[VIDEO] Dem Senator Has Worst Press Conference Ever?

I have no idea how Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan's news conference could've been worse except had she lit a baby bunny on fire while stomping on the American flag.

The junior Senator from North Carolina filed for re-election yesterday in Wake County. The media was all there, as her campaign obviusly alerted them to the event. This is pretty standard. It makes for good video to have the pol surrounded by friends, family, and supporters as they sign the paperwork and everyone cheers.

But it seemed to escape Hagan and her camp that after she signs the papers she'd need to actually talk to the media.

About her record.

And that's where the wheels fell off this thing.

... Hagan ... refused on Monday to answer questions about what she knew about the laws limits.

Like President Barack Obama, Hagan said the Affordable Care Act would allow North Carolinians to keep their existing insurance plans if they liked them. The pledge proved false – and earned Obama PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year honors.

But the details about what Hagan knew about the law’s limits and when she learned it remains unclear. Asked about it again Monday at a press conference in Raleigh, after she made her re-election bid official at the State Board of Elections, Hagan avoided the question.

Pressed on the question two more times as reporters followed her outside to the parking lot, Hagan did not answer. She offered this explanation without further details: “it wasn’t clear that insurance companies were selling substandard policies.”

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

SURPRISE: Massachusetts Is Home To America's Worst-Performing ObamaCare Exchange

Massachusetts is struggling under ObamaCare. In the state that “inspired” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with almost universal coverage and a functional exchange, most would assume the transition to the federal law would be largely cosmetic. Yet many BayState insiders have been surprised by the number of brick walls the state has run into during early implementation and are privately expressing deep concerns about the road ahead. Massachusetts is now home to the nation’s WORST-performing exchange.

It’s time the rest of the country take note.

Early ObamaCare Exchange Demographics Worse Than Under RomneyCare in Massachusetts In 2007Josh ArchambaultContributor

Do Premiums Differ In States With A State-Based Exchange Versus Federal Exchange Under ObamaCare?Josh ArchambaultContributor

More Americans In 3 States Have Had Their Insurance Canceled Under ObamaCare Than Have Filed An Exchange Account In All 50Josh ArchambaultContributor

Blue-State ACA Blues: Connecticut's 'Benchmark Plan' Already UnaffordableJosh ArchambaultContributor

The ACA’s impacts will be widely felt in Massachusetts – from the premium rollercoaster ahead for small businesses to the largely non-functional exchange website, run for by the state-based exchange known as the Connector. Due to the ACA, a majority of small companies will see “extreme premium increases.” As a result state leaders have been reduced to begging the federal government for last-minute waivers and grace periods. In addition, residents will face a disproportionately heavy tax burden to finance the new law due to its industry mix, high-cost insurance and the commonwealth’s higher than average incomes.

Jean Yang, current executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, a state based exchange.

To add insult to injury, the Massachusetts exchange has failed in spectacular fashion and lags far behind the federal site in terms of progress toward fixing the problem.

State Has Enrolled .02% of First-Year Goal, 5% Of Three-Month Goal

Recently released U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) enrollment data through the end of 2013 put a fine point on how bad the situation is at the exchange. The goal for enrollment by March 31, 2014 is 250,000. As of the end of the year, the state had successfully enrolled 5,428 people. Compare that to Oregon, which many consider to be the worst exchange in the country. At 0.8% of the first-year goal, their enrollment of 20,000 looks robust in comparison.

The Connector has recently walked back the 250,000 goal, saying their real goal is 200,000 by March. To meet even this lower threshold, the exchange will have to successfully enroll and collect payment from 3,138 individuals every business day over the remaining 62 days of open enrollment. At their current conversion rate of moving those that have created an account through to selecting a plan, they will need 1.4 million total applications to be started to hit 200,000 in just over two months. This in a state with about 6.5 million residents, the vast majority of whom are on employer-sponsored insurance and one-quarter of whom are on Medicaid.

