Obamacare: The Terrifying Consequences To Healthcare

Joe for America, by Tom DeWeese, February 19, 2014

As the Obamacare debate rages, we hear much about insurance companies, costs and people’s ability to pay. We hear the policy defended as proponents tell us it will provide healthcare to those who never had it. Of course, these proponents never seem to explain how those who couldn't afford healthcare when it was a choice can now afford an even more expensive cost now that government mandates it.

However, these debates about the pros and cons of Obamacare basically focus on money. What about the real issue – healthcare? What will Obamacare do to our medical system? How will it affect the quality of our care? How will it affect doctor’s decisions as they attempt to take care of our health needs? And, ultimately, in a system controlled by government bureaucrats and government-written manuals – who will really be making the decisions that determine our quality of life? These are the real questions that need to be the center of the debate. And the answers are terrifying.

Read more!  

Exclusive: HHS won't say if Sebelius is fundraising for Obamacare

Washington Examiner, Susan Crabtree, February 17, 2014

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other department staff may be continuing to solicit private donations to help an outside group promote the president's health care law as the administration works to boost enrollment figures after a troubled fall rollout.

News last May that Sebelius had asked business executives and nonprofit groups to donate to Enroll America, a nonprofit organization formed to help encourage millions of Americans to sign up for the new Obamacare insurance exchanges, provoked an uproar among Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Two GOP-led House committees launched investigations, and several Republican senators called on the Health and Human Services inspector general to investigate Sebelius' fundraising drive, which watchdogs have described as an unethical shakedown for cash.

Eight months after the news broke, Sebelius' spokeswoman last Friday sidestepped questions from the Washington Examiner on whether her boss has continued to solicit funds from outside groups for Enroll America's efforts.

READ MORE.

THE MANY FACES OF KAY

Priorities NC, February 14, 2014

The Wall Street Journal has noticed the ever evolving senator from North Carolina:

Defying physics, ObamaCare has managed to create energies where none existed before: confusion over policies, anger over lost doctors, panic over costs. Most amazing has been the law’s ability to produce entirely new Washington life forces. The scientific formula goes like this: Another day + Another ObamaCare disaster = A New Kay Hagan.

And Kimberlay Strassel was just getting started saying calling her out in a number of ways.

READ MORE!

The Unconstitutional Perfecta

Townhall.com, Hank Adler, February 15, 2014

The President has reached "You have to be kidding!" stage of executive orders. The latest executive order with respect to Obamacare, as summarized in the Treasury Department 'Fact Sheet', provides:

The employer responsibility provision will generally apply to larger firms with 100 or more full-time employees starting in 2015 and employers with 50 or more full-time employees starting in 2016.

While the employer responsibility provisions will generally apply starting in 2015, they will not apply until 2016 to employers with at least 50 but fewer than 100 full-time employees if the employer provides an appropriate certification described in the rules.*

* Those that claim the exemption for 2015 will need to certify under penalty of perjury that they did not reduce their workforce to fewer than 100 employees in order to qualify.

Nothing about this executive order passes constitutional muster:

Executive orders cannot create or change law. Executive orders are for the purpose of administrating law.

READ IT ALL!  

Obamacare Denies Medications for Pre-Existing Conditions

People with serious pre-existing diseases, precisely those the president aimed to help with ObamaCare, could find themselves paying for expensive drug treatments with no help from the health care exchanges.

Those with expensive diseases such as lupus or multiple sclerosis face something called a "closed drug formulary."

Dr. Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute explains,"if the medicine that you need isn't on that list, it's not covered at all. You have to pay completely out of pocket to get that medicine, and the money you spend doesn't count against your deductible, and it doesn't count against your out of pocket limits, so you're basically on your own."

The plan had claimed it would rescue those with serious pre-existing conditions.

"So it could be that a MS patient could be expected to pay $62,000 just for one medication," says Dr. Daniel Kantor, who treats MS patients and others with neurological conditions near Jacksonville, Florida. "That’s a possiblity under the new ObamaCare going on right now."

CONTINUE READING.  

These Six Court Cases Could Cripple Obamacare Analysis: Affordable Care Act Faces 100 Pending Lawsuits

Washington Free Beacon, by Andrew Evans, February 13, 2014

Around one hundred lawsuits challenging the president’s signature policy achievement are currently making their way through the courts.

Some of these lawsuits challenge very specific parts of the law, while others are challenging the law in its entirety. Here is a list of the six major legal challenges to the law.

