Obamacare Quietly Failing: Individual Purchase Mandate Repealed For Two Years
From the WSJ:
Last week the Administration quietly excused millions of people from the requirement to purchase health insurance or else pay a tax penalty.This latest political reconstruction has received zero media notice, and the Health and Human Services Department didn't think the details were worth discussing in a conference call, press materials or fact sheet. Instead, the mandate suspension was buried in an unrelated rule that was meant to preserve some health plans that don't comply with ObamaCare benefit and redistribution mandates. Our sources only noticed the change this week.
That seven-page technical bulletin includes a paragraph and footnote that casually mention that a rule in a separate December 2013 bulletin would be extended for two more years, until 2016. Lo and behold, it turns out this second rule, which was supposed to last for only a year, allows Americans whose coverage was cancelled to opt out of the mandate altogether.
In 2013, HHS decided that ObamaCare's wave of policy terminations qualified as a "hardship" that entitled people to a special type of coverage designed for people under age 30 or a mandate exemption. HHS originally defined and reserved hardship exemptions for the truly down and out such as battered women, the evicted and bankrupts.
But amid the post-rollout political backlash, last week the agency created a new category: Now all you need to do is fill out a form attesting that your plan was cancelled and that you "believe that the plan options available in the [ObamaCare] Marketplace in your area are more expensive than your cancelled health insurance policy" or "you consider other available policies unaffordable."
This lax standard--no formula or hard test beyond a person's belief--at least ostensibly requires proof such as an insurer termination notice. But people can also qualify for hardships for the unspecified nonreason that "you experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance," which only requires "documentation if possible."
One more way to buy people voting D at the booths.
But keeping this quiet now keeps people thinking they will have to enroll by the end of March, which will get their dismal numbers up. Remember the hordes of people they said were without health insurance? The clamor of those people to sign up has been more like a distant whimper.
via Shannon Howell
What scares me about this is the RINO's that might run and then still not get rid of the [un]ACA because "Oh, we need the White House too."
Bullshit!
When the republican, conservative, constitutional senators and representatives are being pressured by the constituents and the state governments, they'll be able to pass a veto proof bill that Obama will just have to suck it up.
Jim P. at March 12, 2014 8:11 AM
I think a more likely scenario, is that implementation will be delayed forever, and congress will simply stop funding it.
No need to go in your face with a veto override, when the idiots who supported this fiasco to begin with are looking for a cause to rally round their sainted progressive leader.
For the next fifty years, all we would hear is "Obamacare would have been so wonderful if those nasty republicans hadn't killed it."
Says a lot that more than half of the country is stupid enough to believe that bullshit.
Isab at March 12, 2014 8:37 AM
my neighbor is male, single, 55 yrs. old and has been without medical insurance since he lost his job six years ago. so he decided to sign on and very meticulously scoured through everything involved including plans, what get's covered, etc.. he decided to go for the best coverage he could which was going to cost him $300 per month. he figures it'll be well worth it to be insured at his age.
first off, he discovers that he CAN'T pick his own doctor and the doctor he'd been seeing for a number of years isn't in the ACA MD line-up. then trying to get someone on the phone is impossible with ridiculous wait times and uninformed customer service people. when he finally gets signed up, they assign him a doctor at Bellevue Hospital, who when he calls, can't see him for 3 months!
disgusted, he cancels his policy, loses all the money he paid upfront for insurance with a strange doctor who couldn't see him for months and goes back to see the doctor he already has and pays out of pocket. seriously, WTF kind of insurance is this??
if Obama's poll numbers are low, few of us who voted for him twice are surprised - the ACA is a hot mess, rip-off. I'm on Medicare, but I pay through the nose for a Medicare supplement plan and an incredibly pricey Part D drug plan each month. every year my donut hole's supposed to shrink, but so far, I just seem to reach the donut hole faster than I had the previous year, even if my 'script consumption stays pretty much the same.
I can't really blame Obama for my donut hole issues, Dubya Bush is the idiot that came up with that one, but for fuck's sake, it continues to amaze me that the ACA is the best they could come up with...
Jacquie T. at March 12, 2014 8:38 AM
"disgusted, he cancels his policy, loses all the money he paid upfront for insurance with a strange doctor who couldn't see him for months and goes back to see the doctor he already has and pays out of pocket. seriously, WTF kind of insurance is this??"
So I'm assuming the free birth control pills were not an enticement to stick with the policy?
Isab at March 12, 2014 9:24 AM
Let me guess... this waiver expires right after the 2016 elections.
Cousin Dave at March 12, 2014 9:52 AM
You can keep your doctor if you like him; until you can't.
Healthcare is free; until it isn't.
Obamacare is mandatory, until it isn't.
We have always been at war with East Asia . . .
Yes, Believe everything the Ministry of Truth tell us; after all, they aren't called the Ministry of TRUTH for nothing!
I thought 1984 was just a book I read in high school.
Charles at March 12, 2014 1:47 PM
Charles, we always thought 1984 was a cautionary tale. But the people who run the country today took it as an operations manual.
Cousin Dave at March 12, 2014 1:59 PM
So they create that mandate so that it will generate revenue for the government by means of a punishment. Now, all of a sudden, they don't want the money that badly because it makes them look bad after all those policies were canceled? That's so democratic!
Fayd at March 12, 2014 2:14 PM
Now we're on the downhill slide for single payer. You just have to love Marxism and socialism.
Jim P. at March 12, 2014 6:49 PM
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