Showing posts with label ObamaCare Glitches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ObamaCare Glitches. Show all posts

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Sebelius' Shameful Legacy

Outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be remembered by most for the insanely botched roll-out of ObamaCare, but her most shameful legacy to those of us who remember it, will always be her disgraceful tenure as Governor of Kansas because of her unwavering support for illegal late term abortions, and her role in vilifying the attorney general who was trying to put a stop to them.

SmallBiz Small Talk

By Debra Heine – Breitbart.com  -  Cross-Posted at AskMarion: Infamous late term abortionist,  Dr. George Tiller, who practiced his shady, sordid business in Wichita, was able to game the system through strategic donations to Democrat politicians, most particularly, Kathleen Sebelius.

Kansas City resident Jack Cashill remembers the history well, and wrote about it today at the American Thinker.

During Sebelius’s six years as governor, women came from 48 states and points beyond to have late-term abortions in Kansas.

They came not because Kansas had uniquely liberal abortion laws.  They came because Sebelius was uniquely hostile to the law’s enforcement.  The state’s most efficient practitioner of this dubious art, the late Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, boasted on his website of having “more experience in late abortion services with fetuses over 24 weeks than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.”

What Tiller’s website did not say is that during the six years of Sebelius’s reign as governor, he ended the lives of thousands of healthy babies ready to be born, in full violation of state law.  Nor did the website tell how Sebelius personally intervened to let the carnage continue.  This was no small task.  To succeed, she had to destroy her Republican attorney general, Phill Kline, who was hot on Tiller’s trail.

Local Democrats and their media accomplices vigorously engaged in the "othering" of Kline.

Othering is a way of defining and securing one’s own positive identity through the stigmatization of an “other.” Whatever the markers of social differentiation that shape the meaning of “us” and “them,” whether they are racial, geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always the danger that they will become the basis for a self-affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group.

As Andrew Stiles recently noted at The Washington Free Beacon, liberals are in the process of trying to destroy Ted Cruz by "othering" him.  

But before the othering of Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, there was the particularly vicious othering of another effective conservative, Phill Kline.

The story could begin in any number of places, but a likely starting place is 2002, the year Sebelius ran for governor and Kline ran for attorney general.  As a state representative five years earlier, Kline had helped draft legislation to check the state’s then thriving late-term abortion business.  The new law allowed for a late-term abortion on a viable baby only “to preserve the life of the pregnant women” or to prevent her from suffering “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

Tiller poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a variety of PACs and cut-outs, making what should have been an easy win for Kline in 2002 into "a nail-biter." 

Four years later, he invested close to $2 million to Democrats.  

He had to.  For the three previous years, Kline had plied an unsympathetic state judiciary to get access to Tiller’s case file, and he was finally poised to succeed. 

Tiller and his political patrons, chief among them Sebelius, resisted at every step.  To block Kline, Sebelius persuaded  popular Republican district attorney Paul Morrison to switch parties and run against Kline on her ticket.  The Democrats, Tiller’s paid proxies, and the media then launched a vicious campaign to portray “Snoop Dog Kline” as a “panty-sniffer” with no greater interest than invading the privacy of Kansas women.

So relentless were The Kansas City Star’s attacks on the “anti-choice extremist” Kline that he lost the election, and the Star won Planned Parenthood’s top media honor, the “Maggie Award,” named for its eugenicist founder, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood

Margaret Sanger’s ideas are live and well in the Obama White House! Here is Ultra Left Wing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ Spin (Remember, Sibelius was an ardent supporter of murdered partial birth abortionist, Tiller and her extreme record on abortion has sadly been ignored (or hidden) by the media.) Sebelius has also been exposed as a major player in the Obama War on Religion.

Three months after Kline was forced out, Sebelius hosted an elegant but extremely discreet soirée at Cedar Crest, the governor’s mansion, for Tiller and his staff.  What made this event newsworthy was that just a few months earlier, Kline had filed 30 counts against Tiller for performing illegal late-term abortions.

Photos from the "soiree", include Sebelius proudly holding up a tee shirt given to her by Tiller which reads “Trifecta 2006: Sebelius, Parkinson, Morrison.”

Cashill has much more at The American Thinker with this biting conclusion:

I cannot imagine that Ms. Sebelius is having much fun this week, but if she is known going forward only for the humiliation of ObamaCare, she will have a better legacy than she deserves.

Agreed. And the most disturbing aspect of the sordid tale is the fact that she was chosen by Obama to be his HHS Sec. not despite this shameful legacy - but because of it.

And only in Obamaland, where Progressivism runs wild, could this women entertain running for the Senate with a record and history like hers!!

*Lucky for us there are 3 numbers that show a Sebelius Senate run is all but doomed.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Examiner Editorial: Why does Nancy Pelosi fear an Obamacare inspector general?

“Now that a Democrat works in the Oval Office and is responsible for the biggest federal entitlement program ever created, Pelosi thinks an IG is unnecessary.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: " Each of the committees of jurisdiction has oversight, so the congressional oversight is something that I support. Each of the agencies of government that are implementing the law, the Affordable Care Act, have their own inspectors general. I think that the system has enough appropriate oversight. I don't see any reason to go to that point." (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Washington Examiner: Among the least-heralded public servants in the nation's capital are the 73 inspectors general established by Congress to root out waste, fraud and inefficiency in the executive branch. With teams of thousands of auditors and inspectors, the IGs issue hundreds of investigative and audit reports that send a steady parade of crooks to jail while saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that one out of 100 Americans could name a single IG.

That anonymity is a key to their success, however, because it helps keep the focus on the job at hand and away from political considerations that can derail the pursuit of justice. So it's particularly disappointing to see House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blatantly playing politics with the imminently reasonable proposal of Rep. Peter Roskam to create an IG for Obamacare. The Illinois Republican announced his proposal Thursday, and no sooner had he done so that Pelosi made clear her opposition to it.

