Obamacare Complexity Confuses Americans | Deadline Delayed For Finalizing Obamacare Health Plans | More Restaurants Cut Work Hours
Despite assurances from Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius that “[w]e are on target and ready to flip the switch” on Obamacare , Reuters reports today, “The Obama administration has delayed a step crucial to the launch of the new healthcare law, the signing of final agreements with insurance plans to be sold on federal health insurance exchanges starting October 1. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified insurance companies on Tuesday that it would not sign final agreements with the plans between September 5 and 9, as originally anticipated, but would wait until mid-September instead, according to insurance industry sources. . . . The reason for the hold-up was unclear. Sources attributed it to technology problems involving the display of insurance products within the federal information technology system.
Reuters adds “Coming at a time when state and federal officials are still working to overcome challenges to the information technology systems necessary to make the exchanges work, some experts say that even a small delay could jeopardize the start of the six-month open enrollment period. U.S. officials have said repeatedly that the marketplaces, which are the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law, would begin on time. But the October 1 deadline has already begun to falter at the state level, with Oregon announcing plans to scale back the launch of its own marketplace and California saying it would consider a similar move. Tuesday's notification by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HHS agency spearheading marketplace development, affects insurance plans that would be sold in federal exchanges that the administration is setting up in 34 of the 50 U.S. states. . . . ‘It makes me wonder if open enrollment can start on October 1,’ said a former administration official who worked to implement Obama's healthcare reform.”
And while the administration is delaying yet another Obamacare plan, there’s been no slowdown in the harm it’s inflicting on businesses and employees. According to WDKY-TV in Kentucky (via the Washington Free Beacon), “With major overhauls in health insurance taking effect in the coming months, the owner of a well-known Lexington restaurant says he is having to cut back his hours. Joe Bologna says he has kept his restaurant on West Maxwell closed on Mondays since back in April. He says he is trying to save money because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare . . . If the Obamacare went in effect for us, we’d have to pass whatever that cost would be – it could be as much as $20,000 a month for us – which we’d have to pass onto customers, and that’s going to hurt business.” WDKY noted “Joe Bologna says he has also had to reduce the number of employees at his restaurant.”
And Yahoo Finance blogger Rick Newman wrote yesterday, “On tap for restaurants next year: price increases and fewer full-time workers, as many chains seek to offset rising costs likely to be brought on by President Obama’s health care reforms.” Though Newman said, “critics of the Affordable Care Act should resist the urge to say ‘I told you so,’” he made points throughout his piece that suggest Obamacare critics should continue to say, “We told you so.” Newman noted, “Fatburger and other chains have started to experiment with work-sharing deals in which employees work part-time at two different franchises, so they never hit the 30-hour threshold at one establishment that would allow them to qualify for benefits under Obamacare — even if they work 50 or 60 total hours in a week. . . . People Report's 2014 forecast. . . says the cost of providing health care for employees could rise by as much as 25% per year under Obamacare. Nearly 60% of chains surveyed said they’d have to raise menu prices to help cover cost increases. And 80% of the companies said they planned to substitute part-time workers for full-timers. Such developments seem to vindicate claims that Obamacare will put people out of work and make it harder for lower-earning workers to get ahead.”
Everywhere one looks confusion over the complexity and rules of Obamacare is rampant. Newman pointed out that “[t]he biggest headache for employers, in fact, may be the law’s complexity” and The Wall Street Journal reports, “Two big numbers to think about today: There are 33 days until open-enrollment season for insurance coverage under the new health law begins, and 51% of Americans say they don’t understand how it will affect them or their family, according to the latest tracking poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. That proportion is higher among the uninsured, the mid-August poll found. Some 62% of the uninsured say they don’t have enough information about the health law . . . .”
Summing up some of the problems Obamacare has run into, Reuters writes, “The new timetable for qualified plan agreements is the latest in a series of delays for Obamacare. The most significant came in early July when the White House and the Treasury Department announced a one-year delay in a major Obamacare provision that would have required employers with at least 50 full-time workers to provide health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014. Legal and political opposition from Republicans and their conservative allies have already fragmented Obamacare's original vision. Only about half the states have opted to expand Medicaid program for the poor to uninsured families living below the poverty level, and Republicans in Congress have denied nearly $1 billion in new implementation funding this year alone. The Government Accountability Office cautioned in June that the law known as Obamacare could miss the October 1 enrollment deadline because of missed deadlines and delays in several areas including the certification of health plans for sale on the exchanges. Another U.S. watchdog, the HHS Office of the Inspector General, warned earlier this month that the government was months behind testing data security for the federal data hub that represents the information technology backbone of the new marketplaces.”
After hearing of the Obama administration’s delay of the employer mandate, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “If the folks in D.C. are to be believed, its implementation is going just swimmingly. The Democrat Leader in the House of Representatives called it ‘fabulous.’ The President said that the law is ‘working the way it’s supposed to.’ . . . Fabulous…Wonderful…these aren’t the kind of words one normally associates with a deeply unpopular law, or one that media reports suggest is already having a painful impact on Americans we represent. . . . The President was so worried about some of this law turning into a disaster that he selectively delayed a big chunk of it. But he only did that for businesses. . . . We can argue about whether the President even had the power to do what he did, but here’s the point today: if businesses deserve a reprieve because the law is a disaster, then families and workers do too. Because if this law is ‘working the way it’s supposed to,’ then it’s a terrible law. And if it’s not working as planned, then it’s not right to foist it upon the middle class while exempting business.”
