Tag: Health insurance

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Assurant Health Insurance Company Fined For Charging Healthy Customers Less Money

Health Insurance Company Fined For Charging Less For Healthy Customers – Weasel Zippers

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No fines for charging smokers a higher premium. Single payer here we come.

Via Helena Independent Record

A health insurance company will refund roughly $1.7 million to Montana customers who have been forced to pay what the state calls unfairly high prices.

Wisconsin-based Assurant Health finalized a settlement with the state this week agreeing to pay the restitution and a $25,000 fine.

An investigation by Montana’s Insurance Commissioner found Assurant charged lower prices for healthy customers and higher prices for about 1,600 sicker customers with the same coverage.

State law prohibits health insurance companies from imposing higher prices based on any factor other than age.

“Our allegation is that they discriminated against people who were in poor health,” said Jesse Laslovich, deputy state auditor.

The commissioner’s office found Assurant subsidiaries John Alden Life Insurance Co. and Time Insurance Co. offered a “healthy discount” of 10 percent off premiums to Montana policyholders who claimed less than $500 the previous year and completed a questionnaire.

“That $1.7 million, that represents the amount that the other people who didn’t get the discounts should have gotten,” Laslovich said. “These folks don’t know they’re getting a check in the mail, so that’s something we’re excited about.”[..]

The company announced in April that it will be leaving the national health insurance market amid declining revenue. Montana customers were notified last month.

Assurant Health’s profit began dropping when the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2010. The company attributed its projected first-quarter losses of $80 million to $90 million to higher customer claims under the ACA and a reduction in what Assurant could recover through the health law’s risk mitigation programs.

Keep reading

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Thanks Barack… 1.9 Million Americans Won’t Get Health Insurance Due To ‘Family Glitch’

Report: ‘Family Glitch’ In Obamacare To Impact 1.9 Million Americans – Washington Free Beacon

Vague language within Obamacare will result in nearly 2 million Americans being unable to afford health insurance, according to a new report by the American Action Forum (AAF).

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The so-called “family glitch” occurs when an individual is offered health insurance through their employer but the plan is not extended to the rest of their family. Due to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) interpretation of the law, other immediate family members are not eligible to receive subsidies for insurance, even if their income is below the federal poverty level.

The AAF has estimated that 1.93 million Americans will be affected by the glitch, making it “practically impossible” for them to obtain affordable health care coverage.

“The ‘Family Glitch,’ as it has become known, is an odd and particularly problematic side-effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” the report said. “Since several provisions of the law are rather ambiguous, they unfortunately combine to create a perfect storm where obtaining affordable health insurance is practically impossible.”

Under Obamacare, Americans below 138 percent of the poverty line are eligible for Medicaid coverage, and anyone up to 400 percent of the poverty level can also receive subsidies to help pay for insurance purchased through the health exchange.

However, this provision does not apply to families who have been offered employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), even if it is only offered to the individual employee.

“This provision of the law lacks clarity on the point of whether or not the coverage offered must be family coverage, or whether individual coverage is sufficient,” the AAF said. “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), through rule making, has interpreted the statute as only requiring an employer to offer individual coverage, and pegged affordability at 9.5 percent of the employee’s household income. The glitch occurs when one (or both) spouses are offered affordable individual ESI under the IRS definition, but family coverage is either not offered or is unaffordable.”

“Spouses and children of an employee offered ESI could be unable to afford the employer plan, but because it is offered to one family member, the rest are made ineligible for subsidies in the Exchanges,” the report added.

Using census data from April 2013, AAF estimated 947,000 spouses and 984,000 children could fall into this category, and left uninsured. The glitch will affect up to 428,000 women and 519,000 adult men.

If Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding expires, 2.28 million children would also be affected, according to AAF.

The provision could have unintended consequences for employees in the middle class, forcing them to not accept higher paying jobs out of fear of losing subsidy eligibility to pay for their family’s health insurance.

The AAF also said the glitch could result in families choosing to separate or divorce, in order to keep subsidies.

“The family glitch is just one of many problems that will inevitably arise from the ACA’s complete restructuring of the health care system,” the report concluded. “It is an unintended consequence that creates hardship and perverse incentives for American families struggling to obtain affordable health insurance. This year alone 1.93 million Americans will be impacted by this glitch and that number will likely increase as the employer mandate goes into effect.”

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Related article:

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Lowest-Cost Insurer Drops From Minnesota Exchange – Yahoo News

The insurance company that grabbed the most customers on Minnesota’s health care exchange by offering the lowest rates told state officials Tuesday that it’s pulling out of MNsure, a major blow to the exchange as the next open enrollment period approaches.

The decision by Golden Valley-based PreferredOne may mean higher rates and again puts the troubled exchange front-and-center in Minnesota’s governor and House elections.

MNsure officials said the company’s exit won’t affect health coverage through the state-run exchange. The state will send out notices early next month to the nearly 30,000 people who enrolled in PreferredOne through MNsure to outline the next steps – customers can transition to another MNsure health plan or renew with PreferredOne, in which case they’ll no longer be eligible for government subsidies.

PreferredOne had a cumulative total of 59 percent of the private-plan market for MNsure enrollees through early August. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota had 23 percent, HealthPartners 12, Medica 5 percent and UCare 1.

MNsure CEO Scott Leitz said he’s had no word any of the four remaining companies are mulling an exit. Open enrollment begins Nov. 15.

