Obamacare *sigh* (Page 20)

OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Since taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama has formally proposed a total of 442 tax increases, according to an Americans for Tax Reform analysis of Obama administration budgets for fiscal years 2010 through 2015.

The 442 total proposed tax increases does not include the 20 tax increases Obama signed into law as part of Obamacare.

“History tells us what Obama was able to do. This list reminds us of what Obama wanted to do,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

The number of proposed tax increases per year is as follows:

-79 tax increases for FY 2010

-52 tax increases for FY 2011

-47 tax increases for FY 2012

-34 tax increases for FY 2013

-137 tax increases for FY 2014

-93 tax increases for FY 2015

...



Read more: http://www.atr.org/obama-has-proposed-442-tax-hikes-taking-office#ixzz2yswcyzaT
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: I love the fact that those figures do NOT include the 20 more tax increases under Obamacare.
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davidk14
davidk14: .

Obama never broke stride. He said he was going to tax and spend. He did not lie.

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morning_glorie
morning_glorie: Obama needs to be arrested ASAP!!!
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morning_glorie
morning_glorie: New Census Questions Will Change Obama Care Findings; Networks Ignore
New Census questions will change the findings on the impact of ObamaCare, reported the New York Times on Tuesday. The broadcast networks ignored this new report on the Tuesday evening newscasts, however.

In fact, a census official told the Times they "are expecting much lower numbers" of the uninsured "just because of the questions and how they are asked." As the Times stated, the Census Bureau "is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama’s health care law in the next report, due this fall, census officials said."

As Mediaite noted, certain journalists expressed their outrage on Twitter. Bloomberg's Megan McArdle was "speechless," while the Times's Josh Barro said the change was "insane."

The networks reported none of this. The NBC Nightly News and ABC World News each spent over two minutes covering the trial of Oscar Pistorius. The World News also had time for a news brief on the musical, "Soul Train" coming to Broadway.



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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Massage and manage the news and you manage the voters.
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Pew Research poll shows only 37% approval for Obamacare.

http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-questionnaires/4-10-14%20Health%20Care%20topline%20for%20release.pdf
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Insurer Admits Nearly 1,000 Doctors Wrongly Placed On Covered California Provider List

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/04/21/insurer-admits-nearly-1000-doctors-wrongly-placed-on-covered-california-list/

What a freaking mess.
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morning_glorie
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Carney On Obamacare Enrollments: 'We Don't Have Hard Numbers, But We Dispute Their Numbers'

In today's press briefing, Jay Carney was asked about the number of Obamacare premium payments that have been made. In other words, the total number of people actually, factually covered, not including window shoppers and unpaid accounts.

"We dispute their numbers. We don't have hard, concrete numbers, but we dispute them," the press secretary reasonably explained.

The question followed a report from the House Energy Committee on how many enrollees had actually paid for their chosen Obamacare plans. The report stated, “as of April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process.” Just one quarter of those who had paid into the system were young people aged 18 to 34 – the group the Obama administration most requires to sign up in order to provide solvency to the failing system. The bulk of those who signed up came from the 35-64 age group.

Carney says this is not data that is traditionally shared with government and emphasizes that the data is coming from "profit-making" companies. Chuck Todd was asking specifically about how many people included in the White House's own reported numbers as successful Obamacare enrollees - the number 8 million that is being touted and bragged about every day - aren't actually covered by insurance at this time, and whether that might change their success line by up to or in excess of one million people.

Carney's answer is that he doesn't know, but also no. They don't have the answer, but they dispute the answer anyone else might have. That's like having your cake and denying it, too.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/carney-obamacare-enrollments-we-dont-have-hard-numbers-we-dispute-their-numbers
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morning_glorie
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orangemoon8
orangemoon8: The obamacare individual mandate and employer mandate has a big hole in it. It is not a tax, it is a fee...called the Shared Responsibilty Fee. If this doesn't scream socialism, what does? No one has the Constitutional authority to pass anything like that. Health insurers told the gov't that if they are to remain viable, they must require all Americans to obtain insurance. Let the lobbying begin, and boy did it ever. the Supreme court instead of interpreting law, they made one.
According to obamacare, insurance cannot cost more than 8 % of your salary. The Bronze plan, the lowest one costs $4,500 a year. At 49k a year, a tax penalty doesn't apply.
If you are working for someone, and making more than that, and don't get insurance you are subject to this fee. as you file your returns the money will not be paid by you, it will be stolen from you.
This would warrant the impeachment process, going all the way to the president, as this would constitute a criminal act. Those ppl working for themselves, don't have to worry about the IRS and all, because the IRS cannot enforce this payment.
The IRS by law, under obamacare cannot enforce this fee, with jail, liens or collections.
the IRS witholding is the ONLY way they can collect. those of you working for yourself, it should be all good. Anyone working for someone making over 49K, stand up for your Constitutional rights, and make your voices heard in Nov. 2014

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orangemoon8
orangemoon8: LOL morning.......Mark is great, He is showing how much of a dumb-ass Nancy Pelosi really is.
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morning_glorie
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morning_glorie
morning_glorie: Why do you have to CRIMINALIZE people (arrest) people to coax them into a plan---5 years imprisonment or up to a quarter of a million in fines?
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Barbara the Jew
Barbara the Jew: OMG really?
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orangemoon8
orangemoon8: Obama, you know what you can keep?......... your dumb-as out of our lives, 2016 can't get here quick enough. There was a threat of arrest?. really?, this was a rumor. And what the hell is this hidden $1,000 fee? When someone ever goes to the hospital, and can't pay their so called gorilla math prices, the hospital tries to get paid thru charity care. It's not charity care it's what the hospital wants to be paid, and the state pays it. You won't be paying a "tax". You tax an "activity". You're going to be get money "stolen " from you to pay for the Shared Responsibilty Fee. Don't worry about it being criminalized, or arrested, cause it won't happen.
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-insurance-bailout-20140521-story.html#page=1

And here come the Obamacare bailouts.


