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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato (429-347 BC)

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Feckless President? Marine Held For Trial in Mexico | Obamacare's Broken Promises Pile Up

Today in Washington, D.C. - Aug 5, 2014:
Regarding the non- activity of President Obama, can anyone share any good reasons why the President has not called up the Mexican President and told him the games are over, release Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi immediately?

 Is our president that feckless? Feckless defined: lacking initiative or strength of character; irresponsibleIt has been over 128 days that  Sgt Tahmooressi has been held in Mexican prison or jail. Time to close the border!

It is past time for President Obama as Sgt Tahmooressi Commander in Chief, to tell the Mexican president that the following actions will be taken if Andrew is not released and standing in his office within 24 hours.  Americans in Mexico will be warned  to leave Mexico and the American Embassy will be closed.  No vacationers will be allowed in to Mexico.  No support  or resources of any kind will be provided to factories Mexico, even if  American owned.  No shipments to the US and Canada will  be permitted to cross the border.  All Mexican consulate in the U.S, will be ordered closed. All rail tracks which were used to transport children across Mexico to the U.S. will be disabled / destroyed by drones.  And every Mexican military and  police officer that "wanders" into the United States in the future will be arrested and transported to Federal Prison and held pending a Federal trial for Armed invasion of the United States.

Mexico needs to read their own history, every time we have gone to war with them, we kicked their backsides.  Give us back our Marine!  President Obama stand up for your troops and get Tahmooressi released.  You traded five terrorist for a potential traitor/deserter.  What a juxtaposition!

The House is on their August "District Work Sessions." Hope most readers have an opportunity to contact and discuss issues with their Congressional Representative. As most of them are also running again for office and will be looking for votes and money. So, give them your two-cents worth as well.

The Senate reconvened at 11 AM today and following 40 minutes of morning business adjourned until Friday. On Friday, the Senate will hold a pro forma session at 9:15 AM.

The Senate will return for legislative business on Monday, September 8th! The comment mentioned previously is true for about a third of the Senators. However, many, especially those who have supported Reid / Obama's failed progressive agenda, need to be replaced.

As usual, not a week goes by without another news story highlighting the failures and broken promises of Obamacare.

Yesterday, the AP reported, “The majority of insurance companies are raising the price of health plans in Florida through the Affordable Care Act exchange. State insurance officials said Monday that 14 companies filed plans, including three new insurers. Of the 11 returning plans, eight filed average rate increases ranging from 11 to 23 percent, and three filed rate decreases ranging from 5 to 12 percent. Florida Blue, the largest insurer, is raising its premiums by an average of 17.6 percent. Humana proposed an average 14.1 percent increase for its HMOs, and Molina proposed an 11.6 percent average rate decrease.”

The Tampa Tribune elaborated, “Floridians who signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will see premium increases averaging about 13.2 percent for 2015, according to data provided to the state Office of Insurance Regulation. . . . Steven Hendricks, a spokesman for the Florida Blue in Tampa, said the rate hike reflects the demographics of the insurance pool. He said when healthier consumers kept their existing plans in the Affordable Care Act’s first year, the sickest and most expensive consumers turned to marketplace plans. . . . The state insurance regulators provided examples of how it said the rate hike requests might affect two different consumers. A family of four earning $51,000 a year in Hillsborough County with a monthly federal subsidy and a “silver” plan paid an average premium of $470 this year; that would rise to $533, the insurance regulators said. An individual earning $27,000 in Hillsborough paid $220 this year, with the premium rising to $238 next year.”

And National Journal writes today, “If you like your Obamacare plan, you can keep it — but you might end up paying a whole lot more. People who decide to stick with the coverage they've already gotten through Obamacare, rather than switching plans, are at risk for some of the biggest premium spikes anywhere in the system. And some people won't even know their costs went up until they get a bill from the IRS. . . . Many consumers will need to switch plans in order to keep their costs steady, but health care experts question how many people will do that. Switching plans can entail changing your doctor and adjusting to new out-of-pocket costs, never mind the fresh trek through HealthCare.gov. The White House has already set up an auto-renewal process, making it easier to stick with the status quo. And with so many behind-the-scenes factors at play, most people might not even know that they need to go back through HealthCare.gov just to keep the deal they already have. ‘A lot of people aren't going to understand this,’ said Susan Pantely, an actuary at the Milliman consulting firm.”

