As we promised earlier this week, we are not going into to tremendous details, analyses, and background on the latest bad news. We have done that in-depth work in the past few months. This week and probably next, we are just trying to document and stay ahead of the bad news from the worst piece of legislation ever written.
1) We have often pointed out how the writers of Obama Care never stopped to examine their logic train to make sure that stupid stuff did not happen as a result of the law. But, unfortunately, stupid stuff keeps popping up as a result of the law.
Consider a November 6, 2013 report from CBS News in New York. Nona Willis Aronowitz and Aaron Cassara’s love affair began at a party in 2008 and within a year they found themselves getting married at the NYC City Hall in Manhattan. However, four years later they realized they could save thousands of dollars annually if they got divorced and signed up for health insurance via Obama Care.
The math calculation for Aronowitz and Cassara is that together as a family of only two, they make more than the $62,000 level to qualify for Obama Care. However, if they got divorced and lived together unmarried, they would qualify for the law’s subsidies and could literally save hundreds of dollars a month on their health care.
Why? A single person can qualify for Obama Care subsidies if their income is less than $46,000 a year. Thus, by living together, unmarried, the stupidity of the Obama Care math makes it very profitable to get divorced for these two New Yorkers and probably many other Americans across the country.
You cannot say any law is a good piece of legislation when it reaches so deeply down into a family and forces the family to make the life impacting decision to get a divorce. Pathetic.
2) This Presidential administration promised to be the most transparent ever. We have proven that promise to be a joke any number of times but the latest proof of this false claim recently came about relative to Obama Care.
A website that tracks the health care policy cancellations and the skyrocketing premiums and deductibles being caused by Obama Care, mycancellation.com, has had a rough start, with Twitter freezing its Twitter account at least three times since the site launched last week. Twitter provided no advance notice or warning of the disruption to their service and the people operating the website and related Twitter account suspect there is some political motivation or arm twisting behind the scenes to silence the bad news that their effort is uncovering. Definitely not a transparency friendly atmosphere if that arm twisting is coming from the Obama administration.
But the other half of the story beyond the news suppression, is the incredible number of stories that Americans are sending into this collection effort along with copies of their policy cancellation letters and the notices of how much their current health care costs will be going up if they are fortunate enough not to have their policies cancelled. Their stories and the proof of their agony and pain from Obama Care’s tentacles can be seen at the following link:
http://www.teaparty.org/twitter-fire-removing-photos-people-whove-lost-health-insurance-30337/
3) Any reasonable person would probably conclude that media empire NBC has been a fervent and biased supporter of Obama from day one of his administration. We could go off on why and how they are so biased but it is funny what happened in late October. CNBC’s morning anchors discussed the recent news that their own insurance plans will become more expensive because of Obama Care.
On Oct. 30’s “Squawk Box,” CNBC correspondent Scott Cohn revealed details of NBC’s open enrollment, showing an official fact book outlining the process. He quoted the document, revealing that Obama Care would increase NBC employee health insurance premiums. Cohn observed “Some of these costs, when you look at this, are way up -- double digits.” Well duh?
4) When CNN reports something bad about the Obama administration, you know that the administration really screwed up. CNN reported in early November:
Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.
In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.
Rather than listen to the Republicans, EVERY Senate Democrat voted to support the provision that is causing havoc for American families with millions of people losing their access to their preferred insurance plans. Thus, they are complicit in the President’s lies or deceptions that if you liked your current policy you could keep your current policy. That options was snuffed out three years ago by every Senate Democrat and not a single one of them had enough integrity to warn America about the impending doom, a doom predicted by Senate Republicans.
5) Again, when NBC comes down hard on this administration you know they really laid an egg. The following link puts to video clips side by side. The first clip is the President emphatically declaring that if you like your current insurance policy, you can keep it under Obama care.
