CareFirst says 76,000 customers will lose current coverage due to Obamacare

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is being forced to cancel plans that currently cover 76,000 individuals in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., due to changes made by President Obama's health care law, the company told the Washington Examiner today.

That represents more than 40 percent of the 177,000 individuals covered by CareFirst in those states.

Though Obama famously promised that those who liked their health care coverage could keep it under his program, in reality, the health care law imposes a raft of new regulations on insurance policies starting Jan. 1 that are forcing insurers across the country to terminate existing plans.

In theory, rules were supposed to allow pre-existing plans to be "grandfathered in," but they were written so narrowly that they leave out many plans.

"Of the 177,000 individuals under age 65 who are covered by CareFirst, about 76,000 of them are in a non-grandfathered plan — a plan that will not comply with the guidelines imposed by the Affordable Care Act at their time of renewal this year or next," CareFirst said in an email in response to an inquiry by the Examiner.

It continued, "These individuals in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and portions of Northern Virginia will be required by the health law to purchase a new ACA-compliant health plan. This phenomenon is not unique to CareFirst and its members, but rather a result of industrywide changes in accordance with new ACA health plan standards."

While individuals in Maryland and Virginia will have the option of shopping for new plans either on the Obamacare exchanges or the individual market, D.C. residents who get cancellation notices will be forced to purchase insurance on the exchange.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Group of 33 House Republicans call for Sebelius resignation

Thirty-three House Republicans sent a letter Thursday to President Barack Obama, urging him to ask Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, to resign over the thorny rollout HealthCare.gov.

The Obamacare enrollment website has suffered a number of problems since it went live on October 1, problems which have not yet been fully ameliorated. According to the signees of the letter, those problems are grave enough that Sebelius should step down.

“The scope of the problem is so great that, were this a private company or military command, the CEO or general would have been fired,” they write. “We are, therefore, calling on you to hold Secretary Sebelius accountable for the fiasco that is HealthCare.gov and ask for her resignation.”

The members said the rollout of the website should have been delayed until it the website was fully functional, but that by asking Sebelius to resign, Obama could help salve the wound.

“It’s not too late,” they write. “By calling for the resignation of Secretary Sebelius, you can send a powerful signal that the American people will not be held responsible for her department’s failures. By granting a delay in the rollout of Obamacare, you can ensure fairness for all Amercians, not just the select few.”

The letter is signed by 33 House Republicans: Louisiana Rep. John Fleming, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, Arizona Rep. David Schweikert, Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster, Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Michigan Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, Montana Rep. Steve Daines, Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, Florida Rep. Ted Yoho, Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey, Montana Rep. Steve Daines, Texas Rep. Pete Olson, Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs, Tennesee Rep. Stephen Fincher, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis, Texas Rep. Randy Weber, Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci, Indiana Rep. Larry Bucshon, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler, Mississippi Rep. Alan Nunnelee, Texas Rep. Roger Williams, North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones, Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, Georgia Rep. Paul Broun, Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Florida Rep. Steve Southerland, and Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks.

Sebelius will testify on the Obamacare rollout next Thursday before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Via: Daily Caller
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Obama rallies immigration advocates for 2014 race

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s speech urging passage of a bill to increase immigration quickly turned into a rally for the 2014 midterm elections, and also for Vice President Joe Biden’s potential 2016 bid.

“It’s up to Republicans in the House to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not,” he insisted, before a bank of cameras for Spanish-language TV stations that reach Latino voters.

“We’ve got the time to do it. … Keep putting the pressure on all of us to get this done,” he declared in the East Room speech.

He dismissed numerous media reports about growing GOP opposition to any immigration-related negotiations with Obama. ”The press will declare something dead, [that] ‘It’s not going to happen,’ but that can be overcome,” he said.

He quickly moved into campaign mode. “I want you to keep working, and I’m going to be right next to you to make sure we get immigration reform done,” Obama declared, while almost shouting in the same style he used during the final stages of the 2012 campaign.

