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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[VIDEO] OMB director: Er, no, I can’t gaurantee that HealthCare.gov will be running smoothly by mid-December

There doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the Six Month Enrollment Period That Wasn’t, as the bottlenecked rate at which registrations to and applications through HealthCare.Gov turn into successfully insured enrollees continues to move at a crawl. The revelation of the March 31st-but-actually-February-14th cutoff date paired with the moving target that still is the “the online signup will be super easy and painless!” start date is every day shrinking the window in which people can either obtain health insurance or get stuck with the individual-mandate penalty, and as Speaker Boehner put it the other day, “how can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn’t work?” If they can’t iron this thing out soon, even the political fiasco that would result from once again delaying the law might be more attractive than the from-all-sides criticisms with which their failure of a rollout will be rightfully saddled — and it certainly doesn’t sound like they’re sure they’ll have it under control any time soon, does it?

AL HUNT: But if people can’t sign up, they can’t get affordable care, and can you guarantee the public that by December 15, say, which is a little over 2 weeks before they can really join, that these problems will be largely rectified?

SYLVIA BURWELL: I think that the administration is working deeply on the problems that exist and I think it’s also important to recognize that there are other places and ways, in terms of whether those are the phone numbers, the navigators, and other tools and choices that people have to do that. I think also, from an OMB perspective, it’s also important to also recognize, in addition to the issue of health care for in the uninsured, the issue of people who have children up to 26 being covered, the issue of preexisting conditions, all of those are being worked on in a very successful way in terms of the substance and reducing costs.

HUNT: Cautiously optimistic you’ll have it rectified by December 15th?

BURWELL: I am optimistic that we’ll continue to make progress on the issue.

Via: Hot Air
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Carney Defends White House’s Decision To Keep Making Obama Propaganda Videos During Shutdown…

Priorities.The government shutdown hasn't stopped the White House from producing its weekly video update, but press secretary Jay Carney wouldn't say much Friday about why it had remained an "essential" function during the shutdown.

“Communications is part of what we do at the White House," Carney said in response to a question about the continued production of "West Wing Week," a video series narrated by principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest.

He declined to say more, referring questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which didn't immediately respond to POLITICO's request for comment.

Via: Politico

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OBAMA ADMIN. STARTS PREPARATIONS FOR SHUTDOWN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is telling federal agencies to prepare for a possible government shutdown.

The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to agency heads this week ordering them to make contingency plans if Congress does not reach a deal to fund the government after Sept. 30. The letter from OMB director Sylvia Burwell says there is still enough time for Congress to prevent a lapse in funding, but "prudent management" requires that the government get ready for a shutdown.

House Republicans plan to vote on a budget bill this week that withholds funding for President Barack Obama's health care law. But the effort stands little chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

OMB has sent similar warnings to agencies during previous budget battles.

Via: AP

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When will Jeffrey Zients return from South Africa?

Former Obama official held White House meeting with IRS officials during targeting scandal of Tea Party

Amid new revelations about the IRS targeting scandal, the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said Tuesday that former OMB head Jeffrey Zients’ extended absence from the United States is due to a family vacation.

OMB’s statement came after The Daily Caller reported that former leader Jeffrey Zients met at the White House with key figures at the Internal Revenue Service just before news broke that the IRS was targeting conservative nonprofit groups for abusive audits and delays.

Zients has still not returned from an overseas trip that began after his departure from the Obama administration in April, two weeks before the IRS scandal broke. A White House source told The Daily Caller that Zients’ absence from the country has been noticeable and concerning.

Via: Daily Caller

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US median household income in 2011 lowest since 1995

The median income of US households in 2011 dropped to its lowest level since 1995, highlighting the income pressure on Americans on middle to lower steps of the economic pyramid.

The median level is the mid point where half the population sample are above and half below. It avoids the distortions caused by top earners in average income data.

Real median household income in the United States in 2011 was $50,054, a 1.5% decline from the 2010 median and the second consecutive annual drop.

The nation's official poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0%, with 46.2m people in poverty. After three consecutive years of increases, neither the poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty were statistically different from the 2010 estimates.

As defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2011 was $23,021.


The number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 50.0m in 2010 to 48.6m in 2011, as did the percentage without coverage - - from 16.3% in 2010 to 15.7% in 2011.

In 2011, real median household income was 8.1% lower than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession, and was 8.9% lower than the median household income peak that occurred in 1999.

In 2011, the median earnings of women who worked full time, year-round ($37,118) was 77% of that for men working full time, year-round ($48,202) - - not statistically different from the 2010 ratio. Real median earnings of both men and women who worked full time, year-round declined by 2.5% between 2010 and 2011. The rates of decline for men and women were not statistically different from one another.

Via: FinFacts