1. Legal Taking of Private Property

Hotze v. Sebelius challenges the constitutionality of the employer mandate. The Fifth Amendment prohibits the government from taking private property for public use without “just compensation.” Steve Hotze, a doctor in Texas, is arguing that Obamacare violates this “takings clause” by mandating that his business give money to another business, specifically an insurance company, without any compensation.

READ THE ARTICLE! 

#NCSEN: In 2011, Speaker Thom thought state health insurance exchanges OK

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton, February 12, 2014

Everyone agrees ObamaCare will be a huge issue in the 2014 elections.  In 2013, the General Assembly said NO to accepting federal money to set up a state health care exchange as part of ObamaCare’s implementation.  We reported on Tillis telling business leaders around the state in private meetings, around that time, that it’s not about IF we get ObamaCare, but HOW we manage it.

Tillis took to Facebook to respond to critics — claiming he has always been against government health care exchanges.  But a report today on The Daily Caller web site raises questions about that particular spin from Speaker Thom:

CONTINUE READING.  

Republicans renew ObamaCare battle after latest mandate delay

Fox News, February 11, 2014

“Administration officials dispute that this is happening on any large scale. Further, Treasury officials said Monday that businesses will be told to "certify" that they are not shedding full-time workers simply to avoid the mandate. Officials said employers will be told to sign a "self-attestation" on their tax forms affirming this, under penalty of perjury.”

Republicans renewed their calls to delay or repeal ObamaCare Monday after the Obama administration announced another delay in the requirement for businesses to provide health coverage to workers, giving some employers a reprieve next year while phasing in the mandate for others. 

The administration had already delayed the implementation of the so-called employer mandate by a year, initially pushing the requirements off until 2015 -- past the midterm elections. In a concession to business, though, Treasury Department officials announced Monday that the administration would not enforce the rules across the board next year. 

"Once again, the president is giving a break to corporations while individuals and families are still stuck under the mandates of his health care law. And, once again, the president is rewriting law on a whim," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. "If the administration doesn't believe employers can manage the burden of the law, how can struggling families be expected to?" 

MORE.

Is it legal for Obama to keep changing health care laws?

This is a must watch video--Obama dangles a carrot to business but look out for the strings attached!  

Megan Kelly interviews Judge Napolitano—Be sure and listen all the way through!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3183622188001/is-it-legal-for-obama-to-keep-changing-health-care-laws/#sp=show-clips

Congressional Investigation: Treasury, IRS, HHS Conspired To Create An Unauthorized, Half-Trillion Dollar Entitlement

You really need to read the full article to get the details and the impact!

~Lynn

Forbes, Michael F. Cannon, February 10, 2014

Last week, two congressional committees issued a little-noticed report detailing how Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, and Health and Human Services officials conspired to create a massive new entitlement not authorized anywhere in federal law.

In the summer of 2012, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight & Government Reform and Committee on Ways & Means launched an investigation to determine “whether IRS and Treasury conducted an adequate review of the statute and legislative history prior to coming to [the] conclusion that [the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's] premium subsidies would be allowed in federal exchanges.” Over the next 18 months, the committees held numerous hearings with senior Treasury and IRS officials, while investigative staff conducted interviews with key agency attorneys responsible for developing the regulations in question. Investigators also reviewed what few documents Treasury and IRS officials allowed them to see.

Here is what seven key Treasury and IRS officials told investigators.

Barack’s Assault on Work Merely His Latest Stupid Insult Against Common Sense

Obama's Diabolical Attack on Employment is a Clear Rejection of Mankind's Genesis Mandate

Canada Free PressBy Kelly OConnell , Sunday, February 9, 2014 

The confounding statement by Obama’s spokesman regarding whether Americans under ObamaCare will choose to work is nothing short of appalling and nonsensical. Certainly, of all the myriad attacks Obama has launched against Americans, this may be the most fundamental and perverse. For what kind of a person, let alone leader, tries to persuade others that work is an option?

That Barack has unbiblical and even anti-Christian ideals has been noted since his advent. But this recent broadside against work is a new low. For it is in the Garden that God commands Adam and Eve to be productive. But to reject this is to collectively turn our backs upon wisdom, common sense, experience, and revealed wisdom.

