November, 2014 Part 1, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: More Data Processing Issues, Less Enrollees Than Announced and Personal Heartache Stories

Although we just finished up almost two weeks of political class insanity, a regular monthly feature of this blog, we did not talk about any Obama Care insanity. We purposely avoided the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care since it deserves its own, dedicated set of posts. That is the only way to do justice to the worst piece of legislation ever passed by the worst set of Washington politicians to ever hold office. 

For a number of years we have been writing about Obama Care and the disasters, pain, and anguish it has generally caused. It has restricted health care access, raised health care costs, substantially added to the national debt, suppressed economic growth, contributed to high unemployment, and has no real shot of ever reducing health care costs in this country since it never addressed the root causes of high health care costs in this country. 

To access past posts in the subject, just enter “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care” in the search box above. You will then be presented with dozens of posts containing hundreds of reasons why Obama Care was such an idiotic approach from day one. Starting today and likely going on for many days afterwards will be the latest disasters from this heinous piece of legislation that have popped up in just the past month or so. 

1) Last year when Obama Care officially launched, or flopped, the Obama administration decided to delay the equivalent process for small businesses. However, as the new Obama Care enrollment window approaches later in November, the administration is trying to get the Federal government’s small business online health care exchange process underway. 

According to a recent Cato article, the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is supposed to provide an online portal for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees to purchase insurance. The SHOP process theoretically allows small business employers to provide a monetary contribution towards an employee’s health insurance purchase and also receive Federal government financial support in return. 

However, relying on a recent New York Times article, Cato shows that this Obama Care process is also likely going to be a house of horrors: 

• Some of Obama Care’s small business health insurance plans approved for use on the exchange do not show up when accessed. 
• The SHOP website exchange worked well during testing with some web browsers, like Chrome, but performed poorly with other browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• Health care premiums and other policy charges for some plans were erroneously displayed as percentages rather than dollar amounts, e.g. 350 percent rather than $350. 
• For some households, the principal health insurance subscriber ended being listed as a dependent, or vice versa. 
• The Obama administration is claiming that the SHOP website will be functional when open enrollment starts on November 15 but given their track record from last year, I would not bet that is the case. 

How well SHOP works even if its data systems work is cloudy, given the lack of success state level SHOP programs have had over the past year. While California signed up 1.4 million people through its state health insurance exchange, its small-business optioin enrolled only 1,700 companies statewide, with 11,500 employees and dependents. In Minnesota, the small-business exchange signed up 190 employers covering only 1,500 people. 

The complexity of filing and using Obama Care procedures for small business is likely to be too much effort for small business owners to go through for any Federal subsidies they may receive. Hold on for another bumpy and likely disastrous Obama Care data systems nightmare. 

2) The wonderful website, Bankrupting America, recently took a look at where we stand relative to Obama Care one year or so after it launched. Their “Top 5 Things To Know” about the status of Obama Care include: 

- Some Age Groups Experienced Healthcare Premium Increases Of 78 Percent In 2014. Bankrupting America cites a recent Washington Times article that reported on a new study which showed some age groups were experiencing Obama Care healthcare premium costs going up by as much as 78%: “Average insurance premiums in the sought-after 23-year-old demographic rose most dramatically, with men in that age group seeing an average 78.2% price increase before factoring in government subsidies, and women having their premiums rise 44.9%, according to a report by HealthPocket scheduled for release Wednesday.”

- Thirty Year-Olds Experienced The Second Highest Premium Rate Increases In 2014. The same study looked at data from the two largest metropolitan cities in each state and focused on three age groups: 23, 30 and 63. According to the analysis: “The premium increases for 30-year-olds were almost as high as for 23-year-olds — 73.4% for men and 35.1% for women.”

- As Of May 2014, More Than 214,000 Doctors Chose Not To Participate In Any Obama Care Plans. On Monday, an article in on The Daily Caller website discussed a new study showing doctors are choosing not accept Obama Care plans due to costs: “As of May 2014, over 214,000 doctors wouldn’t participate in Obamacare plans, and that number may be growing, according to AAF, a free-market think tank in Washington. Obamacare puts physicians — especially the dwindling number of those in private practice — in an especially difficult financial situation, expecting doctors to eat the costs of patients who discontinue coverage and to simply take on more patients to make up for bottom-level reimbursements. Exchange plans nationwide pay on average significantly less than plans in the private market and even Medicare, according to AAF. 

While private plans generally pay doctors $1.00 for performing a given service, Medicare averages just $0.80; exchange plans are allowing doctors just $0.60 for the same thing. That puts Obamacare plans more in line with Medicaid reimbursements, AAF reports, and Medicaid’s low reimbursement rates have been driving doctors away for years.” 

This 214,000 estimate means that about 20% of the nation’s doctors are not partaking of Obama Care. Now, one could make the claim that the reverse is good news: 80% of the nation’s doctors are participating. However, given the low reimbursement levels, which number do we think will grow in the future and how good will be the quality of those doctors that continue to take Obama Care patients look term? My estimate: the 80% number drops as does the quality of care of the remaining doctors. 

