Costs of ObamaCare bungles start to add up, with Maryland first at about $30.5M

Maryland could end up spending as much as $30.5 million as a result of a glitch in its ObamaCare website, as the Obama administration steps in to help states with problematic exchanges.

Because of Maryland’s defective exchange, the state cannot determine whether customers remain eligible for Medicaid, according to a report by state budget analysts released Thursday.

As a result, the state has agreed with the federal government to a six-month delay in determining eligibility, meaning that payments will continue to be made to customers who are not eligible until the system is fixed. The delay will cost the state $17.8 million in fiscal 2014 and $12.7 million in fiscal 2015, the analysts estimated.

On Friday, the Obama administration said it would suspend some Affordable Care Act rules to help the 14 states with their own ObamaCare sites, particularly Maryland, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Oregon, which have had the most problems.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan, completed a day earlier, states the federal government will help pay for “qualified” health-insurance plans for customers in those states who because of “exceptional circumstances” had to buy plans outside of ObamaCare exchanges, as reported first by The Washington Post.

Via: Fox News Politics

Continue Reading....

Administration announces Obamacare subsidies for some people who didn’t sign up for Obamacare

The Obama administration announced Thursday that states with faulty Obamacare enrollment websites will be able to “retroactively” give taxpayer subsidies to people who signed up for private insurance plans off the Obamacare exchanges.

The administration’s executive decision to make Obamacare tax credits, which count as subsidies, available to non-Obamacare customers was slammed Friday by House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Joe Pitts.

“It is outrageous for the Obama administration to be quietly telling states: pay subsidies now, worry about the paperwork later. The administration is blatantly ignoring the law, paying subsidies to plans outside of exchanges,” Pitts said.

“Additionally, this ‘pay now, verify later’ directive could be a boon for fraudsters, raising the administration’s unaccountability to the likes we have not seen. Once again, the self-proclaimed ‘most transparent administration in history’ is caught trying to hide another change from the public. The unilateral delays and changes have been rampant. The American people deserve better – they deserve fairness for all,” Pitts said.

“I applaud the federal government for its efforts to make this financial assistance available for more Oregonians,” said Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, whose state’s Obamacare enrollment figures as of last Friday registered at less than 800. Oracle, the current contractor on the “Cover Oregon” website, moved 100 out of approximately 165 programmers off the project Friday.

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading.....

Oregon has become the new California

 Imagine if a grizzly bear and a beaver squared off in a cage match. It would be a decided mismatch in the bear’s favor.

That’s how interstate competition used to be between California – which prominently features a bear on its state flag – and Oregon – which boasts a two-sided flag, the backside on which appears a beaver.

But the script has been flipped, according to United Van Lines’ annual migration study, which tracked nearly 130,000 interstate moves in 2013. While California continues to lose residents to other states, Oregon is now the nation’s top moving destination.

Oregon boasts much of the same appeal as California, UCLA economist Michael Stoll told CNNMoney, including mild winters, open spaces, and local arts and entertainment scenes. But the Beaver State does not have California’s sky-high cost of living.

For instance, the median price for a single-family home in greater Portland is $285,000, according to Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. In greater San Diego, it’s $468,000; Los Angeles, $522,500; San Francisco, $617,500; and San Jose, $722,500.

Meanwhile, Oregon’s economy is stronger than California’s by several key measures:

• The Beaver State’s GDP grew by 3.9 percent in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which ranked third among the 50 states. The Golden State’s GDP increased 3.5 percent, ranking fifth.
• Oregon’s nonfarm employment grew in 2013 by 2.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, tied for fourth in the country. California’s nonfarm employment increased 1.6 percent, tied for 16th in the country.
• Oregon’s personal disposable income grew by 10.1 percent between 2006 and 2011, according to BEA. California’s grew by 6.3 percent over the same span.

Finally, the Beaver State’s tax regime is less onerous than here in the Golden State.

Via: California Political Review

Continue Reading....

Oregon Health Exchange Yet to Complete One Enrollment

Oregon will consider a switch to the federal health care exchange next year amid ongoing problems with its online enrollment program, Politico Pro reports.

The state’s exchange, Cover Oregon, still cannot process an entire enrollment online — a problem that is not expected to be repaired until after the 2014 enrollment period ends in March.

