Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Obamacare Daily Disaster Update

I’ll bet you hoped that while you were away clogging your arteries with turkey, gravy and pie, that Obamacare would just go away. It hasn’t. Like a husky zombie who’s zeroed in on dorm full of cowering brain surgeons, it just keeps coming... and it will never stop until somebody puts it out of its misery. Here’s the latest:

It Works... When Nobody’s Looking: Obama claims they got the website working, but then promptly told people not to use it so they didn’t break it. If you can’t use it, then it doesn’t work. As aside, did you know they haven't built the mechanism for processing payments yet? Or that they haven't yet fixed the ability of the website to accurately transmit data, like user identities and enrollment data. But hey, the website "works" now... whatever that means.

Not My Problem: The National Association of Health Underwriters undertook a little survey last week. They found that only 30% of doctors were willing to treat Obamacare patients because of the low reimbursement rates, few specialists will take Obamacare insurance, none of the major hospitals will take Obamacare insurance, and the four biggest insurers (United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Coventry) have refused to participate in the exchanges.

So if you ever manage to get Obamacare, you might as well use the policy to wipe your rear end because that’s about all it’s worth... nobody’s going to take it.

In Triplicate: Because they haven’t been able to work out how the small business part of Obamacare is supposed to work, Obama has delayed that part for a year. He recommends that you contact an insurance broker... uh, a what? An insurance broker? You mean, there are people out there whose job it is to help others shop for insurance? In light of this shocking discovery, I’m left wondering why we need the Obamacare website at all? Oh, that’s right, because only a Democrat would get the government to do something the private market already does, not be able to make it work, and then call it a legacy.

Except For All The Rest: Obama claimed this weekend that “he’s got nowhere to go but up.” That’s optimistic. What he meant was that things are as bad as they can get on Obamacare, so as they fix the problems, his popularity will rise again.

//snicker snicker If you say so, moron.

Actually, what Obama doesn’t get is that the moment the ship hits the iceberg may seem like the bottom of the barrel, but that’s only the beginning. Obama still needs to get the website fixed so it’s no longer a “third world experience.” The experts say that could take years and require a total start-over. Then he has the problem that nobody actually wants his insurance because it’s overpriced and worthless. And as we get closer to forced-signup day, you’ll hear more and more horror stories about smokers and sick people all getting hit with several thousand in monthly fees. You’ll hear about more and more people losing their insurance until the number reaches around 80 million... each of whom will remember his bazillion promises about letting them keep their insurance. The people who do get coverage will discover what a deductible means and that they can’t find doctors. Rates will keep rising at every turn. The few reputable insurers who are involved with back out, the less reputable will go bankrupt. And soon enough, the Democrats will realize that their best strategy is to blast the zombie, so they will smear it themselves.

Yeah, that crunching, screeching sound you hear as the ice rips the hole in Obama’s legacy, that’s just the beginning.

51 comments:

  1. Just think, only a couple years ago, Obama was standing on the bow screaming "I'm the king of the world!"

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  2. Yep. Then the boat hit the iceberg. Now, note even the band is playing.

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  3. I listened to a recent lecture by an insurance broker. To be a broker they have extensive training, testing, and background checks. The Obamacare brokers get a three hour seminar and no background check. So once again the government has rules that they think are too onerous to follow but remember overhead in Medicare is much lower than private insurance companies. Sure...if you cheat.

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  4. Koshcat, Well, you can't expect the government to follow its own rules. Besides, we can trust these people because they mean well.

    In all seriousness, to me, the bigger point is that the reason Obama gave for doing this through the exchanges was that there was no way for people to compare policies to find out what is out there. Hence, we needed the exchanges. But now we hear that (1) there are brokers who could do this already and (2) there was already a website that apparently worked pretty well too. So in the end, Obama lied about what was out there and then he tried to duplicate what already existed... and he failed miserably.

    Makes you proud, doesn't it?

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  5. truth be told, liberalism SHOULD be set back a decade because of this, but it probably won't (see A. Price blogs too numerous to mention regarding ineptness of the Republican Party.) As for B.O., he has run his last election for public office. With some justification, he tends to just wait until the shit storm blows over. Look at the "huge" price he has "personally" paid for I.R.S., Benghazi, N.S.A. So what is his worst case scenario?? He gets a 5 billion deal for his memoirs, gets paid a million for a "tell all" exclusive with Martin Bashir in which he (surprise) blames Republicans, and gets to golf with Beyonce, Tiger, and O.J. (whom he pardoned on his last day) while Michelle fulfills her duties as Official Hostess of the Oscars for the next 50 years. Legacy, schmegacy.

