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President Obama Tries To Bully The Supreme Court

June 10, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President Obama attacks his opponents, marginalizes them, throws them under a bus, lies, ignores reality, or bullies them.

The reality about Obamacare is that none of the stakeholders like it.

It is causing states with State Health Insurance Exchanges to go deeper in debt.

The government has been forced to create 37 Federal Health Insurance Exchanges. Premiums are skyrocketing because of poor enrollment and demographic distribution. Only people with pre-existing illnesses or those receiving subsidies are joining.

Premiums are now unaffordable even applicants receiving subsidies.

Obamacare is driving corporations providing healthcare insurance for their employees to figure out how to avoid providing healthcare insurance and penalties.

The government has provided waivers for companies such as McDonalds, Burger King and 1300 other companies to not participate in Obamacare.

 Obamacare has tried to take away Medicaid subsidies from states that did not start a State Health Insurance Exchange and would not expand Medicaid. The Supreme Court stopped that two years ago.

Obamacare has driven physicians into hospital employment. Many physicians are unhappy and less productive working for hospitals themselves.

Many physicians have retired early because of Obamacare. This is a bad sign in light of our present physician shortage.

Obamacare has created incentives for hospitals to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

Logically ACOs cannot work because they shift financial risk for patients on to physicians and hospitals and away rom the healthcare insurance industry.

Hospitals and physicians are finally starting to realize the risk and are dropping out of the ACO programs.

Obamacare has spent over one billion dollars for a web site that is still not fully functional.

The promise of universal healthcare coverage has resulted in more people being uninsured than before Obamacare was passed. Only 9 million people are signed up and 6.4 million receive subsidies.

The original prediction in 2009 for 2015 was 17 million participants.

The expanded Medicaid program in 14 states is  experiencing severe physician shortages and financial problems.

Obamacare patients and Medicaid and Medicare patients are starting to experience limitations on access to care and rationing of care.

I am only naming a few of the many problems Obamacare has created.

Yet with all these defects and failures President Obama has the gall to say,

 “There's something deeply cynical about the ceaseless partisan attempts to roll back progress.”  

"I understand people being skeptical or worried before the law was passed and there was no reality to examine. But now that we can see millions of people having health care—and all the bad things that were predicted didn't happen—you'd think it was time to move on."

Obamacare is not working despite President Obama’s claims.

I think it is time to move away from Obamacare and in another direction.

This week President Obama did another astonishing thing. It reveals   his consistent disrespect for the constitution and the separation of powers.

He has tried to intimidate the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Obamacare with his personal attack on the court and its upcoming decision in King vs. Burwell.

 “The law provides for subsidies only for policies purchased on exchanges "established by the state", inserted in the law as an inducement to states to set up exchanges.”

Congress limited the subsidies to State Health Insurance Exchanges to encourage the states to set up their own exchanges. Thirty-seven states saw the trap that President Obama was setting for them and refused to cooperate.  

The IRS, operating under the direction of President Obama, tried to “fix” the law by permitting federal exchange to provide subsidies.

The infamous Dr. Jonathan Gruber, a principle framer of Obamacare, who was paid by the Obama administration $375,000 for his consultations with the White House staff, said the exclusivity of state exchanges rewarding subsidies was put into the law to induce states to set up exchanges.

Dr. Gruber, a healthcare economist, also said the law would have not passed if the public was not so stupid and could recognize the lack of transparency of the law.

President Obama said at the time of the scandal that he did not know Dr. Gruber. President Obama said Jonathan Gruber played a minor role in the construction of Obamacare.

During the last month President Obama has used the traditional media to try to convince the Supreme Court and the American people that congress really meant to give the State Exchanges and the Federal Exchanges to ability to provide insurance subsidies.

Article after article was published confirming that what the law meant to say was both State and Federal Exchanges had the ability to provide subsidies. This was morally the right thing to do.

President Obama said this week. “That we have an obligation to put ourselves in our neighbor’s shoes, and to see the common humanity in each other.”

First of all congress didn’t write the law. It should have and it should have been bipartisan. Most Democratic congressmen who voted for Obamacare didn’t even read the law.

The IRS has no authority to change the letter of the law with a regulation.

The law as written should be the law. The Obama administration overstepped its constitutional limits. If the law is wrong, congress should amend the words to include subsidies for federal exchanges also.

Obamacare is a terrible law. It is distorting and destroying our already dysfunctional healthcare system. The Republican dominated House and Senate are not going to change a law that is self destructing, if the Supreme Court favors King and the letter of the law.

Since President Obama’s traditional media campaign has been a flop, he has personally gone after the Supreme Court. He tried to intimate it by challenging its integrity.

President Obama said, “Frankly, the Supreme Court should not have taken up the lawsuit challenging Obamacare subsidies.” 

Who is he to decide which cases the Supreme Court should take up?

 President Obama continued,“There is no reason why the existing Federal Health Insurance Exchanges should be overturned through a Supreme Court case,”

 President Obama is preparing the country to be angry at the Supreme Court if the Supreme Court rules in favor of King.

President Obama is disregarding the notion that the Supreme Court is interpreting and upholding the constitution, a concept he frequently ignores.

“I think it’s important for us to go ahead and assume that the Supreme Court is going to do what most legal scholars who've looked at this would expect them to do.”

 This statement is both a lie and a veiled threat to the court.

“Elena Kagan  recently wrote in another case that, "This Court has no roving license, in even ordinary cases of statutory interpretation, to disregard clear language simply on the view that (in [the IRS’s] words) Congress 'must have intended' something broader."

During oral arguments in March, Justice Antonin Scalia suggested Congress could step in and fix the problem.

“Congress just adjusts, enacts a statute. It would take care of the problem. It happens all the time,” he said. “Why is that not going to happen here?”

President Obama did say there was one way to resolve the dispute over the law: “Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision.”

President Obama said, “He is puzzled by the legal challenges against his signature healthcare law, arguing there is ample evidence that the system is working.

“Fortunately, there's no reason to have to do it. It doesn't need fixing,”

President Obama keeps harping on the same lies. He believes if you tell a lie enough times it becomes the truth.

President Obama said, “Part of what's bizarre about this whole thing is, we haven't had a lot of conversation about the horrors of ObamaCare because none of them have come to pass.”

There has been limited conversation about the horrors of Obamacare in the media because President Obama and the traditional media have limited the conversation

President Obama cannot bully the Supreme Court into not of upholding the constitution and it obligation to interpret the constitution accurately.

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

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Obamacare Enrollment Deceptions Continues

May 3, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

I made a big deal out of the poor enrollment in Obamacare throughout the winter.

There are more than 330 million Americans who should have healthcare insurance. In 2014, 15 million people lost their healthcare insurance because of Obamacare regulations.

