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No, Obama Has Not Offered A Plan On Entitlements

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Photo Credit: Mark WilsonDuring a Friday news conference, a reporter asked President Obama whether he had any responsibility for the onset of the automatic spending cuts that he has warned will be devastating for the nation. “The problem that we have is a long-term problem in terms of our health care costs and programs like Medicare,” Obama said in his response. “And what I’ve said very specifically, very detailed is that I’m prepared to take on the problem where it exists — on entitlements — and do some things that my own party really doesn’t like — if it’s part of a broader package of sensible deficit reduction.”

Obama is correct that entitlements in general and health care programs in particular are the biggest source of the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. But it’s a complete falsehood that he’s offered detailed and specific plans to do something about it.

At various times during his presidency, Obama has vowed to tackle the nation’s entitlement programs. It’s true that his health care law did cut projected Medicare spending by about $700 billion over a decade. But those projected savings, along with tax increases, were used to offset $1.7 trillion in new health care spending under Obamacare rather than go toward debt reduction. In other words, they don’t fix any of the program’s structural fiscal problems.

Since Republicans took over Congress in 2011, Obama has consistently said he’d be willing to address entitlements if Republicans agreed to raise taxes — but he’s either spoken vaguely about this willingness or offered proposals that represent minor tweaks to the programs rather than fundamental changes that would put them on a sustainable financial trajectory. For instance, during the “fiscal cliff” debate, Obama floated the idea of changing the measure of inflation used to calculate Social Security benefits — a move that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would save $127 billion over a decade.

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Family Meeting – Must See Video

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This video is a few days old, but it’s worth your time this weekend. We all love our pets, right ? But as they get old, medical expenses can really cut into the budget. While we hate to part with them, it’s of course inevitable, and often expensive. The wise decision might be to forgo the expensive procedure(s), saving the money for other critical household expenses.

If you’ve ever had a pet, you will appreciate this video. If not, if you’ve ever been PART of a family, you will appreciate this. Trust me.

The ObamaCare War On Marriage

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Photo Credit: Human Events“Companies have a new solution to rising health-insurance costs: Break up their employees’ marriages,” says the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch:

By denying coverage to spouses, employers not only save the annual premiums, but also the new fees that went into effect as part of the Affordable Care Act. This year, companies have to pay $1 or $2 “per life” covered on its plans, a sum that jumps to $65 in 2014. And health law guidelines proposed recently mandate coverage of employees’ dependent children (up to age 26), but husbands and wives are optional. “The question about whether it’s obligatory to cover the family of the employee is being thought through more than ever before,” says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health.

But… but… “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”

Such exclusions barely existed three years ago, but experts expect an increasing number of employers to adopt them: “That’s the next step,” Darling says. HMS, a company that audits plans for employers, estimates that nearly a third of companies might have such policies now. Holdouts say they feel under pressure to follow suit. “We’re the last domino,” says Duke Bennett, mayor of Terre Haute, Ind., which is instituting a spousal carve-out for the city’s health plan, effective July 2013, after nearly all major employers in the area dropped spouses.

MarketWatch cites anecdotal evidence that some people are dropping their personal coverage so they can migrate to joint coverage provided by companies that do continue to offer it. That’s a nice near-term solution… if you happen to be married to someone who works for such a company. In the longer-term, what happens to the remaining plans that offer spousal coverage, after they’ve attracted all of those expensive spouses?

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Dread Scott Decision-Florida Governor Caves On Obamacare

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Photo Credit: Irish CentralLongtime foe of Obamacare, Florida Governor Rick Scott, did an about face and agreed to implement the first step of it yesterday. The Governors decision shocked many republican leaders around the country as many of them jostle with the unpopular health care program.

Many republicans and conservatives derided the governor for his decision. The conservative group, Americans For Prosperity released this statement:

“Governor Scott’s announcement today is extremely disappointing. Governor Scott had been a national leader in the fight against President Obama’s health care takeover. He was elected because of his principled conservative leadership against ObamaCare’s overreach, and led the charge, with Attorney General Pam Bondi, to take Obamacare to the Supreme Court. But today he came out in support of the Medicaid expansion he vowed to oppose.”

