2015 Obamacare Enrollment Will Be Delayed Until Just After the Midterms

New York Magazine ^ | November 21, 2013 | Margaret Hartmann

[2ndDivisionVet]

The White House is planning to tweak Obamacare deadlines again to make up for the botched rollout, and the latest move appears to be both practical and politically advantageous. The enrollment period for 2015 is scheduled to start on Oct. 15, but Bloomberg reports that date will be pushed back a month, according to an official from the Department of Health and Human Services who asked to remain anonymous because the decision hasn't been announced. The stated purpose is to give insurers more time to deal with technical problems, analyze the mix of people signing up through the marketplaces (which is particularly important since younger, healthier people are expected to wait until the last minute), and set rates for 2015. And in a happy coincidence for Democrats, enrollment would start 11 days after the midterm elections.

According to Politico, the HHS official described the delay as "good news for consumers, who will have more time to learn about plans before enrolling." Enrollment for 2015 is currently set to run from Oct. 15, 2014 to Dec. 7, 2014, but the change would add an extra week, with sign-ups beginning on Nov. 15, 2014 and ending on Jan. 15, 2015. If premiums shoot up in 2015, it could be disasterous, and Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped design the law, told Bloomberg, "It’s in the nation’s interest [that insurers] get time to make those decisions."

Plus, as noted by Mike Tuffin, a former insurance industry lobbyist and current managing director of APCO Worldwide's D.C. office, thanks to the month-long delay, "consumers will not see their 2015 premiums until after the midterm elections, instead of immediately before." Tuffin adds, "One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to divine the motive here." And if anyone doesn't see it, Obamacare's opponents should be eager to spell it out.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It’s going to kick their “seats” grandly.

Ah, Dec. It could not happen to a party with a finer history of degrading humanity! Since antebellum times!

[Ray76]

Unlike "prosecutorial discretion" which he claimed for refusing to enforce immigration law, he has now gone to issuing decrees which he claims change the law.

Not only is the PPACA not being enforced, he is "changing the law" and encouraging businesses and government agencies - state and federal - to violate law. He is using the bully pulpit to promote criminality.

These decrees are a violation of law, his intimidation of businesses and government agencies, and encouraging others to violate law, are unacceptable. He is a scofflaw.

Impeachment is the remedy.

The lawlessness and chaos must stop.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Oh it will... the private sector already is saying no dice to these Obama games. There’s a limit to its gullibility and it has been reached.

Still they deserve some of the heat for having gone along with the initial foolishness. What IS it that is getting smoked in these insurance company boardrooms? It has to be far worse than marijuana.

[SoFloFreeper]

Believe me, FRiend, I have been reminding myself CONSTANTLY about God’s sovereignty in these events.

He rules this nation from heaven, and he sees the wickedness happening. I know He will work all of it for His ultimate glory.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Act like it, then.

“Enjoy your tyranny, America.”

Not a godly sentiment.

“Escape your tyranny, America.”

Now that is a godly sentiment.

[zeestephen]

There's another catastrophe on the way.

I think the potential number of new Medicaid enrollees has been seriously underestimated.

ObamaCare planners claim Medicaid will increase by 17 million people over 10 years.

Want to bet, Barack?

Washington state has the best functioning ObamaCare website in the country, we are more prosperous than most states so less Medicaid is needed, and our population is just 2% of the country.

In seven weeks, we have almost 100,000 new Medicaid enrollees!

Extrapolate that to all 50 states, and that would be 5 million new Medicaid enrollees in seven weeks!

And, consider this.

Most people who are willing to go through all the time and effort to sign up for free Medicaid probably have a pre-existing condition that needs treatment.

On January 1, literally millions of new Medicaid enrollees will be calling doctors and trying to get appointments!

That will shut down the whole freaking medical system!

[hosepipe]

Democrats are like puppies.. the tail wags the democrat..
Each democrat is sooo happy... all licks and tail wagging..

[zeestephen]

John, in case you don't know this already, the “penalty” for not buying an ObamaCare policy is essentially not enforceable.