Despite a launch last year marred by technical problems and long call center waits, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration has called MNsure a success because it helped reduce the ranks of uninsured Minnesotans by nearly 41 percent to a record low while offering some of the lowest premium rates in the country. More than 327,000 Minnesotans have enrolled through MNsure since it went live Oct. 1, including nearly 55,000 in private plans. Most enrollees are in the publicly run Medicaid and MinnesotaCare programs for lower-income people.

In a statement, Dayton cast the company’s exit as a result of its own low rates.

PreferredOne didn’t return calls from The Associated Press.

Company spokesman Steve Peterson told KSTP-TV, which first reported the decision, that staying on MNsure wasn’t financially or administratively sustainable. The membership they gained through MNsure was small, but was taking “a significant amount of our resources” to administer, Peterson said.

Republicans called it the latest sign of systemic problems in MNsure, an issue they plan to use to bolster their election-year pitch to take back control of the House and the defeat Dayton. Rep. Joe Hoppe, R-Chaska, said Tuesday’s news makes it clear Democrats have mismanaged the state’s health care overhaul.

“If you tell your average Minnesotan that we spent $160 million to develop a website and it doesn’t work, I think it makes a pretty strong argument for new management, not only in the state House, but in the governor’s office as well,” Hoppe said.

But Leitz and MNsure board chair Brian Beutner said it was proof the exchange is working as a competitive marketplace. Both officials acknowledged the exchange’s rocky rollout, but Beutner suggested PreferredOne’s low rates led to its exit.

“They offered the lowest rates and the broadest networks offered last year. I can understand how that might impact them,” Beutner said.

It’s unclear whether PreferredOne’s exit will affect premium rates for 2015, which were already expected to increase because health care costs have been rising. The state’s Department of Commerce is expected to release an early snapshot of rates in early October, with full details to follow when open enrollment begins. The department is still reviewing rates from the four remaining providers.

Rep. Joe Atkins, an Inver Grove Heights DFLer and the lead House sponsor of the legislation that created MNsure, said he expects premiums to stay low compared with the rest of the country. He laughed off the Republican criticism as election-season politics.

Atkins said he wasn’t surprised by the announcement because he expected some losses and some additions to the online marketplace for 2015. He pointed out that despite its large market share on MNsure, PreferredOne is one of the smaller carriers in the Minnesota health insurance market.

The Dayton administration opted to set up the state-run exchange rather than have Minnesota participate under the federal exchange created by the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act.

Dayton’s GOP opponent, Jeff Johnson, blasted the governor and MNsure officials for PreferredOne’s withdrawal. If elected, Johnson said he’d sweep out the MNsure board and replace its top management.

Johnson said Dayton himself used PreferredOne’s “artificially low” rates to tout MNsure as having the lowest rates in the country.

“It was all a house of cards,” Johnson said. “Now 60 percent of policyholders are going to have to go through this whole nightmare again.”

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White House Bribing Health Insurance Companies To Keep Rates Down Ahead Of Midterms (Allen West)

White House Bribing Health Insurance Companies To Keep Rates Down Ahead Of Midterms – Allen West

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It was the line from The Godfather that will never be forgotten: “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse.” The Chicago thugocracy of Barack Hussein Obama took that tactic with health insurance companies to make them swallow Obamacare in the first place, and is now quietly bribing them to “postpone” rate hikes scheduled to come out right before the midterms.

According to Forbes.com, ” Hidden in the midst of a 436-page regulatory update, and written in pure bureaucratese, the Department of Health and Human Services asked that insurance companies limit the looming premium increases for 2015 health plans. But don’t worry, HHS hinted: we’ll bail you out on the taxpayer’s dime if you lose money. No wonder there wasn’t a press release. The White House is playing politics with Americans’ health care – and they’re bribing health insurance companies to play along.”

Ok, let me clarify: the Obama administration has sneaked in a regulatory rule update asking health insurance companies not to do their job accurately if it means higher insurance premiums. After all Obama – aka Vito Corleone – stated Obamacare would bring about an average reduction of $2500 to healthcare premiums. Now, here is the offer the insurance companies can’t refuse: “even if you’re losing money, we’ll square it away for you” – with taxpayer dollars of course.

So in the long run, the hard-working American middle-income family gets screwed either way! Either they’ll have to pay higher premiums or pay the government through higher taxes – such as Obama’s desired higher gas taxes – in order to compensate the insurance companies. And here we thought Obama REALLY didn’t like those insurance companies.

Now, silly me, I thought bribery was a felony offense. Oops, there I go again using logic and common sense when assessing the Obama administration – heck, they’re having problems with computer hard drives, bribery is just par for the course.

And to think the Washington Post just gave President Obama three more “pinocchios” for lying. Nah, none of this matters – it’s certainly not “impeachable.” It’s just liberal progressive socialist politics as usual – fear, intimidation, coercion, lies and deception. Can you imagine what would be happening if this were a revelation occurring under a Republican president?

But be careful, you don’t want to be accused of racial animus because you’re questioning the president’s bribery policy. And I don’t think the U.S. Department of Justice will be investigating this, do you?

Why is all of this happening now? Why it’s simple. There’s an election coming in November 2014 and the last thing Obama, his personal consigliere Valerie Jarrett and the Democrats want is for 2015 healthcare insurance premium increases to be announced in September. And Obama accuses everyone else of playing politics.

As Forbes reports, “typically, insurance companies release their premium rates between summer and early fall – i.e., right before voters cast their ballots in November. If premiums skyrocket—which looks increasingly likely – then voters won’t look too kindly on Senators and Representatives who voted for Obamacare and created this problem. Hence the White House’s desperate damage control. It almost worked: No one noticed when the regulations were first released. In fact, it took days for any news outlet to find the language and then translate it into readable English. TownHall.com figured it out first. The Los Angeles Times then reported that “hold[ing] down premium increases for next year” is a “top priority” for President Obama since “rates will be announced ahead of this fall’s congressional elections.” Wow, give the LA Times a Scooby Snack for getting that one right!

