Saturday, November 2, 2013

"Senate Democrats supported rule that led to insurance cancellations"

"Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out."

"In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it."

“The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time."

“The administration's own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House's own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,” the Iowa Republican said."

"On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year."

Senate Democrats like Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich – all of whom voted against stopping the rule from going into effect and have since supported delaying parts of Obamacare.

CNN via Instapundit

24 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Senate Democrats like Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich

All of whom should be tossed out on their ear. Who and where are the candidates that will step up to defeat these inept corrupt democrats? Does the R-party have a plan?
Or will Karl Rove deliver more Todd Akin and bitch about Christine O'Donnell while the nation sinks?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Related: When Fraud is Legal.

(via Glenn @insty)

Michael Haz said...

Let's say that when you married, you and your spouse agreed and promised that you would be monogamous. No sex with other people, only with each other. It's a reasonable expectation.

Then five years later, you find out that despite multiple promises of fidelity, often made in front of family and friends, your spouse has been having sex with someone else for the past several years, without guilt or remorse or any intention or stopping.

In fact, your spouse smirks about it, and continues to tell the same lie even though everyone knows that it's a lie.

Wouldn't you be right to question everything your cheating, lying spouse has told you? Everything about her/his past that you couldn't directly prove? Maybe going back to where he/she was born?

Of course you'd be right. You'd be foolish not to. And also to question the veracity of your spouse's friends who knew about the cheating for several years, but happily kept telling you that your spouse was loyal and true.

Barack Obama is the lying cheater, the one who will say anything to further the advancement of his agenda; the Democrats in Congress who knew this train wreck was coming, but denied it, and his lying friends.

Why would Obama tell such lies to the American people, lies that are causing people great harm?

The word "Taqiyya" literally means: "Concealing, precaution, guarding.” It is employed in disguising one's beliefs, intentions, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions or strategies. In practical terms it is manifested as dissimulation, lying, deceiving, vexing and confounding with the intention of deflecting attention, foiling or pre-emptive blocking.

Remind me again, where did our narcissist-in-chief attend elementary school and learn his values?

edutcher said...

O, how all the trolls who crowed, "Hahahahaha", when this passed have disappeared.

I love the smell of schaudenfeude in the morning.

AprilApple said...

Senate Democrats like Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich

All of whom should be tossed out on their ear.


I know Landrieu and Pryor are up next year.

bagoh20 said...

All we have is the vote. All we have to do is use it like we understand that what happens is our fault, because it is. All this crap from Fast and Furious, Solyndra, Cash for Clunkers through the IRS, Benghazi, Obamacare, etc., etc. lies directly at our feet.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

To paraphrase Bill, complaints about Obamacare at this point amount to little more than tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Repubs did their best to kill it, they failed. On to the next thing.

It may not be perfect but it is an improvement over the previous system and most people recognize that there had to be changes.

The reality is that even if by some foul chance the Repubs gained control of the congress and presidency the main planks of the legislation would remain intact. How many Repubs are going to vote to remove insurance from cancer patients or the very poorest citizens?

Trooper York said...

You know that's what they used to say about slavery. It was the law of the land. So many people benefited by it and it was vital to the economy.

Trooper York said...

Obamacare is analogous to slavery.
The government is going to dictate what health coverage you can get. What doctors you can see. What procedures you can get.

You are slaves to the whims of bureaucrats who know better than you.

You know. Sort of like the people who run the IRS.

Trooper York said...

Why can't an individual be able to buy the insurance he wants and not what Obama says he has to buy?

If he want's to insure all the takers who are his voters then write government insurance for them. Cover the most egregious catastrophic cases that the insurance companies don't want through the government. Leave the rest of us alone.

It would save billions upon billions.

But the liberals and Obama don't want that. They want control. And to tax and spend.

Trooper York said...

Also it is a bald faced lie that the Obamacare is better than what we have now.

Another bald face lie just like "You can keep your insurance policy now" and "no one is going to tell you what doctor you can see."

Another lie. Stop repeating it. It makes you look as bad as Obama.

bagoh20 said...

"than tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Repubs did their best to kill it, they failed. On to the next thing."

There are few things as cold and compassionless as a lefty doing things for your own good. All the worst evils visited upon humans by other humans, either by design or incompetence were perpetrated by central government fanatics in the name of the greater good. You are in fine company, ARM, and they never imagined they were the bad guys either.

bagoh20 said...

"How many Repubs are going to vote to remove insurance from cancer patients..."

I am a cancer patient, and the Democrats voted to remove my health insurance in an extremely partisan undemocratic way.

My insurance saved my life more than once, using a system that is the pinnacle of human medical history. It did it extremely efficiently, with no hassles, and for less than $3K/year and far less than half that after my employer-paid subsidy. This also paid for all the people without insurance who still got care when they needed it, often for free when necessary.

The previous system had problems, but the new system is going to be little else but problems for years to come. This drawn out failure will be a fantastic boon for small government reformers and Republicans, but is it worth the cost to a hundred million Americans who have done the right thing all along and now are being punished for it? Will they forget who did this to them? We'll see. I know I won't.

I'm Full of Soup said...

The voters need to reject the Dems and especially any reforms served up by Dems until the Dems prove they can do one thing right. What more can the Dems f-up?

Fast and Furious
Benghazi
IRS
NSA spying
Obamacare
The Deficit
4 Straight years with no budget from the Senate
Middle East policy
Keystone Pipeline
Green Energy Boondoggles
etc etc

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Unreasonable bitch, you evil cunt.

I sincerely hope that you get Trayvoned by one of the hope and change kool aid chugging idiots out there. Some of you and Eric Holder's people.

Go fuck yourself.

test said...

