10 things Obamacare won’t tell you

The health exchanges, central to the law, are also its biggest mystery.  

1. “You might want to avoid signing up on Day One.”  In the offices of certain government officials and health insurance companies, a ticking countdown to a specific date has been posted on the walls for months: Oct. 1. That’s the day of the official ribbon-cutting for the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare), when Americans can begin lining up for 2014 health insurance. But because the law’s future was uncertain until the Supreme Court upheld it in mid-2012, the exchanges have been scrambling to get ready for opening day. Thirty-six states declined to set up their own exchanges for 2014 (each state has just one), so federal health officials had to do it instead — cramming years of work into a tight time frame. “Some people we’ve talked to will count it as a victory if the lights come on Oct. 1,” says Eric Johnson, a Columbia business professor and co-director of the university’s Center for the Decision Sciences. (On Thursday, the administration acknowledged that the small-business section of the exchanges in those 36 states wouldn’t be able to accept online applications until November, and some of the states running their own exchanges may also be running behind, having not yet announced when they will open to small employers.)

MUCH MORE:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-health-exchanges-wont-tell-you-2013-09-27

New Obamacare Lawsuit May Reach Supreme Court & Deem Obama/IRS Actions Unconstitutional

Last year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, was upheld to be constitutional as a tax. Though it’s been three years since Obamacare has been the law of the land, problems have arisen (we all knew they would), and costs have skyrocketed from their projections (we knew that too). As a result, some parts of Obamacare will be delayed by one year. However, it looks as if the Supreme Court may just get a second hearing on the unpopular, and in many of our opinions unconstitutional law.

How’s that? Well, when constructing the sweeping legislation, apparently lawmakers, specifically Democrats, made an error by allowing states to decide whether or not they would set up their own insurance exchange, which they would control. If a state chose not to set up an exchange, then the federal government would establish one. States establishing an insurance exchange under Obamacare would tax employers who did not provide insurance under the employer mandate. The money would be returned to employees to purchase insurance through the state’s insurance exchange.

The problem comes because more than two dozen states have chosen not to establish state insurance exchanges.

Barack Obama and the Democrats didn’t place a tax in the bill for states that opted out of the state insurance exchanges. Therefore, they cannot be taxed. So much for setting up federal exchanges in the states.

CONTINUED: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/08/new-obamacare-lawsuit-may-reach-supreme-court-deem-obamairs-actions-unconstitutional/#somzUfqstIJjABxX.99

Threat to ObamaCare Is No ‘Drafting Error’

It turns out that ObamaCare makes an essential part of its regulatory scheme—an $800 billion bailout of private health insurance companies—conditional upon state governments creating the health insurance “exchanges” envisioned in the law.

This was no “drafting error.” During congressional consideration of the bill, its lead author, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), acknowledged that he intentionally and purposefully made that bailout conditional on states implementing their own Exchanges.

Now that it appears that as many as 30 states will not create Exchanges, the law is in peril. When states refuse to establish an Exchange, they are blocking not only that bailout, but also the $2,000 per worker tax ObamaCare imposes on employers. If enough states refuse to establish an Exchange, they can effectively force Congress to repeal much or all of the law.

That might explain why the IRS is literally rewriting the statute. On May 24, the IRS finalized a regulation that says the law’s $800 billion insurance-industry bailout will not be conditional on states creating Exchanges. With the stroke of pen, the IRS (1) stripped states of the power Congress gave them to shield employers from that $2,000 per-worker tax, (2) imposed that illegal tax on employers whom Congress exempted, and (3) issued up to $800 billion of tax credits and direct subsidies to private health insurance companies—without any congressional authorization whatsoever.

CONTINUED:  http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/threat-to-obamacare-is-no-drafting-error/