Thread: The Future of Obamacare

Two Hours Before Obama Presser, ObamaCare Site Crashes

Posted on December 21, 2013

Liberals still don’t get why we don’t want incompetent government ruling our lives.

Check it out:

Early Friday afternoon, as millions of Americans who had their insurance plans scrambled to get coverage before the deadline — which is just a couple days away — the federal ObamaCare Website crashed (see screencap above). This occurred 20 days after the Obama Administration reassured America the site was fully-functioning for a “vast majority” of users.

As of now, the site is not fully-functioning for anyone.

CNN’s Jim Acosta reports that per CMS: “Right now healthcare.gov is queuing consumers. This system is in place while the tech team works on fixing an error”
After the so-called Healthcare.gov fix at the end November, users were faced with a completely screen when the website experienced problems. Healthcare.gov was still be operating at a level that allowed the user to set an appointment for a time where they could go back and be assured of having full access to the site.
Today’s crash is a full crash.

Continue Reading on www.breitbart.com ...


Read more at http://conservativebyte.com/2013/12/...WVpbPrG6m3G.99

Sebelius adds yet another exemption for Obamacare

Assures Dem senators that people who lost insurance can get catastrophic policies

By Tom Howell Jr.-
The Washington Times

Thursday, December 19, 2013

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  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in ... more >

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A group of Democratic senators are taking heart in signals by the Obama administration Thursday that people who lost their existing health plans because of Obamacare’s requirements will be eligible for an exemption that lets them purchase a catastrophic plan.
“I agree with you that these consumers should qualify for this temporary hardship exemption, and I can assure you that the exemption will be available to them,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the six senators.

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Although it is unclear how the mechanics of the exemption will work, the response to the Democrats’ concerns addressed fears that people who lost coverage due to Obamacare will go without coverage if they do not find an alternative on state-based markets by Monday — the deadline to have coverage by the new year.

Obamacare’s requirements that all health plans had to provide a range of services contributed to many of these policy cancellations. But for weeks, the administration and the law’s outside defenders have derided such plans as sub-par junk and said consumers would be better off with their Obamacare-compliant policies.

The initial concerns were raised by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Angus King of Maine, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Each of the senators represents a state that is served by HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange system that experience widespread web glitches upon its Oct. 1 debut.

The Obama administration has said the website is working much better as of the start of this month.
“We are pleased that the Administration appears to have responded to the concerns we’ve raised,” the senators said. “As a result, this clarifies an option that will help those consumers who have had their plans cancelled this year transition more smoothly into the marketplace. We will closely monitor how the Administration implements this option, and we remain committed to proposing responsible solutions.”

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/19/sebelius-adds-another-obamacare-exemption/

The REAL Obama Christmas Card- Nowhere to Hide


Monday, December 23, 2013 7:54


Judi McLeod / Canada Free Press

When it comes to his signature epic health care failure, there’s nowhere to hide, not even Hawaii, for President Barack Obama.

Perhaps that’s why Barack and Michelle are wearing such sour expressions and being told to “Cheer up, Mr. President, it’s Christmas!” on the cover of today’s Drudge Report.


If you can believe the mainstream media, exhaustion trailed Obama all the way to Hawaii where he is taking a 17-day timeout in sunshine happy Lei Land.

Not only crashing down to 37% in popularity polls trumping the legendarily loathed George W. Bush in popularity, more software foul-ups bedevil Obama, who is learning the bitter lesson that You Can Run but You Can’t hide, even in far-from-Beltway Hawaii.

The Hawaii Free Press is reporting that a new director taking over the Hawaii Health Connector immediately crashed the website.

“SA: Eddy Conway, a 62-year-old systems administrator whose medical insurance ends when he retires Dec. 31, has been trying to enroll in coverage for the past 10 weeks through the state’s online marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.

“Less than a week before the enrollment deadline to get coverage Jan. 1, the downtown Hono*lulu resident is scrambling to sign up on the Hawai‘i Health Connector website, which has been down for the past five days.

“It’s now down to days. If I have a heart attack and go to Queen’s (Medical Center) on Jan. 2, I have no insurance. There is behind me a tidal wave of people who also have not been served.”

“Consumers must enroll in a plan by Monday to ensure they have coverage as of Jan. 1.

“A Hawai‘i Health Connector call center employee said Tuesday that the website crashed Friday, preventing many consumers from logging into their accounts and selecting health plans. Call center employees said they aren’t able to do anything when the system is down and didn’t know when the website would be working….

continue article at Canada Free Press:


http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/60051

Article from the free press
The REAL Obama Christmas Card

By Judi McLeod (Bio and Archives) Monday, December 23, 2013

When it comes to his signature epic health care failure, there’s nowhere to hide, not even Hawaii, for President Barack Obama.

