Posted on 11/01/2013 1:43:44 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Outrage about HealthCare.gov and millions losing health plans should scare the wits out of liberals. With enough money, the morass can be fixed, but it lay bare the limits of tax and spend to buy voter allegiance.
The liberal formula is simple. Target a few Americans to soak, and pander to the base instincts of the masses. President Obama's favorite mark is wealthy Americans who benefited most from recent economic growth. Characterize them as undeserving and exploitive — disdainfully he expounds those folks claim they did it with hard work, leaving his followers to conclude their affluence was built on the back of the common man. Then it becomes reasonable that the well-off pay higher taxes to continue public benefits.
In 2008, candidate Obama bit off more than he could chew. He promised everyone access to cheaper and better health insurance, and to let those satisfied keep their existing plans. If paid from the U.S. Treasury, new benefits would have cost at least $1 trillion.
New taxes alone couldn't carry that load. Many businesses, already burdened by the highest corporate tax rates in the world, are moving assets and jobs offshore. Higher taxes and new entitlements have already given the country more adults on means-tested government benefits — aka welfare — than working. Predictably, economic growth, which provides the tax base, is evaporating.
The solution left to the president and his pals in Congress was to deceive the folks he promised to help. Make them pay more, a lot more, but do it through the marketplace.
The only way to offer everyone health insurance was to compel everyone to buy health insurance with minimal levels of coverage and implicitly tax those already with insurance to subsidize new policyholders. The government would have to run marketplaces in every county to facilitate the purchase of mandatory insurance.
Insurance companies were jubilant with prospects for so many new policyholders. They helped shape regulations that ultimately manipulated markets.
Cartels emerged in many rural areas with only two insurance companies in cahoots with local hospitals and providers. That's why folks in rural Colorado are paying twice and three times more for basic coverage than in Denver.
In the big cities, lots of Americans are getting cancellation notices for their health plans, because those don't meet foolish ACA mandates, such as requiring 50-year-old women to purchase maternity coverage.
Obama promised the ACA would save families $2,500 a year. That was flimflam bait.
Conservative pundits warned throughout the ACA debate that many Americans would lose their health plans, adding 50 million to rolls would push up prices, and this journey into socialism would be much more expensive than advertised.
Some things never change. There is no such thing as a free lunch, but voters wanted to believe differently. And the president exploited that.
His only refuge — or that of the Democrat candidate for president in 2016 — will be to top his whopper promises on health care.
Perhaps Hillary Clinton can offer Americans immortality. But in this progressive paradise, that would be too much like purgatory.
Peter Morici is a professor at the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
ZERO: THE FLIM FLAM MAN.
We all know that Obumbo is a lie, and built on the same principle.
Sadly, too many of the US population has been dumbed down to moron level.
Can anyone on here give me a realistic plan to save America? I doubt it.
...and Pete knows of what he speaks. Is anyone listening?
How about this: Any American living outside the borders of the continental US must pay foreign/overseas living tax. This would include all known US territories and states. Failure to pay and the territory or state will be sold to the highest bidder. Don’t think much could be done for or against the schlubs living in foreign lands so we will just have to concentrate on the auction.
Just kidding, I think.
Fox News is reporting:
Oct. 2, “six enrollments have occurred so far with five different issuers.”
On the afternoon of Oct. 2, “approximately 100” people had signed up and 248 enrollments had occurred by the morning of Oct. 3.
For Obamacare to work it needs 7 million signed up by March 2014. It will take signing up 38,461 Americans a day to reach that target. What happens if that target is not reached?
Signing dead people up for healthcare isn’t as easy as signing dead people up to vote.
Sorry, but I do not understand any of your post.
I understand US territories, but what does that have to do with other countries?
Do you want the US to tax those that do not live in the US?
Tell me how that works. What determines the rate? How do they collect it?
I think you need to go back to square one.
See post 6.
Post 5 served its porpoise.
Yes, I know how to spell purpose.
Twas all in jest.
Flim flam? It’s extortion. No one in this country should be forced to buy this. Our health ins co. had us re-enroll for another year starting Dec. 1. Our premium went up $24.00 a month to $535.00 We can handle that. We just changed insurance policies last year. Before that we had an HSA with a $6,000 deductible that cost us over $750. It used to be affordable but continued to go up since the ACA was signed into law. I checked out the rate for the ACA compliant policies with our co which we will need next year....Premiums were almost $1,000 a MONTH with Out of pocket $12,700!! So I go to ehealthinsurance.com. WOW! I know we’re old (59)but are in excellent health. We take NO medications and rarely go to the drs. Almost all of those premiums were almost $1,000 a month with one exception which was over $700! AFFORDABLE MY ASS! My husband is self-employed in his own VERY SMALL SEASONAL business. Who can afford this? OH...that’s why you need to go on to the gov’t exchange....I am sick to my stomach. Think what will happen to our economy when people have to pay this much for health ins. There won’t be money to buy anything else. This MUST be being done on PURPOSE! It’s disgusting!! Check it out for yourself. I have not gone on healtcare.gov. Even if you do get on, you can’t see any pricing until you enter all you info!!!!!
Confused writing - perhaps based upon confused thinking.
"To expound" means merely "to explain in detail" and even "to defend with argument," not "to attack" or "to deride," though I suppose that the "disdainfully" appears to point in that direction.
Regards,
Thank you teach.
“Twas all in jest.”
_________________________________
Obviously ;)
Anyway, I and my family do have medical insurance.
It cost next to nothing, $10 per month for the three of us.
...I guarantee a lotta golf - Period!...Stewart Varney reported on Fox & Friends this morning:
In 6 years [2020] it is projected we will have a shortage of 90,000 doctor.
You do not (will not) know who your doctor will be or what hospital you can go to when you sign up.
ctober 31, 2013, 07:49 pm
O-Care contractor cited for security lapses
By Elise Viebeck
A contractor heavily involved in repairing HealthCare.gov was previously criticized for endangering the personal data of more than 6 million government beneficiaries through insufficient security controls.
Lax data safety at Quality Software Services, Inc. (QSSI) was deemed a “high” risk in a June probe by federal investigators that revealed the company had failed to stop its employees from connecting unauthorized USB devices to highly sensitive Medicare systems.
The June report by the Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general revealed that QSSI’s inaction allowed workers to connect unsanctioned devices such as iPods to 29 out of the 30 workstations studied, all of which had access to millions of Medicare patients’ personal data.
The unhindered access to USB ports raised the possibility that workers could have introduced malware to Medicare’s systems or “inappropriately accessed” personally identifiable details, the report stated.
The information of more than 6 million Medicare beneficiaries was at “greater risk from malware, inappropriate access or theft” as a result, wrote HHS assistant inspector general Kay Daily.
Slack government data controls are a major issue given the ongoing ramifications of information leaked by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and former Army soldier Chelsea Manning. The two allegedly used USB devices to obtain and distribute government secrets.
The issue is also relevant to debates over the ongoing rollout of President Obama’s healthcare law.
While the investigation pertained solely to QSSI’s work on a Medicare contract, the results are sure to raise questions about the company’s role in constructing and repairing ObamaCare’s troubled enrollment website.
-——Cartels emerged ——
Humana /Blue Cross Blue Shield
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