Next Big Billions $ Bailout May Go To ObamaCare Health Insurers.

Next Big Billions $ Bailout May Go To ObamaCare Health Insurers. (NI).

It didn't get much attention outside Capitol Hill, but late last week House Republican leaders scuttled a vote to repeal an ObamaCare bailout plan for major heath insurance companies if they lose money on new Affordable Care Act policies.

Taxpayers could be on the hook for billions of dollars of payouts for ACA insurance policies that incur losses that exceed premiums collected.

Despite pleas from conservatives to hold a vote to repeal the sham subsidy program to the biggest insurers — like Aetna (NYSE:AET), Cigna (NYSE:CI) and Humana (NYSE:HUM) — our sources tell us the House leadership reportedly said that it "ran out of time to hold a roll call vote."

Conservative lawmakers also fear that in the anticipated lame-duck session in December, Republicans will allow the Obama administration a de facto blank check to make payments to insurance companies that lose money on ObamaCare policies without congressional approval.

The bailout measure is the Affordable Care Act's controversial "risk corridor" program, which provides financial "protection" against losses to insurers that sponsor exchange plans. The idea of this short-term program was to create a pool of funds from the profits of some insurers with ObamaCare plans to offset the losses of others.

A 2013 analysis by the Society of Actuaries says that the risk corridors program "provides a strong incentive for insurers to participate in the health insurance exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act." Perhaps too strong an incentive, budget experts worry.

Under the program, if "allowable costs" to an insurer top 103% of the "target amount," the feds subsidize half of those excess payments. The subsidy climbs to 80% of allowable costs that exceed 108% of the target amount. The potential liability to taxpayers is "uncapped," so the sky is the limit on losses.

The White House understands the stakes. Without these subsidized risk corridors to backstop the ObamaCare plans, insurance companies will stop issuing ACA plans, and the entire program could be derailed.

The most recent data on ACA plans suggest that Rubio is right. Congressional oversight hearings found surveys of insurers showing that almost all expect an ObamaCare reimbursement check from the risk corridors in excess of payments made.

If nearly all insurers are expecting a net cash payment, how can the program pay for itself?

Obama wants every American to have health insurance regardless of the cost. The net cost in the first year alone to the risk corridor program could near $1 billion. That's just a start.

Obama is asserting executive authority to subsidize money-losing plans. Rubio and nine other Senators say that he needs a congressional appropriation under the Constitution. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., chair of the House subcommittee that handles health appropriations, made the same point in a recent letter to the White House.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office agrees, ruling Tuesday that the Department of Health and Human Services can't provide funds to insurers for excessive losses on ObamaCare plans without Congress' formal approval.

But again Republicans may duck this fight and provide the bailout funding in a lame-duck session.

"A year-end budget deal will be hard to stop," a top Senate GOP health care staffer said. "If there is Republican resistance, Obama may threaten a government shutdown to get his way. Don't be surprised if we surrender."

Meanwhile, conservatives at organizations such as Heritage Action are denouncing this subsidy plan as "corporate welfare" for the insurance lobby. They worry that Republicans have the policy and politics wrong. A new McLaughlin and Associates poll found that 81% of Americans oppose any health insurance company bailout.

What is especially perplexing is that Republicans may get blamed for a bailout to an industry that sided with the White House in passing ObamaCare in the first place.

"The Democrats who passed ObamaCare are accusing Republicans of being in the pocket of health insurance companies," notes Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. "They accuse Republicans of wanting 'to put insurance companies back in charge of Americans' health care.' Meanwhile, voters would like the party to take a clear stand against cronyism, which benefits well-connected operatives in Washington at the expense of citizens in the heartland."

He calls killing the risk corridor program a "no-brainer" because it is the best way to kill ObamaCare altogether. But right now Republicans aren't listening. Hmmm.....Starve the beast.....shut of the money. Read the full story here.

Video - Jimmy Kimmel Rips Obamacare, No one in audience has signed up for Obamacare.

Iran Pokes Fun at US with ‘Rouhanicare’

Iran Pokes Fun at US with ‘Rouhanicare’.TheHill.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday announced his plan to provide health insurance to all Iranians under the moniker Rouhanicare - a nod to America’s own ObamaCare.

“Gov will extend medical insurance to all Iranians,” Rouhani said in a tweet on his English-language Twitter account.