Forbes says “even if the healthcare insurance industry doesn’t want to play along, it’s still in these companies’ best interests to assent to the administration’s “request.” Under Obamacare, insurers are so heavily regulated that they have to play nice with the bureaucrats who call the shots. The president isn’t the only government official who carries a big stick. If insurance companies don’t give in, regulators have powerful ways to make life hard for them. A shrewd CEO doesn’t need to look far to see what might happen if his company opts out. This administration already has a reputation for strong-arming dissenting businesses in other industries.”

Don’t believe how bad it could be? Just ask the coal industry and the small community banks. Of course, this will once again be dismissed and the White House may still get away with its attempted sleight of hand. Technically, the regulations don’t force health insurance companies to hold down their premium increases. But the White House isn’t asking nicely. Does it ever?

If the GOP can awake from its stupor and acknowledge the other side doesn’t play nice, perhaps they’ll start winning elections. This is the politics of Moose and Rocco, and exactly what Americans consented to when they voted to have Chicago come to Washington D.C.

P.S. Hillary is from Chicago too.

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Health Care

Nothing says FAIL quite like ObamaCare

Some things are tough to predict, others? EASY! Take ObamaCare failing like it has. Of course, it is only failing in its stated goals, to lessen health insurance costs, and to help the uninsured get covered. In its actual goals, to destroy the private health care insurance market and move us to a single payer disaster? In that sense ObamaCare is a success. It never was about helping anyone, it is about controlling people

How do you spell “fail?” Because I spell it O-b-a-m-a-c-a-r-e.

Only 10% of the uninsured, the people this law was purportedly going to help the most, have signed up to purchase health insurance. The other 90% are still uninsured. And they intend to remain uninsured.

ObamaCare appears to be making little progress in signing up uninsured Americans, one of the law’s primary goals, according to two new surveys.

Only one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private plans through the new health insurance marketplaces enrolled as of last month, according to a survey by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The McKinsey survey found that only 27 percent of people who have selected a plan on the exchanges described themselves as having previously been without insurance. That percentage is up from 11 percent a month earlier, the report said.

According to McKinsey, the most common reason for not signing up for insurance cited by both previously insured and previously uninsured survey respondents was the perceived challenges in being able to afford coverage.

“Affordable” Care Act my ass. Obamacare made everything more expensive. And the people who couldn’t afford health insurance before it was foisted on us still can’t afford health insurance.

And, now, people who HAD insurance they liked are struggling with the higher costs. Face it, there is no way these results are not deliberate. Anyone tasked with making our health care system better and getting more people insured would NEVER write a bill that outlawed existing policies. No one would dream of messing with those already insured at all. They would look for ways to make it easier for uninsured to get covered. Things that were market driven, like opening up competition across state lines. Things that reduced health care costs, like addressing junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. They might even consider tax credits for lower-income people or people with preexisting conditions. But doing anything that messed with those already covered, or anything that would increase their cost? Only a fool would take that course. Unless they had an ulterior motive that is. And, considering that the administration lied repeatedly about this bill, I think we can use the word deliberate!

Health Care

Remember when we thought Bill Clinton was a shameless liar?

The Other McCain looks at President Conflation and sums him up perfectly!

Just got through watching President Obama lying on TV, and the method of his dishonesty is what fascinates me. He (and other liberals) engage in a sort of rhetorical prestidigitation, whereby health insurance is conflated with health care. In other words, the Democrats would have you believe, if you don’t have insurance, you just get sick and die. But what they never mention is that most people are healthy, and the vast majority of Americans — whether healthy or sick — had health insurance before ObamaCare was enacted.

If you were part of the X-million who did not have health insurance (those numbers were always estimates, and there was serious disagreement about how many were in the supposedly pathetic legion of The Uninsured), that didn’t mean you were doomed to die a painful death without benefit of medical care.

Most people without health insurance were healthy young people. But by relentlessly hyping the allegedly widespread misery of The Uninsured, liberals  sought to justify a complex new federal regulatory apparatus that changed health insurance for everybody — including people who already had insurance with which they were satisfied.

The President therefore promised that everybody who already had insurance could keep it, and further promised that their rates would not go up as a result of the new law. But he lied.

Now, the President is attempting to convince us that everything is just hunky-dory. People who continue to oppose this law, the President would have us believe, are against health care — that is to say, he is conflating this legislation with health care per se, so that if you are against this particular law, you’re pro-cancer or something.

That’s right: Republicans want people to get sick and die, because illness and death are the only alternatives to the President’s policy.

 

Health Care

And the push for full blown Socialized Medicine commences

Donald Douglas links an article in which a Communist lays out their oh, so enlightened solution to health care. I figured I would take a few minutes to parse, their arguments, and destroy them

Website delays – the most unwelcome news for computer acolytes since the tech boom crashed – are not the biggest problem with the ACA, as will become increasingly apparent long after the signup headaches are a distant memory.

So, we are to believe that a government that cannot even get a website to work, after spending $600,000,000 on said website, can somehow implement full blown national health care?

What prompted the ACA was a rapidly escalating healthcare nightmare, seen in 50 million uninsured, medical bills plunging millions into un-payable debt or bankruptcy, long delays in access to care, and record numbers skipping needed treatment due to cost.

50 million uninsured? I thought it was 30 million. Or was it 44 million? The Communist uses propaganda to sway opinion, and overly inflated numbers that are often simply made up serve that purpose. The strategy of a Communist is to create panic, and frighten people into empowering government to fix whatever the crisis is.

