Posted on 11/01/2013 1:56:19 PM PDT by Kaslin
I am not cheering as I write this column. The Presidency of Barack Obama is spiraling downward largely because of Obamacare and it is not clear to me that Mr. Obama can avoid a Presidential face plant.
Earlier this week Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius testified before a House committee about the ongoing disaster that is the Obamacare website.
She didn't know who was responsible or what went wrong any more than she could have pulled out a stack of code three feet high and walked the Committee Members through it line-by-line.
Republicans were ugly to her. Democrats tried to find some way to defend her. They were both wrong.
But, the Secretary's lack of knowing what had gone wrong actually paled before a pretty simple question asked by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo) as to whether she would join members of Congress and their staff in purchasing insurance on the federal insurance exchange, even though the law did not require her to.
As CNN reported on its website:
After consulting with Office of Health Reform Director Mike Hash, who was seated behind her, Sebelius responded that it would be "illegal" for her to join the exchange because she receives insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
That, it turns out, is true for employees of the Executive Branch, but that is not why she wouldn't be allowed to join Obamacare.
The reason is, she was born on May 15, 1948 making her 65 years, 5 months and 2 weeks old. That means she is eligible for, and required to join, Medicare.
Medicare recipients are not allowed to go into the exchanges under Obamacare. According USA Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website states:
Consistent with the longstanding prohibitions on the sale and issuance of duplicate coverage to Medicare beneficiaries (section 1882(d) of the Social Security Act), it is illegal to knowingly sell or issue a Qualified Health Plan (QHP) to a Medicare beneficiary.
Medicare is run by CMS. CMS is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is Kathleen Sebelius.
I would have been far more comfortable if she had known that as a Medicare recipient, Obamacare was not an option for her. Or if any of the crack HHS staff sitting behind her had known that.
I did.
On the other end of the Truth-or-Consequences scale is the President said during the sales job for Obamacare and continues to say that if you like your health care plan you can keep it.
According to the Washington Post, the exact quote was:
"If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you'll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."
This is, to put it mildly, a lie. Ok, maybe not a lie but an untruth. All right, not an untruth but a mis-lead.
The Post has a "fact check" that links to a YouTube video in which Obama is quoted no less than 23 times saying "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
The Post ends its lengthy examination of the "If you like your plan …" statement with this:
The president's promise apparently came with a very large caveat: "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan - if we deem it to be adequate."
It is such an egregious lie, that the Post gave it its highest (or lowest) score for honesty: Four Pinocchios.
It is fair to ask why the national press corps, which is now hot on the trail of the "If you like your plan …" statement didn't notice the regulations issued by HHS (run by Kathleen Sebelius) that negated that promise, even as the President kept making it.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to fact checks of Sebelius' statement it was illegal for her to join Obamacare because she's a federal employee, to the WaPo fact check on "If you like your plan …," and to that fascinating YouTube compilation of Obama repeating and repeating and repeating his statement.
Also a really good Mullfoto by Mullpal Tom Sweet.
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>>It doesn’t matter how bad it gets under Obamacare, the Rats NEVER repeal a bad law or cancel a bad program once they’ve set their hooks. It will take an overwhelming GOP majority in Congress and a conservative president in the WH to repeal it.<<
Can you tell me of any Bill that was passed by the Rats and repealed by the Republicans?
I’ll be darned!
Nancy was right after all. We had to pass Obama Care to find out what’s in it.
I thought people were not required to join Medicare at age 65 if they have coverage through their employer.
No, I can’t. But then we have never had a 60 seat majority in the Senate, a GOP House, and a conservative president.
It appears to me that every Bill that gets passed, whether Reps are in the majority or minority, is with the approval of the Dims. If the rats seriously don’t want it passed then we’ll refuse to fight hard enough to get er done. It is no surprise to me that we lose the serious fights.
I remember when the Rep’s were screaming about how they would stop O’care, then how they would get it repealed. I’ll bet you a beer that in a year, O’care is still alive. It won’t be doing well but it won’t be dead and forgotten either.
I am sick of the collusion that exists with all these friggin RINO’s.
Now you have actually managed to insult Richard Milhous Nixon, that is not an easy thing to do.
The Republicans will save him and obamacare.
I don’t remember who it was, but a freeper posted some time back that the democrats never expected Roberts’ vote. They never thought it would come to be. But they had already started the slush funds and it was too late to stop.
O’Reilly says it’s not technically a lie. Man, I despise him.
Nope, it's a damn'd lie, by the damn'd liar.
My former employer required that you do just that, as a condition of employment. Saves them lots of money.
Also they require that you get on medicare at 65 even if you're retired or they will no longer insure you. After going on medicare, they became my secondary insurer.
Hate O’Reilly, Obama or both?
O’Reilly says it’s not technically a lie. Man, I despise him.
And O’Reilly is not technically a reporter of any kind.
Both!
I don’t think what this guy is saying is right. Sebelius is still working, I’ve worked with many people of medicare age and they have stayed on the employer’s health insurance.
Now, being that she is the Secy of HHS she should be able to explain all this, but she’s a moron so she can’t.
Normally I can almost start to feel sorry for people in positions like hers, but I can’t. She’s an abortion loving left wing hack and the longer she twists in the wind the better I like it. I find it delightful in fact.
Thank goodness Democrats weren’t ugly to Sarah Palin, or Nikki Haley, or Michelle Bachman or any other Republican Woman they ever ran into.
BTW - Did any of those mean Republicans say they hoped Sibillus’s (sic) Daughter was gang raped by a bunch of Black Guys from the Hood?
They would have been so ashamed of themselves I’m sure.
Insurance is not access, as people on medicaid and medicare have sometimes learned when Docs tell them they are accepting no new patients on those programs.
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