Wasserman Schultz: "Democratic Candidates Will Be Able To Run On Obamacare As An Advantage"

THREE WORDS: "DELUSIONAL, DELUSIONAL DELUSIONAL"

CANDY CROWLEY: If you look at 2014, if you look at this through the prism of 2014, you don't think that Obamacare will weigh heavily on Democratic elections? 

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I think Obamacare, because Americans have been feeling the benefits since 2010, where young adults can stay on their parents' insurance until they're 26, where on January 1st if you have a pre-existing condition, like I do as you know, as a breast cancer survivor. The peace of mind that those Americans are going to have knowing that they can never be dropped or denied coverage for that pre-existing condition, the preventative care that is available without a co-pay or a deductible. Those are benefits that Americans have been feeling and will increasingly feel as Obamacare is fully implemented. So, I think, actually Candy, that Democratic candidates will be able to run on Obamacare as an advantage leading into the 2014 election.

Via: Real Clear Politics

Continue Reading.....

Poll: Uninsured not using ObamaCare site - 18% to be exact

Fewer than a quarter of all uninsured Americans have so far even attempted to visit an exchange site, according to a new Gallup poll.

As the Obama administration struggle to fix problems with the federal health exchange website, the poll found just 18 percent of the exchanges' target audience – the nation's uninsured – have tried to go to an ObamaCare site since it opened on Oct. 1.

Among those uninsured Americans who say they plan to eventually purchase insurance through the exchanges, a slightly higher percentage, 22 percent, say they have attempted to visit an exchange site.

These results undermine the Obama administration's confidence in ObamaCare to reach its target audience. The exchange sites are not only fraught with technical problems that have led to long wait times and error messages for users, but have also failed to generate interest among uninsured Americans.

Polls reveal that the majority of the uninsured are unfamiliar with the sites and have not even attempted to access them.

Gallup previously found in an Oct. 31 survey that just 44 percent of uninsured Americans who plan to get insurance say they will do it through an exchange site. Meanwhile, just one in four say they are more likely to pay a fine instead of purchasing insurance.

Via: The Hill

Continue Reading....

PELOSI: GOP PREYS ON AMERICANS

V

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading.....

4 Things Obama Will Deny Americans…

President Obama was one of the most promising candidates to ever run for President. He promised us so much that he might as well have run for National Genie.

Obamacare is the skunk that has been called a kitty in hopes that everyone would embrace it. But the stink is nearly impossible to eliminate. There were promises made that turned out to be lies. They could bring down the President. But forget about impeachment. There are too many Democrats to allow that, even though Obama nearly makes Nixon look like a saint.

In medical research, we were maybe a generation away from breakthroughs that could have helped most Americans and lowered medical costs dramatically. The pain bypass unit that will be smaller than a AAA battery would be placed at the base of the brain to prevent most pain signals from being felt. Millions of Americans and hundreds of millions of others around the world would have benefited from the development of the device, which might have cost less than $1,000 to users thanks to government absorption of most of the expenses. The need for pain pills and pain treatment would be dramatically reduced, and multitudes would have lived normal lives. But since the company or companies that would have developed the idea would also have been taxed heavily and maybe driven out of business, they may never develop something people need and would have financially benefited from (thanks to less need for pain medication.)

Another device that might be denied is the nerve bypass that would be implanted to allow paralyzed people to function normally again. The first version of the device was drawn in 1974, and I approached a head of surgery with that idea and the idea that nerves would be transplanted from one part of the body to another. He said that both ideas were impossible. At the time, he might have been right. But the second idea has become reality, and I trust the first idea will also become reality unless Obamacare prevents it from becoming available.

Via: Western Journalism

Continue Reading......

Obama blames ‘bad apple insurers’ for canceled insurance plans

President Obama tried a new tack Wednesday as he fought back against criticism of his Obamacare claims.

President Obama (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Fact-checkers and journalists have ruled that Obama wasn't being truthful when he claimed that people who liked their insurance could keep it. Obama during a speech in Boston sought to cast the issue Wednesday as trying to weed out "bad apple insurers" who don't provide enough coverage.

"One of the things health reform was designed to do was to help not only the uninsured but also the under-insured," Obama said. "And there are a number of Americans, fewer than 5 percent of Americans, who've got cut-rate plans that don't offer real financial protection in the event of a serious illness or an accident.

