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Obamacare Train Wreck Looms for Uninsured

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Joshua Roberts

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Joshua Roberts

By Joel Himelfarb. Americans face mounting Obamacare-mandated penalties if they cannot prove to the Internal Revenue Service’s satisfaction that they had health insurance during the previous year, Fox News reports.

The law mandates a tax penalty of $95 per person or 1 percent of household income, whichever is more, for those who went without insurance during 2014. It increases to $325 for 2015 or 2 percent of income, whichever is higher. By 2016, the average penalty is expected to be about $1,100.

Government figures indicate that tens of millions of Americans remain uninsured. But it is unclear how aggressive the IRS will be in attempting to collect from those Americans deemed to be scofflaws.

The law currently lists about 30 different exemptions, most of them related to financial hardship. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Then-Senator Obama Smokes a Cigarette During First Meeting With Gruber on Obamacare

By Patrick Howley. Then-Senator Barack Obama took a cigarette break during his first “educational” meeting with Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber on health care reform.

The Daily Caller extensively reported on Obama’s 2009 Oval Office meeting with Gruber to design the Obamacare bill. Obama famously called Gruber, who called the American people “stupid,” just “some adviser who was never on our staff.” But their relationship pre-dated that meeting by several years

As Gruber faces a call-back from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the new year, and continues to withhold documents about his work for Obama, records show that Gruber served as Obama’s early health care mentor in a 2006 meeting in Obama’s Senate office. Gruber, who was linked to the Ted Kennedy-led health reform push in Massachusetts, got Obama up to speed before the Illinois senator ran for president. (Read more about the impending Obamacare train wreck HERE)

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Gruber Said Obamacare Would not be Affordable in 2009

President Obama’s health care adviser Jonathan Gruber said that the Affordable Care Act would definitely not be affordable while he was writing the bill with the White House.

As Gruber continues to withhold documents while he awaits a call-back for more testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the new year, more shocking information is coming to light detailing the deceptions that went into the writing of the health-care law.

Gruber said that Obamacare had no cost controls in it and would not be affordable in an October 2009 policy brief, presented here exclusively by TheDC. At the time, Gruber had already personally counseled Obama in the Oval Office and served on Obama’s presidential transition team. Obama, meanwhile, told the American people that their premiums would go down dramatically. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Obamacare Taxpayer Funded Insurance Company Insolvent

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Don't Tread On ObamacareAn Obamacare-created and taxpayer-funded insurance company in Iowa has been taken over by the state due to a financial crisis.

CoOportunity Health is Iowa’s insurance cooperative — a nonprofit insurance company created by the Affordable Care Act to supposedly undercut the large, for-profit insurers that Democrats castigated as “greedy” and “evil” during the debate over health care reform.

After just beginning to offer plans in 2013, the company’s already insolvent and has now been taken over by the state of Iowa, insurance commissioner Nick Gerhart announced Wednesday. CoOpportunity doesn’t have enough cash on hand to be sure it can pay claims for its 120,000 customers, if necessary. The company has only $17 million in cash and assets, Gerhart said.

The federal government’s Obamacare administrator the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services initially gave CoOportunity a $112 million loan award in Feb. 2012, but doled out an additional $32.7 million emergency award to keep the company solvent in September of this year.

That wasn’t enough to keep it in business. CoOpportunity’s management expected to receive more federal money than they did, putting them in continuing financial peril.

Read more about how this Obamacare taxpayer funded insurance company went insolvent HERE.

Small Businesses Dropping Healthcare Coverage, Shifting Employees to ObamaCare

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Credit - Getty Images

Credit – Getty Images

For two decades Atlanta restaurant owner Jim Dunn offered a group health plan to his managers and helped pay for it. That ended Dec. 1, after the Affordable Care Act made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Health-law subsidies for workers to buy their own coverage combined with years of rising costs in the company plan made dropping the plan an obvious – though not easy – choice.

“I had a lot of regrets going into it,” Dunn, who owns three Italian Oven restaurants in suburban Atlanta, said of his decision. “I don’t think I have as many now — only because I’ve seen the affordability factor for my managers improve.”

Dunn and five managers are now covered under individual plans bought on healthcare.gov. How many other owners make the same decision will help set the future of small-business health insurance. Although the evidence so far is mixed, brokers expect more firms to follow in the next few years.

Companies like Dunn’s — those with fewer than 50 workers — provide medical coverage to roughly 20 million people. Unlike larger employers, they have no obligation under the health law to offer a plan. Now they often have good reason not to.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Still Hasn't Approved Necessary Paperwork for Individual Mandate

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

Americans have to be prepared for an increased individual mandate tax to hit in just two weeks, but the White House still hasn’t gotten around to approving the Internal Revenue Service paperwork on the requirement…

The IRS’ workload was upped drastically by the individual mandate, which will require Americans to submit a tax form proving they have health insurance or pay a growing fine to the agency. It appears the Obama administration was running behind on the paperwork requirements as well as pretty much everything else.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Viable Alternative to ObamaCare

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Credit - Jim Ruymen/Newscom

Credit – Jim Ruymen/Newscom

In the wake of Republican mid-term electoral victories, and with support for the president’s health care law registering new lows in the Gallup survey, it is time to consider what a “repeal and replace” strategy for Obamacare might actually look like.

While it is true that the politics and timing remain fluid, it is still possible to outline substantive changes.

At the top of the list would be replacing the Obamacare premium tax credits for exchange coverage with a new health care tax credit design that is broader, fairer and simpler.