So far, though, Senate Democrats have blocked Republicans’ attempts to vote on a exemption from the individual mandate. With new Obamacare delays being announced every week, will Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) finally allow a vote on exempting Americans from the individual mandate when the Senate returns in September?
Tags: Obamacare, complexities, delays, workeers losing hours To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Reuters adds “Coming at a time when state and federal officials are still working to overcome challenges to the information technology systems necessary to make the exchanges work, some experts say that even a small delay could jeopardize the start of the six-month open enrollment period. U.S. officials have said repeatedly that the marketplaces, which are the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law, would begin on time. But the October 1 deadline has already begun to falter at the state level, with Oregon announcing plans to scale back the launch of its own marketplace and California saying it would consider a similar move. Tuesday's notification by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HHS agency spearheading marketplace development, affects insurance plans that would be sold in federal exchanges that the administration is setting up in 34 of the 50 U.S. states. . . . ‘It makes me wonder if open enrollment can start on October 1,’ said a former administration official who worked to implement Obama's healthcare reform.”
And while the administration is delaying yet another Obamacare plan, there’s been no slowdown in the harm it’s inflicting on businesses and employees. According to WDKY-TV in Kentucky (via the Washington Free Beacon), “With major overhauls in health insurance taking effect in the coming months, the owner of a well-known Lexington restaurant says he is having to cut back his hours. Joe Bologna says he has kept his restaurant on West Maxwell closed on Mondays since back in April. He says he is trying to save money because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare . . . If the Obamacare went in effect for us, we’d have to pass whatever that cost would be – it could be as much as $20,000 a month for us – which we’d have to pass onto customers, and that’s going to hurt business.” WDKY noted “Joe Bologna says he has also had to reduce the number of employees at his restaurant.”
And Yahoo Finance blogger Rick Newman wrote yesterday, “On tap for restaurants next year: price increases and fewer full-time workers, as many chains seek to offset rising costs likely to be brought on by President Obama’s health care reforms.” Though Newman said, “critics of the Affordable Care Act should resist the urge to say ‘I told you so,’” he made points throughout his piece that suggest Obamacare critics should continue to say, “We told you so.” Newman noted, “Fatburger and other chains have started to experiment with work-sharing deals in which employees work part-time at two different franchises, so they never hit the 30-hour threshold at one establishment that would allow them to qualify for benefits under Obamacare — even if they work 50 or 60 total hours in a week. . . . People Report's 2014 forecast. . . says the cost of providing health care for employees could rise by as much as 25% per year under Obamacare. Nearly 60% of chains surveyed said they’d have to raise menu prices to help cover cost increases. And 80% of the companies said they planned to substitute part-time workers for full-timers. Such developments seem to vindicate claims that Obamacare will put people out of work and make it harder for lower-earning workers to get ahead.”
Everywhere one looks confusion over the complexity and rules of Obamacare is rampant. Newman pointed out that “[t]he biggest headache for employers, in fact, may be the law’s complexity” and The Wall Street Journal reports, “Two big numbers to think about today: There are 33 days until open-enrollment season for insurance coverage under the new health law begins, and 51% of Americans say they don’t understand how it will affect them or their family, according to the latest tracking poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. That proportion is higher among the uninsured, the mid-August poll found. Some 62% of the uninsured say they don’t have enough information about the health law . . . .”
Summing up some of the problems Obamacare has run into, Reuters writes, “The new timetable for qualified plan agreements is the latest in a series of delays for Obamacare. The most significant came in early July when the White House and the Treasury Department announced a one-year delay in a major Obamacare provision that would have required employers with at least 50 full-time workers to provide health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014. Legal and political opposition from Republicans and their conservative allies have already fragmented Obamacare's original vision. Only about half the states have opted to expand Medicaid program for the poor to uninsured families living below the poverty level, and Republicans in Congress have denied nearly $1 billion in new implementation funding this year alone. The Government Accountability Office cautioned in June that the law known as Obamacare could miss the October 1 enrollment deadline because of missed deadlines and delays in several areas including the certification of health plans for sale on the exchanges. Another U.S. watchdog, the HHS Office of the Inspector General, warned earlier this month that the government was months behind testing data security for the federal data hub that represents the information technology backbone of the new marketplaces.”
After hearing of the Obama administration’s delay of the employer mandate, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “If the folks in D.C. are to be believed, its implementation is going just swimmingly. The Democrat Leader in the House of Representatives called it ‘fabulous.’ The President said that the law is ‘working the way it’s supposed to.’ . . . Fabulous…Wonderful…these aren’t the kind of words one normally associates with a deeply unpopular law, or one that media reports suggest is already having a painful impact on Americans we represent. . . . The President was so worried about some of this law turning into a disaster that he selectively delayed a big chunk of it. But he only did that for businesses. . . . We can argue about whether the President even had the power to do what he did, but here’s the point today: if businesses deserve a reprieve because the law is a disaster, then families and workers do too. Because if this law is ‘working the way it’s supposed to,’ then it’s a terrible law. And if it’s not working as planned, then it’s not right to foist it upon the middle class while exempting business.”
So far, though, Senate Democrats have blocked Republicans’ attempts to vote on a exemption from the individual mandate. With new Obamacare delays being announced every week, will Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) finally allow a vote on exempting Americans from the individual mandate when the Senate returns in September?
Tags: Obamacare, complexities, delays, workeers losing hours To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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