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Enrollment in Obamacare Very Small in First Days

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Photo Credit: Brian Snyder, ReutersEnrollment in health insurance plans on the troubled Obamacare website was very small in the first couple of days of operation, with just 248 Americans signing up, according to documents released on Thursday by a U.S. House of Representatives committee.

The Obama administration has said it cannot provide enrollment figures from HealthCare.gov because it doesn’t have the numbers. The federal website, where residents of 36 states can buy new healthcare plans under President Barack Obama’s law, was launched on October 1.

“We do not have any reliable data around enrollment, which is why we haven’t given it to date,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told lawmakers on Wednesday.

But the documents, which are labeled “war room” notes and appear to be summaries of issues with the problematic website beginning on October 2, indicate a mere six enrollments had occurred by that morning – the day after the website was launched and almost immediately crashed.

“High capacity on the website, direct enrollment not working,” the October 2 notes said. By later that day, “approximately 100” enrollments had taken place.

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Obamacare On Trial: ‘You Deserve Better. I Apologize,’ Sebelius Says (+video)

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/APHealth and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized to the American people Wednesday for the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov – the web portal that is key to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“You deserve better. I apologize,” Secretary Sebelius said in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I am accountable to you for fixing these problems, and I’m committed to earning your confidence back by fixing the site.”

But even as she insisted that the site’s problems are fixable, the optics could not have been worse: The site was down, yet again, due to technical difficulties (though not HHS’s fault). Uninsured Americans have until Dec. 15 to sign up for coverage that goes into effect Jan. 1, the date the mandate to carry insurance starts.

The administration has promised HealthCare.gov will be functioning smoothly by Nov. 30, a month away, but has said it will reveal preliminary numbers of enrollees sooner – by mid-November. Even now, Sebelius admitted, the feature of the site that transmits the data of enrollees to insurers is still not working.

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In Health Care Mess, Obama Reaps What He Sowed

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Photo Credit: Washington ExaminerGiven the Affordable Care Act’s multiple crises in its first month of implementation, there’s no way President Obama and his fellow Democrats could be having a good time right now. But imagine if, instead of passing national health care legislation with only Democratic votes in 2009 and 2010, the president had won even a little Republican support for his health scheme. What if Obamacare had passed with ten GOP votes in the Senate and 30 or 40 in the House? If that had happened, the program would still be a mess, but Obama’s political problems would be far less serious.

If Obama had 10 Republican senators and 30 or 40 GOP representatives on his side, those lawmakers would be invested in the program’s success. And the GOP would be effectively divided on Obamacare, instead of solidly united. Some Republican lawmakers would likely favor approving additional money for implementing the troubled program, or perhaps favor holding off on vigorous oversight for a while, or at least not attacking 24-hours-a-day. Instead, Obama is facing a solid wall of Republican opposition.

There’s a story about First Lady Hillary Clinton’s attempt to pass a national health care plan back in 1993 and 1994. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the old Democratic senator, told her that such far-reaching legislation had to pass with a really big majority to make sweeping changes in American life. “They pass 70-to-30, or they fail,” Moynihan told Clinton, according to a recent account by Todd Purdum in Politico.

Back in 1993, the Senate had 57 Democrats, meaning a major bill would have needed 13 Republican votes to pass Moynihan’s test. As it turned out, Clinton ignored Moynihan’s advice and her health care scheme went down in flames.

Read more from this story HERE.

Romney Rejects White House Effort to Compare Mass. Health Law Rollout to ObamaCare

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Photo Credit: APMitt Romney had an unmistakable message for President Obama on Wednesday: Don’t drag me into this.

The president was in Boston, giving a speech at historic Faneuil Hall and drew on comparisons between the Massachusetts law and the problem-plagued Affordable Care Act.

During his speech, Obama acknowledged the problems with ObamaCare and apologized for his clunky rollout.

“There’s no denying it, right now the website is too slow, too many people have gotten stuck and I’m not happy about it,” Obama said.

Obama, in accounting for the troubled launch of ObamaCare, cited the Massachusetts health care law’s slow start in an effort to keep expectations low. Romney, as governor, signed that law in 2006.

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There are Lies, Damned Lies and Democrats

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Steny Hoyer certainly is a creative man. Asked about Barack Obama’s promise that everyone would be able to keep his health coverage if he liked it and the recent revelation that the Democrats knew all along that millions of Americans would lose their health plans under ObamaCare, he had an answer.