That has state officials weighing several options including scrapping its own enrollment system and moving to HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment portal which is working better now after its own disastrous start. Switching to the federal site could be considered a significant political defeat for the state and Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who strongly embraced the president’s health care law and is seeking reelection this year.

“As much as we don’t want to walk away from a big IT project, we have to consider it,” Kitzhaber health policy adviser Sean Kolmer told Politico. “It’s all about enrollment.”

Oregon is now analyzing what went wrong with the website, with many blaming the main contractor of the site.

Via: WFB

Continue Reading.....

Citizens take law into own hands after cash-strapped Ore. county guts sheriff's office

When budget woes reduced the sheriff's department in one rural Oregon county to a bare-bones force, residents decided to take matters into their own hands -- creating armed patrol groups in defiance of local officials. 

Their decision has raised safety concerns with the county government, which would prefer residents instead hike their own taxes to fund the hiring of trained deputies. But despite the risks, the move stands as a unique, some would say innovative, response to one of the country's most severe local budget crunches. 

The government in Josephine County, where nearly 70 percent of the land is owned by the U.S. government, had long relied on federal timber subsidies to pay the bills. When the feds terminated the funds, county officials scrambled to pass a May 2012 tax levy to make up a nearly $7.5 million budget shortfall.

However, the county's residents voted against the levy, and as a result the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office was gutted. The major crimes unit closed, dozens of prisoners were released from the county jail and the department reduced operations to Monday-Friday, eight hours a day.

The Sheriff’s Office then issued a press release announcing their deputies would only be responding to what they deemed “life-threatening situations.”

Ken Selig -- who was the longest-serving law enforcement officer in all three local agencies when he was forced to retire from the department due to cuts -- told FoxNews.com he found the sheriff’s declaration unacceptable. And he felt compelled to guard his community’s vulnerable members.

Vis Fox News Politics

Continue Reading....

Cover Oregon: Official who oversaw development of health exchange, Carolyn Lawson, resigns

Carolyn Lawson, the embattled state technology executive who oversaw much of the development of Oregon's troubled health insurance exchange, has resigned for personal reasons.

It was Lawson, chief information officer at the Oregon Health Authority, who decided the state could manage the complex exchange project itself, rather than hire a private-sector systems integrator, a decision since criticized by her superiors. Lawson also was close to Oracle Corp., the California technology giant that has been blamed for doing shoddy work and repeatedly missing deadlines.

Nearly three months after the federal deadline for a functional health exchange website, Oregon's exchange has emerged as a technological train wreck and a PR nightmare. The state has paid more than $160 million and a fully functional site remains weeks -- perhaps months -- away. 

State officials have been forced to spend even more money gearing up a massive system of temporary employees and contractors to manually process paper applications for health insurance.

Via: Oregon Live

Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] Dem proposes taxing drivers by the mile

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would require the government to study the most practical ways of taxing drivers based on how far they drive, in order to help fund federal highway programs.

Blumenauer's bill, H.R. 3638, would set up a Road Usage Fee Pilot Program, which he said would study mileage-based fee systems. He cast his bill as a long-term solution for funding highway programs, and proposed it along with a shorter-term plan to nearly double the gas tax, from 18.4 cents to 33.4 cents per gallon.

"As we extend the gas tax, we must also think about how to replace it with something more sustainable," Blumenauer said Tuesday. "The best candidate would be the vehicle mile traveled fee being explored by pilot projects in Oregon and implemented there on a voluntary basis next year."

He said the bill would help answer questions about "how best to implement a vehicle miles traveled [VMT] system," and said it "looks to the future and helps provide a more stable funding base for the next one hundred years."

A text of Blumenauer's new bill was not available as of Wednesday morning. But the concept is similar to an idea he proposed in a bill last year, which called on the Treasury Department to study the viability of a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax.

Democrats have pondered VMT systems for the last several years as a way of finding new highway revenue. Blumenauer pointed out Tuesday that over the last decade, Congress has had to move more than $50 billion from the general treasury to the Highway Trust Fund, as the gas tax has not kept up with highway spending.

Via: The Hill

Continue Reading....

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
Continue Reading....