Asked about the Roskam proposal at her daily news conference, Pelosi said: “No. Each of the committees of jurisdiction has oversight, so the congressional oversight is something that I support. Each of the agencies of government that are implementing the law, the Affordable Care Act, have their own inspectors general. I think that the system has enough appropriate oversight. I don't see any reason to go to that point.”

Of course, there are oversight committees of Congress for all 73 of the departments and agencies that presently have IGs, but none of those federal entities control one-sixth of the U.S. economy or trillions of dollars in federal spending. So why would Pelosi be opposed to an Obamacare IG?

Roskam found the likely answer in Pelosi's position on previous proposals to create IGs. He noted that Pelosi enthusiastically supported creation of IGs for the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well for the Toxic Asset Recovery Program, the federal relief effort to victims of Hurricane Katrina and the intelligence community. Perhaps its merely coincidental, but every one of those IG proposals came when a Republican president was in the White House. Now that a Democrat works in the Oval Office and is responsible for the biggest federal entitlement program ever created, Pelosi thinks an IG is unnecessary.

Pelosi was speaker of the House when Congress approved the $700 billion Wall Street bailout in 2008 with a Special Inspector General for TARP. As Roskam pointed out last week, the SIGTARP has since “identified $5.3 billion in restitution and savings, including $533 million in direct taxpayer savings. In comparison, the healthcare law is estimated to cost $1.8 trillion when fully implemented, dwarfing TARP's cost to taxpayers.”

It was also Pelosi who famously said of Obamacare that “we have to pass it so you can see what’s in it.” Remember, too, that Obamacare was written behind the closed doors of Pelosi’s office. Could it be there’s something in Obamacare that she fears an Obamacare IG will expose?

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Another Obamacare Fiasco

And the ObamaCare Fiasco Rolls On…

By: Roger Aronoff - Accuracy in Media

President Barack Obama said his biggest mistake of 2013 was the rollout of the Obamacare website. But the website was just a small manifestation of the many real problems with Obamacare, some of which have only recently become apparent. Actually, his biggest mistake may have occurred during the government shutdown negotiations, by not taking the Republicans up on their efforts to postpone its implementation by a year. Just think of the concessions he might have gotten from them on a host of other issues — such as immigration reform and the minimum wage—and the aggravation he could have avoided if he had agreed to push the pause button until after the 2014 election.

Accuracy in Media has pointed out many of the problems with Obamacare. It is a job-killing disaster, it was sold to Congress and the American public based on a series of lies, and it is doing serious damage to the quality of healthcare in this country. Millions of people have had their policies cancelled, with tens of millions more expected to have theirs cancelled once the employer mandate kicks in. The fact that President Obama has arbitrarily delayed aspects of the law, such as the employer mandate, means that he recognizes them as politically damaging to the Democrats.

People are being asked to sign up on a website that is not secure, and is in fact even less secure than it was two months ago, with no recourse for ordinary citizens if their most personal information is hacked. And the government is misrepresenting and concealing the number of people signing up for Obamacare by not distinguishing between previously uninsured people who have now purchased insurance, from those who have merely gone online to explore their options, or those who are signing up for Medicaid or subsidized policies.

The health insurance industry, which last week saw its “Industry Outlook” in terms of creditworthiness, as characterized by Moody’s, go from stable to negative, is protected against losses by a taxpayer-funded bailout provision in the so-called Affordable Care Act.

The incentives are perverse throughout Obamacare, such as cities with unfunded health-care commitments preparing to dump their retirees on the state exchanges, and companies reducing the number of full-time employees and the number of hours they can work. And the system is supposed to be enforced by the IRS, which has been highly politicized under this administration. What could possibly go wrong?

On top of all that, there has been the serious problem of cronyism. Healthcare.gov is additional proof that cronyism continues to be the name of the game in America under President Obama. As AIM previously explored in a special report, CGI Federal was awarded the contract to work on the government health care website after donating extensively to the Obama campaign. It was the only bidder. The company’s senior vice president also attended Princeton with Michelle Obama. Remember when no-bid contracts were a source of outrage and cause for investigation? No more.

Now, the Canadian-owned CGI Federal is out and a new company, called Accenture, is in. Except that the company winning this no-bid contract has offices in Chicago and is incorporated in Ireland, which its spokesman says “reflect[s] its global business across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.” It works through tax havens. “Accenture previously was incorporated in America but then reportedly moved to the tax haven of Bermuda,” reported Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily. Bloomberg News wonders why the Senate isn’t investigating Accenture for using tax havens, like they investigated Apple last year for that very same matter. “Democrats in Congress generally don’t want to be seen badmouthing the White House,” they conclude, “or the Affordable Care Act.”

And Accenture looks to be a hefty Obama supporter as well. Accenture employees, family members, and its political action committee gave nearly four times as much to Obama as they did to Mitt Romney. They have given nearly $300,000 to Obama’s campaigns over the years.

In a letter to Front Page Magazine, Accenture Director of Corporate Communications James McAvoy clarified that the Accenture PAC itself did not contribute to Obama’s Senate campaign or his presidential campaigns.

But the amount given by employees overall is dwarfed by the amount bundled by Accenture senior manager Tracey Patterson’s husband, Chaka Patterson. He is listed on the Obama-Biden website as having bundled over $500,000 for the re-election campaign in 2012. Chaka received a shout out from the President on June 1, 2012, when he was traveling through Chicago and Minneapolis to make six fundraisers in one day. Chaka’s and his wife’s party was among them.

And another former employee of Accenture, Rayid Ghani, self-identifies as the former “Chief Scientist at [the] Obama for America 2012 campaign.”

“Rayid Ghani, chief scientist of the Obama for America data analytics team, came to the Obama campaign in 2011 after a long stint directing the analytics research group at Accenture Technology Labs, where he engineered new ways for companies to track consumers’ personal preferences,” reported The Daily Caller.

In other words, the administration transitioned from using a company for its government website that had known ties to the Obama administration to one that has less-well-known ties—but arguably ones that also run deep.

Where are the mainstream media in reporting this information? They seem to have no interest in exposing Obama’s revolving-door cronyism, and no-bid contracts. Can it get any worse for the American taxpayer?