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  6. Andrew...Peter Kirsanow at NRO said it best:

    "The beauty of Obamacare . . . is not so much that tens of millions will have their substandard health-care plans from bad-apple insurers canceled but that they will go to Obamacare exchanges to buy much more expensive substandard plans from bad-apple insurers, in order to subsidize people who don’t have substandard health insurance from bad-apple insurers but can now get substandard health insurance from bad-apple insures even if it’s with a deductible so high that they effectively don’t have health insurance, substandard or otherwise. But their plans will at least cover contraceptives and abortifacients for the millions of fecund 60-year-olds who had nothing else to do and got pregnant when Ted Cruz shut down the government so they couldn’t get contraceptives from their doctors who aren’t in their substandard plan’s provider network, mainly because they unnecessarily perform amputations and tonsillectomies for extra cash which they’ll now need because they’ll be getting low reimbursement rates from the tremendous increase in Medicaid patients. Who had no trouble enrolling on HealthCare.gov because the other 42 Obamacare applicants were busy reporting to the FBI that all their medical and financial information has been hacked by Republicans determined to make Obamacare look as bad as they’ve made the IRS look when it tried to protect our federal government from tea partiers who want to keep their substandard plans primarily because they’re racists who blame the president for the failed stimulus, the stagnant economy, high unemployment, doubling the national debt, the 47 million on food stamps, the 48 million in poverty, declining household incomes, Kathleen Sebelius, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and Iran’s getting a nuclear weapon next year, none of which the president knew about until he heard about them from news reports like everybody else. And all of which are George W. Bush’s fault."

    Perfect

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  7. Ha! Shows what you know. According to Paul Krugman, ObamaCare is not only Teh Awesome, it's doing better than even its supporters hoped! Really! Warning: Delusion Ahead

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  8. Well T-RAV he did site a White House memo stating that health care spending has only risen 1.3% in three yeas. Naturally we can trust these numbers better than say the employment statistics in 2010 released showing an increase in jobs in Montana's 21st district (you know one of the fictional ones).

    Funny that they talk about overall health care spending and not overall health care costs. No mention of that in the paragraph.... maybe the devil is in the details... huh!

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  9. Unfortunately for Republicans facts have a liberal bias ... Paul Krugman

    "Hey Hey yeah cause we Progs get to make them up"... Obama's Trained Monkeys .. er.. economic advisor

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  10. If you put one million monkeys in a room and give them type writers there is a one billionth of a percent chance that they will reproduce the entire works of William Shakespeare.....

    But there is a 100% chance that they will reproduce a work that if used as a health care bill would be better than Obamacare...

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  11. So Obamacare works because it stopped Medicare insurance subsidies and provider payments. Only a Democrat could've pulled off this miracle--because if a Republican had done it, Krugman and the rest of the leftist sycophants would be screaming drastic cuts to Medicare!

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  12. Jed, Yeah, sadly true. But have faith my friend. This Obamacare thing is burning the Democrats, not just Obama, and this will pay dividends -- especially with the things McConnell is doing to crush the fringe now. :)

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  13. Patriot, They should put that on the "about" page at the Obamacare website.

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  14. T-Rav, Thanks for the delusion warning! :)

    Krugman really has exposed himself time and again as a propagandist rather than anything else. If a fact is bad, he simply changes it and declares everything to be perfect. The guy has no credibility anymore and I suspect that even the left doesn't pay him much attention anymore except as a propagandist.

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  15. Indi, Unfortunately for Republicans facts have a liberal bias ... Paul Krugman

    This is true using his definition of "fact," which is "what I wish were true." Now, if we use the more tradition definition, then he's got it backwards. But hey, why shatter his little dream world.

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  16. Indi, If you put one million monkeys in a room and give them type writers you will get a lot of poop on your keys.

    Huh, sounds like Obamacare's code.

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  17. tryanmax, Yep. Only the Democrats can crush the poor because they mean well.

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  18. T-Rav, I refuse to read Paul Krugman on the general grounds that he writes very poor fantasy/sci-fi, with terrible plots and idiotic one dimensional strawman characters.

    Andrew, our firm has been using insurance brokers for years, and they have been fantastic. To go from a well-trained, well-informed professional that we've worked with for years (and who fights with many others to earn our business) to a "healthcare navigator" with 3 months training would be insane.

    ADP and Paychex fight like hell to get in our door to put on free seminars regarding Obamacare (though it does help that as a CPA firm, they want introductions to our clients as well). I guarantee that these companies know more about the ins and outs of Obamacare than any healthcare navigator. I also know that Obamacare is contracting with some nonprofits to act as insurance brokers because the navigators are next to useless. So there will be plenty of opportunity for additional graft/payola to cronies.

    And we CPAs are scared to death of the fact that Obamacare falls under Title 26 of the USC, meaning if we fail to inform our clients of all the nuances of this crap law we could be held liable under Circular 230 for HR compliance issues.

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  19. wahsatchmo, LOL! Bravo on Krugman! :D

    I view the navigators as basically phone solicitors. I suspect they are given a minor list of FAQs and then handed a script and told to stick to the script as much as possible, with the idea being to lead people to the silver plans and try to push them to sign up.

    Interesting point about CPAs. Leave it to the government to invent a system no one can understand and then put people at risk for not understanding it.

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  20. re: Peter Kirsanow at NRO said it best:

    Patriot - I don't know how anyone could improve on his statement!

