Professor blames ‘southern white radicals’ for Obamacare debacle
10:31 AM 01/01/2014
Eric Owens
Education Editor
A professor who teaches constitutional law courses at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice penned a Christmas Day essay blaming “southern White radicals” for the disastrous, slow-motion train wreck failure that has been the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.
“[S]outhern White radicals vowed to stop implementation of the Obama-care law leading one to wonder if Tea Party members would oppose affordable healthcare if it came from a nonBlack [sic] President,” writes Browne-Marshall.
In the next two profoundly disconnected paragraphs, the taxpayer-funded professor rambles from Abraham Lincoln to Christopher Dorner, the black LAPD cop who killed a bunch of innocent people and then committed suicide at the end of a huge manhunt.
“Some called Dorner insane others said a modern-day Nat Turner, referring to the leader of a Virginia slave rebellion in 1831,” Browne-Marshall writes in her characteristically thick, ungrammatical prose. “However, the possibility racism was a core issue in this case was disregarded.”
She then discusses a host of other issues, including a Supreme Court opinion on voting rights and the fates of Trayvon Martin and “White Latino” George Zimmerman.
Browne-Marshall teaches courses in constitutional law and evidence. She is also a member of the gender studies faculty.
A webpage called “Race, Law, and American Society” is dedicated to a book Browne-Marshall wrote. It explains that Browne-Marshall “has compiled an impressive array of historical and legal materials detailing the persistent legally sanctioned terrorism perpetrated by the majority culture against African Americans.”
The webpage does not appear to indicate — as is customary among academics — the law school that trained Browne-Marshall in constitutional law or, in fact, any school she attended. Her department at John Jay does not list a curriculum vitae at all.
It’s not clear how Browne-Marshall reasoned her way to the conclusion that “southern White radicals” derailed Obamacare. As College Insurrection notes, a CNN poll conducted just before Christmas shows that 62 percent of Americans oppose the president’s signature legislation.
More than 4.7 million Americans have had their health insurance cancelled as a result of the massive new healthcare regime. At the same time, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday that, between federal and state exchanges, just 2 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare coverage.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice lauds itself as “the preeminent national and international leader in educating for justice.” Students at the very well-located Manhattan school mainly study criminology, correctional studies and the like.
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Obamacare may have promised health insurance for the masses. But on its first day, it’s left more Americans without coverage than before the law was passed.
More than 4.7 million Americans had their health insurance canceled as a result of any of the thousand-plus-page law’s new rules, The Associated Press reports, but the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed Tuesday that between federal and state exchanges, just two million Americans have signed up for Obamacare coverage.
The Obama administration has yet to announce the final tally of full enrollments, which are only confirmed once customers have made their first payment, but Cato Institute health policy expert Michael Cannon warns that not all those who signed up will complete their purchases, potentially leaving the White House with an even lower bottom line.
Even without the full number of enrollments, Obamacare’s current net effect is clearly in favor of cancellations. Millions are already seeing Obamacare’s adverse effects — largely due to more mandates for more services.
The health-care law requires that all insurance plans cover 10 “essential benefits,” eliminating millions of plans that don’t fit the bill and boosting costs for consumers that have to purchase coverage for services they may not want or need.
All plans must include maternity coverage, for example — including plans for men and post-menopausal women. Even customers without children must purchase plans that cover pediatric services. Other newly established essential benefits include hospitalization, mental-health services and preventive and wellness services.
While a grandfather clause allowed plans purchased before Obamacare passed in 2010 to continue, HHS estimated that 40-67 percent of plans would eventually lose their status and cost millions of Americans their insurance plans.
The Obama administration eventually admitted Obamacare’s role in crushing many Americans’ coverage and has scrambled to belatedly make up for it. President Barack Obama first attempted to reinstate the canceled coverage for just one more year, but many insurers chose not to restart already-canceled plans.
The latest stopgap, announced just before the deadline to purchase exchange coverage, is to allow those with canceled plans a one-year “hardship exemption” from the individual mandate to have medical coverage, but insurance companies didn’t see this as an adequate solution either.
“This type of last-minute change will cause tremendous instability in the marketplace and lead to further confusion and disruption for consumers,” Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, told reporters.
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Rarely does something come along that utterly defies our capacity for rational explanation/ analysis …
In fact that never happens.