In June 2012, Obama boosted his re-election campaign by unilaterally approving a mini-amnesty for younger immigrants. Today’s rally was broadcast to Latino audiences, eve as much of the media was focused a congressional hearing into the crippled rollout of Obamacare.

Throughout Obama’s rally,  Biden stood beside him. The vice president’s participation may be a bid to win progressive votes during the 2016 Democratic nomination process.

To his mostly Latino audience, Obama called for passage of the Senate’s immigration bill, which would bring in one new working-age immigrant and one new guest worker for every two Americans who turn 18. Overall, the bill passed by the Senate in June would provide green cards to 33 million immigrants over the next 10 years.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Fire Secretary Kathleen Sebelius!

It's time she goes!!!!

Fire Secretary Kathleen Sebelius! 

Your privacy flagrantly compromised. Massive costs for website snafus. Wildly inaccurate quotes. Log-in hell. Software madness. Shockingly expensive premiums. These are just some of what American citizens have encountered since the disastrous October 1 launch of the federal government’s long-in-the-works Obamacare website. Who’s responsible for this multi-billion-dollar mess? Why, the president of course. But also the very person who has overseen the health-care website’s creation: Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Every day brings new stories of the Obamacare site’s near-complete unworkability, while the Obama administration responds with fantastic don’t-be-concerned counterclaims. Huge problems are downplayed, and brazen promises are made that the behemoth program’s complex and convoluted software will be quickly and easily fixed.

Baloney.

Via: NRO

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Dean: No, really, Republicans are to blame for ObamaCare fiasco

Who’s to blame for the ObamaCare debacle? “First off all, in fairness,” Howard Dean told the Morning Joe crew earlier today, ou have to blame Republicans for some of this because they delayed everything they possibly could.” First we have to blame the party that (a) didn’t cast a single vote in favor of the ACA and (b) had no control over its 42-month rollout?  At which stage in the process do we hold responsible the people who spent $400 million in three and a half years, and who assured everyone all along the way that things were going swimmingly?

Probably 39th. Let’s not raise expectations too high (via Andrew Johnson at The Corner):

Dean went on to blame the Republican governors who wisely decided not to tempt fate with their own exchange systems:

“The problem is they shouldn’t have done a single-size-fits-all for the 36 states,” he continued. “Partly, I have to say, they had to do that because the Republican governors refused to accept exchanges.”

Dean went on to downplay the problems facing the websites, saying the glitches are “not big.”

Dean suggests that the White House should have built regional systems rather than national systems in order to make the process less complicated.  How exactly would that have helped? HHS couldn’t even build one system that connects the consumers to the insurers and the IRS properly, but they could have built four or five simultaneously?  That sounds like the kind of thinking that went into the Obama administration’s reform policies and managerial efforts on ObamaCare all along.

Via: Hot Air

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EXCLUSIVE--POLL: VA GOV RACE A TOSS UP

A new poll, provided exclusively to Breitbart News, finds the Virginia Governor's race a virtual dead-heat, with Democrat Terry McAuliffe leading Republican Ken Cuccinelli 41%-40%. Libertarian Robert Sarvis garners 10% and 9% of likely voters remain undecided. With less than two weeks to go, the race is a toss-up that will likely be decided by turnout, a critical factor in an off-year election.

The poll comes from Wenzel Strategies, which accurately predicted closing momentum for Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Deb Fischer, among others. The slight edge McAuliffe holds is due mostly to stronger support within his partisan base. 81% of Democrats support McAuliffe, against just 68% of Republicans who support Cuccinelli. 

Cuccinelli's support seems be building, however, as public attention moves away from the recent government shutdown to the failing implementation of ObamaCare. Cuccinelli was a leading national figure suing to overturn the health care law. 

The closeness of the race is apparent in the millions spent by left-wing groups to support McAuliffe in the closing days. In addition, Hillary and Bill Clinton, close allies of McAuliffe, have made themselves permanent fixtures in the Commonwealth, campaigning on his behalf. 