Yes, it can.

It seems that, according to the New York Post, Obama has effectively outsourced his health care project by giving it to this company. “Accenture has 80,000 Indian workers, 35,000 in the Philippines and only 40,000 in the United States,” reported Robert Oak for the Post on January 18. “Over 40 percent of their worth comes from outsourcing. In all probability, the tech jobs awarded under this contract and paid for with U.S. tax dollars are going abroad.”

“But even if the work is done locally, chances are the employees are foreigners brought in for lower wages using the controversial H-1B visa program—where companies are allowed to hire guest workers from abroad,” reports Oak. In other words, those working on the website likely come from outside the U.S. and are paid as much as 25% less than American workers.

Accenture ranked very high among American companies in using these visas, reports Oak. The year before last, Accenture brought in over 4,000 foreign workers on these visas; they even paid one “chief programmer” about $25,000 a year.

The rationale, argues Oaks, for hiring foreign engineers and programmers is that there aren’t enough American ones. But, he notes, “It has been proved repeatedly there is no shortage of Americans with technical skills and talent.”

Will Accenture’s future employees be paid fairly? Probably not. Oak reports that in 2012, the median salary for an H-1B visa worker at Accenture was about $30,000 less than the median salary for an equivalent visa worker at Amazon.

For a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. health care system and a vital component of Obama’s signature legislation, the administration has chosen to rely once again on a foreign-affiliated technology company with ties to Obama’s own fundraising apparatus. This is one company guaranteed to underpay its workers and outsource its production.

It’s time the media took notice of these facts and stopped ignoring the inconvenient truths about Accenture—and about Obamacare.

Roger Aronoff is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at roger.aronoff@aim.org. View the complete archives from Roger Aronoff.

Friday, December 27, 2013

A Failing Grade for Obamacare

By: Zack Slingsby  -  The Forge

GK Chesterton once said, when asked to describe what it was about the world that made him believe in a divine creator, that he regrettably found himself dumbstruck, ill-prepared, at a loss for words. When he surveyed his surroundings, he explained, it was not that one thing pointed toward a celestial hand; it was that everything did.

Politicians and pundits of verifiable eloquence have similarly found themselves humbled before the mountain of evidence towering in tribute to President Obama’s calamitous Affordable Care Act. The heap has grown at such a rate that it is getting difficult to stand back far enough to see it all at once. How can anyone squeeze the multitude of weekly revelations into a digestible sound bite?

It is not merely the premise of redistribution at issue, not merely the suffering the law has inflicted on the populace directly (via policy cancellation and the structured marginalizing of small business interests), not merely the constitutional flippancy with which the Executive has unilaterally amended and implemented the bad law at will, but rather the coalescence of all these factors, and their myriad implications, that confounds opponents when asked, Well, what is so wrong with Obamacare?

The case for repeal is made plain by the simple fact that the law sold to us as a magical fix-all has thus far rendered every step of the healthcare insurance process completely broken.

The immense failure of the Obamacare rollout has evidently emboldened the media to use a painless litmus test for its success. If the administration’s tech savvies can catch up to the flaws of the website, if they can sign people up and stifle the groans of cancellation, and really make a go of the exchanges, then all is well and all is bright. This is the wrong test.

From the moment of the bill’s inception, the President has claimed his signature overhaul will improve the essence of healthcare for the people of America. Not simply make it as good. The numbers he has to compete with have been plainly recorded. In 2009, the Washington Post conducted a survey revealing that approximately 81% of US citizens were satisfied with their health insurance coverage and 88% were satisfied with the quality of the healthcare they received.

If the President wants to remake the economy under the guise of providing coverage to 15 million uninsured Americans—a goal that could have been reached through the tested-means of capitalism—his program will have to produce satisfaction returns that not only meet but exceed the statistical enthusiasm of 2009 (and do so, as he promised, without contributing to the reckless tax-and-spend trend of new progressivism). As it stands today, on the precipice of full-scale implementation and with the administration’s arbitrary revision tactics quickly become a new fact of governing, the President must contend with seven in ten Americans who, at minimum, would like to see the law’s one-year delay.

He will have to ignore them all to stay the course. And that he will. So when the White House wishes you a Merry Christmas via press conference, pundit promise or passing pop-up ad, remember to thank them for Obamacare: the gift that keeps on giving, whether you want to return it or not.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

California Rightly Rejects Illegal ObamaCare Fix

IBD: ObamaCare: California's health insurance exchange has decided not to allow insurance plans that do not meet the law's standards, rejecting the president's attempt to rewrite the law through executive action.

Recognizing the impracticality and illegality of President Obama's proposed "fix" for insurance policies canceled due to the Affordable Care Act's coverage mandates, the board of Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, voted 5-0 against extending the 1 million California health care plans that were dropped under the law.

The Golden State follows several other blue states — including New York, Washington, Rhode Island and Minnesota — that announced they won't go along with the administration's proposed solution. State insurance commissioners make it clear that just in practical terms the fix is unworkable in the time available.

Reality bites, as they say, and the reality is insurance companies that altered insurance plans and computer software in a long, Herculean effort to comply with the law can't restore the status quo in weeks just because the president pulls an Emily Litella and says "never mind," without a constitutional or legal leg to stand on.

Obama's fix allegedly lets insurance companies continue selling the same individual health insurance plans they sold before the law, but only to those who currently own such policies, and only for another year.

"There's no way to make the federal law work without this transition to ACA-compliant plans," Covered California board member Susan Kennedy said. "Delaying the transition isn't going to help anyone; it just delays the problems. I actually think that it's going to make a bad situation worse if we complicate it further."

Covered California also recognized that letting people extend their existing health plans would also create a two-tier insurance system that would keep younger and healthier paying customers out of the ACA risk pool, paying customers that are needed to keep ObamaCare from financially imploding. These are people such as the 20-something male who can't understand why his premium and deductible must increase to give him maternity and pediatric dental care coverage he doesn't need.

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said the state can't force any insurance companies to extend their already-expired plans.