Pretty much whatever lands on our plates … we pride ourselves on being able to explain it and put it in its proper context for you, our faithful readers.
But the pro-Obamcare “Covered California” video starring fitness guru Richard Simmons has succeeded in rendering us speechless.
Seriously … where to start with this?
The homoerotic twerking? (Homo-twerking?) Simmons rubbing his crotch as he writhes on the ground in support of U.S. President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine plan? Or what about the prepubescent Leonardo DiCaprio-looking female host rapping “Get Covered” and “Hashtag: Get Covered” in between each pulsating beat.
“Oh beautiful, for spacious skies … for amber waves of grain …”
UPDATE: In case you’re wondering, Covered California received $43 million worth of federal grant money last year to “educate targeted audiences about the subsidy programs available to them and to motivate consumers and small businesses to be part of obtaining health insurance.”
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
First lady Michelle Obama is seeking $10 donations to protect Obamacare, her husband's troubled health insurance system.
Just one day before he gives the annual State of the Union address, the first lady sent out a fundraising email to supporters hoping to use the speech to prompt donations to help Democrats in the midterm elections this fall.
Friend --
Earlier this month, because of what you did, it became illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against the up to 129 million Americans living with pre-existing conditions. Young Americans are able to stay on their parents' health care plans as they get on their feet, and we can now know that our insurance companies won't put lifetime caps on our coverage.
You should be so proud of that. That happened because you organized, you talked to your friends and neighbors, and you chipped in what you could, when you could, to elect Barack and a Congress who supported his agenda.
Today, I'm asking you to do it again.
So before Barack gives his State of the Union address tomorrow, chip in $10 or more and help protect Obamacare:
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“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
More than 2 million Americans who would otherwise rely on a job for health insurance will quit working, reduce their hours or stop looking for employment because of new health benefits available under the Affordable Care Act, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.
The White House scrambled to defend the law, which has bedeviled Obama since its 2010 passage, arguing that the report shows it will work as planned, freeing people to care for their children, retire early or start their own businesses without worrying about health coverage.
“The Affordable Care Act today, right now, is helping labor markets, is helping businesses and is helping jobs,” said Jason Furman, the president’s chief economist.
But Republicans hailed the report as fresh evidence that the law will decimate the American workforce, encouraging people to forgo private employment in favor of taxpayer handouts.
“Today’s CBO report gives a sobering outlook on our economy,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. “It confirms what we’ve known all along: The health care law is having a tremendously negative impact on economic growth.”
The report raises new questions about the health-care law just as some Republicans are again looking for concessions related to the Affordable Care Act in exchange for an agreement to raise the federal debt limit. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has urged quick action on the debt limit — with no concessions or negotiations — saying he could run out of cash to pay the nation’s bills by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, the health-care law promises to be a major issue in midterm congressional elections this fall, with Republicans looking to bludgeon Democrats over the program’s botched launch and Democrats hoping to highlight the millions of Americans who have gained coverage.
In its assessment of the law’s impact on the job market, the agency had bad news for both political parties. In an implicit rebuke of GOP talking points, the CBO said that there was little evidence the health-care law is affecting employment and that businesses are not expected to significantly reduce head count or hours as a result of the law.
But the report also contained a setback for the White House. The CBO predicts that the economy will have the equivalent of 2.3 million fewer full-time workers by 2021 as a result of the law — nearly three times previous estimates.
Today’s ObamaCare horror story comes via a guest submission on Ann Coulter’s column:
This Wednesday, my little sister, Julie, will be buried. She died because she delayed seeking health care for what turned out to be a catastrophic condition after her private health insurance policy was cancelled because of Obamacare. As she waited for a new Obamacare-approved policy to kick in, her condition deteriorated to the point that it was too late.
ObamaCare aside, as the story goes on, there was enough time to save Julie’s life, but due to the expenses involved with American health care, it’s our way to pay an insurance company as the middleman to the doctors, and hospitals. Julie’s middleman wasn’t there and a family with limited resources wanted to save money where they could. This is was the fatal mistake.
Note to all: if you can’t keep down solid food for days, don’t wait. Go to the ER. The price isn’t that high in the long run.