“First step will be to cover 5mn uninsured Iranians by the social safety net. #RouhaniCare.”

The tongue-in-cheek reference from the media-savvy, U.K.-educated Iranian leader may be part of his effort to ingratiate himself with the United States and other western countries. Israeli leaders and many Republicans on Capitol Hill believe Rouhani is cleverly trying to trick the West into dismantling the international sanctions regime even as Iran continues to secretly pursue a nuclear weapon.Read the full story here.

"L'Etat C'est Moi" - Enrollment Deadline Extended AGAIN.

"L'Etat C'est Moi" - Enrollment Deadline Extended AGAIN.HT: WhitehouseDossier.

In yet another example of the White House view that a law is only final when President Obama says it is, the administration has extended the Obamacare signup deadline even beyond Tuesday’s formerly final deadline, until – well, until who knows?

This appeared December 24 on Healthcare.gov:

We know many of you have been working hard to finish enrolling in a health plan in the Health Insurance Marketplace. Even though we have passed the December 23 enrollment deadline for coverage starting January 1, we don’t want you to miss out if you’ve been trying to enroll.
Sometimes despite your best efforts, you might have run into delays caused by heavy traffic to HealthCare.gov, maintenance periods, or other issues with our systems that prevented you from finishing the process on time. If this happened to you, don’t worry – we still may be able to help you get covered as soon as January 1.
Contact the Marketplace call center at 1-800-318-2596 (available 24/7; closed December 25). TTY: 1-855-889-4325.
Tell our customer service representative that you’ve been trying to enroll and explain why you couldn’t finish by the deadline. They can tell you what you can do to finish your enrollment and still get covered for 2014.

This is being interpreted as saying you have to have started the enrollment process, but who knows exactly what “you’ve been trying to enroll” means?

With the Obamacare navigators taking Christmas off, we’ll still have people applying December 26 for insurance that’s supposed to take effect January 1. In a few days, believe me, they’ll be enrolling retroactively. Because Obama needs all the people he can get to make this thing work.


And this, folks, is the same government that thinks it can run your healthcare. Get ready for that special brand of chaos. Or that it thinks it knows exactly when Iran will have the bomb . . .

Microsoft, Amazon: Obama Turned Down Our Help on Obamacare Site.

Microsoft, Amazon: Obama Turned Down Our Help on Obamacare Site.(DC).By Susan Cornwell.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration appears to have passed up offers from Amazon and Microsoft to help fix the federal government’s troubled healthcare enrollment website, according to documents released on Tuesday by a Republican-led congressional investigating committee.

An October 7 inquiry from Amazon’s subsidiary Amazon Web Services Inc. was turned down by two senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseeing implementation of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, according to copies of emails provided by the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Microsoft also contacted HHS and the White House with offers of “technical expertise and assistance,” but the company has not provided any such services, a Microsoft representative said in an October 25 letter to the committee. The letter did not say whether the administration had responded to Microsoft’s offers.

Representative Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the committee and a dogged critic of the Obama administration, last week wrote to eight technology companies asking whether they had been involved in what the administration had called a “tech surge” aimed at fixing the website, Healthcare.gov.

The oversight committee released some of the companies’ responses.

Republicans have long been opposed to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” and have started their own congressional probe into the role of the White House in the October 1 rollout of the website. It is a critical tool of the reforms, meant to help the uninsured get medical coverage, but it has been riddled with snags.

The Obama administration said earlier this month it was bringing in high-tech experts to sort out the website, but it has given few details of who may be involved, other than to announce last week that Quality Software Services Inc, or QSSI, will serve as a general contractor to oversee repairs.Hmmm......You would almost think they're 'hiding' something? Read the full story here.

Ted Cruz's SCARY video: “Obamascare: IT’S COMING!”

Video - Heritage 'Covers' Obamacare.

Video - Heritage 'Covers' Obamacare.HT: BarracudaBrigade and Heritage.

Related:   Executive With Close Ties To Mooch Whose Firm Won No-Bid Contract To Build Obamacare Exchange Spent Christmas With The Obamas In 2010

Bas Balkissoon - the father in law of valerie jarrets daughter - was one of the Canadian MP's pushng for the health care overhaul that brought in that Company - CGI - that's failing now the Obama care?

Obama's 'OBAMA CARE' turned the country upside down for seven million people?

Obama's 'OBAMA CARE' turned the country upside down for seven million people?HT: Scaramouchee.