“There’s a reason the Clintons have been called in to spend a week campaigning for McAuliffe and that Bloomberg is pouring in millions with 2 weeks to go,” Brian Baker, President of Ending Spending Action Fund, which commissioned the poll, told Breitbart News. “Their internals must be showing what our poll indicates -- that his unfavorables are high and they must try to suppress Cuccinelli turnout to prevail.  All indications are that the numbers are closing, especially post shutdown. The focus will be where the undecideds go and what will Sarvis draw? With the race this close, the poll indicates a vote for Sarvis is a vote for McAuliffe.”

History also is on Cuccinelli's side. Since the 1980s, the winner of the Virginia Governor's race has always been from the opposite party of that occupying the White House. 

Via: Breitbart

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Report: Final Cost of Obamacare Website Tops $1 Billion

BACK UP THE BRINKS TRUCK!!!

The principal contractors responsible for the federal government's troubled health insurance website say the Obama administration shares much of the responsibility for snags that have crippled the system.

Executives of CGI Federal, which built the federal HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states, and QSSI, which designed the part that verifies applicants' income and other personal details, testified Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Meanwhile, figures released Thursday say the total cost of the deeply flawed website and healthcare exchange has topped $1 billion, according to a devastating new report by a widely respected government analyst.

Editor's Note: 22 Hidden Taxes and Fees Set to Hit You With Obamacare. Read the Guide to Protect Yourself. 

How? A surge in government spending on the Obamacare exchanges before they went live pushed the price paid to top government contractors over the $1 billion mark, The Hill reported, quoting the new study.

The report released Thursday by Bloomberg Government analyst Peter Gosselin says that federal spending ramped up in the months leading up to Oct. 1, with $352 million of the $1 billion in federal contracts to the top 10 Obamacare contractors awarded during this time.

"In a typical IT project, spending ramps up to a peak, then trails off during the final phase," Gosselin wrote.

This is a huge increase from the price tag usually associated the Affordable Care Act rollout: $394 million. That came from a Government Accountability Office report.

But Gosselin argues that the GAO study was too narrowly focused. He expanded his search of a federal contractor databases to include all awards where the acronym "ACA" or other related words and phrases appeared.

Via: Newsmax

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Nearly 700,000 applications completed at healthcare.gov, officials say

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 700,000 applications for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act have been completed, administration officials said Thursday, although they would not release data on how many people successfully enrolled in insurance plans despite problems with the online marketplace.

The updated figure comes as administration officials tried to respond to complaints and finger-pointing from the contractors who built the troubled website,www.healthcare.gov. Testifying before a House committee Thursday, the contractors blamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which essentially was project manager, for not conducting complete “end-to-end” testing of the site until two weeks before the Oct. 1 launch date.

On a call with reporters, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials did not dispute that account.

“Due to a compressed time frame, this system just wasn't tested enough, especially for high volumes,” said spokeswoman Julie Bataille.

PHOTOS: 2013's memorable political moments

Asked why time was short for a system more than three years in the making, Bataille cited the “complexity of the system.”

“Obviously, when you put all of those pieces in place over a period of time, I think it is no surprise to anyone that we are operating under a compressed time frame to get all of that done and in order to do the rigorous testing that was needed,” she said.

Officials also acknowledged they were responsible for the decision some experts have isolated as the pivotal design flaw -- a requirement that visitors to the site create accounts before shopping for insurance plans. Republicans have charged that the administration scrapped a so-called “window shopping” function because officials were worried users would get sticker shock and turn away from Obamacare.

Via: Los Angeles Times

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Obama's disregard for experience and humility

I'll admit, I was drawn into this article on President Obama by Norm Ornstein's odd assertion that Obama has enforced "stiff restrictions on lobbyists entering the administration." Nobody should write something like that without noting that the Obama administration has hired at least 100 ex-lobbyists, including a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist as chief of staff at Treasury.

