Tag Archives: Obamacare

Obamacare Premiums Increasing In Florida 13.2% Average

We already know that the Obama administration has illegally delayed the open enrollment period until two weeks after the mid-term elections. And, with the exemptions, delays, low new enrollment, dependent-heavy enrollment, and elimination of major funding streams for Obamacare, we now know that premiums will be going up. Not down as promised. What we in Florida didn’t know is by how much.

Here’s how much, over and above the outrageous increase an individual got last year. The surprise for businesses will come next year, after the government stops bailing out the insurance companies for their losses.

From my congressman Jeff Miller (R-FL1) . . .

In August, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that premiums for insurance plans available in Florida are set to rise by an average of 13.2 percent next year, based on rate proposals filed by Florida’s health insurance providers. Yet, many Floridians will have to wait another month to see just how much their premiums will change thanks to a decision by the Administration to delay enrollment for 2015 Obamacare plans until November 15, nearly two weeks after the midterm elections.

Obamacare Premiums Delayed Until After The Mid-Terms

The administration says it’s not a political decision. Riiiiight. Could it possibly be that even the most devoted of the Liberal Left might not vote for Democrats next month if they see their premiums going up? Or that republicans who stayed home two years ago will get to the polls this time to reject the lies and fraud coming from the Obama administration?

In 2013 consumers could begin signing up for plans on Oct. 1. This year they were scheduled to start their applications on Oct. 15. But the Obama administration announced late last year that the second enrollment period would instead begin on Nov. 15 – a full week and a half after the consequential federal elections taking place on Nov. 4.

What ever happened to “we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014?” Oh that’s right. We’re talking about the Obama administration, where laws are flexible and even, optional. Just like delaying the mandate for business and labor unions until after the 2012 election wasn’t political. No one believed that. It was totally and unabashedly political. Or that Obamacare is subsidizing health insurance companies. Translation, taxpayers are bailing out insurance companies for their losses, with another year to go for that.

Remember all the broken promises. While you’re at it, also remember that the employer mandate that was delayed, and still hasn’t landed, was one of the funding sources that was going to lower premiums. That’s being delayed until AFTER the mid-term election too! What are the odds that premiums will go down? Any rational human being would conclude that if premiums really were going to go down, that the administration would announce them this month, as the illegally revised Obamacare law dictates.

Link: Obamacare rates won’t be revealed until AFTER the midterm elections – a month later than last year  |  HHS: We Lack ‘Statutory Authority’ to Extend Deadline to Sign Up for Obamacare

 

Obamacare, The Metrics Are Falling

Remember how quick the Obama administration was to tout the Obamacare enrollment numbers, that they wanted to? Of course, they still don’t know (or are not saying) how many new insureds there are as opposed to those who bought into the plan because they could not keep the policy they liked.

Now the house of cards is beginning to fall. Out of the eight million enrollees, 2.5 million are in limbo due to incomplete immigration and/or income status verification.

The Obama administration on Monday said 115,000 people in 36 states could lose their private health insurance under Obamacare after Sept. 30, because of unresolved data problems involving their citizenship or immigration status.

Another 363,000 people could see their insurance costs change, due to problems involving income data that is used to determine whether enrollees qualify for federal subsidies to help pay premiums on health plans obtained through the federal insurance marketplace, according to the administration.

Long story short, the fraud that was perpetrated both by the administration and those lying about their income and immigration status is bubbling to the top. Let’s not forget whose problem this is. It is ALL Democrats that voted for it. ZERO Republicans. Americans deserve better. We deserve an honest, open, and transparent government, and this bunch is not delivering. Not only are they not delivering, they have ruined the best (albeit not beyond improvement) health care delivery system and health insurance industry in the world, just for the sake of their ideology of having a single-payer (socialized) health care system.

What’s astonishing (not really) is the media’s take on this. The WSJ video in the link below, says “immigrants” have “missed the deadline” to verify their status. There is no deadline that an illegal alien can make. Ever.

Link: U.S. says 115,000 could lose Obamacare insurance over immigration – Yahoo News.

HealthCare.Gov Still Not Finished

Hearken back to last year when the roll-out of the HealthCare.Gov website fell flat on its face from day one. There was so much of the $600 million website that was not completed. Millions more were spent to ‘fix’ the problems. Obama got a crack team on it.

Well guess what? According to the HHS Inspector General’s office, the system still lacks the ability to verify whether applicants are eligible.

The federal health exchange was unable to resolve 2.6 million out of 2.9 million data inconsistencies on insurance applications through December 2013 because the eligibility system didn’t work, according to one of two inspector general reports released Tuesday.

The highlights from the HHS IG’s office . . .

