Thread: Obama Administration Knew Millions Would Lose Healthcare Coverage

So much for the mantra of keeping your health care plan if you like it, which the president espoused in 2009-’10 when he was selling his massive federal power grab to the American people. Now, it seems the Obama administration knew that millions were going to lose their coverage as a result of the new health care law. Lisa Meyers and Hannah Rappleye reported for NBC News today that:

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”


None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered.
Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”
That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.
Concerning enrollment, that’s still a disaster. Enroll Alaska announced that they were suspending operations to get fellow Alaskans into the exchanges since the software used to calculate subsidies is inaccurate.

As the Peninsula Clarion reports, Enroll Alaska has been able to enroll a grand total of only three people since the launch of the health-insurance marketplaces on October 1. It has now given up entirely on that goal, at least until Healthcare.gov, the federal health-care exchange, gives Alaskans accurate figures on the subsidies they’re eligible for.
According to Enroll Alaska, the exchange is telling people that they’re eligible for a subsidy $100 less than what they actually qualify for. Spokeswoman Tyann Boling said that Enroll Alaska discovered the issue after comparing manual calculations with those generated by the website.
Alaska isn’t the only state to have difficulties with a subsidy calculator. Washington’s state-run health-care exchange, Washington Healthplanfinder,overestimated subsidies for approximately 8,000 people.

Then again, it’s not like we didn’t see this coming. Forbes’ Avik Roy and the Wall Street Journal reported last September that:

[T]he exchange software, for which the government has spent upwards of $88 million, still can’t correctly calculate the amount of subsidies that an individual applicant is eligible for. “There’s a blanket acknowledgment that rates are being calculated incorrectly,” one senior insurance executive told the WSJ. “Our tech and operations people are very concerned about the problems they’re seeing and the potential of them to stick around.”

Technological glitches and millions losing their health insurance; behold Washington efficiency.





http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/10/28...care-coverage/

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  Congressman Scalise Tries To Enroll In Obamacare, Site Fails To Verify Him
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  Aren't we all just so impressed yet????
  

“I’m hanging up the white coat.”

‘I’m Hanging Up the White Coat’: The Disgusted Obamacare Letter From a Former Health Care Worker to President Obama


A former health care worker and political activist has penned an open letter to President Barack Obama saying he has abandoned his dream of going into medicine, and it’s all because of the Affordable Care Act.
Michael Gordon Lotfi wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama declaring he will no longer be going into medicine because of Obamacare (image source: Facebook)

“I remember the day Obamacare became law. I was sitting in the hospital working in the anesthesia department part-time to cover the costs of tuition. Dr. Alfery, a mentor of mine, looked over at me and said, ‘Run– It’s not too late to change majors,’” Michael Gordon Lotfi wrote in the letter, which was first posted online last week and has been viewed more than 86,331 times.

He continued: “Your legislation has caused countless doctors to go into retirement early, opt for cash-only practices, and has discouraged bright, young minds from entering the field.”

Lotfi, who graduated from the nursing program at Belmont University in Tennessee in May, is the associate director for the Tenth Amendment Center, a think tank that advocates for a limited federal government.

He told TheBlaze he spent three years as an anesthesiologist technician, but said in his letter he cannot continue in the health care field “with clear conscience” as a result of the new law.

“I have decided that I believe in the principles of a truly free market, and I trust the free market. Because of this deep, internal value system I cannot, with clear conscience, continue on this path. My life has value. Such value cannot be calculated by Washington bureaucrats. I won’t allow it. Only a true free-market can accurately assess the value I am capable of,” he wrote.

He said in concluding the letter: “Mr President, I’m leaving the medical field. I’m hanging up the white coat. However, let me be clear. You have not won. Unless something ‘changes,’ you’ve lost and will continue to lose. You will fail because you lack principle. Meanwhile, we will succeed because we are born of principle.”

Asked to explain that final passage, Lofti told TheBlaze: “America since its inception is a nation of laws.”

“We’ve really come away from that. So my statement to Obama, with the idea of that principle that we’re a nation of laws, is that he is not a man of principle,” he said. “When you don’t base your decisions and actions on principles, it opens the door to for other people with different principles or ideologies to come in and change the nation. And that’s exactly what we had with Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain and (South Carolina Republican Sen.) Lindsey Graham. They are not men of principles.”

Lotfi is a former consultant to Nancy Mace, Sen. Graham’s primary challenger.

“Republicans and Democrats alike are not men of principle,” he said.

You can read the entire letter below:

Barack Hussein ObamaThe White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
N.W.Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President,
I was born at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. My mother would later take a jobdelivering babies in that same operating room only a couple years later. My parents got a divorce when Iwas young. There were many times during the summer when she would be forced to take my sister andme to work with her. I vividly remember the child version of myself walking the halls of the same floor Iwas born on in fascination as the years passed. The anesthesiologists used to bring us candy and watchmovies with us. When the holidays came, a nurse by the name of Patty Vaughn (we called her Granny),would have bags of presents for my sister and me. Donna Smith, a surgical first assistant who came toAmerica from Canada to work in a free-market healthcare system, use to babysit us.

Donna’s two-story town-home became a 3rd home (2nd was the hospital). We spent countless nights ather house.

Patty passed away when I was ten. I still remember the last box of moon pies she gave me for Halloweenthat year. To this day every time I see a moon pie I think of her. Donna helped me through my undergrad at Belmont University. With tuition at $30k/year money was tight. Donna never let me go without a meal.

You see Mr. President, the smell of sterile operating rooms, horrible coffee, crisp white coats, and cold metal was my destiny. The first time someone ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I
responded, “Anesthesiologist”. I had no idea what they even did, but it was the first big word I learned
to pronounce as a 6-year-old. The hospital is my family. It’s all I’ve ever known.

Twenty-one years after my birth, in the same hospital, I listened to a fetal heart beat through my very
own stethoscope as a student. You know, it’s quite magical. As the cool, metallic bell lies upon the tight skin of a young mother’s stomach anxiety, fear and joy are all present in her face.
A week before my birthday I stood at the side of the laboring mother. There’s no other way to explain childbirth than witnessing the face of God. The emotion is enveloping. You can only try (unsuccessfully) to hold the tears back. I knew at that moment what a gift God had given me. To be allowed the involvement of such a beautiful, pure moment was not to be unappreciated.

When I started college I knew where I was going. You had just won the election. I remember the
cameras focusing in on Oprah Winfrey’s face. Tears streamed down. At the time, I knew nothing about politics. My biggest concern was a girl in my Anatomy & Physiology class I had a crush on. I paid little attention to Washington DC.

Featured image via shutterstock.com
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