Monday, November 4, 2013

Obama to revisit health law today

Obama to revisit health law today — Senate Dems warn they could be casualties of ACA sign-up flaws

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With help from Jason Millman and Natalie Villacorta
OBAMA TO REVISIT HEALTH LAW TODAY — As the White House battles nasty Obamacare narratives about canceled health plans and a perpetually dysfunctional enrollment system, President Barack Obama wades back into the issue himself today, delivering remarks to an audience of allies working to sign people up. The president is scheduled to address a summit hosted by Organizing for Action, his former campaign arm, which will also feature the participation of Enroll America, Families USA, Protect Your Care, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a handful of other groups firmly behind the health law.
— AND HE’S HEADED TO DALLAS FOR MORE ON WEDNESDAY — After buoying pro-Obamacare troops in the capital, the president will head to the Lone Star State to highlight successful sign-ups. It’s part of a nationwide effort by the administration to tout options for enrollment in cities with high uninsured populations — and limited access because of the balky Healthcare.gov system. Per POLITICO’s Jennifer Epstein: “The president's visit will kick off a new round of Cabinet-level travel. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will travel to Tampa on Friday, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez will head to Orlando on Nov. 14.” http://politi.co/17GE2ac
Happy Monday and welcome to PULSE, five years to the day of President Obama’s 2008 election. Wonder if he thought back then that he’d get a crash course Web development 101 before he left office.
“And it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November PULSE.”
SENATE DEMS WARN THEY COULD BE CASUALTIES OF ACA SIGN-UP FLAWS — Senate Democrats are putting the White House on notice: If you fail to fix the Obamacare sign-up process, you could jeopardize Democratic control of the upper chamber. POLITICO’s Manu Raju reports: “In interviews, Democratic senators running in 2014, party elders and Senate leaders said the Obama administration must rescue the law from its rocky start before it emerges as a bigger political liability next year. Democratic senators from red states — the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection next year — voted for Obamacare and have been among the law’s biggest champions, believing that voters would embrace it once they experienced its benefits. They could end up being some of the law’s most prominent casualties if its unpopularity continues to grow.” http://politico.pro/1aWhrFE
ROMNEY: OBAMACARE IMPERILS PRESIDENT’S SECOND TERM — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney laced into Obamacare yesterday, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the law’s failures — and President Barack Obama’s salesmanship — are undermining Obama’s second term. “Perhaps the most important lesson the president, I think, failed to learn was, you have to tell the American people the truth,” Romney said, four days after Obama traveled to Massachusetts to compare his health law to Romney’s, which passed in 2006. “And when he told the American people that you could keep your health insurance if you wanted to keep that plan, period, he said that time and again, he wasn't telling the truth. And I think that fundamental dishonesty has really put in peril the whole foundation of his second term.” http://politi.co/1e7pQLh
PULSE EXCLUSIVE: INSURERS SEEK TO PREEMPT MEDICARE ADVANTAGE CUTS — Even before the next round of fiscal talks in Washington get in gear, insurers are bracing for even the prospect of proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage, the network of private insurers offered to about 14 million seniors. America’s Health Insurance Plans is launching an ad campaign today called “Seniors Are Watching,” featuring print and online ads aimed at beltway insiders. The bottom line that AHIP wants lawmakers to hear: if you propose Medicare Advantage cuts, you’ll be answering to an army of angry seniors. An example from the new campaign: http://bit.ly/HpbRlP
WHOSE HEALTH PLANS WERE CANCELED? — All the talk of a tsunami of health insurance cancelations begged the question, and Pro’s Darren Samuelsohn, Jason Millman and David Nather answered. “Millions of married, older, white, college-educated, GOP-leaning Americans have quickly seen their political profiles rise after their health insurance companies sent them cancellation letters with the launch of the giant new health care law … think of the self-employed, small business owners, freelance writers, musicians and taxi cab drivers.” These are the most common profiles of people in the individual insurance market, which includes an estimate 10 million to 19 million Americans. http://politico.pro/HjQUsI
CAMP SUBPOENAS ADMINISTRATION FOR ENROLLMENT DATA — House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp threatened to subpoena the Obama administration for Obamacare enrollment figures after another House panel obtained proof of a memo that included snippets of enrollment data. Camp demanded enrollment data by the end of the day Friday and a daily update henceforth. “I am extremely disappointed that, yet again, the administration has refused to be open and transparent with Congress,” Camp said. “I will not wait until around mid-November for the administration’s scrubbed and spun numbers.” The Obama administration insists it will release numbers by mid-November, when it says it will have more confidence in the accuracy of enrollment stats.
** A big new tax on health insurance is coming on January 1, 2014. Congress should stop it before it hurts families, small businesses and seniors. http://healthinsurancetaxhurts.org/ **
NO MANDATE RELIEF FOR MEDICAID/CHIP? — The administration’s recent action to align the date for triggering the individual mandate with the end of open enrollment on March 31 appears to offer no relief to those who enroll in Medicaid or CHIP, according to Jackson Hewitt. The tax preparation giant said the administration’s guidance delaying the mandate deadline by six weeks only referred to enrollment through “Marketplace” plans. “Consequently, it is unclear whether such Medicaid or CHIP-eligible individuals may have a penalty liability if they enroll in coverage between Valentine’s Day and the end of the open enrollment period,” senior VP Brian Haile writes in an analysis released this morning. Haile told PULSE it’s not clear how many people would possibly fall into this category. He said he’s raised the issue with HHS, which he says is still looking into it. Haile’s analysis: politico.pro/1alA2sd
‘IT’S MORE THAN JUST A WEBSITE’ BECOMES MANTRA IN GOP ADDRESS — Sen. Dan Coats is the latest Republican to flog Obamacare on air. In the weekly GOP address, Coats called for America to “start over” and reprised the recent attack line about a wave of canceled insurance policies. “It is more than just a website and the problems run far deeper than a few technological glitches,” Coats said. Coats is the latest in a long string of GOP officials to target Obamacare in the weekly address, with the exception of Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, who eschewed any mention of the law in his recent address.
ONE IN FIVE VISITORS TO INSURANCE MARKETPLACES ENROLLED — A Commonwealth Fund survey released today found that 17 percent of Americans who are potentially eligible for coverage accessed their state health insurance marketplaces — online, over phone, or in person — between Oct. 9 and 27. One in five of those visitors enrolled in plans. A majority of those who did not enroll in plans said they are likely to enroll or find out about financial help by the end of the open enrollment period. Many respondents cited difficulty finding affordable plans and comparing plan costs and benefits. The telephone survey also found that one in five visitors were young adults aged 19 to 29. Over half — 52 percent — were between 30 and 49. http://bit.ly/1aWaapj
STATE WEEK — States last week took steps to protect themselves from the prolonged failure of HealthCare.gov. In one, premium data was posted to give residents a snapshot of their options. In another, a safety-net program for its sickest residents has been extended a month to prevent a break in coverage for those who can’t join the federal marketplace yet. Here’s a look at the latest: http://politico.pro/1hGOTos
WHAT WE’RE READING
NPR’s Adam Davidson, writing in The New York Times Magazine, explains why Obamacare could turbocharge capitalism in the health world: http://nyti.ms/16JwOng
The Washington Post offers an exhaustive look at the political fear and missed opportunities that ultimately caused the Obama administration to launch a broken HealthCare.gov on Oct. 1: http://wapo.st/1faZGF8
Several analyses show that as many as 7 million people could get free health insurance in the new Obamacare marketplace, The New York Times reports: http://nyti.ms/1bR88H0
The Wall Street Journal looks at how a decision by the Obama administration could boost the drug industry by permitting pharmaceutical companies to lower costs for people in insurance exchanges: http://on.wsj.com/1aXeYdU
The USA Today editorial board calls criticism of the Obamacare rollout “justified” and describes implementation as “a mess.” http://usat.ly/1cFHaDv
** The new health insurance tax that starts January 1, 2014, will raise the cost of small group family health care coverage by $360 next year and $6,830 over the next decade. Small businesses that are struggling in a slow economy can't afford this big new tax, and neither can their employees. That's why dozens of groups representing small business from all sectors of the economy have come together to form the Affordable Coverage Project and fight this onerous new tax. http://healthinsurancetaxhurts.org/ **