The main culprit was our profit-focused system, with rising profiteering by a massive health care industry, and an increasing number of employers dropping coverage or just dumping more costs onto workers.

But of course, profit, which is evil, is the culprit here, it always is with Communists isn’t it? Never mind that government programs always fail because there is no accountability, no bottom line. If an evil, profit-seeking insurance company does not perform, it will go belly up. Competition has always increased quality, and costumer service, and helped to make things more affordable. The answer in part, to our health care problems is to increase competition by allowing health insurance to be more easily sold across state lines. With a state run system, there is no option, no competition. And if you need to see where that leads, look at Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, which are all broke!

The ACA tackles some of the most egregious inequities: lack of access for many of the working poor who will now be eligible for Medicaid or subsidies to offset some of their costs for buying private insurance through the exchanges, a crackdown on several especially notorious insurance abuses, and encouragement of preventive care.

But the law actually further entrenches the insurance-based system through the requirement that uncovered individuals buy private insurance. It’s also chock full of loopholes.

Well, here we go, another self-defeating Communist argument. Obamacare, a government mandate has loopholes, it will fail. Given that, why would anyone support even more government run legislation?

Some consumers who have made it through the website labyrinth have found confusing choices among plans which vary widely in both premium and out of pocket costs even with the subsidies, a pass through of public funds to the private insurers.

Translation? You are just too stupid to handle having choices, you need a government agent handle all those icky details there comrade!

The minimum benefits are also somewhat illusory. Insurance companies have decades of experience at gaming the system and warehouses full of experts to design ways to limit coverage options.

The ACA allows insurers to cherry pick healthier enrollees by the way benefit packages are designed, and as a Washington Post article noted on 21 November, consumers are discovering insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and excluding many top ranked hospitals from their approved “network”. 

Again, insurance companies are EVIL! See they are limiting your choices, taking away you doctor, and restricting the hospitals you can use. Well, actually, it is the government, through Obama Care that is doing that, so, of course, the answer is to give that same government even greater control. Good Grief, how stupid are these folks?

Far less reported is what registered nurses increasingly see – financial incentives within the ACA for hospitals to prematurely push patients out of hospitals to cheaper, less regulated settings or back to their homes. It also encourages shifting more care delivery from nurses and doctors to robots and other technology that undermines individual patient care, and that may work no better than the dysfunctional ACA websites.

And we are to somehow delude ourselves into believing that an elimination of private insurance will ameliorate these problems?

Is there an alternative? Most other developed nations have discovered it, a single-payer or national healthcare system.

Of course it is, sure! Forget that the issues we are seeing with Obama Care clearly illustrate the consistent failures of central planners and their Statist schemes. Forget that every concern those opposed to national health care have expressed are proven by Obama Care. Forget history, forget all of it. Just push forward to total government control of our health care. Bring on the death panels, and the elimination of personal choice and autonomy. Just leave it all to people so incompetent they cannot even get a vastly over priced website to work. A website, by the way, they had  more than three years to get right. THREE YEARS!

A closing thought. Isn’t it odd that Leftists foam at the mouth if insurance companies deny a prescription, or treatment, but if the government does it, it is wonderful? It is not odd, it is simply that the Left see government as their god. Just as Christians see God, yes THE REAL GOD, as perfect, Leftists see their god, in this case Washington D.C. as perfect. Now you might say that is just a different view of the world until you consider that God created the universe, and all life in it. The Leftists’ god on the other hand cannot even get a website to work.

Health Care, Uncategorized

So now “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan” is an incorrect promise is it?

How morally retarded is the Left? The Other McCain lets us know

Orwellian euphemism from the New York Times:

The split between lawmakers and the White House reflects the dilemma the president finds himself in as he seeks to follow through on last week’s acknowledgment about his incorrect promise on health care coverage.

Good freaking grief! How far removed from our senses are we? Why is anyone making excuses for Obama’s BALD-FACED LIE? He LIED, and many Democrats lied with him. This was not a broken promise, it was a lie, PERIOD! And it was a lie told, and repeated to pass a bill these miscreants KNEW would force most American’s off the insurance they chose, and onto plans the government mandates! How tough is it to connect the dots here? If the government can tell you you MUST buy a product, in this case health insurance, then they can tell you what type of health coverage you MUST have. Honestly who did not see this coming?

Maybe more to the point, why would anyone defend, excuse, or spin this? Because those defending this un-American abomination actually think the government should do whatever it takes to reach the desired end, in this case, socialized medicine. Those defending this do not love liberty, they detest it! They care about the “common good”, they are Marxists! They are fine with deceit because they like the end game, so the means do not matter. It is all about the Collective as Donald Douglas notes

This is literally painful, from Jonathan Cohn, at the New Republic, “Bill Clinton Is Wrong. This Is How Obamacare Works” (via Memeorandum):

The Affordable Care Act includes a so-called grandfather clause. That allows insurers to keep renewing plans, without changes or benefits and prices, as long as they were available before March 2010, when the Affordable Care Act became law. But the non-group market is volatile: Very few people stay on plans for more than two years anyway. And the grandfather clause is narrow, by design: If insurers made even modest changes, the protection goes away. Those plans are subject to the new regulations that take effect in January. As a result, the majority of people who buy insurance on their own are learning they can’t have what they had before, even though Obama promised everybody they could. Either their premiums are going up, as insurers accommodate the new regulations, or the plans are disappearing altogether. In those cases, people have to find new plans. And the sticker price of what they’ll find is higher than what they pay now.

