Some More Obamacare Deceptions
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE
Does anyone remember the CLASS Act as part of
the Obamacare promise for affordable healthcare coverage? I do. It sounded
great but I knew it couldn’t be done without tremendous cost to the federal
government.
It would drive deficit spending through
the roof.
The CLASS Act (Community Living
Assistance Services and Support) was shut down 19 months after passage of
Obamacare.
There was little discussion
of the CLASS Act until Kathleen Sibelius’ announcement to discontinue
CLASS.
She said,
“The administration was shutting down CLASS. After 19 months of research and consultation, “we have not
identified a way to make Class work at this time.
The thing that bothers
me the most about Obamacare is the sneaky machinations the Obama administration
uses to hide the bad news about Obamacare from the American public. When the American
public finds out they are disappointed and feel deceived.
However, it also feels
so complicated that they tend to ignore it.
When the Obama administrated delayed the
employer mandate for a year employers were relieved. None of the traditional
media made a big deal about delaying the employer mandate which meant that Obamacare was
in trouble.
Some conservatives and conservative outlets
cried, “Why not delay the individual
mandate as well?”
The reason is obvious.
The Obama administration wants the entitlement to start whether it is ready or
not so it cannot be repealed or discontinued. People do not like to relinquish
a freebie.
As soon as that
discussion was over the government announced that the verification process for
subsidies might not be ready until October 1, 2013.
The Obama administration
then announced it would provide premium subsidies on an “honor system” so as
not to delay the onset of the individual mandate.
“The administration promises no one will lie
because once they get the verification process started they will be able to
find out who lied about the subsidies.”
“More than 100 groups
will split $67 million to help people “navigate” the new Obamacare health insurance
exchanges.”
These “navigators” will have to undergo mandatory federal
training and become certified.
“The 67 million dollars is more money than the
administration initially said would be available but short of what advocates
say will be needed to help people sign up”.
It sounds like another cash for clunkers program.
When are Republicans or
Conservatives going to say something to make the public aware of what is going on?
To add insult to injury
congress exempted itself from Obamacare because of economic hardships leaving
ordinary people to be subject to penalties if they do not join the health
insurance exchanges.
The Obama administration has given over 2,000 group
waivers.
The Obama administration
and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are working on the Unions’ problems with
Obamacare. One could bet that it will be fair to the Unions as the rest of us
are ignored.
With all of the IRS’s problems of late it is
frightening to think of the IRS monitoring abuses of Obamacare.
The IRS employees union
is presently seeking a way to get a waiver from Obamacare.
Does anyone remember the 60 lawsuits the
Catholic Church initiated challenging President Obama’s contraception mandates?
The church claims the mandate to provide contraceptives represents an attack on
religious freedom and the first amendment.
Despite all this the
traditional media and President Obama keep saying Obamacare is right on
schedule.
We have heard nothing
about the extra costs Obamacare is generating for start-up and implementation.
Last weekend Harry Reid let the cat out of the bag. President Obama real goal is to have Obamacare fail and replace it with a single party payer system.
Harry Ried and a single party payer
The biggest political maneuver by President
Obama of all is the maneuver to delay the law’s caps on out of pocket expenses for consumers
such as for deductibles and co-pays.
This is perhaps the most
attractive benefit of Obamacare after guaranteed insurability.
"Section 2707(b) of the Public Health Service Act, as added by Obamacare, requires that “a group
health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health
insurance coverage may not establish lifetime limits on the dollar value of
benefits for the any participant or beneficiary.”
Annual limits on cost-sharing are
specified by Section 1302(c) of the Affordable Care Act; in addition, starting
in 2014, deductibles are limited to $2,000 per year for individual plans, and
$4,000 per year for family plans.
This is a wonderful
benefit. If someone gets sick he is only liable for $2,000 if single and $4,000
if he has a family.
The problem arises when the
healthcare insurance industry calculates the premium with this benefit included.
The insurance premiums skyrocket. Premiums are scheduled to dramatically
increase in 2014.
President Obama’s
problem is that 2014 is a congressional election year. Skyrocketing premiums in
2014 may make Obama fans and the Democratic base angry with President Obama and
the Democrats running for congress.
President Obama having
gotten away with all his other delays in implementation simply delayed this
part of the law until after the election.
The American public
doesn’t realize that he has delayed perhaps the best benefit in the law from
the public’s viewpoint. His hope is the public will not notice the delay with
the help of the traditional media’s lack of coverage.
In 2015 he will sock the
increased premiums to the public. He will then blame it on the
Republicans.
There are two basic
issues. The first is the need for the public to realize all these deceptions in
Obamacare.
The second one is the
public is beginning to realize that it cannot trust President Obama or congress
to represent its welfare.
It is time for
Republicans to stand up and put an end to this charade. I hope someone has the guts
to do it.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
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