Lone Republican In Obama's Cabinet Fired | Obamacare Train Wreck Continues

Hagel bows out as Sec. of Defense

Today in Washington, D.C. - Nov 24, 2014
The Senate has adjourned for Thanksgiving recess. It will reconvene on Monday, December 1st, at 2 PM with votes scheduled on two ambassador nominees.

The House has adjourned for Thanksgiving recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 12 noon on Monday, November 24, 2014.

Today, President Obama announced the resignation of Secretary of Defense (SOD) Chuck Hagel. Hagel was a former Republican senator and has served as SOD since early 2013. He resigned under pressure from the White House. Hellen Cooper, The New York Times reported that "Administration officials said that Mr. Obama made the decision to remove Mr. Hagel, the sole Republican on his national security team, last Friday after a series of meetings between the two men over the past two weeks. . . . He raised the ire of the White House in August as the administration was ramping up its strategy to fight the Islamic State, directly contradicting the president, who months before had likened the Sunni militant group to a junior varsity basketball squad. Mr. Hagel, facing reporters in his now-familiar role next to General Dempsey, called the Islamic State an 'imminent threat to every interest we have, adding, 'This is beyond anything that we've seen.' White House officials later said they viewed those comments as unhelpful, although the administration still appears to be struggling to define just how large is the threat posed by the Islamic State."

It appears that President Obama refusal to recognize the threat of ISIS and calling it ISIL was at odds with Defense Secretary Hagel's and the Pentagon's assessment. And the shellacking that the Democrats took in the 2014 elections and the constant deceptions occurring in the Obama administration appear to have contributed to the firing of the last Republican voice in the White House cabinet. When an Emperor has no clothes, all of his court must at least pretend to be blind to his nakedness.

While the Obama administration has made headlines with its executive actions on immigration, personnel changes, and more pushes on costly regulations, there is plenty of usually troublesome news on Obamacare as it enters its second enrollment period.

Of course, the biggest story was a report from Bloomberg News that the Obama administration was counting enrollments in dental plans as full Obamacare enrollments, “incorrectly adding 380,000 dental subscribers to raise the total above 7 million.” The report noted, “The error was brought to light by Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, using data they obtained from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. . . . The new count puts enrollment short of a 2013 estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, adopted last year as a goal by the Obama administration, that 7 million people would be enrolled this year. . . . Blending dental and medical plans let the administration assert that enrollment was more than 7 million. The move also partly obscured the attrition of more than 1 million in the number of people enrolled in medical insurance.”

Meanwhile, health insurance premiums continue to increase despite all the promises from Democrats that they would decrease under Obamacare. The Hill reported last week, “The average price of the most popular ObamaCare health insurance plans rose 10 percent for 2015, according to a new study of premium figures published Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Consulting firm Avalere Health analyzed the monthly price of the lowest-cost silver plan in each region. Twenty-eight percent of all marketplace enrollees chose the lowest-cost silver plan available to them. . . .

“Not only are premiums increasing, but if consumers do not pick a different plan, they could pay more due to annual changes in how subsidies are calculated. The report underscores the complicated nature of out-of-pocket costs for ObamaCare plans for people receiving subsidies. The credits are calculated annually based on the price of the second-lowest-cost silver plan in each region, or the "benchmark" plan, which varies year to year. People who find that their plan is suddenly more expensive than the benchmark policy have to pay the difference dollar for dollar. Only a handful of regions will see their benchmark plans remain the same for 2015, meaning that many people who receive subsidies will face higher prices if they do not pick another plan.”

Though liberals have touted the states that created their own exchanges, there have been just as many failures and problems at the state level.

The AP reports, “The federal government shelled out billions of dollars to get health insurance marketplaces going in the 14 states that opted to run their own. Now they must act like true marketplaces and start paying for themselves. Under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, state-run health insurance exchanges need to be financially self-sustaining starting in January. Some appear to be on that path, while others have shaky funding models or even none at all. Some states, prohibited from using state money, are imposing fees on plans sold on the marketplaces. Others are spreading costs more widely — which, in one instance, has drawn a federal lawsuit. . . .