There are plenty of arguments against Obamacare. Sure, it was drafted behind back doors and passed in a crude, and utterly partisan, fashion. Yes, Nancy Pelosi famously said we had to pass it to see what was in it. And the bill was applied in a crony capitalist fashion, with corporate allies of the President receiving waivers. Then we had the series of backtracking and outright falsehoods—like the infamous “you can keep your plan if you like it” claim uttered by President Obama and repeated by his political and media allies.
Obamacare has also inflicted job losses, higher cost plans, and a shift from full-time to part time employment. Even when factoring in all this the economic damage and the harm it has done to working Americans, the most disturbing aspect of Obamacare is that this real world hardship is inflicted because it treats living breathing people as actuarial statistics in the service of giant insurance pools, rather than as the individuals they are. It is highly ironic that this Administration that talks so much about protecting “choice” in so many areas of American life, yet is harshly shutting down individual choice and initiative in such a personal matter of personal healthcare.
Thank you Doug Graham, guest writer on Ann Coulter’s page.
As so many are now finding out via these individual stories, ObamaCare is a pig in a poke, and the little people are paying the price.
Requiescat in pace, Julie. May your story be spread far and wide, for the more of these that come to light, the angrier the people will get and then, maybe, ObamaCare will go away.
Libertatem Prius!
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A triumphant President Barack Obama declared Tuesday his signature medical insurance overhaul a success, saying it has made America's health care system 'a lot better' in a Rose Garden press conference.
But buried in the 7.1 million enrollments he announced in a heavily staged appearance is a more unsettling reality.
Numbers from a RAND Corporation study that has been kept under wraps suggest that barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans – nowhere near 7.1 million – have paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by Monday night.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Barack Obama spoke about Affordable Care Act enrollment totals at the White House but took no questions, as Vice President Joe Biden stood by wordlessly and applauded
an ebullient Jay Carney, fresh from greeting his hometown world-champion Boston Red Sox, bragged about the administration's signup totals -- but hid the ball on thorny questions that could unravel the celebration
Others were already insured, including millions who lost coverage when their existing policies were suddenly cancelled because they didn't meet Obamacare's strict minimum requirements.
Still, he claimed that 'millions of people who have health insurance would not have it' without his insurance law.'
'The goal we’ve set for ourselves – that no American should go without the health care they need ... is achievable,' Obama declared.
The president took no questions from reporters, but celebrated the end of a rocky six-month open-enrollment period by taking pot shots at Republicans who have opposed the law from the beginning as a government-run seizure of one-seventh of the U.S. economy.
'The debate over repealing this law is over,' he insisted. 'The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.'
The president also chided conservatives 'who have based their entire political agenda on repealing it,' and praised congressional Democrats for their partisan passage of the law without a single GOP vote.
'We could not have done it without them, and they should be proud of what they've done,' Obama boasted, in a clear nod to November's contentious elections in which Republicans are expected to make large gains on an anti-Obamacare platform because of the law's general lack of popularity.
'In the end,' he warned the GOP, 'history is not kind to those who would deny Americans their basic economic security. ... That's what the Affordable Care Act represents.'
'“The bottom line is this,' said Obama: 'The share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth in the cost of insurance is down. There’s no good reason to go back.'
Republicans will differ with that assessment as Election Day nears. They need to gain a net total of six Senate seats in order to reclaim the majority and control both houses of Congress, a goal that appears reachable since two-thirds of the seats being contested are held by Democratic incumbents.
\No national political analyst has predicted a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives.
White House press secretary Jay Carney stopped short of saying 'I told you so,' but chided a sparse press corps in the briefing room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for ever doubting that the Obamacare system would enroll more than 7 million Americans.
Debate is over? Republicans stand to make huge gains in the U.S. Senate in November, and increase their margin in the House, largely on the strength of Americans' weariness with Obamacare -- but the president for the first time Tuesday went out of his way to thank Democrats for making it happen
Still growing: The 'final' enrollment day for Obamacare saw long lines and eleventh-hour panic, but the administration has rolled out a red carpet for latecomers who are willing to check a box and swear they tried to sign up on time
Triumphant: Obama appears to have made good on his signature legislative pledge, but the numbers don't bear out his promises of insuring millions of uninsured Americans
'At midnight last night we surpassed everyone's expectations,' he boasted, 'at least everyone in this room.'
