Al Franken: 'We Have to Consider Extending the Deadline for the Mandate'

Unless HealthCare.gov meets its deadline at the end of November, Senator Al Franken (D., Minn.) wants lawmakers to consider pushing back the enrollment date. He could join six Democratic senators who are already supporting a bill that would extend the enrollment period by two months from its original date of March 31, 2014.

“I think then we have to consider extending the deadline for the mandate [in the event that the website is not fixed in time], but let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” he told MinnPost.

Some experts have doubted that the White House will be able to meet the November 30 deadline for HealthCare.gov, pointing to the website’s vast array of problems. Last week, the administration stated that its goal is for 80 percent of users to be able to enroll on the federal marketplace.

As for President Obama’s recent “fix” that would allow people with canceled plans to potentially renew them, Franken said he’s “making sure that [people who have lost their plans] can find the absolute best policy” on the state’s exchange marketplace. Earlier this week, Minnesota governor Mark Dayton announced that the state would not accept the president’s “fix.”

Franken is up for reelection in 2014 and, while he is currently generally considered to be able to hold the seat, Republicans are hoping to make the race more competitive in light of the political fallout over the health-care law.

Via: NRO

Continue Reading....

Americans voting with their 'feet' on Obamacare

This Reuters headline is not good news for the administration:

Frustrated by Healthcare.gov, some consumers buy off exchange

Americans are abandoning the healthcare.gov site and buying insurance the old fashioned way; calling the companies directly.

Since its launch on October 1, technical problems have stalled Healthcare.gov, the website meant to help millions of uninsured Americans sign up for coverage as part of the biggest U.S. social program since Medicare plans for the elderly launched in the 1960s.

Nearly a dozen insurance companies offering plans on the exchange who were interviewed by Reuters say they have received at most a trickle of enrollments through the federal marketplace serving 36 states, some of them with errors that require the insurers to separately verify information about applicants.

At the same time, consumer inquiries at insurance company call centers and websites are up, in some case even double the amount of normal traffic. When they hear from potential customers who appear to qualify for government subsidized plans, they take phone numbers, create shopping baskets for the plans they like and send them to Healthcare.gov to verify eligibility.

But if the shoppers do not qualify for a subsidy, insurers say they sell them a plan directly. More often than not, those plans are individual policies that are not available on the government-run exchange.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading.....