[VIDEO] Utter Chaos: White House Exempts Millions From Obamacare's Insurance Mandate, 'Unaffordable' Exchanges

It’s hard to come up with new ways to describe the Obama administration’s improvisational approach to the Affordable Care Act’s troubled health insurance exchanges. But last night, the White House made its most consequential announcement yet. The administration will grant a “hardship exemption” from the law’s individual mandate, requiring the purchase of health insurance, to anyone who has had their prior coverage canceled and who “believes” that Obamacare’s offerings “are unaffordable.” These exemptions will substantially alter the architecture of the law’s insurance marketplaces. Insurers are at their wits’ end, trying to make sense of what to do next.

Previous fixes were failing

Here’s how we got to where we are. As many as six million Americans who purchase health coverage on their own have seen their plans canceled, because they don’t comply with Obamacare’s newly-imposed regulations. On the other hand, the bungled rollout of the law’s healthcare.gov website has meant that only tens of thousands of Americans have been able to enroll in new coverage under the law. This means that by January 1, 2014, less people will have health coverage under Obamacare than before.

Via: Forbes

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[CARTOON] Un-Affordable Care Act

Via: California Political Review

Landrieu’s Lie Costs 80,000 Louisianans Their Health Coverage

Posted November 5, 2013

80,000 Louisiana Residents Will Be Kicked Off Their Health Care Plans As A Result Of ObamaCare According To The Louisiana Insurance Commissioner. “About 80,000 Louisiana residents will see their health insurance policies canceled in 2014 because they don’t meet new federal health-care standards, the state’s insurance commissioner said Monday.” (Rebecca Catalanello, “80,000 Louisianians’ Health Insurance Policies Will Be Canceled Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 11/4/13)

The Number Losing Their Insurance Represent Nearly Half Of Louisiana’s Individual Insurance Market. “The figure could account for close to half of the 165,000 people in Louisiana who hold individual health insurance plans that they pay for without the help of an employer or the government.” (Rebecca Catalanello, “80,000 Louisianians’ Health Insurance Policies Will Be Canceled Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 11/4/13)

• “‘These People Were Obviously Satisfied With Their Insurance,’ Donelon Said, ‘And I Hope That They Don’t Drop Out Of The Market.’” (Rebecca Catalanello, “80,000 Louisianians’ Health Insurance Policies Will Be Canceled Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 11/4/13)

LANDRIEU PROMISED THAT LOUISIANANS “WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP THEIR CURRENT PLAN,” BUT WENT BACK ON HER WORD

In 2009, Landrieu Said On The Floor Of The Senate That “Those Individuals Who Like The Coverage They Already Have Will Be Able To Keep Their Current Plan.” LANDRIEU: “Individuals and small businesses that do not have coverage would be able to select a private insurance plan from a range of options sold on a National Insurance Exchange. Lower and middle income people would receive subsidies to help them afford this insurance, while those individuals who like the coverage they already have will be able to keep their current plan. This is a very accurate description of this bill before us–the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” (Sen. Mary Landrieu, Floor Remarks, 12/22/09)

Landrieu Had The Chance To Keep Her Promise In 2010, But She Didn’t

In 2010, Senate Republicans Attempted To Strike Down “The Obamacare Rule That Is Largely Responsible For Some Of The Health Insurance Cancellation Letters That Are Going Out.” “Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.” (Chris Frates, “Senate Democrats Supported Rule That Led To Insurance Cancellations,” CNN, 10/31/13)

The Resolution Would Have Struck Down HHS’s Grandfathering Provision That Was Intended To Help Americans Keep Their Insurance Plans. “The precipitating event was the federal regulation detailing the grandfathering provision of the law, which exempts existing health plans from certain requirements such as having to offer benefits without cost sharing. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) introduced a resolution of disapproval calling for a do-over on the regulation, which many businesses say is too onerous.” (Julian Pecquet, “Grandfathering Vote Sparks Renewed Health Reform Debate,” The Hill’s Health Watch , 10/29/10)

Senate Democrats Voted Unanimously To Protect The Rule. “Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.” (Chris Frates, “Senate Democrats Supported Rule That Led To Insurance Cancellations,” CNN, 10/31/13)

• Landrieu Voted With Every Other Senate Democrat To Protect The ObamaCare Rule That Is Kicking People Off Of Their Plans. (S.J.Res 39, Roll Call Vote #244 , Defeated 40-59: R 40-0; D 0-59, 9/29/10, Landrieu Voted Nay)

LOUISIANANS WHO LOSE THEIR PLANS MAY END UP PAYING MUCH MORE UNDER OBAMACARE

Via: GOP.com

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You Also Can't Keep Your Doctor I had great cancer doctors and health insurance.My plan was cancelled. Now I worry how long I'll live.

