Anyone Can Get An Exemption From The Obamacare Mandate

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

The third big deal that occurred in Obamacare in the last few months was the elimination of the mandate to buy healthcare insurance in the individual market.

The waiver qualifications have become broader as they have been clandestinely declared by President Obama’s executive orders.

It took the mainstream media four months to discover the new executive order waivers for the mandate.

The Supreme Court didn’t repeal the mandate to buy insurance. The Supreme Court called the mandate a tax.

President Obama insisted the mandate was not a tax. His campaign promise was any family making less than $250,000 a year would not experience a penny of increases in new taxes.

 

This campaign has clearly been a lie. President Obama felt victorious about the Supreme Court decision. The traditional media gave President Obama a pass on its social, political and economic implications.

In fours years of delays in implementing Obamacare’s deadlines imposes by the law have been changed by executive orders and collecting the laws new supportive taxes on time, no one has questioned what Americans have gotten for these new taxes.

President Obama has changed many aspects of the law without the consent of congress. 

No one in congress has challenged him.

The new mandate waivers were predicted to be the death knell for Obamacare's most controversial component. We had been told that the individual mandate was crucial to the survival of Obamacare.

Very few know about the new waivers. The new waivers allow anyone to skirt the mandate in the individual market. Almost no one has to buy insurance or pay a penalty. The waivers made through executive order, essentially exempts everyone from the mandate to buy insurance or pay a penalty.

 “There already had been 13 distinct exemptions, but this document added one more — apparently it was added in late December. “

 The problem is no one was made aware of the waivers by either the government or the traditional media.

“The most recent exemption was included in an ObamaCare application document. The document said that individuals can now qualify for a "hardship exemption" — meaning they would not have to pay a penalty for not buying insurance — if they "experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance." 

The document does not define what "another hardship" means, and suggests the administration might not be a stickler when it comes to proof either. It says anyone seeking this exemption should "submit documentation if possible." 

New waiver, number 14, was quietly extended through 2016 on March 14^th 2014. The mandate is to go into affect 2017. 

The first 13 exemptions were created for people who are homeless, who filed for bankruptcy, who experienced a fire and who dealt with other financial emergencies. These exemptions covered millions of people.

Waiver 14 reads as follows:

An individual has been notified that his or her plan will not be renewed and

believes that the available plan options are more expensive than the plan that was not renewed."

Patients only have to claim they believe that the available plans are too expensive for them to buy.

The wavier is not well known. It is advertised on purpose by the Obama administration. It has not been picked up by the traditional mainstream media.

The then Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the "hardship exemptions" and blamed them on Republican governors who did not expand Medicaid.

This attack is the typical progressive attack against the enemy and is meant to act as a diversion.

"It's been really aimed at people who could not afford coverage one way or the other," she said. She noted that the list includes people who live in states that did not expand eligibility for Medicaid.” 

Kathleen Sibelius statement is meaningless. The list of states include those states that expanded Medicaid.

To date the federal government has not processed 3 million applications. Republicans have not called out the Obama administration on the unprocessed applications.

Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office under the George W. Bush administration, said,

“That for someone to qualify for waiver 14, they could simply say they couldn't get through on HealthCare.gov or plans were too expensive or a special condition they have didn't appear to be covered.” 

Adverse selection of patients is certain to be the result in the independent insurance market. Only people with preexisting illnesses or people making less than $50,000 a year have bought the health insurance exchange insurance. The later group receives a large subsidies.

The problem will be compounded whenever small business waivers expire.

In any event all American will experience double-digit increases in healthcare insurance premiums as a result of Obamacare and its unlawful waivers.

All Americans are paying higher taxes for Obamacare since 2010. Taxes to fund Obamacare have been increasing yearly for the last 4 years.

Obamacare was supposed to be fully implement in 2014. It has been minimally implemented so far.

Obamacare taxes have been implemented. Therefore, increased taxes should produce a decrease in the budget deficit.

Nevertheless the budget deficit has continued to increase yearly by over $1 trillion dollars a year.

There is something wrong with the math unless Obamacare is generating bureaucratic waste.

A reader wrote

"Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment"

 Will Rogers

 

A reader sent me this list of increased taxes starting January 1,2014

In case you didn't notice
> 
> 
> Here is what happened on
> January 1, 2014:
> 
> 
> 
> Top Medicare tax went
> from 1.45% to 2.35%
> 
> Top Income tax bracket
> went from 35% to 39.6%
> 
> Top Income payroll tax
> went from 37.4% to 52.2%
> 
> Capital Gains tax went
> from 15% to 28%
> 
> Dividends tax went from
> 15% to 39.6%
> 
> Estate tax went from 0%
> to 55%
> 
> Remember this fact:
> These taxes were all passed only with democrat votes,
> no republicans voted for these taxes.
> 
> 
> These taxes were all
> passed under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
> 
> 

Is Obamacare worth the increase in taxes?

What are we getting for the increase in taxes?

What it is doing to the economy?

Why are Republicans afraid to say anything? Who should say something?

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

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