So what is Barack up to in his 2-term attack upon productivity? From a Marxist perspective, there are a number of reasons to oppose full-employment. First, since the US has a capitalist system, this must be overturned. Second, since capitalism is more highly productive than socialism, it must be shut down so as not to make Marxism suffer by comparison. Third, if Marxist revolution is needed to create a socialist utopia, then this will more likely happen if more people are out of work. Fourth, since unemployed people are more psychologically unwell, the more joblessness we have, the more dissatisfied will be Americans with the current system, and therefore more supportive of revolution.

MUCH MORE—CONTINUE READING HERE!

The Hill: House GOP abandons plans to tie debt ceiling to O-Care, Keystone

House Republican leaders have concluded that they cannot pass an increase in the debt ceiling without help from Democrats, abandoning plans to tie legislation either to ObamaCare or the Keystone pipeline.

GOP leaders had been looking at pairing legislation boosting the debt limit to either an authorization of the pipeline or rolling back a portion of ObamaCare. But after presenting those ideas to members and huddling Wednesday, they determined neither would receive 218 votes from House Republicans.

That left Republican leaders with no clear alternative to addressing the debt limit, which the Treasury Department has said needs to be raised by the end of February.

Instead, it now appears that a combination of Republicans and Democrats will be needed to get a debt-limit boost through the House.

Readmore!

Tea Party Legislative Update, January 26, 2014

House/Senate Action: Weeks of 1/13/14-1/26/14

The House will be in session Monday through Wednesday of next week.
The Senate will be in session Monday through Thursday of next week.

CALENDAR NOTES:

The President’s State of the Union Address will take place Tuesday evening at 9 PM. The House Republican retreat in Cambridge, Maryland will begin place the following day.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington – the
highest-ranking Republican woman in the Congress – will deliver the official Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address.

As he did last year, Sen. Rand Paul will offer his own response, via YouTube and other social media channels. And Sen. Mike Lee will offer a Tea Party response, sponsored by Tea Party Express.

Note: In recent weeks, we've heard a lot about the content of the President’s address, with much speculation indicating that he would again focus on income inequality. But in the last few days, the White House has been leaking information suggesting that because polling by outside allies shows that “income inequality” leads too many people to think he’s really talking about income redistribution (which he is), the language has been tweaked, and instead he’ll talk about “expanding ladders of opportunity,” which is language right out of the old Jack Kemp/Ronald Reagan playbook.

REVIEW:

The House took up and passed H.R. 3362, the “Exchange Information and Disclosure Act,” requiring the Administration to provide regularly weekly updates on the status of the ObamaCare rollout. The measure passed by a vote of 259-154, with 33 Democrats joining 226 Republicans in support.

As we predicted two weeks ago, Senate Republicans – including the six who voted to proceed to consideration of the extension of emergency unemployment benefits – held firm in insisting that the $6.4 billion measure be paid for realistically. (You may recall, Majority Leader Harry Reid had offered to “pay for” the me asure by extending the Sequester for two more years – a joke of a “pay for” that the Senate GOP immediately rejected.) So far, there’s been no further movement.

DEBT CEILING:

As per the October agreement that reopened the federal government, the debt ceiling was suspended until February 7. That’s less than two weeks from now.

In the past, the Treasury has employed what it calls “extraordinary measures” to continue paying federal bills beyond the reaching of the national debt limit. In some cases, this ability has extended for literally months, and early projections this time around indicated that Treasury would be able to use these cash-management gimmicks to buy time through late spring – possibly as late as May or even early June. But February is typically a heavy deficit-spending month, as tax refunds are sent out by the Treasury, so Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to the Hill last Wednesday informing Congress that Treasury’s ability to use these “extraordinary measures” to continue paying federals bills will run out by the end of February, and, therefore, Congress must take action early next month.  Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell – no doubt influenced by the fact that he faces a competitive
primary challenge from his right in his reelection campaign – appeared on FOX News Sunday this morning to reiterate his insistence that any debt ceiling increase also include policy riders.

Meanwhile, House Republicans – led by Speaker Boehner – are on the same page, and continue to search for consensus in the House GOP Conference as to what those policy riders might be. Among the possibilities: repealing the “risk corridor” provisions in ObamaCare, to ensure that taxpayers are not stuck with the bill for a massive bailout of health insurance companies; approval of the Keystone XL pipeline; and repealing the medical device tax in ObamaCare.

BUDGET:

The White House announced on Thursday that it would release the President’s budget proposal on March 4, roughly a month later than the February 9 deadline required under law. It attributed the delay to the December budget deal. News reports indicate his budget will propose higher taxes on wealthy Americans, and more spending on infrastructure and early education programs.

