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Obamacare Requirements Will Drive Up Premiums

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner In 2007, candidate Barack Obama declared, “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.” As president, he signed national health care legislation that is formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. But according to a new report from Congressional Republicans, the law will actually cause premiums to more than double for some Americans.

The report, which is based on a compilation of independent studies on the effect of the law’s new regulations, finds that Obamacare could increase premiums by 40 percent on average and by as much as 202 percent for young adults living in Chicago.

There are several ways the health care law puts upward pressure on premiums. It requires insurers to offer coverage to everybody who applies, regardless of pre-existing conditions. It limits the amount that companies can adjust prices based on health status. It also requires that every American purchase a health insurance policy that meets federal specifications regarding the level of benefits covered. In addition, the law imposes $165 billion of tax increases on health insurance, drug manufacturers and medical device-makers. These policies work together to drive up the cost of insurance, especially on younger and healthier Americans.

It’s true that the law also offers subsidies to individuals to purchase insurance. But those subsidies are phased out for individuals earning more than $46,000. The report anticipates, “Even after receiving subsidies, Americans earning as little as $25,000 will still pay more.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Attorney General: Protest Obamacare’s Contraception Mandate by Going to Jail

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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said on a radio program Wednesday that going to jail may be an effective way to protest a mandate tied to ObamaCare that requires employers to provide contraceptive coverage.

Appearing on Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace’s syndicated show, the Republican gubernatorial candidate said civil disobedience is one way to attack the federal health care law’s requirement.

The so-called contraceptive mandate is now being challenged in a federal lawsuit by the Hobby Lobby stores. The company is primarily concerned about coverage for the morning-after pill, which some consider an abortion-causing drug.

Cuccinelli called the mandate an attack on the Roman Catholic Church and religious freedom and suggested that opponents fight back by forcing the feds to crack down on those who don’t comply.

Cuccinelli, who is Catholic, said he had spoken to a bishop who suggested he’d go to jail to protest it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Conflict-of-Interest Concerns Raised as Obama Races to Implement Health Reform

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photo credit: mlangsam2004 The Obama administration is relying heavily on outside contractors to implement a core component of healthcare reform as it races to set up a federal health insurance marketplace before 2014.

The fast-approaching deadline gives the administration little time to scrutinize private-sector partners for conflicts of interest.

The purchase of one of these contractors, Quality Software Services, Inc. (QSSI), by UnitedHealth Group, a major healthcare conglomerate, has sparked concerns about a potentially uneven playing field.

QSSI, a Maryland-based contractor, in January won a large contract to build a federal data services hub to help run the complex federal health insurance exchange. It will be working with several other contractors, including CGI Federal, Inc., to create the technological architecture for the exchange.

The quiet nature of the transaction, which was not disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has fueled suspicion among industry insiders that UnitedHealth Group may be gaining an advantage for its subsidiary, UnitedHealthcare.

Read more from this story HERE.

Real War on Women: Obamacare Reduces Women’s Health Coverage

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President Obama himself says the government has no business being involved in women’s health and what we do with our bodies ought to be our choice, but now conveniently timed “guidelines” from doctors, in partnership with the government run Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued guidelines that expand coverage for sexual behavior while reducing real women’s health care coverage, proving where the real “warn on women” lies.

Under Obamacare regulations women now only have a PAP smear covered every three years. In case you aren’t a woman, which the president isn’t, by the way, PAP smears are generally—were generally—part of an annual well-woman exam. However, after Obamacare passed, new cervical cancer screening guidelines were released and suddenly because of that, after years of annual coverage, women are now reporting going for a PAP smear and having it denied as part of their covered exam. As one article notes:

[T]he American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) teamed with the American Cancer Association and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to issue new guidelines which pushed back the age at which young women should begin to have internal pelvic exams and suggested that most women only need pap smears once every three years.

A PAP smear, which tests for abnormal (often pre-cancerous) cells, HPV, and cervical cancer, involves a quick scrape of the cervix to test cells. It takes all of 5 seconds and often saves women’s lives when something abnormal is detected.

President Obama clearly thinks PAP smears are important, or at least he keeps saying so when he insists that Planned Parenthood needs its $487 million a year from the government. He keeps saying it’s for “mammograms and cervical cancer screenings.” Well, we know he keeps lying about the mammograms when even the national media, a federal agency, and Planned Parenthood itself say it doesn’t do mammograms, but he keeps saying it. So there are no mammograms, but certainly we need to give Planned Parenthood money for cervical cancer screenings? Except the guidelines just changed this year, partly in partnership with, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and now what most women got annually they now get every 3 to 5 years. Coincidentally, this task force is a part of the HHS, the very same folks who worked on the birth control mandate and health care plan. Surprise.

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ER Doctor: Obamacare Death Panels Are Here

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Today while working my shift in the emergency room, an old lady was brought in very sick and in fact near death. I did my usual workup and evaluation and attempted to administer life saving treatment. It was my plan to admit this woman to the hospital. I found out a little later that this same woman had been a patient here just slightly more than 2 weeks ago with a DIFFERENT DIAGNOSIS. I was told that if this woman was admitted, the hospital would not be paid.

The new Medicare rule now is that if the same Medicare patient is re-admitted to the hospital within 30 days, the hospital will not be paid. When they first started this nonsense they said this only applied to patients with the same diagnosis. Now they have “expanded” the rule to include re-admissions for any reason. So if you’re in the hospital for pneumonia, and 3 weeks later, you break your leg…….too bad. Medicare will not pay the hospital to fix your leg.

