[MUST READ] Californians Struggle to Afford Obamacare Premiums

In May 2013, Covered California officials faced sharp criticism over claims that premiums would actually go down for many health insurance purchasers. Forbes.com’s Avik Roy wrote that the agency implementing the Golden State’s version of Obamacare needed to look at its own data, which suggested health premiums would surge at least 64 percent after the regulations in the Affordable Care Act took effect. Bloomberg analysts offered similar criticisms.

Two years later, the Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a report that suggests these warnings were more accurate than the upbeat predictions of Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee. A key finding:

“Among adults who say that they pay a monthly premium for their health coverage, nearly half of newly insured adults (47 percent) say it is somewhat or very difficult to afford this cost, compared to just 27 percent of adults who were insured before 2014. When looking specifically by type of coverage, 44 percent of Covered California enrollees (not all of whom are newly insured) report difficulty paying their monthly premium, versus a quarter of adults with other types of private coverage. Medi-Cal enrollees do not pay monthly premiums for their coverage.”

Cost, not glitches, slowing CA sign-ups

The Kaiser report, which was based on interviews with 4,555 Californians, says the cost factor is the biggest barrier to higher enrollments, not online technical snafus:

“Cost continues to prevent many uninsured adults from seeking coverage. While many people focused on website glitches and administrative barriers during 2014, uninsured adults say that the reason they still lack coverage is because it’s too expensive, with most not even trying to get ACA coverage, and many who did still saying they are ineligible or believe the coverage is too costly.”

Via: California Political Review

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COVERED CALIFORNIA MAY MERGE WITH BANKRUPT STATE OBAMACARE EXCHANGES

With major insurers in some states proposing up to 51 percent Obamacare insurance premium increases, liberal Democrats are scrambling to avoid a political and financial disaster. One proposal is to merge California’s financially troubled “Covered California” exchange with the even more insolvent state exchanges, like “Cover Oregon,” which was forced to shut down last year.

Obamacare provided $4.8 billion in federal funding for 13 states to set up their own independent healthcare exchanges. But after just 17 months of operations, spending has frittered away that money and most exchanges are experiencing serious cash-flow problems. The Covered California exchange is already running an $80 million deficit as of April, and the Cover Oregon was shut down in April 2014 and opted to transition to the federal system after blowing through $248 million in federal cash.

Governor Jerry Brown has an opportunity to demonstrate his national stature by offering to lead the merger of the California and Oregon exchanges. Conceivably, he could then propose rolling-up other financially struggling exchanges, like New York and Connecticut exchanges, which are just beginning preliminary joint-venture talks.

Oregon tried to publicly berate Oracle Corporation, the lead website developer for “Cover Oregon,” for the failure of the state exchange due to technology problems allegedly outside of bureaucrats’ control.

But in a lawsuit filed against “Cover Oregon,” Oracle claimed they are still owed $23 million under their contract. According to the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit noted that hundreds of thousands of Oregonians were enrolled in health insurance by back-office customer service representatives and health insurance agents using the software built by Oracle and a dozen other contractors. But state officials never terminated the temporary administrative workers and switched over so consumers could enroll on their own online.

Via: Breitbart

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‘Covered California,’ Obamacare Boondoggle, About To Go Belly Up!!!!!!

After two previous extensions, the open enrollment period for Covered California ends April 30. That deadline just might prove to be the tipping point for the state’s two-year-old health insurance exchange. That’s because this is the year Covered California is supposed to become completely self-sustaining

Indeed, there’s no more money coming from Washington after the state exhausts the $1.1 billion it received from the federal government to get the Obamacare exchange up and running. And state law prohibits Sacramento from spending any money to keep the exchange afloat.

That presents an existential crisis for Covered California, which is facing a nearly $80 budget deficit for its 2015-16 fiscal year. Although the exchange is setting aside $200 million to cover its near-term deficit, Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee acknowledged in December that there are questions about the “long-term sustainability of the organization.”

Covered California’s enrollment growth for 2015 was a mere 1 percent, according to a study this month by Avalere Health. That was worst than all but two other state exchanges. Meanwhile, California’s Obamacare exchange managed to retain only 65 percent of previous enrollees, the nation’s fourth-lowest re-enrollment rate.

No kidding! But in the Leftist mindset, an “entitlement” is still an entitlement, even if there’s no money to pay for it. Because entitlements are forever, even if California is not.

Via: PJ Media

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Marine Can’t Find Doctor Due to Obamacare

A California veteran is having trouble finding a doctor because of a faulty Obamacare plan.

Kyle, affected by chronic Lyme disease he contracted while on active duty, is frustrated with the lack of doctor availability on his Anthem BlueCross insurance plan. “I was on the phone with Anthem for two hours while they were trying to find me a doctor within 20 miles. Finally a supervisor came on the phone and said ‘Sir, we have to go, we have other people to help’ and advised me [that] I need to cancel my plan,” he told KPIX.

State law stipulates that insurers must have enough doctors to enable patients to get an appointment within 15 days within 15 miles of their home. Kyle was not able to find a doctor under these requirements and neither was Anthem. Inaccurately listed doctors are considered a violation of the law. The list of doctors given to CoveredCalifornia was incorrect.

“If we determine that a health plan has violated the law, we will take action,” Marta Green of Department of Managed Health Care said in response.

Internal emails reveal one individual’s warning about listing doctors that are not actually on insurance plans “I suspect that we are going to have a network adequacy issue very soon.”

Kyle advised CoveredCalifornia not to negotiate with Anthem. “I would tell them to get rid of Anthem BlueCross.”