Meanwhile, there’s been some talk on Capitol Hill that Republicans in the House may decide not to propose and consider a budget for FY2015 at all. Near as I can tell, it’s coming from operatives at the National Republican Congressional Committee and associated consultants, who seem to think that taking votes on a GOP budget is unnecessary (since the budget deal concluded in December includes top-line spending guidelines for FY2015 already), so why risk giving Democrats campaign fodder?

Nevertheless, top House Republicans – including Speaker Boehner and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan – indicate that they plan to move a budget, as the law requires.

OBAMACARE:

Week before last, a study by McKinsey & Co. revealed that the ObamaCare exchanges had made little progress in actually extending insurance to those who had previously been uninsured. In fact, according to the study, of the roughly 2.2 million people who had signed up for insurance on the federal and state exchanges through the end of December, only 11 percent had been previously uninsured. Those who failed to use the exchanges to enroll cited two big reasons – the high cost of insurance premiums (cited by 52%), and the difficulty of navigating the web sites (cited by 30%).

That same week, Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at HHS, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that the back end of Healthcare.gov is still under construction, and he refused to pin down an estimated completion date. The “back end” is the automated system that sends payments to insurance companies after someone enrolls on one of the exchange web sites. Without this information, the insurance companies literally have no idea who’s enrolled, and who gets a subsidy. They’re flying blind.

Documents released by HHS last week show just how serious a problem this is – to justify firing CGI Federal (the main contractor on Healthcare.gov) and awarding the contract on a sole-source basis to Accenture, HHS revealed that they believe this problem puts “the entire health insurance industry at risk” … “potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers.” Then the memo went even further, saying that if the problem isn’t fixed by mid-March, “they will result in financial harm to the government,” and went on to add that without the necessary fixes, “the entire health care reform program is jeopardized.”

Also that same week, Speaker Boehner announced that House Republicans would offer – and possibly vote on – a replacement for ObamaCare. That promises to be one of the main topics of conversation at the House Retreat that begins Wednesday.

Support for an alternative comes, generally, from the conservatives in the House GOP Conference, who want an issue agenda to run on, not just something to run against. And, as virtually always happens, the GOP consultant class, whose thinking generally runs along the lines of, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” opposes them. These consultants see a continued bad economy and a continued disastrous rollout for ObamaCare as their tickets to victory in the 2014 midterm elections, and they seek to minimize opportunities for the Democrats to turn things around.

IMMIGRATION:

As we discussed in our call two weeks ago, House Republican leaders have begun quietly circulating a set of principles on immigration reform that includes a proposal to offer legal status to illegal immigrants. Their thinking is simple – no one believes you can round up and deport 11 million illegal immigrants, so we’ve got to find a way to create a legal status for them short of citizenship.

We expect the one-page document will be released at the House GOP Retreat later this week.
The new principles will envision a legal process by which illegal immigrants can admit guilt and pay fines and any back taxes, and then gain the right to live and work in the U.S. and travel abroad. It will insist that no legalization provisions take effect until border security and other enforcement measures are in place, sources familiar with the draft said.

Unlike under the Senate bill, they will not automatically qualify for citizenship – what critics call a
"special path." But legislation being crafted by Republican lawmakers, apparently with the support of House leaders, would let newly legalized immigrants apply for legal permanent residence, also known as a green card, using the pathways available to anyone else. And here’s the problem for us – once someone has a green card, he or she is eligible to apply for citizenship.

Some House conservatives are planning to introduce their own alternative immigration proposal, which will focus on enforcement of current laws and providing economic assistance to unemployed citizens before providing legal status to illegal immigrants. The alternatives being circulated properly take note of the fact that the White House- and Senate-approved legislation isn’t problematic just because it creates an amnesty for the illegal immigrants who are already here, but it drastically increases the number of foreign unskilled guest workers who could be imported, which would depress wages across the board.

On Thursday, 15 of these conservative House Republicans met with Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to discuss ways to block the House GOP Leadership’s efforts.

As a reminder, Tea Party Patriots put our own principles for immigration reform last summer. They can be found by clicking on this link.  Stay tuned as this plays out.

Hobby Lobby May Close All 500+ Stores in 41 States

January 24, 2014

Via: Tom O Halloran
By: David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God’s word.

From there, Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.

We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do.

We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest.

CONTINUED. 

Citing Obamacare, Target drops health coverage for part-timers

Offers subsidy to workers who use new exchanges

Washington Times, by Tom Howell, Jr., January 22, 2014

Target stores has decided to drop its health plan for part-time workers, citing low participation and new options for those employees in the Obamacare marketplace.

