New Health Insurance Marketplaces Signing Up Few Uninsured Americans

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Photo Credit: APThe new health insurance marketplaces appear to be making little headway in signing up Americans who lack insurance, the Affordable Care Act’s central goal, according to a pair of new surveys.

Only one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private plans through the newmarketplaces enrolled as of last month, one of the surveys shows. The other found that about half of uninsured adults have looked for information on the online exchanges or planned to look.

The snapshots from the surveys released Thursday provide preliminary answers to what has been one of the biggest mysteries since HealthCare.gov and separate state marketplaces opened last fall: Are they attracting their prime audience?

The findings emerge as the Obama administration has been revising a series of rules that define how the 2010 law works in practice. According to a variety of health-policy experts who support and oppose the law, the changes are in response to consumer hesitancy and political opposition that linger — at least, in the early going — as the law’s major provisions have taken effect.

The rule changes postpone or relax aspects of the law, sometimes to adjust for technical problems, other times to push into the future controversies that have arisen from specific groups of consumers or parts of the health care industry.

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IRS Hearing, ObamaCare Changes Make American Nation of Men, Not of Laws

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Photo Credit: Reuters On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the IRS’ targeting of conservative non-profit applicants. The hearing, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), quickly devolved into chaos after former IRS official Lois Lerner repeatedly used the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about her involvement in the targeting. When Issa rose for adjournment, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) went berserk: “I am tired of this. You cannot just have a one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with that, and it is absolutely un-American.” When Issa maintained that Cummings had asked no questions, Cummings said, “Chairman, what are you hiding?”

Afterward, Issa approached the media and explained, “He was talking into a mic in an adjourned meeting. The fact is Mr. Cummings came to make a point of his objections to the process we have been going through. He was actually slandering me at the moment that the mics did go off by claiming that this had not been a real investigation.”

But Cummings does not care about the truth. Nor does he care about the rise of an arbitrary and capricious executive branch willing to manipulate the law at will. For too many Democrats, America under President Obama has become a government of men, not of laws – and they’re just fine with that.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) revealed on Wednesday that the Obama administration lied when it said that Obama aides would cooperate with the investigation into the IRS scandal. Instead, the Obama administration has claimed that the IRS scandal is in fact a non-scandal – a “phony scandal,” in the words of White House press secretary Jay Carney. Camp pointed out that the committee still did not have Lerner’s full emails. “I still don’t have all for the documents that I’ve requested,” Camp stated. “The administration promised a quick action, and I’m still waiting for her emails. I need all of those, before I can conclude.”

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First Lady To Obamacare Counselors: ‘You Are Doing God’s Work’

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Photo Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty ImagesWith just weeks left to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act, Michelle Obama zeroed in on recruiting the crucial young adult demographic during a visit to a Miami community health center Wednesday.

The first lady congratulated a handful of residents who had just enrolled during an intimate event, asking one woman whether she had gotten her son to enroll.

“Tell him he could get hit by a car. It’s crazy. They don’t think about that kind of stuff,” said Obama, who moments later applauded another mother for signing herself and adult son up for insurance plans. “Did you get his friends?”

“We have our most precious people walking around here at any point time being hit by a car or being struck by an unforeseen illness and they will not be able to get the care they need when it costs so little. … We need people to make sure we reach out to the young people in our lives.”

Insurers are counting on the business of the so-called “young invincibles” to offset the costs of covering older, sicker enrollees. The Obama administration has been hotly courting the crucial 18- to 34-year-old demographic through social media campaigns and celebrity endorsements.

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The Dark Side of Antibiotics

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Photo Credit: mRio/FlickrThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants hospitals to issue fewer prescriptions for antibiotics. Why? Because the drugs that are supposed to make people feel better are being abused, actually causing illness, and hastening the arrival of infections for which medicine has no cure.

That’s not to say the CDC wants to cut the drugs from treatment entirely. A bacterial infection still requires antibiotics. Rather, the CDC wants to stifle the approximately 30 percent to 50 percent of antibiotic treatments that the organization deems unnecessary or inappropriate. The CDC also want doctors to make smarter dosing decisions when antibiotic use is appropiate.

Antibiotics can cause CDI (C. difficile infection), a diarrhea “that often recurs and can progress to sepsis and death,” as the CDC report released Tuesday reads. CDI occurs when antibiotics throw off the natural balance of healthy bacteria in the digestive tract.

In the study, the CDC predicted that decreasing antibiotic use by 30 percent would lead to a 26 percent decrease in CDI. By the CDC’s estimate, that would improve the outcomes of 65,000 people. Furthermore, the center found that one in three prescriptions for urinary tract infections contained a potential error (“given without proper testing or evaluation, or given for too long”), and some hospitals prescribe antibiotics at rates three times as high as others.