Obama has upended the ship of state so that every last American (of whom there are more that 319 million) can have access to "affordable" heath care. Given that, you would think that tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people will soon be signing up for health insurance listed on Obamacare "exchanges." In the following exchange, though, the actual number is revealed to be mega-puny:

SARAH KLIFF: It’s actually a very small group of Americans. The White House expects that about seven million people will buy insurance on these new exchanges where people who don’t have insurance right now can go and compare plans and potentially purchase an option. The people who are not affected are people who get insurance right now through their employer or people who are on Medicare or Medicaid or number of other government programs.

HARI SREENIVASAN: And that’s the vast majority of Americans?

SARAH KLIFF:  It is. We’re actually talking about a pretty small segment of the population for all the debate we’re having here in Washington. At their height the budget forecasters estimate that about seven percent of Americans will use these exchanges. So we’re talking about a sliver of the American population.

He turned the country upside down for seven million people!!!

Video - Ted Cruz still cruising..... live.

Live streaming video by Ustream

The freshman Cruz and other conservative Republicans were trying to delay a must-pass spending bill, but were virtually sure to lose a test vote on that legislation planned for later Wednesday.
Since Tuesday afternoon, Cruz -- with occasional remarks by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and other GOP conservatives -- have controlled the Senate floor and railed against Obamacare. By 5 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Cruz and his allies had spoken for more than 14 hours, the eighth longest since precise record-keeping began in 1900.
That surpassed March's 12-hour, 52-minute speech by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., like Cruz a tea party lawmaker and potential 2016 presidential contender. Paul was demanding information on the Obama administration's use of drones to monitor Americans.

WATCH LIVE: Cruz “filibusters” on defunding Obamacare

Live streaming video by Ustream
WATCH LIVE: Cruz “filibusters” on defunding Obamacare.HT: LegalInsurrection.

Video - Rep Congresman: "You're not a dictator. You're not an emperor. We negotiate everything in Washington, D.C."

“You hate to diminish the office of president of the United States by calling him silly, but that’s just silly. We negotiate everything on this. You don’t get to impose your will. You’re not a dictator. You’re not an emperor. We negotiate everything in Washington, D.C., and for him to say he’s not going to negotiate this is one of the more absurd things I’ve heard him say out of a lot of absurd things I’ve heard him say,” Mulvaney said. Read the full story here.

Video - OBAMACARE PROVISION: “Forced” Home inspections.

Video - OBAMACARE PROVISION: “Forced” Home inspections.HT: BenSwann.

“Clearly, any family may be visited by federally paid agents for almost any reason.”

According to an Obamacare provision millions of Americans will be targeted.

The Health and Human Services’ website states that your family will be targeted if you fall under the “high-risk” categories below:

Families where mom is not yet 21.

Families where someone is a tobacco user.

Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities.

Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.

There is no reference to Medicaid being the determinant for a family to be “eligible.”Read the full story here.

Obamacare’s Dirty Dozen Implementation Failures.

