BREITBART/JW POLL: MORE THAN HALF SKEPTICAL OBAMACARE WILL LOWER COSTS

A new Breitbart/Judicial Watch Poll reveals more than half of Americans are skeptical that the “Affordable Care Act” will lower their health insurance costs. Fifty-four percent say so, while only one-quarter believe their health insurance cost will decrease if they sign up for one of the government’s health plans.

As you may know, a law was passed in 2010 that makes major changes to the country's health care system. Please tell me if you agree or disagree with the following statement. “My healthcare insurance costs will decrease if I enroll in one of the government’s new health insurance plans.”

25% TOTAL AGREE (NET)

12% STRONGLY AGREE

12% SOMEWHAT AGREE

54% TOTAL DISAGREE (NET)

13% SOMEWHAT DISAGREE

40% STRONGLY DISAGREE

21% DO NOT KNOW

1% REFUSED

Democrats are more likely to be optimistic about Obamacare's cost-saving ability than Republicans. Even so, Democrats are not overwhelmingly optimistic, rather, they are split on the question.  Independents are more in line with the GOP (72%) as 54% of Independents doubt that Obamacare will lower their healthcare costs should they sign on to the program.

Expectations are different along racial lines and more likely to be divided on the issue of cost decreases. African-Americans are split along with Hispanics on the cost saving aspect of Obamacare. Forty-three percent of African-Americans do not expect their costs to decrease and 37% of Hispanics say the same, significantly lower than whites. 

Via: Breitbart

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Democratic senator says Obamacare could have 'meltdown,' hurt party

1. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's healthcare law could have a "meltdown" and make it difficult for his Democratic Party to keep control of the U.S. Senate next year if ongoing problems with the program are not resolved, a Democratic senator said on Sunday.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has urged delaying a penalty for people who do not enroll for health insurance in 2014 under the law, told CNN that a transitional year was needed for the complex healthcare program, commonly known as Obamacare, to work.

"If it's so much more expensive than what we anticipated and if the coverage is not as good as what we had, you've got a complete meltdown at that time," Manchin told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

"It falls of its own weight, if basically the cost becomes more than we can absorb, absolutely."

The White House has been scrambling for months to control the damage from the botched October 1 launch of the law, formally called the Affordable Care Act, which aimed at making sure that millions of Americans without health insurance are able to receive medical coverage.

There have been complaints from consumers about higher premiums than they previously had to pay for health insurance after their old plans were canceled because of new standards under the law, as well as lingering problems with the main web portal used to sign up for insurance, HealthCare.gov.

Manchin said Senate Democrats who are up for re-election next year are "feeling the weight" of the program's woes and could have trouble keeping their majority in the chamber.

Via: Yahoo News

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[VIDEO] Thousands of Obamacare sign-ups disappear into HealthCare.gov black hole

Nearly 15,000 enrollment records from Americans trying to sign up for Obamacare never made it to insurers — but the federal government does not know which records never made it to which insurer.

The federal analysis merely compares the number of times Obamacare enrollees clicked “enroll” to the number of plans HealthCare.gov sent to insurers, according to The Washington Post. Consumers who send the vanishing enrollments, or “orphan files,” are not notified that their information has not been processed and an insurer did not receive sensitive financial and health-related data, meaning that they could be in for an unpleasant surprise when the Dec. 23 deadline — the last day for customers to sign up for health insurance — comes and goes.

But government officials insist that less than one percent of enrollments disappeared into cyberspace since early December, even though their data does not include duplicated and erroneous enrollments.

he Health and Human Services Department needs 7 million Americans to enroll within six months of HealthCare.gov’s launch to fund the exchanges, but only 365,000 Americans have signed up since the end of November, a drastic shortfall.

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Tags: HealthCare.gov, Obamacare

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Center for American Progress releases list of corporate donors after founder moves to White House

Via: Daily Caller

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Obamacare’s 19 New Californias

If you try to understand Obamacare, you’re guaranteed to get a nation-sized headache. (I tried, and I did.) Federal and state government officials have a mess on their hands, and nearly every statement you can make about the law comes with 17 qualifications. But here’s some health advice for Californians: take two aspirin—and stop thinking of Obamacare as a national story.

The Affordable Care Act created a lot of new health insurance marketplaces, and the secret is that they’re not really federal or state entities. They’re regional.