At the end of the healthcare enrollment period for 2014 the Obama administration claimed there were 9 million enrolled in health insurance exchanges. The number was modified to 6.7 million enrollees because of mistakes in counting dental plans and non-payment of the enrollees’ initial premium.

Never the less President Obama did a victory lap and declared Obamacare is working. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is very difficult to keep track of all the false numbers thrown at the public.

The 2015 open enrollment period was delayed one month until after the mid-term elections for political reasons. President Obama and the Democrats wanted to keep the conversation about Obamacare out of the traditional media headlines.

The enrollment period of November 15th to December 31st was extended to February 15th 2015. On February 16th it was extended to March 1st 2015.

On February 16, 2015 Aaron Albright, as CMS spokesman announced,

 “Americans who couldn't enroll in federal Obamacare insurance plans over the weekend because of computer glitches or long waits will now have until next Sunday to sign up, federal officials announced early Monday.

"We are pleased that the vast majority of consumers were able to apply and pick a plan through HealthCare.gov or its call center without a problem,"  

"For those consumers who were unable to complete their enrollment because of longer than normal wait times at the call center in the last three days or because of a technical issue such as being unable to submit an application because their income could not be verified, we will provide them with a time-limited special enrollment period for March 1 coverage."

“The special enrollment period begins Monday and ends Feb. 22.”

 The extension was prompted by the Saturday outage of an Internal Revenue Service function for Obamacare enrollment, which could have prevented about 500,000 people from enrolling.

The enrollment period was extended to allow those predicted 500,000 to enroll.

The enrollment period was was extended from February 15th to February 22nd and the March 1st.

 On March 1st a special tax penalty enrollment extension was started to expire April 30th.

Only 98,000 enrolled during that 2 month extension. The predicted five hundred thousand (500,000) people did not enroll as was announced.

On December 15th  2014 these were the published enrollment figures.

 

“ Confirmed 2015 QHPs: 3,039,524 as of 12/15/14”

“Estimated 2015 QHPs (Cumulative):


11/21: 610K (462K HCgov) • 11/28: 1.02M (765K HCgov) • 12/05: 1.80M (1.35M HCgov) Thru 12/15: 4.70M (3.52M HCgov”

http://acasignups.net

Enrollment by state can be studied in the following link.

The Obama Administration bragged:

“The number of people enrolling or re-enrolling last week was considerably higher than in previous weeks. Week one saw 500,000 enrollees, week two had 300,000 and week three saw 600,000 sign up through HealthCare.gov.”

Only 3.4 million sign ups were confirmed to receive healthcare coverage by January 1,2015.

This is only seventy percent (70%) of the expected enrollment through 12/15/14. The enrollment had been extended before New Year to February15, 2015.

“The government estimates a total 10.7 million will enroll by February 15,2015. On February 2,2015 there were 7.53 million qualified enrollees. The original estimate in 2010 was 17.5 million. The first 2015 estimate enrollment in 2014 was reduced 3 months ago to 13 million. The enrollment figure was modified.”

Somehow, the February 22 deadline was extended to April 30, 2015. The Obama administration continues to make up the rules as the go.

 On April 28th two days before the open enrollment period was supposed to close for 2015 http://acasignups.net/ publish these figures.

 

Confirmed Exchange QHPs: 11,897,180 as of 4/28/15
Estimated: 12.30M (9.38M via HCgov) as of 4/28/15
 

http://acasignups.net/

It is important to note that only 9.38 million people enrolled via HCgov in 2015. There is no change from the 2014 pre modification of the 2014 data.

It is not known how many enrollees paid their first premium.

None of these fact have been reported in the traditional media. Obamacare and the health insurance exchanges are not doing as well as President Obama says they are.

President Obama and his administrations continue to lie to Americans about enWhen is the American public going to demand a stop to the Obamacare deceptions?

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

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Restricting Access To Care

April 15, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Patients Problems, Physician's Problems, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

As a retired Clinical Endocrinologist I don’t have a vested interest in generating income for myself from the healthcare system.

What I am trying to do is help consumers and healthcare policy makers understand the present healthcare system. I fear they have no interest in understanding what would work to repair the healthcare system.

I am also trying to explain to consumers that few politicians are interested in helping them. Politicians are interested in power. They are interested in making the people dependent on them.

Politicians and the central government are interested in controlling the healthcare system, the financial system, the Internet and the environment. Once politicians control these systems the people have lost their independence and freedom. Politicians will have the power they seek.

Many of our constitutional freedoms have been disappearing. American have been on the Road To Serfdom for many years.

President Obama has hastened the journey on the road to serfdom with his blatant disregard for the constitution and the bill of rights. To my chagrin he is succeeding.

President Obama is pretending to want to provide universal care. His goal is to destroy the healthcare system so that the people will beg for the central government to control the healthcare system.  There are more uninsured people now than when he became President.

Paul Krugman is one of President Obama’s henchmen. He stated in a recent article that Obamacare is costing the government less money than the administration thought it would. He therefore calls Obamacare a success.

This administration and its henchmen in the traditional media flood us with half-truths.

Obamacare might be costing the government less than they expected. The Obama administration never told Americans what they expected to spend.

The Obama administration is the most non-transparent administration in my lifetime.  Meanwhile, the Obama administration tells Americans it is the most transparent administration in history.

CGI is a Canadian company with offices in the U.S. It had the contract to develop the Obamacare website healthcare.gov. The website was a disaster. The development cost overruns were unbelievable.

CGI received the contract through an Obama crony capital award and a non-competitive bid.

CGI receive another contract to complete the backend of healthcare.gov.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is supposed to be affordable for consumers. Consumers are experiencing higher premiums and out of pocket expenses for medical services.

1. Obamacare has been under subscribed. Only 10 million people are verified premium paying subscribers. The Obama administration projected 30 million subscribers by 2015 when Obamacare was passed in 2010.

2. The deductibles are unaffordable. Obamacare is even unaffordable to those people who receive subsidies.

The subsidized people have avoided seeing physicians in a timely manner. The result is government costs are less in the short run but will be more in the long run as people get very ill.

3. The Obama administration is keeping the expenses for infrastructure and bureaucratic structure non transparent.

4. Obamacare’s rules and regulations are resulting in restricting access to care.  

5. Paul Krugman and the Obama administration spin the truth by ignoring consumer out of pocket expenses.

There has been an explosive increase in premiums and higher deductibles though the health insurance exchanges as well as private insurance.

The Obama administration has been silent about this reality.

The Affordable Care Act is not affordable. It has not increased the “quality of care.”  

Paul Krugman does not publish the real truth in his New York Times articles. Those who still read the New York Times take his words literally. They are deceiving themselves.