A little later a man was brought in by ambulance, very sick, in pain, and near death. I did my usual evaluation and treatment, doing my best to ease pain and stabilize this man’s illness. He needed to be admitted. To my chagrin I found out that he had been treated for the SAME problem at a DIFFERENT HOSPITAL about 10 days prior. If I admitted this man, our hospital would be paid nothing. I admitted the man.

My friends I am caught in a terrible position. I could have given treatment to both of these people and sent them out. There is no doubt that both of them would have died. Oh, I could also be sued for malpractice, but nobody cares about that. That’s why we have insurance, right?

My other choice is to admit the person, knowing full well that the hospital will have to absorb the cost of care without hope of remuneration.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obamacare: Infertility Treatments, Massage Care ‘Essential’ Covered Services in Some States

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Health insurance plans being set up in Kansas under President Obama’s health care law will have to cover infertility treatments, but those in Arkansas and Colorado won’t.

Maryland plans must cover weight-loss surgery, while those in Michigan have to pay for chiropractic care. Oregon plans won’t be forced to cover either of those – officials there say that covering such procedures would make premiums too expensive for most residents.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have laid out what they consider to be the minimum coverage that must be made available to those obtaining insurance through small employers or the new state-based exchanges under the federal health care law.

Those states are grappling with the edges of medical care, debating whether infertility treatments, visits to chiropractors and time with massage therapists are considered “essential” in 21st-century medicine.

The law called for states to set rules for health care plans offered by small employers and plans offered under the state health care exchanges, where those without insurance will be able to shop for plans. The rules don’t apply to companies with 50 or more employees because those plans tend to already include a large range of benefits.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Adviser Admits That Obamacare’s Death Panels Are “Inevitable”

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A top Democrat strategist and donor who served as President Obama’s lead auto-industry adviser recently conceded that the rationing of heath services under Obamacare is “inevitable.”

Steven Rattner advocated that such rationing should target elderly patients, while stating, “We need death panels.”

Rattner serves on the board the New America Foundation, or NAF, a George Soros-funded think tank that was instrumental in supporting Obamacare in 2010. Soros’ son, financier Jonathan Soros, is also a member of the foundation’s board.

Rattner was the so-called “car czar,” the lead auto adviser to the Treasury Department under Obama.

Last month, Rattner penned an opinion piece in the New York Times titled “Beyond Obamacare” in which he proclaimed “We need death panels” and argued rationing must be instructed to sustain Obama’s health-care plan. His comments have been virtually ignored by traditional media as the president campaign’s for a second term.

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Supreme Court Justices: Skilled Charlatans, Undeserving of Public Trust & Respect?

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

The ObamaCare decision exposed the Supreme Court as an emperor without clothes. Hoping for deliverance from ObamaCare, many usual critics defended the Court. But with a new term fast approaching, a month before a critical election, Chief Justice Roberts’ handiwork should be remembered as a final wake-up call to consider, once and for all, whether the Court and judicial review merit respect, acceptance and legitimacy.

Upon Paul Ryan’s vice presidential selection, supporters noted his objection that Chief Justice Roberts had “contort[ed] logic and reason to come up with [the ObamaCare] ruling.” Such contortion is nothing unusual except for one thing. The Supreme Court, which normally operates in obscurity, could not escape a glaring spotlight this time, affording a rare opportunity to inform the public about the dark side of what many justices do. This raises questions concerning the utility of elections, what remains of our actual Constitution, the rule of law, and public acceptance of judicial review.

The Roberts opinion as well as attempts to defend it provide easily understood textbook examples of how justices have turned “interpretation” into a scam by manipulating words to mean anything in order to impose their will by authorizing what is constitutionally prohibited and prohibiting what is authorized or required.

Bluntly acknowledging, in order to challenge, the charge that Roberts is “a liar [and] coward,” devoted Roberts apologist Matthew Franck candidly clarified high stakes questions rarely presented to the public. Are all high court justices always honest? Or are many of them, often a majority, just politicians undemocratically, crassly and lawlessly imposing their personal morality based on misplaced public faith in them — blind faith similar to that once placed in witch doctors and medicine men?

If many justices are merely skilled charlatans distinguished from the latter solely by using far more sophisticated and incomprehensible mumbo jumbo, then what they do is illegitimate, their whole enterprise and institution are illegitimate, and they are not entitled to public trust and respect.

Read more from this story HERE.

Despite Earlier Promises to Repeal, Romney Plans to Keep Parts of Obamacare

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Photo credit: Ars Skeptica

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who promised early in his campaign to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, says he would keep several important parts of the overhaul.

‘Of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,’ he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ ‘One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage.’

Romney also said he would allow young adults to keep their coverage under their parents’ health-insurance.

Those provisions have been two of the more popular parts of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

‘I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan,’ Romney said. ‘And even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people.’

Read more from this article HERE.

The Real Tragedy Of ObamaCare Has Yet To Be Felt By The Poor

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One of the most tragic failings of ObamaCare is that it will make it harder for many of the most vulnerable citizens – patients with no option but Medicaid – to get care.

Medicaid is cumbersome, complex, and wasteful – already the worst health care program in the country. But rather than making changes to improve or modernize this program designed to finance care for the poor, the Obama administration is trying to convince states to add at least 16 million more people to Medicaid, including families making more than $30,000 a year.

That means the poorest and most vulnerable patients enrolled today will be competing with millions of new Medicaid patients for appointments to see a limited number of physicians. Those who have the greatest need and nowhere else to go are likely to have the hardest time getting care.

In its ruling in June, the Supreme Court made it optional for states to expand Medicaid to cover new enrollees. Even with generous federal funding, several states have said flatly they cannot afford the expansion, which would cost states at least $118 billion through 2023.

They are resisting not only because of budget concerns but also because this large Medicaid expansion could have catastrophic effects on those who provide society’s health care safety net.

Read more from this story HERE.