OBAMA ADMITS HEALTHCARE.GOV ‘A WELL DOCUMENTED DISASTER’

In a glossy “Fast Company” magazine spread promoting his new “tech team,” President Obama admitted that his Obamacare website was a “well-documented disaster” and that it forced him to pay more attention to technology.

“This did not get the kind of laser-focused attention until ­Healthcare.gov, which was a well-­documented disaster, but ended up anyways being the catalyst for us saying, ‘Okay, we have to completely revamp how we do things,’” he said during the interview.

Obama added that he was too busy handing national crises including the collapsing economy, bailing out the auto industry, and halting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay enough attention to the technology that was running government.

He also took the blame for not anticipating the problems with the Obamacare website sooner.

“It’s something, by the way, I should have caught, I should have anticipated,” he admitted.

Part of the reason he was creating a new tech team in Washington D.C. was to create a “startup” feel in allowing him to recruit some of the best people in the tech industry to come and work for the government to make it better.

Although he said there were “really smart people” in government, he insisted that the technology in the federal government was “terrible.”

“[T]o see how lumbering this thing was, that was pretty distressing,” Obama said, pointing to the contrast he experienced with his presidential campaign and the actual workings of government technology.

Via: Breitbart

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HealthCare.gov team claims victory: 'We have met the goal'

The Obama administration claimed victory Sunday for making HealthCare.gov workable for the vast majority of users, a standard that will be tested as millions of people flood the site in the next three weeks.

Sunday marked the passage of the administration's self-imposed deadline for fixing the broken ObamaCare enrollment website, which serves consumers in 36 states.

The agency that oversees HealthCare.gov said "we believe we have met the goal" of making the system navigable for most people, but cautioned that more problems may lie ahead.

"Dramatic progress has been made," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stated in a report released Sunday morning. "[But] there is more work to be done to continue to improve and enhance the website."

The mixed message highlights the challenge facing the Obama administration as it seeks to ensure that millions can sign up for individual health plans online by the end of March.

HealthCare.gov debuted with serious technical problems on Oct. 1, plunging President Obama into a political firestorm that engulfed the White House for weeks.

The question now is whether the system can handle the high volume of user traffic expected in December.

Via: The Hill

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Triage for HealthCare.gov: Administration Punts on Small Business Exchange

Sometimes to save the patient, you have to chop off a limb. The Obama administration is doing just that with the underperfoming HealthCare.gov website, announcing Wednesday that it will give up on opening the exchange for small businesses for another year and will rely on direct enrollment through insurance companies and brokers instead.

“This allows small employers to sign up for coverage through offline enrollment while [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] works on creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP Marketplace,” an official at the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The move allows the administration to focus all of its efforts on the individual exchange, which is expected to face a crush of users as the clock clicks closer to a Dec. 23 deadline for enrollment to be insured on Jan. 1. Administration officials Wednesday afternoon were already warning that the website would be able to handle 50,000 people at a time — or about 800,000 per day — but could continue to have problems handling spikes in volume.

There are some positives for small businesses in the decision, according to details provided by an HHS official. Small businesses will no longer have to be certified as eligible for tax credits before signing up for their plans. They will merely have to have their applicaiton done before filing their taxes.

But the latest announcement is another stunning setback for the administration’s signature initiative and comes just a day before Thanksgiving and days before a self-imposed Dec. 1 deadline for the main website to be ready for the vast majority of users — one that the administration has been worried enough about of late to not engage in a full-court promotional press to get Americans to apply.

Republicans quickly pounced.

Via: Roll Call

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Thanksgiving 2013: ObamaCare Talking Point Survival Guide

Friends, I know, it's Thanksgiving, and the last thing you want to hear from your tongue-pierced Anthropology major nephew is how unbelievably fantabulous ObamaCare is. Grandma's stuffing is out of this world, to be cherished -- no, worshipped; yet the White House, via Organizing For Action, is encouraging the Zombie Faithful to shanghai dinner. 

So we must respond.  How?  Well, first, you might seize Billy's plate, and every time he mounts the Obama Flag, take something off it -- redistribute! -- so that by the time he's done, the plate is empty, vacuous -- like his head.

Play on instinct -- whatever seems right.  But, of course, you may engage him intellectually.... *cough* .... and if you choose this path you are not only brave, you're in the right place!  Keep reading.  Below lies the distribution of knowledge and, with hope of redistribution, the refutation of Billy:

OFA Talking Point #1: Healthcare.gov has had difficulties but the state exchanges are working well.

Rebuttal: HA-HA-HA.... Like Oregon?  They spent $45 million, give or take a million - who's counting? -- and signed up the same number of people clamoring to see Michelle on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a thong.  The states are signing up Medicaid enrollees, at a 4:1 ratio, a fiscal time-bomb that will ravage their budgets and lead to LESS care for those supposedly "covered."