For the purposes of selling insurance to individuals and small groups, California’s government divided the state into 19 regions, each with different insurance prices and subsidies based on demographic and economic data. If you’ve heard about the “state insurance exchange” in the media, it doesn’t refer to one market. In California, it refers to 19 different regional markets. Obamacare’s impact will differ across Californian communities, often in unpredictable ways. Unless you’re a policy buff, you’re probably best off if you stick to understanding your own market.

The reason for the 19 regions is that the ACA prohibited insurers from using your health as a basis for denying coverage or determining insurance rates. That left insurers with two ways to set your insurance prices—your age and your place of residence. Healthcare costs differ from region to region—both because of differences among hospitals and other health providers and because of health differences among populations. Therefore, insurance premiums will now differ along regional lines.

Why 19 regions? Under Obamacare, every state is required to divide its insurance markets into a minimum number of regions—essentially, one per Metropolitan Statistical Area, or media market. In some states, however, insurers have lobbied for even more regions than required by law, and the federal government has generally signed off on these changes. In California, lawmakers considered plans for as few as six regions before eventually expanding the number to 19 regions. (We’re not the only state with more regions than usual; Texas, determined to be bigger in everything, has 26, and South Carolina, determined to be crazier in everything, has 46, one for each county.)

Via: California Political Review

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[VIDEO] Second Richest Member Bemoans Health Care Costs (Video)

Turns out Americans without employer-based health insurance might not be the only ones hit with higher insurance premiums.

Rep. Michael McCaul, Congress’ second richest member, took to the House floor this week to criticize the Affordable Care Act. The Texas Republican, with an estimated net worth of at least $114 million, said he lost his health care plan and his premiums on the D.C. Health Exchange went up significantly, impacting his family.

As the health care law rolls out for members and staffers, McCaul — who has significant investments in health insurance companies such as United Health Group and Aetna, according to his financial disclosures — wanted all to know he felt the pinch, too.

Via: Roll Call

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Obamacare's Perilous Protection Plan for Debtors by Michelle Malkin

"Uh-oh." That's the sound being uttered in doctors' offices and hospitals across the country as medical providers realize they're getting stuck with another bottomless Obamacare bill. While the White House desperately tries to pivot from the havoc wrought by the "Affordable Care Act," its hidden regulatory bombs keep exploding.

I heard about the latest problem this week from an eye doctor friend who received a letter from a Colorado-based insurer informing her that she's essentially on the hook for Obamacare's payment grace period for debtors. The optometrist is bracing for a flood of similar letters from other insurers. Like countless other independent providers, she's extremely concerned about the potential liability, uncertainty and fraud the rule imposes on her business.

Here's the raw deal: The Affordable Care Act created a 90-day grace period before insurers can drop patients who fall behind on premiums. So, delinquents who obtain tax-subsidized health insurance through an Obamacare health insurance exchange have three months to settle up their bills prior to their policy being canceled. As written, the law puts insurers on the hook for the grace period.

But the bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decided to issue a rule in March making insurers responsible only for paying claims during the first 30 days of the debtors' grace period. Who's on the hook for the other two months? Well, customers are entrusted to foot the bills for additional services. But if they blow off the payments, it's up to physicians and hospitals to collect.

Via: Townhall

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Obama Loses Millennials: 57% of Young Adults Reject Obamacare

A new Harvard University poll finds a majority of millennials (57 percent) disapprove of Obamacare. The news comes on the second day of President Obama’s latest effort to sell the health care law to the public at large and young people in particular.

The results from Harvard’s Institute of Politics, which surveyed 2,089 young adults aged 18 to 29, found only 18 percent of millennials who thought Obamacare would improve their care. Less than one-third said they’re likely to enroll in the Obamacare insurance exchanges.

Whether pollsters referred to the law as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, most young adults (50 percent and 51 percent, respectively) believed their health care costs would go up because of the President’s signature domestic legislation.

Millennials, who played a critical role in the election and re-election of Obama, now rate the President at the lowest level since he took office in 2009, with 41 percent approval, the poll found. Millennials named the economy as their top issue, followed by government spending, jobs, taxes, and health care.

Via: The Foundry

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Two Years Old and Not Part of the Family? (Updated)

The Obamacare elves have been busy doling out holiday tips on how to talk about signing onto the Affordable Care Act website while huddled around the yuletide fire singing secular songs with uninsured family members.