Exchange Website Has Not Successfully Enrolled A Single Person:Enrollment By Paper And Excel

Via: Forbes

Continue Reading....

Is the Obama administration waving the white flag on canceled plans?

The Obama administration’s admission that it may extend the exemption for health insurance plans canceled due to Obamacare regulations could signal an end to the war on “junk plans.”

Conservative estimates from the Associated Press put the total of canceled plans at 4.7 million; in contrast, Obamacare exchanges across the country can only claim that 3 million Americans have selected private plans via online exchanges (actual enrollment could reportedly be even lower).

In response to growing outcry over the cancellations, the Obama administration issued an “administrative fix” in November to extend the plans — a move that was rejected by at least 22 states and several private insurance companies as well.

Obama’s original fix was slammed by some states and industry leaders as a last-minute attempt to mitigate the political repercussions of canceling plans, not a practical fix to help those without coverage. Obama’s order came just over a month before Obamacare went live; insurers had already canceled the plans, told customers they’d need new coverage and informed regulators of the changes. Widespread rejection of the plan fixated on it as a political move, not a practical solution.

Avalere CEO Dan Mendelson said Thursday that he’d had casual conservations with administration officials about a potential extension, soon to be seconded by Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokeswoman Joanne Peters confirmed the reports, saying the Obama administration hasn’t yet made a decision about the millions of Americans whose preferred plans are not Affordable Care Act-compliant.

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

Congressional Budget Office sends death blow to ObamaCare

The Affordable Care Act, a k a ObamaCare, became law almost four years ago. It became operational last Oct. 1. Yesterday, Feb. 4, 2014, the ACA may well have been dealt its death blow.

The Congressional Budget Office released a major study of the government’s budget and its effect on the overall economy over the next 10 years. In dull bureaucratic language, it delivers a devastating analysis of the inefficiencies, ineffectualities and problematic social costs of ObamaCare.

The one-two punch: Virtually as many Americans will lack health coverage in 10 years as before the law was passed — but 2 million fewer will be working than if the law hadn’t passed.

One killer detail comes on Page 111, where the report projects: “As a result of the ACA, between 6 million and 7 million fewer people will have employment-based insurance coverage each year from 2016 through 2024 than would be the case in the absence of the ACA.”

ObamaCare’s key selling point was that it would give coverage to a significant number of the 30-plus million Americans who lack it. Now the CBO is telling the American people that a decade from now, 6 million-plus of their countrymen won’t get health care through their employers who otherwise would have.

Via: New York Post

Continue Reading....

Obamacare will push 2 million workers out of labor market: CBO

Obamacare will push the equivalent of about 2 million workers out of the labor market by 2017 as employees decide either to work fewer hours or drop out altogether, according to the latest estimates Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office.

That’s a major jump in the nonpartisan budget agency’s projections and it suggests the health care law’s incentives are driving businesses and people to choose government-sponsored benefits rather than work.

---

PHOTOS: Top 10 handguns in the U.S.

---

“CBO estimates that the ACA will reduce the total number of hours worked, on net, by about 1.5 to 2 percent during the period from 2017 to 2024, almost entirely because workers will choose to supply less labor — given the new taxes and other incentives they will face and the financial benefits some will receive,” CBO analysts wrote in their new economic outlook.

The scorekeepers also said the rollout problems with the Affordable Care Act last year will mean only 6 million people sign up through the state-based exchanges, rather than the 7 million the CBO had originally projected.

But over the long run, Obamacare will eventually catch up and by 2020 only about 30 million people will be without insurance coverage — down from 45 million this year. That will mean about 92 percent of legal U.S. residents without guaranteed access to Medicare will have insurance coverage.

Via: Washington Times
Continue Reading....

Question for ObamaCare: Where's the money?

More numbers from Obama Care but we still don't know what the health of the program is.