But Fox News contributor, Dr. Charles Krauthammer said that Governor Scott sees this as the best decision for his state. Dr. Krauthammer said it was “an honorable decision to make.”

Perhaps it was the promise of no cost to Florida for the first three years and then only a 10% payment for it in the 4th year.

Perhaps it was the realization he has lost every battle to overturn Obamacare since its unpopular inception and he might as well accept that it has been mandated the law of the land.

Losing the battle in the Supreme Court struck a huge blow against opponents of Obamacare, but Mitt Romney’s loss to Obama in the election basically guaranteed Obamacare was the law of the land.

Although Obamacare is the law of the land and is being heralded as such, there is much doubt the country can actually afford to pay for it.

The nation is already 16 trillion in debt and piling on billions more debt on a daily basis, without adding all of the upcoming expense of Obamacare.

Governor Scott is a pragmatist and no one thinks his motives are anything but for the best interests of his state. So perhaps his decision is based on a belief that Obamacare will eventually collapse upon itself and he might as well get as much of the free benefits that he can before they are gone.

Governor Scott is only the seventh republican governor to accept the Obamacare mandate, but this might edge the other Governors to follow his lead and add more burdens on the federal government to cover states Obamacare expenses. This will further strain the already out of control deficit and perhaps hasten a showdown with an economic reality the Obama administration has refused to face for the past four years.

Perhaps the Obama administration will dread the Scott decision. Time will tell.

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Obama Hands Out Free Health Care to Pakistanis

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The Obama administration is preparing to give free health care to Pakistanis even as Americans who cannot get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions soon will be rejected by domestic programs due to a lack of funds.

Pakistani nationals working at several U.S. embassies soon could get a boost in health care benefits as the U.S. State Department has begun shopping for top-tier services.

Their paychecks will not see so much as one Pakistani rupee deducted as they receive a broad variety of medical services, according to a solicitation WND located via routine database research.

The document also made clear that the selected vendor “shall insure that health care under this contract does not exclude HIV/AIDS care, or preexisting conditions.”

The State Department will subsidize an estimated 1,222 family plans and 190 single-employee plans. The family plans cover children of Pakistani employees to age 18, or age 23 if a full-time student and unmarried.

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No End To ObamaCare’s Hostility Towards Religion

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photo credit: fibonacci blueThe Obama administration is trying to convince us it has softened its contraceptive mandate, partly in an effort to calm opposition from the religious community. But the threat to religious liberty is as virulent as ever.

The administration has not budged on its plan to require that female workers and college students have free access to “reproductive services,” including sterilization procedures, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs.

And religious organizations still will pay, albeit indirectly, for the services the government is mandating. Further, thousands of private companies will be forced to pay directly for practices they abhor, in clear violation of their religious liberty.

This is not an acceptable “accommodation,” as the administration argues. Under the rule proposed on Friday, most religiously-affiliated organizations can apply to be exempt from the ObamaCare mandate.

Initially, the administration proposed exempting only churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship. But after 44 lawsuits were filed across the country by and on behalf of nonexempt hospitals, colleges, charitable organizations and others, the administration relaxed the definition in its new proposal.

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Legislation Repealing ObamaCare Tax Paid By Small Business Reintroduced

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller A bipartisan coalition of congressmen introduced legislation Friday calling for the repeal of the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) on fully-insured premium markets imposed by ObamaCare.htm” rel=”tag” target=”_blank”>Obamacare.

The tax is expected to primarily fall on small businesses and the self-employed, who are the main purchasers of fully-insured premiums. According to an earlier study, not repealing the tax could cost also cost between 125,000 and 249,000 jobs by 2021 and raise the cost of employer-sponsored insurance by 2-3 percent, a cumulative cost of nearly $5,000 per family.

“The [p]resident’s Health Care law is full of hidden tax increases. Beginning in 2014, millions of American small businesses will be subjected to a new health insurance tax (HIT) coming at a cost over $100 billion. This tax will close many small businesses and kill jobs once implemented,” Louisiana Republican Rep. Charles W. Boustany, a co-sponsor of the measure, said in a statement.