The second clip is about a small business owner who saw his health insurance costs go up 400% since he now must buy an Obama Care policy that provides maternity health care for his 59 year old wife. Just another bit of stupidity and no one thinking through what was actually in Obama Care:
http://www.westernjournalism.com/small-business-owners-premiums-increase-400/
6) It is so pathetic when politicians realize they screwed up and could lose their access to the best and most cushy job in the world, that of being a U.S. Senator. Politico reported on October 30, 2013 that Louisiana Senator Landrieu would introduce a measure that would allow Americans to keep their health insurance coverage amid a flurry of reports documenting that hundreds of thousands of people have been told that they will lose their plans because of Obama Care.
“The promise was made, and it should be kept,” said the good Senator. “And it was our understanding when we voted for that bill that people when they have insurance could keep with what they had. So I’m going to be working on that fix.”
Two problems her, Senator. As we discussed above, three years ago you voted against a Republican provision that would have avoided this mess altogether. You blew that chance and now about 3.5 million Americans have already lost access to their preferred plans.
Second, just this past August, at an event sponsored by the Southwest Louisiana Chamber of Commerce, you publicly stated: “If I had to vote for the bill again, I would vote for it tomorrow.” So what happened between August and now? What changed such a dramatic turnaround? Oh, that’s right, your 2014 reelection hopes have taken a gigantic hit because of the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. Talk about a hypocrite.
7) In closing today, I directly lifted some talking points from an October 31, 2013 analysis by the Heritage Foundation. Their article pointed out hat there are at least four other brewing Obma Care disaster besides the currently exploding disasters of Americans losing access to their preferred doctors, their preferred health insurance plans, and the fact that many are seeing their deductibles and premiums going up substantially in cost.
As Heritage points out, these four other disasters were predicted years ago but no one in this administration took them seriously but they have now arrived on the doorsteps of tens of millions of Americans:
1. Back-Door Public Option: You might have thought it was killed off, but an ugly embodiment of the public option is alive and well in Obamacare. Health expert Robert Moffit pointed out in 2011 that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) next year will administer at least two nationwide health plans that will compete against private insurance. OPM is responsible for these plans’ pricing, profits, and operations.
These government-sponsored plans are the only health plans that can compete nationwide under a new set of rules, giving them an unfair advantage in an already disrupted health insurance market. “Instead of fair competition with private health plans, Congress is sponsoring the equivalent of a national monopoly,” Moffit wrote.
2. Illegal Subsidies to Congressional Members and Their Staffs: Keep in mind, OPM is the same agency that recently ruled members of Congress and their staffs can buy health insurance in the Obamacare exchanges and use a large, tax-free subsidy that exists for federal workers who get their coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Sure, the federal government doesn’t have actual legal authority to pay for federal workers in a health plan outside of plans contracted by OPM. But when has that stopped this Administration from creating special rules that flout the law’s language?
3. Cancellations in Employer-Sponsored Insurance: Much of the recent media focus is on cancellations for customers with individual insurance plans, but Heritage, the Congressional Budget Office, Deloitte, McKinsey & Co., and other organizations have warned for years that businesses will drop health coverage for their employees and dump them onto the federal health exchanges. With higher health costs, it will be cheaper for many companies to pay Obamacare’s employer mandate fine rather than pay for expensive, government-mandated health plans.
The scenarios vary, but anywhere from 5 million to 35 million hard-working Americans could lose their current health plans—and face the same plight of many customers forced to deal with a glitch-ridden website to buy plans on the Obamacare exchanges. A big reason why this hasn’t materialized yet is the Administration’s recent decision to delay the employer mandate until 2015.
4. Perverse Incentives That Hurt Low-Income Workers: The employer mandate delay hits the pause button on another expected setback for lower-income workers—mainly pricing them out of full-time employment. Labor expert James Sherk warned in 2011 that after paying for new health premiums, the minimum wage, payroll taxes, and unemployment insurance taxes, hiring a full-time worker would cost at least $10.03 an hour. With full-time family health plans easily costing $13.75 an hour, companies would lose money by having full-time workers with low productivity rates. Therefore, less-skilled workers would be at more risk for having their full-time jobs replaced with part-time ones.
Enough for today, but more disasters Obama Care tomorrow.
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