Dem. Rep.: 'I Think the President Was Grossly Misleading to the American Public'

By DANIEL HALPER

Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat from Oregon, said that President Obama was "grossly misleading" on Obamacare:"Very misleading," the Democratic congressman says of Obama's promise that you can keep your health care plan, if you like it.

"I think next year at the election time, people are going to want to know, was I able to sign up? And what is the shape of the benefit package I'm going to get and how much is it going to cost me, at the end of the day? I think this will, the sign-up period and problems and the horrendous problems that are going on right now will be way in the past.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading.....

Senate Democrats wary of administration pledges to fix Obamacare site

Senate Democrats on Thursday offered mixed reviews of the Obama administration's briefing on progress it is making to fix the glitch-riddled federal Obamacare website.

Emerging from a closed-door Capitol Hill lunch with three of President Obama's top advisers, Senate Democrats expressed hope that the kinks in the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges would ultimately be ironed out. But they also said they were frustrated with the initial rollout of the program and were dubious that problems with healthcare.gov could be fixed by the administration’s self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline.

“I don’t think there’s confidence by anyone in the room. This is more a show-me moment,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “We were all confident that the system was going to be up and operating on Oct. 1 and now we’re not confident until it’s real.”

Asked if he liked what he heard from the administration about what is being done to address the myriad problems with the online marketplace exchange website, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said only: “They’re trying.”

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Marilyn Tavenner and Jeffrey Zients, who joined the administration temporarily to oversee work on the website briefed senators and, as one aide described it, allowed them to "vent" about the troubles directly to the White House.

McDonough declined to answer reporters’ questions following the meeting, saying only that “we had a really good discussion.”

Merkley said senators were told that the administration is working to “triage” the website, removing features that aren’t needed and improving the speed and functionality of core elements people need to access information and apply for health insurance.

Some members were more upbeat following the session. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the briefing “allayed” much of the concern senators have about the start of the Affordable Care Act’s implementation. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, conceded that he has frustrated constituents, but said he liked what he heard and is optimistic that the team in charge of rehabilitating the website can get the job done.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading.....

Oregonians Fight Illegal Alien License Law

Oregon taxpayers are successfully fighting back against a law—passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor months ago—to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses by the start of 2014.

The measure, Senate Bill 833, directs the Department of Transportation to issue special driver cards to applicants who don’t provide proof of legal presence in the United States. The illegal aliens must still pass a driving test and provide “acceptable documents that prove their identity, date of birth, and residency in Oregon for more than a year.” Here’s another interesting line in the actual law: “A Social Security number will also be required if one has been assigned.”

The campaign started around the middle of last year when Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber ordered state police to begin accepting the Mexican Matricula Consular identification cards as valid ID. Shortly afterwards he vowed to pass a measure that would allow illegal aliens to obtain Oregon driver’s licenses, asserting that the undocumented would come “out of the shadows” and “contribute to our economic recovery.” The state legislature overwhelmingly approved the bill in May and the governor quickly signed it.

Under the measure state Department of Motor Vehicle offices can accept foreign identification cards issued by the consulates of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and South Korea. The card must be “valid” and not expired, according to the new Oregon law, which advises illegal immigrants to “contact your consulate office if you need to renew it.”

This outraged an Oregon group that favors immigration control. At the very least, citizens should be able to vote on the matter. So the group, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, got busy and collected the necessary 58,142 signatures to put a referendum blocking the law onto the November 2014 ballot. This already delays the law’s implementation by almost a year because it was supposed to kick in on January 2014.

The new law granting driver privilege cards to illegal aliens will now be sidelined until after the November 2014 election, the group says on its website. If voters choose to overturn the measure, it will be dropped. If voters approve it, the law will go into effect 30 days after the election. The group cites a recent Rasmussen poll that reveals 68% of U.S. voters oppose giving illegal immigrants driver’s licenses. The survey found that just 22% favor allowing illegal aliens to get licenses in their home state.

A dozen states—not including Oregon—have laws that allow illegal aliens to obtain a driver’s license or special driving privilege card, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Among those that recently passed measures are California and Illinois. States—such as Arizona and Nebraska—that refuse to give illegal aliens licenses have been dragged into costly legal battles to preserve their laws.

Via: Judicial Watch

Continue Reading.....