In a blog post, the large retailer said it will ease the transition by doling out a $500 cash payment to each employee that loses coverage. 


Read more!  

ObamaCare’s Attack on the Elderly

The president’s macabre new year’s gift: paying hospitals not to treat seniors

Canada Free Press, Arnold Ahlert, January 20, 2014

In October of 2012, the Daily Mail exposed the highly disturbing realities of the Liverpool Pathway (LCP), the series of guidelines for treating terminally ill patients developed for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

The most egregious of those realities concerned cash incentives paid to hospitals to ensure a certain percentage of hospital patients would be put on the regime. As healthcare expert Besty McCaughey reveals, a similar horror show is occurring on this side of the Atlantic, courtesy of ObamaCare. Beginning the the same time the LCP scandal was being exposed, the Obama administration began awarding hospitals bonus points for spending the least amount of money on elderly patients. Even worse, the idea was sold to the elderly as a good thing during the 2012 presidential election campaign.

During that campaign, Obama promised seniors that $716 billion in Medicare cuts over the next decade, used to fund the $1.9 trillion in new healthcare spending that expanded Medicaid and created the healthcare exchanges, wouldn't affect them. When Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney ran an ad attacking the cuts, Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith called it hypocritical. ‘The savings his ad attacks do not cut a single guaranteed Medicare benefit,’ she declared.

Continue reading. 

SCORE ONE FOR OBAMACARE

Human Event, by Lawson Bader, January 20, 2014

Score one for Obamacare. Last week, a federal court struck down one of the major legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act. Washington, D.C. District judge Paul Friedman, ruling in Halbig v. Sebelius, upheld an IRS regulation that extended the law’s insurance premium subsidies and employer mandate to the 36 “refusenik” states—those which had decided not to set up their own health insurance exchanges. Under the Obamacare legislation, subsidies were meant for users of state exchanges. But now, people in those states who sign up for health insurance on the federal exchange can get subsidies.

This was disappointing to those of us who thought the court should strike down the subsidies. But this game isn’t over. A similar case is pending in Virginia, where a decision is expected any day, and two states have filed similar legal challenges as well

READ MORE:  http://www.humanevents.com/2014/01/20/score-one-for-obamacare/

Even Turbo Tax Shills for Obamacare

Turbo Tax provides the usual helpful advice in its 2013 filing software.

Not sure I'm appreciating its rosy optimism regarding the Affordable Care Act, though:  

http://americac2c.com/forum/topics/even-turbo-tax-shills-for-obamacare-by-sara?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Obamacare pre-existing conditions deadline delayed

The Washington Examiner, BY BRIAN HUGHES, JANUARY 15, 2014 

The White House delayed another Obamacare deadline late Tuesday, pushing back by more than a month when those with pre-existing conditions must enroll in new health plans.

The administration had already delayed the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP), which was designed to help those with serious medical conditions transition to Obamacare coverage.

Department of Health and Human Services officials, though, said they needed more time to make sure those patients received insurance coverage, pushing the expected Jan. 31 deadline back to March 15.

Read more.

Obamacare Protest - Wed in Raleigh....

The John Locke Foundation and the Americans for Prosperity-NC need you in Raleigh!

"Lie of the Year" Raleigh Rally on 1/15/14

You probably have heard that President Obama will be speaking about economic issues at NCSU on Wednesday. While he claims the recession is over, his economic policies have led to long term underemployment (about 12%) , while he claims 8 million jobs added. Add this to Obamacare, which is likely to make things worse and 47 million American on food stamps.

Americans for Prosperity has asked for our help to protest this President's failed policies. They hope to get a very large crowd at NCSU to protest.

The John Locke Foundation will be hosting a free lunch at their headquarters starting at about 11:00 am and then providing either carpools or busses to NCSU for the protest at 12:15.

The Wake County Republican Party supports this protest and hope that many conservatives will join this effort.

Please join with us at -
John Locke Foundation
200 Morgan Street
Wednesday January 15th
11:00am

Please let Donald Bryson with Americans for Prosperity know if you plan to attend. DBryson@afpq.org

Hope to see you there!

================================ 

"Lie of the Year" Raleigh Rally on 1/15/14

President Obama is scheduled to speak on the economy at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center, on Varsity Drive across from Doak Field, at 1 p.m. Wednesday (January 15, 2014).

AFP-NC will have some signs available or you can bring your own if you wish.

Read more!