The bill, titled “The Jobs and Premium Protection Act,” is also sponsored by Democratic Utah Rep. Jim Matheson.

“We commend Representatives Boustany and Matheson for rising above the political gridlock and showing bipartisan support for small businesses and the Americans they employ,” said Jim Anderson, vice president of government affairs of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. “We look forward to working together with all members of Congress to ensure this important bipartisan legislation is passed.”

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Health Care Exchanges And The Two Americas

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Photo Credit: Reuters In the Obamacare era, there are two Americas. Half the states have refused to set up the health insurance exchanges, ignoring a Friday deadline for states to take on core requirements of the law. They’ll hand over the keys to the Obama administration, which will play an outsize and risky role in driving critical health insurance decisions that are typically the province of state governments.

Barring any surprise last minute Friday announcements, in those 25 states — nearly all led by Republican governors — the feds must set up health insurance exchanges. Enrollment starts in October, and on Jan. 1 those online marketplaces are supposed to provide affordable health coverage for millions of Americans.

Republicans who voted against the law and still clamor to repeal Obamacare believe the feds are heading for a nationwide failure.

“I have a hard time understanding how the administration expects to have exchanges up and running by Oct. 1, ” Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said Thursday.

For the administration, it’s a dangerous endeavor: the text of President Barack Obama’s health law didn’t envision widespread abdication by the states. There’s not much of a playbook for federal health officials to follow. And if it goes horribly awry, not only will the Obama administration be blamed, the entire health care law could be in trouble.

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California Lacks Doctors To Meet Demand Of National Healthcare Law

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Photo Credit: Saul Loeb Lawmakers are working on proposals that would enable physician assistants, nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists to diagnose, treat and manage some illnesses.

As the state moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama’s healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren’t enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients. Some lawmakers want to fill the gap by redefining who can provide healthcare.

They are working on proposals that would allow physician assistants to treat more patients and nurse practitioners to set up independent practices. Pharmacists and optometrists could act as primary care providers, diagnosing and managing some chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and high-blood pressure.

“We’re going to be mandating that every single person in this state have insurance,” said state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chairman of the Senate Health Committee and leader of the effort to expand professional boundaries. “What good is it if they are going to have a health insurance card but no access to doctors?”

Hernandez’s proposed changes, which would dramatically shake up the medical establishment in California, have set off a turf war with physicians that could contribute to the success or failure of the federal Affordable Care Act in California.

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Catholic Bishop: Obama Is ‘Proponent’ of What is ‘Shameful and Criminal in the Eyes of Almighty God’

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Photo Credit: AP/Eric Gay(CNSNews.com) – Nicholas DiMarzio, the Catholic bishop of the diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., says that in his zealous support for abortion, President Barack Obama has used his position not to help mothers and children in difficult circumstances but instead has been an advocate for that which “is shameful and criminal in the eyes of Almighty God.”

In his column for the diocesan newspaper The Tablet, entitled “Deeper Into the Culture of Death,” Bishop DiMarzio praises Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of slavery, and notes how far the nation has come in electing Obama as president. DiMarzio also notes the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and how Obama has promoted that decision.

“The so-called ‘pro-choice’ movement has its roots in the ideology of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, who understood her call to be one who would ‘assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit,’” states Bishop DiMarzio. “Of course, a young Barack Obama was precisely the sort of unfit child that Sanger and her allies would want to eliminate.”

“Tragically, the President has not been an advocate for those young children faced with similarly difficult circumstances,” says Bp. DiMarzio. “He has chosen to use the bully pulpit not to call upon us all to be nobler and to embrace each child, regardless of origins and circumstances; rather, he has been a proponent of an expediency that is shameful and criminal in the eyes of Almighty God.”

The bishop also discusses the Obamacare mandate that requires nearly all health care plans to offer contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs without co-pays, arguing that these rules “imposed on our Nation” would force “Catholic institutions to provide employees with medical procedures and services we believe to be in defiance of the will of God.”

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