Everyone now is clamoring about Affordable Care Act winners and losers. I am one of the losers.

My grievance is not political; all my energies are directed to enjoying life and staying alive, and I have no time for politics. For almost seven years I have fought and survived stage-4 gallbladder cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than 2% after diagnosis. I am a determined fighter and extremely lucky. But this luck may have just run out: My affordable, lifesaving medical insurance policy has been canceled effective Dec. 31.

My choice is to get coverage through the government health exchange and lose access to my cancer doctors, or pay much more for insurance outside the exchange (the quotes average 40% to 50% more) for the privilege of starting over with an unfamiliar insurance company and impaired benefits.

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Bloomberg News

Countless hours searching for non-exchange plans have uncovered nothing that compares well with my existing coverage. But the greatest source of frustration is Covered California, the state's Affordable Care Act health-insurance exchange and, by some reports, one of the best such exchanges in the country. After four weeks of researching plans on the website, talking directly to government exchange counselors, insurance companies and medical providers, my insurance broker and I are as confused as ever. Time is running out and we still don't have a clue how to best proceed.

Two things have been essential in my fight to survive stage-4 cancer. The first are doctors and health teams in California and Texas: at the medical center of the University of California, San Diego, and its Moores Cancer Center; Stanford University's Cancer Institute; and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The second element essential to my fight is a United Healthcare PPO (preferred provider organization) health-insurance policy.

Since March 2007 United Healthcare has paid $1.2 million to help keep me alive, and it has never once questioned any treatment or procedure recommended by my medical team. The company pays a fair price to the doctors and hospitals, on time, and is responsive to the emergency treatment requirements of late-stage cancer. Its caring people in the claims office have been readily available to talk to me and my providers.

But in January, United Healthcare sent me a letter announcing that they were pulling out of the individual California market. The company suggested I look to Covered California starting in October.

Via: WSJ

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Bitterly clinging to Obamacare

Campaigning during his first presidential run over five years ago, then Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was overheard at a private fund raiser among the extremely wealthy in San Francisco infamously stating: 

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

So how is the now President Obama (still D) helping these bitter clingers?  He's not.  As a matter of fact he is making their lives worse with Obamacare and his other laws and policies.  As the New York Times discovered about the (Un)Affordable Care Act.

Via: American Thinker

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THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT - Obamacare's middle-class sticker shock

Last week I got news that my health insurance costs are going up. A lot. In 2014 my monthly premium for a family of four will increase 15 percent to $575, my deductible will double to $3,000 and I will lose my drug coverage, adding another $100 a month to my expenses. My story is typical for employees of Gannett, the Detroit News’ parent company, and other businesses across the country.

Obamacare is not just creating havoc in state exchanges, it is roiling the larger private health insurance market. Costs are skyrocketing thanks to the expensive mandates, regulations and taxes buried in the Affordable Car Act.

Call it the Unaffordable Care Act.

Billed by President Barack Obama as a historic reform that would reduce heath insurance costs by $2,500 a year and cover 40 million uninsured, the program is dictating terms to every health insurer while offering employees a grim choice of rising costs with their company plan or seeking refuge in unworkable, expensive government-run state exchanges.

While many small employers have welcomed a delay in the ACA’s employer mandate until 2015, businesses that already provide insurance are facing Obamacare’s new reality. The bad news has come in waves as companies like Home Depot and Trader Joe’s announced they are dropping coverage for part-time employees. Hundreds of thousands of consumers are losing their “mini-med plans” because they don’t meet Washington’s minimum requirements. Now come the premium increases for self-insured businesses that an analysis by Duke University’s Center for Health Policy estimates will cost an average family $800 a year. In Michigan, for example, insurance costs for the Extreme Chrysler dealership in Jackson are going up 70 percent and Michigan Group Benefits insurance says its clients’ average increase is 23 percent.

Via: Detroit News

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