Perhaps that’s why Barack and Michelle are wearing such sour expressions and being told to “Cheer up, Mr. President, it’s Christmas!” on the cover of today’s Drudge Report.

If you can believe the mainstream media, exhaustion trailed Obama all the way to Hawaii where he is taking a 17-day timeout in sunshine happy Lei Land.
Not only crashing down to 37% in popularity polls trumping the legendarily loathed George W. Bush in popularity, more software foul-ups bedevil Obama, who is learning the bitter lesson that You Can Run but You Can’t hide, even in far-from-Beltway Hawaii.
The Hawaii Free Press is reporting that a new director taking over the Hawaii Health Connector immediately crashed the website.

“SA: Eddy Conway, a 62-year-old systems administrator whose medical insurance ends when he retires Dec. 31, has been trying to enroll in coverage for the past 10 weeks through the state’s online marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.
“Less than a week before the enrollment deadline to get coverage Jan. 1, the downtown Hono*lulu resident is scrambling to sign up on the Hawai‘i Health Connector website, which has been down for the past five days.
“It’s now down to days. If I have a heart attack and go to Queen’s (Medical Center) on Jan. 2, I have no insurance. There is behind me a tidal wave of people who also have not been served.”
“Consumers must enroll in a plan by Monday to ensure they have coverage as of Jan. 1.


“A Hawai‘i Health Connector call center employee said Tuesday that the website crashed Friday, preventing many consumers from logging into their accounts and selecting health plans. Call center employees said they aren’t able to do anything when the system is down and didn’t know when the website would be working….

“Tom Matsuda, who took over as the Connector’s interim executive director last week, said in an emailed response to the Hono*lulu Star-Advertiser that the website has been taken down to add new enhancements and functions….

“Matsuda said as of Saturday the Connector had enrolled 960 individuals and 47 employees….

Barry Abrahams, owner of Big Island restaurant Red Water Cafe in Wai*mea, has been trying since the first week of October to enroll his seven workers whose policies expire at year’s end. So far, he has been able to sign up just one employee.
“After two months of almost daily phone calls or emails, we have been unsuccessful,” he said. “None of the rest have even heard anything back. It has been extremely time-consuming. It’s just ridiculous.”
“Individuals and small businesses can receive tax credits only if enrolling in a health plan on the Connector.
“We keep trying, hoping that it will all come together before the deadline,” Abrahams said.
Ma*tsuda said last week the Connector’s goal is to sign up 50,000 people — 10,000 individuals and 40,000 small-business workers — by June 30 to be financially sustainable after $204.3 million in federal grants expire at the end of 2014.”
With Deadline Monday a little more than a week away, only 1,100 have signed up for the Hawaii Health Connector.
Even watching holiday basketball games isn’t going the Obamas’ way.
Barack and Michelle were watching Michelle’s brother Craig Robinson’s team Oregon State Beavers, who were zapped 83-71 by the Akron Zips in Sunday’s Diamond Head Classic Tournament in Honolulu.
Who are the Akron Zips?
Basketball heroes more popular than the Obamas.

this is your reaction every time you hear somebody in the media say Obamacare has been fixed." height="272" width="370">


Show some love if --> this is your reaction every time you hear somebody in the media say Obamacare has been fixed.

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Lie of the year!

Border Narcotics Intelligence


Obama Affordable Veterinary Act

And if you like your testicles, you can keep them. Period!



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Border Narcotics Intelligence



During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, the U.S. produced 22 aircraft carriers, 8 battleships, 48 cruisers, 349 destroyers, 420 destroyer escorts, 203 submarines, 34 million tons of merchant ships, 100,000 fighter aircraft, 98,000 bombers, 24,000 transport aircraft, 58,000 training aircraft, 93,000 tanks, 257,000 artillery pieces, 105,000 mortars, 3,000,000 machine guns, and 2,500,000 military trucks.
We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battle for the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb and ultimately conquered Japan and Germany.

It's worth noting, that during the almost exact same amount of time, the Obama administration couldn't build a functioning web site.

Extremely ******** off RIGHT Wingers 2



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Thursday, 26 December 2013 17:30 Free Market Options to ObamaCare Already Exist

Written by Bob Adelmann



More than a year ago, Dr. Barbara Bellar, a medical doctor with a JD degree, was running for office as an Illinois state senator, and provided a sound byte that continues to reverberate across the Internet, having been viewed as of this writing some 3,675,000 times. The clip lasts less than two minutes, including laughter and applause from her audience, to whom she said:

So let me get this straight. This is a long sentence:
We are going to be gifted with a healthcare plan that we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don't, which reportedly covers 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman doesn't understand it, passed by Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese and financed by a country that is broke.


