0'bamacare lies and fun facts

[Richard Cranium]

Obama Twitter Acct Brags That Health Care Premiums Are Lower Than Predicted

Obama optimistically predicted in March of 2010 during a speech in front of an Ohio audience, that premiums would decrease by 3000%. Is he saying that they've decreased even more than that?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>&quot;Not only are premiums lower than they were, they're lower than the most optimistic predictions.&quot; —President Obama on Obamacare <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CGI2013&amp;src=hash">#CGI2013</a></p>&mdash; Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/statuses/382621635280252928">September 24, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The independent National Journal's analysis found that premiums are higher under Obamacare as a result of employers weigh dropping coverage.
Part of the president's assertion may come from the Kaiser Family Foundation report that was released a few weeks ago, showing that premiums under Obamacare are “lower than expected.”

Avik Roy of National Review Online pointed out a rather glaring flaw in their analysis:

Its authors did not actually measure whether or not Obamacare would increase premiums relative to what they are today, because they claim it would be too “complicated.” So if the Kaiser authors didn’t compare Obamacare rates to pre-Obamacare rates, how do they arrive at their conclusion that premium increases will be “lower than expected?”

By comparing rates in 2014, under Obamacare, to rates “implied” by a Congressional Budget Office projection about premiums in 2016.

***

That is to say, what matters to the Kaiser authors is not whether rates will go up relative to what they were before Obamacare. What matters is whether rates will go up by even more than the CBO predicts. Their thinking can be summarized this way: If a car today costs $10,000, and the CBO predicts the same car will cost $15,000 next year, next year’s price is “lower than expected” if the price only goes up by 40 percent, instead of the predicted 50 percent.

[Richard Cranium]

Obamacare Triples Kentucky Family's Insurance Overnight

Andy and Amy Mangione of Louisville, Kentucky say their health insurance nearly tripled overnight from $333 a month to $965 due to Obamacare.

"When I saw the letter when I came home from work, it said 'your action required, benefit changes, act now.' Of course, I opened it immediately," said Andy Mangione.

Andy Mangione told Fox News veteran reporter Jim Angle that nothing had changed about the health of his wife, himself, or their two boys.

"This is a high deductible plan where I'm assuming a lot of risk for my health insurance for my family," Mangione told Fox News. "And nothing has changed, our boys are healthy—they're young—my wife is healthy. I'm healthy, nothing in our medical history has changed to warrant a tripling of our premiums."

The Mangiones's insurance company, Humana, declined to comment. Humana did, however, include the following explanation in the rate spike announcement letter:

If your policy premium increased, you should know this isn't unique to Humana—premium increases generally will occur industry-wide. Increases aren't based on your individual claims or changes in health status. Many other factors go in to your premium including: ACA [Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare] compliance, including the addition of new essential health benefits.

Obamacare's government healthcare exchanges go live nationwide in six days.

[Richard Cranium]

Harry Reid: 'The Numbers Are Really Pretty Good' for Obamacare

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) dismissed reports that as the Obamacare implementation deadline looms, businesses in the United States are cutting hours for more employees or going through rounds of layoffs.

When asked by Breitbart News how these businesses and individuals could find any benefit in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Reid did not directly address the widespread shortening of the work week. He responded by referring to a "a really good" Obamacare segment he saw on PBS's NewsHour on Monday night.

And after watching that, it only made me feel more strongly about how important this is, for—"Obamacare" for small businesses, for people without insurance, for people with insurance.
So I think that "Obamacare" is the right thing for the country. And it's going to—people are accepting this. As you know, as I talked about on the floor this morning, the numbers are really pretty good for "Obamacare," and that's an understatement.

So—and once exchanges kick in, it will be one of—it will be just like Medicare. People complained about Medicare in the early '60s, but not for long, because once it came into effect, people understood how it worked, just like me. I was a chairman of a great—the biggest hospital district in Nevada. Prior to Medicare, 40 percent of the seniors that came into the hospital had no insurance, and they suffered as a result of that. Medicare came into being; 99.9 percent now have it. And that's the same thing on "Obamacare." It's going to be the same.

Following Reid's and later Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's remarks, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the floor of the upper chamber and announced he would speak “until [he was] no longer able to stand.”