end quote from:
http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/1113/politicopulse12111.html

I don't think Obama ever tried to consciously mislead the American People. However, you have to look at what Obama actually is. He is basically one of the most brilliant people ever like Clinton to ever be a president of the United States. So, his brilliance as a strategist brought Obamacare into being trying to Honor TEddy Kennedy and the suffering of all Americans regarding health care since this nation was founded.

However, Obama is not a Businessman with practical experience running businesses like many of you out there reading this now. You or I as business owners could have told him that Theory and actuality often are very different. When you get to where the rubber meets the road often promises once made in good faith cannot be kept like telling people they were going to pay the same or less for their insurance under Obamacare.

These kind of statements aren't really helpful because any business man or woman can see that telling people that all curable diseases that Americans have will be cured for life is going to be very expensive. And telling people that you never can be thrown off an insurance policy for any reason other than not making your insurance payments on time is going to be expensive both in the short run and in the long run. And insurance companies are going to fight this tooth and nail in any way they can through the Republican Party, through state governments run by Republicans, through Republican hired Hackers to bring down Obamacare sites like they are doing now.

It's no great mystery to me as someone whose first career was as a computer programmer of what Republican Hackers have and are doing to Obamacare. I would estimate that up to 40% of the actual programmers were hackers hired by Obamacare to write the programs in the first place. And then you add back doors that they installed to screw everything up on a permanent basis.

You have to have good will all around to make a program work like this because it is so vulnerable at every stage. Without good will the Internet program will always be garbage. I think trying to sign people up through the Internet was a mistake the Democratic party is going to live to regret more than any other for a long time.

It should be a lesson to everyone just how vulnerable anything done on the Internet can be when companies are willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars as they are now to sabotage it to keep it from happening.

Unfortunately, they may also permanently collapse the U.S. government because of extreme short sightedness which is typical of companies who put their bottom line ahead the real needs of our country for the long term.

All world war II veterans who understand this likely are turning over in their graves about now.

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