"6.5 million Americans payed a fine rather than signing up for Obamacare"

Via Drudge: The individual healthcare mandate requires every American to buy health insurance or pay a fine. In 2016, 6.5 million Americans chose to pay the fine rather than sign up for insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.

The mandate has always been the most unpopular part of President Obama’s healthcare law, officially known as the Affordable Care Act. In addition to those who pay the fine rather than buy the mandated levels of insurance, 15 million people would drop their Obamacare coverage if it were legal to do so.

This does not necessarily mean that these individuals want to go without insurance. Obamacare requires every insurance policy to cover a set of what it defines as Essential Health Benefits. The more benefits that a plan covers, the more expensive it is. Some people might prefer to buy less comprehensive insurance at a lower cost. For example, one option might be to buy insurance only for major healthcare costs such as surgeries or hospitalizations.

Since most Americans receive health insurance from their employer, the rising cost of healthcare is a key factor holding down wage growth. If the cost of benefits were the same today as a generation ago, the average pay for full-time workers would be more than $3,300 higher annually. Some people might prefer a bigger paycheck and less comprehensive coverage.

(Link to more)

Whither?

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”  George Washington

"I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office." Andrew Jackson

"A President's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right." Lyndon B. Johnson

"Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist." Richard M. Nixon

"The President of the United States should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves his country best." Rutherford B Hayes

Federal Judge cites U.S. constitution and it's immediately slapped down

"Federal judge rules ObamaCare is being funded unconstitutionally."

A federal judge ruled for House Republicans on Thursday in their suit againstPresident Obama and declared his administration is unconstitutionally spending money to reimburse health insurers without obtaining an appropriation from Congress.

The judge's ruling, though a setback for the administration, was put on hold immediately and stands a good chance of being overturned on appeal...

The Constitution says "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law," said Judge Rosemary Collyer, yet the administration has continued to pay billions to insurers for their extra cost of providing coverage for low-income Americans.

"Paying out Sec. 1402 reimbursements without an appropriation thus violates the Constitution," she wrote. "Congress is the only source for such an appropriation, and no public money can be spent without one."

CBO: ObamaCare may force employers to pull the plug on millions

Fox News: [T]he Congressional Budget Office projects millions of workers will leave employer-sponsored health plans over the next decade because of ObamaCare. 

Some will opt to go on Medicaid, but others will be kicked off their company plans by employers who decide not to offer coverage anymore, according to a new CBO report titled,  "Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2016 to 2026."

"As a result of the ACA, between 4 million and 9 million fewer people are projected to have employment-based coverage each year from 2017 through 2026 than would have had such coverage if the ACA had never been enacted,” the report, released Thursday, said.

Employers now cover some 155 million people, about 57 percent of those under 65. That's expected to decline to 152 million people in 2019. Ten years from now, employers will be covering about 54 percent of those under 65.

CBO said part of the shrinkage is attributable to the health care law: some workers may qualify for Medicaid, which is virtually free to them, and certain employers may decide not to offer coverage because a government-subsidized alternative is available. 

Larger employers would face fines if they take that route. 

Obamacare sauce at July 4 family gathering?

White House: Don't forget to defend ObamaCare at #July4 family gatherings http://t.co/GBQQtKFdbA pic.twitter.com/EvNbrrAvh9

— The Hill (@thehill) July 3, 2015

"Supreme Court upholds nationwide health care law subsidies"

Drudge: Supremes love Obamacare

The Supreme Court has upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans.

The justices said in a 6-3 ruling Thursday that the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, under the 2010 health care law.

Chief Justice John Roberts again voted with his liberal colleagues in support of the law. Roberts also was the key vote to uphold the law in 2012.

Justice Anthony Kennedy also voted with his more liberal colleagues.

(added) Justice Scalia wrote...

Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is “established by the State.” It is hard to come up with a clearer way to limit tax credits to state Exchanges than to use the words “established by the State.” And it is hard to come up with a reason to include the words “by the State” other than the purpose of limiting credits to state Exchanges. “[T]he plain, obvious, and rational meaning of a statute is always to be preferred to any curious, narrow, hidden sense that nothing but the exigency of a hard case and the ingenuity and study of an acute and powerful intellect would discover”. Lynch v. Alworth-Stephens Co., 267 U.S. 364, 370 (1925) Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved. (Bold edit mine)

Obama G-7 Germany

"States should never have taken up healthcare law" appears to be the big takeaway from the speech delivered in Germany.

