democrats highlighted what they said were the heartless business practices of insurers during the debate...

Obamacare's federal website is a mess, creating massive obstacles to enrollment in the law's health insurance exchange plans. Those taking President Obama's advice to apply by phone or by mail will fare little better, as their information must still be fed through the same glitchy computer system that is holding up everyone else. The website isn't the only problem, as things are only slightly better in the states that run their own websites. In Kentucky, less than 20 percent of the newly insured (or 4,832) have actually purchased plans – the rest will enter the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program. In Maryland,...