Insurance CEO Defends Obamacare: ‘We’re Not Cutting People, We’re Transitioning People’

Florida Blue CEO Patrick Geraghty appeared onMeet the Press Sunday morning and defended Obamacare, telling host David Gregory that the 300,000 figure—the number of people being dropped from the insurance rolls, a number being used as evidence that President Barack Obama was not correct when he said people would get to keep their insurance—was not an accurate representation of the Affordable Care Act’s effects.

“We’re not cutting people,” Geraghty said. “We’re actually transitioning people. What we’ve been doing is informing folks that their plan doesn’t meet the test of the essential health benefits; therefore, they have a choice of many options that we make available through the exchange. And, in fact, with subsidy, many people will be getting better plans at a lesser cost. This really is a transition. In fact, the 300,000 figure is the entire year. So it’s really 40,000 people for January 1, and we’re walking them through that transition.”

Gregory pressed Geragthy on a number issues, including whether people would experience “sticker shock” as a result of the ACA’s effect on prices, and whether Florida Blue and other insurance companies had warned the administration about problems with the website before it went live, warnings that went unheeded. Geraghty defended the White House, saying subsequent meetings with the insurance industry had been productive.

“We’re not looking backwards,” Geraghty replied. “I think it really is about how do we move forward and solve this? We serve millions of people across the state of Florida. It would be a distraction for me to spend my time looking backwards. I spend my time figuring out, how do we serve the people in Florida that were trying to bring most education about their options so they can help their families?”

“I’ll respectfully point out I didn’t get the answer to the question I was looking for,” Gregory said.

Watch the full clip below, via NBC News:

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading......

WATCH: Leno Monologue ABUSES ObamaCare

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff

During his opening monologue Tuesday night NBC host Jay Leno discussed the lengthy and frustrating process that Americans face in signing up for Obamacare.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading.....

Networks blamed shutdown on GOP in 41 stories --- 0 for Dems

Republicans never expected to get a fair shake in the Big Three networks' coverage of the 16-day government shutdown, but the final tally of stories blaming the GOP is stunning: 41 stories blamed Republicans and zero blamed Democrats.

Nightly, 20 million Americans heard “a version of the shutdown story that could easily have emanated from Barack Obama's own White House,” said the new report from the Media Research Center.

The report, provided to Secrets, found that a total of 41 stories blamed Republicans for the shutdown. None blamed the Democrats. Another 17 blamed both sides.

In addition, those interviewed by the night news broadcasts by ABC, CBS and NBC whacked the Republicans by a six-to-one ratio, said the report.

“The broadcast networks invariably blamed Republicans for the impasse; spotlighted dozens of examples of how Americans were being victimized; and ran scores of soundbites from furloughed federal workers and others harmed by the shutdown — even as they ignored examples of how the Obama administration and Senate Democrats were working to make the shutdown as painful as possible,” said the report.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading.....

Tech Expert to NBC Reporter on Obamacare Roll-Out: Without Changes, ‘This Project is Doomed’

In a report which aired on MSNBC on Thursday, NBC News reporter Tom Costello examined the software which users access in order to sign up for health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. The report was highly critical of the software on Healthcare.gov. Without significant changes, one expert said, the future of the ACA exchanges was in doubt.

Costello began by noting that some estimates, including a study performed by Millward Brown Digital, note that less than one percent of visitors to Healthcare.gov were able to purchase insurance.

“Amateur hour,” said software programing company owner Luke Chung. “It looks like it was created by someone who’s never delivered commercial software before.”

“Programming experts say a lot of work needs to be done,” Costello reported.

“If they don’t change management, this project is doomed,” Chung concluded. “Because we’ve already seen what the existing management considers ready for shipping. And it’s not.”

RELATED: Analysis: 0.4% of All HealthCare.Gov Visitors Enrolled in First Week

In a follow up conversation with MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts and Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin, they noted that insurance exchanges on the state level appear to be functioning but the federal version of that system has not functioned as expected.

“So how is the White House supposed to respond to this?” Roberts asked. “Because is the onus supposed to be on the state or the federal government taking responsibility for it, or is this a purposeful way to make it look so messy so that there has to be something more done?”

Eilperin said that this was a question for the administration. She again noted that the government has not released statistics about how many insurance shoppers have been able to sign up for the exchanges.

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading......

Michelle Obama to make second stop on 'Biggest Loser'

Michelle Obama will appear on NBC's "The Biggest Loser" this season, marking her second appearance on the weight-loss reality show.

The first lady will tout her drink more water campaign, according to Broadcasting and Cable.

Brita, one of the sponsors on "The Biggest Loser," is a supporter of Obama's initiative. 

The episode is scheduled to air in November.

The first lady last appeared on the show in April 2012, where she joined the contestants in a workout at the White House as part of her Let's Move! anti-obesity campaign.

Via: The Hill

Continue Reading....

Waxman Scolds Cable Lobby for Blasting NBC Obamacare Ads

Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) recently criticized a Time Warner Cable lobbyist for suggesting that NBC is exhibiting bias in its coverage of the Affordable Care Act. However, Waxman failed to disclose his own campaign contributions from Comcast Corp., the parent company of NBCUniversal.

Waxman, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote a letter Friday raising concerns about an email he said the lobbyist sent to Republican staffers in the House and Senate. “Next time you think about helping the broadcasters—particularly the networks—read this…,” the email said, followed by a link to the Weekly Standard blog post, “NBC Launches Week of Programming to ‘Help’ Obamacare Succeed.”