The Obama administration has quietly adjusted key provisions of its signature healthcare law to potentially make billions of additional taxpayer dollars available to the insurance industry if companies providing coverage through the Affordable Care Act lose money.

The move was buried in hundreds of pages of new regulations issued late last week. It comes as part of an intensive administration effort to hold down premium increases for next year, a top priority for the White House as the rates will be announced ahead of this fall's congressional elections.

Administration officials for months have denied charges by opponents that they plan a "bailout" for insurance companies providing coverage under the healthcare law.

They continue to argue that most insurers shouldn't need to substantially increase premiums because safeguards in the healthcare law will protect them over the next several years.

But the change in regulations essentially provides insurers with another backup: If they keep rate increases modest over the next couple of years but lose money, the administration will tap federal funds as needed to cover shortfalls.

Although little noticed so far, the plan was already beginning to fuel a new round of attacks Tuesday from the healthcare law's critics.

"If conservatives want to stop the illegal Obamacare insurance bailout before it starts they must start planning now," wrote Conn Carroll, an editor of the right-leaning news site Townhall.com.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee began circulating a memo on the issue and urging colleagues to fight what they are calling "another end-run around Congress."

Obama administration officials said the new regulations would not put taxpayers at risk. "We are confident this three-year program will not create a shortfall," Health and Human Services spokeswoman Erin Shields Britt said in a statement. "However, we want to be clear that in the highly unlikely event of a shortfall, HHS will use appropriations as available to fill it."

The stakes are high for President Obama and the healthcare law.

Although more than 8 million people signed up for health coverage under the law, exceeding expectations, insurance companies in several states have been eyeing significant rate increases for next year amid concerns that their new customers are older and sicker than anticipated.

Insurers around the country have started to file proposed 2015 premiums, just as the midterm campaigns are heating up. Obamacare, as the law is often called, remains a top campaign issue, and big premium increases in states with tightly contested races could prove politically disastrous for Democrats. "
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: "If rates go up dramatically, consumers may also turn away from insurance marketplaces in some states, leading to their collapse.

Proposed increases in a few states where insurers have already filed 2015 rates have been relatively low, with several major carriers seeking just single-digit hikes. But insurers in closely watched states, such as Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arkansas, are still preparing their filings.

"It's absolutely paramount to keep premiums in check," said Len Nichols, a health economist at George Mason University who has advised officials working on the law.

The state-based marketplaces, which opened last year, allow consumers who do not get health coverage at work to shop among plans that meet basic standards. Sick consumers cannot be turned away, and low- and moderate-income Americans qualify for government subsidies to offset their premiums.

To stabilize this new system, the law set up a complex system of funds, including one known as the Temporary Risk Corridors Program, that collect money from insurers and transfer it from companies with healthier, less expensive consumers to those with sicker, more costly consumers.

This system was supposed to pay for itself, as does a similar one used to shift money between drug plans in the Medicare Part D program.

But insurance industry officials have grown increasingly anxious about the new system's adequacy.

Pressure is most acute on insurers in states where healthy consumers were allowed to remain in old plans that are not sold on the new online marketplaces, an option Obama offered to states amid a political firestorm over plan cancellations last year. The president had promised people would be able to stick with their plans.

The renewal temporarily solved a political problem for the White House, but created a new one. Maintaining these old plans kept many healthy consumers out of the marketplaces, making the pool of new customers less healthy and therefore potentially more expensive for insurers, according to experts.

Premium hikes will likely be modest in much of the country. But probably not everywhere.
- Larry Levitt, an insurance expert at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation
In a series of White House meetings over the last several months, Obama and other senior administration officials have sought to persuade insurance company CEOs to nonetheless hold rates in check, arguing that the marketplaces would stabilize over time.

But with proposed 2015 rates beginning to come in, the administration acceded to industry demands for a clear guarantee that more money would be available to cover potential losses.

"In the unlikely event of a shortfall for the 2015 program year, HHS recognizes that the Affordable Care Act requires the secretary to make full payments to issuers," the regulation published Friday notes. "In that event, HHS will use other sources of funding for the risk corridor payments, subject to the availability of appropriations."


That language allows the administration to tap funds appropriated for other health programs to supplement payments to insurers, according to administration and industry officials.

Among congressional Republicans, the decision has raised concerns. "If the program costs more than it brings in, the secretary would be able to divert money intended for other programs," Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee warned.

Whether the new regulations will be sufficient to control rates remains unclear.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm, welcomed the administration's move, saying in a statement that the regulations "provide important clarity about how these insurer-financed programs will work as health plans prepare their rates for 2015."

In a note to investors this week, J.P. Morgan also noted that the new rules "should improve stability of the exchange market."

But some insurers continue to warn of bigger increases. Larry Levitt, an insurance expert at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, cautioned that some consumers may still be in for sticker shock.

"Premium hikes will likely be modest in much of the country," he said. "But probably not everywhere."

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davidk14
davidk14: .

I think...I'm getting sick...I think...I'm gonna....




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orangemoon8
orangemoon8: I'm paying my own way.........take that Obamacare.
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Since you pay taxes, you are paying everyone else's way, too.
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orangemoon8
orangemoon8: I work for myself.......who am I paying for?, prolly no one.
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OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Only if you don't pay your taxes, Orange.
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orangemoon8
orangemoon8: I actually have to pay.......I don't get a refund, until they have a flat tax, they can all choke on it.
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