Many insurers, aside from noting the costly logistical nightmare reissuing canceled plans would create, have noted that they have complied with the law and the regulations, implementing it as written and that issuing noncompliant policies on the basis of presidential assurance is to stand on shaky legal ground.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Wake-Up… ObamaCare Eliminates Your Plan by Design

RUSH: The scope of this fraud is incalculable and almost unimaginable.  That's how big it is.

The failure that is going on right now is all part of the plan to force everyone into a single-payer system… that is socialized medicine completely run by the government… Wake-up and stop being played.  The only option is to clean house in the 2014 Election so that we can repeal and replace this socialistic monstrosity with a plan to really help all Americans and retain our freedoms and choices.

Video: RUSH: Americans Had To Lose Their Health Care Plans In Order For ObamaCare To Work

EIB – Cross-Posted at AskMarion: BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Steve in South Bend, Indiana.  Welcome, sir.  It's great to have you here.  Hi.

CALLER:  Yes, good afternoon, Rush.  Thank you for taking my phone call.  Long-time listener, first-time caller.  In fact you mentioned Hillarycare earlier, and it's around 1993 that I think I first started tuning in, when Hillarycare debacle was going down. One thing I might add is, if you recall, C. Everett Koop supported Hillarycare.  In fact, if you remember the red carpet ceremony with Hillary walking into the joint session of Congress, I think she was joined by C. Everett Koop, who lent his weight behind her plan. 

That's not why I called.  Okay, 2010 when Obamacare was passed, they went to the states and wanted the states to offer extended Medicaid.  The promise was that the federal government would pay for it for two years -- and the bait, of course, was that the states did not have to pay for it. It was free Medicaid for two years. But then, of course, once they get everybody hooked into their entitlement then the federal government pulls the rug out from under it.

But everybody's hooked so, you know, the states have to continue it.  What I can foresee, what I predict with Obamacare rollout 2.0 is they're just gonna jack up the subsidies. They're gonna get everybody hooked in who lost their health care by overly subsidizing them, get 'em hooked and -- you know, for a protracted, limited time, a year or two or whatever -- and once theory hooked, they're hooked.  And you just mentioned the taxpayer subsidy would probably be a possibility.  That's what I see happening.

RUSH:  Yeah, well, I think that's what Jay Carney means when he quotes the president as saying he doesn't like people put in a position where they can't afford a better plan.  So here comes subsidies.  That's the Democrat solution to everything, is buy them.  The fact that we don't have the money is irrelevant.  The fact that they're still being lied to is irrelevant.  We'll just buy them.  We'll just buy their love.  We'll just buy their support.  And we'll use the federal Treasury to do it. 

There's a guy who writes a piece in The Politico today named Jonathan Gruber, and he practically admits -- let me read a little excerpt here.  "The White House is 'just reacting to one broken promise by imposing a much larger and harmful one: our promise to insurers that if they priced fairly, we would deliver a broad pool of insured.  If you allow the healthy enrollees to stay out in their old policy, the insurers lose money and the program falls apart.'"

So, in other words, if insurers are allowed to keep their plan, Obamacare will fail.  If you get to keep your plan, if we try to dial back the clock and everybody gets to keep their plan, it won't work, because the insurers will lose money and the program falls apart because they won't stay in business that way, whereas the federal government can.  Jonathan Gruber was quoted.  He didn't write the piece, but he was one of the architects of Obamacare.  He practically admitted that if insurers are allowed to keep their plans, that Obamacare will fail.  Meaning, if you're allowed to keep your plan, Obamacare fails.  This has been my point all week.  You cannot keep your plan and have Obamacare at the same time.  Obamacare, by definition, gets rid of your plan and replaces it with health care run by the federal government. 

Now, the caller is right about Medicaid.  Remember, they tried to off that to the states, and a lot of states said, "Wait a minute, we don't have the money to pay for this."  But Obamacare wanted to off that expense to the states to reduce the overall cost as reported to the CBO. Keep it under a trillion dollars and get it approved and everybody thinks, "Oh, wow, it's a net wash, we're replacing the Iraq war with health care, no loss, no gain."  The whole thing was a lie.  The states said, "We can't afford Medicaid. We can't print money. We can't accept it." 

So now it's coming back, and Obama, the theory is, "Well, we'll just subsidize people," and like the caller said, "We'll get 'em hooked," and once people are hooked with the government paying for things for them, that's it.  But they're subsidizing it with money they don't have.  But that's the story of this whole administration.  There was a stimulus that we didn't have.  A green energy program for money that we didn't have.  We're subsidizing everything Obama is doing with money that we don't have.  But the beneficiaries don't care.  The people getting the money don't care that we don't have the money.  In fact, you tell 'em we don't have the money and they say, "Yes, we do, I just got it." 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  The Gruber quote, just to be clear, he's one of the architects of Obamacare, it's in a Politico piece.  Gruber is reminding people that we cannot go back and give people their old plans.  We will not have Obamacare if we do that.  We can't turn back the hands of time.  We cannot turn back the clock as a fix for all the people that are losing their policy, losing their doctor, we can't just now say, "Oh, okay.  Well, here it is back."  The reason is, the White House is just reacting to one broken promise by imposing a much larger and harmful one.  And the original promise to the insurers, not the insured, the original promise to the insurers, the insurance companies, was that if they priced their policies fairly, that the regime would deliver a broad pool of uninsured that were mandated to buy. 

This is how they hooked the insurance companies in.  These idiots thought that they were guaranteed 30 million new customers. (interruption) Well, they are.  What else explains this?  So they sit there, and of course it's the president, I guess you meet with the president and he tells you something, you automatically believe it.  That's what I don't get.  But anyway, they did, they bought it.  And they were salivating, 30 million new customers and all we've gotta do is price our policies fairly.  Well, now they can't offer what they were offering at the same price because of the new mandates and all that in Obamacare.