According to POLITICO:

"The administration's monthly enrollment update showed 2.2 million people had picked health plans in the federal or state health exchanges from Oct. 1 through Dec. 28. It's not yet clear how many have paid their first monthly premium, a requirement before coverage can begin. An additional 3.9 million people have been deemed eligible for Medicaid. 

 

More than half of those who have signed up are between 45 and 64, an age range that tends to be sicker and costlier to cover, according to the enrollment figures released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services."

So let me get this straight:

1. No young people, or the ones who will fund the ACA;

2. Too many older and sick people, or the ones who will very likely use the service; and,

3. We do not have official reports on the premiums collected.  Is the Obama administration afraid of releasing premium info because so few have paid?

It looks to me that The Affordable Health Care Act is in very bad health. The death spiral is literally here.

Via: American Thinker
Continue Reading.....

MSNBCers Wonder Whether Troubled Obamacare Will Be Vindicated by History

On Thursday, an MSNBC panel dug into the theory expressed in a recent Associated Press article which noted that all of the 20th and 21st Century’s major social welfare reform programs encountered “rocky” implementation issues but were ultimately viewed positively by posterity. The panel acknowledged that the Affordable Care Act, too, is confronting roll-out issues but wondered whether that program will be positively received by history. 

MSNBC anchor Kristen Welker asked USA Today reporter Susan Page if the ACA could be received by historians better than it is being received by modern political observers and “at what point” would that shift in perspective occur.

“It’s definitely possible,” Page said. “It’s possible we’ll look back to see it as the transformation of the American health care system that provided nearly universal coverage and worked out.”

RELATED: POLITICO Spots Obama’s 6 Worst Fears as Obamacare Crunch Time Nears

However, Page conceded that the problems associated with the ACA are what most are seeing today. She noted that the “fundamental assumptions” that serve as the foundation for the law’s success have yet to be confirmed.

“Yes, it’s possible that we’ll look back and see this as a huge achievement, but it’s also possible that the reverse will be the case,” Page concluded.

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading....

Karl Rove: GOP in Better Position than This Point in 2010 Midterm Cycle

Former GOP strategist and Fox News Channel contributor Karl Rove joined Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly on Wednesday evening where he said that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has had a beneficial effect on the Republican Party’s chances of making gains in the 2014 midterms. Looking at recent polling data, Rove claimed that the GOP is in a better position at this point in the election cycle than they were in 2010. 

“As of today the Real Clear Politics average is 43 percent Republican, 42 percent Democrat,” Rove said of the average of a number of generic congressional ballot results. “One month ago, it was 40 percent Republican, 47 percent Democrat. So, it’s not just the CNN poll.”

“Let’s take a look at thought at 2010,” he continued. “A year out, the Democrats led 47 percent to 42 percent. By Election Day of 2010, it was 52% to 45%, a 7 point advantage for the Republicans.”

RELATED: Christopher: CNN Reports on the ‘Silver Lining’ for Obamacare in Latest Poll

“At this point, one year out from the election, the Republicans were down 5,” Rove observed. “Today, they are up one in the average.”

He said that, given that the Democrats are defending Senate seats in seven states that Mitt Romney won in 2012, Republican prospects for retaking the Congress look possible if not probable.

Rove said that this reversal of political fortunes from the government shutdown is entirely due to the Affordable Care Act’s implementation and it’s only going to get worse. However, even if the ACA were unfolding well and it was a popular program, Democrats would still have obstacles to overcome ahead of the 2014 midterms.

“The economy is not particularly good,” Rove said. “The president’s ratings are low. All of these things combined to point towards a lower number for the Democrats and a higher number for the Republicans next year.”

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading....

Rothman: The Spectacular Collapse of Obamacare’s Holiday Propaganda Blitz

The Affordable Care Act’s Hindenburg-like debut has been characterized a series of spectacular failures, the latest being an attempt by PresidentBarack Obama’s political arm, Organizing for America, to furnish their followers with effective pro-ACA talking points. This army of true believers was instructed to bombard their unsuspecting kin with counterpoints to deflect the unceasing stream of bad ACA news screaming at them from the television set. 

