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OBAMACARE DEBACLE - Update 2/5/2014

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  • OBAMACARE DEBACLE - Update 2/5/2014

    ObamaCare’s Economic Destruction Exposed

    FrontPage Magazine

    Matthew Vadum
    2/5/2014

    Excerpt:

    A new government study projects that Obamacare will kill 2 million full-time American jobs in 2017, confirming the approaching economic devastation about which the budget-busting program’s critics have warned for years.

    The study came as Obama administration allies unveiled plans to saturate the airwaves with animal videos in a bid to dupe young women into signing up for the failing government program.

    As the government report shows, contrary to the promises of President Obama, the Obamacare law will boot people out of their health care plans, encourage idleness, drive wages down, increase the government’s tax take, and fail to put a dent in the number of Americans without health insurance coverage.

    In other words, it’s Wednesday at the White House.

    The job destruction caused by Obamacare will climb to 2.5 million in 2024, according to ”The Budget and Outlook: 2014 to 2024,” a new publication of the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research arm of the U.S. Congress. “The decline in full time-equivalent employment stemming from the [Affordable Care Act] will consist of some people not being employed at all and other people working fewer hours…”

    Both of those job loss figures are substantially higher than the comparatively modest estimate of 800,000 jobs lost that CBO provided in 2011.

    The Affordable Care Act’s “largest impact on labor markets will probably occur after 2016, once its major provisions have taken full effect and overall economic output nears its maximum sustainable level,” says the new report.

    Hours worked will fall by about 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent from 2017 to 2024 largely because some workers will opt to escape new taxes while others won’t need to work as much because they will receive subsidies from taxpayers. Lower-wage workers will be hit hardest. In the same seven-year period aggregate compensation (wages, salaries, and fringe benefits) will fall 1 percent compared to what it would have been otherwise, according to the report.

    These trends “are likely to continue after 2024 (the end of the current 10-year budget window),” the report indicated.

    But that’s just part of the misery President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment will inflict on Americans in coming years.

    Obamacare will cause paychecks to shrink.

    In 2018, the ACA begins to impose an excise tax on some of the more expensive health insurance plans. Workers will pay that tax in the form of reduced after-tax compensation. When some employers limit their exposure to the excise tax by switching to cheaper plans, employees’ wages will rise but the extra compensation will be subject to income and payroll taxes, making workers’ tax payments higher than they would have been had Obamacare not been enacted.

    Americans will continue being unceremoniously booted from their employer-sponsored health insurance plans, despite President Obama’s frequently repeated promise that Americans would be able to keep their health care plans. And as a result of the law, CBO and the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) project that “between 6 million and 7 million fewer people will have employment-based insurance coverage each year from 2016 through 2024 than would be the case in the absence of the ACA.”

    Under Obamacare, the number of uninsured people in the U.S., which Obama himself set at 30 million in September 2009, will grow. In 2024 there will be 31 million non-elderly U.S. residents without health insurance, according to CBO and the JCT.

    Meanwhile, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Obama administration allies are hoping to invigorate the moribund enrollment process by having cute, fuzzy singing animals convince women to sign up for the failing government program.

    This animal abuse consists of ads on television and in other media that are sponsored by Enroll America and the Ad Council, two left-wing pressure groups.

    Enroll America is a corrupt 501c3 nonprofit that is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, H&R Block, and companies that stand to profit from Obamacare, according to groupsnoop, a research website operated by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The Ad Council is an ongoing left-wing brainwashing exercise funded by a cabal of media outlets.

    As the Daily Caller reports

    “With the March 31 deadline to enroll fast approaching, Enroll America reports that many women in the 18 to 34 age group remain unaware about the new coverage options. According to the organization’s research, 81 percent of uninsured people are not aware that the deadline to enroll is March 31, and 69 percent do not know about the availability of federal assistance for lower income people. The ads will be offered in English and Spanish to target Hispanic women as well and feature a menagerie of house pets singing about enrolling for [Obamacare] ’today!’”

    No one seems to know how many people have actually successfully enrolled in Obamacare-compliant health care plans. This seems especially true even at the highest levels of the federal government.

