Wednesday, March 11, 2015

March, 2015, Part 2, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: The Ten Year View of the Disaster, More Personal Horror Stories, and More

For over three years we have been doing a regular series of blogs under the theme, “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.” One would have thought that at some point in time, all of the disasters would have hit the fan and we could stop writing about the worst piece of legislation ever written.

One could hope but one would be wrong. This month is also going to require several days of discussion as the disasters continue to rollout from this horrid law. To review past discussions of Obama Care disasters, enter “unfolding disasters” in the search box above.

1) We have often talked about how Obama Care relies a lot on the IRS and the income tax process to implement the penalties and subsidies of Obama Care. As a result, there are tons of new IRS regulations, new IRS forms to complete, and a whole lot more complexity in filling out 2014 tax forms.

One company that seems to be a large benefactor of the new complexity is the giant tax filing company, H&R Block. A recent article by Richard Pollock points out how profitable this legislation is for them:

  • The company is looking at a possible $100 million windfall as a result of the law and the additional fees that tax filers will have to pay to comply with the law.
  • H&R Block was a major lobbyist in the development and writing of the legislation, an extremely helpful thing to do when you are looking at $100 million revenue upside.
  • Ryan Ellis, who is the tax policy director at Americans for Tax Reform and a former H&R Block senior preparer recently told The Daily Caller website that H&R Block hopes to profit from the confusion of Obama Care enrollees and those without health insurance who, for the first time, will have to file special tax forms related to their health-care coverage.
More crony capitalism, more costs for American households.

2) Consider the blight of blogger Melissa Klein of San Francisco who at one time was a major and vocal supporter of Obama Care. But it all seems to have fallen apart for her advocacy of the law, given the horror stories she has experienced:

  • When she tried to get the IRS form 1095-A to prove that she had health care coverage in 2014, the Obama Care exchange where she purchased insurance, Covered California, claimed that they had absolutely no record of her ever getting health insurance coverage via their processes.
  • They denied knowledge of her enrollment even though she had in her possession official letters from the exchange that she did have coverage.
  • Also, she had proof that she had actually PAID real money to the carrier for her Obama Care policy.
  • What should have been a simple administrative screw up resulted in many, many faxes, 60 days of delays, the need to file an income tax extension and she is still not close to resolving the whole issue.
This has resulted in the total disallusionment of a former Obama Care advocate: It saddens me to say this, but I no longer believe that the government should mandate health care. It’s not because I’ve abandoned the basic principles behind health care reform. Quite the contrary. But a great idea, is just an idea, if you can’t execute. And the government has proven time and time again, it can’t execute. So I’m over it until someone figures it out. 

She went a step further than writing in her blog, she sent the following open letter to the President:

So I did what any lawful citizen should do and signed up for health insurance through my local marketplace, Covered California. It’s a new system, I thought to myself, they’re working out the kinks.

But as of today I’ve stopped making excuses for you and this system. It’s time to get your shit together. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have foregone insurance and taken the tax penalty. In fact, I’d rather be dead and broke than have to participate in Covered California’s health care exchange.

This is not surprising since the Federal government and Obama administration could not even implement a relatively simple website process despite a three year head start and billions of dollars. When a law loses its avid supporters like Melissa then you know it is a bad, bad piece of legislation when it hits reality.

3) Alyene Senger, recently writing for the Heritage Foundation, went through a great and single infographic of what damage Obama Care has incurred on the country and its citizens. The bad news includes the following disasters and under performance:

  • The cost of Obama Care subsidies and the expansion of Medicaid under the law will cost American taxpayers over $2 TRILLION over the next ten years.
  • This will cost every American household, on average, about $18,000 or about $1,800 every year.
  • Despite spending over $2 TRILLION, there will still be over 30 million Americans without health care insurance ten years from now despite the fact that the overall objective of Obama Care was to get coverage for everyone.
  • As of the timing of the chart, Obama Care had gotten 8.38 million people insurance coverage with 893,000 people getting regular health insurance policies and 7.49 million people getting coverage through Medicaid.
  • This means that a whopping 87% of the newly insured got their coverage via an ailing Medicaid program while the original objective was 50%, indicating that this legislation is nothing much more than an expansion of a failing government healthcare bureaucracy that will cost the American taxpayer a lot more than planned.
  • These enrollment numbers need to be put in the context of between 6 and 7 million Americans losing access to their current and preferred insurance policies that they paid for. Obama Care caused millions of people to lose access to regular insurance policies and replaced it with Medicaid.
  • Eighteen Obama Care tax changes will take almost $800 billion out of the economy in the next ten years, taxes that will affect EVERY American.
  • Four million Americans will have to pay the individual mandate penalties in 2016 for not buying insurance.
  • The law reduces Medicare support by over $700 billion over the next ten years, endangering the health care of senior Americans.
All of this hassle, all of these taxes, all of this hoopla, all of this endangerment, for a piece of legislation that will never fulfill even the most basic aspects of its objectives.

4) We conclude most of these posts with the personal stories of Americans who have directly suffered from the horrors of Obama Care. The source of these stories is the wonderful website:

www.ourhealthcarestories.com

JESSICA INDIANA - We have insurance through my husband's work. With the ACA, our premiums have increased and our and our co-pays have tripled. Our maximum benefits have gone down as well.

I used to be able to visit my Chiropractor for a monthly adjustment that kept my lower back pain and mirages away. Now, I cannot afford the higher co-pay, especially with the increase in premiums.

Seems this affordable care act is not so affordable after all.

PAULA MARYLAND - My company health insurance renews July 1. We have a high deductible Carefirst plan 2700/5400 for single and family coverage, respectively. My employer pays 50% of individual and 20% of other. We are a small group and employer does not have to offer health insurance under Obamacare. My family premium was $800/month last year, this year the renewal rate is-get ready for this-remember this is affordable-$1,677/month. Even in your wildest dreams this is not affordable.

STEVE 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.

SANDRA NORTH CAROLINA - I do not have health care, because I can't afford it. They want me to pay more than I make a month. I think they ought to do away with the ACA altogether

Another month and more disasters and failure from the worst piece of legislation ever passed by the worst set of politicians to ever serve in Washington. I am pretty sure we will be back next month with even more disasters.


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