One of the ways the Obama administration is restricting access to care to lower its costs is through the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF) recommendations.

I have criticized the USPSTF methodology in the past for its conclusions about many clinical practices.

The task force is composed of a group of physicians that do not have clinical expertise in the medical or surgical topic they are evaluating.

The group simply reads the medical papers assigned to them to evaluate. The committee decides the efficacy of treatment on the quality of the literature they are given to evaluate.  Clinical judgment is not included in their evaluation.

A positive decision is made if the literature contains a double blind controlled study yielding positive results.  

Last month the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued its final recommendation statement on Screening for Thyroid Dysfunction. The USPSTF studied this topic in 2004 with the same final opinion.

This time Obamacare will probably take action and restrict the evaluation on the basis of this recommendation

 “ In its statement, the task force said that without more data from randomized clinical trials it could not assess the balance of benefits and harms from pre-clinical thyroid disease treatment and, thus, could not recommend that asymptomatic, non-pregnant adults be screened for thyroid dysfunction.”

 The Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM), a journal of the American Medical Association published the USPSTF recommendation without expert clinical endocrinology comment or critique.

R. Mack Harrell, MD, FACP, FACE, ECNU current President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) is having the AACE Thyroid Scientific Committee submit a note to the Annals of Internal Medical addressing AACE’s concerns with the USPSTF’s paper.

AACE has studied and written many guidelines on the evaluation and treatment of thyroid disease. Its members have vast experience as practicing clinicians in the treatment of thyroid disease. Its input should be sought by the Obama administration not ignored in favor of a default decision that saves Obamacare money and puts the financial burden of care on consumers.

The following is Dr. Mack Harrell’s comment to AACE’s membership.

In my opinion Dr. Harrell’s’ comments are totally correct and should be heeded by the Obama administration.

“While agreeing with the USPSTF’s call for new, controlled thyroid screening studies, AACE issued a press release outlining its position on aggressive case finding suggesting: that this approach is an appropriate alternative to screening in patient groups where thyroid risk factors are present.

More specifically, AACE stressed that testing and treatment are indicated in those patients who are at highest risk for developing life-altering, overt thyroid disease, including:

Patients over 60, in whom symptoms of hypothyroidism are often minimal, absent or atypical

  • Newborns (continued mandatory screening for congenital hypothyroidism recommended)
  • Those with autoimmune diseases often associated with thyroid disease, such as type 1 diabetes and pernicious anemia
  • Patients with a prior history of thyroid disease or thyroid surgery, an abnormal thyroid exam, or taking drugs known to affect the thyroid
  • Patients with a family history of thyroid illness

AACE further emphasized that careful consideration should be given to thyroid testing in women who are planning pregnancy or are already pregnant given the clear-cut detrimental effects of thyroid hormone lack on fetal development in the early phases of pregnancy.

We also intend to submit to AIM a formal statement from the AACE Thyroid Scientific Committee to address concerns that the task force’s “lack of data” argument could be incorrectly interpreted as a “lack of clinical need” to find and treat thyroid disease.

For years, members of AACE and the American College of Endocrinology have worked diligently to provide up-to-date, useful clinical guidelines and recommendations regarding decision-making about thyroid function testing for physicians. We will continue to keep our members and the medical community apprised as we communicate our position regarding thyroid disease testing.

Best regards,

R. Mack Harrell, MD, FACP, FACE, ECNU

The Obama administration has made many mistakes in writing Obamacare. Most of them have not been in favor of the consumers it professed to help.

About 50% of women over the age of 60% might have subclinical hypothyroidism. Overt clinical hypothyroidism can take several years to declare itself. During the time of subclinical hypothyroidism evolves to overt hypothyroidism patients can suffer mild to moderate symptoms that would decrease their quality of life on many levels.

I believe President Obama should show compassion and responsibility toward the millions of who people would suffer from subclinical hypothyroidism. President Obama is setting up the healthcare system to restrict access to care for these people.

I do not think he should rely on a committee that does not have the expertise in the field of clinical thyroidology.  

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

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Let’s Do The Numbers : Another Obama Trick

March 19, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Have the increased Obamacare taxes added enough value to the healthcare system to be worth the costs?

The answer is no.

Are the increased taxes becoming painful yet?

The answer is yes.

The yearly cost of Obamacare has not been transparent.  There have been multiple delays in the implementation of Obamacare.

Favored businesses and unions have received waivers and exemptions from the laws required coverage. All the while taxes have increased and less than 10 million people have received healthcare coverage from the healthcare insurance exchanges. Eighty-five percent of those people enrolled are receiving federal subsidies.

No one has explained how a tax credit becomes a federal subsidy.

The public has no idea what the costs of Obamacare are or will be in the future. The CBO has revised its estimates several times.

Are all the Obamacare pronouncements confusing?

Yes. I believe they are intentionally confusing.

All the stakeholders are dissatisfied. Neither President Obama nor his administration is listening to the primary stakeholder (patients). 

Why are there so many waivers and exemptions being handed out by the Obama administration? I believe it is because President Obama is listening to his political base.

He is delaying the implementation of his agenda so his goal of socialized medicine is not obvious to all Americans.

President Obama and his administration have mislead us about the exact number of enrollees since the very beginning of the first enrollment period,  October 1,2013.

The American public was mislead about ,

 

  1. The disastrous website development, reason for website crashes and cost of website development.
  2. The exact number of enrollees the first year. (9.5 million correct to 8 million and then down to 6.8 million)
  3. The resulting further correction by a decrease in 800,000 more people losing insurance because of discovered ineligibility for subsidies.
  4. Decreasing the original predicted enrollees for 2015 from 13.5 million to 9.5 million.
  5. The change in the start of enrollment from October 1,2014 to November 15th to avoid discussion of enrollment around the time of the November 2014 elections.
  6. Extending the 2014 enrollment three months.
  7. Extending enrollment for 2015 for one to three months.
  8. Finally in 2015 announcing the back end of the website sending information to the IRS was still not complete.
  9. Rehiring CGI the same Canadian company that built the disastrous healthcare.gov to fix the back end of the website.
  10. Discovering that 1.2 million were counted that should not have been because they got dental insurance bringing the number of enrollees down from a recalculated 8 million to 6.8 million enrollees for 2014.
  11. Announcing that 11.5 million people have enrolled for 2015 (these numbers seemed shaking at the time of enrollment. It seemed to be closer to 9.5 million or less.)
  12. Eight hundred thousand (800,000) enrollees lost their subsidy because they lied on their application
  13. Announcing that the group market Obamacare enrollment is being delayed a year or two while the mandate penalty for employers was to start January 1,2015.

