Posted on 12/12/2013 6:51:11 PM PST by Kaslin
When the Obama administration declared Healthcare.gov "fixed" earlier this month, the announcement spawned a flurry of media reports about Congressional Democrats' fears being allayed by the news. As an aside, the website's technical troubles are hardly a thing of the past, for reasons we'll discuss below -- but the front end experience has been substantially improved. Ron Fournier wondered just how long jittery Democrats would be appeased. The detente appears to have lasted less than one week:
Senate Democrats facing tough reelections say President Obama has not done enough to fix the botched rollout of his healthcare law and are vowing to repair it themselves. The Senate Democratic leadership is not on board with lawmaker plans to begin rewriting ObamaCare and have urged for more time to assess the changes made by Obama and his team, lawmakers say...Shaheen wants to extend the enrollment period for the ACA; Landrieu wants to mandate that insurance companies continue to offer plans that people like, even if they don’t meet the law’s requirements; and Udall wants to expand the pool of people included in the individual insurance marketplace. “I’m not satisfied yet,” said Shaheen. “I’m still talking to people in New Hampshire to see what challenges we’re facing.” “We have had a conversation about possibly introducing a package of fixes at the appropriate time,” she added in a later conversation.
Shaheen and Landrieu have been discussing their supposed improvements for some time, evidently unaware that both ideas would further cripple the law they've supported at every turn. An extended enrollment period would deepen Obamacare's adverse selection problem, which would negatively impact 2015 premiums. Landrieu's proposal would take a huge bite out of Obamacare's funding mechanism, which relies on millions of people being forced to pay more for mandate-heavy plans. This would also impact risk pools and premiums in an unsustainable way. But Landrieu isn't interested in sound policy; she's interested in saving her ass. Meanwhile, in addition to large portions of the website's back end still being constructed, and the ongoing 834 error nightmare, here's another problematic bug hitting consumers on Healthcare.gov -- the site that's supposedly working:
The federal health care exchange is incorrectly determining that some people are eligible for Medicaid when they clearly are not, leaving them with little chance to get the subsidized insurance they are entitled to as the Dec. 23 deadline for enrollment approaches...Here's what happens: When consumers applying for insurance put their income information into subsidy calculators on HealthCare.gov — the exchange handling insurance sales for 36 states — it tells them how much financial assistance they qualify for or that they are eligible for Medicaid...Brokers are reporting that some of their clients are in insurance limbo as they wait for the error to be corrected by HHS or their states so they can reapply. Jessica Waltman, top lobbyist for the National Association of Health Underwriters, says she's heard a number of reports from around the country of people making as much as $80,000 a year being told they qualify for Medicaid on HealthCare.gov.
Individuals making $80k aren't eligible for subsidies, let alone Medicaid, under Obamacare. And as Ezekiel Emanuel's dissembling helped remind us on Sunday, the law's fundamental problems have nothing to do with the horrendous roll-out. The New York Times reports on unhappy customers discovering that the more "affordable" premium price points on Obamacare's exchanges entail major new out-of-pocket expenses, not the least of which are spiking deductibles. USA Today writes that small businesses are discovering that Obamacare is unaffordable and confusing. The Washington Post piles on with tales of compliance "nightmares" that will slam businesses under the new law. These unpleasant realizations will undoubtedly contribute to the coming second wave of insurance cancellations in 2014, as business owners will see little choice but to throw up their hands and dump their employees into the exchanges rather than confront the sticker shock and compliance migranes. I'll leave you with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) -- a medical doctor -- taking a wrecking ball to the left-wing myth that Republicans have no alternatives or solutions on healthcare:
H.R. 2300 Takes Center Stage on Special Report's Center Seat
Bump
dems are starting to blister and i;m getting my sick satisfaction
Does she support all of the disasters happening to millions of families across the country due to the same law just because it supposedly has helped her? She should support an alternative that catches those who fall through the cracks like her (assuming that is accurate...which given past propaganda campaigns, is not exactly safe to do) without hurting millions other people...”it’s helped me, so if it is screwing everyone else over I don’t care.” That’s not a good policy. Okay - fine - repeal everything besides the high risk pool, the 26 year old policy, and a handful of other things that are supposedly working and “popular” - what do you have left? Like 1% of the bill?
Mo Burka, please!
Quote of the Day
“Nelson Mandela is a leader who Barack Obama should try to emulate. He could start by spending 27 years in prison.”
— Don Imus
Obamacare and its “fixes” are the noose they tied themselves and put around their own necks. The ballotbox is the trapdoor.
They don't care about producing good legislation, the rule of law, the Constitution or the people they represent. They care about re-election and retaining power and have sold their souls. We are lost as a nation.
Make it a double burka, in case the first one fails.
The words "straight party line vote" should give the Dems nightmares. IMHO, this line alone will bring every Democrat candidate to their knees from now until kingdom come........
.... "Obamacare is the ONLY legislation in modern American history enacted on a straight party-line Democrat vote......
The Democrat plan was specifically designed to upend the medical delivery system, leave millions of families and children without health coverage, and nationalize 1/6 of the US economy."
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Memo to the clever FReeper writing Repubs 2014 campaign theme song----here's some great lyrics:
POSTER HUMS THEME FROM "JAWS" White House chief of staff Denis McDonough held an unpublicized meeting with Sen. Michael Bennet (DIMWIT-Colo), chairman of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, amid anger and anxiety that ObamaCare’s botched rollout could cost the party its majority next year.
In the meeting, requested by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), McDonough and Bennet discussed what the White House could do to help vulnerable Senate Democrats and “talked about developing a stronger relationship with the White House.”
Democratic senators fear the White House is not sympathetic enough to their plight. After the government shutdown, they were confident they would retain the Senate, but optimism vanished as problems with the healthcare law mounted.
POSTER HUMS "HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN" “I know these guys are nervous as hell. I mean, all of their jobs are on the line because this is the thing making the biggest waves lately. It’s a nightmare.”
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