It was a noble effort, albeit one that was mocked furiously on the right. But it wasn’t conservatives that scuttled this operation. It was the mortifying inability of the ACA’s infrastructure to back up any of the claims ACA supporters were preparing to make.

RELATED: Just One Problem with Holiday Obamacare Propaganda Blitz: Healthcare.Gov Call Center Closed

When OFA sent an email to their followers with a number of pro-ACA talking points, the law’s supporters in the media took their cue. The most comprehensive expansion on the theme of how best to arm ACA supporters with information that would allow them to “win” arguments with their relatives about the ACA came from the Huffington Post.

“Here at HuffPost we believe in news you can use,” wrote reporters Shadee Ashtari and Ryan Grim. “Because what good is having a political opinion if you can’t prove it’s the right one in front of your extended family on Thanksgiving?”

They proceeded to detail how stalwart liberals can dodge their anti-Obamacare relative’s “I-told-ya-so” jabs and counter with a variety of salient counterpoints like “corporate greed” and “you prefer corporate monopolies?”

Huffpost was joined by other left-leaning media outlets who anticipated a nationwide holiday Gotterdammerung that would finally settle the legitimacy of the ACA. But these wide-eyed health care reform advocates would be undone, not by their own efforts, but by that which they had no control over – the abject failure of the federal insurance exchange site to function.

First, the news broke that HealthCAre.Gov holiday call center operators would not be working on Thanksgiving. Combined with the website’s inoperability, this put a damper on OFA’s suggestion to supporters that hey walk their relatives through the signup process while they were too inebriated to fully appreciate the consequences of their actions.

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading....

Wisconsin Woman FED UP with trying to sign up for Obamacare

More anger and frustration from people trying to sign up for Obamacare:

Via: The Right Scoop

Rick Santelli Rages Against Media Over ‘Manipulated’ Unemployment Data Allegations

On Tuesday morning, CNBC’s Rick Santelli raged against the American media in light of a New York Post report alleging that Census bureau employees have been caught “fabricating” some data that went into unemployment reports over the last several years, including possibly the controversial report revealed one month before the 2012 election.

The September 2012 jobs report showed a dip in unemployment from 8.1 to 7.8 percent, raising eyebrows among many business-oriented personalities, including former GE CEO Jack Welch and Santelli himself.

While these so-called “jobs truthers” alleged “ideological” motivation behind such data manipulations, the Post report indicates that if there was any widespread manipulation, it was due to Labor Department demands being so high that Census employees simply made up information to fulfill a quota.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday morning, Santelli felt vindicated by such reports indicating any level of manipulated data. During his “Santelli Exchange” monologue, the veteran Chicago-based reporter railed against his media colleagues for dismissing his suggestion that the pre-election numbers could have been incorrect.

“If we know now what we knew then,” the economy could be in a different place, he suggested. “If it turns out these claims are true… it wasn’t only about the economy, it was about healthcare, it wasn’t polling well. It was the reassurances about the unknown.”

Santelli seemingly suggested that if we had known back in September 2012 that the president’s “grandfather clause” on the Affordable Care Act would turn out to be a “lie,” the way the media treated that pre-election jobs report might have been different.

The CNBC reporter moved into a shout as he railed against how that potentially “fake” jobs report resulted in Federal Reserve undertaking monetary policies that drastically shifted the economy.

“All outcomes would have changed,” he concluded. Next time, he said, the media “must do better.”

Watch below, via CNBC:

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading.....

Botched ACA Rollout Hammers Obama; Job Disapproval Reaches a Career High

Barack Obama has been hammered by the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act, with disapproval of his job performance reaching a career high, opposition to the new healthcare law up sharply and evidence of potential fallout in the midterm elections a year off.

