Come back! HealthCare.gov invites 275,000 to try again

If at first you don't succeed at Obamacare, try, try, try again.

The federal government on Tuesday began inviting about 275,000 people who had trouble creating accounts on the tech-troubled Obamacare site HealthCare.govafter it launched to "try again" after a series of ongoing software fixes.

But the government doesn't want all of those folks coming back all at once: Email notices to them are being sent out in "waves" so that HealthCare.gov isn't overwhelmed, again, by a flood of people, an official said.

"We want to make sure we are inviting individuals back into the system and their experience will be a positive one," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid spokeswoman Julie Bataille told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.

(Read more: Young women with pricey taste on Kentucky's Obamacare exchange)

Bataille said the technical upgrades being made on HealthCare.gov have left the system "stable" this week, "with users moving more quickly through it with fewer users errors."

HealthCare.gov was effectively crippled right after it launched Oct. 1 by a host of software problems that left it unable to enroll many people in Obamacare insurance, and also created serious problems with the quality of data being sent to insurers about the relatively few people who managed to create an account and shop for coverage.

Via: CNBC

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Here is the email I read on the air tonight by Bret Baier

This message came to us from Bill in Kentucky. 

"Putting things in perspective: March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days.  December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day.  What this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this progressive federal government to build a working webpage.  Mobilization of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks,  planes, jeeps, subs, cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs, ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa,  Invading Italy, D-Day,  Battle of the Bulge, Race to Berlin - all while we were also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific!!  And in that amount of time - this administration can't build a working webpage."

Via: Daily Brett Blog

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Democratic governor says 'chill out' over health care rollout debacle

Kentucky's Democratic governor says Americans need to "chill out" and "take a deep breath" over the disastrous rollout of the new health care law.

Gov. Steve Beshear said fixing the health care program "is going to take some time," but he believes it will eventually work.

"These plans and Medicaid are directed toward prevention and wellness, and that is the future of health care, and I think everybody knows it," Beshear said Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press."

Beshear appeared on the show with Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich to talk about the glitches that have plagued the implementation of Obamacare insurance exchanges that opened for business on Oct. 1. Few have been able to navigate the website and sign up, and many who have done so have discovered higher premiums and deductibles and limited choices.

Unlike Beshear, Kasich called the program a "disaster."

"The problem is Obamacare, it doesn't control cost," Kasich said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Secondly, it's going to drive up the cost for the vast majority of Ohioans. It threatens the ability of small business to grow beyond 50 employees."

Kasich said the troubled health care law rollout, combined with the recent government shutdownand the news that the United States has been tapping the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders "is a creating an issue of confidence in the minds of the American people and doubt with people around the world, which is really serious."

Beshear said the health care law will eventually succeed.

A third of those who will sign up for the new health care law in Kentucky, including those enrolling in Medicaid, are under 35 years old, a key demographic needed to help the new system function, he said.

"And that's what's going to happen all over this country," Beshear added. "People are going to sign up for this. It'll take us a while to get it in process, but I guarantee you, we're going to make it work because it's good for the American people, and it's good for Kentucky."

Via: Washington Examiner

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[Video] Surprises tucked in Senate bill

The legislation released by the Senate late Wednesday to reopen the government contains several surprises. 

The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer.

It also includes an increase in authorization for spending on construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. The bill increases it to $2.918 billion.

The Senate Conservatives Fund quickly called that language the "Kentucky Kickback," and said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) secured that as the price of his support for the bill. Taxpayers for Common Sense says the bill would increase total authorized spending by $1.2 billion.

Senate staffers were still scrambling to piece the bill together for votes in the House and Senate Wednesday night. Lawmakers hope to get it to President Obama’s desk before Thursday’s deadline for raising the debt ceiling.

A draft of the bill began circulating in the early evening, and a final version was released by Senate Democratic staff just before 6 p.m.

Via: The Hill

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Department of Veterans Affairs spent more than $3.5 million on furniture day before shutdown

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent more than $3.5 million on furniture the day before the government shutdown, according to a Daily Caller analysis of government purchasing records.

VA spent $7,559,675 on September 30, the last day the government was fully operating before this month’s partial shutdown.

Federal government agencies faced a “spend it or lose it” scenario on that day, the last day of the 2013 fiscal year, prompting excessive spending binges as the White House and Congress failed to reach a continuing resolution agreement.

While Federal Prison Industries in Lexington, Kentucky and Milwaukee’s Industries for the Blind, Inc. pulled in some nice government receipts, the Department also showed off a little taste, making multiple six-figure furniture buys from JPL & Associates in Sarasota, Florida.

Hey, sometimes you just need to throw down $16,174 for ergonomic chairs from a company called Ergogenesis.

And who could scoff at a one-time order of $87,725 in “lounge seating and tables” from Arcadia Chair Company in La Palma, California?