Obamacare’s Dirty Dozen Implementation Failures.HT: Heritage.By Chris Jacobs.
Last week, the Obama Administration attempted to spin its announcement of a one-year delay in Obamacare’s employer mandate as an effort to implement the law “in a careful, thoughtful manner.” Don’t be fooled. Even Democrats have admitted the law has turned into a massive “train wreck,” with delays, glitches, and problems aplenty. Here are a dozen more Obamacare implementation failures.
1. The CLASS Act: ABANDONED, THEN REPEALED
One Democrat famously called this new long-term care entitlement “a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of”—and so it proved. In the fall of 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) admitted CLASS could not be implemented in a fiscally sound manner—and Congress eventually repealed the program outright.
2. Exchanges: MISSED DEADLINES
Most states resisted Obamacare’s call to create insurance exchanges, choosing to let Washington create a federally run exchange instead. However, a Government Accountability Office report released last month noted that “critical” activities to create a federal exchange have not been completed, and the missed deadlines “suggest a potential for challenges going forward.”
3. HHS mandate: DELAYED; UNDER LEGAL CHALLENGE
Last year, the Administration announced a partial delay for Obamacare’s anti-conscience mandate. However, many employers have filed legal actions against the mandate, which forces them to fund products they find morally objectionable or pay massive fines.
>>> Get the latest on Hobby Lobby’s case against the HHS mandate
4. Small business plan choice: DELAYED
The Administration announced in April that workers will not be able to choose plans from different health insurers in the small business exchanges next year—a delay that liberal blogger Joe Klein called “a really bad sign” of “Obamacare incompetence.”
5. Child-only plans: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
A drafting error in Obamacare has actually led to less access to care for children with pre-existing conditions. A 2011 report found that in 17 states, insurers are no longer selling child-only health insurance plans, because they fear that individuals will apply for coverage only after being diagnosed with a costly illness.
6. Basic health plan: DELAYED
This government-run plan for states, created as part of Obamacare, has also been delayed, prompting one Democrat to criticize the Administration for failing to “live up” to the law and implement it as written.
7. High-risk pools: UNDERPERFORMING; FUNDING LOW
This program for individuals with pre-existing conditions faced higher costs and lower enrollment than advertised. Though it was originally projected to cover up to 700,000 individuals, only about 110,000 have enrolled—yet the Administration had to halt new enrollment and take other radical measures to prevent the $5 billion program from running out of money.
8. Early retiree reinsurance: BROKE
The $5 billion in funding for this program was intended to last until 2014—but the program’s money ran out in 2011, two years ahead of schedule.
9. Waivers: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
After the law passed, HHS discovered that some of its new mandates would raise costs so much that employers would drop coverage rather than face skyrocketing premiums. Instead, the Administration announced a series of temporary waivers—and more than half the recipients of those waivers were members of union health insurance plans.
10. Co-ops: DEFUNDED
Congress blocked additional funding to this Obamacare program in January, and with good reason: In one case, a new health insurance co-op was called “fatally flawed” by Vermont’s state insurance commissioner.
11. “Employee free choice”: REPEALED
This provision, which would have allowed certain workers to use contributions from their employers to buy exchange health plans, was repealed in April 2011, as businesses considered it too complex and unworkable.
12. Medicaid expansion: REJECTED BY MANY STATES
Last year, the Supreme Court made Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion optional for states, ruling that Obamacare as written engaged in “economic dragooning” that puts “a gun to the head of states.” Many states are resisting Obamacare’s call to expand Medicaid, knowing that expansion will saddle them with additional, unsustainable costs.
As these examples demonstrate, it’s not just the employer mandate that’s flawed—it’s the entire law. Recognizing these myriad, massive failures, Congress should hold the line and refuse to spend a single dime on Obamacare implementation.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.
Quick Hits:

• Members of Congress are divided over the question of suspending U.S. aid to Egypt. American aid to the unstable country totals $1.5 billion per year.
• Andy Murray became the first Briton to win the men’s Wimbledon title in 77 years.
• NBC’s Chuck Todd said “the White House doesn’t see a path” to passing the immigration bill.
• How many Legos did it take to build the world’s largest Star Wars toy?
• Watch live online at noon ET today as we discuss Ronald Reagan’s battle with environmental extremists and why it matters.

"TAXMAGEDDDON" - The IRS, Obamacare, and You: The Taxes.

"TAXMAGEDDDON" - The IRS, Obamacare, and You: The Taxes.HT: Heritage.

With the IRS under fire for its improper targeting of tea party groups, many Americans have also raised concerns about the agency’s activities relating to Obamacare. This week, we’ll be taking a look at just some of the many ways in which the IRS will be intimately involved with implementing the massive law.

It starts with taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare raises over $1 trillion in revenue in its first 10 years—and more after that. You name it, Obamacare taxes it. As Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint recently stated:

Obamacare taxes most people with health insurance, and most people without health insurance. Likewise, the law taxes many employers who provide health insurance, and most employers who don’t provide health insurance.

Obamacare contains no fewer than 18 tax increases. What’s more, 12 of these taxes will be borne by the middle class, directly breaking President Obama’s 2008 “firm pledge” to those making under $250,000 per year that he would not “raise any of your taxes.” For instance, many seniors will end up paying the 2.3 percent tax on medical devices as the price of wheelchairs, defibrillators, and other needed medical equipment will rise.


Here’s a list of all the Obamacare taxes to be administered by the IRS.Hmmmm......Enslavement Of the American people, CHANGED in to Serfdom.Read the full story here.

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - Same woman in charge of Political Persecution of Conservatives Now Running ObamaCare Office

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - Same woman in charge of Political Persecution of Conservatives Now Running ObamaCare Office.HT: Breitbart.

