Tomorrow we will do a summary of why Obama Care has already failed, how it has failed, and provide a list of a hundred or so information sources that document the failure but that we have not had the time to get to. The first post this month on the Obama Care disaster can be accessed at:
At that post you can also access the series of post on the legislation we have done over the past four months.
Today’s bad news includes the following:
1) The original crusade of Obama Care was to get uninsured Americans covered with health insurance. However, according to a newly released New York Times/CBS News poll, it seems that the uninsured are not that happy or enthusiastic about Obama Care’s tenets with widespread disapproval remaining both among insured and uninsured Americans:
- The poll found 53% of the uninsured, who are supposed to gain the most from Obama Care, disapprove of the law.
- This is even worse than insured Americans where 51% of those who currently health coverage also disapprove of Obama Care.
- Overall support for the law edged up from 31% in November to 39% in December.
- More uninsured Americans (37%) believe Obama Care will hurt them, citing increased costs as a major reason, than uninsured Americans who believe the law will help them (33%).
2) The sign up website for Obama Care insurance policies has correctly been described as an identity thief’s paradise and a hacker’s wet dream. Recent Congressional testimony, behind closed doors, by Teresa Fryer, the chief information security officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), verify that these statements are as true as ever.
Additionally, her testimony shows that higher up government officials were well aware of the identity theft danger of the website long before it launched but went ahead with the rollout anyway, neglecting to tell Americans that their personal financial well being was intentionally be left open to theft.
A CBS news report of her testimony included the following disgraces:
- Ms. Fryer told Congress there have been two, serious high-risk security findings since the Obama Care website’s launch.
- Apparently. these two new security risks were not previously disclosed to members of Congress or the public
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded to questions about the two new security risks by trying to assert that one was a false alarm and the other had been fixed.
- However, one has to wonder how many other, undiscovered security leaks still exist if almost three months into the rollout we just found out about two new problems that hackers could exploit.
- According to federal standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the potential impact of a high finding is: “the loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect on organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals.” Serious looking stuff.
- Beyond the two new security problems, Fryer told Congressional members and staff that she explicitly recommended denial of the website’s Authority to Operate (ATO), but was overruled by her superiors.
- However, the website was rolled despite warnings she gave both verbally and in a briefing that disclosed “high risks” and possible exposure to “attacks”.
- Fryer refused to put her name on a letter recommending a temporary ATO be granted for six months while the issues were sorted out: “My recommendation was a denial of ATO,” Fryer told Democrats and Republicans.
- According to Fryer, she first recommended denying the ATO to CMS chief information officer Tony Trenkle, based on the many outstanding security concerns after pre-launch testing.
- Trenkle retired from his CMS job on Nov. 13 and had not responded to CBS News interview requests.
3) It is not just computer hackers and whizzes that might endanger an American’s financial information and personal information. The so-called Obama Care navigators, people hired to help Americans get through the red tape of signing up for Obama Care insurance policies, are also turning out to be potential abusers of personal information. In addition, they are causing problems in many other ways according to a newly release Congressional analysis. A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report has determined that:
- Obama Care navigators have been giving Americans misinformation.
- In some cases, the navigators have actively encouraging enrollees to commit fraud in order to raise their subsidies.
- Apparently, there is no way for Americans to find out whether their Navigators are properly certified.
- Some navigators were put on the job without the required number of hours of training.
- In other cases, navigators took control of the applicant’s applications, in direct violation of training procedures.
- And worse of all, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified at a recent Congressional hearing that it was “possible” for convicted felons to become Navigators.
4) A Wall Street Journal article from December 20, 2013 kind of summed up all of the Obama Care disasters quite nicely. Basically, those opposed to Obama Care do not have to repeal it since at the current rate of illegal changes put forth by this administration, the Obama White house might eventually end up terminating the entire law by itself without any help from Republicans or irate Americans.
Think about it. The administration illegally and unilaterally postponed the employer issued insurance mandate for at least a year.
The administration illegally and unilaterally postponed the small business insurance mandate for at least a year.
The administration illegally and unilaterally postponed the smokers’ penalty for at least a year.
The administration unilaterally shut down the long term care component of Obama Care, CLASS, because it was non-competitive and outrageously expensive.
And now, according to the Wall Street Journal, given that the rollout and its associated website has been such a disaster, the President illegally and unilaterally delayed the penalties to be paid by those that cannot get insurance via the Obama Care exchanges:
It seems Nancy Pelosi was wrong when she said "we have to pass" ObamaCare to "find out what's in it." No one may ever know because the White House keeps treating the Affordable Care Act's text as a mere suggestion subject to day-to-day revision. Its latest political retrofit is the most brazen: President Obama is partly suspending the individual mandate.
The White House argued at the Supreme Court that the insurance-purchase mandate was not only constitutional but essential to the law's success, while refusing Republican demands to delay or repeal it. But late on Thursday, with only four days to go before the December enrollment deadline, the Health and Human Services Department decreed that millions of Americans are suddenly exempt.
Individuals whose health plans were canceled will now automatically qualify for a "hardship exemption" from the mandate. If they can't or don't sign up for a new plan, they don't have to pay the tax. They can also get a special category of ObamaCare insurance designed for people under age 30.
When is a law not a law? Apparently, whenever President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius decide whether or not to enforce it.
What would have happened if previous Presidents acted like Obama? What would the uproar have been if Bush had decided not to prosecute abortion clinic bombers or decided to unilaterally suspend Roe Vs. Wade for a year or so or decided to unilaterally delay his Medicare Part D legislation without Congressional approval or unilaterally reinstated "don't ask, don't tell?" The uproar from the left would have been unbelievably loud. This is the same thing.
The Obama Care legislation was passed by a President and by a Congress who was theoretically representing the wishes of the American citizenry. You cannot decide what parts of a legally passed law to enforce or delay or change without going back through that process to do it legally. These unilateral actions to ignore the components of a legally passed law are grounds for impeachment and removal from office.
Which brings us to the final post of reviews of what havoc Obama Care is causing (tomorrow’s post will be a summary of what we have covered with over one hundred references to other Obama Care disasters that we just did not have the same to cover.) However, before moving on to other gruesome political class topics, is there any legal resources out there that could help file a citizens' suit against the Obama administration for illegally and unilaterally delaying so many parts of this law?
These have to be illegal changes, done without Congressional and voter buy in. I would love to put together a legal challenge that would enforce the law, it is the least thing that the top law enforcement officer in the country should do, i.e. the President. Failure to do is dereliction of duty which needs to be addressed and remedies.
These have to be illegal changes, done without Congressional and voter buy in. I would love to put together a legal challenge that would enforce the law, it is the least thing that the top law enforcement officer in the country should do, i.e. the President. Failure to do is dereliction of duty which needs to be addressed and remedies.
Not being a lawyer, I have no idea how to go about such a legal challenge to this lawlessness. Any suggestions or volunteers to help mount a challenge would be appreciated.
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