ObamaCare Comes Up Short

Get ready for major hikes in health-insurance premiums, notwithstanding all the promises from "The One."

From Obamacare shorts health insurers $2.5 billion:

Insurers will get far less money than promised from the federal government this year — and a few billion dollars less than they requested — to help pay for their sickest customers.

Insurers learned late Thursday [October 1, 2015] that they'll receive just $362 million out of the $2.9 billion in requested for 2014 for the program, according to an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services.

That's because a program created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act hasn't brought in nearly as much money as it needs to pay out. As insurers enrolled more older, sicker Americans under the new healthcare law, they were promised some federal money to help cover their new costs, through a program known as risk corridors.

This shortage in funding ObamaCare was totally predictable, of course. People with chronic health conditions typically cost more in healthcare dollars. The cycle of life.  All the utopianism in the world can't change the natural order of the universe.

THE LAST DAY — AND THE SITE IS DOWN

Figures!

From WTOP:

WASHINGTON -- On the last day to sign up for health care, the federal government's site HealthCare.gov is down.

At 5 a.m., the site said, "The system isn't available at the moment. We are currently performing maintenance. Please try again later."

"HealthCare.gov regularly nightly maintenance window has been extended."...

Another epic fail!

FIRST THEY CAME...[OBAMACARE]

Those employer-based plans, many of which are going to be slammed by the end of 2013, and the information comes from Obama's own Department of Justice (hat tip to Bunkerville for the video below):


For all those who have been sighing with relief because they have employer-based policies, a reminded from 1946: "First They Came" by Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984):

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Tyrants don't let anyone escape their tentacles of power and suppression. Anyone!

MIND-BOGGLING STUPIDITY

Proof positive from this November 16, 2013 article in the Washington Post:

...[A former Democratic Party Chairperson has stated that] she thinks HealthCare.gov will be functioning well by the Nov. 30 deadline because that’s what the president said....

This statement was apparently made after Obama's announcement last Thursday.  The words denial of reality don't begin to cover this absurd statement.

Read the article for more details.

The Cult of Obama continues on.

NEW FOREVER STAMP, PLUS VIDEO FLASHBACK

The reality of the train wreck will not hit until people personally suffer via rape-rate premiums, high deductibles, no maximum-out-of-pocket limits, and reductions in network options.

One example of how devastating a reduction in network options can be: Kaiser, insuring more than 500,000 people in the D.C. area, dumps the five most important hospitals in Northern Virginia.

Thus far, people learn that others are being slammed and sigh with relief: "Well, it's not happening to me.  I don't have that particular policy."

Flashback video:

EPIC FAIL: THE OBAMACARE WEB SITE

The ObamaCare web site now has been condemned by Consumer Reports:

The Obamacare program's flagship website is so error-prone and user-unfriendly that Consumer Reports magazine has thrown up its hands in disgust, advising readers to 'stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least another month if you can.'

[...]

Before October 1 [the launch date of the ObamaCare web site], the magazine was a major booster of President Obama's health insurance overhaul plan, devoting several pages in its latest issue to an optimistic ‘step-by-step guide.'...

The word is out now — and not only on conservative web sites and other outlets.

How much of Obama's Teflon coating has been ruined? Cult followers are obdurate and intransigent.

SIGN UP FOR OBAMACARE, AND GET A FREE SMART PHONE

From NashvilleBizBlog:

Community Health Alliance, Tennessee's health insurance co-op, is running a unique promotional program to drive enrollment in its plans for sale on the exchange: health insurance in exchange for a smartphone.

As part of its Community Health Connection Program, CHA is offering qualified individuals an LG Lucid 2 4G smart phone (or equivalent model), a phone plan and tech support, included as a cost of their health plan benefits. The phone plan includes unlimited talk, unlimited texting and 1.2GB of data....

More redistribution of wealth!

Meanwhile, many in the hard-working middle class cannot afford a SmartPhone and cannot keep a decent share of the fruits of their labors. This, of course, is the essence of what Obama has called "a level playing field."

OBAMACARE TO RELY ON THE HONOR SYSTEM

The Obama administration announced on Friday, July 5, 2013 that the Obama administration will rely on the honor system to verify ObamaCare-related claims about income and coverage.

ObamaCare is a consummate failure.

OBAMACARE FAIL

Forget the hope of those high-risk pools for health insurance:

Funds run low for health insurance in state ‘high-risk pools’

Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health insurance because of preexisting medical problems will be blocked from a program designed to help them because funding is running low.

