Team Obama Not Ready To Implement Or Manage Obamacare
Today in Washington, D.C. - April 29, 2013
The House is in recess until tomorrow April 30, 2012 at 2 PM
The Senate is in recess until Monday, May 6th; WARNING when it returns they will vote on S. 743, the Internet sales tax bill.
On Friday, Politico reported, “Obamacare fires are flaring up all over — in Hill hearings, in scary headlines about big rate hikes and in closed-door meetings of nervous Democrats. The White House response: We’ll get to that. . . . Obama’s allies know the health care law needs a massive outreach effort, but Obamacare Round 2 is already starting to look a lot like Round 1, when Democrats roundly accused the White House of botching its appeal to the public, giving Republicans the upper hand on defining the law. . . . But Democrats are worried now — about the messaging and the mechanics of the rollout. ‘I’m concerned — because we did take substantial criticism for putting this plan in place — that it achieve its true purpose,’ said Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas. ‘There’s so much work to do in such a short period of time.’”
As Obamacare begins to be implemented, many of the problems Republicans warned about from the start are showing up: regulatory nightmares, tax hikes, premium increases, and job losses. No wonder then, that Democrats are freaking out as implementation continues. The New York Times wrote last week that “Democrats in both houses of Congress said some members of their party were getting nervous” about the possibility of a political backlash over the law’s messy implementation.
As Politico explains, “And Republicans got new ammunition for their warnings that Obamacare will cause big health insurance premium hikes after CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield proposed a 25 percent rate hike for its coverage of individuals — and said it’s because of the law. . . . Chet Burrell, CareFirst’s president and CEO, says the nonprofit insurer will have to raise its rates that much because of the law’s requirement that everyone will have to be accepted for coverage next year, even if they have pre-existing conditions. . . . Everyone who is in Maryland’s high-risk pool now — a program specifically designed to cover people with pre-existing conditions — will switch to regular private coverage, Burrell said, and health coverage for those people is five times as expensive as it is for everyone else with individual coverage.”
Meanwhile, Fox News’ Christ Stirewalt highlights yet another problem coming to light today. “Under President Obama’s 2010 health law, the government officials in charge of keeping Medicaid afloat have until Tuesday to report whether costs for the fiscally foundering program will exceed expectations. But they won’t have anywhere to send their report. That’s because the Independent Payment Advisory Board – perhaps the most controversial entity created under Obama’s law – still doesn’t exist. This 15-member board, denounced by critics as a “death panel,” is tasked under the law with determining which patients ought to receive which treatments and whether taxes ought to be raised to finance the program. . . . Under his law, Obama was to make recommendations for the board last year. The 15-member panel is required to be made up of physicians and laymen, with recommendations made in consultation with congressional leadership. Those nominees would then be subject to Senate confirmation. It would be a hideous task to ever try to fill that panel, at least without a Democratic supermajority in the Senate. Finding 15 people willing to submit to the confirmation process would be difficult. Finding 15 people who could actually be confirmed would be next to impossible.”
Stirewalt notes, “Just as he has done in the past on submitting a budget and making his own recommendations for rescuing Medicare, Obama is ignoring the law as it relates to the Independent Payment Advisory Board. And in the case of the board, the upside of flouting the law is even greater. Under the law, if the board isn’t in place, its powers devolve to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. . . . Her message in House testimony last week was that the unpopular, controversial panel will be no concern to Obama. The next president will face those problems. Obama and Sebelius may have found another loophole, but all this avoidance is hardly increasing public confidence in the law. There is a growing, bipartisan sense that despite three years of lead time, Team Obama is not ready to implement or manage the law.”
Tags: Obamacare, problems, Issues To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The House is in recess until tomorrow April 30, 2012 at 2 PM
The Senate is in recess until Monday, May 6th; WARNING when it returns they will vote on S. 743, the Internet sales tax bill.
On Friday, Politico reported, “Obamacare fires are flaring up all over — in Hill hearings, in scary headlines about big rate hikes and in closed-door meetings of nervous Democrats. The White House response: We’ll get to that. . . . Obama’s allies know the health care law needs a massive outreach effort, but Obamacare Round 2 is already starting to look a lot like Round 1, when Democrats roundly accused the White House of botching its appeal to the public, giving Republicans the upper hand on defining the law. . . . But Democrats are worried now — about the messaging and the mechanics of the rollout. ‘I’m concerned — because we did take substantial criticism for putting this plan in place — that it achieve its true purpose,’ said Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas. ‘There’s so much work to do in such a short period of time.’”
As Obamacare begins to be implemented, many of the problems Republicans warned about from the start are showing up: regulatory nightmares, tax hikes, premium increases, and job losses. No wonder then, that Democrats are freaking out as implementation continues. The New York Times wrote last week that “Democrats in both houses of Congress said some members of their party were getting nervous” about the possibility of a political backlash over the law’s messy implementation.
As Politico explains, “And Republicans got new ammunition for their warnings that Obamacare will cause big health insurance premium hikes after CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield proposed a 25 percent rate hike for its coverage of individuals — and said it’s because of the law. . . . Chet Burrell, CareFirst’s president and CEO, says the nonprofit insurer will have to raise its rates that much because of the law’s requirement that everyone will have to be accepted for coverage next year, even if they have pre-existing conditions. . . . Everyone who is in Maryland’s high-risk pool now — a program specifically designed to cover people with pre-existing conditions — will switch to regular private coverage, Burrell said, and health coverage for those people is five times as expensive as it is for everyone else with individual coverage.”
Meanwhile, Fox News’ Christ Stirewalt highlights yet another problem coming to light today. “Under President Obama’s 2010 health law, the government officials in charge of keeping Medicaid afloat have until Tuesday to report whether costs for the fiscally foundering program will exceed expectations. But they won’t have anywhere to send their report. That’s because the Independent Payment Advisory Board – perhaps the most controversial entity created under Obama’s law – still doesn’t exist. This 15-member board, denounced by critics as a “death panel,” is tasked under the law with determining which patients ought to receive which treatments and whether taxes ought to be raised to finance the program. . . . Under his law, Obama was to make recommendations for the board last year. The 15-member panel is required to be made up of physicians and laymen, with recommendations made in consultation with congressional leadership. Those nominees would then be subject to Senate confirmation. It would be a hideous task to ever try to fill that panel, at least without a Democratic supermajority in the Senate. Finding 15 people willing to submit to the confirmation process would be difficult. Finding 15 people who could actually be confirmed would be next to impossible.”
Stirewalt notes, “Just as he has done in the past on submitting a budget and making his own recommendations for rescuing Medicare, Obama is ignoring the law as it relates to the Independent Payment Advisory Board. And in the case of the board, the upside of flouting the law is even greater. Under the law, if the board isn’t in place, its powers devolve to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. . . . Her message in House testimony last week was that the unpopular, controversial panel will be no concern to Obama. The next president will face those problems. Obama and Sebelius may have found another loophole, but all this avoidance is hardly increasing public confidence in the law. There is a growing, bipartisan sense that despite three years of lead time, Team Obama is not ready to implement or manage the law.”
Tags: Obamacare, problems, Issues To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 4:03 PM - Post Link
4 Comments:
It needs to be totally done away with!
It needs to be totally done away with!
They never meant to run anything. They planned to collect the money.
Who could? It's over 2,000 pages of legislation for one bill. It was never about health anyway; their real concern is enforcing the penalties and taking away freedoms.
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