- Obama Care Puts Doctors Who Accept Plans Purchased Through The Obama Care Exchanges At Risk Of Never Getting Paid. The same Daily Caller article goes on to explain: “The structure of the Affordable Care Act itself puts doctors who accept plans purchased on Obamacare exchanges at risk of never being paid at all. Obamacare requires insurers who sell plans on the exchanges to keep coverage active even after a customer has stopped paying their premiums, for an extra 90 days. For the first 60 days after a customer has stopped paying but is still insured, the insurance company has to pay for any care the patient uses. But for any services used in the final 30 days before a customer’s insurance can be terminated, doctors that see those patients won’t be paid at all.” 

- New State Data Shows Obama Care Might Not Have 7.3 Million “Paid” Enrollees. Investors Business Daily recently reported that there are likely far fewer Obama Care policy holders than the originally 8.1 million that the administration reported or the more recent estimate of 7.3 million after you take into account those Obama Care enrollees that that never materialized since they never paid for the policy they signed up for. According to their analysis: “The most telling data point since the Department of Health and Human Services announced exchange membership last month comes from California, where the 1.4 million sign-ups as of mid-April have dwindled to just over 1.1 million paying customers — a drop of 20.3%. That decline is on the same scale as in Florida, where insurer rate filings in June showed 763,000 exchange plan members, down 22.5% from the 984,000 sign-ups reported by HHS. California and Florida have seen their combined reported membership drop by 506,000. If enrollment were still holding at 7.3 million, the combined 5.6 million sign-ups in every other state and D.C. through mid-April could have only dropped by about 200,000, or 3.8%.” 

We have already shown how the true incremental number of Americans with health insurance policies via Obama Care is closer to only one or two million. Since Obama Care caused upwards of six million Americans to lose access to their preferred and current health insurance policies, that original 7.3 million, or whatever the real number was, has to be reduce by upwards of six million in order to estimate the true incremental number of Americans with health insurance coverage.

3) Sometimes we get lost in the numbers trying to prove that Obama Care is good or bad. In the quest to understand the reality of the Obama Care numbers, we forget to acknowledge that Obama Care has caused serious hardships for people at the individual and family levels. However, a new website, 

www.ourhealthcarestories.com 

has been set up to capture the hardships and heartaches that Obama Care has created at the personal level. We will conclude each post in this Obama Care series with some examples from this website where Americans, in their own words, explain how Obama Care has disturbed and disrupted their lives, their health care, and their wealth. 

STEVE from Alabama: Like many, my health premium has nearly doubled ,and my deductibles and co-pays have increased some four fold. Yesterday my wife, who has a serious illness that has attacked her eyes over the years, learned that she could no longer receive a prescription that her doctor wants to write for her. This drug would help maintain her condition as to avoid flair ups with her eye problems. Her doctor informed her he can no longer prescribe the medication due to the recent health care law changes. 

DAVID from Alabama: I was really looking forward to my $2,500 savings I was promised. My total yearly cost instead went up by $2,620 with a higher deductible. President Obama could not have been this far off in his prediction which means he knew he was lying and said it anyway. 

JOHN from Pennsylvania: I pay for my family's insurance and had a plan that fit the family well. $2,500 deductible and $533 a month. Last year, I tried really hard to get on the Obamacare site and after probably 10 hours of trying finally got a quote. The results weren't good. $1433 a MONTH for bronze coverage with a $5000 deductible. I continued with my $533 a month plan this year because I renewed it last December, but just got a letter saying my plan could not be renewed. I'm now facing coverage that will likely cost almost 3X as much with a deductible twice as big. How is this affordable coverage? 

The President's promise of being able to "keep your plan" is just not true for me and never has been. I continue to be happy with my pre-Obama plan but bureaucrats claim to know what's best for me and my family. I strongly disagree. 

That will do it for today. Another Obama Care data processing system about to implode, Bankrupting America updating the legislation’s disasters based on real numbers and real realities, and three Americans tell their horror stories about Obama Care, adding a human touch to the hard, cold numbers of disasters. More tomorrow and beyond.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2013 Obama Care Update, Part 3: Procedures Not Ready, Health Care Costs Going Up, and Health Exchanges Only Imagneary

This is our third in a series of updates we are doing to cover the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. The first update this month covered the “dirty dozen” major failures of Obama Care to date, as identified by the Heritage Foundation. The second update covered a set of stories on how Obama Care is negatively affecting the working hours, take home pay, and insurance coverage of Americans among other disasters. Those two posts can be accessed starting at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-2013-obama-care-update-number-1.html

Let us continue to today with some more horror stores, courtesy of the Federal government and Obama Care:

1) The Washington Free Beacon news organization ran an article on June 18, 2013 that covered a Senate hearing on the impact on health care costs of Obama Care. The bottom line conclusion from those present at the hearing, both those testifying and the Senators on the panel, is that Obama Care will NOT bring down health care costs as promised:

• According to the article, the committee scheduled the hearing to discuss Steven Brill’s 26,000-word article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” which investigated why health care costs continue to skyrocket.
• Brill, who is a writer for Time, testified at the hearing that while Obama Care may end up extending coverage to some uninsured Americans, it does not include steps and processes  to actually curb rising health insurance costs or the cost of providing medical services:
• “Obama Care does not address the fundamental problem, which is the high prices.” 
• Brill testified that health care providers, drug companies, and other health care entities charge widely varying and outrageously high amounts for the same procedure or product, such as one hospital billing a patient $77 for a box of gauze pads. This trend that will not be arrested or corrected by Obama Care.
• Senator Bill Nelson of the Senate panel identified another unintended consequence of Obama Care. It is the consolidation of health care firms, a trend that results in fewer and fewer competitors in the marketplace, hindering the intent to drive down costs: “It’s a way of consolidating power by he who owns all the providers of services. This is contrary to the kind of competition we were trying to create in Obama care.”
• Senate panel Committee Chairman Max Baucus supported Nelson’s conclusion by noting that the unintended consolidation of health care entities appears to result in nicer facilities with higher prices, higher salaries and more buildings but not lower health care costs. 

So, more experts and DEMOCRATIC politicians agree, that one of the major selling points of Obama Care, the reduction of health care costs, is not happening and is unlikely to happen. Surprise, surprise. 

Why will it no reduce costs? Because as we pointed out in the second post listed above, Obama Care never understood the root causes of our rising health care costs and thus, never adequately addressed them.

2) On June 19, 2013, the General Accountability Office of the Federal government published two reports confirming the Obama Administration is ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the implementation of the federally operated health insurance and the Small Business Health Option Program (SHOP) health care exchanges created under Obama Care. The reports state the programs’ implementation delays and missed deadlines show potential for “implementation challenges going forward.”

How bad are the challenges? Consider the words and findings of the GAO reports themselves, as documented by the Minority Report blog on June 19, 2013:

§ States have yet to complete 85 percent of the required program activities. GAO found that, "…states had between 16 and 52 key activities remaining to be completed, or on average, about 85 percent of their total key activities [actions that must be completed before October 1, 2013]. "

• Core functions of both federal and state-based exchanges have yet to be completed. According to GAO, “[The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] (CMS) has many key activities remaining to be completed across the core exchange functions – eligibility and enrollment, including development and implementation of the data hub; program management; and consumer assistance.”
• With less than four months before open enrollment, any other missed deadlines threaten the timely establishment of exchanges. The GAO reported that “…much remains to be accomplished by CMS and states within a relatively short amount of time.” The reports also noted that missed deadlines closer to the start of enrollment could impact the establishment of exchanges.
• HHS has yet to complete critical steps needed to determine eligibility for credits and cost-sharing subsidies. GAO found that, “CMS … still needed to complete steps to enable FFEs to be ready to test development of key eligibility and enrollment functions, including calculation of advance payments of the premium tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies, verification of consumer income, and verification of citizenship or lawful presence.”
• Key data sharing agreements between the federal exchange and its federal and state partners have yet to be complete. GAO reported that “…several critical tasks remain to be completed before the October 1, 2013, implementation milestone.” These tasks include Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between CMS and state and federal agencies, which are necessary to make eligibility determinations.
• Consumer assistance and outreach activities to individuals and employers has been delayed. GAO found that, “CMS has yet to complete many activities related to consumer assistance and outreach and some initial steps were behind schedule.” Such activities not yet complete include “…the federal call center, healthcare.gov website, media outreach, and consumer complaint tracking systems for the [Federally Facilitated] FF-SHOP and [Federally Facilitated Exchanges] FFEs.”
• The scope of CMS involvement in exchange activities remains unclear.If a state does not “make adequate progress,” CMS is expected to step in. According to the GAO, CMS has yet to grant final approval for any state seeking to operate an exchange. The GAO also notes that “some of these exchanges may be under conditional approval when enrollment begins.”

§ A key SHOP program to provide outreach and assistance to small employers and employees has been delayed. GAO found that “[f]unding awards and development of a training curriculum for a key SHOP program that will provide outreach and enrollment assistance to small employers and employees has been delayed by about 2 months.”

Again, listen to the adjectives used to describe the status of Obama Care’s implementation: delayed, yet to be completed, missed deadlines, unclear. Even if they somehow get this contraption in the air in October, does anyone really think it will fly for very long before it crashes under is own weight and absurdity? Unclear, delayed, yet to be completed gives one no faith that this is going to work. 

The full article can be accessed at:

http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/2013/06/19/gao-confirms-obamacare-implemantation-behind-schedule-facing-challenges/

Although I have not included any of the Congressional member comments here, they can be accessed at the site listed. However, their comments point out the obvious: this is indeed a train wreck about to happen on so many levels.

Another day and another set of documented Obama Care failures. And the bad news is that we are not yet done, more bad news tomorrow.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now!:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w