Utopia Talk / Politics / Obamacare Hail Mary

Hot Rod Revved Up	Fri Dec 20 07:48:47 REGULATION Administration faces backlash over new ObamaCare exemptions Published December 20, 2013 FoxNews.com The Obama administration, in an 11th-hour change, announced significant exemptions for people who recently lost their insurance coverage and are struggling to get a new plan -- drawing immediate criticism from the insurance industry and Republican lawmakers. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirmed the changes, which include letting those individuals skirt the law's individual mandate, in a letter to senators. She said she would allow people who got cancellations and could not find affordable new coverage to qualify for a "hardship exemption" in order to avoid a penalty next year for not having insurance. Further, she announced that those individuals will be able to purchase bare-bones plans that until now were available only for people under 30. The move, though, to allow potentially hundreds of thousands of people to sign up for "catastrophic" coverage plans was criticized by the insurance industry as a shift that would cause "tremendous instability.” The administration, which made the announcement right before the holiday break and as President Obama prepared to fly to Hawaii for vacation, downplayed the sudden change, saying they expected it to impact fewer than 500,000 people. Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne Peters said, "This is a common sense clarification of the law. For the limited number of consumers whose plans have been cancelled and are seeking coverage, this is one more option." An insurance industry official told Fox News that while the administration was playing down the significance of the move, it could turn out to be a troublesome last minute change and the industry fears far more than the 500,000 people will apply. Another industry official, America's Health Insurance Plans spokesman Robert Zirkelbach, said, “This type of last-minute change will cause tremendous instability in the marketplace and lead to further confusion and disruption for consumers." Democrats praised the steps as a common-sense backup in a difficult situation while Republicans panned the administration action as another patch to an unworkable law. "Holding a fire sale of cheap insurance is not a responsible fix for a broken program. This is a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who have already purchased expensive insurance through the ObamaCare exchanges," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement. House Energy and Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., described the move as "another major policy shift" from the Obama administration. "We asked Secretary Sebelius point blank what would be the next holiday surprise, and she was silent. Yet, here we are with another major policy shift. The sad reality is that when the law takes effect come January 1, more Americans will be without coverage under Obamacare than one year ago," Blackburn said in a statement released Thursday evening. "Less than two weeks from going live, the White House seems to be in full panic mode. Rather than more White House delays, waivers, and exemptions, the administration should provide all Americans relief from its failed law." On Thursday, the administration estimated at less than 500,000 those who have not yet found other coverage in the wake of seeing their coverage canceled. Obama was roundly criticized for reneging on a longstanding promise that if you liked your plan, you would be able to keep it under his health care law. The president apologized, and then said insurers could extend those plans for one more year. Most state regulators followed Obama's lead and gave insurance companies the additional latitude, but it's unclear whether the problem has been fully resolved. Insurers are concerned that healthy customers who potentially would have bought full coverage may now stay out of the market, leaving the companies with a group of patients in worse health overall. Fox News Ed Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report http://www...unces-new-obamacare-exemption/
Hot Rod Revved Up	Fri Dec 20 08:39:45 Too bad chuckie is screwing everything up. This is a serious thread. The insurance companies are say this latest *FIX* could destabilize the insurance industry, meanwhile Obama is preparing for his vacation in Hawaii so he doesn't ave to deal with the day to day problems of Obamacare.
river of blood Member	Fri Dec 20 08:49:57 "the administration estimated at less than 500,000 those who have not yet found other coverage in the wake of seeing their coverage canceled." So wait... the last count I heard on the number of people who lost their insurance due to Obamacare was 5 million and rapidly growing. So now 4.5 million of those people have somehow magically all gotten signed up under Obamacare? None of the state or national numbers reported on enrollees indicates anything near that number of people signed up so far. So what the fuck are they talking about?
river of blood Member	Fri Dec 20 09:18:53 http://www...inute-obamacare-rules-changes/ Just so we're not always looking at only fox news shit, hot rods ONLY source of information.
river of blood Member	Fri Dec 20 09:35:20 God damn what a clusterfuck.
river of blood Member	Fri Dec 20 12:12:10 This is the story of the day for sure. Needs to be on top. Obama is now arbitrarily changing the "unchangable" law again and now allowing for what he calls "junk" policies to be available through Obamacare, exempting people out of the individual mandate, and some other crazy last second patchwork shit that basically renders the law pointless.
Hot Rod Revved Up	Fri Dec 20 14:16:29 And, The insurance companies are saying this latest *FIX* could destabilize the insurance industry.
Valishin Member	Fri Dec 20 18:39:55 The question is who all will be allowed to do this. If it is fair then it opens to everyone which will be good for those consumers, but it does undercut the assumption upon which the stability of the system is based. Remember getting those people into expensive policies was key to making this whole thing work otherwise the insurance companies have to push the cost back onto those who are buying these policies. On the other hand if only a select few can do this then that's really going to upset a lot of people and not going to help with the PR which is the point of this manuver in the first place. It's a damned if you do damned if you don't scenario with this fix. From my perspective it is entertaining as can be. What I don't understand is why can't they just be honest, why can't Obama just stand up there and tell the truth: all of you who are not getting subsidies you are the rich people who have to pay for this system. Sorry that you didn't understand this going into the plan but that's how the system works it is your job to shut up and color and pay for the people who make less money than you do. Is that kind of honesty really too much to ask?
Hot Rod Revved Up	Fri Dec 20 18:58:26 Yep.
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