One tip the tip-givers forgot to include in the "Healthcare for the Holidays" Guide to Getting Insured was how to explain to those with children under the age of two that family insurance plans in the New York health exchange do not cover the littlest members of the family.

Wait! Maybe Peter Singer, colleague of Barack Obama's Science and Technology Czar John Holdren, had some input in the 'under two' individual policy idea and New York is a pilot state. Singer, a bioethics professor at Michelle Obama's alma mater, Princeton University, is of the opinion that disposing of children up to age two is fine because newborns and toddlers lack the "essential characteristics of personhood," which Singer says are rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness.

So until Americans decide whether they're going to keep the little rug rats, maybe Obamacare advisors thought it would be best to prevent the little ones from mucking up the family plan.

Does requiring a two-year-old to have their own health insurance policy sound like a joke?  Well it's no joke, because that's exactly what happened to self-employed title insurance business owner Cornelius Kelly and his pediatrician wife Jennifer. 

Via: American Thinker

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Baby not covered under ObamaCare family plan

This baby’s not on board with ObamaCare.

Long Islander Cornelius Kelly found it would be no problem to secure a family plan for his wife and three older kids through New York’s health-care exchange, but his 18-month-old daughter was out in the cold. The baby would need her own insurance policy.

“I couldn’t believe what I was being told,” said the dad from East Quogue, in Suffolk.

Kelly said he was no fan of the Affordable Care Act, but when he received notice a few weeks ago that his current insurance plan was being canceled, he tried the New York State of Health Web site.

Kelly, 41, and his wife, Jennifer, 42, are self-employed and have always had to buy their own insurance. Kelly runs a title insurance business in Westhampton, and his wife is a pediatrician in private practice in Miller Place. “I initially went on with a lot of optimism,” he said.

Kelly said none of the plans offered out-of-network coverage, which was something he wanted. But even worse, they only covered his three older children, who are 3, 5 and 6.

When Kelly called a representative, he was told his daughter had to be 2 before she could be covered under a family plan. He would have to buy a separate plan for her, at monthly premiums that ranged between $117.21 and $369.31. The cost would be on top of a family plan with premiums ranging from $810.84 to $2,554.71 a month.

Kelly said he had been paying about $1,000 a month.

Via: New York Post

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Top California hospitals don’t like Obamacare either

President Obama has been claiming that people can keep their favorite doctors under the Affordable Care Act. But anyone who wants a premier hospital in California better do some homework before signing up.

A survey of the state’s top hospitals has revealed that most contract with only one or two insurance companies under Obamacare, even though the Covered California exchange has 11 companies to choose from. And one hospital, Loma Linda University Medical Center, has refused to participate altogether and has no contracts.

Obamacare is driven by low-cost policies. So the reimbursement rate hospitals will receive from insurance companies just isn’t worth it to them. The end result is that the blue ribbon hospitals won’t have a large presence on the exchange, Watchdog.org has learned.

“The more we are learn about the insurance plans on Covered California, the more it becomes clear that the big name hospitals are sitting on the sidelines — some by choice, other by design of the insurers,” said Josh Archambault, senior fellow for the Foundation for Government Accountability and a frequent Obamacare critic. “Consumers get the short end of the stick.”

Watchdog.org looked at the top 15 California hospitals listed in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013-2014 annual report and contacted each one to determine their Obamacare insurance contracts.

See the full list here

Via: Watchdog.org

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NY Times discovers doctor shortage with Medicaid expansion

I believe the first time I wrote about the expansion of Medicaid exacerbating the short of doctors was in 2009. At that point, a study came out showing the US would have a 40,000 doctor shortfall by 2020. Since not all doctors will accept Medicaid patients (fewer today), the potential shortage could easily be predicted.

Unless you're the NY Times:

Dr. Ted Mazer is one of the few ear, nose and throat specialists in this region who treat low-income people on Medicaid, so many of his patients travel long distances to see him.

But now, as California's Medicaid program is preparing for a major expansion under President Obama's health care law, Dr. Mazer says he cannot accept additional patients under the government insurance program for a simple reason: It does not pay enough.

"It's a bad situation that is likely to be made worse," he said.

