It was inevitable that once the blanks contained in Obamacare began to be filled in, that even Democratic supporters of the law would start running away from it, so toxic it is going to be to any politician who supported it. The unintended — and intended – consequences are proving to be a nightmare for the health insurance consumer and the government seems powerless to do anything about it.
A hearing on Thursday of the Senate Finance Committee turned into a Democratic Obamacare bashing-fest as four powerful Democratic senators “laid into” the administration’s top regulator on new health exchanges. Senators Max Baucus, Ron Wyden, and Bill Nelson, and Maria Cantwell all lambasted Gary Cohen, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, for several snafus and screw ups in the ACA that would price millions of Americans out of health insurance coverage and make getting health insurance through the exchanges a nightmare.
Walter Russell Meade links to this Kaiser Health News article:
Baucus questioned how well the online health insurance marketplaces would interact with what he called “archaic” computer systems at Social Security and the Internal Revenue Service.
Cantwell criticized the administration for failing to meet a 2014 deadline to start a so-called Basic Health Program—an optional program that would allow states to offer a cheaper alternative to the individual health policies sold in new online marketplaces to lower-income people. “You are overwhelmed by the details and technology, I get that point. … It seems as if the agency is taking pages out of the law,” she said. Washington state, which has a program similar to this, was hoping to have the federal Basic Health Program running next year when its program expires.
Cantwell also questioned whether the administration was delaying the Basic Health Program until 2015 as a way to increase the number of people who buy policies in the online markets. That prompted a quick denial from Gary Cohen, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. Cohen said the agency was working with states to come up with alternatives in the interim.
Nelson, meanwhile, faulted the administration for cutting funding for new consumer-owned insurance co-operatives that supporters said could help provide more affordable policies.
The fiscal cliff deal, approved by Congress on New Year’s Day, eliminated most of the more than $1.4 billion in remaining funding for the program. Nearly $2 billion in funding had already been awarded to co-ops in 24 states, but those in other states, including Florida, were shut out.
“The people of Florida are going to suffer,” he told Cohen. “I want someone to be held accountable for this.”
Cohen said he didn’t know why the White House had agreed to cut the funding as part of the deficit deal.
(H/T: Glenn Reynolds“)
The Dems have held border enforcement hostage to “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” aka amnesty. It was obvious that even if you supported the idea, Obamacare would not work, even in theory. The GOP should refuse to patch the program, but insist on “Comprehensive Health Care Reform II” as the cost of changing anything. We will not get anything very close to a free market system, but we can get things like tort reform. Just tell the President that much as “taxing the rich” was not negotiable, neither is this. Everybody hates lawyers!
Healthcare reform defined those exchanges nowhere in the bill beyond the word “exchange”… now folk are supposed to have working ones that’re effective and be saved money by them? Huh? What the heck? How do you work this? What the heck is in an “exchange”? Enjoy, Democrats, you wanted this… you own it.
I would agree with your conclusion, Mr. Moran, but for one stark fact. When most of the Lamestream Media are nothing more than Democratic Party operatives carrying press passes, the public narrative will be largely what they decide it will be.
The media can’t spin that health insurance premium that requires a payment.
The media also can’t spin that the IRS has decided that employers do not have to cover children, and that children are exempt from the mandate and thus not eligible for any subsidy to help purchase their insurance. So, unless you can afford the $20K/year to buy an insurance policy for your family, you might be insured by your employer, but your spouse and your children could be left high and dry with no insurance.
Well, these Democrats will have their concerted efforts to ban the most popular rifle in the country to fall back on and rally support. All in all, next year is going to be a real interesting election year.
If the Dems want to lambaste someone why not go after Jan Schakowsky’s husband. He wrote the bill when he was in prison.
As Gomer Pyle would say “Surprise surprise surprise”!!!
I guess these idiots didn’t read the bill either eh? But they did vote for it. Shame on them.
no place to hide?