Obama administration officials said Friday that the state-based “high-risk pools” set up under the 2010 health-care law will be closed to new applicants as soon as Saturday [February 16] and no later than March 2, depending on the state....

A delay in applying to a high-risk pool has been inevitable for some:

[T]he pools are open only to people who have gone without insurance for at least six months.

One of my dearest friends in my small circle of friends lost his health insurance (employer based) on January 1. The health insurance company stated that federal regulations precluded the company's viability to operate, so the company went under.

The end result for my friend: after decades of having health insurance coverage, he now is forced to go without any coverage for six months so as to be eligible for a high-risk pool.

Catch-22.

Obamacare is a scam, the goal of which is the redistribution of wealth.

Welcome to the gulag.

MAKES THE POINT

Not funny, but does express the truth (hat tip to Adrienne's Corner):

OBAMACARE REALITIES

Let us understand some of what ObamaCare requires by 2014, unless, of course, one chooses to pay the tax instead of ponying up for health insurance.

 I did research on the topic of availing this household of the "cheap ObamaCare policies" in 2010, shortly after ObamaCare was thrust upon our nation by Congress and the Obama administration. At that point in time, Mr. AOW was paying $584/month, and I, in the same age bracket, was paying $256/month for our separate private policies. The difference in those premiums is attributable to Mr. AOW's having pre-existing conditions even before his stroke [We have had health insurance all of our married lives, some 40 years], whereas I do not have any pre-existing conditions. Each of our policies at that time had an in-network deductible of $2500/year with a maximum of $5000/year in-network out of pocket. No prescription coverage whatsoever was included. 

Those ever-touted-by-the-Left "cheap" health insurance policies" mandated by ObamaCare and subsidized by the government in 2010 went begging, that is, people were not signing up.  It's easy to understand why if one considers the above.

So, how do those "cheap ObamaCare" policies scheduled to go in force in 2014 work?  What I have gleaned so far about taking preemptive action in advance of 2014....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MANDATE AND A TAX

Speaking on a practical level:

If America is to remain free, clean up that Congress on Election Day 2012!

OBAMACARE'S PITFALLS: THEY WILL TOUCH EVERY AMERICAN

These pitfalls proliferate in the Health Care Reform Act, the bill that Pelosi so glibly told us would eventually reveal its specifics after it became law:



The specifics below will touch the vast majority of Americans in one way or another.

From Red State (hat tip to Conservatives on Fire):

Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, including the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income.

[...]

Like a lot of the poorly-designed, economic programs of this administration, this program will destroy more wealth than it ever gets around to actually transferring. The negative externalities of this proposal will be legion.....

Read the rest HERE. The specifics are disheartening, particularly for the middle class, as cited here:

This will also have a knock-on unemployment multiplier effect on the people who pave roads to new subdivisions. It will require fewer realtors and settlement attorneys to handle the decreased sales volume. Home values will adjust downward in reaction to the penalty tax that a homeowner has to pay to escape a current residence. This will lead to a downward pressure on tax assessments for residential property which will further complicate the efforts of state and local governments to run organizations such as schools.

According to GOP.gov:

This new ObamaCare tax is the first time the government will apply a 3.8 percent tax on unearned income. This new tax on home sales and unearned income and other Medicare taxes raise taxes more than $210 billion to pay for ObamaCare. The National Association of Realtors called this new Medicare tax on unearned income “destructive” and “ill-advised” and warned it would hurt job creation.

Under the Obama administration, middle-class America is well on the way to serfdom!

OBAMACARE DEMOLISHED IN 30 SECONDS

Demolished by Richard Foster, the top official at Medicare (hat tip to Mike's America):


Obama so-called health care reform is an epic fail and a series of lies perpetrated upon the American people.

EVAN THOMAS CRITICIZES OBAMACARE

Quite something, considering that Evans's past comment likening Obama to a god:

THE OBAMACARE CHART

Go HERE and use the pdf tool to enlarge the chart.

What a nightmare! What a tangled web of controls and regulations!

OBAMA CARE AND FAMILY-INSURANCE PLANS

Much ado was made of Obama's warning health-insurance companies not to raise costs.

And I personally know of several people who supported ObamaKare because they believed that ObamaKare would help them to keep their children on the family's health-insurance plan until those children reach age twenty-six. Quite the attractive carrot for Obama's health-insurance reform, apparently.

