More Obamacare Consequences | Members of Congress Visiting Home Districts This Weekend

Today In Washington, D.C. - July 18, 2014
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene at 2 PM on Monday. On Monday, the Senate will vote on confirmation of the nominations of Julie Carnes to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit and Eunice Reddick to be U.S. Ambassador to Niger.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 93-4 to pass S. 2244, the Terrorism Risk Insurance reauthorization bill. Later in the day, the Senate voted 68-23 to invoke cloture on the Carnes nomination.

The House reconvened proforma at 11 AM for 3 minutes. The next scheduled meeting is at 12:00 PM on Tuesday, July 22, 2014.

Most members of Congress are visiting home districts with most campaigning for re-election. Please let them know what you feel or wish about various issues.

And with all the issues on the news surrounding Ukraine and Russia, remember Congress (both the US House and Senate) has already passed in April, 2014 the Ukraine aid, Russian sanctions bill.

Hardly a week goes by without some new negative, but frustratingly predictable, consequence of Obamacare coming to light.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, “A billing dispute has cost enrollees in the state’s health insurance exchange access to Southern Nevada’s largest oncology practice. Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada has left the provider network of Nevada Health CO-OP, a nonprofit insurer created to sell coverage through the Nevada Health Link exchange. Because Nevada Health CO-OP was the only carrier on the exchange to contract with Comprehensive Cancer Centers, patients who want to visit the practice must now buy a plan off of the exchange or pay out of pocket. . . . Comprehensive Cancer Centers has abandoned the CO-OP’s network because it was taking as long as 60 to 90 days to get reimbursed for services, said medical oncologist and practice President Dr. James Sanchez. The industry norm is 32 to 33 days, he said. ‘It was long enough that it was just not something that was conceivable for our business to survive on,’ Sanchez said. . . . The change could affect thousands. Comprehensive Cancer Centers is the city’s largest oncology practice by far, with 33 doctors. . . . What’s more, Nevada Health CO-OP enrolled 37 percent of the 38,000 Nevadans who bought coverage through Nevada Health Link. Based on those numbers, more than 14,000 people have exchange coverage with the CO-OP.”

So once again, Obamacare is resulting in narrower networks of health care providers, showing that for thousands of Nevadans, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” is yet another broken Obamacare promise.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to create uncertainty in the business community with its selective enforcement of the employer mandate. According to The Hill, “The White House needs to make a decision soon on whether ObamaCare's controversial employer mandate will take effect in 2015. With the mandate set to take effect in January, businesses are awaiting final world from the administration on whether they will be required to track and report how many of their employees are receiving coverage. Federal officials are late in delivering the final forms and technical guidance necessary for firms to comply, raising suspicions the mandate could once again be delayed. The mandate has been pushed back twice before, the first time in late summer. . . . Another delay to the mandate would be sure to create a political firestorm and draw charges that the administration is playing politics with ObamaCare ahead of the midterm elections. But support for the mandate on the left has begun to soften in recent months, with influential figures and former Obama administration officials questioning whether it’s needed to make the law work. . . . Almost one year ago, the Obama administration announced it would postpone enforcement of the mandate until 2015. The move was denounced as politically driven, given that businesses were warning they were likely to layoff and cut hours for workers once they were required to either provide healthcare coverage or pay a fine.”

... “[D]elayed or not, the mandate poses a variety of challenges for businesses. Interest groups say they're in a holding pattern until the Treasury Department releases two more forms and a set of specific enforcement guidelines. Those materials, expected prior to July 4, are considered necessary to constructing databases that will help fulfill the mandate's complex requirements.”

And even some Democrats are beginning to question the mandate itself. “[A] growing number of Democrats have muddied the waters by questioning how much the mandate really matters to the healthcare law. Skeptics include the party’s likely 2016 standard-bearer, Hillary Clinton, and former Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs,” The Hill writes.

These stories follow another week’s worth of news of insurers announcing premium increases in states including Tennessee, Delaware, and Louisiana.

As Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has said, "no wonder ‘Obamacare’ has “become a byword for broken promises and almost-cartoonish inefficiency. . . . ‘You can keep your plan.’ ‘You can keep your doctor.’ ‘Premiums will go down.’ ‘The law will create millions of jobs.’ We knew the promises wouldn’t hold up.”

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