OFA Talking Point #2: The website's problem is demand and once the front-end problems are fixed, it will work.

Rebuttal: HA-HA-HA.... Healthcare.gov project manager, Henry Chao, told Congress last week that 40% of the website isn't even built -- there's NO payment system set up.  Are you majoring in Comedy?

OFA Talking Point #3: Only a few young and healthy people will pay more -- for most people, they will keep their plans, or have something better.

Rebuttal: HA-HA-HA.... Costs are going through the roof in 41 states, and the other nine are treading water.  Five-million people have already lost their plans, with tens of millions - and next year as many as 100 million -- to lose their plan and their doctor, when both group and individual markets are forced into compliance with ObamaCare mandates.

OFA Talking Point #4: The pre-ObamaCare health insurance market was a "free market" full of junk plans, which screwed people over and dropped their insurance when they got sick.

Rebuttal: HA-HA-HA.... Who feeds you this garbage?  Prior to ObamaCare, 87% of Americans reported a high level of satisfaction with their insurance, and, indeed, 85% had insurance.  These plans were not, by law, able to drop coverage for "sick" people -- and by the way, did you know that Medicare denies more coverage -- by a greater than 2:1 ratio -- than private insurers?

Via: American Thinker
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Real stories: The pain of Obamacare

Fewer than 27,000 Americans have selected an insurance plan from the Obamacare website Healthcare.gov. But millions of Americans have lost their insurance plans thanks to Obamacare — and millions more are reeling from higher premiums, lost jobs, and lower wages.

The RNC created GOP.com/TellUs for these Americans to share their Obamacare stories. Day after day, the responses keep coming in.

Here’s more of what Americans are saying about Obamacare. This is the real impact of the law.

Sandy E. from Florida says, “I’m a single woman, a few years too young for Medicare, who’s bought my own health insurance for the majority of my life because my employers never offered this benefit. I lost my last full time job in late 2008. The only job I’ve been able to find is part time … [I'm] now working around 25 hours a week for 25 percent of what I earned in 2008. Three weeks ago I received a letter from AvMed stating they were terminating my policy due to the Affordable Care Act. My coverage ends December 31, 2013. Independent polices are quoting me prices starting at $830.00 per month. How can I afford this?”

Joe D. of Pennsylvania writes, “I am a small business owner … . Our Management Team spend[s] a lot of time every year trying to keep our employees’ cost of healthcare down by aggressive negotiation and creative plan design/redesign every year. Like most companies, we pass on roughly 25 percent of the plan['s] cost to our employees. During our current renewal process, our insurer (Capital Blue Cross) has informed us that our plan no longer ‘complies’ with the ACA. They cited limits on mental health coverage and chiropractor visits among the shortcomings. As such, they were canceling the plan we had purchased for the past 3 years and offered a new plan that was compliant and close to what we had, but the new premium was 48 percent higher! We of course can’t absorb nor can our employees absorb anything near that kind of increase.”

Jeffrey S. from Pennsylvania says, “Approximately 6 years ago I switched from a conventional medical insurance plan to a High Deductible Plan paired with a Health Savings Account. That move lowered my total health care cost by around 45 percent annually. I loved the plan, the tax incentives, and the fact that I could now pay for items like dental crowns, glasses and contacts using my HSA — things I had no coverage for under my previous plan. Last year, due entirely to Obamacare mandated changes to my policy, my premiums jumped 39 percent. I am now paying for things I will never use such as maternity care and dental care for my children through age 18. I am single and have no children. I just received another letter from my carrier telling me that my premiums are going to increase again and that my policy can no longer be written after December 2014. I am furious with this administration and its lies.”

Via: GOP.com

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Obamacare Web site mocked by, yes, insurance company

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield decides to launch three ads that tell people to avoid the Healthcare.gov Web site, because its own site works so much better.

Such a struggle.

(Credit: Wellmark/Ad Age screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

A couple of days ago, I received two letters from my health insurance company.

One welcomed me to its autopay system -- which was a touch odd, given that I had been in its autopay system for many years.

The second told me that I was about to have my health insurance cut off, as I hadn't paid my monthly bill.

Please forgive me, then, if I'm not bathed in admiration for the way health insurance companies do business. There is one, however, that wants me (and you) to believe it's the apogee of efficiency.

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield wants you to know that the Obamacare Web site is just a painful affair, while its Web site will cure you of all ills.

I am grateful to AdAge for revealing three ads that this no doubt fine, efficient, and gloriously well-priced insurance company has released in Iowa and South Dakota.

These ads portray health-related situations that somehow go wrong. There's the urine sample jar that won't open, the blood pressure gauge that insists on farting, and the reflex test that causes the wrong knee to react.