By 2017, I think it goes up to 2% of your income, so it will become a significant cost.

But - the IRS is specifically forbidden to file a civil or criminal lawsuit against any individual who fails to pay the penalty.

The IRS can only subtract your penalty from a tax refund.

If you can arrange your finances each year so as not to have a refund due, the IRS is helpless.

It cannot garnish your wages, put liens on your property, or put you in jail.

[John Valentine]

Yep, opting out is the only sensible thing to do.

Screw ‘em all.

[Gaffer]

I agree. IIRC, there are Federal Laws that require companies over a certain size to notify the government there will be large layoffs. It would not surprise me that there are also provisions to do that for things like retirements, benefits, etc.

Regardless, if I were an employer and found out I’d have to cancel insurance for employees, I’d tell them as soon as I found out or could reasonably determine it - DEFINITELY before the 2014 elections.

[castlegreyskull]

How can a law be a law, if it is unenforcable?

[JustSurrounded]

Did you think of that? I love it. I’d do it. I absolutely would!!

[tanknetter]

I don't think so. The cancellation notices will have to go out by October 1, regardless of the sign-up deadline, in order to provide the required 90 day notice ahead of January 1, 2015 when the old policies have to be cancelled.

I agree. People are being given an extra week in which to enroll. But the content of the plans and the pricing, and as you say the cancellation notices will go out long before that.

If anything this may help us somewhat, because while it's impact may be limited only to procrastinators who wait until that very last/extra week to look at the plans available to them, it sure as heck presents the appearance of playing politics with peoples' healthcare to limit the damage in an election.

That may not sway a lot of people one way or another, but in a good number of races the negative impacts of ObamaCare PLUS the "technical delay" that just happens, in a lucky coincidence, to push enrollment past the election, may create enough angry people to provide the tipping-point between a Dem win and a GOP on.

[Sooth2222]

Obama and his idiot legions have set the Calder mobile a twitching, and the more they touch it trying to get it to stop, the more it will twitch, jiggle and vibrate. They have truly set off a wave of unintended consequences that will continue unabated for months if not years to come. The scope of the damage this law is going do to individuals and families, to say nothing of the general economy, is monumental, and it's too late to do much of anything about it now, other than for individuals and families to protect themselves by totally opting out until the process has played itself out around 2017.

"It is easy to turn an aquarium into fish soup, but hard to turn the fish soup back into an aquarium."-Russian proverb

At this point, no matter what the Obamanistas might try to do, what is going to happen is going to happen. So far, the unintended (?) consequences of Obamacare have mostly been felt by the 10% in the individual insurance market. But about 16% are on Medicare, and 60% are still covered by employer-provided health insurance.

Politically, Obamacare is a brand new disaster for tens of thousands of new people every single day. The Republicans need to keep hammering on this.

(It's taken since WW2, when health insurance began to be provided as an employment benefit, for health insurance to evolve into the CF of Obamacare. 2017 might be a little on the optimistic side.)

[newnhdad]

who ever didn’t see this coming is a friggin idiot.

[Diamond]

It cannot garnish your wages, put liens on your property, or put you in jail.

Yet.

At least until Obama issues a new dictat.

Cordially,

[sergeantdave]

“Will Congress stand for it? I don’t see that they have much choice unless something huge happens in November 2014.”

That depends...We do have precedence for action against the executive branch by Congress in the Reconstruction Acts after the Civil War. Thaddeus Stevens effectively removed the CIC role from President Johnson and put him through a meat grinder. The congress ran the entire government with little interference from the president or the courts until about 1872. I’m not judging this one way or the other but simply pointing out that a president can be taken down by congress.

[hattend]

Why did Congress pass this law if Obama can change it at a whim? Obviously done on purpose because nobody in Congress has the balls to call him on it.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Dictat”

Yes.

I completely agree.

And our Republican leadership will do nothing, as usual.

[funfan]

Oh I understand what you are saying about opting out.
I was speaking to O pushing the enrollment date back past the mid terms so people would still vote Democrat. My point was that there are many people who have been affected already and they already know who are responsible for it so they can not be fooled twice.