While he took great pains to emphasize that the total would grow – saying 'we're still waiting on data from state exchanges' – he dodged tough questions about other statistics that reporters thought he should have had at the ready.
Those numbers included how many Americans have paid for their insurance policies, and are actually insured. Also, he had no answer to the thorny question of how few signups represented people who had no insurance before the Affordable Care Act took effect.
Aside from the issue of the numbers' likely decrease when non-paying enrollments are taken into account, administration officials have been coy about the RAND Corporation study, which suggests that relatively few Obamacare enrollees were previously uninsured.
'What I can tell you is that we expect there to be a good mix of people who were previously uninsured who now have insurance,' Carney said Monday.
'Certainly, there’s a significant number who now have qualified for Medicaid in those states that expanded Medicaid who will have insurance who didn’t have it before.'
In addition to his claim of 7.1 million enrollments, Obama also announced that 'three million young people' under age 26 have gained coverage as add-ons to their parents' policies. and 'millions more ... gained access through Medicaid expansion,' he said.
Those totals – young adults attached to their parents' insurance and new taxpayer-funded Medicaid subscribers – far exceed the 7.1 million number the White House trumpeted on Tuesday.
The Affordable Care Act carried with it the promise of covering 'every American,' and it appears to have fallen tremendously short.
Obama and Biden rolled their political party's dice on the Affordable Care Act, and despite Tuesday's fanfare the results are falling short of their campaign promises
'We're aggregating a lot of data,' Carney insisted, refusing to comment on how many Obamacare enrollments came complete with payments, and how few of the customers already had insurance before the law took effect
The unpublished RAND study – only the Los Angeles Times has seen it – found that just 23 per cent of new enrollees had no insurance before signing up.
And of those newly insured Americans, just 53 per cent have paid their first month's premiums.
If those numbers hold, the actual net gain of paid policies among Americans who lacked medical insurance in the pre-Obamacare days would be just 858,298.
Obama's Rose Garden speech included an acknowledgement that the Affordable Care Act 'has had its share of problems,' and has at times been 'contentious and confusing ... That's part of what change looks like in a Democracy.'
But 'there are still no death panels,' he joked amid laughter. 'Armageddon has not arrived.'
A standing ovation greeted him after his speech. A White House aide said the crowd consisted of '"organizations and stakeholder groups who helped lead the enrollment and outreach efforts, as well as Hill lawmakers and staff from HHS, CMS and other agencies involved in implementing the ACA.'
Not among them: Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathlen Sebelius, the administration official most responsible for the Obamacare program's implementation. She also did not appear in the White House press briefing room earlier in the afternoon.
But Carney and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough distributed donuts to reporters in the press center on Tuesday morning – presumably without checking with the first lady – and eagerly pitched talking points to journalists writing about the milestone day.
Questions remain about the effectiveness and affordability of Obama's plan, which he sold to congressional Democrats and the American people as a scheme to cover the uninsured, and about how the law is contributing to the spiraling cost of medical care.
'The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,' Obama declared, laying down a marker for Republicans who favor repealing or gutting the law
Rose Garden no-show: Kathleen Sebelius appeared on an Oklahoma TV station on Monday to buck up Obamacare'€™s flagging numbers in the Sooner State, and had only a blank-stare response to the law's unpopularity -- she was nowhere to be seen as Obama took his victory lap
As information about the chasm between Obamacare's promises and its reality have reached the public, the program has become more and more unpopular – a fact that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius met with awkward silence during a Monday television interview in Oklahoma.
'At last check, 64 percent of Oklahomans aren't buying into the healthcare plan; they don't like Obamacare, and they've been pretty vocal about it,' a KWTV-9 reporter told her.
'Now that's going to be – still continue to be a tough sell, but we'll see how that plays out over the coming months.'
Sebelius, a deer trapped in TV's headlights, offered only a blank stare. Asked if she had lost the audio feed, the icy secretary responded, 'I can hear you. But I – thanks for having me.'
Hours earlier, she tooted Obama's horn during a fawning Huffington Post interview, claiming that healthcare.gov saw a surge in traffic when the president appeared on the gonzo show 'Between Two Ferns' on the Funny or Die website.
Obamacare 'definitely saw the Galifianakis bump,' she said, referring to the show's host Zach Galifianakis.