And then she asked, "So what the blank could possibly go wrong?"
Little did she know at the time just how much would go wrong: the chaotic rollout, the website's disasters, the millions of policy cancellations, the administration’s backpedaling, the increasing number of Democrats who voted for it now distancing themselves from the catastrophe, the dropping poll numbers, and on and on.
And that doesn't include the new ObamaCare taxes and fees, direct and indirect, that are coming on January 1, 2014.
Kaiser Health News provided just one single example: Starting in January, a customer with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama is going to see his monthly premium jump from $322.26 to $345.40, an increase of $23.14 a month. This includes the two-percent federal levy on every health insurance policy along with the $2 fee per policy that goes to a medical research fund. This includes the fee every insurance company must pay just to sell its plans on the exchanges.
But it doesn't cover the indirect charges that will eventually show up later, such as the 2.3-percent medical device tax, and higher income taxes as the threshold for deducting out-of-pocket medical costs will jump from 7.5 percent of annual incomes to 10 percent. And then there’s the added 0.9-percent tax to be levied on those earning more than $200,000 individually or families with more than $250,000 in income. Plus there’ll be the 3.8-percent tax on unearned income, such as dividends, rental income, and capital gains.
After taking all of this into account, the Congressional Budget Office reported that there will still be 30 million people uninsured in 2016 and thereafter. It’s no wonder that poll numbers are dropping.
On December 23 a CNN/ORC poll showed that support for ObamaCare dropped five full percentage points in just the last month, with only 16 percent estimating that their families will be better off after the law takes effect. Sixty-three percent of those polled think their medical care costs will rise thanks to ObamaCare. A week before Christmas a Fox News poll showed that a majority say they wish that the law had never been passed and would vote to repeal it if they could. Even the number of those who think the law will survive is shrinking. Forty percent of those polled think the law will either be repealed or defunded — up 13 points since October.
And when the presently uninsured — those ObamaCare is targeting — were asked in a New York Times/CBS News poll, a majority said they disapprove of the law itself and an astonishing 77 percent responded that they don’t like the federal government’s demand that they must purchase health insurance for themselves. And when asked about whether they would purchase the mandated insurance or pay the fine instead, 35 percent said they would just pay the fine.
Even liberal economist John Cochrane, professor of finance at the University of Chicago, thinks ObamaCare is going to crater, leaving millions without insurance or other options. He believes the worst is yet to come, with the new taxes and enrollments falling far below estimates. He also predicts that “the individual mandate is likely to unravel when we see how sick the people are who signed up.”
Cochrane makes the case that the free market, if it were allowed to, would provide all the health care that people want or need, at prices they can afford, without government pressure or mandates:
There is an alternative. A much freer market in health care and health insurance can work, can deliver high quality, technically innovative care at much lower cost....
Health insurance should be individual, portable across jobs, states and providers ... [policies] should protect wealth against large, unforeseen, necessary expenses, rather than be a wildly inefficient payment plan for routine expenses.
The professor really ought to get out more. At the very least he should read Sean Parnell’s new book, The Self-Pay Patient: Affordable Healthcare Choices in the Age of ObamaCare in which Parnell reviews numerous options for those wanting coverage but not wanting ObamaCare. Some of those options include joining health care cost-sharing ministries, such as Samaritan Ministries or Liberty Healthshare, which operate outside of ObamaCare and cost about half of those that are being offered on the exchanges, according to Parnell.
In addition, there are short term health insurance policies that aren't regulated under ObamaCare as well as alternative policies that pay cash in the event of certain events happening: cancer, accidents, or other specific events.
There are doctors who accept cash only, there are tele-medicine services, pre-packaged plans for medical services, and even medical bill negotiation services to keep costs down. Parnell explains about how retail health care clinics operate, noting on his website that they are staffed primarily by nurse practitioners, who are able to diagnose and prescribe for such relatively minor conditions such as strep throat, pink-eye, ear infections, and the like, as well as monitoring chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma.
At present there are nearly 1,300 such clinics operating across the land, often inside Walgreen’s or Walmart stores. Parnell quotes a recent study about such clinics:
[They are] commonly located inside pharmacies, supermarkets or “big box” retailers … [and] usually offer extended hours on evenings and weekends … charge relatively low prices for services, and display prices prominently so consumers are aware of the costs before receiving care.
What Parnell is describing is the free market’s response to the need for healthcare on an affordable, convenient basis just like that dreamed of by Professor Cochrane.
If ObamaCare does either crater, get defunded, or get repealed, millions will discover to their delight that the free market already has alternatives in place, costing less, providing more, and all without government demands, mandates and interference.

A graduate of Cornell University and a former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at www.LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at badelmann@thenewamerican.com

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews...-already-exist