Remember sequestration? Those automatic budget cuts that went into effect when Congress failed to do real budgeting a couple of years ago? It’s hitting Obamacare now.
Both laws have been around for awhile, but the Obama Administration hasn’t done anything to prepare for their collision.
The cuts are hitting a set of subsidies that were supposed to help pay deductibles and co-pays for lower-income Americans with Obamacare coverage. An Obama official pledged there would be a plan before the Obamacare exchanges opened on October 1, but that didn’t happen.
So now what? Heritage expert Chris Jacobs writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:
There are two possible outcomes. The first is that individuals who have managed to enroll in subsidized health insurance will find they’ve been misled about their copays and deductibles. Families who currently think their plan will charge a $20 copayment for doctor visits may instead face a $25 charge when the sequester kicks in. Individuals who now believe they face maximum out-of-pocket costs of $2,000 may end up paying hundreds more.The other option? Stick the insurance companies with the cuts and tell them to deal with it. (That would be about $286 million through next September.)
As Jacobs says, neither looks good for the Administration:
It can tell the American people that the “good deal” President Obama promised isn’t as good as they thought—that those who spent hours and days signing up on Healthcare.gov bought coverage that will cost more than advertised….Or the administration can try to force insurers to bear the full costs of the sequester reductions—and watch them promptly drop out of the exchanges.Not a day passes when we are spared from another tale of Obamacare falling apart. It simply doesn’t work as promised. Share our video to spread the word about this latest problem.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.
Quick Hits:
- Democratic Senator Bill Nelson (FL) says the Obamacare website is so bad “someone ought to get fired.”
- Irony: Private sector called in to rescue HealthCare.gov.
- Should the farm bill and food stamps go together? Nearly three-fourths of Americans in this poll said no.
- You’ll never guess how this creative woman got around government bureaucracy to solve her problem at the DMV.
- Soap opera: The White House has blamed a “misunderstanding” for accusing a Republican of insulting the President.
- Feeling the squeeze? Plane seats really are shrinking.
- The White House is pivoting to immigration reform. What do House conservatives say?
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conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise,
limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.We believe the principles and ideas of the American Founding are worth conserving and renewing. As policy entrepreneurs, we believe the most effective solutions are consistent with those ideas and principles. Our vision is to build an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish.
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Obama ditches D.C. and Obamacare woes for a pair of Big Apple cash bashes
** FILE ** President Obama waves in the doorway of Air Force One as he departs from Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 18, 2013. (Associated Press)
Leaving behind his Obamacare problems for a day, President Obama is flying to New York City Friday on Air Force
One for a pair of Democratic fundraisers, combined with a stop at a Brooklyn high school that focuses on technology.
Between Friday and the end of November, Mr. Obama
will appear at seven fundraisers for Democratic congressional
candidates as he seeks to return the House to Democratic control in
2014.
At an event in Manhattan for the House Democrats’ campaign arm, Mr. Obama will attend a reception hosted by Kathryn Chenault, wife of American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault. Then he’ll attend a private fundraising dinner at the home of packaging mogul Dennis Mehiel, another big Democratic contributor.
Read More Here
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Photo: Obama Hangs Out With De Blasio In Brooklyn
Yesterday 5:24 PM by Jacob Kornbluh
via Twitter
President Obama and New York mayoral
candidate Bill de Blasio went for an afternoon snack Friday at Junior’s,
the famous Brooklyn cheesecake bakery and diner, according to Politico.
The president picked up two cheesecakes —
one plain and one strawberry — at the red-and-white Flatbush Avenue
restaurant. “We’ll be eating it on Air Force One” he said.
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GOP hopes Obama heath care woes have staying power
WASHINGTON (AP) — For nearly five years,
Republicans have struggled to make a scandal stick to President Barack
Obama’s White House. One by one, the controversies — with shorthand
names such as Solyndra, Benghazi, and Fast and Furious — hit a fever
pitch, then faded away.
But some Republicans see the disastrous
rollout of Obama’s health law as a problem with the kind of staying
power they have sought.
The health care failures are tangible for
millions of Americans and can be experienced by anyone with Internet
access. The law itself is more closely associated with Obama personally
and long has been unpopular with the majority of the American people.
The longer the technical problems persist, the
more likely they are to affect the delicate balance of enrollees needed
in the insurance marketplace in order to keep costs down.
‘‘There’s no question the issue has legs, in
part because it affects so many Americans very directly and in part
because the glitches with the website are simply one of many fundamental
problems with this law,’’ GOP pollster Whit Ayres said.
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