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 The Obama administration wants the entitlement to start whether it is ready or not so it cannot be repealed or discontinued.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.
“And speaking of haunting, does anyone in this country look forward to being scrutinized by the IRS on every aspect of his or her personal health care decisions, especially after we learn of the politicizing and privacy abuses by that agency?”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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