I heard portions of this speech. It ran on several channels at once, an important speech too covering several important issues and delivered without teleprompter. Perhaps you should watch it in full listen carefully and be fully informed then come back and tell me your opinions of what he said and in that manner I can become informed too without listening.

That bit up there came at the end during q&a. In my opinion that was not the most significant part of his answer to that question, even though his answer came to me in pieces. Struggling with my own resistance to imperious stretched/clipped speech pattern I clicked off at "the proof that Obamacare is working is the absence of all those terrible catastrophes that were supposed to happen." While all I've read about is insurance companies projecting significant and stultifying rate increases discouraging healthy signups further. Young healthy people uninvolved in politics would rather pay penalty. (But then I only bother with conservative political sites, the others are insane) And who will healthy people blame for being made to pay penalty for not buying insurance that Obama and party required? I'm only guessing, and my guess is based on knowing they're not as stupid as commonly described. Not recognizing that his home state Hawaii cannot afford its own service and wasted half a billion in federal taxpayer's money trying seemed to me more significant than him saying perhaps the Supreme Court should reject the challenge to his healthcare law, and the japes on Twitter that follow in torrent.

More significant than him stating flatly that he does not have a plan for defeating ISIS. The body language speaks to me louder and much more clearly than his singsong stretched/clipped pattern. That awkward moment of Obama stuck sitting on a bench next to Iraqi Prime Minister says everything. He couldn't boyishly twist his entire body toward and around the female Europeron and away from the Prime Minister who came up to sit right there next to him any more than he does. Then standing up makes sure to complete a closed circle turning from and shutting out the little person dressed in brown. Imagine yourself doing that. And why.

The quarter-turn. It is a technique that was actually taught to me and with derisive mocking laughter and a bit high on cocktails about how to cut off conversation in a crowd by simply turning away from it distracted by more interesting conversation and smiling while you do it. And the guy's left, "I think I'll just get another drink" But he can't because he's Muslim.

Obama Court Should Not Have Accepted the Obamacare Challenge Huffington Post.
Europe Will Continue Sanctions Against Russia CNN.
Obama, Reviewing Strategies for Training Iraqi Troops WSJ.
Obama, No Complete Strategy yet on Training Iraqi Troops, CNN

Dems getting sick of Obamacare

This is a piece by A.B. Stoddard at The Hill.

It is a short item that reviews what we've already discussed at length that ends:

Now Democrats hope a better website, more enrollees, some bipartisan fixes and a second affirmative Supreme Court decision can save the law before Hillary Clinton or another Democratic nominee has to finesse a position on it two years from now. If not, these four years are just the first in what could be decades before the Democratic Party is cured of its healthcare ills. 

Commenters are more interesting than the article. Goodness, the commenters have at it over there telling the impact of ACA on their lives already. And yet, after all the cogent discussion there are still some beholden to the plan and to their political party. It is quite amazing to behold. And it forces me to acknowledge that pretty much everybody that I know personally here in Denver will ignore all they are told otherwise and stick to their guns as does poor Luke over there in comments. He is just that impervious, and so are they.

But that is all so unhappy, and far apart from the holiday spirit pervading the the whole season. So here is something instead that caused me to burst out laughing on sight. Seen on Twitter, a place that is not entirely awful and shows good humor still lives. I heard today on some ridiculous holiday advice segment, forget about trying for that perfect self-made Christmas card -- they do not exist. With no words at all, this disproves that position.

Funniest comment:

"Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!"

Nancy Pelosy: What GOP wave?... Who is Gruber?... (Who am I, Why am I here?)



“I do not believe what happened the other night is a wave,” Pelosi said in her first sit-down interview since Democrats lost a dozen House seats to Republicans on Nov. 4. “There was no wave of approval for the Republicans. I wish them congratulations, they won the election, but there was no wave of approval for anybody. There was an ebbing, an ebb tide, for us.”

  

House of Rep 2014 Midterm Elections Results

***

Pelosi Doesn’t Know Who Gruber Is, Says ‘He Didn’t Help Write Our Bill’ (ObamaCare)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has joined in with the White House’s attempt to distance itself from a key figure in the creation of the Affordable Care Act who claimed the bill was passed with help from “lack of transparency” and “the stupidity of the American voter.”