Via: WFB

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Legislative Bipartisan Criticism Aims at Covered California

Responding to a state senator’s call for an investigation into the marketing budget of California’s Obamacare exchange, the agency says it is in great financial shape and even received high marks for an audit conducted last year.

“By 2015/16, we project a reserve of over $184 million,” Covered California spokesperson Anne Gonzales told CalWatchdog.com. “We are putting aside a healthy amount of federal grant money and plan to draw on our reserves until our enrollment starts generating income.”

But GOP state Sen. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado Hills, who is vice chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Insurance, said the agency will be $78 million in the red during the next fiscal year. He was incensed to learn that Covered California spent $1.37 million on an advertising campaign featuring a lurid Richard Simmons web stream that is now on YouTube.

Gaines learned about how much the “Tell a Friend, Get Covered” campaign cost from a Jan. 30 CalWatchdog.com article and then demanded an audit of Covered California on same day. He had initially asked for the financial information in a letter to Covered California Director Peter Lee, but it had gone unanswered when the article appeared.

Democratic bill

Covered California’s detractors aren’t limited to the Republicans. Late Monday, state Sen. Norma J. Torres, D-Chino, introduced Senate Bill 972, aimed at fixing “problems experienced by consumers” – lackluster customer service, a low Latino sign-up rate and inaccuracies in the provider directory, a press release stated.

Via: California Political Review

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California’s Obamacare Scandal - Criminals Working as Navigators

At least 43 convicted criminals are working asObamacare navigators in California, including three individuals with records of significant financial crimes.

Although some of the offenses are decades old, and although convicted criminals account for only 1 percent of the 3,729 certified enrollment counselors in the state, Californians still have good cause to be concerned about their privacy.

Even a single crooked navigator could do significant harm to the public. That’s because when navigators sign consumers up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, they have access to lots of private information, including Social Security numbers, home addresses, and financial data — basically, everything on the wish list of identity thieves and fraudsters. Navigators also are likely to work with a population that is more vulnerable than average.

Limited statistics released by Covered California — the state’s new health-insurance exchange — showed that one navigator has repeat forgery offenses — one in 1982, then another in 1994, with a burglary in between. Another had two forgery convictions in 1988, in addition to a domestic-violence charge a decade later. Another committed welfare fraud in 1999 and had shoplifted on at least two prior occasions. Since 2000, individuals now working as navigators have committed crimes including child abuse, battery, petty theft, and evading a police officer. At least seven navigators have multiple convictions. The information released covered only certified enrollment counselors, one of the three types of navigators working in California.

Via: NRO

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California’s Version of Obamacare a Success? Not by the Numbers

I’m pretty amazed at how long the CA media have gone along with the idea that the state’s version of Obamacare is doing well. I wrote about Covered California in Sunday’s U-T San Diego:

“… the state’s version of Obamacare has reduced the number of Californians with health insurance while doing a terrible job with [Latinos,] the single community that was most in need of health coverage and assistance in navigating the bureaucracy to obtain it. The program also appears likely to be far more costly to taxpayers than previously estimated.

“If this is an Affordable Care Act success story, that’s a profound comment on how badly the rollout is going elsewhere around the nation.”

The lack of Latino participation bodes badly for agency’s need to have a healthy mix of subsidized and non-subsidized enrollees.

“Just 15 percent of those enrolled aren’t eligible for subsidies. If that ratio continues — nearly six subsidized enrollees for every unsubsidized enrollee — then Covered California’s cost to taxpayers will explode.

“And there’s reason to think the ratio will continue: More than half of the Californians without health insurance are Latinos, mostly low-income or unemployed. But they make up only one in five of those who have enrolled with the agency.

“These numbers spurred sharp criticism of Covered California officials last week. The state Legislature’s Latino Caucus disputed agency claims that better marketing would sharply increase Latino participation. Critics said that wouldn’t make up for a poor Spanish-language website, weak outreach and the agency’s failure to understand the Latino community.

“If Covered California corrects these problems, and Latino enrollment surges, that’s good news in terms of the agency’s goals. But then it would be more likely that the highly costly ratio of subsidized to unsubsidized enrollees continues.”

Via: California Political Review

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Obamacare 2014 – More Losers Than Winners

Covered California’ the state’s Obamacare exchange, has racked up one accomplishment.  Thanks to its policies, there are more uninsured Californians in January 2014 then there were one year ago.

According to media reports, some 430,000 people signed up for health insurance through Covered California during the three month sign up period to be covered January 1.  But over the past year, 1,087,169 Californians in the individual market had their plans canceled due to Obamacare’s new rules.

Nationwide, some 5 million people lost their health insurance.  When President Obama felt the heat, he saw the light and asked the states and insurers to extend the cancelled plans for another year.  California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones had already pressed insurers to extend these plans and immediately endorsed the one-year extension.

These 1.1 million people are mostly healthy and had limited coverage catastrophic plans that they liked.  But for Covered California’s actuarial schemes to work, these people must be forced into the exchange.  So exhibiting the empathy of Stalinist five year planners, Covered California denied the extension.  As a result, came January 1 these people had no coverage.

But even if you assume that all 430,000 enrollees in the new exchange come from this pool (probably an inaccurate assumption), that still leaves 670,000 Californians with cancelled plans.  Some probably found new plans through the private market, but how many simply are doing without insurance because they cannot find or cannot afford another plan?

President Obama received the Politifact “Lie of the Year” award for “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”  But there is an even bigger lie that has been spread by the Administration and its liberal supporters, and that is that there are no losers in Obamacare, only winners.  In fact, there are more losers so far in California than winners, and there is every reason to expect this disparity to grow in 2014.

That’s because Obamacare is essentially a huge redistribution of wealth between income levels and between generations, and in that there are always winners and losers

Via: California Political Review

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