This is not a glitch or an accident. This is the way health care reform is supposed to work. And it’s important to put these changes into context. For one thing, it’s a small number of people relative to the population as a whole. The vast majority of Americans get coverage through employers or a large government program like Medicare. These changes don’t really affect them. The law also anticipates these changes by, among other things, offering tax credits that discount the premiums—in many cases, by thousands of dollars. (Other provisions of the law, like a limit on insurance company profits and overhead, should restrain prices more.) As a result, many people buying coverage on their own will be paying less money for benefits that are as good, if not better, than what they have now.

But there are real people who must pay more and, in some cases, put up with less. Some of them are people walking around with junk insurance, the kind are practically worthless because they pay out so little. Some of them are young people, particularly young men, whom insurers have coveted and wooed with absurdly low premiums—and make too much money to qualify for substantial subsidies. And some of them are reasonably affluent, healthy people with generous, open-ended policies that are hard to find even through employers. Insurers kept selling them because they could restrict enrollment to healthy people. Absent that ability, insurers are canceling them or raising premiums so high only the truly rich can pay for them.

Those people are the ones everybody is hearing about now, partly because they are a compelling, sometimes well-connected group—and partly because, absent a well-functioning website, stories of people benefitting from the law’s changes aren’t competing for attention. It’s impossible to know how big this group is. The data on existing coverage just isn’t that good. The anecdotes are frequently, although not always, more complicated than they seem at first blush. It’s probably one to two percent of the population, which doesn’t sound like much—except that, in a country of 300 million, that’s 3 to 6 million people. Most experts I trust think they represent a minority of people buying coverage on their own, but nobody can say with certainty.

Is that a worthwhile tradeoff for reform? Obviously that’s a matter of opinion. The fact that some people—even a small, relatively affluent group—are giving up something they had makes their plight (genuinely) more sympathetic. They are right to feel burned, since Obama did not make clear his promise might not apply to them. And there’s a principled argument about whether people should be responsible for services they’re unlikely to use presently, whether it’s fifty-something year olds paying for maternity care or twenty-something year olds paying for cardiac stress tests.

Read the whole thing. Utterly astounding.

This is what the president meant by “fundamental” change folks. He is willing to destroy private health insurance to get what he, and his fellow Marxists have long dreamed of, universal health care, which, according to a man I met today at the airport, is a great thing, until you make the mistake of getting sick. And speaking of getting sick, it seems that more Democrats are getting sick of their electoral chances next year

House Democrats delivered a fix-it-or-else ultimatum Wednesday to President Obama, giving his administration until Friday to find an affordable solution for the millions of Americans losing their health plans under ObamaCare — or risk some Democrats backing a Republican solution. 

The ultimatum from President Obama’s own party is another sign of the unrest within the Democratic caucus about the cancellation notices. The end-of-the-week deadline is significant, because House Republicans are planning to call a vote Friday on a bill that would extend current policies for another year. 

It’s unclear whether Democrats would go so far as to support that bill if the administration does not offer a Plan B. But one senior Democratic source told Fox News that, at a closed meeting Wednesday, Democrats made clear to the administration that they need a proposed fix before Friday’s vote. 

The White House has vowed to come up with a solution, but so far has not provided much detail on what such a solution would entail. Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president will make an announcement on possible options “sooner rather than later.” 

One senior House Democrat characterized the meeting Wednesday as “heated.” The source said the session consisted of “members telling the administration that they screwed it up and now we have to explain it to the public.” 

Another source said that it helps for the administration to hear frank talk “from their friends that they need to get back in front of the problem.” 

“No more excuses, just get it done,” the source said. 

Of course, if these same Democrats had listened to their constituents three years ago, we would not be in this mess would we? Frankly, every Democrat who voted for Obamacare deserves to get thrown out of office over this.

Health Care, Nanny State, Our precious Liberty

So you think only individuals will lose their healthcare plans?

Fools!

Townhall.com has Kathleen Sebelius’ testimony at this link.

Here’s what this means in real terms:

In 2015 or soon after, expect to lose your employer-based medical plan.

Of course, this assumes that, in 2015, you will still be employed full-time with a company offering medical benefits, and/or your spouse’s employer won’t already have eliminated coverage for you. In this part-time economy – again thanks to Obamacare – you’d be a fool to bet on that.

Only two percent of existing health plans meet the bureaucratic nightmare standards of the “Affordable Care Act.” Even for that two percent, the premiums will climb and keep climbing.

If you are in that 2% and your ACA-approved employer-based plan happens also to be a so-called “Cadillac plan” (with especially high benefits), you’ll probably lose it anyway! Obamacare imposes a 40% excise tax on benefit programs that exceed $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. That creates a strong incentive to cut benefits to below that level.

As for the other 98 percent of plans that you hoped would be “grandfathered,” the ACA is designed to phase them out as rapidly as possible.

According to an Obama Administration estimate from June 2010:

“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration on page 34,552 of the Register. All in all, more than half of employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and become illegal. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans—more than half the population—was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.

Another 25 million people, according to the CBO, have “nongroup and other” forms of insurance; that is to say, they participate in the market for individually-purchased insurance. In this market, the administration projected that “40 to 67 percent” of individually-purchased plans would lose their Obamacare-sanctioned “grandfather status” and become illegal, solely due to the fact that there is a high turnover of participants and insurance arrangements in this market. (Plans purchased after March 23, 2010 do not benefit from the “grandfather” clause.) The real turnover rate would be higher, because plans can lose their grandfather status for a number of other reasons.