The words offer you enormous comfort in this hour of your need: "Things don't always work like they're supposed to do. Good thing the government exchange isn't the only place to buy health insurance."

Via: CNET

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Healthcare.gov Crashes in Front of Kathleen Sebelius

The White House hopes to have the Affordable Care Act federal exchange website, better known as Healthcare.gov, up to 80% capacity by November 1st. Unfortunately for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, it ain’t there yet, as the website crashed while she was watching a couple try to use it at Miami’s North Shore Hospital on Tuesday.

Sebelius had first stopped by a couple enrolling with help of a navigator who said everything was going fine. But at a second table, the screen read, “I’m sorry, the system is temporarily down.”

“Uh-oh,” Sebelius said. “That’s okay, it’ll come back. That happens every day.” The Secretary continued to tour the facility, hearing of more website travails but finding people dedicated to getting signed up.

“For a number of them, they are frustrated with the web experience that they had, but eager enough for the coverage that they’re going to return over and over again,” she said to the press afterward. “What I know is, if you’re not in that situation, and you tried the website a couple times, we’re going to have to work extra hard to get you back.”

Watch the video below, via Washington Free Beacon:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Obama, Obamacare in polling freefall

A new CBS News poll shows President Obama and his health insurance law are in virtual free fall. The president's approval stands at 37% - down a whopping 9 points in just a month.

Obamacare is faring even worse. Approval for the law is down to 31% with Obamacare disapproval at 61% - its highest ever in the CBS poll.

Some other highlights:

More than a month after the health care exchanges opened, just one in 10 Americans think the sign-up for the exchanges has been going well. Instead, more than two-thirds think it's not going well - including seven in 10 of those who have looked up information on the exchanges themselves.

And just a third of Americans are confident that the federal government's healthcare website - HealthCare.gov - will be fixed by the December 1st deadline set by the Obama administration.

Thirty-four percent are at least somewhat confident, while almost two thirds are either not very or not at all confident. Fifty-five percent of Democrats are at least somewhat confident.

Just seven percent of Americans think the Affordable Care Act is working well and should be kept in place as it is. Far more, 48 percent, think there are some good things in the law, but changes are needed to make it work better, and another 43 percent think the law needs to be repealed entirely.

The president's overall job approval rating has declined among many demographic groups since last month, including independents (a 12-point drop), men (down 9 points), and women (a 10-point drop). More women now disapprove than approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president.

Via: American Thinker

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Come back! HealthCare.gov invites 275,000 to try again

If at first you don't succeed at Obamacare, try, try, try again.

The federal government on Tuesday began inviting about 275,000 people who had trouble creating accounts on the tech-troubled Obamacare site HealthCare.govafter it launched to "try again" after a series of ongoing software fixes.

But the government doesn't want all of those folks coming back all at once: Email notices to them are being sent out in "waves" so that HealthCare.gov isn't overwhelmed, again, by a flood of people, an official said.

"We want to make sure we are inviting individuals back into the system and their experience will be a positive one," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid spokeswoman Julie Bataille told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.

(Read more: Young women with pricey taste on Kentucky's Obamacare exchange)

Bataille said the technical upgrades being made on HealthCare.gov have left the system "stable" this week, "with users moving more quickly through it with fewer users errors."

HealthCare.gov was effectively crippled right after it launched Oct. 1 by a host of software problems that left it unable to enroll many people in Obamacare insurance, and also created serious problems with the quality of data being sent to insurers about the relatively few people who managed to create an account and shop for coverage.

Via: CNBC

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Insurers: Let Consumers Bypass HealthCare.gov

Health insurers have so little trust in the Obamacare website that they are pressuring the administration to allow consumers entitled to subsidies to bypass HealthCare.gov and go directly to the companies.

Since its disastrous rollout Oct. 1, the government website has been an epic failure. The list of technical problems is endless and growing. It began with system delays and timeouts and more recently has been plagued with capacity problems that surface when a consumer is further along in the application process.

The administration so far has thwarted allowing direct access by consumers to insurers, The New York Times reports, in part due to privacy concerns. The White House, though, is “continuing to pursue additional avenues by which people can enroll.”

Officials reportedly are worried that users’ personal data, such as financial and tax information and immigration status, might be compromised, according to the Times. 

Quality Software Services Inc., the company charged with fixing the website mess, already has put at risk the personal information of more than 6 million Medicare beneficiaries, The Hill reports.

Federal investigators this year called the company a “high risk” after it was revealed it “failed to stop its employees from connecting unauthorized USB devices (such as iPods) to highly sensitive Medicare systems.” 

Doing so risks malware infecting the system asnd opens the door to identity theft by allowing for inappropriate access to personal information. 

The company put additional safeguards in place following the government report, according to a spokesman.

Via: Newsmax

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