'As a mother of two 30-something sons, I know they're more likely to get their information on "Funny or Die" than they are on network TV,' she added.
Americans who missed the online broadcast still knew enough to queue up Monday for panic-induced sign-ups. Crushed with traffic, healthcare.gov crashed twice.
'Between Two Ferns': the President of the United States gave a March 11 interview to comedian Zach Galifianakis, at a time when political reporters often fight to get a single question answered by one of Barack Obama's surrogates
The Obama administration's health care website stumbled on deadline day for new sign-ups. Visitors to HealthCare.gov on Monday morning saw messages that the site was down for maintenance
On its way to 7 million, the Obama administration has never answered some key questions about the open enrollment period.
The White House has instead kept to its talking points.
'What I can tell you is that we expect there to be a good mix of people who were previously uninsured who now have insurance,' Carney said Monday.
'Certainly, there’s a significant number who now have qualified for Medicaid in those states that expanded Medicaid who will have insurance who didn’t have it before.'
The midnight deadline for enrollment has become a temporary formality, as the Obama administration has offered extensions to anyone willing to claim they tried in earnest to sign up in time.
Sebelius promised Congress weeks ago that there would be no extension.
The White House has compared it to voters who are permitted to cast ballots if they are in line when the polls close. But conservative opponents note that ballot officials won't accept voters' claims the day after an election.
California has also extended its deadline through April 15.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
The Debate is over alright. It's an unmitigated disaster.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Despite the “billions of dollars” critics have spent on anti-Obamacare ads, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that his signature health care law has been a success.
President Barack Obama walks to the Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2014. (AP)
“The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden to cheers and applause from supporters.
The president in his “victory lap” bragged that the Affordable Care Act was able to meet its goal of having 7.1 million people signed up by March 31 without having to dump buckets of money into promoting the law.
“We didn’t make a hard sell. We didn’t have billions of dollars to spend on commercials like our critics did,” Obama said.
In fact, the health care law was not only promoted with a “hard sell” in the weeks leading up to the March 31 open enrollment deadline, but a significant amount of money was also spent on encouraging people to enroll.
From January 1, 2014, through the end of March, approximately $52 million was spent on a pro-Obamacare ad blitz that included NBA star Lebron James, posts on the satirical website the Onion and ads targeting younger consumers in Chicago and New York City, Forbes reported.
And prior to the 2014 ad blitz, the Associated Press reported that the White House was on track to spend approximately $700 million on a nationwide campaign aimed at encouraging people without insurance to enroll in Obamacare.
Taken together, the $52 million figure, the initial estimate of $700 million and all the dollars spent on anti-Obamacare ads, the total amount of cash spent on ads for and against the Affordable Care Act will easily top $1 billion, according to data compiled by the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
“The law both parties now call ‘Obamacare’ seems due to join Social Security and Medicare in one respect: as a public policy advertising phenom, a program that is reviled and perhaps eventually revered in political advertising for billions of dollars in ad spend to come,” Elizabeth Wilner, vice president for strategic initiatives at the Campaign Media Analysis Group, said in a statement. ”Yet while Social Security and Medicare have been litigated on the airwaves for more than 40 years, CMAG expects the ACA to break the $1 billion mark by its fifth birthday.”
The group said in its report that spending on anti-Obamacare ads has outweighed pro-Obamacare ads. However, the group added, as 2014 comes to a close and we wrap up the fall midterms, the difference in spending will most likely shrink.
So although a great deal of money has been spent on anti-Obamacare ads, it would seem inaccurate to say that that the law didn’t have a great deal of financial and promotional support of its own.
Oh, also, let’s not forget the estimated $1 billion that has already been spent on the glitchy, error-riddled website. That figure is expected to increase.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
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No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Filed Under: Government
Posted: Friday, April 11, 2014, 6:00 AM
FRIDAY, April 11, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is stepping down from her position, after overseeing the troubled rollout of the contentious health reform law known as the Affordable Care Act that remains unpopular with some Americans and virtually all Republican lawmakers.
President Barack Obama accepted Sebelius' resignation this week. On Friday, he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to succeed Sebelius, The New York Times reported Thursday evening.
Sebelius' resignation came one week after the close of the first enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act, which is sometimes called Obamacare and is considered the president's signature domestic legislative achievement. Intended to bring health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, the program surprised many observers by enrolling 7.1 million people -- largely through online "exchanges" -- by the March 31 deadline for the first signup period.