Along the way I got the feeling that none of the enrollment numbers could be trusted.  HHS and CMS keeps on modifying and lowering them.

The Obama administration keeps telling us how great the enrollment is and that Obamacare is a success.

However, only ten million people have Obamacare insurance. Eighty five percent of those on Obamacare are receiving subsidies and still cannot afford the deductibles.

The rest of the enrollees have a pre-existing illness. They cannot find private insurance to buy. What about the 330 million people who might have subpar healthcare insurance? How many employers might discontinue employee insurance?    

After five years with all these new Obamacare taxes, I would not call this a successful healthcare reform program.

All of these enrollees were in the individual market. These numbers do not include the group insurance market.

14 million lost their healthcare insurance on the individual market. 10 million gained insurance on the healthcare insurance exchanges.

Several states healthcare insurance exchanges have failed.

An unknown number of enrollees in 2014 did not re-enroll in 2015 because of the loss of the subsidy and the high deductibles.

Other enrollees did not sign up again because they could not afford the high deductible.

The following is President Obama’s next trick play.

At the end of 2015 enrollment the Obama administration declared that 11.5 million people were enrolled.

On March 16,2015 the administration said about 16.4 million people have gained health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act became law nearly five years ago.

Please notice the tricky wording. The Obama administration is counting children under 26 that now can be included in their parents’ group insurance plans and the additional Medicaid recipients added by some states.

The count is not only the people who enrolled in Obamacare through the healthcare insurance exchanges.

The present discussion is about the success of the healthcare insurance exchanges not the increase in Medicaid coverage.

Confirmed Exchange QHPs: 11,699,473 as of 3/18/15


Estimated: 11.95M (9.06M via HCgov) as of 3/18/15

 

Estimated ACA Policy Enrollment: 33.1M
(10.46M Exchange QHPs, 8.20M OFF-Exchange QHPs, 330K SHOP, 14.1M Medicaid/CHIP)

 http://acasignups.net

There are two possible reasons for the Obama administration’s pronouncement at this time.

The first is the Republicans are about to announce its alternative plan to Obamacare. The administration’s goal would be to blunt the impact of the alternative plan by announcing the false success of Obamacare.

The second reason is to play mind games with the Supreme Court.

Justice Kennedy’s questioning at the hearing of King vs. Burwell expressed his concern for 85% of 10 million people who would loss their federal subsidy. Justice Kennedy did not address the letter of the law in his questioning.

Only the state healthcare exchanges can provide subsidies not the federal exchanges according to the written law. This is executive overreach of power granted by the constitution. President Obama should have asked congress to rewrite the law’s provision.

In an attempt to pressure the Supreme Court to vote in President Obama’s favor the administration has given the impression of confidence the Supreme Court will act in its favor.

The Obama administration has announced, a few times, that it does not have an alternative plan if the Supreme Court rules against it.

This is not true. The Obama administration has at least three alternative plans in the works.

It looks as if President Obama cannot help himself from trying to manipulate the American public and now the Supreme Court.

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

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The Facts

February 4, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Healthcare Insurance Industry, Medicine: Healthcare System, Patients Problems, Physician's Problems, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

The fact that the Obama administration believes that Americans are stupid as expressed by Jonathan Gruber is an insult on its own. The fact that the Obama administration persists in treating us as if we are stupid simply compounds the insult.

In the run up to the February 15th ending of the 2015 www.healthcare.gov enrollment period and the new Republican congress’ upcoming vote to repeal Obamacare, the Obama administration is trying to convince Americans that Obamacare is working and is good for all Americans.

The public knows better by now. The middle class is feeling the economic pain Obamacare has created. They sense President Obama telling another lie.

 Recent headlines have been

Obamacare Will Cost 20% Less

Affordable Care Act will Cost 20% Less Than Initial Projections, CBO Says

Right-Wing Media Won't Tell You That The CBO's New Obamacare Cost Estimates Are Lower Than Expected

President Obama’s deception implies Obamacare is cost effective. All the CBO is saying is the numbers given to it, this time, by the Obama administration show the cost of Obamacare will be 20% lower than the CBO original estimate in 2011.

The additional new taxes for Obamacare were initiated in 2011 based on those CBO estimates.

One important reason for the 20% decrease in cost from the original estimate in 2010 is that fewer people have chosen to enroll in www.healthcare.gov in 2014.

Since fewer people enrolled there is a $51 billion of savings in federal subsidies for fewer enrollees in health insurance exchanges.

This represents a failure of Obamacare not a success as claimed by the Obama Administration.

The government estimates a total 10.7 million will enroll by February 15,2015. On February 2,2015 there were 7.53 million qualified enrollees. The original estimate in 2010 was 17.5 million. The first 2015 estimate enrollment in 2014 was reduced 3 months ago to 13 million. The enrollment figure was modified.

The taxes the middle class have been forced to pay for Obamacare were not modified.

The real numbers are totally confusing because the government documentation is very difficult to follow. CMS modifies the numbers constantly with corrections. The modifications serve to keep Americans stupid and confused.

The Obama administration is now spinning the significance of the CBO report to its political advantage.

The online Daily Mail of Britain published this online story. The headline does not exactly reflect potential consequences of the Facts.

"Obamacare program costs $50,000 in taxpayer money for every American who gets health insurance, says bombshell budget report."

  • ·       Government will spend $1.993 TRILLION over a decade and take in $643 BILLION in new taxes, penalties and fees related to Obamacare
  • ·       The $1.35 trillion net cost will result in 'between 24 million and 27 million' fewer Americans being uninsured – a $50,000 price tag per person at best
  • ·       The law will still leave 'between 29 million and 31 million' nonelderly Americans without medical insurance
  • Numbers assume Obamacare insurance exchange enrollment will double between now and 2025 "

  Buried in a 15-page section of the nonpartisan organization's new ten-year budget outlook were numbers to calculate the cost of Obamacare legislation to add patients to the insurance role. “The $1.35 trillion net cost will result in 'between 24 million and 27 million' fewer Americans being uninsured – a $50,000 price tag per person at best.”

It is impossible to judge whether these estimated figures are correct because estimates are mostly wrong.

What we do know is Obamacare is not doing well from everyone’s except President Obama’s point of view. The spin is keeping all Americans who are seeking the truth confused. Americans want a solution to the deterioration of the healthcare system.

Another reason for the reduction in Obamacare healthcare spending could come from the reduction in reimbursement to physicians.

Insurance companies have not suffered the same reimbursement insult because the government has subsidized the healthcare insurance industry and provides a guaranteed profit that is not included in the CBO estimate.

A third reason for the reduction in spending could be explained in part by the growth of consumer-driven health plans and the Great Recession.