The bottom line is, it isn't easy to repair this broken promise, that millions of consumers would be able to keep their insurance coverage.  And, by the way, the Politico, in random act of journalism here, they've gone out and they found a bunch of industry experts to say so.  You can't repair this broken promise.  The reason I'm making a big deal out of this is Jay Carney was asked by AP today if Obama agrees with Clinton.  You know, Clinton said (Clinton impression), "I think he ought to honor his promise. He said that people can keep their plan, I think he should do that."  You can't!  It doesn't work.  The only way you could do that would be a total repeal of Obamacare.  There are just too many mandates and requirements on everybody.  That is why people got canceled in the first place. 

Your insurance company didn't cancel you 'cause they hate you.  They didn't cancel you 'cause they want you to get sick and die.  They didn't cancel you because they're Republicans, they don't care about people.  They canceled you because they couldn't offer what you had at the price you were paying and stay in business, which was the design.  Obamacare, to get where Obama and the Democrats want it to ultimately end, requires that the private sector health insurance industry cease to exist.  This is the first step, is practically requiring them to be unable to provide you with the policy you've always had, because there are other mandates and requirements they have to conform to that makes it impossible to over to you the coverage you had at the price you were paying. 

So the only way to get your plan back is not to fix a broken promise. Now, they may try a subsidy, but the only way is to repeal Obamacare, folks. This is what this architect is basically saying, as is The Politico. 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Okay, here's the money quote from Jonathan Gruber: "If you allow the healthy enrollees to stay out in their old policy, the insurers lose money and the program falls apart."  The program is Obamacare.  You cannot have people stay in their old plans and have Obamacare.  It's exactly as I've been saying.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  I don't know, folks.  I still can't get over Clinton telling Obama to honor his commitments and not break his promise.  You know, I famously said, "I hope he fails."  Clinton is admitting Obama failed and demanding that he fix it.  The guy who lied to a grand jury telling the sitting president to be honest. 

Folks, this Politico piece that I just stumbled across here during the program, if I don't mind saying so, is a huge See, I Told You So.  I have been -- and I hate that phrase, by the way, "I've been saying."  You hate it, but I hate it when other people use it because it implies that nobody's listening, and I know you've heard me say this.  It's almost an habitual thing to remind people that they've been told of something. 

I've been trying to make the point now -- I really hammered it yesterday with a caller -- ever since people started bellyaching about losing their policies. I mean, I've practically been pounding my fist on the table here telling people that you have to lose your policy if there is going to be Obamacare.  I don't want to have to go through this again.  By the way, I need to really apologize to you all for being all over the ballpark today.  I'm just really fatigued.  I'm just worn out, tired -- and it's not assisted by being rudely awakened by my kitten

Well, you know, what I mean by that is I'm saying silly things, like, "Why do people not remember?" I know the answer to these questions I'm asking.  I just let my guard down.  I'm asking stupid questions to which I already know the answers.  I'm just basically saying, "Gee, why can't it be some way else?" and I know that that's silly.  You know, wishing for it to be otherwise is silly, 'cause it is what it is.  But this is big.  I'm telling you that's why this lie that he told is so fraudulent. 

You mean, it's impeachable what he's done here, because there's no way anybody was ever going to be able to keep their plan, and yet he made that the number one selling point.  Without that lie he might nota been reelected, and without that lie we might not be saddled with this albatross.  The American people have been deceived and defrauded.  You let Richard Nixon try this and see what happens.

Bernie Madoff is a piker compared to the fraud, including the money, compared to what Obama has done with that one lie, because it was never true.  There was never going to be a way that you or anybody could keep your plan -- and the simplest way to understand that is he's out there telling the entire nation, "If you like your plan, you can keep it," and for the most part, the vast majority of people liked that characteristic of Obamacare. 

That's why they supported it.

Do you think he would have been reelected if he would have told people that this is what was gonna happen?  If he were to campaign now, "You're gonna lose your plan, and the replacement's gonna cost you three times as much, but we have to do it to insure the uninsured," do you think he would have been reelected? Do you think we would have to deal with this?  As Joe Biden once said, "This is a big F---ing deal." 

You were never gonna be able to keep your plan, and the fact that he made it the number one selling point, and that they knew! The Federal Register admited that 93 million people were not gonna keep their plans.  They knew that, and they've known it since 2010, when this all started.  The fact that he made that the number one selling point for this, stop and think for a second. 

If everybody keeps their plan, then what the hell are we talking about? Why do we need Obamacare?  If you like your plan and get to keep it, what's wrong?  The only thing that anybody could say is wrong, well, the insured.  Now, I realize that especially may have not liked their plans because they believed there was something better, and that was the second lie that was told.  "Do you like your plan? You can keep it, but the alternative is gonna be even better for you." 

The scope of this fraud is incalculable and almost unimaginable.  That's how big it is.  So for this Obamacare architect -- a man by the name of Jonathan Gruber, in The Politico today -- to be admitting this is a huge See, I Told You So.  The See, I Told You So is specifically what I drilled home to a caller yesterday, that these canceled policies will never be brought back.  Now, you're gonna hear Democrats talk about reinstating your lost policy.

And you might hear some idiot Republicans talking about wanting to support that, and you might hear the media talk about it. But it's not possible.  Your policy cannot be restated, or restored unless Obamacare is repealed, and that isn't going to happen.  Obama will not do it. Saul Alinsky, that might put the fire out in Hell.  That would never happen. Repealing this thing, that'd be one of the biggest embarrassment ever.  I know that they might delay the individual mandate.

They might try to do a bunch of things here to limit the pain, or to move the pain to after the 2014 elections, but these plans cannot be brought back.  They were canceled precisely because Obamacare doesn't permit them, financially and with regulation.  That's why you've been canceled.  It's not because the insurance companies hate you.  It's not because they want you to get sick and die.  It's not 'cause they're a bunch of Republicans and they're trying to save money.  It's none of that. 

They can't stay in business with your old plan.  They're not gonna be in business anyway by the time this is all said and done.  Now, The Politico piece also has this.  "The Huffington Post reported that the [regime] is considering providing subsidies to those who lost coverage but wouldn't qualify for subsidies otherwise under the law."  So they're gonna buy you off.  You've lost your plan and you can't get it back.