But the first weeks of the law's introduction last fall were marred by disastrous website glitches that prevented many people from signing up for coverage. And those missteps provided ammunition for GOP legislators who have opposed the law since it was first proposed.
Publicly, Obama stood by Sebelius as the website problems were slowly corrected. But in a telling sign, she was not present at the news conference last week as Obama triumphantly announced that enrollments through the online exchanges had exceeded seven million people, the Associated Press reported.
More information
For more on Sebelius, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning, ending a five-year tenure marred by the plagued rollout of Obamacare,the New York Times reports.
President Obama accepted her resignation this week and will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to take her place:
The departure comes as the Obama administration tries to move beyond its early stumbles in carrying out the law, persuade a still-skeptical public of its lasting benefits, and help Democratic incumbents, who face blistering attack ads after supporting the legislation, survive the midterm elections this fall.
Officials said Ms. Sebelius, 65, made the decision to resign and was not forced out. But the frustration at the White House over her performance had become increasingly clear, as administration aides worried that the crippling problems at HealthCare.gov, the website set up to enroll Americans in insurance exchanges, would result in lasting damage to the president’s legacy.
Even last week, as Mr. Obama triumphantly announced that enrollments in the exchanges had exceeded seven million, she did not appear next to him for the news conference in the Rose Garden.
The president is hoping that Ms. Burwell, 48, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated West Virginia native with a background in economic policy, will bring an intense focus and management acumen to the department. The budget office, which she has overseen since April of last year, is deeply involved in developing and carrying out health care policy.
“The president wants to make sure we have a proven manager and relentless implementer in the job over there, which is why he is going to nominate Sylvia,” said Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff.
DC: “Outgoing Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is now refusing to testify before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, a Senate aide told The Daily Caller Tuesday. Sebelius had originally been set to testify before the subcommittee about the department’s 2015 $70 billion budget request on April 2. … Now, after announcing her resignation on April 11, she is refusing to testify according to the two aides, even though she is still the sitting secretary — remaining at the post until her successor, OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell is confirmed.”
Why is Sebelius no longer accountable to Congress let alone the people?
Sit down, shut up, and take what we give you. That seems to be the attitude of Marcus Merz, CEO of Minnesota insurer PreferredOne. The Obamacare insurer told the New York Times. Daily Caller:
“We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,” Marcus Merz, CEO of Minnesota insurer PreferredOne, told The New York Times Tuesday. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”
Imagine having a "fixation" on freedom. Perish the thought!
It's very simple; when you limit choices, you limit freedom.
With boatloads of mandatory services provided each and every customer whether they’re wanted or not, health insurers’ costs are going up. If insurance companies are going to keep prices at a manageable level, narrow networks are one of their only options. So far under the health care law, networks are narrowing while premiums are going up.
While insurance companies are trying to acclimate their customers to narrow networks, the limited choices were clearly not part of the promise President Barack Obama made when selling his health care law.
“It you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period,” Obama promised in 2009 in front of the American Medical Association. “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away.”
Both of those promises have turned out to be false. Keeping your health care plan went out the window long ago — and now health insurance companies are defending their narrowed networks, which exclude many doctors and providers that customers prefer.
Narrow networks have essentially made one selling point of the law obsolete. Obamacare supporters constantly warned that health insurance is necessary for everyone because people may get cancer unexpectedly and not be able to get coverage afterward.
But cancer centers, with their top-of-the-line physicians and expensive procedures, have been a primary casualty of narrow networks. According to an Associated Press analysis, just four of the 19 top comprehensive cancer centers are covered by all Obamacare exchange plans in their states.
The networks are bound to narrow further as Obamacare reimbursement of doctors and hospitals continues to be cut in order to save money. Fewer physciains will be willing to treat Obamacare patients, putting pressure on premium prices.
Eventually, states like California may actually pass laws forcing physicians to enter the network. Coercion seems to be the only way to break consumers and doctors from this terrible habit of wanting "choice" in their healthcare - a long way from the empty promises and lies told to pass the law in the first place.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Review Journal: “The Las Vegas woman died Monday, less than two weeks after her family went public with details of how enrollment trouble through the Nevada Health Link insurance exchange kept her from getting treatment in January for an aggressive brain tumor. Rolain was one of about 150 Nevadans suing Nevada Health Link contractor Xerox for enrollment mixups that left them without the health insurance they paid for?”
