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Good writing even brilliant writing but... Obamacare laid...

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  • Good writing even brilliant writing but... Obamacare laid...

    Charles Krauthammer

    Obamacare laid bare

    By Charles Krauthammer, Published: October 31

    Every disaster has its moment of clarity. Physicist Richard Feynman dunks an O-ring into ice water and everyone understands instantly why the shuttle Challenger exploded. This week, the Obamacare O-ring froze for all the world to see: Hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters went out to people who had been assured a dozen times by the president that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.”

    The cancellations lay bare three pillars of Obamacare: (a) mendacity, (b) paternalism and (c) subterfuge.

    (a) Those letters are irrefutable evidence that President Obama’s repeated you-keep-your-coverage claim was false. Why were they sent out? Because Obamacare renders illegal (with exceedingly narrow “grandfathered” exceptions) the continuation of any insurance plan deemed by Washington regulators not to meet their arbitrary standards for adequacy. Example: No maternity care? You are terminated.

    So a law designed to cover the uninsured is now throwing far more people off their insurance than it can possibly be signing up on the nonfunctioning insurance exchanges. Indeed, most of the 19 million people with individual insurance will have to find new and likely more expensive coverage. And that doesn’t even include the additional millions who are sure to lose their employer-provided coverage. That’s a lot of people. That’s a pretty big lie.

    But perhaps Obama didn’t know. Maybe the bystander president was as surprised by this as he claims to have been by the IRS scandal, the Associated Press and James Rosen phone logs, the failure of the Obamacare Web site, the premeditation of the Benghazi attacks, the tapping of Angela Merkel’s phone — i.e., the workings of the federal government of which he is the nominal head.

    I’m skeptical. It’s not as if the Obamacare plan-dropping is an obscure regulation. It’s at the heart of Obama’s idea of federally regulated and standardized national health insurance.

    Still, how could he imagine getting away with a claim sure to be exposed as factually false?

    The same way he maintained for two weeks that false narrative about Benghazi. He figured he’d get away with it.

    And he did. Simple formula: Delay, stonewall and wait for a supine and protective press to turn spectacularly incurious.

    Look at how the New York Times covered his “keep your plan” whopper — buried on page 17 with a headline calling the cancellations a “prime target.” As if this is a partisan issue and not a brazen falsehood clear to any outside observer — say, The Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler, who gave the president’s claim four Pinocchios. Noses don’t come any longer.

    (b) Beyond mendacity, there is liberal paternalism, of which these forced cancellations are a classic case. We canceled your plan, explained presidential spokesman Jay Carney, because it was substandard. We have a better idea.

    Translation: Sure, you freely chose the policy, paid for the policy, renewed the policy, liked the policy. But you’re too primitive to know what you need. We do. Your policy is hereby canceled.

    Because what you really need is what our experts have determined must be in every plan. So a couple in their 60s must buy maternity care. A teetotaler must buy substance abuse treatment. And a healthy 28-year-old with perfectly appropriate catastrophic insurance must pay for bells and whistles for which he has no use.

    It’s Halloween. There is a knock at your door. You hear: “We’re the government and we’re here to help.”

    You hide.

    (c) As for subterfuge, these required bells and whistles aren’t just there to festoon the health-care Christmas tree with voter-pleasing freebies. The planners knew all along that if you force insurance buyers to overpay for stuff they don’t need, that money can subsidize other people.

    Obamacare is the largest transfer of wealth in recent American history. But you can’t say that openly lest you lose elections. So you do it by subterfuge: hidden taxes, penalties, mandates and coverage requirements that yield a surplus of overpayments.

    So that your president can promise to cover 30 million uninsured without costing the government a dime. Which from the beginning was the biggest falsehood of them all. And yet the free lunch is the essence of modern liberalism. Free mammograms, free preventative care, free contraceptives for Sandra Fluke. Come and get it.

    And then when you find your policy canceled, your premium raised and your deductible outrageously increased, you’ve learned the real meaning of “free” in the liberal lexicon: something paid for by your neighbor — best, by subterfuge.


    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...b78_story.html
    "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

  • #2
    ...but...

    ...it is not the alpha and omega of ObamaCare!
    "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

    Comment


    • #3
      ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Affordable Care Act

      We present the facts on Obama Care (ObamaCare), the health care plan for America. Our goal is to help you understand the Affordable Care Act. Decide for yourself what you think about the new health care law, based on the facts and not the talking points.

      • The official name for "ObamaCare" is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It is also commonly referred to as Obama care, health care reform, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

      • The Affordable Care Act was signed into law to reform the health care industry by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 and upheld by the supreme court on On June 28, 2012.

      • ObamaCare's goal is to give more Americans access to affordable, quality health insurance and to reduce the growth in health care spending in the U.S. What is ObamaCare?

      • The Affordable Care Act expands the affordability, quality, and availability of private and public health insurance through consumer protections, regulations, subsidies, taxes, insurance exchanges, and other reforms.

      • The fact is ObamaCare does not replace private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. If you have health coverage you like and it meets requirements of the ACA, you can keep it.

      • ObamaCare doesn't regulate your health care, it regulates health insurance and some of the worst practices of the for-profit health care industry.