Mark Levin:

”The Democrat Party represents the federal government, and the federal government expands the power of the Democrat Party.  They’re appendages of each other. ”

 Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

Ace sums up: "So this guy, who may have been promoted to the position just to be fired from it, takes the fall, while the woman actually responsible for the regime is now enforcing ObamaCare."Hmmmm........Interior Repression Storm Troopers.Read the full story here.

Video - Senator: HHS Fundraising for Obamacare is Illegal- "Worse Than Iran Contra".

Video - ObamaCare must die a political death.

HT: DailyCaller.

Obamacare: 'The sky is the limit'.

Obamacare: 'The sky is the limit'.(AmericanThinker). By Clarice Feldman.Today, it became clear that four of the Supreme Court's nine justices reject the academic consensus.
As Justice Kennedy states in his dissent joined by Scalia, Thomas, and Alito: "In our view, the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety."
The alternative gestalt is no longer an outlier, a theory endorsed by a few eccentric professors and one odd justice of the Supreme Court. And because Justice Roberts believes that the mandate is not a valid exercise of the commerce clause (but is valid if interpreted as a tax), he has left open the possibility that there is a fifth justice who endorses the alternative gestalt.

Conservatives have a shot at getting the best of both worlds: having the Supreme Court use Obamacare as a way to limit federal power while also using the democratic process to overturn the law. I didn't think we could have one without the other, but now maybe we can.

If Obama loses in November, that is...

(b) What Next?

The ball is now in the Republicans' court. They've already scheduled a repeal vote on July 11. Once before the Democrat-controlled Senate was able to scotch the effort by threat of filibuster. Had the mandate stood as mandate they could do so again. But now that it's a tax, it can be passed by a simple majority. And if it is, the president will be forced before the election to veto a repeal  of a law  a majority of the voters keep indicating they want repealed.

Every Democrat running in November will be forced to defend what amounts to the biggest tax increase-about $400 billion dollars-in American history, a tax largely levied against the young and the middle class who don't normally carry health insurance.

Professor Ann Althouse sets out the state of play for Obama and his party:

I have said repeatedly that Obama would be worse off if Obamacare were upheld, but what I'm really seeing is how bad it is for him with the mandate declared a tax.

Remember the Democrats got the statute passed by insisting it was not a tax. Now, we learn it is only constitutional because it is a tax. That's got to hurt politically.

ADDED: Romney has at least 3 big arguments:

1. Obama imposed a huge new tax on working people.

2. Obama deceived the American people by saying it was not a tax, when it was.

3. The law made it look like money would go to insurance companies - in the form of new premiums - that would keep premiums low as the companies were required to take on people with pre-existing conditions, but now we find out that the money is really going to go to the federal government. [ADDED: So get ready for your premiums to spiral up and/or for insurance companies to be ruined.]

Did you really ever think Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama could outsmart and outplay Justice Roberts? Really?Read the full story here.

Scotus blog will begin liveblogging at 845am EDT.

Scotus blog will begin liveblogging at 845am EDT.

The Term ends today, with the decision in the health care case and two others. We will begin liveblogging at 845am EDT; please join us. The Court will issue opinions starting at 10am EDT, with the health care ruling probably starting around 10:15. You can access the liveblog here at www.scotusblog.com. But if you run into trouble loading the site, you can visit the backup at scotusblog.wpengine.com. At 4pm on Thursday, we will also be doing a live webcast with Kaiser Health News.

Lyle's summary of the issues in the health care cases is here.

Lyle's guide to how to read the health care opinion is here.

Full story here.

Update: RULING OBAMACARE CONSTITUTIONAL.

Amy Howe: 

In Plain English: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.

More here @ Fox.

Here is the opinion in the health care cases: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf

Video - TIME Magazine runs "How to Die" cover story."Remove feeding tubes from the dying elderly"???

(NaturalNews) TIME Magazine is peddling a death agenda propaganda piece with a new issue that features these words on the cover: "HOW TO DIE."

Inside, the magazine promotes a cost-saving death agenda that encourages readers to literally "pull the feeding tubes" from their dying elderly parents, causing them to dehydrate and die. This is explained as a new cost-saving measure that drastically reduces return hospital visits by the elderly... yeah, because dead people don't return to the hospital, of course.

HMM......."Maybe you're better off not taking the Surgery, but taking the painkiller" ~ Barrack Obama.