  1. The internal controls were not effective for validating Social Security numbers and citizenship at the Federal marketplace.
  2. The Federal and California marketplaces did not always resolve inconsistencies in eligibility data, and the Connecticut marketplace did not always properly determine eligibility for insurance affordability programs.
  3. These deficiencies occurred because (1) the marketplaces did not have procedures or did not follow existing procedures to ensure that applicants were enrolled in QHPs according to Federal requirements or (2) the marketplaces’ eligibility or enrollment systems had defects or lacked functionality. For example, the Federal marketplace’s system functionality to resolve inconsistencies in eligibility data had not been fully developed.

The network radio news swerved from the numbers to generalities from 8am to Noon. Starting with pull quotes of “The federal health exchange was unable to resolve 2.6 million out of 2.9 million data inconsistencies on insurance applications.” Inconsistencies like verifying identity and citizenship. And ending with “the Office of Inspector General recommends that HHS take action to improve internal controls.”

Words not mentioned in any news broadcast were “Obamacare,” the “Affordable Care Act,” “HealthCare.Gov,” President Obama, or Kathleen Sibelius.

Related Links:

 

Culture Of Corruption, On Steroids

IRS, V A Hospitals, ICE, Benghazi, ACA, Fast & Furious, Justice Department. Talk about a culture of corruption? Oh. No. Don’t talk about it. Because if you do then you’re a racist.

It’s as if President Obama and everyone in his regime are inoculated from any sort of criticism (or impeachment), blame, or responsibility for anything bad because the President is Black.  What’s amazing to me, is how many people have been indoctrinated into this line of non-thinking?

How did we get to this point? Is it because the administration is loaded with liars, or because it is loaded with ideologues bound to the progressive agenda being put in positions they are not qualified (like Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to head the V A) to fill? Starting with the President himself, I believe it is the latter. The lying comes as a result, like Benghazi, of trying to cover up the incompetence.

Simply impeaching the president will not fix the problem. It will take an election and re-appointments of competent people into responsible positions (from the Cabinet on down) in government. America, it’s time to take out the garbage.

VA And Government-Run Health Care

Remember when proponents of the so-called Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) proffered the notion that Obamacare wasn’t anything new. That we already had government-run health care, citing the VA as the example. And that’s running so well. (I know, but that’s what they said.)

Not so well according to latest news report about veterans literally dying to see a doctor because the wait is too long. Some say the wait is so long because of veterans coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Well, if that relatively small number of “patients” overwhelms the VA, just think for a moment how adding 40 million new “patients” will affect wait time throughout the country. And never mind the lies about your premium cost going down and keeping your plan, doctor, and hospital. Looking at government-run health care from a purely numbers angle, there won’t be better or faster care. And for you Obamacare proponents, this VA scandal should prove it.

I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society

It’s been a few busy weeks in the news business, and a blessing to the Obama regime. The “news” has been consumed by an airplane that has gone missing somewhere in the far East with 239 people on board. The blessing to the regime is that the media wasn’t reporting on the debacle called Obamacare, aka the Affordable Care Act. Also known as the federal government growing, swallowing up 16 percent of the American economy and destroying the health insurance and health care industries, changing the role of government and its relation between it and the people.

On April 1st, President Obama had a pep rally in the Rose Garden which was characterized in the news media as a “victory lap” for Obamacare. Yes, the President is back to calling it Obamacare again. Never mind the numbers that the regime is touting as the big success. You know what they do with numbers.

If by success you mean that millions of Americans who have either had their insurance policies cancelled by the federal law, or are reacting under threat of penalty of the federal government for not buying an ACA approved insurance policy, “purchased” one. (In this context, purchased does not mean purchased.) That’s the administration’s definition of “success.” Suffice it to say that nothing the American people were promised that Obamacare would do has come to fruition, and can’t come to fruition.  So no news about the government over-stepping its constitutional boundaries is a good day for the regime.

And speaking of the government over-stepping its boundaries, below is an op-ed piece from the Wall Street Journal from an American who sees the danger, and is devoted to restoring the country to those principles (boundaries) spelled out in the Constitution. It’s a great read, in its entirety . . .

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I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society

By CHARLES G. KOCH

I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself. Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation’s own government. That’s why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process.

wsj_ed

A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value. In a truly free society, any business that disrespects its customers will fail, and deserves to do so. The same should be true of any government that disrespects its citizens. The central belief and fatal conceit of the current administration is that you are incapable of running your own life, but those in power are capable of running it for you. This is the essence of big government and collectivism.

More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson warned that this could happen. “The natural progress of things,” Jefferson wrote, “is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” He knew that no government could possibly run citizens’ lives for the better. The more government tries to control, the greater the disaster, as shown by the current health-care debacle. Collectivists (those who stand for government control of the means of production and how people live their lives) promise heaven but deliver hell. For them, the promised end justifies the means.

Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collectivists strive to discredit and intimidate opponents. They engage in character assassination. (I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.) This is the approach that Arthur Schopenhauer described in the 19th century, that Saul Alinsky famously advocated in the 20th, and that so many despots have infamously practiced. Such tactics are the antithesis of what is required for a free society—and a telltale sign that the collectivists do not have good answers.

Rather than try to understand my vision for a free society or accurately report the facts about Koch Industries, our critics would have you believe we’re “un-American” and trying to “rig the system,” that we’re against “environmental protection” or eager to “end workplace safety standards.” These falsehoods remind me of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s observation, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Here are some facts about my philosophy and our company:

Koch companies employ 60,000 Americans, who make many thousands of products that Americans want and need. According to government figures, our employees and the 143,000 additional American jobs they support generate nearly $11.7 billion in compensation and benefits. About one-third of our U.S.-based employees are union members.

Koch employees have earned well over 700 awards for environmental, health and safety excellence since 2009, many of them from the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. EPA officials have commended us for our “commitment to a cleaner environment” and called us “a model for other companies.”

Our refineries have consistently ranked among the best in the nation for low per-barrel emissions. In 2012, our Total Case Incident Rate (an important safety measure) was 67% better than a Bureau of Labor Statistics average for peer industries. Even so, we have never rested on our laurels. We believe there is always room for innovation and improvement.

Far from trying to rig the system, I have spent decades opposing cronyism and all political favors, including mandates, subsidies and protective tariffs—even when we benefit from them. I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

Koch Industries was the only major producer in the ethanol industry to argue for the demise of the ethanol tax credit in 2011. That government handout (which cost taxpayers billions) needlessly drove up food and fuel prices as well as other costs for consumers—many of whom were poor or otherwise disadvantaged. Now the mandate needs to go, so that consumers and the marketplace are the ones who decide the future of ethanol.

Instead of fostering a system that enables people to help themselves, America is now saddled with a system that destroys value, raises costs, hinders innovation and relegates millions of citizens to a life of poverty, dependency and hopelessness. This is what happens when elected officials believe that people’s lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves. Those in power fail to see that more government means less liberty, and liberty is the essence of what it means to be American. Love of liberty is the American ideal.

If more businesses (and elected officials) were to embrace a vision of creating real value for people in a principled way, our nation would be far better off—not just today, but for generations to come. I’m dedicated to fighting for that vision. I’m convinced most Americans believe it’s worth fighting for, too.

Mr. Koch is chairman and CEO of Koch Industries.

Link: Charles Koch: I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society

Jolly (R) Wins FL13, Who Knew?

One Associated Press piece in the local paper titled Fla. House race could be warning for Democrats was all there was in the news media about the republican win in a district that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. In a contest that was described as a bellwether for the midterm elections in November, where Obamacare was the focus on both sides.

NBC’s Chuck Todd said . . .

Tomorrow’s race in Florida will tell us a lot about the power of the Republican Party’s health-care attacks on Democrats could have in 2014.

Jolly campaigned on a conservative platform; cutting government spending, balanced budgets and repealing Obamacare. Sink tried a new version of offense with Obamacare; mend it, don’t end it. She followed the President’s agenda with a pro-illegal alien agenda, and more government spending. ‘Cutting spending’ and ‘balanced budget’ as an objective never crossed her lips.

Republican David Jolly beat Democrat Alex Sink with 48.5 percent of the vote to Sink’s 46.7 percent. Before the returns were in, Democrats began downplaying the importance of this contest. When the results were final, DNC Chair Debbie Was-a-man Shultz tried explaining away their loss, saying “the GOP fell short of its traditional margin” in a Republican-leaning district (but trending Democrat) packed with older voters.

She’s right about that. And the mainstream media carried her message. Missing in that fact is a little perspective. What she and the news media won’t say is that in all seven of Rep. Young’s elections, he ran unopposed. In this election, Jolly had two challengers. Sink a Democrat, and Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby.

Speaking of traditional margins. Third parties traditionally have given Democrats the win by siphoning off Republican party votes. Ralph Nader and Ross Perot come to mind. But this time, the nearly 5% that Overby got wasn’t enough to hand Sink a win. Also not mentioned was the fact that Jolly’s candidacy was not taken seriously by the establishment Republicans, allowing Jolly to be outspend by Democrats 3 to 1.

On the day before the election, Todd also said this . . .

Conversely, a Jolly win on Tuesday would signal that it’s open hunting season on Democrats — even in places where Obama has been a strength for Democrats in past elections.

It’s also open season on the establishment Republicans if they don’t stand on the principles that got them elected, and if they refuse to understand that running on conservative principles, compared with the status quo of the last 6 years, is how you win elections.

Obamacare, What Could Go Wrong?