A fourth reason for the 20% reduction could be that the insurance products on the health insurance exchanges have high deductibles. It takes a while before the patients reach their deductibles and the government starts spending money on reimbursement. Patients can also be staying away from receiving appropriate medical care because they cannot afford the deductible.

The CBO report projects that 75 percent of enrollees will receive subsidies in 2015. However, 87 percent received subsidies in 2014. This is wishful thinking on the part of those who provided the data for the CBO to evaluate to believe the subsidy percentage will decrease.  The CBO projected a further decrease in subsidy to 71% in 2025.

The health insurance exchange experience so far suggests there is adverse patient selection. It can be assumed that there will be an increase in healthcare risk and an increase subsidy percentage in the future.

CBO projects the average exchange subsidy per covered enrollee in 2015 will be $4,330 and increase to $7,710 by 2025. These costs represent a 78 percent increase in costs.

However, I do not think anyone can draw any conclusions from the CBO’s report.

I do believe that Obamacare is President Obama's  push to a single party payer healthcare system because of the structure of its market driven elements are destined to fail.

Government will then take over telling us what medical care we can or cannot have.

”We are fast approaching the stage of ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.” - Ayn Rand

The CBO report of a 20% reduction is spending as a result of Obamacare is meaningless. It is being used by President Obama to confuse the public for political reasons.

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

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It’s De Ja Vu All Over again!

January 31, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust
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 Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President Obama uses the same moves over and over again in order to fool the traditional media and the American citizens. Why change tactics when they always work?

He knows Americans want to believe him.

Jonathan Gruber, a consultant economic architect of Obamacare was correct when he said that a lack of transparency is a powerful political tool. He said Americans are too stupid to see through the charade.

President Obama thinks his job is to transform America. He never defined what transforming America means.

Americans assumed he would make America a better place to live for the average citizen.

In the last six years the average American has not had job security, healthcare  security or a better standard of living. President Obama keeps telling Americans they have a better life.

President Obama saying it does not make it so.

Americans are starting to perceive reality and do not believe him or in him anymore.

In February 2014 I published the following blog. The tactic President Obama uses is to present a half-truth that is not close to the truth. He confuses Americans so they do not know what to believe. They stop paying attention to what is happening to them and society. They do not search for the truth until it affects them directly.

President Obama’s fantasy is now affecting the hard working middle class. They now know he lies to them. They feel they have been taken for fools.

In the last few weeks he has been putting out false narrative about how well Obamacare is doing.

Last years blog will set they stage to understand the way the tactic has been played over and over again.

 

"Why Use Facts and Logic?  

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

 February 27,2014

I pointed out the tactics used in Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals. 

President Obama uses these tactics over and over again to attack his opponents, obfuscate reality and confuse the public.

The public has figured out President Obama out. Reality is now in healthcare and Americans are feeling it.

The middle class independents voters are feeling it the most.

President Obama’s opponents have not figured out how to neutralize  the Alinsky formula. 

If someone points out the truth he is attacked, belittled and marginalized. President Obama is using executive powers to attack the constitution in order to restrict Americans’ rights to freedoms.

The most recent FCC foray to determine the quality of news reporting was cancelled by the uproar about the attack on free speech.

President Obama has tried to shift public attention away from Obamacare by bringing up many topics at once.

The traditional media goes along with this because President Obama is the number one newsmaker. The media have only a limited time or space to cover topics.

Let’s face it. These important topics are not entertainment. They are boring.

A story that floored me was President Obama’s his austerity claim. He said his new budget would finally end the dreary "era of austerity."

Did he think increasing Americans national debt $6 trillion dollars over 5 years was austere?

“ The federal government will still spend $561 billion more this year than it did in 2008.”

I was under the impression that the Republicans took a shellacking from President Obama once again by the way the recent budget deficit and debt ceiling resolutions were reported. The opposite is true.

President Obama wanted the sequester abolished, roughly $2 trillion more in spending, and almost $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade.

The latest budget deals delivered none of that. While the sequester was relaxed, all the additional spending was offset with no higher taxes.

Speaker Boehner did not do so bad. 

In 2014 President Obama’s take on the debt ceiling is extremely interesting.

 

 

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/022114-690858-obama-budget-and-his-phony-complaint-about-austerity.htm

 

In the last few weeks President Obama has been telling his base over and over again that Obamacare is going to be a non-issue in the November 2014 elections. He told Bill O’Reilly in his Super Bowl interview that 6 million people have already received insurance.

 

http://youtu.be/9uzJYlbhH54

Both were lies. It doesn’t seem to bother him to lie.

Dick Durbin, the second man in the senate, told a Sunday morning talk show that 10 million have signed up by end of January.  

On February 25th President Obama announced that 4 million have signed up. He did not say how many of those were on Medicaid, how many bought private insurance, how many lost their insurance because of Obamacare, how many bought private insurance on the health insurance exchange and how many never had healthcare insurance.

He has used the 6 million over and over again even though he received 4 Pinocchio’s from the Washington Post fact checker.

The traditional media just publishes what he tells them even though they have stories with facts that contradict his pronouncements.

President Obama has henchman at the New York Times. Paul Krugman is the chief.

He makes pronouncement without facts.

His February 23, 2014 article “Health Care Horror Hooey” is one of those articles. He starts by brow beating his audience about the death tax (Estate Tax).

“You might think that such heart-wrenching cases are actually quite rare, but you’d be wrong: they aren’t rare; they’re nonexistent. “

No evidence was presented for the statement.

In particular, nobody has ever come up with a real modern example of a family farm sold to meet estate taxes.

One reason is that there are few family farms in existence today.

The whole “death tax” campaign has rested on eliciting human sympathy for purely imaginary victims.

The problem in my view is people paying estate taxes are being taxed a second time on the same money.

I do not care how rich a person might be the government should not be entitled to tax money twice.

And now they’re trying a similar campaign against health reform.

This statement is nonsense

“I’m not sure whether conservatives realize yet that their Plan A on health reform — wait for Obamacare’s inevitable collapse, and reap the political rewards — isn’t working.”

My sense is Paul Krugman views conservative as shiftless idiots. He presents no proof as to whether Obamacare is working or not. He simply declares Obamacare isn’t collapsing.

“But it isn’t. Enrollments have recovered strongly from the law’s disastrous start-up; in California, which had a working website from the beginning, enrollment has already exceeded first-year projections.”

Mr. Krugman ought to read his own newspaper. The New York Times reported that California does not have enough physicians participating in Covered California to service its subscribers. Many subscribers have not paid their first premium.

 The mix of people signed up so far is older than planners had hoped, but not enough so to cause big premium hikes, let alone the often-predicted “death spiral.”