National Journal goes through the factors that could make things ever more expensive for consumers: “First, there are the standard premium increases insurers seek from year to year. The lowest-cost plans in each state's marketplace were generally the ones that attracted the most customers in 2014. But in many cases, they're also the plans seeking above-average rate hikes. ‘The prices of the lowest-cost [plans] tend to be going up more,’ said Caroline Pearson, vice president at the consulting firm Avalere Health. ‘Most people, if re-enrolled, will be enrolled in a plan that has a premium increase.’ But that's only part of the reason inertia is so expensive for Obamacare enrollees. The vast majority of enrollees don't pay the full cost of their premiums—85 percent are getting financial help from the government. And many of those consumers will find that their subsidies don't go as far next year, even for the same plans. The size of each person's subsidy is tied to a ‘benchmark’ plan. Poorer consumers only have to spend a certain percentage of their income for that plan; the government pays the rest of the premium. If you choose a more expensive policy, you have to pay the difference on your own. This year, about 3.4 million people picked the benchmark plan or went one option cheaper. But as those plans raise their rates and new options come to the market, they'll often lose their benchmark status to cheaper competitors—and their customers will find themselves on the hook for a bigger share of their premiums. ‘I would expect that probably the majority of 2014 enrollees are going to be impacted pretty substantially,’ said Milliman analyst Paul Houchens. . . . HealthCare.gov isn't able to automatically recalculate the subsidies existing consumers are eligible for. So, while the dollar value of your financial assistance drops, you can only find out that's happening by going back into the system and asking for a redetermination as part of the shopping process.Consumers who auto-renew their policies will get the same dollar value of subsidies they got last year—even though changes in the marketplace all but guarantee that will no longer be the right subsidy amount for millions of people. ‘That's the totally crazy part,’ Pearson said. ‘They're basically going to send them what they know to be the wrong subsidy.’ The IRS will eventually figure out how much financial assistance you should have received, and will reconcile the difference on your taxes.”

Meanwhile, a good look at even more Obamacare problems by Townhall.com’s Guy Benson, NPR reported Sunday on another factor leading to narrower networks on Obamacare plans: doctors are being paid less and can’t afford to take patients on such plans. “On a recent afternoon at his office in Hartford, Conn., Dr. Doug Gerard examines a patient complaining of joint pain. . . . For a typical quick visit like this, Gerard could get reimbursed $100 or more from a private insurer. For the same visit, Medicare pays less — about $80. And now, with the new private plans under the Affordable Care Act, Gerard says he would get something in between, but closer to the lower Medicare rates. That's not something he's willing to put up with. ‘I cannot accept a plan [in which] potentially commercial-type reimbursement rates were now going to be reimbursed at Medicare rates. You have to maintain a certain mix in private practice between the low reimbursers and the high reimbursers to be able to keep the lights on,’ he says. Three insurers offered plans on Connecticut's ACA marketplace in 2014 and Gerard is only accepting one. He won't say which, but he will say it pays the highest rate. ‘I don't think most physicians know what they're being reimbursed,’ he says. ‘Only when they start seeing some of those rates come through will they realize how low the rates are they agreed to.’ Gerard's decision to reject two plans is something officials in Connecticut are concerned about. If reimbursement rates to doctors stays low in Obamacare plans, more doctors could reject those plans. And that could mean that people will get access to insurance, but they may not get access to a lot of doctors.”

Another Connecticut doctor, Bob Russo, a radiologist and president-elect of the Connecticut State Medical Society, told NPR, “that the low rates and administrative burdens that come along with the ACA could make it a financial loser. ‘You get what you pay for,’ he says. ‘If you can't convince [doctors] that they're not losing money doing their job, it's a problem. And they haven't been able to convince people of that.’ He . . . worries about creating a tiered health care system. Think about Medicaid, he says. Before a recent rise in rates, it paid doctors even less than Medicare, so many stopped accepting Medicaid patients. ‘There's no question that Medicaid, under its old rates, wasn't working,’ he says. ‘So, have we just invented a new Medicaid that kind of slid the scale up a little more to make access a little more?’”

Just in the space of three days are stories putting the lie to Democrats’ promises about Obamacare. Insurance premiums are going up in Florida, as they are all over the country, despite assurances from the president and others that Obamacare would lower premiums. Then, National Journal notes another issue with health care costs, aside from the lowest-cost plans through Obamacare “seeking above-average rate hikes.” Because of the way the law was written and implemented (by Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration), a person getting subsidies is likely to be getting the wrong amount if they automatically re-enroll, which would leave that person on the hook for the higher premiums, if they receive too little. And if they receive too much, the IRS will tax it back in taxes. Finally, NPR talks to doctors in Connecticut who aren’t being paid enough when they see Obamacare patients, forcing them to reject some of those plans, which is hardly, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

Tags: feckless president, President Obama, Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, Mexican jail, Obamacare, broken promises, pile up To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 1:29 PM - Post Link

3 Comments:

Anonymous Flavia Eckholm said...

Liberalism is a form of mental illness, so I don't want to live there again.

8/06/2014  
Anonymous Flavia Eckholm said...

Does any one believe Obama is anything but a piece of crap? I saw a sign today while driving through NM. It was a pic of Obama that said, "The greatest president Ever." I was amazed that his 6' foot face wasn't riddled with bullets. They don'y dare but that one in TX or AZ.

8/06/2014  
Anonymous Hank Pannell said...

Do we even have 3 Drug Lords in Prison here in The U.S. In Which to Negotiate a Prisoner Exchange with?

8/06/2014  

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