It has NEVER been about helping anyone folks. It has always been about increasing dependence on government, growing the power and scope of government, and destroying the private insurance industry. Earlier I was watching Fox News and the panel discussion was about whether or not Obama’s apology was genuine, and whether or not the president lied about people keeping health insurance they liked. What idiocy is this? There is no doubt that Obama lied, and KNEW he was lying. It is HIS HHS department, headed by his appointee Kathleen Sebelius that issued the regulations that will force nearly everyone, no, not 5% of the people Mr. President, but everyone off the insurance they chose, and that they liked. Why is there any debate, at all, about whether or not President Obama lied?  Why is there any debate about whether or not these people will get “better” insurance, or “cheaper” insurance. The real issue is that individual liberty is being destroyed in the name of helping Americans. It is being destroyed by overzealous, power-hungry politicians who care about only their power!

The issue here is that those who passed this law either KNEW what it would do, or were too ignorant to educate themselves about the massive bill, with even more massive regulations would do. The issue is that these people are not fit to serve, in any capacity. They have, possibly signed the death warrant of not just the private insurance industry, and personal choice in our health care, but this nation as a whole. There are numerous issues at stake here, but the most important one is being ignored. We can argue whether or not Obamacare will kill people by eliminating their individual control of their health care. But that Obamacare will kill liberty cannot be argued.

 

Uncategorized

You cannot help laughing at people this detached from reality

Wyblog has the latest on the low brain power voters

College students in New Jersey voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. And now they’re shocked to discover that his signature legislative achievement hits them where it hurts, in the pocketbook.

It was a health care shocker for college students in New Jersey who found out that they can’t buy low-cost health insurance at their schools because of the Affordable Care Act.

Now, they are at the risk of being without insurance, CBS 2’s Christine Sloan reported.

Many students have found themselves in health care limbo this semester. Community colleges in New Jersey used to offer cheap health insurance for hundreds of dollars a year but they had to drop the practice because Federal Law prohibits the sale of bare bones policies.

Under the Affordable Care Act it would have cost more to run the program and the cost would have been passed on to students.

“More than a thousand dollars per student and that is dramatically different,” said Union County Community College, Vice President of Administrative Services, Stephen Nacco said.

Students like Carlos Arias depended on the low-cost health care.

“I’m kind of healthy right now but I am worried that when something happens I’m not going to go to the hospital,” Arias said.

If only these students studied a bit of history, and possessed any common sense, or read THIS BLOG! Ed told you, I told you………..

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President Asshat Knew Millions Would Lose Their Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare (Videos)

NBC Shock Report: Obama Administration Knew Millions Would Not Keep Their Health Insurance – Gateway Pundit

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We heard it a hundred times before Obamacare was rammed through Congress. Barack Obama promised Americans that if you like your healthcare plan you can keep your plan.

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It was all a lie. Period.

White House Admits: Some Will Lose Health Plans…

Nearly 1.5 million cancellations so far…

NBC is reporting that the Obama administration knew years ago that millions of Americans would lose their health insurance.

NBC Investigations reported:

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”

None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date – the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example – the policy would not be grandfathered.

Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”

That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.

UPDATE: Valerie Jarrett: Obamacare doesn’t force you off your plan; your insurance company does, by complying with Obamacare!

The gall of these people!

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Click HERE For Rest Of Story

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Related video:

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Related article:

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NBC News Pulls Original Article About the President Lying About ObamaCare – Independent Journal Review

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Lies may be temporary, but the Internet is forever. NBC News issued a blockbuster report (only in as much as the outfit is well-known for its sycophantic coverage of Obama) and then tried to scrub some of the more unsavory bits from its website.

Only… there’s this thing called Google cache. Weasel Zippers grabbed the news article – which was taken down and replaced on the NBC site under a new url.

First, what a reader will find at the old url:

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Then, NBC News’ “excuse” for why the link was changed. Surprise, surprise – a “glitch”:

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NBC News
@NBCNews

EDITOR’S NOTE: A publishing glitch took down our story on policy cancellations under Obamacare. Republished here: nbcnews.to/1hoTtHH
12:52 AM – 29 Oct 2013

Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health…
President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or…

NBC Investigations – @NBCInvestigates

142 Retweets – 29 favorites
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IJReview investigative reporter SooperMexican captured the edits:

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Weasel Zippers noted that NBC posted a replacement article and made the original article available in a Google cache.

UPDATE: It appears that NBC News replaced the missing paragraph in yet another version. There is no explanation on the present article for the multiple edits; but just maybe NBC realized that it’s pointless and maybe even harmful to its image to redact the original published version.

UPDATE2: What one will find at the old (multiple-website-linked) url:

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UPDATE3: The headline for this article was edited after publication, as well as the video and references to it.

UPDATE4: Another screenshot with the retracted paragraph can be downloaded in pdf here. (H/T IloiloKano)

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

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Health Care

David Axelrod is a professional liar

Ah political consultants, advisers, etc. Is there a group of people I have less use for? Probably not, I mean these are people who lie for a living, people who will tell YOUR lies if you pay them enough, and David Axelrod, is a classic example of an individual who sold his soul to tell the lies of others

See, Obamacare has allowed people to compare plans, and that could, according to Axelrod NEVER EVER have been done before. Funny, I remember doing JUST that in years past. Good grief, the only thing transparent about Axelrod is how bad a liar he is. And, note that he defends Obama’s lying about “if you like your plan…..” by saying “most” people will be able to keep their plan. SURE, for a whole lot more money, and, to be honest, Obama never said “most” or a majority of people could keep their plans. He said repeatedly, point-blank, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan”. He lied, period! And no amount of lies by Axelrod can change that. And, if you do not believe me, fine, ask NBC News H/T The Right Scoop!