Cruz began his remarks about the problems of Obamacare at 2:41 PM EST. Other GOP senators have joined Cruz on the floor. They include: Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senator David Vitter (R-LA), Senator Mike Lee (R -UT), and Senator Jeff Sessions (R -AL).

[Richard Cranium]

World-Renowned Cleveland Clinic to Lay Off Thousands Due to Obamacare

Northeast Ohio is known worldwide for its excellent hospitals, and the Cleveland Clinic is the main reason why. According to U.S. News and World Report, it is the 4th best hospital in the United States and the #1 hospital for Cardiology and Heart Surgery. People travel to Cleveland from around the world for its world-class health care.


The Clinic is the largest employer in Cleveland and the 2nd-largest in Ohio. Needless to say, they are a major part of the Northeast Ohio economy. In fact, one study shows that the clinic is responsible for 8% of the region's economic output.

Barack Obama knows that the Clinic is special, too. In 2009, he visited and lauded praise on the hospital system, saying that they "do some pretty smart things" to maintain high quality care while also innovating to keep costs low.

Ironically, the Cleveland Clinic is now being threatened by Obama's signature policy. Citing Obamacare as the primary reason, the Clinic announced that mass layoffs in the thousands are coming.

(Reuters) - The world-renowned Cleveland Clinic said on Wednesday it would cut jobs and slash five to six percent of its $6 billion annual budget to prepare for President Barack Obama's health reforms.

The clinic, which has treated celebrities and world leaders such as musician Lou Reed, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and former Olympic gold medal skater Scott Hamilton, did not say how many of its 44,000 employees would be laid off. But a spokeswoman said that $330 million would be cut from its annual budget.

"Some of the initiatives include offering early retirement to 3,000 eligible employees, reducing operational costs, stricter review of filling vacant positions, and lastly workforce reductions," said Eileen Sheil, Executive Director of Corporate Communications for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. [emphasis added]

Expect more hospital systems to follow suit as the law goes into full effect. Everything that Republicans warned would happen as a result of Obamacare is coming to fruition, and the law's popularity is falling to new lows as people are waking up to the reality. The only solution is full repeal, which is only going to happen by retaking the Senate and the White House.

[KevinD]

We're gonna need a bigger forum backup server if you actually list all the lies (to be fair, told by both sides) about the ACA. :lol:

[Richard Cranium]

NYT: Americans Will Have Very Limited Doctor Choices on Obamacare Exchanges

The New York Times observed Sunday the Obama administration’s assertion that health insurance will cost less under Obamacare has a “catch”: insurers will severely limit the choices of physicians and hospitals available to American consumers who use the new exchanges


Though President Obama now famously said, when campaigning for his signature health reform legislation: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” according to the NYT, that is not likely to happen if Americans want the lowest insurance rates possible:

From California to Illinois to New Hampshire, and in many states in between, insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans.

When the Obamacare exchanges open on October 1, says the NYT, most of those shopping for health insurance will be low- to moderate-income Americans. To control costs, insurers are offering much smaller networks of health providers who will generally be paid less than what private insurance companies would reimburse them.

The situation could follow along the same lines as current Medicaid plans that are shedding health providers due to extremely low fees.

As the NYT acknowledges, “Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialist or other providers.”

For example, Cigna will participate in the exchanges in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.

“The networks will be narrower than the networks typically offered to large groups of employees in the commercial market,” said Cigna spokesman Joseph Mondy.

The NYT quotes a recent study from the Health Research Institute of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which finds that when insurers avoid major medical centers when selecting providers it “enables health plans to offer lower premiums.”

However, “the use of narrow networks may also lead to higher out-of-pocket expenses, especially if a patient has a complex medical problem that’s being treated at a hospital that has been excluded from their health plan,” the study says.

Further, when health insurers exclude a hospital from its exchange network, the physician groups that are owned by the hospital are often also excluded

When the issue of “pre-existing conditions” is considered—one of Obama’s top-level campaign features of Obamacare—the NYT admits that while “insurers will be forbidden to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, they could subtly discourage the enrollment of sicker patients by limiting the size of their provider networks.”

“If a health plan has a narrow network that excludes many doctors, that may shoo away patients with expensive pre-existing conditions who have established relationships with doctors,” said Mark E. Rust, the chairman of the national health care practice at Barnes & Thornburg, a law firm. “Some insurers do not want those patients who, for medical reasons, require a broad network of providers.”