Surprise! There's no such thing as a free ride!

From this June 27, 2010, article in the Washington Post:

It is among the top early selling points of the health-care overhaul -- a new rule that has particular appeal for middle-class, middle-age voters: Young adults who lack health insurance will soon be able to remain on their parents' plans until age 26.

But although Obama administration officials note that the provision will help millions, the benefit is proving less immediate than many families expect.

The administration's success in convincing dozens of insurers to comply with the provision earlier than the law requires has left many parents with the impression that their adult children will be eligible for continuing coverage far sooner than is likely to be the case, experts said.

Furthermore,

Many military families are also just learning that the young adult children provision -- and the rest of the overhaul -- won't apply to TRICARE, the Defense Department health plan serving 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

[...]

Many military families are also just learning that the young adult children provision -- and the rest of the overhaul -- won't apply to TRICARE, the Defense Department health plan serving 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

[...]

The years to come could bring further rude awakenings for parents as employers and insurance companies look for ways to offset the added costs of covering these workers' children longer into adulthood, experts say.

For instance, roughly half of employer-based insurance plans currently charge a blanket family rate regardless of how many children are included on the plan. But the survey by Mercer found that one in five are now strongly considering or likely to start charging on a per-child basis.

Similarly, while Mercer found that on average employers cover more than two-thirds of the cost of family plans, 16 percent said they are strongly considering or likely to require their workers to start contributing a greater share.

ObamaKare - smoke and mirrors, and utopian fantasy that cannot possibly be fulfilled.

And now that the bill has been passed, we who bear the burden of the costs of ObamaKare are finding out more and more of the ugly details. More such ugly details to come. Quite the reality check is looming.

SOME MUSICAL HUMOR

At BHO's expense, of course:

Obama Risks Becoming ‘Shovel-Ready Project’

During the next two days, President Barack Obama plans to appear on five Sunday talk shows and The Late Show with David Letterman Monday and continue his push for so-called "health care reform" (a.k.a., "ObamaCare"). In waging this near-all-out media blitz*, the president risks becoming a "shovel-ready project."

A shovel-ready project? Perhaps, some clarification is in order, so here goes it...

Ask my wife. She'll tell you I've done it. Heck, we've all done it at some time in our lives. We've made the mistake of talking about a subject well beyond the point when we should have shut our mouths and moved on to another topic -- or, in many cases, said nothing at all.

On the occasion -- or, in my case, occasions -- when you commit such a self-indulgent speech crime, you have to know that most people within earshot of your voice are thinking, "He's digging himself into a hole," and hoping you will stop soon. Such is the case with most Americans when it comes to the words coming out of President Obama's mouth (with the assistance of a teleprompter, of course).

According to Rasmussen Reports® survey results released Friday, 56 percent of Americans oppose the president's health care plan.

The release of those numbers came less than a week after hundreds of thousands of Americans -- who, no doubt, count themselves among the 56 percent mentioned above -- descended upon the nation's capitol to stage a Tea Party. During the event, which drew one of the largest crowds in 20 years to the nation's capitol**, opposition to government-run health care was arguably the "glue" issue among a plethora of left-wing measures that served to bond the protesters representing all 50 states.

If President Obama is as wise as his Latina appointee to the Supreme Court is (sarcasm), he will cancel his appearances on the Sunday talk shows, cancel his appearance on Letterman and walk away from the firestorm that is ObamaCare. Otherwise, he might as well grab a shovel and consider himself a shovel-ready project.

Editor's Note: The photos above, courtesy El Marco at Looking at the Left, capture the scene outside the Stout Street Clinic in downtown Denver prior to Nancy Pelosi's visit Aug. 6. About 200 people gathered to show their opposition to ObamaCare.

*The weekend media blitz does not include any appearances on the Fox News Channel.
**See this article if you want details about crowd-size estimates.

Something’s Wrong With ObamaCare, But Man Can’t Put Finger On It After Incident or...

Something is wrong with ObamaCare, but William Rice can no longer put his finger — specifically, his right pinky finger — on exactly what it is. Why? Because he had it bitten off by a supporter of President Barack Obama’s so-called “health care reform” measure during a rally Wednesday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Rice was part of a group staging a rally — with a permit, I might add — in opposition to the president’s nationalized-medicine measure.

To watch a segment about the story that aired on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News Channel, click here.

P.S. Did you like the alternate headline shown in the graphic above? Let me know.