 

NBC NEWS – President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”

None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered.

Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”

That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.

Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” was still saying in 2012, “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”

“This says that when they made the promise, they knew half the people in this market outright couldn’t keep what they had and then they wrote the rules so that others couldn’t make it either,” said  Robert Laszewski, of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consultant who works for health industry firms. Laszewski estimates that 80 percent of those in the individual market will not be able to keep their current policies and will have to buy insurance that meets requirements of the new law, which generally requires a richer package of benefits than most policies today.

 

Health Care, Nanny State, obama

Is our Lord and Master Obama going to delay mandate?

Looks like it, and for up to six whole weeks comrades! How generous of Dear Leader

The health care law requires most people to have health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014 or face a penalty, but the Administration may postpone when those penalties will go into effect. The law allows for “short coverage gaps” of up to three months before imposing the penalty, which is $95 or 1% of an individual’s income (whichever is greater) next year. Under the current rules, someone would have to be covered by March 31, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed, which is the final day that people will be able to purchase health insurance on the public exchanges, or marketplaces, created by the ACA.

But the Administration is currently working to revise its policy to ensure that people who wait till the last day in March to sign up will not face a penalty, the HHS official clarified. That means that people may go uninsured till April or May without paying a fine, as it takes up to two weeks to process health insurance applications, and new health policies take effect on the first day of each month. A last-minute March 31 application, for example, might be processed by mid-April for coverage starting May 1.

As the law stands now, in order to be covered by March 31, people would actually need to have insurance by March 1. And since it takes up to two weeks to process insurance applications, consumers would have to apply by Feb. 15, the Associated Press reported recently. (People must apply by Dec. 15 if they want coverage starting Jan. 1.)

Make no mistake, Team Obama is hell-bent on implementing this bit of Marxism, and it really does not matter when they start fining you, that is punishing you for NOT buying a product you do not want. After all, this was never about helping the uninsured GET coverage, or about helping those with pre-existing conditions. It has always been about control

 

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Thanks Barack… 300,000 Floridians Have Health Insurance Plans Cancelled Because Of Obamacare

300,000 Floridians Just Had Their Health Insurance Plans Cancelled Because Of Obamacare – Poor Richard’s News

It’s happening to millions of people all over the United States. Health insurance companies, no longer allowed to offer certain kinds of plans due to new regulations in Obamacare, are sending out cancelation notices.

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From NBC:

But the cancellation notices, which began arriving in August, have shocked many consumers in light of President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their plans if they liked them.

“I don’t feel like I need to change, but I have to,” said Jeff Learned, a television editor in Los Angeles, who must find a new plan for his teenage daughter, who has a health condition that has required multiple surgeries.

An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs. Calls to insurers in several states showed that many have sent notices.

Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people – about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.

Read the rest

When all is said and done, the bulk of that 14 million people who purchased their own health insurance may end up losing their plans that President Obama promised them repeatedly that they could keep.

My wife and I have already lost our insurance plan that we were perfectly happy with. Have you received a cancelation notice? Tell us about it in the comments.

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

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Health Care

Lying sack of dung with bad hair: Trying to repeal Obama Care nothing short of offensive!

Actually “Debbie Whats Her Name” offensive would be how Democrats, without ONE Republican vote, and AGAINST the expressed wishes of the American people, jammed Obama Care down our throats!

Drew –

Today, our government is shut down for one reason — because Republicans think this is their last chance to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

That is nothing short of offensive.

Thanks to Obamacare, cancer survivors like me and the 150 million other Americans with a pre-existing condition will no longer have to live in fear that our health insurance companies will drop us if we get sick.

So now is the moment to stand up for health care reform:

Show the GOP that the 47th vote to repeal or delay Obamacare won’t be any different than the 46 votes that came before.

The problem is that Republicans refuse to accept that their plan to repeal this law was rejected when they lost the last election.

Already, 47 million women have gained access to free birth control, 3 million young people have had a softer landing into the workforce by staying on their parent’s health insurance, and now millions of Americans are shopping for their own affordable health care in the exchanges.

And that’s the only reason why Republicans have shut down the government.

Thanks,

Debbie

Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Democratic National Committee

Tell you what else is offensive Debs. That millions of Americans are LOSING their health coverage BECAUSE of Obama Care. Also that many more, like me, are not sure if we can afford the HIGHER premiums for coverage we DO NOT WANT. And if we cannot afford it? Well Obama Care will fine us, how is THAT for offensive you loathsome Communist hag?

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Pathetic… Less Than 1% Of Visitors To Obamacare Exchange Websites Signing Up For Health Insurance

Report: Less Than 1% of Visitors To Obamacare Exchange Websites Are Signing Up For Health Insurance – Weasel Zippers

I’m guessing this is the reason the White House is refusing to release the number of people who signed up for Obamacare.

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Via Daily Mail:

As President Obama’s signature health insurance overhaul effort began to enroll new participants on Monday, some states running their own insurance exchanges saw huge levels of website traffic but paltry interest in signing up.

California, the ultimate blue state whose federal lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in support of Obamacare, turned less than 1 per cent of its Web visits into ‘Covered California’ participants on Tuesday.

‘We had over 5.7 million hits to our website as of 3 p.m. yesterday,’ Covered California spokeswoman Kelsey Caldwell told MailOnline Wednsday.

’7,700 consumers began their application process yesterday. … 4,143 applications are pending,’ she added. ‘We received 23,269 calls yesterday to our service center.’

Caldwell couldn’t say how many of the 5.7 million website hits were from unique Californians. But assuming 712,500 online visitors saw eight different Web pages each, the sign-up rate was 0.58 per cent.