So they're gonna cover the difference with a subsidy.  Now, if you're the Republicans, I don't know how you deal with that. If you oppose that, what can they say about you?  "Well, you want people to starve! Oh, you don't want people to have health care? Oh, you want people in pain?"  Once you get to the point where the federal Treasury becomes the number one weapon before for a political party to stay in power, I don't know how you battle that. I really don't. 

I don't know how you battle that, given how many low-information voters we have, given how many people are already on food stamps and dependent, how many people are already in poverty. I don't know how you re-instill a sense of self-reliance.  And particularly when it comes to health care, I just don't know how you do that.  And that is why I am sounding wistful here in wishing for fantasy, 'cause it is fantasy that people understand and remember how devastating liberalism is.  They just don't. 

They fall for it every time it's pitched to 'em. 

Well, maybe not.  They had to be lied to big time to fall for this. 

END TRANSCRIPT 

Video: Rush Limbaugh to GOP: Don't Let Obama 'Eliminate Pain' by Delaying Individual Mandate

RUSH: Obama Doesn’t Care. He Lied For Power. 

Video: RUSH: Obama Is Sorry You Believed Him

The Dirty Secret Behind ObamaCare No One’s Talking About

Monday, November 4, 2013

Obamacare Debacle - Many Losing Their Plans - Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday - 11-3-13

VideoObamacare Debacle - Many Losing Their Plans - Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday - 11-3-13

Nov 3, 2013:  Another tough week for the Obamacare rollout and the massive number of folks who are having their medical insurance coverage cancelled in the process. This week, FNC's Chris Wallace hosts a highly spirited debate between James Capretta (Ethics & Public Policy Center) and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (Former Adviser to President Obama on Obamacare)

Related: 

Betsy McCaughey: Obamacare designed to vastly expand single payer Medicaid by eviscerating Medicare

Ezekiel Emanuel & The Complete Lives System: part 3 of Health Care: Why We are Scared (Video)

Ezekiel Emanuel, architect of ObamaCare..please read

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

"People 70 and over will not be treated under Obamacare… and you thought DEATH PANELS were gone"  -  Betsy McCaughey recently warned baby-boomers that if they are under 65, they better line up their doctors, at least a primary care physician and an internist, now… because with all the people being enrolled in Medicare/Medicaid under ObamaCare, once they turn 65 and go on Medicaid they will have a hard time finding doctors, if they can find them at all.

She also warned that if they have major surgery, they need to cobble together enough funds for a private nurse for the first night because hospitals are already laying off staff, including nurses.

McCaughey is the author of Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for the New Healthcare Law, Decoding the Obama Health Law: What You Need To Know (Kindle) and Obama Health Law: What It Says and How to Overturn It (Encounter Broadsides) (Kindle).  She knows of what she speaks!!

Friday, November 1, 2013

"If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" - Barack Obama [video supermix]

Video: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" - Barack Obama

NewsBusters: To counter accusations that the President lied when he repeatedly told Americans they can keep their health insurance plans if they liked them, the administration has claimed that he was referring to the millions of people covered by their employers.

An article from Forbes Thursday thoroughly refutes this claiming that Obama officials back in 2010 predicted that 93 million Americans would have their plans cancelled as a result of ObamaCare including a vast amount of those with employer-sponsored plans:

If you read the Affordable Care Act when it was passed, you knew that it was dishonest for President Obama to claim that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan,” as he did—and continues to do—on countless occasions. And we now know that the administration knew this all along. It turns out that in an obscure report buried in a June 2010 edition of the Federal Register, administration officials predicted massive disruption of the private insurance market. [...]

[T]he administration’s commentary in the Federal Register did not only refer to the individual market, but also the market for employer-sponsored health insurance.

Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act contains what’s called a “grandfather” provision that, in theory, allows people to keep their existing plans if they like them. But subsequent regulations from the Obama administration interpreted that provision so narrowly as to prevent most plans from gaining this protection.

“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration on page 34552. All in all, more than half of employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and get canceled. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans—more than half the population—was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.

As we found out from Lisa Myers' report Monday, the administration predicted that between 47 and 60 percent of individually-purchased policies would be cancelled under ObamaCare.

Forbes did the math to calculate a total:

51 percent of the employer-based market plus 53.5 percent of the non-group market (the middle of the administration’s range) amounts to 93 million Americans.

What this means is that not only did Obama lie when he repeatedly told Americans that they can keep their plans if they like them, he also lied in Boston on Wednesday when he said he was referring to the majority of Americans coverered by their employers.

Will media report this?

Stay tuned?

Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters - (HT Twitchy)

Sarah Palin - Facebook:  President Obama flew in to Boston yesterday to deliver another “ShamWow”-style infomercial for Obamacare, and it went about as well as his entourage’s snarled traffic debacle in Beantown.

As millions of Americans are being kicked off their desired insurance plans and seeing their premiums skyrocket, the President had a lot of 'splaining to do today. For starters we anticipated a Presidential apology for lying to Americans repeatedly when he promised things like, “If you like your current health care plan, you can keep it.” Make no mistake, he knew he was lying when he said that. And make no further mistake, after five years of false Obama claims, no one should actually expect contrition on this administration’s part.

Bloomberg reports that in June of 2010, the administration knew millions would be kicked off existing healthcare plans due to Obamacare; but President Obama continued to knowingly deceive the American people with repeated claims that if we liked our current plan we could keep it.

So, finally busted, did the President apologize? Was remorse and sympathy shown for Americans who now can’t afford health insurance thanks to Obamacare? Nope. He instead informed us that Americans who receive cancellation notices have been on “substandard” plans supplied by “bad apple” insurers. That’s right. Obama didn’t lie to you when he said, “if you like your plan, you can keep it.” Why? Because, you sillies, you DIDN’T REALLY like the plan you chose for yourselves! No arguing. Barack Obama knows best and he’ll tell you whether you actually liked your insurance plan or not. If you’re an elderly bachelor, your old plan was clearly “substandard” because it didn’t offer maternity care. What’s that you say? You don’t need maternity care? Well, according to the President today, he says you do, and any insurance plan that doesn’t offer it is a “junk” plan provided by a “bad apple” insurer.