If you ever find yourself in a VA waiting room, you just might be sitting on the products of Office Dimensions, Inc. in Teaneck, New Jersey.

VA also spent $828,176 on office supplies, $296,484 on cabinets, lockers, bins and shelving, $122,739 on draperies, awnings, and shades, $73,225 on books and pamphlets, and more than $2.5 million on other miscellaneous purchases. The department spent less than $4,000 on artwork, having already purchased $562,000 in artwork the previous week.

Via: Daily Caller

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Kentucky Marketplace: WARNING: No Explicit or Implicit expectation of Privacy

      

The Kentucky Obamacare marketplace has no “expectation of privacy,” warning its prospective customers that their information can be monitored and shared with government bureaucrats.

When clicking “let’s get started” on the state-run health insurance marketplace “kynect,” the user is quickly prompted to a “WARNING NOTICE.”

“This is a government computer system and is the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” it states. “It is for authorized use only regardless of time of day, location or method of access. “

“Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy,” the disclaimer reads. “Any or all uses of this system and all files on the system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized state government and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

Such information includes Social Security numbers. When calling kynect to enroll in the marketplace a person is told to have their Social Security card, immigration status, pay stubs, alimony payments, student loan information, and current health insurance information at the ready.

The kynect disclaimer says users information can be shared at the will of state government agencies.

“By using this system,” the warning states, “the user consents to such at the discretion of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

Via: WFB

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Kentucky Marketplace: ‘WARNING: No Explicit or Implicit Expectation of Privacy’

The Kentucky Obamacare marketplace has no “expectation of privacy,” warning its prospective customers that their information can be monitored and shared with government bureaucrats.

When clicking “let’s get started” on the state-run health insurance marketplace “kynect,” the user is quickly prompted to a “WARNING NOTICE.”

“This is a government computer system and is the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” it states. “It is for authorized use only regardless of time of day, location or method of access. “

“Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy,” the disclaimer reads. “Any or all uses of this system and all files on the system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized state government and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

Such information includes Social Security numbers. When calling kynect to enroll in the marketplace a person is told to have their Social Security card, immigration status, pay stubs, alimony payments, student loan information, and current health insurance information at the ready.

The kynect disclaimer says users information can be shared at the will of state government agencies.

“By using this system,” the warning states, “the user consents to such at the discretion of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

Via: WFB

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Dead people can sign up for health care in Kentucky

Obamacare can help dead people, too.

This is apparent in Kentucky, where application forms for the state’s new Obamacare benefit exchange asks if the application is for someone who has recently died.

Question 39 on the kynect: Kentucky’s Healthcare Connection printable application form for a single person health seeking either coverage or help paying costs, states: “If you are filling out this application on behalf of a person who recently passed away, enter the deceased person’s date of death.”

“This is for Medicaid — it will pay three prior months of medical expenses for the eligible,” Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told The Daily Caller on Friday. “It also allows us to prevent fraud by noting the date of death, time-limited benefits.”

The state’s health benefit exchange, kynect: Kentucky’s Healthcare Connection, will “help more than 600,000 uninsured Kentuckians get coverage through private insurance plans or Medicaid and the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP),” according to Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s office.

Open enrollment for those wanting to purchase health insurance through kynect began this week.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Graham: Obama's Cliff Meeting is Political Theater

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders were to meet on Friday for the first time since November with no sign of progress in resolving their differences over the federal budget and low expectations for a fiscal cliff deal before Jan. 1.

Instead, members of Congress are increasingly looking at the period immediately after the Dec. 31 deadline to come up with a retroactive fix to avoid the steep tax hikes and sharp spending cuts that economists have said could plunge the country into another recession.

"It's feeling very much to me like an optical meeting than a substantive meeting," said Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, noting that it was not a sign of urgency to set a meeting for mid-afternoon with a deadline just days away.

"Any time you announce a meeting publicly in Washington, it's usually for political theater purposes," Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on Thursday on Fox News.

"When the president calls congressional leaders to the White House, it's all political theater or they've got a deal. My bet is all political theater," said Graham, adding that he did not believe an agreement could be reached before the deadline.

With taxes on all Americans set to rise when rates established under former President George W. Bush expire on Dec. 31, lawmakers would be able to come back in January and take a more politically palatable vote to cut some of the tax rates.

U.S. stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 0.48 percent as investors fretted about the lack of certainty.

But some in the market were resigned to Washington going beyond the New Year's Day deadline, as long as a serious agreement on deficit reduction comes out of the talks in early January.

"Regardless of whether the government resolves the issues now, any deal can easily be retroactive. We're not as concerned with Jan. 1 as the market seems to be," said Richard Weiss, a Mountain View, California-based senior money manager at American Century Investments.

The new factor in the mix was involvement by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who held conversations with Obama this week and said he expected a new proposal from the president that he would consider.

Via: Newsmax

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