    In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama fudged the Obamacare exchange enrollment statistics. “More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage — 9 million,” he said.

    As Brian Orelli of the Motley Fool explains, Obama’s 9-million figure might be “technically true” but it is essentially useless. “About 3 million Americans have signed up for private insurance on the federal or state exchanges, and around 6 million are now eligible for Medicaid,” Orelli writes, accepting government-provided figures as gospel.

    But the 9-million number “doesn’t tell us what we need to know to figure out whether Obamacare is viable,” he adds. It is unclear how many of these alleged 9 million people are newly covered.

    McKinsey & Co. reported last month that just 11 percent of people who signed up on the exchanges were previously uninsured. “It’s not an official number, but even if it’s in the ballpark, most people were just switching insurance,” Orelli writes.

    ..................................................

    View the complete article at:

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mat...ction-exposed/
    B. Steadman

  • #2
    Obamacare enrollees hit snags at doctor's offices

    Many consumers faced hurdles signing up for Covered California health plans. Now they're having trouble finding in-network doctors.

    The Los Angeles Times

    Chad Terhune
    2/4/2014

    Excerpt:

    After overcoming website glitches and long waits to get Obamacare, some patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor's office.

    A month into the most sweeping changes to healthcare in half a century, people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business.

    Experts have warned for months that the logjam was inevitable. But the extent of the problems is taking by surprise many patients — and even doctors — as frustrations mount.

    Aliso Viejo resident Danielle Nelson said Anthem Blue Cross promised half a dozen times that her oncologists would be covered under her new policy. She was diagnosed last year with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and discovered a suspicious lump near her jaw in early January.

    But when she went to her oncologist's office, she promptly encountered a bright orange sign saying that Covered California plans are not accepted.

    "I'm a complete fan of the Affordable Care Act, but now I can't sleep at night," Nelson said. "I can't imagine this is how President Obama wanted it to happen."

    To hold down premiums under the healthcare law, major insurers have sharply cut the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state's new health insurance market.

    Now those limited options are becoming clearer, and California officials say they are receiving more consumer complaints about access to medical providers. State lawmakers are also moving swiftly to ease some of the problems that have arisen.

    "It's a little early for anyone to know how widespread and deep this problem is," said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "There are a lot of economic incentives for health insurers to narrow their networks, but if they go too far, people won't have access to care. Network adequacy will be a big issue in 2014."

    The latest travails come at a crucial time during the rollout of Obama's signature law. Government exchanges and other supporters of the healthcare law are trying to boost enrollment, particularly among young and healthy people, ahead of a March 31 deadline.

    Of course, complaints about outdated provider lists and delays in getting a doctor's appointment were common long before the healthcare law was enacted. But some experts worry the influx of newly insured patients and the cost-cutting strategies of health plans may further strain the system.

    Maria Berumen, a tax preparer in Downey, was uninsured for years because of preexisting conditions. The 53-year-old was thrilled to find coverage for herself and her husband for $148 a month after qualifying for a big government subsidy.

    She jumped at the chance in early January to visit a primary-care doctor for long-running numbness in her arm and shoulder as a result of bone spurs on her spine. The doctor referred her to a specialist, and problems ensued. At least four doctors wouldn't accept her health plan — even though the state exchange website and her insurer, Health Net Inc., list them as part of her HMO network.

    "It's a phantom network," Berumen said.

    It was no surprise to her family doctor, Ragaa Iskarous. She has run into this problem repeatedly with other patients in the last month, the doctor said. "This is really driving us crazy."

    Berumen said she was seen by a neurosurgeon Thursday — after state regulators intervened on her behalf.

    Insurers say they are working hard to resolve customers' problems as they arise, and they continue to add physicians to augment certain geographic areas and medical specialties.

    "Any huge implementation like this comes with a lot of moving parts," said Health Net spokesman Brad Kieffer. "There is a learning curve for everyone, and we expect as time goes on these issues should dissipate."

    Looking to head off potential problems, government regulators and patient advocates are pushing for tougher rules to ensure health plans provide timely access to care.

    ...............................................

    View the complete article at:

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...#axzz2sTF9fIc1
    B. Steadman

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