The president’s job approval rating has fallen to 42 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, down 13 percentage points this year and 6 points in the past month to match the lowest of his presidency. Fifty-five percent disapprove, a record. And 70 percent say the country’s headed seriously off on the wrong track – up 13 points since May to the most in two years.

See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.

Other ratings of the president’s performance have tumbled as well. He’s at career lows for being a strong leader, understanding the problems of average Americans and being honest and trustworthy – numerically under water on each of these (a first for the latter two). His rating for strong leadership is down by 15 points this year and a vast 31 points below its peak shortly after he took office. In a new gauge, just 41 percent rate him as a good manager; 56 percent think not.

This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that the president’s personal image has suffered alongside his professional ratings. Fewer than half, 46 percent, see him favorably overall, down 14 points this year to the fewest of his presidency. Fifty-two percent now view him unfavorably, a new high and a majority for the first time since he took office. It may matter: Personal popularity can provide a president with cushioning when the going gets rough. Losing it leaves the president more vulnerable.

ACA – Skepticism about the Affordable Care Act looks to be the driving force in Obama’s troubles. Americans by nearly 2-1, 63-33 percent, disapprove of his handling of implementation of the new health care law. And the public by 57-40 percent now opposes the law overall, its most negative rating to date, with opposition up by 8 points in the past month alone.

Via: ABC News

Continue Reading.....

Watch: Students At Historically Black School Rail Against ObamaCare

(Campus Reform)

Students at Bowie State University assailed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Thursday after administrators cancelled a low cost school-wide health care plan due to new regulations in the law.

Many students told Campus Reform that the now cancelled plans, which provided coverage for just $50 per semester, were the only insurance they could afford.

"I can't afford anything right now," one said. "I can't even afford my loans."

"We don't have that money," said another. "We can barely afford books."

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading.....

Robert Gibbs: ‘The Last Thing I Would Want to Do’ Is Take Over Obamacare Implementation

Former White House Press Secretary and MSNBC contributor Roberts Gibbs told MSNBC on Monday that, even if President Barack Obama’s administration can iron out the problems with the Affordable Care Act’s implementation, they cannot regain the public trust without a personnel shakeup. When asked if he would consider being part of the new team at the White House overseeing the ACA’s implementation, Gibbs said definitively that he would not. 

“I do not see how the administration goes forward implementing health care reform into next year with the same team at HHS and CMS that brought us this roll-out,” Gibbs said. “You simply cannot repair your credibility with the American people by having the same people captaining the ship.”

RELATED: Robert Gibbs on Today: Someone Should Have ‘Already Lost Their Job’ Over Obamacare

“Have they called you yet to say could you please come back?” Alex Wagner asked.

“The last thing I would want to be in charge of is health care,” Gibbs replied.

“I am not coming back, Definitively,” Wagner concluded, summarizing Gibbs’ position.

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading.....

Paid intern? Under the employer mandate, you get health insurance

Heather Montgomery had the upcoming spring semester at Clemson University all planned out. The college sophomore secured an internship with a Maryland-based print company in March 2012, putting her well on her way to fulfilling a degree requirement mandated by the university’s Graphic Communications program of completing two internships.

The internships could be either paid or unpaid, and interns are required to work full-time — 40 hours each week. The company she planned to work for would pay her $10 an hour and provide her with housing, she told Red Alert Politics.

But the Clemson student received an email in October saying her internship had been cancelled — because of Obamacare.

“I have some bad news,” the email stated. The program’s internship coordinator “brought up some issues to the employers at [Clemson's job fair] about Obamacare. With the current uneasy state of what is going on with the government and what wasn’t foreseen by [the company], there is a chance that we may have to suspend our internship program temporarily to avoid a $7,000 fee.

“Since there is no clause about internships, we are not sure what to do,” the email continues. “… I will keep you updated when we know what is going on with the ACA. Sorry about this inconvenience, as it was very unexpected.”