      • ObamaCare offers a number of new benefits, rights and protections including provisions that let young adults stay on their plan until 26, stop insurance companies from dropping you when you are sick or if you make an honest mistake on your application, prevent against gender discrimination, stop insurance companies from making unjustified rate hikes, do away with life-time and annual limits, give you the right to a rapid appeal of insurance company decisions, expand coverage to tens of millions, subsidize health insurance costs, and require all insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions.

      • ObamaCare's new benefits, rights and protections also include the requirement that all non-grandfathered health insurance plans cover preventive services and provide new Essential Health Benefits. Learn more about Grandfathered health plans.

      • Ten Essential Health Benefits including emergency care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, maternity, and newborn care must be included on all non-grandfathered plans with no annual or lifetime dollar limits.

      • Free Preventive services including yearly check-ups, immunizations, counseling, and screenings must be included on all non-grandfathered plans at no out-of-pocket costs.

      • Many of Obamacare's numerous provisions have already been enacted. The rest of the program starts in 2013-2014 and continues to roll out until 2022.

      • Over 100 million Americans have already benefited from the new health care law.

      • The Affordable Care Act also includes new taxes. Most new taxes are on high-earners, large businesses, and the healthcare industry. However, there are some tax related provisions every American should be aware of: Tax Credits to subsidize costs for low-to-middle income Americans and small businesses starting 2014, an Employer Mandate for large employers to provide health insurance to full-time employees by 2015, an Individual Mandate for individuals and families obtain health insurance by 2014, and lastly new limits to medical deductions.

      In exchange for the new rights and protections most Americans must obtain health coverage by 2014, get an exemption, or pay a fee. Learn more about the ObamaCare Individual Mandate.

      • The CBO estimates that in 2016, after the major provisions of health care reform are implemented, 24 million people will be exempted from the Individual Mandate. In most cases if you don't think you can afford health insurance, you may be exempt and eligible for cost assistance.

      • ObamaCare helps to cover working families who don't have access to health insurance. Come 2015 large employers will have to insurance full-time workers, while small businesses will get tax breaks for offering coverage. ObamaCare and Small Business.

      • ObamaCare creates State specific health insurance marketplaces (also known as exchanges) where individuals, families and small businesses can shop for subsidized health insurance and find out if they qualify for Medicaid, CHIP or Medicare. NOTE: If you have coverage through work, you can't get subsidies on the marketplace. What is the Health Insurance Marketplace?

      • Americans making less than $45,960 as individual or $94,200 as a family of 4 may be eligible for free or low-cost health insurance due to cost assistance subsidies like Tax Credits that reduce premium costs and cost sharing subsidies that lower cost sharing on copays, coinsurance and deductibles.

      • There are three ways to save money on your health insurance through ObamaCare's marketplaces: Advanced premium tax credits which lower your monthly premium costs, cost sharing subsidies which lower your out-of-pocket costs for copays, coinsurance and deductibles, and Medicaid which does both. Learn more about ObamaCare Cost Assistance.

      • Over 15 million men, women and children will be eligible for Medicaid in State's that participate in Medicaid Expansion.

      • The 2013 Federal Poverty Guidelines are used to determine cost assistance on the marketplace.

      • Cost assistance is only offered through your State's Health Insurance Marketplace.

      • There are 4 types of Qualified Health Plans (sometimes called metal plans) available on the marketplace. Each one has the same benefits, rights and protections, but different networks and cost-sharing. Don't buy health insurance without understanding actuarial value and deductibles, the cheapest option won't always be the best one for you and your family. Learn about the Types of Health Plans sold on the Marketplace.

      • Wondering how health insurance works? You pay a premium for every month you have coverage. The higher the premium the less out-of-pocket expenses you are responsible for and the larger network of doctors and providers you can utilize. All plans starting after 2014 are required to offer the same benefits, rights and protections but difference out-of-pocket costs. Learn more about how health insurance works and how to buy health insurance for 2014.

      • Coverage purchased through the marketplace before December 15th doesn't start until January 1st, 2014. This is because many of ObamaCare's benefits, rights and protections don't kick in until 2014. Apply for coverage now to see what your options are. You can enroll at anytime after filling out an application. Even if you plan to buy insurance some other way, it is still smart to know your options.

      http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-facts.php
      "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

      Comment


      • #4
        The Types of Health Insurance Plans Sold on and Off of Obama

        There are four types of health insurance plans available through ObamaCare's marketplace they are Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum health insurance plans. These Qualified Health Plans represent four tiers of coverage and are sometimes referred to as "metal plans" due to their quality corresponding to the value of their metal types. In other words a "Gold" plan is better than a "Bronze" health insurance plan. Consumers looking to obtain insurance under ObamaCare can also purchase private health plans from a broker or direct from the provider, obtain insurance through their employer or qualify for Government based insurance like Medicaid or Medicare.

        Anyone looking into what types of health insurance plans are available to them should make sure to fill out a marketplace application and shop outside of the marketplace so they can know what options are available to them. Remember the health insurance marketplace is the only place to receive cost-assistance for Americans making less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

        http://obamacarefacts.com/insurance-...ance-plans.php
        "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

        Comment

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