“Rolain is the first to die of complications from an illness that her family said went untreated for lack of coverage. But observers close to her case say she may not be the last, because others are in similarly urgent situations.”
Why couldn’t this have been resolved prior to the death? More will die. Remember that government has already taken executive action to ensure women working for religious non-profits receive their contraceptives but not the private companies.
No one will get fired, arrested, jailed or even talked to twice. GRRRRRRRR
Forgotten vials of smallpox found in storage room
MIKE STOBBE, The Associated Press
FILE - This 1975 file electronmicrograph from the Centers for Disease Control shows the smallpox virus. Government officials say workers cleaning a storage room at the National Institute of Health's campus in Maryland made a startling discovery last week _ decades-old vials of smallpox forgotten in a cardboard box. (AP Photo/CDC, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — A government scientist cleaning out an old storage room at a research center near Washington made a startling discovery last week — decades-old vials of smallpox packed away and forgotten in a cardboard box.
The six glass vials were intact and sealed, and scientists have yet to establish whether the virus is dead or alive, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
Still, the find was disturbing because for decades after smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980, world health authorities said the only known samples left were safely stored in super-secure laboratories in Atlanta and in Russia.
Officials said this is the first time in the U.S. that unaccounted-for smallpox has been discovered. At least one leading scientist raised the possibility that there are more such vials out there around the world.
The CDC and the FBI are investigating.
It was the second recent incident in which a U.S. government health agency appeared to have mishandled a highly dangerous germ. Last month, scores of CDC employees in Atlanta were feared exposed to anthrax because of a laboratory safety lapse. The CDC began giving them antibiotics as a precaution.
The freeze-dried smallpox samples were found in a building at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, that has been used by the Food and Drug Administration since 1972, according to the CDC.
The scientist was cleaning out a cold room between two laboratories on July 1 when he made the discovery, FDA officials said.
Officials said labeling indicated the smallpox had been put in the vials in the 1950s. But they said it's not clear how long the vials had been in the building, which did not open until the 1960s.
No one has been infected, and no smallpox contamination was found in the building.
Smallpox can be deadly even after it is freeze-dried, but the virus usually has to be kept cold to remain alive and dangerous.
In an interview Tuesday, a CDC official said he believed the vials were stored for many years at room temperature, which would suggest the samples are dead. But FDA officials said later in the day that the smallpox was in cold storage for decades.
"We don't yet know if it's live and infectious," said Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the CDC center that handles highly dangerous infectious agents.
The samples were rushed under FBI protection to the CDC in Atlanta for testing, which could take a few weeks. After that, they will be destroyed.
Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Research and Evaluation, said the discovery was unexpected but not a total shock. He added, however, that "no one's denying we should have done a better job cleaning out what was there."
In at least one other such episode, vials of smallpox were found at the bottom of a freezer in an Eastern European country in the 1990s, according to Dr. David Heymann, a former World Health Organization official who is now a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Heymann said that when smallpox samples were gathered up for destruction decades ago, requests went out to ministers of health to collect all vials.
"As far as I know, there was never a confirmation they had checked in with all groups who could have had the virus," he said.
Dr. Donald "D.A." Henderson, who led the WHO smallpox-eradication effort and is now a professor at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh, said it is highly unlikely more such stashes will be discovered. But he conceded "things were pretty casual" in the 1950s.
Decades ago, he recalled, "I came back from many a trip carrying specimens, and I just put them in the refrigerator until I could get them to a laboratory. My wife didn't appreciate that."
Smallpox was one of the most lethal diseases in history. For centuries, it killed about one-third of the people it infected, and left most survivors with deep scars on their faces from the pus-filled lesions.
The last known case was in Britain in 1978, when a university photographer who worked above a lab handling smallpox died after being accidentally exposed to it through the ventilation system.
Global vaccination campaigns finally brought smallpox under control. After it was declared eradicated, all known remaining samples of live virus were stored at a CDC lab in Atlanta and at a Russian lab in Novosibirsk, Siberia.