[Richard Cranium]

Health Care Industry Spent $243 Million in 2013 Lobbying ObamaCare

The Center for Responsive Politics reports that the health-care industry spent over $243 million lobbying on health care issues through the first six months of 2013. No other industry sector spent more lobbying Congress and the federal government. The industry is on-pace to match its 2012 lobbying of around $500 million.


While ObamaCare was enacted three years ago, the government has been slowing drafting the rules and regulations that will guide implementation. Small word changes in the rules can mean millions of dollars to the bottom-lines of many companies. There are also efforts to win Congressional support for legislation that would repeal or tweak individual components of the ObamaCare law. This lobbying is likely to increase over the coming year, as the law comes into effect.

Even if conservatives win their fight in Congress to defund the ObamaCare law, large portions of it are funding by mandatory spending not subject to Congressional appropriations. These would continue, regardless of how Congress decides the funding issue.

Over 2,400 individuals are registered as lobbyists for the health-care sector. It is important to note, however, that this number, and the total spent, is likely a fraction of what the industry is spending to influence the government on ObamaCare. Direct lobbying only covers a portion of activities companies and associations employ to influence government. Elizabeth Fowler, who directs health policy for Johnson & Johnson and was a chief architect of the law, isn't required to register as a lobbyist, for example.

After three years, ObamaCare has woven itself into the fabric of the DC influence world. Some companies and industries have no doubt won advantages for themselves in the drafting of the regulations. This phenomenon, and the resources behind it, will make it very difficult to get rid of the health care law.

[Richard Cranium]

Casino Slashes Worker Hours to Avoid Obamacare Fines

Hollywood Casino in Grantville, Pennsylvania has told its part-time workers that they may no longer work over 30 hours. The reason: Obamacare.

"Not the first, won't be the last," Gene Barr of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry told WHTM-PA. "The casino is clearly one of many. We're gonna see more and more of this."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0abWAKcdAc

Barr added:

Government has decided that you as a business will pay this if you meet a certain size. They've put these conditions on and of course companies will have to work around and with those conditions in order to make sure they can stay as a successful business. Businesses have to take the steps they can to keep themselves profitable and keep the people that are now employed employed.

Hollywood Casino is not alone in cutting hours to avoid Obamacare penalties and fines. Investor's Business Daily's Obamacare scorecard says at least 301 employers have already cut thousands of workers' hours and jobs as a result of Obamacare.

Still, some Pennsylvania Democratic politicians say Hollywood Casino and businesses like it that are bracing for Obamacare are just being stingy.

"We do need everybody in society to try and put the good of Pennsylvania, and the good of the country first and stop being so darn selfish about every last penny," said Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hanger.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Obamacare is projected to cost employers $130 billion in Obamacare penalties.

Obamacare's government healthcare exchanges go live in seven days.

[Richard Cranium]

Sex, drugs and ObamaCare: Doctor questions get personal


Thanks to new regulations that are part of the federal Affordable Care Act, patients will be asked to disclose more personal information to their doctors -- including how often they have sex and how with how many sexual partners.

And once they do, it won't really be personal information any more.

One provision of the new ObamaCare law will have doctors asking their patients about their sex lives and history of drug use, even if such information is completely unrelated to why the patient is seeking medical treatment, according to a report in Monday's New York Post.

Christina Sandefur, a lawyer for the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based conservative think tank challenging the Affordable Care Act in federal court, said the arrangement is a violation of patients' privacy rights.

"Once you've shared your information with a private third party, the Supreme Court has ruled that is fair game for the government," she told Watchdog.org, noting the recent disclosures of data sharing between the National Security Agency and Google, Facebook and other online services.

Doctors and hospitals who refuse to participate could be cut-off from some federal funds, and individuals who decline to share sensitive information may have to pay the fines -- taxes, according to the Supreme Court -- outlined in the federal health care law

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://i.imgur.com/rxAMEAH.jpg

[deebakes]

minnesota :woot:

[Muddy]

minnesota :woot:

Yeah thats cheap..