Wishful RINO thinking.
Pravda hasn’t even got started on this topic yet.
The only thing that can derail the monstrosity is if the costs rise by a factor of 10 virtually instantly. But even if that happens, they will just give it “free” to a 51% majority.
No, the hiding will only come when Society completely collapses. I give it 5 to 10 years, outside.
Dems, you own this. Every payoff to big pharma, AARP, AMA, and to the House members to secure the votes. You own the blowback from the unfounded allegations of racism as Pelosi strutted with the big gavel in her DemonPass Parade.
You made history in passing this piece of crap and the rest of us will make history voting you out in record numbers in the midterm election(s). See you in 2014. Now is a good time to develop a hobby.
I heard a lot of that in 2010 and 2012 about voting the perps out. But you are correct – in 2014 the real damage of ObummerCare will creep into the conscientiousness of Mr/Mrs Average American – they’ll be asking some tough questions of their congress critters.
It was true in 2010. The Democrats got cleaned out in record numbers, because Obamacare was the big issue. It wasn’t as big an issue in 2010, in part because Romney was the grandaddy of the whole thing, but it will be a big issue again in 2014 hopefully. That along with gun control should hopefully prove a lethal equation for a lot of dems. It should also be noted that 2010 was a REALLY important year, taking an overwhelming majority of state legislatures means that Republicans controlled redistricting, thus making it much harder for Democrats to take the house for the next decade. Obamacare has already been a Pyrrhic victory for the dems, lets make sure it only gets worse for them from here.
Let’s see now. How many Republican Senators voted for Obamacare? I think it was … oh yeah, none; as in Zero. Will be interesting to watch the Dems attempt to blame Bush, and other Republicans on this.
The media will simply claim the Republicans are obstructing the implementation of the program. That is how they will blame Republicans for their own Democrat mess.
They will claim that if only the Republicans had cooperated then obamacare would have been a resounding success.
exactly
Moreover, they will claim that the Republicans supported the old unfair health care system so that the Health Care middlemen could make exorbitant profits, which let the problem so bad that pain was inevitable. i.e., Bush did it.
Until somebody gets serious about confronting the marxist criminals and exposing their lies, it will never end.
RINOs like Moran would rather naively hope that the criminals will stand idly by while their wet dreams of retaking power are fulfilled. The real RINOs like Boehner and 95% of the republican in Congress are perfectly happy with the status quo. Every single one of them is getting filthy rich.
The problem comes at the treatment/compensation end — if you’re going to tell doctors they have to serve more patients while receiving less per patient in Medicare/Medicaid compensation, odds are a great many of the older doctors will simply walk away from the program, while younger people will opt against a medical career that involves direct contact with patients.
Once we’re there, it’s hard for the Democrats to blame Republicans; unless they want to claim it’s some sort of Doctor’s Plot by Republican physicians. But that’s still not going to make them practice medicine if they don’t want to. The alternative is one put forward this week, which would make secondary health care practitioners able to treat patients and refer more serious cases, but unless the Democrats want to tie that to medical malpractice tort reform, why would a physician’s assistant, pharmacist or RN want to be roped into making medical decisions if they’re going to face a hugely increase liability threat if their decisions prove either wrong or not substantial/quick enough to satisfy the plaintiff and their lawyer?
of course they will blame the republicans. They will say that any doctors who quit are greedy and selfish, because the republicans built a climate that encouraged “cowboys” instead of “community”.
This fantasy that the criminals will sit around while their scams organically unravel is dangerous. The only thing thing the con artists plan in advance, for god’s sake, is who to blame. Other than lying, that’s only skill.
Assuming that the public is rational is a big part of what got us into this mess in the first place. That’s what Romney depended on, and what republicans have depended on since 1988. It worked twice, for Bush, abetted by clown opponents, but after he got elected he was the worst of all about letting things just ride as the criminals trashed everything that grown-ups stand for.