His view is shared by many doctors around the country. Medicaid for years has struggled with a shortage of doctors willing to accept its low reimbursement rates and red tape, forcing many patients to wait for care, particularly from specialists like Dr. Mazer.

Yet in just five weeks, millions of additional Americans will be covered by the program, many of them older people with an array of health problems. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that nine million people will gain coverage through Medicaid next year alone. In many of the 26 states expanding the program, the newly eligible have been flocking to sign up.

Via: American Thinker
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Stores selling Obamacare policies popping up across California

As shoppers hunt for holiday bargains this season, they may find something unusual for sale at the mall: Obamacare.

With enrollment deadlines looming, California officials, insurance companies and agents are staking out retail space to sign up thousands of people as part of the Affordable Care Act. These sales tactics reflect how dramatically the healthcare law is changing the insurance industry.

Until recently, most health insurance companies and agents didn't put much time into selling policies to individuals and focused more on catering to employers and large groups in the workplace. But the health insurance mandate and billions of dollars in federal premium subsidies have made individual policies a far more attractive market.

California's health insurance exchange and other government-run marketplaces are rushing to sign up people by Dec. 23, the deadline to have coverage in effect Jan. 1. Open enrollment lasts until March 31.

A state lawmaker and union organizers last week opened a mall store in a predominantly African American area of Los Angeles. In Orange County, insurance agents are signing up dozens of people each week at Laguna Hills Mall, and healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente has rented five retail locations in Northern California to sell exchange policies.

The Covered California exchange has posted solid enrollment since opening Oct. 1, primarily through its website and call centers. It has signed up nearly 80,000 people in private health plans through Nov. 19 and an additional 135,000 people have applied for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for the poor.

Via: LA Times

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HAGAN PLEADS THE FIFTH ON OBAMACARE

Last week more of Kay Hagan’s Democratic colleagues revealed that they knew full well that some Americans would lose health care plans that they liked, yet repeatedly made dishonest promises otherwise.

Kay Hagan, however, has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the truth that millions of Americans are losing health insurance that they like as they are forced into the ObamaCare exchanges. This is - and always has been - an intended consequence of the Affordable Care Act.

ABC11′s Jon Camp reports: “Sen Kay Hagan defends ‘Obamacare’ but won’t say when she learned not everyone would be able to keep their insurance, as promised.”

Click here to watch the full segment.

Kay Hagan’s own spokesperson all but admitted that the Senator knew that Americans would lose their health insurance, despite repeatedly promising otherwise. Three years ago, Hagan joined her Senate Democratic colleagues in unanimously supporting the very ObamaCare rule that’s responsible for the health insurance cancellations that have caused so much consternation over the last month. Even though 473,000 North Carolinians face the possibility of losing their health insurance, Kay Hagan refuses to accept responsibility for her deciding vote in favor of ObamaCare.

Either Hagan was knowingly dishonest about people keeping their care yet repeatedly promised otherwise; or, Hagan is so incompetent that she didn’t comprehend the legislation that she championed.

Via: Human Events

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Three guys, three nights make one terrific health insurance site

So, how are you going to respond if some obnoxious Obamabot relative or friend ruins your Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza and/or Shabbat get together with (un)helpful suggestions about enrolling in The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, ie, ObamaCare?  What if s/he even offers to guide you through the unworkable healthcare.gov site during a break in the festivities as mentioned here?  No, no, no, don't punch him/her or explain that you're not going to enroll because of higher premiums, higher deductibles for a worse policy.

If you want to put down while enlightening said obnoxious Obamabot have I got a better suggestion for you!  Smile sweetly, then smugly say, "Oh no problem.  I ignored the government and got all the information about health insurance I needed from HealthSherpa. Isn't it amazing what three diverse, minority (an Asian-American, a Greek-American and a Jewish-American) twenty something young men can do in a few nights with only a few hundred dollars?  Why couldn't the government do that?"

And then watch Obamabot sputter.  Oh sure, it might feebly retort, HealthSherpa isn't as comprehensive as the government site, you can't purchase a policy through the site, etc and etc, blah and blah.  "Exactly!," you reply.  "Affordable, non governmental insurance information is available without the costly government interference which distorts the market and the price."  "And," you triumphantly conclude, "it gives you all the information, including prices and comparable prices before you offer up very personal information on a very insecure, easily hackable site! You don't even have to give out personal information." 

Via: American Thinker
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