[deebakes]

it's because we are so healthy here 8-[

[FBD]

not surprised in the least to see ct consistently in the top 3-5 in expensiveness, no matter what chart you look at. fkn gub wastes money like its being printed up for nothing with no consequences ever.

waiiit a minute...

oh right, we just havent seen any consequences yet :dance:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

What's funny is, this is supposed to be 'affordable' health insurance for those that can't afford it or don't have it offered at work, which would typically be low income earners. How in the world are any of those monthly premiums affordable? :-s

[Muddy]

What's funny is, this is supposed to be 'affordable' health insurance for those that can't afford it or don't have it offered at work, which would typically be low income earners. How in the world are any of those monthly premiums affordable? :-s

Ours is much more expensive at work.. The big difference is my work pays for it..

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Ours is much more expensive at work.. The big difference is my work pays for it..

There's no way a single person in Virginia is paying $335/month thru a group plan at work, whether it's the employer paying it or the employee.

And I too am lucky enough to work for an employer that pays 100% of my health insurance, but not everybody is that lucky.

[Loser]

The many problems I have are this.

a.) Most people will buy the bronze plan, which is 60/40, and even at that will end up claiming bankruptcy and dumping medical debt. So this solves nothing.

b.)All plans are subsidized through credits. What pays for these credits? Taxes! yay...

c.)People that cannot afford even the bronze level, which is going to be a lot of people, are going to be dumped on medicaid.*in most states* Medicaid is funded by what? Taxes! More taxes! Yay...

The list is endless really. But you get where I'm going with them.

[Muddy]

There's no way a single person in Virginia is paying $335/month thru a group plan at work, whether it's the employer paying it or the employee.

And I too am lucky enough to work for an employer that pays 100% of my health insurance, but not everybody is that lucky.

I'll get the exact number for you. to be continued.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

According to the list, the premium will be $305/month in Colorado. Last time I saw what my company is paying for my insurance (again, thru a group plan) was about $145/month.

[Acid Trip]

My wife and I both get 75% covered by our jobs. I'm on an individual plan, she's on a mother + child plan. It was WAY cheaper than going on a family plan. More than 50% cheaper.

I get 50/50 insurance (I pay 50% insurance pay 50%) on everything up to a maximum of $3,000 per year. After $3k insurance covers everything. I pay $62 a paycheck or $124 a month.

My wife has a $1,500 deductible and then all costs after that are 10% ours, 90% to insurance. She pays $120 a paycheck or $240 a month.

A family plan? $400 per paycheck or $800 monthly.

[Muddy]

There's no way a single person in Virginia is paying $335/month thru a group plan at work, whether it's the employer paying it or the employee.

And I too am lucky enough to work for an employer that pays 100% of my health insurance, but not everybody is that lucky.

The hmo product 25 premium total is $ 376.00

[FBD]

What's funny is, this is supposed to be 'affordable' health insurance for those that can't afford it or don't have it offered at work, which would typically be low income earners. How in the world are any of those monthly premiums affordable? :-s

Its not supposed to be. That's just the name they gave it to make it sound affordable. See, its even in the name, so it must be affordable! Even if it makes everything more expensive! The fkers pushing this just want single payer government covers everything, so the only way to do it was to destroy the private market and make rules that make it all preposterously expensive. Moreso than it already is.

The intent is to kneecap the US so that there's no single "exceptional" nation in the world.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Our insurance company has all ready called and told us we can expect a 25% increase in our premiums for the same coverage we currently have, and they cited Obamacare as the reason.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://i.imgur.com/7gU2ZTQ.jpg

[Muddy]

Our insurance company has all ready called and told us we can expect a 25% increase in our premiums for the same coverage we currently have, and they cited Obamacare as the reason.

With California's population of "entitlement" receivers. I think you got off easy.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

All these entitled receivers were all ready getting care for free at the hospital under the CA Medicaid/MediCal program. If you go to the hospital and say you have no job and no insurance you would get all expenses paid by the state. No instead all these people will be "covered" (which they already were) except now I will have to pay more. :meh:

[Muddy]

So does that mean medicare numbers go down ?

[Jezter]

I got just one thing to say; No matter what is changed, the healthcare system over there is super complicated, ineffective and crappy... Seems more and more like the banks and insurance companies run the country as they will.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I got just one thing to say; No matter what is changed, the healthcare system over there is super complicated, ineffective and crappy... Seems more and more like the banks and insurance companies run the country as they will.