Weo, that last paragraph may just be the best synopsis of recent history I have yet seen.
“of course they will blame the republicans”
Of course. And it will work. Their line will be that everything would have been fine, but those Scrooge Republicans maliciously sabotaged Obamacare to help the 1%. And the 47% will buy it.
Obama is driving us into a ditch. And the clearer it becomes we’re in a ditch, the more receptive the 47% will be to Leftist nostrums. And of course that’s the plan. We’re doomed.
Logic would dictate that the Democrats are irresponsible and cannot be trusted to operate on their own. Unfortunately that message won’t sink into the thick skull of 51% of voters.
Not with free phones and boob jobs off taxpayer’s money it won’t.
The low information voter will not (nor will MSM) connect dot A to dot B.
Health care = medicine/ procedures provided by professionals in a clinical setting.
Health Insurance = financial product used to spread the risk of loss for large medical bills among a covered population.
The establishment types have done everything they can to confuse these basic points. This explains why my neighbors can’t wait for Obamacare to come on line. They think they will be getting free health care.
They don’t understand (despite my explanations) that the real innovation of Obamacare is to force everyone into a really large pool to spread the maximum risk around the maximum numbers of insured.
Providing health care was never the point.
Da, comrade, it help when you spread the wealth around… the proletariat just understands getting free stuff, no need for them to know anything else.
Moran said:
“This is probably one area where the Democrats’ effort to blame Republicans for something will backfire. This is their baby. They wanted to make history and they did. They bragged about it for two years. They ran on a platform that made it a centerpiece of their governance.
No amount of backfilling or misdirection is going to absolve them from their guilt when the crap hits the fan and the American people realize what the Democrats have done to them.”
I think you may be drastically underestimating the gullibility of those that get their news from the mainstream media (most people), and the brazen mendacity of the media.
Democrat policies like the CRA, section 8 and government sponsored block busting caused the real estate crash, but Bush and the Republicans took all of the blame. I can see this playing out the same way.
All of this was ordained but since it was Lord Obama who wanted it we got it.
When will people finally call this man a charlatan?
The little god-king will just sign an executive order declaring them ready. Prblem solved.
Obamacare is the ultimate Underpants Gnome scheme.
1. Pass Obamacare
2. ?????
3. Health Care Utopia
The problem with government is that it thinks all it has to do to make something work is pass a bill and make a mandate. They never really worried about HOW to make their boondoggle work, and now it turns out that it won’t.
I feel confident that the Candy Stripe at my local charity hospital will have the best of intentions when she does my heart surgery. Her father was a butcher don’t you know.
Your doctor says you need to pass a sample so one can examine it.
Nancy Pelosi says you need to pass Obamacare so one can examine it.
Obamacare is just one big lump of s**t.
The so-called “Affordable Care Act” was not intended to succeed. It’s replacement, the Single Payer Act, is of course already written, –no doubt residing in the Tides Foundation’s vault. ObamaCare was intended to so destroy the functioning of health care and insurance markets that people will welcome the single-payer law with open arms. Obama will ride in looking like a hero, and all the states that created state-run health exchanges will get the entire political blame. This scheme would do Machiavelli proud. This could only happen to America after history, reason, logic, and economics had been sufficiently expunged from our government schools for many decades.
Exactly. I’ve been saying this from the beginning. The goal of Obamacare is to create a system that is so broken and unworkable that single payer becomes the only option. Just like how total confiscation is the only end game they’re interested in with guns, and any legislation they pass should be viewed through the lens of incrementally reaching that goal, so too is single payer their only real goal with healthcare and every “reform” they pass should be seen through the lens of trying to drag us there. When premiums are reasonable, the prospect of paying an extra 20% or more of your income in taxes for a single payer system is a really bad deal and most of the population is against it. If they can use Obamacare to make premiums cost 30% of your income, then suddenly those millions who were against singlepayer will be screaming for it just to make the pain stop.