Obamacare provides substantial subsidies for buying health insurance but only to individuals who have incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and only if they purchase coverage through a government-run exchange. Individuals with access to employer-sponsored coverage are ineligible for the new subsidies, and the law fines employers with 50 or more full-time workers if they do not offer coverage. Furthermore, even when someone qualifies for a premium tax credit, calculating the correct amount is absurdly complicated. The amount varies based not only on the recipient’s income but also according to the size of his family and the cost of the “reference plan” in the county of residence. There are more than 3,000 counties in the U.S.

The fairly obvious move would be to replace that complicated design with a uniform tax credit for health insurance available to all Americans. That way those with access to employer coverage could apply the credit to their employer’s plan, and all the employer would have to do is adjust the worker’s tax withholding to reflect the credit. Those who buy coverage on their own simply could authorize their insurer to collect the credit on their behalf and then bill them for the portion of the premium not covered by the credit.

Read more from this story HERE.

Poll: Record 58 Percent of Americans Want ObamaCare Repealed.

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BarackObamaAccording to a brand new Fox News poll, a record 58 percent of Americans want to see Obamacare repealed. Further, Americans believe deception was used by Obama administration officials to pass the law in 2010.

The poll includes a hypothetical vote question that asks people to choose between only two options: keeping ObamaCare in place and repealing it. A 58-percent majority would vote to repeal the law, while 38 percent would keep it. That’s up from 53 percent a year ago — and a record high number backing repeal (and a record low number in favor of leaving it in place)…

The poll comes just after Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, who infamously called American voters “stupid,” testified on Capitol Hill about the lack of transparency and deceptive, “tortured” language used in the legislation to hide taxes and redistribution of wealth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmaker to Gruber – 'Get Over Your D-mn Glibness.'

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Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 10.16.19 PMRepublican Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming shared the heartbreaking story of her husband’s death today and outlined how the glitches in Obamacare have real-life consequences for Americans, including her.

Lummis spoke about her own experiences with the Affordable Care Act during a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing, which focused on the transparency of Obamacare. Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Jonathan Gruber, a key architect of the law, testified.

The Wyoming Republican and her late husband, Alvin Wiederspahn, received health insurance through the new law. However, the couple encountered glitches in the system and were told they were not enrolled when they went to file claims.

Read more from this story HERE.

More Proof Obamacare Is Increasing Coverage, but Not Access to Health Care

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ELDERLY AMERICANS DRUGS MEDICATION SENIORS HEALTHMany of Obamacare’s beneficiaries have already discovered or will eventually discover that there’s a big difference between insurance coverage and access to health care services.

Today, the New York Times highlighted a report by the Department of Health and Human Services that shows access to care in the Medicaid program is very limited.

The study, conducted between July 2013 and October 2013, concludes that more than half of providers could not offer appointments to Medicaid managed care enrollees with 35 percent of providers listed under an erroneous location. Nor were those the only issues, according to the report:

Among the providers who offered appointments, the median wait time was 2 weeks. However, over a quarter had wait times of more than 1 month, and 10 percent had wait times longer than 2 months. Finally, primary care providers were less likely to offer an appointment than specialists; however, specialists tended to have longer wait times.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Few White Lies: Gruber ADMITS Obama Lied About Obamacare Costs

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Patrick Howley.

Infamous Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber told people not to read Obamacare, admitted he never knew how to control costs in the law and said he designed it by “throwing stuff at the wall” in one of his most characteristic public speeches. In between taking personal shots at conservatives, he actually thanked congressional Democrats for voting against their constituents.

As Gruber faces the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday morning, here are some classic Gruber-ish quotes from a San Francisco podcast appearance in January 2012:

Obama lied about the law and told congressmen to vote against their constituents’ wishes:

“I wish that President Obama could have stood up and said, ‘You know, I don’t know if this bill is going to control costs. It might, it might not. We’re doing our best. But let me tell you what it’s going to do…” (goes on to explain that some people would die without insurance) (49:55)

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Tea Party Patriots

Photo Credit: Tea Party Patriots

Gruber to face hostile House panel, tea party ‘I’m with Stupid’ T-shirts

By Tom Howell Jr.

A tea party group said its members will greet Jonathan Gruber, the man at the center of Obamacare’s troubled public image, with T-shirts reading “I’m with Stupid” when he shows up to defend himself Tuesday before what’s likely to be a hostile congressional panel.

Republicans call Mr. Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a key architect of the Affordable Care Act, while Democrats are rushing to put distance between them and their erstwhile star after several rounds of caught-on-tape remarks about the “stupidity of the American voter” and the need to game budget rules to pass Obamacare were made public.

The T-shirts, which were produced by Tea Party Patriots, are another symbol of how controversial Mr. Gruber has become as he prepares to face the House oversight committee.

“With all that’s going on in the Capitol, we didn’t want Mr. Gruber’s curtain call to go unnoticed,” said Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots co-founder. “We commemorated his appearance, and in the spirit of the Season, we’d like to offer the Obamacare architect a dozen. He can use them as stocking stuffers for the economically unsophisticated.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obamacare's Destruction of Primary Care Doctors Continues

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Before Obamacare was pushed through Congress in 2010 by Democrats unwilling to consider opposition voices to the legislation, conservatives and doctors repeatedly warned the bill would destroy the ability for physicians to properly function inside a government controlled system. Those warnings went unheeded and now patients and those in need of medical care are experiencing even less access to primary care doctors specifically assigned to them under new healthcare regulations. From AP:

When Olivia Papa signed up for a new health plan last year, her insurance company assigned her to a primary care doctor. The relatively healthy 61-year-old didn’t try to see the doctor until last month, when she and her husband both needed authorization to see separate specialists.

She called the doctor’s office several times without luck.

“They told me that they were not on the plan, they were never on the plan and they’d been trying to get their name off the plan all year,” said Papa, who recently bought a plan from a different insurance company.

Read more from this story HERE.