But the rest Ornstein's article is very revealing (Ornstein is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where I serve as a fellow). As I read the piece, Obama didn't put much stake in experience when staffing his administration:

The initial White House staff structure did not include anyone in a prominent position who knew the executive branch intimately—knew which positions among the political appointees were important for the president's policy objectives and needed to be filled quickly by experts or managers ...

This struck a chord with me because it echoes my suspicions that Obama suffers from hubris. Charles Krauthammer put it well in my interview for our cover story: "He's the least-experienced, least-known president probably in the history of the United States. ... If you're coming in as a novice, you ought to have some humility in deciding where you want to go and take the country.”

Krauthammer argues that Obama's policy agenda is insufficiently humble. Ornstein points to a different problem: Obama's managerial approach was insufficiently humble. As I read Ornstein, Obama put too much stake in intelligence and good intentions (meaning, "being liberal") and too little stake in such stodgy ideas as experience and wisdom.

This Ornstein passage is also telling:

The first clues to this problem came during the transition in 2008. George W. Bush and his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, offered exemplary assistance to the incoming Obama team — but many of the ideas on the table to streamline the nomination process for executive posts, including the cumbersome vetting element, were ignored.

Who needs experience, humility or wisdom from predecessors when you've got the best and brightest, with the best intentions, willing to work really hard?

Via: Washington Examiner
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Opt-Out Obamacare Penalty Can't Be Enforced -- Unless You Get a Tax Refund

RUSH: For those of us who take as long as we can to pay our taxes, October 15th was the extension filing date for 2012, and I dutifully was in there.  My accountant, who is almost afraid to be my accountant because he thinks he's gonna get targeted, too, just 'cause his name's on my return, he said, "Look, you may not know this, but you keep talking about these Obamacare fines if you don't buy a policy.  Do you know that under the law --" and I had to go look it up.  Not that I didn't believe him, but he just never gets political with me.  He stays over there.  (interruption)  No, no.  He's not lib.  It's a professional relationship.

Anyway, he said to me that, according to the law, the only way that the government can collect the fine or penalty for you not buying insurance is if you are owed a tax refund.  If you do not owe a tax refund, they cannot go into your bank account or anywhere else and get that money.  Now, the sad thing is that most people file their taxes to get a refund 'cause they think they're screwing the government, and they're not.  You're giving the government all that money all that year, but, no, look, what it means is that it can't work.  The whole point of this is the individual mandate. The guts of this are the mandate that you buy, that young, healthy people get screwed price-wise by being forced to buy insurance.  You've got to. 

And in three or four years, if things don't change, it's gonna be bad. I'll tell you, by then, if this thing goes forward, and it looks like it may not, but, if it goes forward, these are gonna be the good old days, because right now with the website broken, these kids can't find out how badly they're gonna get screwed, although some people are.  By kids I mean 18-24, 18-30.  (interruption) I know, we're gonna get to the hearings in a minute.  There's nothing wrong, folks.  Did you know the site's working?  Everything's happening as it should.  The only problem is the Republicans.  That's what I meant, we're loaded here.  I'm sorry to be hop-scotching all over the place.  I'm trying to do an hour's worth of content here in five minutes.  I really apologize.  I'm bursting at the seams here. 

Via: Rush Limbaugh

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HHS Predicted Obamacare Exchange Sign Up Would Take 28 Minutes

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimated consumers would take an average of 28 minutes to sign up for Obamacare, according to a notice the agency sent to the White House in February.

The American Action Forum revealedThursday that HHS earlier this year predicted consumers would need less than 30 minutes to complete online applications for the health care insurance marketplace. HHS reported those projections to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The Healthcare.gov process has not proven so easy in practice. Since its rollout on Oct. 1, the Obamacare exchange has been plagued with technical issues and “glitches,” resulting in few enrollees and long wait times. Obamacare “success stories” applaud the rare cases in which people were able to sign up over a period of several days.