Hey, left/libtards, you voted for it so what’re you complaining about?
This one is easy to figure out: they’ll kick the can down the road, and blame the Repubs when something doesn’t work right.
Bush 43 hasn’t been in office since January 2009, and somehow the past 4+ years are completely his fault.
Ah, yes, the salvation of the nation, the American voter. The same rocket scientists who thought that their taxes weren’t gonna get raised AND they would magically get FREE birth control pills 4-EVAH.
Somehow, I don’t think they will be able to figure this out in time, if ever. It might involve thinking, and math is HARD! If it was really a Democrat caused problem, they know that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would tell them, because they’re objective observers of the whole thing. Whatever that whole thing is. I dunno.
Welcome to the United States of Argentina, dahlinks.
Rich T got it it right. Moran got it wrong. The real goal of Obamacare was and still is to provide a broken, complex system so it could be “simplified” and “saved” by the government taking complete control. Don’t believe that the crying Democrats are really crying. It is a facade to convince people they are sincere, and a “sincere” Democrat these days means only one of two things – a liar or a useful idiot. The objective from day zero was socialized medicine, where the government will control every aspect of our lives, not just health. The health insurance companies will be incorporated into the government system. Later they will be merged into one government department. If the Democrats are running any place it is to totalitarianism, and that form of government requires slaves…and we are IT! It gets worse…much worse…but I’ll leave those potentials to your imagination. I do not respond to trolls.
:)
Maria Cantwell is one of my representatives. The first 1000 pages of Obamacare were posted online at thomas.gov months before the vote. I downloaded it, read the first 600 pages and starting sending her information on what was in the bill and asking her to please read it, or even the first 100 or so pages before the vote. I copied and pasted parts of it with the page and line number, she ignored me. I begged her to vote no, send it back and make them rewrite it as REAL healthcare insurance. I wasn’t the only one, there were many others trying to get her to read it and see for herself what was in that piece of garbage bill. After the vote, I got glowing emails from her crowing that “now everyone will have excellent health care”. She is stupid, follows the party line blindly and can’t think for herself. Truth in advertising – she should be called Maria “Can’t-vote-well”. None of those idiots read it, they took Pelosi an Obama’s word that it was good, now they are indignant when they see what is in it and how angry their constituents are.
Imagine when the WEA and Boeing workers find out what happens to their health care plans. I too am represented by Can’t vote well. I thought we learned in this state when we passed Hillarycare, only to drastically revise it.
With no time delay on pre-existing coverage, no insurer wants to have even a smidgen of added benefit or be the least cost insurer. It’s a game of hot potatoe, the next new subscriber will be giving birth, needs cancer treatment, or a minor heart lung operation. Gee $20K of annual premiums only covers 10% of the heart lung. We went from 40 to 8 insurers in less than a year.
The problem with Single payer is it will happen over a nuked landscape of what was our healthcare system (and 1/7 of our economy). Worldwide the growth of medicine will just crater. Who will do research outside of a gov’t funded facility.
learn to be accountable.
None of the politicians who pushed Obamacare will be affected. Right?
Government control…lets see…social security is going bust because big bro is using that money for something else. What happens when big bro digs into obummercare tax money. Go for broke? History repeats because they do not learn or they learned who they can fleece without getting caught.
Pat 22. No law should ever be written again that is not complete when it is signed into law. But today, all the major laws assign people (usually cabinet secretaries, like Sebelius) to fill in the blanks AFTER the bill is signed into law. Thus reading the bill or reading the law will not tell you what they will say when the law is complete. In the original bills, the words, “…the Secretary shall….” appeared over 800 times. Sebelius’ deadline to fill in the blanks is March 2013 (36 months from the date of signing). In other words, Pelosi lied when she said pass it and you will know what’s in it. It is almost 3 years and we still do not have a complete law. It will take many more years to understand the ramifications of each regulation that Selelius has added to the law.