July, 2014 The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care, Part 4: New York Insurance Prices To Rise, More Broken Obama Care Promises, and More

Yes, the world has been a mess lately. Fighting in the Gaza Strip, downed airliners, Russians fighting Ukrainians, the economy still stagnant, Iraq being torn apart, Syrian civil war still killing thousands, veterans still not getting the proper medical treatment, a border that is a humanitarian crisis, etc. In the background though, has been the continuing and unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.

We have had to devote many posts every month to this fiasco since last August. The fallout from the worst piece of legislation ever enacted by Washington just keeps on giving and messing up Americans’ lives. This month is no exception. We will probably need most of this week to cover it all, that is how bad the law is many, many months after it was rolled out in such a disastrous manner last fall. 

As with previous months, we will likely stop talking about it this month not because we ran out of material but because it can get so depressing going over the damage the legislation is doing to lives, health, freedom and the economy.

1) The Minority Report website recently did a short article that highlighted some of the recent news reports relative to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. Given how poorly the legislation was constructed, written, and implemented, it is no surprise that the negative coverage of the mess it has caused is pretty widespread:

• New IG Report Reveals ‘Defective’ Obamacare System That Could ‘Jeopardize Coverage For Millions’: “Although the Federal marketplace received documentary evidence from applicants related to inconsistencies, it could not resolve the inconsistencies because the system functionality to resolve inconsistencies had not been fully developed.” (HHS Inspector General Report, p. 21, 7/1/14)
• Senator Mitch McConnell: “‘It now appears that the Administration’s promises to protect taxpayers from wasteful and fraudulent payments will join ‘if you like your plan, you can keep it’ and lower premiums as just the latest in a string of Obamacare’s broken promises.’”(Senator McConnell, 7/1/14)
• ‘Data Discrepancies,’ ‘Inconsistencies,’ ‘Defective’ System: “The Obama administration has been struggling to clear up data discrepancies that could potentially jeopardize coverage for millions under the health overhaul, the government’s health care fraud watchdog reported Tuesday.”(AP, 7/1/14)
• “The Health and Human Services inspector general said the administration was not able to resolve 2.6 million so-called ‘inconsistencies’ out of a total of 2.9 million such problems in the federal insurance exchange from October through December 2013.” (AP, 7/1/14)
• “… potentially hundreds of thousands of people are receiving bigger subsidies than they deserve. … Under current rules, people receiving unwarranted subsidies will be required to return the excess next year.” (The Washington Post, 5/16/14)
• “A family of four with an annual income of $80,000 could be required to repay as much as $2,500.” (The New York Times, 6/15/14)
• “…important aspects of the Web site remain defective — or simply unfinished.” (The Washington Post, 5/16/14)

These reports and realities of the Obama Care disaster do not just come from those opposed to the whole concept of Obama Care. These observations and opinions come from the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the Inspector General, etc., sources of news and information that generally do not lean towards the right side of the political spectrum. 

This lends credibility to the assumption that yes indeed, Obama Care is as bad as it appears to be when it comes to defective systems, fraudulent subsidy payments, bad data and information, and a whole host of other operational and financial problems.

3) President Obama was basically crowned the top political liar for 2013 when three of his lies made the top ten political lies list of the Washington Post for last year. His promises that if you like your current insurance policy, doctor, or hospital you could keep it under Obama Care, that the average American family would see their annual health care costs go down $2,500, that signing up Obama Care would be simple and easy via the online exchanges, and a host of other broken promises gave him that well deserved attention on the Post’s top political lies in 2013.

But the lies and deceptions did not stop with him. Consider the compilation of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s deceptions and/or ignorance relative to Obama Care’s capabilities and promises, a list also compiled by the Minority Report:

• “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius promised to thoroughly vet the salary information that people submitted as part of their health insurance applications.” (The Washington Post, 5/16/14). 
• HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: “I certify that the American Health Benefit Exchanges (Marketplaces) verify that applicants for advance payments of the premium tax credit and cost-sharing reductions are eligible for such payments and reductions, consistent with the requirements of section 1411 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…” (Sec. Sebelius, Letter To Vice President Biden, 1/1/14)
• HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: ‘numerous systems and processes to carry out these verifications’ “As required by the Affordable Care Act and implementing regulations, when a consumer applies for insurance affordability programs, including advance payments of the premium tax credit and cost – sharing reductions, the Marketplace verifies application information provided by the consumer when making an eligibility determination. The Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations that detail these procedures, and the Marketplaces have implemented numerous systems and processes to carry out these verifications…” (Sec. Sebelius, Letter To Vice President Biden, 1/1/14)

Obviously none of these commitments and statements have come true or were ever true, given the news reports and Inspector General’s findings. Makes you wonder if she was just that ignorant of what she was supposedly in charge of or was being deliberately deceptive to cover up the fact that what she was supposed to deliver she could not deliver. In either case, just another unfolding disaster and deception of Obama Care.

3) A recent New York Post article reviewed some of the rate increase information that was becoming available for new York state residents who were Obama Care policy customers. Highlights of their findings include the following information:

• Overall, Obama Care participating insurance firms are looking for double-digit hikes for insurance policy premiums in 2015.
• While the overall average 2015 cost increase is about 12%, a number of insurance companies, mostly those serving large numbers of Obama Care customers, want to boost individual premiums by nearly 20%.
• Excellus Health Plan is seeking a 19.7% increase for its more than 24,000 customers.
• MVP Health Plan, with nearly 33,000 customers, wants a 19% increase.
• Health Republic Insurance of New York, the largest insurer of Obama Care policies with more than 68,000 customers, asked for a 15.2% increase for individual plans.
• Unitedhealthcare wants a 12.5% increase for small group plans, but a decrease of 2.4% for individual plans.
• In some letters to customers, insurers cited requirements in Obama Care as contributing to the proposed rate increases, i.e., the legislation requires that all policies include features that add expense but may not have value to many customers.

In other words, New York citizens will be experiencing what the rest of the country is or will be experiencing; big insurance costs increases rather than that elusive $2,500 health care cost REDUCTION the President falsely promised.

But this should not surprise anyone. Many times when the Washington political class tries to resolve a problem, their lack of problem definition and resolution skills often make the original problem even worse. Obama Care is a textbook example of such ineptness.

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