There is absolutely no information about age mix and health risk available for Covered California that I could find.

It is clear the administration is withholding this information.

In fact, Covered California has had to close its website in order to try to cover the discrepancies.

Paul Krugman claims insurance premiums and deductible have not gone up. I think he ought to look at the health exchange insurance premiums and deductibles for the individual market on the health insurance exchange.

He does not talk about the reasons for all the waivers given by President Obama. He does not talk about the congressional exemption.

He does not speak about the exemption delay for the corporate insurance market. Why not?

Millions of families will lose their insurance coverage and be driven into the Obamacare health insurance exchanges or face government penalty.

The IRS sent out a warning this week that if person does not have adequate qualified healthcare insurance a penalty would be assessed on to their tax bill in 2015.

Paul Krugman is being intellectually dishonest with the American people. The American people are being forced into an entitlement program they do not want.                                                                                                                                                            This is not “Health Care Horror Hooey Mr. Krugman.  It is reality.                                                       At the time of Krugman’s article a CMS report was publish that found 65% of small businesses that offer insurance will likely see their premiums rise thanks to ObamaCare. That translates into higher insurance costs for 11 million workers.

“No doubt, Obamacare boosters will charge that this information is from some right wing think tank.“                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The Obama administration immediately started shouting foul to the CMS study. They said the study was incomplete and the conclusions will change.

This is a typical use of an Alinsky tactic by President Obama.

David Horowitz writes in his book Barack Obama’s Rules For Radicals, There can be no conversation between the organizer and his opponents.  The latter must be depicted as being evil.
 

In this case his own CMS is depicted as being evil.

One study, for example, found that 63% of small employers in Wisconsin will see premiums jump 15% because of ObamaCare. A separate study found that 89% of small companies in Maine would see rate hikes of 12% on average.

Another, by consulting firm Oliver Wyman, concluded that ObamaCare would push up small group premiums nationwide 20%.

As soon as the CMS report came out, Democratic leaders rushed to the microphones to dismiss it.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's spokesman said it was "incomplete" and that the GOP would use the report "to mislead and deceive Americans."

President Obama, the American people got it. After all the lies, deceptions and misrepresentations we know what you are doing with your people and your shills.

 We do not trust you!"  Feburary 27 2014

 

In February 2015 President Obama’s misdirection continues. There is a lack of transparency about the 2015 www.healthcare.gov enrollment figures. The goal for enrollment is rigged.  Last year is was initially published that there were 9 million enrollees.

Those figures were false. It was eventually corrected down to 6.8 million.

The 6.8 million figure included the people who have lied to get higher subsides. Presumably they lied with the help of President Obama’s Navigators who receive $48 an hour from the government to help people complete their applications.

 At least 15% (1 million plus) of these people have dropped their healthcare insurance coverage because they lost the subsidies and/or the deductibles were too high.

As the Republic House and Senate are preparing to repeal Obamacare, the public is hearing from President Obama through the traditional media that Obamacare is working well and will not be repealed.

His fantasy is expressed in the following January 2015 headlines.

President Obama’s Fantasy

Obamacare Will Cost 20% Less Affordable will Cost 20% Less Than Initial Projections, CBO Says

Right-Wing Media Won't Tell You That The CBO's New Obamacare Cost Estimates Are Lower Than Expected

 New York Times: "Budget Office Slashes Estimated Cost Of Health Coverage." 

 HHS: More Than 7.1M Have Enrolled In 2015 Plans Via HealthCare.gov.

Obamacare website enrollment crests 7M as Feb. 15 deadline looms

7 Obamacare Facts You Need to Know at the Halfway Point of Enrollment

Burwell: ‘Time is running out’ for ObamaCare signups

To a casual observer the problems are solved. The cost of healthcare are affordable. Obamacare’s enrollment numbers are great.

 The Facts next time.

 

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

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Obamacare’s Solyndras

January 14, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Healthcare Insurance Industry, Medicine: Healthcare System
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

Peter Orszag was previously President Obama’s director of Office of Management and Budget. He was wrong about Obamacare’s economic impact, improvements in the healthcare system and efficiency in 2009.  He is wrong about it in 2015 in his critique of Steven Brill’s book “A Bitter Pill”.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-12/what-brills-bitter-pill-gets-wrong-on-obamacare

The problem is Peter Orzag still believes in the Obama administration’s fiction. He quotes the Obama administration’s spin of the results as proof of Obamacare’s success. There is little valid data to back up the spin.

Obamacare has had its share of Solyndras. Solyndra was destined to fail. It had a lot of built in organizational waste.

I fear the few Obamacare experiments that we are aware of that have failed are only the tip of the Obamacare failure iceberg. There will be many more debacles that the Obama administration is probably hiding. 

CLASS

Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, or CLASS, was designed to provide cash benefits for those patients needing long-term services and support. CLASS was a part of Obamacare (Affordable Care Act). Many Republican and moderate Democrats objected to CLASS and considered it fiscally unsustainable. It would only waste money.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman at the time Kent Conrad D-N.D. called CLASS “a Ponzi scheme of the first order”. In any event the $68 billion dollar program was rammed through as part of Obamacare.  

Two years later the Department of Health and Human Services determined CLASS could not be implemented in a fiscally solvent manner, and in January 2013 Congress repealed CLASS.

In 2015 the American public still does not know how much of the $68 million dollars was wasted.

Just how much did HealthCare.gov cost?

 The American public will never know. We will never know what we should have paid for the website or what we finally paid.

In October 2013 as soon as it was apparent that www.healthcare.gov was a train wreck the Obama administration denied all the published prices contracted for building the website.

Prices to build the website varied from $91 million dollars to $634 million dollars to over 1 trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000.00).

Americans did not know what the website should have cost. They never found out what the cost was to rebuild the website after the initial disaster.

It was never clear whether the contract to CGI was won by competitive bid. The Obama administration never answered the question of Michelle Obama’s influence in choosing CGI.

The history is clear. CGI has failed to deliver for other projects they have done in other parts of the world.

What is the truth? Why would the Obama administration pick this company? What can we do about this waste of taxpayers’ money?

I guess Americans can remain passive and pay more taxes.

Americans have given up on the truth about the www.healthcare.gov

 debacle. The attitude of many is that it is what it is. We must go on.

All Americans are hearing or want to hear is the current website is easy to use and is working well.The important question is, Is it?

It is easy to understand why Jonathan Gruber would say Americans are stupid and the lack of transparency is a powerful tool. The implication of that statement indicates an Obama administration attitude. It is the reason the administration says they hardly knew the guy.

CoOportunity Health falters, taken over by state

This Obamacare debacle almost got away from recognition by the American public.