“[Rhode Island] does not have a way to pay for the exchange's long-term operations, and some lawmakers in the state General Assembly have suggested shifting to the federal exchange. The cost to operate Rhode Island's exchange is estimated at $17 million a year, although an earlier estimate pegged the cost at $24 million. . . .

“New York is relying on two agencies' general revenue, while Maryland is using money from an existing 2 percent tax on insurance plans. Republican Delegate Anthony O'Donnell, a critic of Maryland's decision to create its own exchange, said he continues to question its sustainability. He said last week that he is concerned ‘about the entire structure and that it may collapse of its own weight.’ . . .

[Colorado’s exchange is] imposing a 1.4 percent fee on monthly premiums for its plans but also approved charging a $1.25-a-month ‘general market’ fee on all individual and small group policies, including those sold outside the state exchange. Some lawmakers called the fee unfair, and one board member voted against it. It is expected to raise an estimated $13 million a year before it expires in 2016.

In the District of Columbia, which also is operating its own marketplace, the exchange's budget is being funded by a new 1 percent tax on all health insurance policies. The American Council of Life Insurers is suing, arguing it unfairly taxes insurance products that cannot be purchased on the exchange. . . .

Earlier this year, California's exchange said it was setting aside $184 million in federal money to fight off projected budget shortfalls through 2016. . . . The Vermont marketplace, which is being funded by the state's health care provider tax, is on shakier ground. Officials there acknowledged it could face a $20 million shortfall by year's end. The state hopes pending federal grants will fill the gap.”

The exchanges themselves continue to have problems, too. Roll Call noticed the DC exchange had to be taken down for maintenance for a couple of days. “‘During this outage, important maintenance work is taking place that will resolve a variety of different issues employees have been seeing,’ read a message sent to Senate staffers Friday morning, which also noted the website, also known as DC Health Link, was unavailable beginning Thursday evening. . . . The spokesman said the website was unavailable due to a data update. Before individuals can renew their health care coverage, the Affordable Care Act requires the data to be refreshed to verify that the individuals are still eligible for their plans. . . . DC Health Link is also in the process of correcting information for employee accounts.”

And in California, patients are still dealing with the fallout of narrowed networks under Obamacare. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Bolstering a chief complaint about Obamacare coverage, California regulators said two major health insurers violated state law by overstating the number of doctors available to patients.

More than 25% of physicians listed by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California weren't taking Covered California patients or were no longer at the location listed by the companies, according to state reports released Tuesday. In some cases, these errors led to big unforeseen medical bills when patients unwittingly ventured to out-of-network doctors for medical tests or a surgery. . . .

‘We found the provider directories made available to the public had significant errors,’ said Shelley Rouillard, director of the California Department of Managed Health Care. ‘When you have a quarter or more of physicians that aren't available, that is significant.’ Anthem and Blue Shield account for nearly 60% of enrollment in Covered California. The two industry stalwarts have long catered to patients wanting the widest selection of physicians. As a result, their narrower networks and more restrictive policies were a jolt to many people and often came to light only when they were getting treated. The insurers compounded the problem with inaccurate provider lists, mislabeled insurance cards and false assurances about coverage, according to patients, doctors and regulators.”

The LA Times documented the frustrations of Californians stuck in the narrower networks Obamacare has resulted in. “Patient Darrell Done's experience at the doctor's office was typical for many under the Affordable Care Act. The 57-year-old real estate agent from Pasadena said he confirmed on Blue Shield's website in December that his longtime family physician was part of his network. Then he went for a check-up in May and handed his new insurance card to the receptionist. ‘She said, “Oh. I'm sorry. This is an Obamacare policy, and Blue Shield changed all of their plans,”’ Done recalls. Done said he was upset at being locked into his plan until the next open enrollment. ‘I'm trapped in a policy that's not what I thought it was,’ he said.

“Redondo Beach resident Doug Evans, 62, bought a Blue Shield policy through Covered California a year ago only to find out later that his primary care doctor and orthopedic surgeon were no longer covered. ‘There was no explanation that Blue Shield in Covered California would be this limited network,’ Evans said. ‘That's what ticked me off.’”

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