Keyword: obamacareproblems
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A federal D.C. circuit court ruled late Tuesday, just a few days after arguments, that not only can Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey stay in court, but what the Obama administration has said about fixing the religious-freedom problem they and other religiously affiliated non-profits have with the HHS abortion-drug, contraception, sterilization mandate must become real policy, and that the Department of Health and Human Services must report to the D.C. court every 60 days until they fix the problem. This is a huge step toward some restoration of religious liberty as we’ve known it. (This particular court command, of course,...
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Employers should expect the next round of regulations for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act to be a doozy, says Janet Trautwein, executive vice president and CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters. This round of regs, now expected in early January, deal with the employer mandate. Employers not only will have to say whether they offer health care coverage or not, but they’ll also have to report specifically which employees they’re offering coverage for, Trautwein said. In addition, employers are going to have to track the coverage, probably monthly, she said. Trautwein, whose organization is based in...
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Eighteen Democratic U.S. Senators and senators-elect sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week calling for a “delay in the implementation” of the medical device tax in Obamacare, the Wall Street Journal reports. The provision was an integral part of the version of the Obamacare law, which was passed in the Senate under Reid’s stewardship in 2009. It is set to take effect on January 1, 2013. An effort to repeal the provision failed in Congress in June. At the time, Reid characterized the proposed repeal as a Republican attack on Obamacare. “The medical technology industry directly...
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Many powerful Democrats, even some of the most liberal among them, are supporting what amounts to a dismantling of President Obama’s signature health care law. Using “Republican” language to make their case, these Democrats are attempting to repeal some of the funding mechanisms as well as the cost-containment measures that were purportedly inherent in the law. With some of their most influential constituent groups facing onerous tax increases that are slated to help fund the law’s mandates and regulations, Senators like Al Franken (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA)
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The Department of Health and Human Services extended the original deadline by which states need to decide whether they will be setting up their own versions of the virtual health insurance exchanges required via the auspices of ObamaCare, or allowing (making?) the federal government to do it for them, or forging some kind of partnership with the feds to get the things done --- meaning that states now have until this Friday, December 14th to report their decision to HHS. Many Republican governors have been leaning back on forth on which option to take, torn between trying to mitigate the...
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Pennsylvania will not set up its own health care exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act — at least not for now, Gov. Tom Corbett said Wednesday. Setting up a state-based exchange would be irresponsible, Corbett said as he faulted federal authorities for what he said were inadequate answers to his questions about cost and other issues. "Health care reform is too important to be achieved through haphazard planning," said the Republican governor. "Pennsylvania taxpayers and businesses deserve more. They deserve informed decision making and a strong plan that responsibly uses taxpayer dollars."
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Despite over 2,000 pages of legislative text, many key details of President Obama’s national health care law were left up to regulators to work out, with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius given the lead role. The Obama administration wanted to avoid issuing potentially controversial health care regulations during an election year, but now that it’s over, regulations are starting to roll out. In a news dump this past Friday afternoon, HHS released 373 pages of new insurance regulations, and buried on page 299 is a proposed 3.5 percent monthly “user fee” to be levied on the premiums...
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Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers. Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers. "Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with...
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<p>The Obama administration is proposing a new way to finance the health law’s insurance exchanges: A fee levied on the insurers who sell in the marketplace.</p>
<p>Health and Human Services will operate a health insurance exchange in all states that decline to set up the marketplace themselves. In order to finance the exchange’s operations, new draft regulations released Friday envision health plans paying a “user fee” if they want to sell in that space.</p>
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The Obama administration has been consistently arguing since announcing a year’s grace period for some religious organizations to figure out how to violate their consciences and obey the Department and Health and Human Services abortion-drug, contraception, sterilization mandate, that the controversy over religious freedom and the mandate is over and the Catholics are happy. That, as has been pointed out here before, ignores all the lawsuits pending. And that they are not just from Catholics. Today in New York, a judge dismissed Justice Department claims that the Archdiocese of New York’s lawsuit in response to the coercive mandate is unnecessary....
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So much for stopping Obamacare by refusing to set up state exchanges. Obama administration will charge a 3.5% user fee on premiums in states where Feds have to create the exchange. The theory rested on the premise there was no funding mechanism in Obamacare for the federal exchanges. Read more.
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The blaming of governors for not implementing ObamaCare is in hyperdrive for a reason— the federal government and liberals backing ObamaCare overestimated the federal government's ability to build a system of the complexity and technological intricacy necessary to pull this off. They counted on states to do some heavy lifting (with a hefty price tag) to make this happen, yet have given them very little regulatory guidance and passed the bill in a way least likely to engender cooperation. The current rumpus is over ObamaCare’s “exchanges,” the bureaucracies that will regulate the design and sale of insurance and where 30...
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What a clusterfark. The Hill: ***** "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 with one instead. Another five states said they want a...
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Obama won, Obamacare is the law, and, as my wife says, I will just have to learn to dance to a new song. Now, don’t get me wrong, Obamacare is awful. Forget all the “free stuff” it provides. Children covered on their parents’ plan until 26 years of age? A scam, making young adults — excuse me, children — pay for complete, comprehensive health insurance when all they need and should pay for is major catastrophe insurance. Then there is the “annual ” or “preventative” exam, which according to Obamacare is “free.” You gotta love this stuff. I wish I...
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