But don’t worry, the President also promised that only “rich” people making $250,000 or more will see their premium costs rise. This lie is so appalling and so easily debunked that the brazenness with which he made it is simply breathtaking. But who will hold him accountable for it? Media, you know I love you... so let me help you save your hide with the American public by suggesting you fact-check that.

Despite the Obamacare rollout disaster and the broken government website (which HHS Secretary Sebelius admitted is a “debacle” in her testimony before Congress today), the President gleefully highlighted the few people signing up for Obamacare as indicative of his socialized medicine’s “success.” He neglected to mention that the government is forcing Americans to sign up for his program or pay fines that will increase each year we fail to do so.

For sheer chutzpah, the President closed his speech by praising America’s “rugged individualism.” Because nothing says “rugged individualism” like heavy-handed big government forcing individuals to buy a product they don’t want and arrogantly telling them they didn’t really like the product they wisely chose for themselves and could afford.

Thanks for the infomercial, Mr. President. I don’t know anyone who wants your “ShamWow” product, but the IRS will make sure we call that toll free number or go online to order it right now…. well, just as soon as your impossibly broken $600 million website is fixed and your phones lines aren’t busy.

Happy with this, America? Make your voices heard. 2014 is just around the corner.

Video: Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Obama could take away your right to buy cheap shoes

10/31/13 - Rep. Marsh Blackburn (R-TN) warned on Thursday that President Barack Obama could soon take away the freedom to purchase cheap shoes if his health care reform law was allowed to stand. At a House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, the Tennessee Republican had grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius because the Affordable Care Act had forced insurers to upgrade some policies that did not meet new minimum government standards.

"Some people like to drive a Ford, not a Ferrari," Blackburn had quipped at the hearing. "And some people like to drink out of a red Solo cup, not a crystal stem. You're taking away their choice." In an appearance on the Fox News Channel on Thursday, host Martha MacCallum concluded that the point about the Solo cup was the "bigger picture" about the health care law.

"I will always go to the mat and fight for freedom, free people, free markets," Blackburn insisted. "And I think for the federal government to come in and take away the choice that people have had in the health care market and say, 'Hey, we don't like what you've been buying, we're going to make you buy this.'"

"What's the next thing going to be? You can't buy that Solo cup? You can't buy an inexpensive blouse? You can't buy a pair of shoes that cost less than another pair?"

She added: "So do they think that the federal government is going to become the determiner of the cost and set prices of everything that you can buy at a quality that they say is worthy? Come on! This is absolutely ridiculous. I am not going to sit here and let them get by with this."

- Sarah Palin  - Facebook

P.S. Take a look at this article by Fox’s Eric Bolling: Why the Healthcare.gov website failure matters big-time

Excerpt: As Eric asks, “If they can’t get a basic website up and running in three years… How on God’s green Earth are they going to administer health care to 300 million Americans? So, with billions upon billions of health related communications clearing through the government medicine portal annually, our very health will be hanging in the balance…Therefore, you must conclude: The Obama administration has our lives in their hands… Ask yourself… Do you trust President Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Kathleen Sebelius and Jay Carney with your life? I certainly do not!  Video: Glenn Beck: Day 30 And Heathcare.gov Still Isn't Working…

The Lies Continue On ObamaCare 

Sebelius, ObamaCare and More Spin…

Sharyl Attkisson told on Obamacare enrollment figures: ‘There aren’t any’

http://thelastgreatstand.com/lgs/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/1012718_594641573906570_826803768_n.jpg

Sharyl Attkisson told on Obamacare enrollment figures: ‘There aren’t any’

Twitchy Team:

CBS Evening News @CBSEveningNews

We're on the air in the East. Now @SharylAttkisson has new documents on the health care debacle from the government's war room.

3:30 PM - 31 Oct 2013

Obamacare Enrollment:

Oct 1 - 6 people  -  That’s right!   a  total number of 6 folks signed up for Obamacare on Day 1

Oct 2 - 100

Oct 3 -  248

 

Video:  CBS News: 6 - total number of folks who signed up for Obamacare on Day 1

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems.

But no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policies have been purchased, and this may be the reason: CBS News has learned enrollments got off to an incredibly slow start.

Early enrollment figures are contained in notes from twice-a-day "war room" meetings convened within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the website failed on Oct. 1. They were turned over in response to a document request from the House Oversight Committee.

The website launched on a Tuesday. Publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. But at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say "six enrollments have occurred so far."

They were with BlueCross BlueShield North Carolina and Kansas City, CareSource and Healthcare Service Corporation.

By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to "approximately 100." By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect "248 enrollments" nationwide.

The health care exchanges need to average 39,000 enrollees a day to meet the goal of seven million by March 1. The war room notes give a glimpse into some of the reasons customers had problems:

  • "Direct enrollment (signing up directly on an insurer's website) is not working for any issuers."
  • "Experian" credit reporting agency is "creating confusion with credit check information."
  • "Issuer phone numbers are not appearing correctly on the Pay Now page."

The notes leave no doubt that some enrollment figures, which the administration has chosen to keep secret, are available.

"Statistics coming in," said notes from the very first meeting the morning of Oct. 2. Contractor "QSSI has a daily dashboard created every night."

But head of CMS Marilyn Tavenner would not disclose any figures when Rep. Dave Camp, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked earlier this week.

"Chairman Camp, we will have those numbers available in mid-November," she said.

Health and Human Services told CBS News Thursday it's in no position to confirm or discuss enrollment figures because it doesn't have any. A spokesman suggested the numbers obtained by CBS News may not include all the different ways to enroll, such as paper applications. The spokesman also said that enrollment figures in Massachusetts' health care plan started off negligible but then skyrocketed as a deadline neared.