MIT professor Jonathan Gruber — who assisted congressional staffers in writing the bill — made such claims last year during an academic conference, but the video only became widely-viewed this week. He has since appeared on MSNBC to call the comments “inappropriate,” but did not deny his underlying point.

"As for whether she would consider stepping down as minority leader, Pelosi said she’s needed now more than ever."

Chip Edit: Nancy says what?

Obamacare architect: deception was crucial to Obamacare's passage

NYT: "Unable to Meet the Deductible or the Doctor"

"Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring."

But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.

“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61. “I don’t have that money.”

Biden 'Gates of Hell' Hacked

"A hacker broke into part of the HealthCare.gov insurance enrollment website in July and uploaded malicious software, according to federal officials."

Investigators found no evidence that consumers’ personal data was taken in the breach, federal officials said. The hacker appears only to have accessed a server used to test code for HealthCare.gov. The Department of Health and Human Services discovered the attack last week...

Taken with recent data thefts from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Home Depot Inc., and celebrities’ iPhones, the HealthCare.gov hack further underscores that large organizations haven’t yet mastered how to secure the troves of data they collect from consumers. 

"Obamacare Now Pays for Gender Reassignment"

"For that (gender reassignment surgery) Payne, who is now 44, said she needed health coverage. “It is not a simple, easy, magical surgery,” said Payne, a photographer who lives in Palm Springs. “Trying to do this without insurance is a big risk. Things can go wrong … not having the money to pay for it would be awful.”

“The law and policy are on a transgender person’s side for the first time,” said Anand Kalra, program administrator at the Oakland-based Transgender Law Center.

Sen. Rob Portman: "Heading Off the Entitlement Meltdown"

"Each day, 10,000 baby boomers retire and begin receiving Medicare and Social Security benefits. And while five workers supported the benefits of each retiree in 1960, there will be only two workers funding each retiree by 2030."

Those who dismiss long-term budget projections should re-read the last paragraph. The retirement of 77 million baby boomers into Social Security and Medicare is not a theoretical projection. Demography is destiny.

ObamaCare is also driving spending upward. According to the CBO, over the next decade, ObamaCare will be the single largest driver of rising health-care spending. (read the whole thing by entering on Google --> "Heading Off the Entitlement Meltdown")

"Some day, all this will be yours"

CNBC: "Fed appeals court panel says most Obamacare subsidies illegal"

"In a potentially crippling blow to Obamacare, a federal appeals court panel declared Tuesday that government subsidies worth billions of dollars that helped 4.7 million people buy insurance on HealthCare.gov are illegal."

"Section 36B plainly makes subsidies available in the Exchanges established by states," wrote Senior Circuit Judge Raymond Randolph in his majority opinion, where he was joined by Judge Thomas Griffith."

"We reach this conclusion, frankly, with reluctance. At least until states that wish to can set up their own Exchanges, our ruling will likely have significant consequences both for millions of individuals receiving tax credits through federal Exchanges and for health insurance markets more broadly."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the ruling—for now—"does not have any practical impact" on premium subsidies issued to HealthCare.gov enrollees now. "

"We are confident" that the ruling will be overturned, Earnest said. "We are confident in the legal position we have . . . the Department of Justice will litigate these claims through the federal court system."

Eric Holder is on the case... UPDATE: Separate Court Rules in Favor of Obamacare Subsidies

A second federal court ruled Tuesday on the legality of Obamacare's health insurance subsidies — and this one found, unlike the D.C. Circuit Court ruling hours earlier, that the subsidies are legal.

That was quick... Stay tuned... Roberts is going to have to take another look.

ObamaCare Heartbleed

"Healthcare.gov users asked to reset passwords following Heartbleed bug."

"The officials are requesting that Healthcare.gov users reset their passwords after a continuing internal review by the Department of Homeland security flagged the site as possibly being vulnerable to a Heartbleed exploit. The move to reset passwords is being taken "out of an abundance of caution," according to a a notice published on the site, which serves as a portal for the health insurance exchanges set up under Obamacare. In addition, the note says that "there’s no indication" that any information was revealed through Heartbleed."