“I think the message [the promise] was accurate. It was not precise enough…[it] should have been caveated with – ‘assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do,'” reports National Review.

My, that’s rich. Almost Frank Rich.

Since Hoyer’s lie about a lie speaks for itself, let’s just have a little fun here. Try this on for size:

Subject: “But you said that if we supported your law, no one would lose his freedom of speech!”

Leader: “My message was accurate. It just wasn’t precise enough. It should have been caveated with, ‘assuming you agree with me.'”

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Shocking Obama Videos Reveal Real Goal: Transition

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Photo Credit: APThe Obamacare plan – state and federal exchanges through which Americans are ordered to buy government-specified health care plans from insurance companies that signed up to offer coverage – perhaps should be called Obamacare 1.0.

After all, President Obama himself has advocated over the years for what Americans someday could see as Obamacare 2.0 – a fully controlling, nationalized, single-payer, universal health care plan.

With the government running everything.

There already are critics of Obama and Healthcare.gov website, in fact, who contend Obamacare rollout’s spectacular failure is part of an overall strategy to make the “transition” to single-payer, that is, socialized medicine, come more quickly.

In the collage of video clips, Obama states plainly, “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan. … Everyone in, nobody out.”

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Media Knew Obama ‘Keep Your Plan’ Promise Was Phony

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Photo Credit: ReutersNBC News on Monday claimed to have uncovered evidence that President Obama knew all along that his promise that “you can keep your health plan” under ObamaCare wasn’t true. The story came out just as millions across the country are getting cancellation notices from their insurance companies.

“Buried in ObamaCare regulations from July 2010,” NBC said, is an estimate that shows “the administration knew that more than 40% to 67% of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.”

Although ObamaCare included a provision meant to grandfather health plans sold before 2010, regulators defined what “grandfathered” meant so narrowly that most plans wouldn’t qualify.

Yet Obama went on repeating this promise, saying, as he did in June 2012, that “if you’re one of the 250 million Americans who already (has) health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”

That the administration knew this wasn’t true is troubling.

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CBS News: Policy Cancellations, Higher Premiums Add to Frustration Over Obamacare (+video)

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Photo Credit: ReutersNearly five weeks into the launch of HealthCare.gov, the management expert brought in to turn around the website says its issues are fixable. But it’s going to take weeks, not days. That comes as some Americans are being surprised, not only that they are being booted off their current plans, but at how much they’re being asked to pay for new ones.

For many, their introduction to the Affordable Care Act has been negative: a broken website, and now cancellation notices from insurance companies followed by sticker shock over higher prices for the new plans. It’s directly at odds with repeated assurances from the president, who has said “if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you.”

But people across the country are finding out they’re losing their existing insurance plans under Obamacare because requirements in the law, such as prenatal and prescription drug coverage, mean their old plans aren’t comprehensive enough.

In California, Kaiser Permanente terminated policies for 160,000 people. In Florida, at least 300,000 people are losing coverage.

That includes 56-year-old Dianne Barrette. Last month, she received a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield informing her as of January 2014, she would lose her current plan. Barrette pays $54 a month. The new plan she’s being offered would run $591 a month — 10 times more than what she currently pays.

Read more from this story HERE.

NBC: Small Business Owner’s Premiums Increase By 400% Under Obamacare (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube NBC’s Lisa Myers profiled several people who are receiving health plan cancellation letters due to Obamacare Tuesday.

For example, George Schwab of North Carolina, said he was “perfectly happy” with his plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield, which also insured his wife for a $228 monthly premium. But this past September, he was surprised to receive a letter saying his policy was no longer available.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrat Aide Does About-Face on Obamacare

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Photo Credit: WND After defending Obamacare from the vilest of insults from angry citizens, a former Democrat congressional aide says that she’s finally given up and admitted that she was wrong.

What prompted the turnabout?

Sue Klinkhamer is one of an estimated millions who, contrary to President Obama’s famous promise, has received, or is about to receive, a policy-cancellation notice.

After getting hers in the mail, she fired off an email to her former boss, Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., and other Democratic colleagues, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Klinkhamer wrote: “I spent two years defending Obamacare. I had constituents scream at me, spit at me and call me names that I can’t put in print.”

Read more from this story HERE.