Photo Credit: Reuters By Rick Moran.

As I’ve written previously, the “news” that so many million Americans have signed up for Obamacare is meaningless. It’s the law. If you don’t sign up, you pay a fine. Why this is considered a big deal – 4 million Obamacare enrollees – is a function of politics, not reality.

The Hill:

Approximately 4 million people have purchased insurance through the ObamaCare exchanges, President Obama told volunteers at an Organizing for Action summit in Washington on Tuesday.

“We now have more than 4 million Americans who have signed up for quality, affordably health insurance,” Obama said. “Four million. That’s on top of the 3 million young people who have been able to get covered staying on their parents plan… you’ve already made sure people all across America are getting better coverage.”

The announcement, which came with just five weeks left in the early enrollment period, means some 700,000 have enrolled in ObamaCare so far in February. Earlier this month, the Obama administration said just under 3.3 million people had selected coverage through the end of January.

But the number of people who have actually purchased coverage is likely significantly lower. Analysts estimate that as many as 20 percent of enrollees haven’t paid their first month’s premium, meaning roughly 800,000 of that 4 million do not actually have insurance coverage.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin LamarquePoll: Uninsured opposition to Obamacare reaches all-time high

By Sarah Hurtubise.

Americans without health insurance have never seen Obamacare is such a negative light.

Kaiser Family Foundation’s monthly health tracking poll found that in February, 56 percent of the uninsured view the Affordable Care Act unfavorably.

The percentage of uninsured with a positive view reached its lowest point since Kaiser began tracking reactions in March 2010 when Obamacare was passed into law. Just 22 percent of uninsured Americans have a generally favorable opinion about the law.

This pessimistic outlook isn’t all that surprising. Health industry experts have found that exchanges are more often than not selling coverage to those that were previously insured. According to reports, majority of exchange customers either had their previous coverage cancelled due to Obamacare regulations or switched over willingly to access premium subsidies.

Read more this story HERE.

Photo Credit: APAgency employs Orwellian term “Shared Responsibility Payment” to describe Obamacare individual mandate tax.

President Obama’s Internal Revenue Service today quietly released a series of Obamacare “Health Care Tax Tips” warning Americans that they must obtain “qualifying” health insurance – as defined by the federal government – or face a “shared responsibility payment” when filing their tax returns in 2015. The term “shared responsibility payment” refers to the Obamacare individual mandate tax, one of at least seven tax hikes in the healthcare law that directly hit families making less than $250,000 per year.

In “Four Tax Facts about the Health Care Law for Individuals” the agency writes:

Your 2014 tax return will ask if you had insurance coverage or qualified for an exemption. If not, you may owe a shared responsibility payment when you file in 2015.

Read more this story HERE.

Let’s all go “Off The Record” for just a minute. Do you know what I find absolutely disgraceful? People laughing at other people’s fears and misfortunes, or even potential misfortunes.

But there’s something even worse than that — something more disgraceful. That’s when the ones laughing are also the very ones who caused the fears and misfortune. Case-in-point: Three politicians from Minnesota, all Democrats – two congressmen, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. Congressman Walz and Senator Klobuchar voted yes for ObamaCare. And now, well, they are laughing at what it’s doing to so many Americans. Listen to this exchange at a recent forum.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock Study: ObamaCare Taxes on Insurance Companies Will Be Pass On to Consumers

By Philip Klein.

A multibillion-dollar tax that President Obama’s health care law imposes on the insurance industry will be passed onto consumers, according to a new study by American Action Forum, costing individuals and families hundreds of dollars annually starting this year.

As one way of financing the $2 trillion cost of expanding insurance coverage, Obamacare imposes a tax on the health insurance industry, which is assessed to each insurer based on their share of annual premiums collected by the industry.

But according to the study by Robert Book of the center-right policy group American Action Forum, “insurers will have to pass most of this tax along to policyholders in the form of higher premiums, or possibly higher average out-of-pocket costs or reduced benefits.”

Read more this story HERE.