Connecticut saw a similarly low rate of interest. Democratic Congressman Jim Himes tweeted after 8:30 p.m. Monday that his state’s health exchange had ‘received 28k visitors, and took 167 applications for health insurance. Day 1.’

That indicates just 0.59 per cent of Connecticut residents who sought information about their state’s Obamacare program on Monday decided to become part of it, according to Access Health CT spokeswoman Kathleen Tallarita.

Keep reading…

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

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Dougs creations, Stuck on Stoopit!

Bette Middler is a Babbling Idiot!

Good Freaking Grief at the things Liberals say!

Actress and singer Bette Midler is quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s most addle-minded personalities.

On Twitter Wednesday, she actually wrote, “Do you find it odd that in America today, it’s easier to take a life than to get health insurance?”

Do you find it odd that in America today, it’s easier to take a life than to get health insurance? Gun reform now!

All emotion, no logic!

 

Health Care

Why would IRS workers need exemption from the health care bill THEY will be enforcing?

Folks, you simply cannot make this stuff up can you? The Lonely Conservative has the details

 

The IRS is going to become Obamacare’s enforcer, yet its employees want nothing to do with the law, or at least their union doesn’t. They want an exemption for their employees. Lovely.

The National Treasury Employees Union, or NTEU, is encouraging its members to write their congressmen in opposition to HR 1780, a bill that would have federal government workers use health insurance exchanges to buy health insurance. (Their sample letter is below.) The exchanges would take the place of the Federal Employee Health Benefits program that currently provides insurance to Treasury Department employees. …

Many unions have lost their enthusiasm for ObamaCare and even called for the law to be amended, mainly in order to protect private plans that unions themselves have bargained for. But the NTEU’s action is especially telling because the NTEU represents Internal Revenue Service employees who have the responsibility to enforce much of the health care law, especially in terms of collecting the taxes and distributing subsidies that finance the whole system. IRS agents will also collect data and apply penalties for those who fail to comply with many of ObamaCare’s requirements. NTEU’s own experts seem to realize now that ObamaCare is a bad idea.

Treasury employees, and the union that represents them, are in a unique position to know how the new health insurance law will work, or if it will work at all. It seems the NTEU has little confidence in the exchange system. But rather than perform a public service by calling for the whole thing to be put on hold, the NTEU is looking to make sure its own people keep their exemption. 

Hope and Change? More like Lennin and Marx

 

Health Care

Obama Care is soooooo great………

….that the White House is delaying it for a year

Technically, it’s the mandate requiring that employers provide their workers with health insurance that’s taking a hit, but since that’s really the heart of ObamaCare — and the Supreme Court ruled as well that individuals who don’t buy insurance on their own must pay a tax — we’re really seeing the entire 2009 healthcare cluster-k being repudiated by the Obama White House. This gives Democrats a lifeline to save their sinking asses in the 2014 election, but since the Democrats are in effect admitting their own incompetence (and deception) the Republicans will have an even more powerful hammer to crush the idiot Democrat-Socialists a year from November.

At Twitchy, “Report: WH will delay Obamacare employer mandate until 2015.”

And at the New York Times, “Obama Administration to Delay Health Law Requirement Until 2015“:

Exit question, is a cluster fuck delayed better, or worse than a normal cluster fuck?

 

Douchebags, Media Bias

Comedy Gold! AARP Advertises Medicare Supplement Insurance Chris Matthews says seniors cannot get on Chris Matthews Show

Ah, yes! The Daley Douchebag Award is not given out that often here, but Crazy Legs Matthews just earned himself one

English: Chris Matthews at the 2010 Time 100.
So, wait, I get a Daley Douchebag Award?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…a day after MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews said for the umpteenth time that no one will sell senior citizens health insurance, AARP ran ad on his show promoting – wait for it! – Medicare Supplement Insurance

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, Matthews is regularly making the completely false claim that no one will sell health insurance to seniors.

Quite the contrary, Medicare Supplement Insurance – or what is also referred to as Medigap Insurance – is a booming business in America with currently almost 10 million policy holders.

As such, Matthews is either ignorant of this incontrovertible fact, or is lying to his viewers.

Matthews defines Raving Moonbat doesn’t he? He knows he lies about this issue, Hell, he lies about most everything on his show

Health Care

Obamacare causing higher insurance prices for students? Who could have seen that coming?

 

Well, most Americans knew this would happen

 

Via Hot Air, it seems that the Obama Administration’s “Affordable Care Act” has made health insurance less affordable for North Carolina’s college students. 

English: President Barack Obama's signature on...
President Barack Obama’s signature on the health insurance reform bill at the White House, March 23, 2010.

CNN’s Political Ticker reports that Tom Ross, the president of the University of North Carolina system, informed the university’s board of governors that there would be a significant increase in the cost of university-provided insurance plans that would result in students paying nearly twice as much as they do now.

These increases are a result of the initial implementation of specific “Obamacare” requirements.

“Based on more than three semesters of actual claims experience, as well as the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act, we are facing large increases in premiums for our students,” Ross wrote in the letter.

In North Carolina, college students are required to have proof of health insurance, either through their university, their parents or a private provider.

Students who purchase insurance plans from North Carolina public universities this fall will be shelling out $709 per semester. That’s up significantly from a cost of $460 per semester last year.

This trend is not limited to North Carolina schools, either. A Forbes report indicates that the cost of College Health Plans can ultimately go up as high as 1,112%

 

I can just hear the Liberal sheep now. B-B-B-But, I thought it was free! Idiots!