:qft:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

So does that mean medicare numbers go down ?
IDK, I guess in theory. But, these same people I doubt will go out and get obamacare insurance either, so it will probably be the same. Not sure how that will all pan out. Either way I was already paying for all the illegals and uninsured to get the care they need, just now I will be paying even more for it.

[Muddy]

There are groups on facebook ready rise up and "take the country back" over this stuff.. I was reading some posts today.. Not a real smart move talking about stuff like that on facebook.

[Acid Trip]

I got just one thing to say; No matter what is changed, the healthcare system over there is super complicated, ineffective and crappy... Seems more and more like the banks and insurance companies run the country as they will.

To control a population you have to have something hanging over their head. In the United States we use debt. You sign up for it and instantly become a slave to something.

Banks = debt. Healthcare = debt. Insurance = "protection" from debt.

So there is your trifecta. Banks and healthcare create debt and the insurance industry helps "protect" you from debt. One of them always gets your money.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

There are groups on facebook ready rise up and "take the country back" over this stuff.. I was reading some posts today.. Not a real smart move talking about stuff like that on facebook.



NSA listens to everything anyway, you are only safe doing sign language in the dark in Klingon

[Teh One Who Knocks]

NSA listens to everything anyway, you are only safe doing sign language in the dark in Klingon

The infrared satellites can pick that shit up no problem :hand:

[Loser]

So does that mean medicare numbers go down ?

No, these same people, and many, many more, across the country will now be covered under medicaid.

In short, the amount of people about to be dumped on medicaid is roughly around 30 million. It's because these people, even at the lowest levels of obamacare exchange, cannot afford insurance, and now they are federally guarenteed medicaid, where as before they were not.

What does this mean? More taxes. Around 1.4 trillion over the next 10 years, and it's just going to snowball from there.

Thanks obama ;)

[PorkChopSandwiches]

But they dont have a translator yet

[Teh One Who Knocks]

But they dont have a translator yet

If the state government of Illinois can put up a Klingon translator on their website, the infrared NSA satellites sure as hell can translate your Klingon sign language :nono:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:tinfoil:

[FBD]

No, these same people, and many, many more, across the country will now be covered under medicaid.

In short, the amount of people about to be dumped on medicaid is roughly around 30 million. It's because these people, even at the lowest levels of obamacare exchange, cannot afford insurance, and now they are federally guarenteed medicaid, where as before they were not.

What does this mean? More taxes. Around 1.4 trillion over the next 10 years, and it's just going to snowball from there.

Thanks obama ;)

We're already taxed for only 50, 60% of what the government spends as it is

[Richard Cranium]

Report: $67 Million Missing from Obamacare Slush Fund

http://i41.tinypic.com/x4rgpu.jpg

A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released on Wednesday found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cannot account for $67 million spent from an Obamacare implementation slush fund


"Specifically, the IRS did not account for or attempt to quantify approximately $67 million [from the slush fund] of indirect ACA costs incurred for Fiscal Years 2010 through 2012," read the report.

An analysis of the report by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) also found what it called "abuses of taxpayer funds" in several other areas:

Travel abuse: The report states, “Specifically, we identified 38 IRS employees in two judgmentally selected business units whose travel was charged to the HIRIF in FY 2012, but no portion of their salary and related benefits was charged to the HIRIF.” In short, the IRS was not making sure that employee travel reimbursements had anything to do with the purpose of the fund. This is not the first time that IRS employee travel has created a scandal for the agency.

1,272 IRS Obamacare enforcement agents: The report estimates that total slush fund spending cost taxpayers the equivalent of 1,272 new full time IRS agents.

The IRS requested an additional 859 IRS Obamacare enforcement agents for Fiscal Year 2013: According to the report, “The IRS informed us that it requested $360 million and 859 FTEs for FY 2013 to continue implementation of the ACA. However, the IRS did not receive this requested amount for FY 2013.”

The IRS says it will comply with the Inspector General's recommendations. However, as ATR notes, "the slush fund has already been fully spent, making that promise meaningless."

[FBD]

67, thats all?

[Acid Trip]

67, thats all?

67 mil out of only 1 billion is quite a bit.

[FBD]

:hand: I expected them to waste at least 40%. this is beans, why are we even bothering counting it?

:dance:

[Acid Trip]

:hand: I expected them to waste at least 40%. "this is beans, why are we even bothering counting it? said Deepsepia"

:dance:

Fixed.

[FBD]

:lol: