Insurers Getting Faulty Data From U.S. Health Exchanges

Insurers are getting faulty and incomplete data from the new U.S.-run health exchange, which may mean some Americans won’t be covered even after they sign up for an insurance plan.

While it’s not clear how widespread the problem is, the reports from industry consultants are the first hint that the technical troubles faced by consumers trying to enroll in health plans under the Affordable Care Act may also be hitting the insurers. The companies are receiving electronic files that can’t open or have so much missing information on new enrollees they’re unusable, the consultants said.

Some insurers have been forced to fix entries by hand, said Bob Laszewski, an insurance-industry consultant based in Arlington, Virginia.

“If we don’t see substantial improvement by the end of this week, then I would throw up the yellow flag,” said Dan Schuyler, a consultant advising states and insurers on the exchanges. “If we don’t see it in the next two to three weeks, it’s time for red flags. The concern is some people could get to Jan. 1, and not have coverage.”

Since the exchanges opened on Oct. 1, consumers have struggled to access the online marketplaces, which have been overwhelmed by millions of visitors.

While capacity was added this past weekend to a system meant to serve people in 36 states, the federal website continued yesterday to deliver error messages to potential customers trying to create accounts and shop for health plans.

Via: Bloomberg News

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Power Wars: Reid reportedly tries to freeze out Biden from Hill negotiations

WASHINGTON –  Is Joe Biden's vice presidential luster fading, in advance of a possible presidential bid? 

The vice president, blaming the partial government shutdown, has canceled plans to campaign Friday for Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, in his race for U.S. Senate. 

Though that decision could well stem from concerns about the optics of hitting the road amid the nasty budget stalemate in Washington, it follows a report Tuesday morning in Politico.com that claims Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has demanded Biden be left out of negotiations over the debt-ceiling. 

Politico.com reports that Biden, the one-time deal-maker-in-chief for the Democrats, is steadily being pushed out of talks and left out of the legislative loop by Reid.

Anonymous sources claimed Biden, who helped design budget pacts with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the summer of 2011 and on New Year’s Eve 2013, hasn’t delivered for his own party and that why he’s being frozen out.

“None of the deals Biden has struck have aged well from the perspective of the Democratic Caucus,” one Senate Democratic official said.

The Biden-Reid backbiting stands out because both men are in the same party and have worked together for more than two decades. The power struggle illustrates what some say are increasing divisions in the Democratic Party.

Via: Fox News

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ATF tries to block Fast and Furious whistle-blower from publishing book

The ATF agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious has been denied permission to write a book on the botched anti-gun trafficking sting "because it would have a negative impact on morale," according to the very agency responsible for the scandal. 

After first trying to stop the operation internally, ATF Agent John Dodson went to Congress and eventually the media following the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Two guns found at the murder scene were sold through the ATF operation. 

Dodson's book, titled "The Unarmed Truth," provides the first inside account of how the federal government permitted and helped sell some 2,000 guns to Mexican drug cartels, despite evidence the guns killed innocent people. 

Dodson, who is working with publisher Simon & Schuster, submitted his manuscript to the department for review, per federal rules. However, it was denied. 

Greg Serres, an ATF ethics official, told Dodson that any of his supervisors at any level could disapprove outside employment "for any reason." 

Serres letter said: "This would have a negative impact on morale in the Phoenix Field Division and would have a detremental effect [sic] on our relationships with DEA and FBI." 

The national office of the American Civil Liberties Association is representing Dodson as he fights the decision. ACLU attorney Lee Rowland says the agency's restriction is overly broad. 

Via: Fox News

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Third Colorado state senator may face recall

Energized by historic recalls of two Colorado state senators last month, activists have begun collecting signatures to oust state Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak from office.

Hudak, who represents Westminster, a suburb northwest of Denver, is a favorite target of the GOP for her liberal voting record and a propensity to attract bad PR for herself.

Under Colorado election law, those wishing to prompt a recall election must collect 18,900 signatures from district residents – 25 percent of the total votes cast in the last election. Hudak was initially elected to the state Senate in 2008 after two terms on the state Board of Education.

In both senate elections, Hudak has won by narrow margins; in 2008 she topped Republican Libby Szabo with 51 percent of the vote. In 2012, she won with only 47 percent, narrowly edging out Republican Lang Sias by 0.7 percent. Sias’ defeat was blamed in Republican circles on the presence of Libertarian Lloyd A. Sweeny, who garnered nearly 7 percent of the vote. GOP analysts believe a majority of those Libertarian votes would have otherwise gone to Sias.

This is the second effort at recalling Hudak this year; the successful September recalls of Democrats John Morse and Angela Giron were the result of an original campaign that targeted them as well as Hudak and state Representative Mike McLachlan.

The recall petition cites strict new gun restrictions passed by the Colorado legislature as a reason for recalling Hudak. “She has infringed upon our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. She has voted to make all citizens less safe and to drive hundreds of jobs from Colorado,” the petition reads.

“A small group is seeking to undo the will of voters, who re-elected me to the Senate last November. Unable to defeat me then, they are now attempting a political power grab using a low-voter-turnout, no-mail-ballot recall election strategy,” Hudak told The Denver Post in a statement.

Voter turnout was indeed low in last month’s elections in Colorado Springs and Pueblo; in Morse’s Colorado Springs district only 21 percent of voters participated.

Via: Daily Caller

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California governor vetoes jury service for non-citizens

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill on Monday that would have allowed non-citizen legal immigrants to serve on juries in the most populous U.S. state, saying that such service was an obligation that went along with citizenship.

"This bill would permit lawful permanent residents who are not citizens to serve on a jury," Brown, a Democrat, said in his veto message. "I don't think that's right."

The bill was one of several passed by the California legislature this year as part of a rapid expansion of immigrant rights in the coastal state that has included allowing illegal immigrants to drive legally and practice law.

The bill's sponsor, Democratic Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, likened the rules disqualifying immigrants who are permanent residents from jury service to long-discarded laws that kept blacks and women from serving.

"I don't see anything wrong with imposing this civic obligation on immigrants who can spend the rest of their lives in the United States," Wieckowski, who represents the San Francisco suburb of Fremont, said in a statement on Monday.

"Lawful permanent immigrants are part of the fabric of our communities, and they benefit from the protections of our laws, so it is fair and just that they be asked to share in the obligation to do jury duty," he said.

The bill drew strong opposition from Republicans in the legislature, even those who signed on to other immigration reforms, as well as from some moderate Democrats.

Rocky Chavez, a Republican who represents part of San Diego County, said during debate on the measure that allowing non-citizens on juries could deprive defendants of their right to have their cases decided by a jury of their peers.

"Not everywhere is innocent until proven guilty," Chavez said. "In some countries, it's guilty until proven innocent."

Via: Yahoo News

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Obama as Chaos

 Amid all the charges and countercharges in Washington over the government shutdown, there is at least one common theme: Barack Obama’s various charges always lead to a dead end. They are chaos, and chaos is hard to understand, much less refute.

By that I mean when the president takes up a line of argument against his opponents, it cannot really be taken seriously — not just because it is usually not factual, but also because it always contradicts positions that Obama himself has taken earlier or things he has previously asserted. Whom to believe — Obama 1.0, Obama 2.0, or Obama 3.0?

When the president derides the idea of shutting down the government over the debt ceiling, we almost automatically assume that he himself tried to do just that when as a senator he voted against the Bush administration request in 2006, when the debt was about $6 trillion less than it is now.

When the president blasts the Republicans for trying to subvert the “settled law” of Obamacare, we trust that Obama himself had earlier done precisely that when he unilaterally subverted his own legislation — by quite illegally discarding the employer mandate provision of Obamacare. At least the Republicans tried to revise elements of Obamacare through existing legislative protocols; the president preferred executive fiat to nullify a settled law.

When the president deplores the lack of bipartisanship and the lockstep Republican effort to defund Obamacare, we remember that the president steamrolled the legislation through the Congress without a single Republican vote.

When the president laments the loss of civility and reminds the public that he uses “calm” rhetoric during the impasse, we know he has accused his opponents of being on an “ideological crusade” and of being hostage takers and blackmailers who have “a gun held to the head of the American people,” while his top media adviser Dan Pfeiffer has said that they had “a bomb strapped to their chest.”

Via: Pat Dollard

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