AReasonableMan said...
It may not be perfect but it is an improvement over the previous system and most people recognize that there had to be changes.


This is about the level of analysis you'd expect from the left: something had to be done, this is something, so we have to do it.

Freeman Hunt said...

Like bagoh, my "substandard" insurance paid out big time with no hassles when one son had a major illness and hospitalization earlier this year. I have zero complaints about my current plan, which Obamacare is cancelling.

Freeman Hunt said...

In Arkansas, we already had a special plan for people who were not low income, wanted health insurance, and were denied coverage. So covering people with pre-existing conditions isn't new to people here. If a poor state like Arkansas was able to offer that, surely other states could have too. So why Obamacare? (I know, I know. Rhetorical.)

edutcher said...

AnUnreasonableTroll said...

To paraphrase Bill, complaints about Obamacare at this point amount to little more than tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Repubs did their best to kill it, they failed. On to the next thing.

It may not be perfect but it is an improvement over the previous system and most people recognize that there had to be changes.


Lies to cover more lies.

but it's all they've got at this point.

And, no, it's not better because the old way worked.

And more people are losing coverage now.

Heckuva job, Trolly.

Michael Haz said...

....it is an improvement over the previous system and most people recognize that there had to be changes.

Obamacare is no such thing. Not at all. Yes, most people recognized that there needed to be changes, but not the changes brought by Obamacare.

I am perplexed as to why liberals and progressives, the groups that so ardently defend personal freedoms and choice, are so willing to give up any choice in healthcare; to give up any sense of having the freedom to choose their insurer, their physicians, and their hospitals.

It's as though they are begging the government to make choices for them.


Michael Haz said...

Nearly every state has a plan to cover those either at high risk, or who cannot obtain medical insurance, or who have very low incomes. We have several such plans in Wisconsin.

Yet despite that level of generosity, there are many who simply refuse to obtain coverage. They are the ones who clog the ERs with minor complaints, then scream racism when they are not immediately seen. They are under the mis-impression that ObamaCare is a golden ticket that will let them walk into any care provider and demand immediate and full service, without making any payment.

In Milwaukee the city and the state send mobile clinics into areas of the city offering free childhood vaccinations, mammograms, cancer screens, BP screens and a host of other services. Yet some people still will not avail themselves of these free services because they are required to walk half-a-block to where the van is parked, or they have to get out of bed, or whatever reasons they can think of.

There was no reason, no reason, for the Obama administration to take over the health care system. Those who had insurance were happy with what they had. Those who didn't have or couldn't afford medical insurance could have easily been added to Medicaid, Medicare, or other existing state programs.

What this fascist regime wanted was not to solve the problem of uninsured; it was to impose its fascist will on all the people of America.





Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

If there is anything in life where one size should fit all it is health insurance. Rich and poor, young and old, we all have an identical lifetime risk of dying. Since, for most of us, expensive health care will be most used in our last few years, when we are typically least able to pay, it makes sense to average insurance costs across a lifetime rather than have different rates at different ages. Unlike many other aspects of life our biological frailty and mortality are shared absolutely. There is no escape from old age and infirmity. A medical insurance policy that recognizes these realities is the goal. Obamacare is a step towards that goal.

Michael Haz said...

@ARM - I respectfully disagree with some of what you posted above.

Rich and poor, young and old, we all have an identical lifetime risk of dying.

Risk, yes; timing no. The risk isn't dying, it's not dying.

Since, for most of us, expensive health care will be most used in our last few years

Not necessarily. End of life healthcare is most often provided in nursing homes, not hospitals. And many choose hospice care at home. Who doesn't have an elderly relative who has stipulated no heroic measures in their medical power of attorney? The most expensive healthcare is often trying to save those who are middle-aged from the ravages of cancer.

There is no escape from old age and infirmity

Not everyone becomes old and infirm. My brother died at 35, my favorite cousin at 36, my brother-in-law at 50, my college roommate at 54. My wife lost 18 year old students to MVAs nearly every year of her teaching career. An iron worker has a higher risk of not reaching old age than a pastor; a motorcyclist is less likely to reach old age than a non-motorcyclist. We don't have equal risk, that's why there's a accrual average of life span. It's now 74 for men, hardly "old and infirm".

A medical insurance policy that recognizes these realities is the goal.

Medical insurance has always recognized these realities. Insurance companies have actuaries who calculate risks and premiums to offset those risks. ObamaCare requires that I be insured against cervical cancer; that my wife be insured against prostrate cancer. It requires that all insureds pay premiums that insure them against all risks, no matter how improbable. That's why ObamaCare premiums are so high compared to the insurance plans it is replacing.

I am not going to give birth. Why should the cost of maternity care and child delivery be included in the premium I pay?

Put another way, why should your car insurance premium price include the risk of a tractor-trailer accident even if you don't own a tractor-trailer?

The private insurance system was fine as it was, although some things could have been done to make it less costly. All that really was needed was a way to cover the uninsured who had no way to become insured. That could have been done quite simply without a government takeover of the healthcare system.

JAL said...

I know Landrieu and Pryor are up next year.

Hagan too.

I was going to use targeting language here, but since there is no longer free speech in that regard, suffice it to say I will be specifically politically active as we head into 2014.

You betcha.

Aridog said...

Here is a potential alternative worth discussion.

It is a plan originally proposed by John Kerry in 2004, and now sponsored by Rep Daryl Issa (R-CA) and co-sponsored by Rep Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.). It is also the rudiments of a plan I suggested here and elsewhere several times. It has a benefit...it already works and has worked for over 50 years. It already has an infrastructure, it already has no prior condition eligibility issue, is essentially portable, requires only determinations regarding means testing.

So why did we need an all new plan run by two different agencies who have never run a plan before in their lives?