 CoOportunity Health is a fledgling Iowa health insurance cooperative set up under  Obamacare with Obamacare money.  It is going bankrupt.

CoOportunity Health was set up by the Obama administration. The Obama administration granted the company $146 million dollars in funding from Obamacare funds. The idea was to provide consumers and small businesses alternative insurance in healthcare markets with limited insurance choices. It could also be thought of as a disguised “Public Option”.

The healthcare insurance industry had refused to participate in the federal and state insurance exchanges in many states. The healthcare insurance companies thought the risk was too great. They would lose money.

Just before this year’s open enrollment period President Obama activated the reinsurance provisions in Obamacare guaranteeing insurance companies that they can only make money and not lose money on providing insurance through the government health insurance exchanges.

The Healthcare insurance companies are falling all over themselves to provide healthcare insurance in high risk states now.

 Where else can you sell insurance to more people at no risk?

“As of December 12,2013 Cooportunity has only $17 million of the $146 million dollars left.  CoOportunity has been taken over by state regulators and could soon go under, officials said Wednesday.”

The Obama administration knows they can now throw government funded insurance companies like CoOportunity under the bus because they have guaranteed backup companies from the healthcare industry that want to sell no risk insurance.

 The CoOportunity hasn't reached insolvency yet but it doesn’t have  enough money on hand to continue to run the company.  It will leave 96,350 consumers uninsured with unresolved claims healthcare insurance claims. These consumers will also lose their un-used premiums.

The 96,350 should be able to get insurance through the federal health insurance exchange in their state.

The federal government as banker has simply cut CoOportunity’s credit and took a $146 million dollar loss.

I wonder how many other Obamacare funded insurance companies are out there?

I wonder how many other Solyndra like experiments Obamacare has. I can think of at least 4 or 5.

I wonder how much money Obamacare is losing on experiments and bureaucratic waste?

It is making medical care more expensive for taxpayers and for patients with increased out of pocket expenses.

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

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Things Happen When No One is Looking

January 4, 2015
inMedicaid, Medicare, Medicine: Healthcare System, Patients Problems, Physician's Problems, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Yew Year.

I have not written blogs during the holiday season because I figured no one would pay attention to what is happing in healthcare.

President Obama figured the same and snuck in a few things to continue to destroy the healthcare system.

Obamacare “innovative programs” seem to be going nowhere. The Obama administration continues to insist that all is going well.

The money spent is being wasted. The taxes for the funding of Obamacare’s 6.7 million enrollees is increasing as it attempts to increase enrollment to 9 million down from the original enrollment goal of 12 million.

I received a note from a reader who said Obamacare is here to stay. It is what it is. We should try to repair Obamacare rather than repeal it and replace it.

In my view Obamacare cannot be repaired. It was created to destroy the healthcare system. President Obama’s goal is to replace Obamacare with a government controlled single party payer system.

 The result will be to control and restrict access to care and ration care. It is a step on the way to restrict citizens’ freedoms.

Every week indications of Obamacare’s failures appear but are kept under the public’s radar.  The Obama administration spins the facts and the mainstream media’s regurgitates that spin.

 The Obamacare signup figures as complied by http://acasignups.net as of 12/30 2014 are very different that the administration’s spin to the media that the open enrollment period is going great.

Obamacare’s enrollment is still 1 million below estimate at this point

Confirmed 2015 QHPs: 7,403,558 as of 12/29/14
Estimated 2015 QHPs (Cumulative):
11/21: 610K (462K HCgov) • 11/28: 1.02M (765K HCgov) • 12/05: 1.80M (1.35M HCgov)
12/12: 3.26M (2.46M HCgov) • 12/15: 4.70M (3.52M HCgov) • 12/19: 8.52M (6.40M HCgov)
12/23: 8.65M (6.50M HCgov) • 12/30: 8.84M (6.54M HCgov)
state-level projections

 HHS finally announced that approximately 87% of Americans who selected 2015 health insurance plans through HealthCare.gov in the first month of open enrollment are receiving financial assistance to lower their monthly premiums. This percentage of subsidy awards is higher than in the same period last year.

The number is significant because, should the U.S. Supreme Court decide against the Obama administration in the King v. Burwell case it is scheduled to hear in March, consumers living in the 37 states relying on the subsidies from HealthCare.gov could lose their premium subsidies.

Another problem is even with the subsidy the people who received them cannot afford the insurance deductible. They do not seek medical care.

HHS has yet to disclose if it has a contingency plan should a ruling come down that only those who buy Obamacare insurance through state exchanges are eligible for coverage subsidies.

The CMS Innovation Center was established by section 3021 of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for the purpose of testing “innovative payment” and service delivery models to reduce healthcare expenditures while preserving or enhancing the quality of care” for those individuals who receive Medicare, Medicaid, or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits.

To date the CMS Innovation Center has awarded $2.6 billion through September 2014 to hospitals, doctors and others through nearly two dozen programs that tested new ways to deliver healthcare and pay for it.

“Results of those programs some underway since 2011including more than 60,000 providers and 2.5 million patients in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, are largely not yet available, the Innovation Center said in its second report to Congress.”

The ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codes were to be implemented two years ago. It appears to be going nowhere because it is too complicated. President Obama will probably delay it again.

The change toICD-10 from ICD-9 has been pushed forward at least three times. It is too complicated. It is designed to commoditized medical treatment and eliminate physician judgment. Codes have been increase from 18,000 (complicated enough) to 68,000. Neither physicians nor their unsophisticated computer systems can comply correctly.

The Obama administration is still pushing for its execution and wasting money yearly. Physicians cannot and will not comply with this government regulation.

 It is destined to fail at a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

“President Obama promised the AMA he would fix the defective Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate formula( GRF) for calculating Medicare reimbursement to physicians. As a result of that promise the AMA supported President Obama’s healthcare reform bill.” 

The GRF is not fixed yet. Congress delays the reductions in reimbursement due to this defective bureaucratic formula  each year and adds the percentage reduction in physician reimbursement to next year’s reimbursement reduction.

This year physicians can expect another 4% reduction for a total of 32% since 2002.  We will see if congress fixes this defective formula this year.  

On January 1, 2015 physicians are going to experience a series of pay cuts from CMS.  If functional electronic medical records are not implemented physicians will experience additional reimbursement reductions from Medicare and Medicaid.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2015/01/01/multiple-pay-cuts-hit-doctors-in-2015/#comment_reply

Physicians are struggling to deal with new measurements to improve quality and deal with a myriad of new changes in Medicare and Medicaid rules and regulations.

Two years ago in order to attract more physicians to accept Medicaid to care for the growing number of enrollees in Medicaid, Obamacare increased Medicaid reimbursement by 40%. The increase in reimbursement was to last only until January1, 2015 and then revert to the 2012 reimbursement schedule.