"Critics of the Affordable Care Act may seize the opportunity to attack the much-maligned Healthcare.gov website, which was plagued by bugs during its launch last year..."

The Verge

The chart Obama administration does not want you to see

According to heritage.org, a so-called conservative think-tank. What an odd descriptor that is.

Try avoid noticing Colorado in blue as an island of calm in the center of a troubled nation, then compare it with the four other blues if you like and see that we beat them. N. E. S. T. L. E. S. we're the healthcare very best R-o-o-o-o-c  K-e-e-e-e-y-s

And right next to us Arizona and Kansas up 157% and 129%. 

We're thinnest too. Nanner nanner nanner.

I recall saying my own premiums went down for the first time ever, by a whopping 7% not a puny .5% or 1/%. That is truly significant mystifying and out of whack with everything I read, welcome, but feeling a bit politically manipulated. I did not and do not understand it. 

Or else it showed actuarially we had been overpaying grossly all along and that I can believe. That could make sense, we are such an ace state for dangerous physical activities that attract people in this 27 year old group being measured, such activities as hang gliding for instance, insurers flat do not understand hang glider pilots. I overheard them complaining about that while waiting for conditions. Or perhaps insurers do understand all too well. Perhaps they do understand very well the hazards of skiing and white water rafting, rock climbing, mountain climbing, hiking at altitude. Easy to name instances of people one knows dying doing at least some of these things. I know I've been paying a lot all along. And now those common sense carefully calculated actuary figures are spread out amongst you. 

Sebelius Resigns

"Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act."

Mr. Obama accepted Ms. Sebelius’s resignation this week, and on Friday morning he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her, officials said.

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.

What will be her legacy?

Deportation Deportes

"Obama to Hispanics: We won’t deport relatives because you enroll in ObamaCare."

President Obama on Tuesday sought to assure legal immigrants that they can sign up for ObamaCare without worrying that “the immigration people” will come for family members who are in the country illegally.

It's a question of presidential priorities these days. Never mind the laws. 'I want, I need people to sign on to my Health Care system and I don't care where they come from. Draft them if you have to. Lets get those numbers up people', I can easily imagine Obama saying.

In an interview with Univision Deportes, a Spanish-language sports radio show, Obama said immigration officials won’t have access to the personal information that consumers provide when signing up for healthcare on the new exchanges.

“Well, the main thing for people to know is that any information you get, you know, asked with respect to buying insurance, does not have anything to do with … the rules governing immigration,” Obama said. “And you know, you can qualify if you’re a legal resident, if you are … legally present in the United States.

As the president of the United States I'm telling you I call the balls and strikes. I say who is safe and who is out. I'm the sole arbiter; I'm the controlling legal authority, don't you know who I 'am?

“You know, if you have a family where some people are citizens or legally here, and others are not documented, the immigration people will never get that information.” read more

Here is the thing that caught my attention, yesterday, about the implications of this article, which aside from Obama's desperation tone... isn't it cringeworthy, to have a president appearing to be willing to say anything, to sell insurance? The president of the United States!
Aside from that (as if it wasn't enough) didn't our government promise to share information amongst the agencies as, at the very least, one of the ways to ensure against another 9/11?

On the other hand, Obama didn't build that... let somebody else make that happen.

NYT: "How Much Should Hepatitis C Treatment Cost?"

"A new pill to treat hepatitis C raises difficult questions about fair pricing, not only in the United States and other affluent nations but in developing countries around the world. Hepatitis C, which afflicts some 150 million people globally, often without symptoms for years, can cause fatigue and fever, cirrhosis or liver cancer."

The pill, known as Sovaldi, or generically as sofosbuvir, costs $84,000 for a standard 12-week course of treatment. That breaks down to $1,000 for each pill, taken daily. The manufacturer, California-based Gilead Sciences, says private insurers are already covering Sovaldi...

Gilead says the price is consistent with the cost of previous treatment regimens (a contention disputed by independent experts) and is reasonable given that the drug can have fewer side effects and cures a higher percentage of patients compared with other drugs...

However, a panel of experts at a recent forum in San Francisco concluded that the drug offered “low value” for treating most patients, in large part because of its high price. READ MORE

Now, where have I heard about a panel in relationship to healthcare? The name Sarah Palin pops into my head. That woman, Sarah Palin, didn't know what she was talking about, they all said.