It’s an unforeseen consequence of Obamacare’s employer mandate and a subject neither the Internal Revenue Service nor the Department of Health and Human Services has broached, at least not publicly. Many interns work more than 30 hours each week, and if they’re completed during the fall or spring semesters, interns work a minimum of 90 days. Under the employer mandate, they’re considered full-time employees, and companies are therefore required to provide them with health insurance.

Via: Red ALert Politics

Continue Reading....

Everything you need to know about the plans to ‘fix’ Obamacare

Democrats are engaged in a tricky game right now: They want to do something to respond to public outrage over the flawed implementation and broken promises of Obamacare. But they don't want to do something that further breaks Obamacare.

"People are mad at us because the ACA rollout has been a disaster," says one Democratic Senate aide. "So we have to show that we hear them and are willing to address the problems at hand. That is doable. Resisting any changes is probably untenable at this point, but there is still plenty of room to make changes that show the public we are listening without doing irreparable harm to the law long-term."

(Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

Rep. Fred Upton's "Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013"

The Republican Party's play is Fred Upton's "Keep Your Health Plan Act." The law is poorly named: It doesn't actually guarantee that you can keep your health care. Instead, it allows insurers to keep offering their current plans and also allows them to offer new plans that aren't ACA compliant.

Via: Washington Post

Continue Reading....

Businesses cut full-time workers to meet Obamacare mandate, study says

 WASHINGTON — First, President Obama had to backtrack from his promise that if you like your health insurance plan, under Obamacare "you can keep it." Now, a new study is suggesting that, under Obamacare, "If you like your workweek, you can’t necessarily keep it, either."

About 30 percent of small franchises and 12 percent of other small businesses say they are cutting work hours – or swapping full-time for part-time workers – because of the law, according to a poll sponsored by business groups.

The moves are part of a bid to control health-care expenses, and they are a sign of how the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was designed to greatly expand the number of Americans who have health insurance, could be having some unintended consequences in the job market.

A key Obamacare incentive is an “employer mandate” that asks businesses to sponsor health insurance (or pay a penalty) if they have more than 50 full-time employees. It defines a full-time worker as one serving 30 or more hours per week. So a firm can avoid the mandate by having fewer than 50 people working full-time.

Via: Christian Science Monitor

Continue Reading....

The ACA’s Mission Creep - Look to Vermont and Washington, D.C., for early warning signs.

The new health-insurance exchanges were launched on October 1 amid empty promises and a host of delays and snafus. But what if the political architects of Obamacare’s insurance expansion consider this disastrously bad start only the beginning of a grander opportunity?

Let’s assume that the problems of hastily assembled and inadequately tested software will be solved. Then assume further that the recently relabeled “marketplaces” without market prices will eventually work to redistribute tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to several million currently uninsured Americans searching for coverage. What, then, are the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) intended to become after their rocky first year or two?

AN EARLY PREVIEW
The state-administered exchanges in Vermont and the District of Columbia provide an early preview. Each intends to become, within its jurisdiction, the “sole” destination for health-insurance purchases in the individual- and small-group-insurance markets.  

In April 2013, the D.C. city council voted to require any insurance carrier offering individual health-benefits plans on or after January 1, 2014, to offer them solely through the District’s American Health Benefits Exchange. It approved a similar requirement for any plans offered to small groups (50 or fewer employees) not already offering health insurance to their employees as of December 31, 2013. It delayed this requirement for one year for small-group health plans with “ACA-qualified” coverage that is already offered or renewed as of December 31, 2013. The latter insurance could be issued or renewed during calendar year 2014 through non-exchange distribution channels. But beginning January 1, 2015, all small-group health plans must be offered and issued or renewed solely through the District’s exchange. And in 2016, the D.C. government will expand the definition of small-group insurance to businesses with up to 100 employees.

Via: NRO

Continue Reading.....