Time for a recap on the success, or lack thereof, of the greatest piece of legislation (if you ask a Democrat) since the New Deal, Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Section 8 Housing combined. Universal health care, said President Obama, is what Americans have wanted. And they wanted it so that the 15 percent of Americans that didn’t have health insurance could then have it. After all, we are a generous and compassionate America. Not only that, but average family policyholders would see a $2,500 decrease in their premiums because everyone would now be insured.

Now, three years since the bill’s enactment, and with less than two weeks to go before the mandatory sign-up period ends, the circus of all legislation, Obamacare, is tumbling down and taking Americans, the economy, with it.

Remember when Big Labor and businesses complained of the cost and burden the ACA would put on them, and were granted delays of implementation through 2014? They couldn’t afford it. That left the individual mandate to fund the program on its own, since big businesses got the delay they wanted. Then Republicans asked for the individual mandate to also be delayed, because people, including Congressional employees who make six figure salaries, couldn’t afford it. They filibustered for the delay and got no where. Now, the administration is doing what Republicans wanted to do last year because, ta daaa, it is creating “hardship” on people. People can not afford to buy it. Now, since the individual mandate has been pushed back two years, until October 2016, the Affordable Care Act has no one mandated to participate. Which means that the Affordable Care Act now has no mandated funding. And what funding it does have, is no where near what it takes (by demographic) to survive, let alone reduce anyone’s premium. What a brilliant plan?

Delaying Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Due to ‘Hardship’ — Caused by Obamacare

It’s getting difficult to take any part of Obamacare seriously.

The Obama administration has altered or delayed it so many times—who can be sure what the law is at this point?

The individual mandate stating that every American has to purchase government-approved health coverage or pay a fine is supposed to kick in on March 31. That’s the deadline to sign up for coverage, supposedly to avoid this year’s penalty.

But Obamacare is never “settled law,” as the president and others have called it, because Health and Human Services (HHS) keeps writing more regulations.

Most recently, the administration extended the “hardship exemption” from the individual mandate for those who had their previous policies canceled because of Obamacare until October 2016.

To qualify, your plan must have been canceled because it wasn’t compliant with Obamacare, and you just have to tell the government you “believe” that other insurance policies are unaffordable.

The exemption means people who meet these criteria are free from the individual mandate. But if they want to buy coverage, they are given the special option to buy a “catastrophic” health insurance plan, which is not eligible for subsidies and typically would be available only to those under age 30.

When the exemption was first announced in December, Heritage experts Alyene Senger and Robert Moffit said this “is not going to simplify anything. Rest assured it is going to create even greater confusion for health insurers trying to sell these products. Also, don’t expect the unhappy consumers who’ve just lost their previous coverage to understand clearly which plan they can pick and be legally qualified to pick it.”

Due to the utter confusion and the underperforming signups on HealthCare.gov, reporters asked HHS this week whether the agency would simply extend the deadline for people to buy coverage. An HHS official responded that, “In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.”

This administration hasn’t let a detail like legal authority stop it from overstepping its bounds multiple times. And as Heritage’s Senger and Moffit put it, “issuing more government rules to correct the consequences of their unworkable government rules is the only thing they seem to know how to do.”

Repealing the ACA would be way better than what we now have. Replacing it with the House version would be better, and, would deliver in the private sector all that the ACA was promised to do in the public sector but can’t.

H/T Amy Payne 

Problem Is Median Income, Not Minimum Wage

It ought to be clear by now that nothing President Obama has done to “fix” our economy has worked. And the reason is he has it all wrong. You can’t build the private sector economy when you bleed the strength from it via taxes, over-regulation, and debt. As the government grows, the economy shrinks. And boy has the government grown.

Aside from his propensity to tax and spend, where spending is to favor contributors, labor unions, and favored special interests like environmental wackos and green energy flops, none of which builds the economy, President Obama’s economic engineering is not working because he can’t identify the problem.

The problem is not the minimum wage. That is a political strategy for hooking low information voters and the poor to vote Democratic. And to give Big Labor a raise. Raising the minimum wage will cause people to lose jobs. Just like Obamacare is causing people to lose jobs.  The middle class is getting poorer.  While the minimum wage remained steady, the median family income has fallen every year since Obama’s “recovery” began.

According to the Census report, the high point for median household income in the United States was back in 1999 ($56,080). It almost got back to that level in 2007 ($55,627), but ever since then there has been a steady decline. The following figures come directly from the report, and as you can see, median household income has fallen every single year for the past five years…

2007: $55,627
2008: $53,644
2009: $53,285
2010: $51,892
2011: $51,100
2012: $51,017

Did you know that there are six counties in America where the median income is over twice the national median?  Four of those counties are suburban Washington.

You know where President Obama’s focus is. And it is not on how to raise median family income. That’s where the middle class is. Is this because he doesn’t know how? Or is it because he doesn’t care that his social justice agenda is killing jobs and ruining the economy, especially the middle class? Which one works for you?