"Remember, before the Affordable Care Act, these bad apple insurers had free rein every single year to limit the care that you received or used minor pre-existing conditions to jack up your premiums or bill you into bankruptcy."

Obama also said that he is responsible for fixing the HealthCare.gov Web site -- even as Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said earlier in the day that Obama isn't responsible for the botched Obamacare exchanges rollout.

"Right now, the Web site is too slow, too many people have gotten stuck, and I am not happy about it," Obama said at a speech in Boston promoting the similar Massachusetts health-care law.

Via: Washington Post

Continue Reading....

Obamacare Heading Into a Death Spiral

It was the most succinct -- and graphic -- analysis yet offered of the political implications of the Obamacare rollout.

"There's no way Democrats can spin this ----," said comedian Jon Stewart. That it was Mr. Stewart who said this is significant, because he has a big following among healthy young people, who must sign up for Obamacare in the millions to keep what so far has been mostly farce from becoming a fiasco.

And he was spot on. Most of the "mainstream" media have treated Democratic spin as news, and -- if it reflected poorly on the Obama administration -- played down or ignored genuine news.

The media shield has protected the president from failures in foreign policy, in which most Americans have little knowledge and less interest, and has limited blowback from scandals which most Americans don't think concern them.

But no amount of spin can cloak reality for Americans whose health insurance policy has been canceled, or whose premiums have doubled. Those who've spent hours fruitlessly trying to access Obamacare websites find it harder to believe the president is on top of things, his administration competent.

Obamacare screwups are too big, too obvious, too close to home for journalists to ignore. Despite the welcome distraction of the government "shutdown" -- whose mostly imaginary consequences could be blamed on Republicans -- more negative stories have been written and broadcast about the Obama administration in the last three weeks than ever before.

And now, with the "shutdown" over, Obamacare's botched rollout is the No. 1 story.

Most media attention has been directed at the "glitches" which cause Obamacare websites to crash under volumes of traffic many blogs handle with ease. They won't be fixed for months, IT experts say. If the sites aren't up and running by the middle of November, it'll be all but impossible to sign up enough people to keep Obamacare from going into a financial "death spiral." But IT problems are the least of Obamacare's troubles.

Via: Real Clear Politics

Continue Reading.....

Administration Caught in New Obamacare Dilemma

Remember sequestration? Those automatic budget cuts that went into effect when Congress failed to do real budgeting a couple of years ago? It’s hitting Obamacare now.

Both laws have been around for awhile, but the Obama Administration hasn’t done anything to prepare for their collision.

The cuts are hitting a set of subsidies that were supposed to help pay deductibles and co-pays for lower-income Americans with Obamacare coverage. An Obama official pledged there would be a plan before the Obamacare exchanges opened on October 1, but that didn’t happen.

So now what? Heritage expert Chris Jacobs writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:

There are two possible outcomes. The first is that individuals who have managed to enroll in subsidized health insurance will find they’ve been misled about their copays and deductibles. Families who currently think their plan will charge a $20 copayment for doctor visits may instead face a $25 charge when the sequester kicks in. Individuals who now believe they face maximum out-of-pocket costs of $2,000 may end up paying hundreds more.

The other option? Stick the insurance companies with the cuts and tell them to deal with it. (That would be about $286 million through next September.)

Via: The Foundry

Continue Reading.....

Poll: Plurality of Democrats Believe Exchanges Are Working Well

Quick thoughts on Pew’s latest survey, asking Americans what they know and what they think about the Obamacare exchanges:

The survey found 29 percent say the online health insurance exchanges are working “well” or “fairly well.” This means at least 29 percent of Americans have absolutely no idea what’s going on. Separately, 25 percent of Americans say they “don’t know” if the exchanges are working well. This amounts to 54 percent of Americans.

The survey found 44 percent of Democrats, 25 percent of independents, and 14 percent of Republicans believe the exchanges are working well. Also 51 percent of African-Americans said the online insurance exchanges were working well. Only 32 percent of Democrats think the exchanges aren’t working well. In short, partisanship can easily override reality in the minds of these respondents.

Only 14 percent of Americans say they visited the site so far. Only 29 percent of those who said they have visited the site say they’re uninsured. 

They survey found that 31 percent of those who are uninsured say they don’t plan to visit the site. A segment of that crowd might be thinking about other options like phoning it in, but not a big chunk: of those without insurance, 24 percent said they do not plan to get insurance. Another 11 percent said they didn’t know.

Via: NRO

Continue Reading.....