January, 2014 The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care, Part2: Maternity Coverage For Men, More Uninsured Americans Than Before, More Law Breaking, And Americans hare Obama Care

This is the second of about a half dozen expected posts this month that will review the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. The first post from yesterday was an overall view of the top ten promises broken by the President relative to this legislation. Over the course of this week or so will get underneath those broken promises to examine what those shattered promises are doing to American families, workers, and the economy as a whole.

The disaster have been so numerous that we have had to devote multiple posts each month since August in an attempt to keep up with all of them. Thus, this week we are going into a "quick hit” mode where we will try to cover as many disasters as possible. Deeper analysis and reviews of similar disasters occurred in previous posts including what should be the philosophy and strategies for replacing Obama Care with a program that actually has a chance of succeeding in the face of this current fiasco.

1) The results from a recent Gallup poll that was conducted by phone over the month of December found that that the Obama Care website experiences have been very disappointing in general:

• The new poll of only uninsured Americans searching for health insurance options via the Obama Care health insurance exchange websites shows that 59% had a "negative” experience in doing so.
• 30% of the respondents rated the experience as "negative" and 29% rated the experience as "very negative," for a "total negative" of 59%. 
• Only 39% of the poll respondents ranked their experience on the exchanges as positive.
• 32% called the experience "positive" and only 7% called it very positive "very positive." Very disappointing results given how much the President bragged how easy it would be to go online to purchase Obama Care policies.
• Currently, 26% of uninsured Americans say they have visited a health insurance exchange website, up from 20% in the October and November polling. Also a disappointment since the whole purpose of this negative endeavor was to get all uninsured American onto a health insurance plan, not only about one in four.

Bad results into what was supposed to be a wonderful and easy shopping experience, a bad experience that has now probably cost the American taxpayer close to a billion dollars.

2) Gallup is not the only polling organization finding negative perceptions and feelings about Obama Care if you consider the latest findings from Rasmussen:

• Rasmussen found an all time high of 58% of those polled saying they are against the requirement that every American be covered by a health insurance policy or face fines and imprisonment.
• For the second month in a row, a majority 51% of insured respondents and 45% of respondents said they think overall quality of healthcare will decline because of Obama Care, certainly a disappointing finding especially for the uninsured since the whole purpose of Obama Care was to take care of America’s uninsured.
• The majority of those polled voters also dislike Obama Care and expect it to increase, not decrease, healthcare costs as promised by Obama.
• Only 19% of respondents think their healthcare will be better by the end of 2014 than it is now, as opposed to 30% who felt that way a year ago, not a good trend for the President.
• On the only positive note, those respondents who are optimistic about the effects of Obama Care and think healthcare will improve as a result total 31%, also the highest to date.

In general, not good news for a system that has now had over three years of planning and over three months of operations. But as we have shown time and time again in this blog, these negative ratings, whether measured by Gallup or Rasmussen, are well deserved by this worst piece of Washington legislation ever written.

3) We have often compared the current relationship between Washington DC and the rest of the country to the “Hunger Games" books and resultant movies. Those stories talk about glorious and opulent living by those residing in the capital city but the suffering and torment of regular citizens outside of the capital that support that capital lifestyle with their taxes and hard work.

Obama Care is shaping up as just another example of the “Hunger Games” mentality that infects Washington DC. The Obama Care legislation clearly includes a provision that requires Washington politicians and their staff aides to purchase insurance plans that are created by the law or through the Obama Care exchanges. 

The requirements of the legislation also specify that Americans who make less than $45,000 annually qualify for Federal subsidies. Keep in mind that members of Congress are paid $175,000 per year, far above the act's subsidy cutoff, and probably the vast majority of each politician‘s staff also greatly exceeds the $45,000 subsidy cutoff.

However, in true “Hunger Games” style, late last year the Federal government Office of Personnel Management said the government will help Congressional members and their staff members offset the plans costs with subsidies that could exceed $10,000 a year, courtesy of the American taxpayer. This is a blatant disregard for the law and the tenets of the laid out in the Obama Care legislation.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and other Republicans have correctly pointed out that this assistance gives the lawmakers and their aides special treatment. As a result of this obviously illegal move and the inability of Johnson to convince the administration and the Office of Personnel Management to abide by the law, Johnson has filed a Federal lawsuit to force the Federal government to obey Federal laws as it pertains to this disregard for Federal law.

Johnson correctly pointed out the obvious ill effects of politicians putting themselves above a law that they wrote and enacted but now disregard selectively: "The American people have an expectation — Wisconsinites have an expectation — that members of Congress should be subjected to the letter of the law just like they’re held to the letter of the law. In this case, members of Congress now are not being held to the letter of the law, and that creates an alienation. It creates a wedge between a member of Congress and their constituents."

Not only does it create an alienation, it sucks to be told what to do and how to do it but those doing the telling who do not even follow their own advice and legal obligations.

4) Given the list of ten broken promises of Obama Care we discussed yesterday, the fact that three Obama promises made the Washington Post’s “Top Ten Lies of 2013 list,” that one of those three lies was the actual top lie of 2013, and that Politifact also name an Obama promise as the top lie of 2013, one has to wonder if everything coming out of this administration is a grand lie.

Senator Johnson also addressed this grand lie concept in conjunction with his lawsuit: "Those assurances [promises about how great Obama Care would be] weren't slight exaggerations or innocent shadings of the truth. It was a political fraud echoed relentlessly by House and Senate Democrats who should be held accountable for the disastrous consequences of their grand deception."

“Political fraud” and “grand deception,” sounds about right.

5) For those of you like playing with numbers, the Associated Press reported on December 27, 2013 that as of that date, over 4.7 American families had had their health care insurance plans cancelled as a result of Obama Care. Only about 2 million families/Americans had signed up for an Obama Care policy, meaning at least 2.7 American families lost their insurance policy as a result of Obama Care, the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen.

I say at least 2.7 million because the 2 million policies the administration is claiming are those Americans who have made a choice of an Obama Care policy. It does not mean they have actually bought that policy, that information has not been made public, if it is even known. Te best analogy is comparing the numbers to shopping at the Amazon website: about 2 million people have put an Obama Care policy in their “shopping cart” but we have no idea how many have actually clicked through to the checkout page.

Now, in another illegal move, the Obama administration has tried to convince the states and health insurance companies to reinstiute some, not all of the cancelled 4.7 million policies under the guise of calling the cancellations “hardships.” but many states and companies have already said they have gone to far down the road to reinstate policies and will not do so, leaving the President with a highly likely net LOSS of Americans with health insurance. Pathetic.

Why are many Americans losing their policies? Obama Care tries to burden a “one size fits all” policy on every American regardless of their personal needs, needs that they a were getting well served prior to Obama Care. Examples of such nonsense include:

• The health-care law requires that all insurance plans cover 10 “essential benefits,” eliminating millions of current, perfectly fine insurance plans that don’t fill this overarching requirement, severely increasing costs for consumers that have to purchase coverage for health care and products they may not want or need.
• For example, going forward, all insurance plans must include maternity coverage….including plans for men and post-menopausal women. 
• Customers without children must purchase Obama Care insurance plans that cover pediatric services. 
• Other newly established essential benefits include hospitalization, mental-health services and preventive and wellness services.

You cannot make up this kind of stupidity, maternity coverage for men, etc. And these people actually run the country, heaven help us.

More Obama Care insanity tomorrow.

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