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  21. As to all of you other Naysayers - The Obamacare website is working really well! If by "really well" you mean...it will kinda' sorta' work really well by 2017 (- David Plouffe LINK). Anyway at least 100,000 people have signed on so far! That's sooo many more than could sign on as of September 30, 2013...

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  22. Bev, LOL! I think they are defining "working really well" as "less than 100% disabled." What a joke!

    I saw that they said it could now handle up to 50,000 at once, but (1) it can't process their payments, (2) it messes up the data in 33% of the instances where it processes an application, (3) it still doesn't account for issues like giving you the right subsidy, and (4) it seems to crash every time a journalist visits the website.

    Personally, I would expect more if I hired someone to build a website.

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  23. Bev and Patriot, The only way to improve that statement would be to add:

    "Thank God it was repealed by President Rand Paul in 2016."

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  24. Can someone answer this question for me - What happens when one can't pay the new improved monthly premiums on the new improved insurance, but one's income is too high for any kind of subsidies?

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  25. "Thank God it was repealed by President Rand Paul in 2016."

    Andrew - Yep, that is about the only improvement! LOL!

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  26. Bev, There is no such person. If you don't get a subsidy, then Obama knows that you can afford it. The end. So your question is silly. How dare you make such a suggestion! You must be racist because clearly you don't like Obama because he's black... not because he's stupid.


    I think that would be an improvement. :D

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  27. Looks like *someone* forgot to attend her re-education course. *psha!*

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  28. wahsatchmo, Indeed, Krugman makes L. Ron Hubbard look like Leo Tolstoy. Then again, he could make the guys at Buzzfeed look like Leo Tolstoy, so....yeah I know, it's kind of a convoluted comparison.

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  29. Yippee for the "reeducation camps"! I would be happy to go. Do you think THEY could answer my question? And, I believe that it is "The Obama" now...just sayin'.

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  30. Bev if you cannot afford your Obama Approved Government Health Care assurance then Joe Biden says you are not Patriotic!

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  31. Oh, here's something fun. Now an online security expert says the holes in the ObamaCare website are so bad they can't be truly fixed until sometime next year (if then), and in the meantime, if you do sign up with an account through the site, hackers could use the site to hack your own computer. That's how bad this is. Have fun getting free health care, folks!

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  32. "Thank God it was repealed by President Rand Paul in 2016."

    Unfortunately, such a thing is likely not going to happen as Obama does not leave office until January 2017. Sigh.

    So it should read:
    "Thank God it was repealed by President Rand Paul in 2017."

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  33. Kit, I think you lack imagination! ;-P

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  34. Bev, Re-education cannot answer your questions, but it can make you stop asking... which is the next best thing.

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  35. T-Rav, I wish I were a hacker because I would have tons of fun with this.

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  36. No Kit, what you fail to take into account is, the GOP takes back the Senate in 2014, through some quirk of the rules Paul becomes Senate president pro tempore, then Obama is convinced to resign before he does any more damage, after which Biden gets impeached and carried out of the White House in a straitjacket. Then Paul becomes President by default and repeals ObamaCare in 2016. There.

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  37. T-Rav,

    Actually, if the GOP were to take the Senate then Chuck Grassley would likely be the Senate Pro Tempore because he is the eldest Senator.

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  38. What is wrong with you people! It's President, Vice President, THEN Speaker of the House, and THEN Senate Pro Tempore then Sec't of State...geez, men...;-)

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  39. Nuh-uh! It's only usually House Speaker after Vice President because there usually isn't a President Pro Tempore. But when there is, he comes first. I refer you to the case of Senator David Atchison, President for a day. (Look it up.)

    Kit: Pbbbbtttt.

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  40. Actually, there is always a President Pro Tempore. But its an honorary position given to the most elder Senator of the ruling party.

    And, Bev is right. It goes to the Speaker according to current law.

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  41. NEE-NER, NEE-NER, NEEEEEEEEEE-NER! 8-p

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  42. Oh, and "usually" is actually "never". There would have to be an apocalypse before it could get that far down the ladder of succession...oops, i shouldn't have said "never"...

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  43. Wait a minute, I thought that if the President died, they did rock, red-tape, scissors for it?

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  44. An Apocalypse (Not Andrew)December 3, 2013 at 11:36 PM

    You rang?

    ... Where do you want these rabid turtles?

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  45. Lol, I misread the last comment, and it would make a great title for a parody: Apocalypse, Not

    Maybe that joke is a little too late '90s. Not!

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  46. Oh, no!! Not the rabid turtles again...

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  47. Bev, It's in the Bible as one of the plagues -- right after the angry birds and right before pestilent frogger.

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  48. tryanmax, Let's not revise that fad.

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  49. Andrew - It's the "government". That means "rock-red tape-hard place"...

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  50. HOW DARE YOU ALL ATTACK MY KNOWLEDGE AND INTELLIGENCE!!!!!! RACISTS!!!!!!!! I WISH A HORRIBLE PLAGUE OF RABID TURTLES AND MONGOOSES ON ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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