Those pediatricians, family practitioners and internists were faked out once more by Obamacare and President Obama’s promises.

The biggest pay surprise to physicians will come when the old reimbursement returns. Poor Americans on Medicaid will suffer when they cannot find a physician.  

“No other segment of the health care industry faces penalties as steep as these and no other segment faces such challenging implementation logistics,” Dr. James Madara, the AMA’s CEO wrote to the Obama administration.  “The tsunami of rules and policies surrounding the penalties are in a constant state of flux due to scheduled phase-ins and annual changes in regulatory requirements.”

 The cascade of rules and regulations will affect every specialty of medicine. The only thing left is for physicians to quit participating in government programs.

Then government can force medical license renewal to be tied to participation in government healthcare programs.

Where is physicians’ choice and freedom? There is currently a physician shortage. If physicians quit medicine and surgery what will happen to patient care?

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

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Notice The Enrollment Spin

December 21, 2014
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Healthcare Insurance Industry, Medicine: Healthcare System, Patients Problems, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

The disinformation coming from the Obama administration is unrelenting.

CMS has released Obamacare’s open enrollment numbers through 12/15/14.

 On December 15,2014 all of last years enrollees who did not change their health plan or did not discontinued their plan were automatically re-enrolled for 2015.

 

“ Confirmed 2015 QHPs: 3,039,524 as of 12/15/14”

“Estimated 2015 QHPs (Cumulative):


11/21: 610K (462K HCgov) • 11/28: 1.02M (765K HCgov) • 12/05: 1.80M (1.35M HCgov) Thru 12/15: 4.70M (3.52M HCgov”

http://acasignups.net

Enrollment by state can be studied in the following link.

The Obama Administration bragged with the following statement.

The number of people enrolling or re-enrolling last week was considerably higher than in previous weeks. Week one saw 500,000 enrollees, week two had 300,000 and week three saw 600,000 sign up through HealthCare.gov.

Week four saw 850,000 people enrolling or re-enrolling.

The cumulative estimate of people needed to sign up was 4.7 million through 12/15/14. The sign up number included people who were automatically re- enrolled with the same insurance policy they bought last year. This year’s premiums and deductibles will be higher that last year’s premiums in most cases.

The Obama administration picked up 1 million enrollees for the week as a result of the automatic re-enrollment. These enrollees have been warned that they will be paying a higher premium than if they searched for a different plan by a different insurance carrier.

Only 3.4 million sign ups were confirmed to receive healthcare coverage by January 1,2015.

This is only seventy percent (70%) of the expected enrollment through 12/15/14. The enrollment had been extended previously to February 15, 2015.

http://acasignups.net/spreadsheet

CMS told us that last year 8 million were enrolled. The number was modified to 7.2 million and then changed to 6.7 million as 400,000 were not enrolled in healthcare but bought dental care insurance.

We were never told that 65% of the enrollees received federal subsidies in the traditional media. How many of those people who received subsidies subsequently lost their subsidy because the IRS could not confirm their reported income?

The next critical question is how many of the people who lost their subsidy dropped their insurance because they could not afford the premiums and deductibles.

How many people that enrolled have preexisting illnesses? How many of the people who enrolled can pay the high deductibles and copays?

How many people in the individual market can afford to pay the insurance premiums with pre-tax dollars?

Whatever the premium is in the individual market the enrollee has to have twice as much disposable income to pay the premium because the premium is not tax deductible.

Healthcare insurance premiums are tax deductible to employers in the employer group markets.

How many taxpayers know that the Obama administration is subsidizing the healthcare insurance industry so the industry cannot loss money if the healthcare insurance is bought through Obamacare?

The original goal for enrollment for 2015 was 13.5 million. It was lowered to 12 million and now 9 million by the time the enrollment started. If 6.7 million were originally enrolled the increase in new enrollment will only be 2.3 million.

What happened to all the millions of people who lost insurance through their employer because they were shifted to part-time work?

It seems that Obamacare is unattractive or unaffordable to those who need it most. If taxpayers knew the waste in Obamacare’s administration and guarantees to the healthcare industry, taxpayers would not be very happy.

It goes back to Jonathan Gruber’s statement that the people are stupid and the lack of transparency is very powerful political tool.

Meanwhile, the enrollment rate is low but the Obama administration is feeding the traditional media the spin that enrollment is surging. This game is not going to promote Obamacare’s credibility.

“More than a million people signed up for health insurance plans onHealthCare.gov in the past week, bringing the overall total of signups for the first four weeks of the current open-enrollment period to nearly 2.5 million, the CMS announced Tuesday.

Dec. 15 was the HealthCare.gov deadline to enroll for coverage to go into effect Jan. 1.” 

“More than half of the people who enrolled between Dec. 6-12 were renewing their coverage.

Many of the State Health Exchanges are already extending the deadline for coverage to begin January 1,2015, California, Maryland and Minnesota, Idaho, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington already have extended their deadlines for signing up.

If enrollment was going as well as the Obama administration claims, there would not be so many 2 week extensions.

 “Our community wants to do everything we can to make sure consumers have greater peace of mind about their healthcare coverage and to support them throughout the open-enrollment process,” Karen Ignagni, CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement Monday.ė

Why wouldn’t the healthcare insurance companies want more enrollees? They are selling insurance policies for the Obamacare at no financial risk.
 
“Federal plans are underway for a special outreach campaign to the roughly 250,000 individuals whose existing plans are no longer being offered on the federal exchange for 2015. HHS plans to point these people in the direction of a plan that is substantially similar to the ones they've lost but they won't be auto-enrolled.”

The Obamacare’s enrollment period is desperate for more enrollees

HHS is rolling out online partnerships with three online firms to further promote HealthCare.gov during the current open-enrollment period,which ends Feb. 15.
The partnerships are with Monster.com, Peers.org, and Higi, a provider of interactive health stations tracking weight, BMI and other vital signs to supermarkets such as Kroger and Meijer. The company will post messages informing users of the open-enrollment period. 

The partnerships are innovative but have a low probability of success.

President Obama and his administration continue its information  spin. The real truth is the Obama administration is not transparent at all. It takes hard work to figure out what is the truth.

The public is beginning to figure out that they are not getting the truth.  Consumers are directly affected by the manipulation of the truth personally. Consumers are not showing up to participate.

Presently, Obamacare is only covering consumers in the individual marketplace.

Just wait until Obamacare affects the small group and large group employers that are going to have to pay a penalty for providing  unqualified Obamacare healthcare coverage. 

One outstanding example is the worthless Mini-med plans of McDonald and Burger King that President Obama gave a waiver to until 2017.

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

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