The post pertains to an NBC press release announcing the network’s “Ready or Not, the New Healthcare Law” initiative, a series of social media forums, on air reports, and online resources designed “to help shed light on what the health care act means for [consumers] and explain how to enroll.”

“A broadcaster has a public service obligation and should be informing viewers about the new options for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” Waxman wrote in his letter to the lobbyist.

“On the other hand, a cable company should not be pandering to the worst instincts of the reckless Republican extremists that seem to be running the House of Representatives.”

Via: WFB

Continue Reading.....

Yes, Americans Like the Debt Ceiling – And it Matters

According to reports, House budget chairman Paul Ryan has been urging his colleagues to back off on the budget fight and focus on a debt ceiling showdown. In exchange for an increase in the legal limit on federal government borrowing, Ryan believes the GOP can demand a series of items in return; starting with a delay of Obamacare, the construction of the Keystone pipeline and other spending reforms.

It’s still doubtful Republicans will be able to extract any meaningful concessions on Obamacare, but the president’s “I will not negotiate” over the debt ceiling position is undermined by the inconvenient fact that he already did in 2011.  And, at the very least, depicting the conservative opposition as crazed nihilists becomes slightly more precarious for Democrats due to public opinion.

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week finds that 44 percent of respondents are against raising the debt ceiling and only 22 percent believe it should be raised so the U.S. avoids “going into bankruptcy and defaulting on its obligations.” A third of those who answered are unsure.

A Reason-Rupe poll finds that 55 percent of Americans say they do not support raising the debt ceiling even if it causes the U.S. to default. With dollar-to-dollar spending cuts, 45 percent say they’d support raising it and 46 percent would still oppose.

Via: The Federalist

Continue Reading...

[Update: September 11] Censored! IRS Scandal Being Buried by Big Three Networks

The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks have colluded with the Obama administration to censor the latest IRS scandal news. The latest: On September 11 the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, in an article headlined “Lois Lerner’s Own Words,” reported the following: “In a February 2011 email, Ms. Lerner advised her staff—including then Exempt Organizations Technical Manager Michael Seto and then Rulings and Agreements director Holly Paz—that a Tea Party matter is ‘very dangerous,’ and is something ‘Counsel and [Lerner adviser] Judy Kindell need to be in on.’ Ms. Lerner adds, ‘Cincy should probably NOT have these cases.’

That’s a different tune than the IRS sang in May when former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller said the agency’s overzealous enforcement was the work of two ‘rogue’ employees in Cincinnati. When the story broke, Ms. Lerner suggested that her office had been unaware of the pattern of targeting until she read about it in the newspaper. ‘So it was pretty much we started seeing information in the press that raised questions for us, and we went back and took a look,’ she said in May.”

The WSJ Review & Outlook piece went on to note: “Earlier this summer, IRS lawyer Carter Hull, who oversaw the review of many Tea Party cases and questionnaires, testified that his oversight began in April 2010. Tea party cases under review are ‘being supervised by Chip Hull at each step,’ Ms. Paz wrote to Ms. Lerner in a February 2011 email. ‘He reviews info from TPs, correspondence to TPs etc. No decisions are going out of Cincy until we go all the way through the process with the c3 and c4 cases here.’ TP stands for Tea Party, and she means 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.” So far ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to report this story.
 

Last Time Any Aspect of the IRS Scandals Was Mentioned on Big Three Morning and Evening Shows:

ABC - June 26 (78 days)

CBS - July 24 (49 days)

NBC - June 27 (77 days)

Via: Newsbusters

Continue Reading....

[Update: September 10] Censored! IRS Scandal Being Buried by Big Three Networks

The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks have colluded with the Obama administration to censor the latest IRS scandal news. The latest: On the September 4 edition of Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN’s Drew Griffin reported the following: “CNN has learned the IRS had been preparing for that bomb to drop for more than a year. E-mails obtained by CNN show IRS lawyers, the commissioner and Lois Lerner herself were meeting to discuss how to respond when Congress found out with increasing sense of panic way back on March 2nd of 2012. Lerner writes, ‘we are going to get creamed.’”

Griffin also interviewed a former colleague of Lerner’s who said she had a built-in bias:

GRIFFIN: One year later, the IRS inspector general report found ineffective management led to the IRS using inappropriate criteria to target conservatives, but was it political or just a series of blunders? Those who know and work with Lerner are divided. Craig Engle says he began to see a bias from Lois Lerner when they worked together at the Federal Election Commission.

CRAIG ENGLE, ATTORNEY: What I saw was a bias against money in politics of the IRS.

GRIFFIN: Engle, a Republican Washington attorney says although he thinks Lerner is an honest woman, her bias had a partisan result.

ENGLE: Lois' opinion and that of her staff was that if you had a lot of money and you were spending it in politics, you needed to be looked into.

Number of days with NO network story: 6

Last Time Any Aspect of the IRS Scandals Was Mentioned on Big Three Morning and Evening Shows:

ABC - June 26 (76 days)

CBS - July 24 (47 days)

NBC - June 27 (75 days)

The following is a list of key developments in the IRS scandal and how many days it has been since they were discussed, if at all, by the Big Three on their morning and evening news shows.

Via: Newsbusters

Continue Reading....