HealthCare-Gov.pdf by CBSPolitics

Thursday, October 31, 2013

We Had ObamaCare… Happy Halloween

We Had ObamaCare

Sebelius, ObamaCare and More Spin…

Probably the most disappointing part of the entire Congressional Committee Hearing on the PPACA (ObamaCare) Implementation Failures was when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was questioned, more than once, about if it were possible for her to drop her first class federal healthcare coverage and go into the exchanges under ObamaCare, would she… She refused to answer directly… She refused to say, “Yes”. Like the restaurant where the owners, chef, workers and their families refuse to eat… but now you are forced to…

The Blaze: Things didn’t go well for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a congressional hearing Wednesday, and it became pretty clear when she was caught muttering, “Don’t do this to me”:

It’s unclear the exact context of the remark. Washington’s CBS station says it was said to an aide, but it’s unclear if she was speaking to the aide or about someone else.

Sebelius’ unscripted comment came immediately after an intense exchange with Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) who repeatedly asked her if she planned to enroll in the health care law she oversees.

The secretary avoided answering the answer head-on, saying she would “take a look at it.”

She also stated that it would be illegal for her to enroll in Obamacare because of her status within the federal government. This is inaccurate; Sebelius is eligible to enroll, she just is not eligible for specific subsidies.

When Sebelius muttered, “Don’t do this to me,” it was after conferring with one of her colleagues. It seems pretty clear she wasn’t addressing Long, but it’s unclear what, exactly, was said to prompt her flustered muttering.  You can here the entire exchange HERE

Video: Mike Rogers Slams Secretary Kathleen Sebellius At Obamacare Hearing - 10/30/13

10/30/13 - On his radio show this afternoon, Rush Limbaugh criticized the Republicans for what he believed to be a lackluster performance during Wednesday morning's hearing with Health & Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius. "It's very frustrating for me," Limbaugh said. "[Sebelius] was clearly the punching bag" but "I don't know that the Republicans did much damage. It's like they're afraid to. It's like there's still a fear of going after Obama."

He wondered whether there is instruction "from on high" within the GOP instructing Republican committee members to "not be mean" and not tear into Sebelius.

"That's such a mistake," he lamented, "because with every day of chaos, Obama and the Democrats are getting closer to what they want and that is single-payer."

Limbaugh also suggested the Republicans are "afraid of success" and perhaps "talk themselves out" of being more aggressive "because they don't think they can win."

Video: Rush Limbaugh: Republicans Seemed 'Afraid' to Go After 'Punching Bag' Sebelius

 

Video: Full Congressional Committee Hearing - "PPACA Implementation Failures: Answers from HHS Secretary Sebelius" Oct 30, 2013 (3:34:01)

Obamacare Website Company CGI Federal Contributed to Obama Campaign

The fun just doesn’t stop… not only did the contract for the $634 Million Dollar website ObamaCare website that doesn’t work go to a non-American company (guess we don’t need the jobs?) and a sorority sister of Michelle Obama’s (cronyism) that was already under investigation… but now we find out that they also contributed to Obama’s campaign…

Freedom Outpost: Have you heard of CGI Federal? It's the company that received a $678 million no-bid contract to develop the disaster that is healthcare.gov. It is also the company whose officials are now coming under scrutiny for the roll out of the Obamacare exchange web portal. But it also seems like those officials are also buddy-buddy with the Obama administration.

According to The Daily Caller, Toni Townes-Whitley, a senior vice president at CGI Federal, is a Princeton classmate of First Lady Michelle Obama. Townes-Whitley and Mrs. Obama are both members of are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.

hn_healthcare_102213-590x332As reported by the Washington Examiner in early October, the Department of Health and Human Services reviewed only CGI's bid for the Obamacare account. CGI was one of 16 companies qualified under the Bush administration to provide certain tech services to the federal government. A senior vice president for the company testified this week before The House Committee on Energy and Commerce that four companies submitted bids, but did not name those companies or explain why only CGI's bid was considered.

According to Federal Election Commission Records, Toni Townes-Whitley gave $500 in 2011 and 2012 to Obama's reelection, and another $1,000 to the Obama Victory Fund.

The Washington Examiner reports that senior officials at CGI Federal had White House access. Before being granted the no-bid contract, CGI Federal officials attended several invitation only addresses by President Obama. White House visitor logs show that "CGI Federal President Donna Ryan visited the White House six times prior to her company being selected to do the IT design work behind the high-profile website."

Two of the meetings attended by CGI executives were with Vivek Kundra, Obama's chief information officer. Kundra was a key figure in Obama administration information technology initiatives across the government.

Ryan met Kundra on June 21, 2010, in the latter's Old Executive Office Building office, according to the White House visitor logs.

In addition to the $88 million contract awarded to CGI Federal for the health-insurance exchange website, the company has received a total of $422 million in contracts related to Obamacare since the legislation was signed into law, according to Bloomberg News.

Fox News reported a number of occasions in which the company had failed to meet deadlines or experienced botched launches similar to that seen with the launch of healthcare.gov.

"In projects stretching from Canada to Hawaii, parent company CGI Group and its subsidiaries ran into complaints about its performance," Fox reported.

"The morning I heard CGI was behind [Healthcare.gov], I said, my God, no wonder that thing doesn't work," said James Bagnola, a Texas-based corporate consultant who was hired by the Hawaii Department of Taxation (DOTAX) in 2008, to Fox News.

Bagnola suggested that CGI has been shrewd politically, giving to both Democrats and Republicans at both the state and federal levels. In the case of Hawaii, Bagnola said the company was able to continue to work on the DOTAX contract despite repeated complaints from management and a "corrosive" environment in which government employees felt pitted against CGI staff. This was noted in the final 2010 audit.

"I don't have an ax to grind here, except I was just trying to do my job for this team and stop the state of Hawaii from being ripped off," he said.

According to campaign records at OpenSecrets.com, CGI Group contributed $345,600 to federal candidates and parties — both Democratic and Republican — during the 2011-12 cycle. Some $147,000 went to the Republican Governors Association; and $35,000 to the Democratic Governors Association. The company spent $400,000 in lobbying expenditures between 2011 and 2012.