“After more than two months of review, the government estimated it would receive more than 3 million individual responses and it would take the public 1.4 million hours to complete the required paperwork,” said Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy for the American Action Forum, in a blog post on the group’s website.

“In other words, HHS assumed the public would spend just 28 minutes to complete the ‘Online Application,’” he said.

Via: WFB

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Obama's disregard for experience and humility

A change to the Marine Corps' uniform hats could leave hard-nosed Leathernecks looking a lot less macho. 

According to the New York Post, President Obama's plan to create a "unisex" look for the Corps has officials on the verge of swapping out the Marines' iconic caps with a new hat that some have derided as so "girly" that they would make the French blush. 

"We don't even have enough funding to buy bullets, and the DoD is pushing to spend $8 million on covers that look like women's hats!" one senior Marine source fumed to The Post. "The Marines deserve better. It makes them look ridiculous." 

The thin new hats have a feminine line that some officials think would make them look just as good on female marines as on males - in keeping with the Obama directive. 

They have been dubbed the "Dan Daly" hat, after a sergeant from Long Island who won the Medal of Honor in World War I. 

Via: Fox News

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Jay Carney Clarifies Obamacare ‘Confusion’: ‘Individual Mandate Timing Has Not Changed’

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney attempted to clear up any lingering “confusion” over the question of delaying the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate during his daily briefing Thursday. Answering a question from CBS News’Major Garrett, Carney confirmed that the “individual mandate timing has not changed.”

Garrett asked Carney if the change, which would move the deadline for people to sign up for insurance with penalty from February 15th to March 31st, would require congressional approval or if it falls within the Health and Human Services department’s jurisdiction. “I appreciate the question because I know there was some confusion last night,” Carney said, perhaps referring to the NBC Nightly News report about a delay to the individual mandate and subsequent denial by White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

“The individual mandate timing has not changed,” Carney said emphatically. “The deadline for signing up for insurance was and is March 31st.” He said what the administration has been working on is “aligning the deadlines for enrollment and enforcement,” which would mean someone could enroll by March 31st and avoid the penalty even if that insurance has not yet become active. “In other words,” Carney said, “if you have insurance by March 31st, because you’ve purchased but it has not kicked in, you should not be penalized.”

“A lot of reporting on this has gotten ahead of the actual facts,” Carney said, adding that the “guidance” from the White House meant to resolve the issue “has not been finalized.” He said it is his “understanding” that the change will not require any action from Congress.

Watch video below, via C-SPAN 3:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Why Obamacare Is Like Three Mile Island

I’ve been blogging a lot over the past week or so about the risk of an insurance market "death spiral" -- where young people stay away, so the only people buying insurance are old and sick, causing the cost of insurance to rise over time and pushing ever more healthy young people out of the market.

Adrianna McIntyre says that we shouldn’t worry; there’s a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that deals with this.

I’ve argued in the past that delaying the individual mandate for a year wouldn’t provoke a full death spiral; it would be an uncomfortable hiccup, but it’s not enough time for the whole market to unravel. More importantly, there are deep-in-the-weeds protections baked into the Affordable Care Act: risk adjustment, reinsurance, and risk corridors.

These programs -- collectively called the “three Rs” -- aid insurers if they wind up enrolling a population that is sicker and more expensive than projected. They do a crucial bit of policy work: we want plans competing on efficiency and quality, not their ability to attract the healthiest patients.
The programs have related functions, but risk corridors will play the biggest role if the individual mandate does get delayed. Their entire purpose is to stabilize premiums during the first three years of Obamacare, when it’s especially difficult for insurers to price plans.

Here’s how it works: exchange plans (QHPs) projected how much their risk pool would cost overall in 2014, their “target” cost. If they’ve significantly miscalculated -- or, say, if a mandate delay causes adverse selection that they couldn’t have predicted -- HHS will take action.

Via: Bloomberg

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