Category Archives: health insurance
ObamaCare 404
Republican efforts to stave off ObamaCare may have been unnecessary. The government’s own website seems to be doing a pretty good job of that. People can’t get on the poorly designed site and if they do they can’t get out.
The administration refuses to say how many have signed up.
So, as it stands now you can be fined for failing to buy a product the government can’t provide.
Harry Reid Doesn’t Hate Kids with Cancer
Harry Reid got into trouble with children with cancer last week.
The NIH includes children in some of its cancer research programs. It became a victim of the government shutdown. The House wants to pass bills to fund NIH as well as other popular programs that are being shutdown, but the senate refuses to go along.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “But if you can help one child who has cancer why wouldn’t you do that?” Reid: “Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base who are sitting at home.” He then went on to call Bash “irresponsible or reckless”.
Reid later apologized but still refuses to pass any bills the don’t include funding for everything including ObamaCare.
Why Harry Doesn’t Want to Help Kids with Cancer
Seth Mandel, in Commentary, thinks this is a strategy to avoid exposing just how much government spending really is non-essential:
“That raises a different question: if Republicans are willing to pass all these spending bills, why won’t they just remove the strings and fund the whole government? And the answer is because they are–intentionally or not–demonstrating just how much of the government is not essential. John Steele Gordon wrote yesterday that the shutdown exposes the waste in the federal government: if most employees are non-essential, what on earth are taxpayers paying all those salaries and benefits for?”
The Atlantic Wire posted the headline, “Come on, no. Harry Reid Doesn’t Hate Kids With Cancer”.
The WSJ’s Best of the Web James Taranto says, “When you feel compelled to answer a question like that, it’s a sign you aren’t winning the argument.”
Apple iOS 7 is Just Like ObamaCare
The president compared ObamaCare’s rocky rollout favorably to Apple’s launch of iOS 7.0.2. Really. Well, they both do take fingerprints, operate in a cloud, and spy on us.
“Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it.”
A bug that allowed unauthorized users to get past the new iPhone’s fingerprint protected lock screen was fixed. President Obama promises the federal government, proven so nimble in the past, will do likewise.
Apple and ObamaCare the Same
Kathleen Sebelius got into the act saying, “…hopefully you’ll give us the same slack you give Apple”.
ObamaCare Subsidy for Congress
You get an ObamaCare subsidy if you make less than 40% of the poverty level. The poverty level bar is lower for persons of Congress. They make $174,000 and get and still get a subsidy.
When the Affordable Care act was being passed late in the night, Republican Senator Charles Grassley got members of Congress to agree to go to the exchanges, just like everyone else, to buy health care.
Except the political class isn’t like everyone else. They get gold-plated coverage mostly paid for by the government. Grassley’s plan meant they would now be liable for thousands of dollars in out of pocket expenses.
Congress Gets Its Subsidy
Well, the political class takes care of its own and President Obama got the Office of Personal Management to restore the subsidy. You’d think Republicans would raise a stink about this and try to blame Obama for shutting down the government in order to save subsidies for politicians.
But we didn’t hear that so much. The reason, according to Forbes, is that it was Speaker Boehner, working behind the scenes, who pushed Obama to push to restore the subsidies.
Update: Michael Tanner of Cato Institute points out that 780 companies and 451 unions have received exemptions from ObamaCare.
House Republicans offered an amendment to strip out the ObamaCare subsidy for Congress but the Senate refused to bring it to a vote.
Unions and Obamacare
Unions have found that ObamaCare will cost them money and possibly membership.
Charles Lane, in the Washington Post, points out that unions negotiate “Cadillac” health coverage as a primary service to their members. Under the Affordable Care Act those plans get hit with a 40% excise tax.
So, while Big Business gets waived from the “employer mandate”, Big Labor gets nothing.
Unions Left Out
Don’t know why the Republicans haven’t jumped on this, but they should at least be pleased to learn that Obama’s not a socialist.