But those problems seem small when you consider the looming threat of the overuse of antibiotics—the rise in diseases that do not respond to the drugs at all.

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Republicans Fight Dem Efforts to Punish Issa for IRS Hearing Actions

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Photo Credit: APHouse Republicans are fending off aggressive efforts by Democrats to punish Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., for cutting off a Democratic congressman during a heated hearing on the IRS targeting scandal.

The House voted Thursday afternoon to block a resolution that would formally chastise the chairman of the House oversight committee for his conduct at Wednesday’s hearing.

The vote was along party lines, 211-186, with 10 members voting present. Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, had offered the resolution, which called Issa’s behavior “offensive and disrespectful.”

Fudge also penned a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging the speaker to strip Issa of his chairmanship “immediately.”

“Congressman Darrell Issa of California abused his authority and therefore must be reprimanded to ensure the dignity of the House of Representatives is preserved,” Fudge wrote, calling him a “disgrace.”

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Report: Local Police Tap Cell Phones

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Photo Credit: Watchdog The National Security Agency apparently isn’t the only government agency engaged in domestic spying.

Local law enforcement is playing the role of Big Brother, too, but to what extent is still unknown.

Recent court documents reveal a troubling cell phone surveillance program conducted by a Florida police department against unsuspecting cell phone users.

Attempts to keep the practice secret, even from judges, is raising questions as to just how prevalent police spying is within the Sunshine State.

The controversy stems from the arrest of James L. Thomas, a criminal suspect believed to be in possession of a stolen phone. Tallahassee police located and arrested Thomas by tracking a cell phone signal, then promptly searched his home.

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Issa Questions Lerner About IRS Motives; She Pleads the Fifth Again (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn KasterLois Lerner, former director of IRS exempt organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights again Wednesday before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the IRS targeting American citizens for their political beliefs.

“On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question,” Lerner said in response to a slew of questions by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) regarding the IRS targeting of tea party and conservative groups.

Issa read a statement that Lerner made on Oct. 19, 2010 that said, “The Supreme Court dealt a huge blow, overturning a 100-year-old precedent that basically corporations couldn’t give directly to political campaigns. And everyone is up in arms because they don’t like it. The Federal Election Commission can’t do anything about it. They want the IRS to fix the problem.”

“What exactly ‘wanted to fix the problem caused by Citizen United,’ what exactly does that mean?” Issa asked Lerner.

“My counsel has advised me that I have not waived my constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment, and on his advice, I will decline to answer any question on the subject matter of this hearing,” Lerner said.

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Senate Votes to Block Obama’s Controversial DOJ Civil Rights Nominee

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In a surprisingly strong vote, the Senate on Wednesday blocked President Barack Obama’s controversial choice to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

The bipartisan rejection came after the widow of a slain Philadelphia officer pleaded with senators to vote “no.”

On a 47 to 52 tally, Republicans were joined by seven Democrats voting to continue a filibuster of Debo Adegbile’s nomination for the influential post, which enforces the nation’s anti-discrimination laws.

Under new Senate rules that were put in place by the Democrats who control the chamber, only 51 votes were needed to overcome the filibuster, not the 60 that used to be required.

Critics charged Adegbile helped turn the appeals process for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was found guilty in 1981 of killing police officer Daniel Faulkner, into a racially-charged political cause, and, in doing so, went far beyond his duties as a lawyer.

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Administration Offers 2-Year ObamaCare Extension for Canceled Health Plans

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Photo Credit: Fox News The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will let people keep health insurance plans that would otherwise be out of compliance with ObamaCare for another two years, in a delay Republicans portrayed as an election-year ploy.

The administration had already given people a one-year reprieve after millions had their health plans canceled last year, despite President Obama’s promises that people could keep their plans if they wanted. The so-called “fix” was meant to ease the transition as well as the political headache for Democrats — but the “fix,” and the latest extension, will have limited impact, since it is up to individual insurance companies and state commissioners whether to re-offer canceled policies.

Republicans blasted the latest announcement as another sign the health law is faltering and Democrats want political cover. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the move “reeks of politics.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “desperate move to protect vulnerable Democrats in national elections later this year.”

“By announcing a new delay in requiring that policies meet minimum coverage standards, the administration avoids a new round of health policy cancellations set to hit shortly before the November elections,” he said in a statement.

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Top Generals Identify Major Shortfalls In Nation’s Defense Capabilities

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Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY — Abaca Press/MCTThe nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years.

Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars.

“The smaller and less capable military outlined in the QDR makes meeting these obligations more difficult,” he said. “Most of our platforms and equipment will be older, and our advantages in some domains will have eroded. Our loss of depth across the force could reduce our ability to intimidate opponents from escalating conflicts.”

Dempsey added: “Moreover, many of our most capable allies will lose key capabilities. The situation will be exacerbated given our current readiness concerns, which will worsen over the next three or four years.”

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