The labs take extreme precautions. Scientists must undergo fingerprint or retinal scans to get inside, they wear full-body suits including gloves and goggles, and they shower with strong disinfectant before leaving the labs.
There has long been debate over whether to destroy the stockpile.
Many scientists argue that any remaining samples pose a threat and that the deadly virus should be wiped off the planet altogether. Others contend the samples are needed for research on better treatments and vaccines.
At its recent annual meeting in May, WHO put off a decision again.
___
AP Medical Writers Maria Cheng in London and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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It appears, from what I am hearing, Obamacare is being gutted today. Has to do with the "heart of Obamacare" - but not sure I'm grasping the whole thing yet.
Libertatem Prius!
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Appeals Courts Issue Conflicting Rulings on Health-Law Subsidies
Subsidies Seen as Crucial to Implementation of Affordable Care Act
By Brent Kendall And
Stephanie Armour
Updated July 22, 2014 12:33 p.m. ET
President Barack Obama is applauded on March 23, 2010 after signing the Affordable Care Act into law. A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected some subsidies to consumers who buy health coverage on federally-run health insurance exchanges. Charles Dharapak/AP
*Second Appeals Court Rules On Health Law Insurance Subsidies, Sides With Obama Administration
*Fourth Circuit Ruling Conflicts With Other Court Decision Issued Tuesday
*Appeals Courts Based in D.C. and Richmond, Va. Release Decisions on Subsidies Tuesday
(More to Come.)
WASHINGTON—A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down the subsidies available to consumers in states where health coverage is purchased on insurance exchanges established by the federal government, in a substantial blow to the Obama administration's implementation of its signature health-care law.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, invalidated an Internal Revenue Service regulation that implemented a key piece of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The regulation said subsidies for health insurance were available to qualifying middle- and low-income consumers whether they bought coverage on a state exchange or one run by the federal government.
The ruling potentially could cripple the law by making subsidies unavailable in as many as 36 states where the federal government has run some or all of the insurance exchanges.
The Obama administration quickly announced it would appeal the decision, calling it "incorrect." The administration also said people would continue to receive the subsidies during the appeal.
"We are confident in the legal basis that supports our case," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, noting the Justice Department is expected to ask the full appeals court to reconsider the case. "It is pretty obvious what the congressional intent was."
The appeals court sided with challengers, four individuals and three employers, who argued the health law allowed subsidies only for insurance purchases made through state exchanges. The issue became an important one after the law was enacted because more than two-thirds of the states chose not to set up their own exchanges, relying on federally-run exchanges instead.
The appeals court's opinion, by Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee, acknowledged that the decision has "major consequences," but the court said the IRS rule wasn't a permissible interpretation of the health law. Both judges in the majority were appointed by Republican presidents.
"Federal bureaucrats can't override the clear language of the statute," said Michael Carvin, the lead attorney for the challengers. "We're confident any court will agree with the careful and thoughtful opinion of Judge Griffith."
Judge Harry Edwards, a Jimmy Carter appointee, said in dissent that the ruling "portends disastrous consequences."
The law requires most Americans to carry health insurance or pay a tax penalty. The subsidies were designed to work in tandem with the insurance mandate to make coverage more affordable for lower-income individuals.
More than 5 million Americans have selected a private plan through federal health exchanges and the majority received financial assistance, according to a June report by the Department of Health and Human Services. They pay an average of $82 a month in premiums, 76% less than the full premium.
Tuesday's ruling also could hobble the functioning of a health-law provision that can require larger employers to pay penalties if they don't offer affordable health coverage to full-time workers. They penalties are triggered when a worker receives federal subsidies for purchasing insurance on an exchange.
Insurers had warned a win for the challengers could destabilize insurance markets and lead to far higher premiums, even for those that didn't receive subsidies.
The administration has further legal options, including a possible appeal to the Supreme Court. But first it plans to ask the appeals court to rehear the case, with all active judges participating in the review, administration officials said. The full appeals court isn't seen as conservative as it once was, thanks to the arrival of several new judges appointed by President Barack Obama.
"We believe that this decision is incorrect, inconsistent with congressional intent, different from previous rulings, and at odds with the goal of the law,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said. "In the meantime, to be clear, people getting premium tax credits should know that nothing has changed, tax credits remain available.''
The decision overturned a trial judge's ruling from January that upheld the subsidies.
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